Another humbling ski experience

I think its apparent to all present at Kelowna's and, today, Great Brook's cross-country places that I just wasn't made for 2 skis.  One ski (ie snowboard)?  No problemo;  I can safely get down most slopes w/o plowing over tots, moms, or nailing a tree.  But split that board in two and I'm back to 'splatted spider' mode, flailing wildly on the most tame of trails.

Louise did her best to teach me the 'skate' style of XC skiing, where one, well, skates!  Notice that key word: skate.  The last time I skated was on rollerblades, and I had a hockey stick to balance on.  Members of the other team never had to bother trying to take the ball from me; they just waited until I fell and sorta gave them the ball.  I figured I would do a little better today.  I mean, now I have TWO sticks!!  (they're called poles, but whatever).

Anyway, back to the instruction:  Louise would demonstrate how to properly skate ski.  A couple lunges back and forth and, swoosh, she was like 100ft away.  So I bent my knees, got my hips forward, sticks/poles forward, and lunged back and forth a couple times.  Distance traveled:  0 ft.  Other than smoothing out the snow underneath, I was no closer to Louise than before.  

Over the next hour, I got pretty good at smoothing out the snow beneath me - if you have some rough snow in your yard, give me a call!  I also got pretty good at figuring out the quickest way to un-splay myself from that smooth snow whenever I lost my balance, got those 2 skis crossed (which never happens when one snowboards, I might add!), or caught a ski in some microscopic bump.   Louise gave me some good pointers, then would do laps of the practice loop while I soldiered on.  I think she lapped me like 5 times.  Not that I minded seeing her swoosh-swoosh past me - she looks quite cute in her ski gear :-)   

Despite my lack of distance covered, I'm a tad bit sore now.  Like starting any new activity, it uses muscles that are often pretty inactive.   I'll certainly give it another go as soon as possible - those fleeting moments when I got some kick-glide action going WERE pretty sweet - it'll be nice to have those moments extended beyond 'fleeting'!