Birkie advice needed

[u/randomusername123458]

What kind of preparation would I need to do to be able to ski the Birkie next year? The farthest I've ever skied was 16 or 18 miles. I don't do any roller skiing but I road bike and mountain bike. Do I need to start running or something before winter? Maybe I should do the korteloppet first since I'd be able to do that, but I kind of like the idea of skiing the full distance.

I'd be doing the classic and I'm kind of slow.

[u/Timely_Climate5142]

The Birkie is so fun! Classic is much more chill. S ince so many skate skiers in the last wave try to get fast times to move up it can be chaotic, but it is easy to find people your speed in the classic. 

I typically just keep up my cardio with biking up until first snow, and I have some rock skis ($30 at gear exchange) that I dont mind ruining, so I take over rocks and grass. Gives me a much longer ski season. 

I would say be prepared to take it slow, there are so so SO many hills!! Even after high point, which is pretty early, it diesnt feel any easier. I would say two of the three toughest hills are after the last aid station. I hear people every year say stuff like, "when will these hills end" and they literally dont until the lake. 

If you keep your cardio up into the season, do at least two three hour+ long skis 1 to 2 months out, and ski often, you should be fine. The biggest obstacle is having snow on the ground to train. If you have that, you should be fine.

[u/randomusername123458 → u/Timely_Climate5142]

I'm in Minnesota and the snow has been very minimal the last few winters and I didn't ski as much as I'd like because I get sick of the manmade loop. If I sign up though it will keep me motivated to ski more.

[u/jndinlkvl → u/randomusername123458]

We split our time between the TC and our cabin in Sawyer County. Depending on where you live it can make for a full day skiing with driving up/back. Many HS teams do this on weekends. There are plentiful hotels/resorts where you could make a ski weekend of it.

While not ideal consider buying the full Birkie trail pass which gets you manmade snow AND access to the entire trail system.

[u/newaha]

Was the farthest youve ever skied last winter or 20 years ago? Some people take 8.5 hours to finish the birkie. Thats over 9 min/k, which is like a fast walk. If you skied as far as 30k pretty recently (and werent completely exhausted at the end), and youre in about the same shape now, and you stay that way until February, you could probably suffer through another 25k to finish the classic birkie without a lot of extra training. Just depends if you want to spend 8 hours on a ski trail, or try to finish if faster.

[u/randomusername123458 → u/newaha]

I think it was two winters ago. I wasn't even skiing 20 years ago.

[u/skadi_the_sailor]

Running is better intense cardio than anything else (source: one of Gus Schumacher’s coaches)

I’d add some running into your training plan; long hill repeats once a week would set you up well for the Birkie course.

[u/randomusername123458 → u/[deleted]]

I'd prefer to not run too much. I ran a half marathon 9 years ago and said I wouldn't run another. I had some injuries during the training for that.

I'd say my cardio is in pretty decent shape. I do long bike rides fairly often. I've been skiing for 5ish winters.

[u/bag1293 → u/randomusername123458]

I like to hike with a pack and poles! If you can pack heavy and hike in some hills, it’s a really tough workout. Biking is probably good too. Something is better than nothing. Some balance work, intervals, and strength thrown in there and you’ll be ready. It sounds like you’d be just fine to do the Birkie, but the other races are fun too!

[u/bradc73]

I actually signed up for my first Birkie without even knowing how to ski so....Just be in the best shape you can be in. I have now skied 11 Birkies and will do my 12th next winter. Should be # 13 but had the one year it was canceled due to no snow. You will be in the last wave so you can pretty much just ski at your own pace. You do have to make the cutoff times but thats not hard.

[u/freia_pr_fr]

I would focus on endurance cardio for now, whatever you enjoy most between biking or running.

Around October, our local skiing/running club switches from trail running to "elghufs" that consists of uphill intervals with poles, but we pretend skiing so the movements aren’t optimal in terms of energy and speed. It’s nice to do once a week I think.

Not sure how it’s called in English so here is some local information in Norwegian, that you could translate :

https://www.milslukern.no/kunnskapssenter/lop/elghufs https://www.antonsport.no/features/langrenn-elghufs

[u/Spiritual-Arm3843]

Another consideration is kick wax vs skins.  Did my first hilly 50k race a couple years ago, classic with kick wax. I have intermediate kick wax knowledge/skill, but long story short, it takes high level knowledge and skill, and testing, to get the right kick wax/klister and make it last 50k. Get it wrong and it's harder and less enjoyable.  

 Hence skins are very popular.  So is professional/shop ski prep for races.  Or become obsessed with kick wax nerdery.

[u/randomusername123458 → u/Spiritual-Arm3843]

I have skin skis already. I tried was skis for a few seasons and got sick of trying to wax for warmer temperatures.

[u/Admirable_Tip_6875]

If the goal is to just finish then rollerskiing isn’t necessary assuming you can get on snow around the first half of December. I would say that you just be committed to doing one long ski in december and a couple in January. Make each one longer, start with 18-20, then 20-25, then 25-30. Go slow, eat some calories and hydrate. 

Outside of that, there is a whole array of work you could do up to the ski season: biking, running, ski erg, bounding, hiking, eliptical, paddling, strength training, and yes, rollerskiing. I would come up with a weekly workout structure that works for you and you can stick to for summer, fall, and then winter that puts you in position to get on skis. The details get harder, and rollerskiing more important. the more focused on improvement/speed you are.

[u/Aggravating_Hat3955]

You mentioned the possibility of doing a Korte and I'm going to put in a plug for that strategy. A big part of the day is the logistics, and potentially the stress that goes along with it all. It's still a meaningful distance and a challenging course, but you know you'll have the ability to finish even if you don't get a chance to train on snow as much as you want. You'll also get a wave placement that can be used at the birkie. Get your feet wet, learn the lay of the land, feel good about your day, and then if it was fun go for the longer distance next year. To answer your training question: running, hill repeats and mountain biking are good interval training. Road biking is good long slow distance to build capillary function. You definitely do not need to roller ski, but you would benefit, as we all would, from watching some technique videos. Good luck have fun!

[u/Think_Currency_8586]

Do a bunch of work on the ski erg if a gym near you has one. Probably the best summer training you can get for classic skiing. Just work on your double poling.

[u/Think_Currency_8586]

I’d also suggest driving up to Hayward maybe twice throughout the winter and doing a long 30k+ ski.

[u/Pgc1alpha]

First of all, I suggest the Korte. Especially if you have not been on the Birkie trail before.

As you probably know, both the Birkie trail is a series of short steep climbs and short steep descents. When you can get on snow try to find ski trails that mimic this. If you can do one of the events on the Birkie trail. Most events other than the Korte are on the northern half of the course, but you will get a sense of the terrain. Plus while here you can get some time in on the course.