Very glad to see lots of new and returning rollerskiers this January. With ski
holidays coming up, this is an exciting time to get involved in rollerskiing and
brush up on skills.

We have a 4-wk classic course beginning on Saturday morning, and a 1-day Dorney
course with advanced and beginner groups this Sunday. Read on for more
information and rollerski news.


HYDE PARK COURSES

We've had a huge turnout for our New Years' courses at Dorney and Hyde Park. It
was great to welcome so many beginners and good to see a few old faces back
again. We hope it will be the start of a good year of skiing and ski
challenges.

This Saturday we have a 4-week classic rollerski course starting at 11.30 in
Hyde Park - see http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events1.html


DORNEY GOOD WORKOUT

Have you ever wondered how many calories you burn off rollerskiing? Skier Ulf
Rehnstrom recorded 3,200 kcal on his heart rate monitor at the last Dorney Level
2 course, compared with 1,900 kcal for the Level 1 course he did in the autumn.
It just shows how the more you practice, the better the workout you get (we did
3 laps of Dorney Lake on the last Level 2 day).

Our next Dorney course is this Sunday, 3rd February then on Sunday 24th
February. I've added a Level 2 group to the 3rd Feb day in response to demand.
To book up - and burn off some calories - go to
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events3.html


NEW INSTRUCTOR

I'd like to welcome new instructor Ekaterina Rachel to the coaching team at
Dorney. Ekaterina grew up in Russia, where as a teenager she was one of her
region's top cross-country ski racers. She came to England a few years ago to
teach Russian and ended up marrying the school's rowing coach!

Ekaterina became qualified as a rollerski instructor back in October, through
the Snowsport England coaching scheme, and will be instructing at Dorney this
weekend.


ROLLERSKI TOUR CALENDAR

With the growth of British rollerskiing, each year there seems to be more
activities to get involved in. Each year I come up with a rollerski racing
calendar (last year's is at http://www.rollerski.co.uk/ns024.html ) but
rollerski touring is an equally popular aspect of the recreational rollerski
world.

The LRNSC recently published a UK wide rollerski tour calendar in its
newsletter, which I've reproduced here - see
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/tour.html


ROLLERSKIERS' SUCCESSES

At the Dolomitenlauf (see below) I met up with Hilary Field of the London Region
Nordic Ski Club - a remarkable character who had just celebrated her 70th
birthday by taking part in the Jizerska Padesatka ski marathon on 13th January.

It's been good to hear of other rollerskiers who have taken part in ski
marathons, and I've added their accounts at
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/nf010.html


DOLOMITENLAUF

I'm just back from a weekend trip to the Dolomitenlauf in the Austrian Tirol.
Great snow up in the fairytale resort of Obertilliach made this an enjoyable
race, despite a hilly course and fairly high altitude (the race was to be in the
flatter and lower town of Lienz, but moved due to lack of snow). I finished the
42k race in just over 2hrs 40mins, which was OK, but wish I'd had more time to
acclimatise!

I should possibly have taped on my ski pole tips as one was lost when someone
skied over it (so skied 30k with just one pole). I took inspiration from Hugh
Pritchard, who one year skied the whole 42k La Sgambda race one year with only
one arm - the other was in a sling!


SNOWSPORT ENGLAND ON-SNOW COURSE

Snowsport England are running their on-snow cross-country ski course again this
year in Kvitavatn, Norway from 29th March to 5th April. This is an excellent
course with some very good instructors. Mike Dixon, Patrick Winterton, Mark Gee
and Alan Eason will be the cross-country ski coaches: all have raced
cross-country skiing or biathlon at an international level and are excellent
communicators. They will make a real difference to your cross-country ski
technique on snow, or help translate rollerski skills onto snow.

More info at www.ssenordic.org.uk (you will have to click on 'Event Calendar'
and search around for it - unfortunately the website doesn't allow you to link
directly to the relevant page)


BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS BEGIN

The British Biathlon and Cross-Country Ski Championships began on Saturday in
Obertilliach, Austria. You can follow results and goings-on at the British
Biathlon website, www.britishbiathlon.com Names to look out for include
rollerski instructor Alan Eason, guest instructor Olwen Thorn, Barbara Baker of
our Hyde Park sessions and Rupert Butcher, leader of the Wessex Biathlon squad.
Good luck to them all!


JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

This year sees some of Britain's top junior cross-country skiers take on the
world's best at the World Junior Championships. 8 skiers from across the UK
will take part in the races in Szczyrk-Wisla, Poland from 3-10 Feb 2008. They
are -

Junior Women:
Fiona Hughes (Yorkshire Dales Cross Country Ski Club)
Sarah Young (Huntly Nordic Ski Club)

Junior Men:
PJ Barron (Huntly Nordic Ski Club)
Alastair Duncan (Cairngorm Biathlon & Nordic Ski Club)
Andrew Musgrave (Huntly Nordic Ski Club)
Simon Platt (Lakeland Cross-Country Ski Club)
Simon Spencer (Wessex Biathlon & Nordic Ski Club)
Alex Standen (Huntly Nordic Ski Club)


INTERESTING ARTICLE

DIET - http://www.masterskier.com/article.asp?aid=365


Good training, good holidays and take care!

Best regards
Iain





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Iain Ballentine
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Roller ski instruction & rollerski shop
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W: http://www.rollerski.co.uk

E: iain@...
M: 07968 286129
T: 020 8348 2540

Rollerskiing in thelondonpaper -
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/nr049.html

Rollerski courses coming up -
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events.html

Save on rollerski packages -
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/buypackages.html


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The Rollerski Co & Rollerski Instruction 2008
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