Economics of Skiing, Year 2
Crust skiing adventures on the old volcanoes around Bend, OR
It’s mid June, WHAT!?
Well, it's been two months since my last post and I'm already into the planning of training through labor day! Time has certainly flown by and while deep in a heat wave here in Bozeman, I am finally taking an easy week to catch up on some much needed recovery and communication with my Nordic community.
Firstly, I wrote a formal, published article on the our expedition down the Blue Nile, Ethiopia, in 2017. It has gotten some praise already, so I highly recommend you check it out and give it a read. That trip had a huge impact on my life and I am proud to have finally documented it in a public way.
Back to skiing... The month of April was spent largely resting and enjoying family time. It was an incredible 4 weeks of being back in CO, a quick trip to Mexico for some mandatory beach time, and all around Nordic-less resetting. During April I also made the decision to focus 100% on Biathlon moving forward and no longer both FIS skiing and shooting. I am excited and proud of how far I have come in 2 years of full time training and racing (I've raced 50 races already!) and am very excited with my trajectory for the upcoming race season.
The month of May hit the ground running 100 miles a minute as training began again and I hit the road for nearly a month on my way back to Bozeman via a training camp in Bend, OR for 2 weeks and some great family and adventure time surrounding Bend camp and the road trip. I highly recommend Bend as a place to start the day with great local coffee, kayak/bike/ski/hike/run/etc, and end the day with great local beer.
Back here in Bozeman, after a weekend on the Lochsa river in Idaho of course (a must for you river people), training is in full swing. With over a 100 hours of training in the books since May 1st, I am finally breaking down the costs and other economics of elite skiing in the US. And then a bit of what's on deck for the rest of the summer.
Economics of Professional Nordic Racing Year 2
It is an odd habit of mine to document everything I can, about everything I do. So naturally two seasons ago I kept track of every race related cost for competing in the full Super Tour circuit of North America, until it was cut short in early March. This then allowed me to compare the cost of the season to the fund raising estimates I had made before the season. I estimated all racing related costs would be around $15K and including the cost estimates of the canceled races, the 2019-2020 season would have been right around that. Perfect, my thesis had a data point.
This past year I kept track of expenses using the same categories and decided to keep the $15K goal for funding, based on the previous seasons cost. Despite it being a very different year due to the pandemic, the end of season total cost was right near $15K again! A trend is emerging with data concluding it is safe to say a full season of domestic elite racing (~25 races per season) costs $15k when considering all costs directly relating to racing and performing your best. Though amounts per category differ year-to-year as seen above.
For further descriptions of each category, what's included and justifications, check out my post from last year: Costs of a Super Tour Season
Many of you have also asked how I fund the race season and in short, I do a lot of fund raising to cover the race related costs. I personally work or use savings to cover rent, food and other costs not DIRECTLY related to racing throughout the rest of the year. The charts above show the sources of fund raising and amounts raised to cover the race related costs.
I cannot express how grateful I am to everyone who has supported me these past two years. I truly could not have come this far with out you. Please know I am grateful everyday. This year I hope to gather data on international racing by moving up from domestic racing.
Fully loaded for a month of training, family and adventures on my way back to Bozeman
Lab testing to precisely measure lactic acid build up vs heart rate
What's on deck for the summer!
Next week we are headed to Casper, WY for an altitude training camp where the Casper Mountain Biathlon Club has built a full roller ski loop and biathlon range. It will be a great week to focus on truly shooting while out of breath, up at 8,000 feet. Then I'm super excited to be back in Aspen for the week of the 4th and continuing some high altitude adventures.
Back to Bozeman for two weeks mid July and then headed to Craftsbury, VT to train at low altitude the week prior to the first round of National Biathlon Trials in Jericho, VT the first week of August. This will be a weekend of roller ski racing that counts toward qualification to race in Europe this upcoming season and my focus is on applying my training and process for some great races and enjoying racing a national field and the national team head to head.
The remainder of August will be some time in Bozeman and hopefully a trip to my old home town of Jackson for some much needed soul filling in the mountains and lakes of the Tetons. September will be ramping up for the October trials and soon the snow flies. Feels like summer is practically over. But of course another email will come in July as I take the time document the life of ski training.
Cheers, Happy Solstice Week!
Scott