Good Morning!
Couple of housekeeping thoughts
You should always keep wax on the bases of your skis. That said, some of us get careless and don’t wax until we are ready to race again. And the skis get slower and slower…Over summer in particular the bases need to be covered. If you are done skiing for the year, put on a warm wax –Toko Red, Swix violet etc and take it off warm. This will remove the dirt, fluoros, old wax etc ; then put on another layer and leave it until next fall. Don’t scrape it. Bases will oxidize if left uncovered and fluoros in particular will oxidize quickly. The wax techs don’t like to put the fluoros on until the morning of the big races as they feel they will oxidize overnight!! Clean them/cover them
Clean your rifle. Today. Always keep it clean including scrubbing the bore with the brass brush. Be sure the brush fits tightly and is not worn out. Rifles will improve their accuracy when clean….carbon, lead and powder residue DO NOT improve the accuracy. That mix will slowly anneal each time you send a hot bullet down the barrel, and it will get really hard to remove later on. Plus the chambers get so gummed up with bullet lube, etc that you can’t feed the new round into them.
So for the end of the season—REALLY clean it!! Then keep dryfiring, shooting occasionally and cleaning it again all the way through the recovery month. Even if you think you cleaned it well and second or third cleaning will continue to cut into the mess in the barrel. And help control the corrosion from your skin acid on the exterior.
The recovery month starts when you are done racing for the season. You should transition into running and biking, and work on weight training focusing on getting back into balance. Skiing like any sport uses certain muscles..over and over. Your body gets out of muscular balance. Now is the time to balance it up. So work all sides of the joints, front/rear; side/side; top and bottom. Then you will be ready to start training again around the middle of April. As a minimum, work on the attached prestrength routine.
Enjoy the vacation!!
Bill Meyer, Coach
MNBiathlon