Two new sports, one old opinion

I'm back from my girls' weekend away at my friend's cabin. It's on the other side of the Cascade Mountains, where there was a TON of snow! We went cross-country skiing and snowshoeing - two activities I've never tried before.

Well, interestingly enough, my opinion of both (but especially cross-country skiing) was that I preferred going uphill more than downhill. Just like how I felt about mountain biking!

I believe I know why, too: sport-specificity. More accurately, the lack thereof.

I have excellent aerobic fitness and a lot of endurance. Those things make me ready for new kinds of exercise.

But, honestly, I am not a natural athlete. I'm not naturally graceful or coordinated. So the whole glide thing you need to do in cross-country skiing never felt comfortable; I couldn't just do it without thinking and even saying out loud what I needed to do.

I could, however, do the fishbone thing and go uphill. I could also leverage my strong legs and upper body to pull myself up without getting out of the groomed tracks.

My heart rate averaged 144 for the nearly two hours we were out; the max was in the 170s. I got some great exercise out there!

I did find snowshoeing a little easier than cross-country skiing, probably because I have been walking for about 31 years now. Here, uphill was better than downhill because of how much snow there was - and obviously my aerobic fitness was just useful. For an hour and 10 minutes, my heart rate averaged 139, maxing out at 161.

Ultimately, my fitness allows me to just go do these new things without holding back my friends, all of whom had done both activities before. But it didn't make me immediately good at them. I'm not saying I couldn't be, but that I absolutely would require sport-specific training to get good.

Until I decide that's a goal, though, I'm quite content to be fit enough to try anything, at least once!