Does Skiing Count As Cross-training?

It's been a while since I posted, but I actually have a reason. I spent the last week on top of a mountain!  Ok so it may have been West Virginia where the mountains aren't as high as some out west, and there may have been a ski resort up there to keep us warm, but there was definitely no cell phone reception and we had to use some sort of "wire" to connect our computers to the internet... I think it's called an "ethernet cord???"  Since everyone had to check their facebook and email accounts our time "plugged in" was limited.  By the end of the week I started to remember how you can have fun without all of our gadgets and gismos.

This was my first time skiing and I would have to say I was a little nervous.  My wife's family have been skiing their entire lives and are really quit good at it.  Of course me being me I wanted to be a natural and even though I was better than most I was far from the best.  We had decided that the best way to approach this was ski lessons.  I know there are a lot of people decide to let their friends and family teach them and after watching some of those people I would high suggest ski lessons from a professional.  A professional is there to teach you and knows exactly how to teach you.  Your friends may know how to ski and may be the best skier on the mountain, but that by no way makes them a great teacher.  I heard way to many conversations like, "just go man, you just have to man up and go!"  I don't know about y'all but the advice I want from my instructor is not to "man up," but how and what I can do to make it down the hill in one piece.

The wife and I right before we head out to ski on my first day!

My first day of ski lessons went great!  I learned how to snowplow (or pizza pie as me and some of the kids called it) and I learned the basics of turning.  I never fell and after going down the bunny slope, which was a green, several times I felt I was ready to hit the slopes with the rest of the family.  I could have never been more wrong...  If the ground wasn't flat I was terrified and i spent the entire day either pizza pieing or on the ground.  There was a small hill on one of the greens that after my first day became know as "my hill."  This was not because I loved this hill, enjoyed this hill, or even thought it was a nice view.  I loathed this hill.  I was terrified of it and I fell a good 8 to 10 times going down this thing.  I would get up and fall after about 10 feet and this continued all the way down the hill.  Needless to say I was so frustrated and really didn't know if I was going to like skiing.

The bunny hill where they held ski lessons

The next day went much better.  I went to another ski lesson and after avoiding "my hill" all day I was starting to stay more up right then on the ground.  I was still pizza pieing, but I would only fall once or twice on each slope.  It was at the end of the second day that I realized I really like skiing.  It was a challenge and even though it took all of my concentration to stay up I was enjoying myself more and more.  It really reminded me how you can have such a great feeling when you accomplish something you struggle with.  It felt amazing to push through the hard times and the frustration.  I never gave up and by the end of the week I could go down all of the greens, including "my hill," and I even started on a blue!

That's me in yellow pizza pieing!

So how was my triathlon training while in West Virginia?  Not so hot... pun intended.  I brought my running shoes, but once we got there I found that there really wasn't any place to go run.  It was a small mountain with a lot of people.  There were no trails to walk/run on.  The roads were narrow and covered in cars.  Regardless of all this we skied from the time the slopes opened till the time they closed.  I was so tired at the end of the day that I don't know if I would have gone out and run even if I could.  The workout from skiing was actually a really good one and it hit most of the major muscle groups you use while running.  My thighs would burn at the end of a long slope and I was really getting a workout in my hip abductors, mainly from getting back up after falling but hey they were still getting worked!  Of course skiing worked those muscles a little differently, but cross training is a great way to maintain your fitness.  It breaks up the monotony of day in day out training.  So even though I wasn't running I was still working towards my training goals, just through different means.  I picked up a new hobby and was able to overcome another obstacle in my life... now thats what I call a vacation!