Nordic skiers, as a breed, love to get out and about. They spend whole winters on top of their skis: hours whizzing along groomed trails, days spent kicking track to explore the backcountry. After any cross-county skiing expedition, great or small, the common question is: “How far do you think we went?”
Cyclists have it easy. They hop on their bicycles to go for a ride and their cycling computers, ubiquitously mounted on the handlebars, tells them how fast they’re going, how long they’ve been out, how far they have traveled. It’s instant gratification.
 technology is the means by which a skier can track their outings. GPS is a worldwide radio navigation system that was put in place by the United States Department of Defense. It is a system formed from a constellation of 24 satellites and their ground stations that can accurately pinpoint the location of a person anywhere on earth.</p><p>Far from being merely used only by the military, GPS technology has found its way into daily life; being located in boats and planes, cars and laptop computers. It is now an affordable tool that can be used by anyone.</p></div><div class=)
Hand-held GPS units, which are now about the size of a nutrition bar, allow wintertime athletes to accurately track where they have been. The advantages to this are numerous. For the backcountry skier, GPS allows for confident explorations of unfamiliar territory. It also provides a surefire way to return to the starting point of a trip. For the in-area Nordic skier, the GPS provides a precise measurement of exactly how far they have skied.
However, far from being merely a distance-finder, GPS also tracks elevation gained and lost, speed and average speed, altitude, and maps the route taken. This is invaluable to the serious Nordic skier who wishes to accurately log and record their training.
It is now possible to download information from a hand-held GPS unit to a personal computer. Then, by using software that is available online, it is possible to see the route laid out on top of a map. OziExplorer (www.oziexplorer.com) is one such application.
Two major manufacturers of hand-held GPS units are Garmin (www.garmin.com) and Magellan (www.magellangps.com). These two companies have been consistently at the head of the pack in terms of making GPS affordable and user-friendly.
Hand-held GPS units come with a variety of bells and whistles these days, but some important features to look for include choosing one with an accuracy range of less than three meters (12 feet). Also, having a personal computer interface port and data cable will allow uploading of ski treks to a PC. Models that can store up to 500 waypoints, and which possess a track-back feature that allows you to see progress along a ski route are good features to have as well.
GPS units are dandy in terms of offering a basic body of knowledge that a skier can use to tell the bare essentials of how far, how long and how fast. However, there are further applications for the information that a GPS gathers during a ski. A fairly recent development that can add to a skier’s knowledge is the rise of software programs that offer athletes the ability to minutely track their workouts via GPS.
Timex (www.timex.com) and Garmin have products that record an athlete’s position and basic performance. The Timex Bodylink System incorporates a heart rate monitor as well as a GPS.
Endless Pursuit (<www.EndlessPursuit.com) is one such website that is devoted to providing a practical way for Nordic skiers and athletes of all stripes to get an accurate picture of overall performance. The system that Endless Pursuit offers is a comprehensive online tool that is geared to improve athletic performance.
Endless Pursuit uses technology to help an athlete train. The website allows skiers to upload their most recent ski trek, and instantly see their trek laid out on aerial or topographic maps. The site also acts as a virtual coach by analyzing and comparing workouts. It can crunch numbers to indicate exactly how much time was spent while resting during a skate ski, or how much time was spent at maximal exertion while blasting uphill. Total calories burned, average heart rate, and net altitude change plus piles of other information are available. Much of the information is presented in graph form.
The potential is large for Nordic ski communities to gather local ski route information using sites such as Endless Pursuit. Individuals can log in their ski tours to a community page and other skiers can browse sites to find suggestions for new routes. Ski clubs can post meeting sites, maps and weekend ski route directions. Race organizers can show elevation gain and loss in chart form for interested ski racers, as well as present an accurate online picture of the racecourse for participants.
Technology has finally arrived in a form small and light enough for Nordic skiers. The convenience of a small hand-held GPS unit combined with informative, easy-to-use training websites are just the ticket to answer the age-old question: “Do you think we really skied thirty kilometers today?”
<www.EndlessPursuit.com
