Thoughts on Sustainable Elite Skiing
The dam finish stretch of our local 10km uphill classic time trial (on an actual dam!)
It’s pumpkin and leaf peeping season!
And time for another update: We are a few snows down here in Bozeman with some chilly mornings reminding us how dull our pole tips have gotten. The weather seems to be begging us to be outside training (just to throw mud season at us soon) and we have greatly enjoyed the dryer, cooler sessions. Conversations about ski fleet organizing, cutting poles down and new boot fitting are happening and it feels like race season has come already as we train in Park City, UT this week for some roller ski time trials against the other intermountain elite teams in a few days.
One notable happening on the training front is seeing my watch roll through the 1,000 mile mark of roller skiing this summer with many more miles still to come before the snow sticks. It is quite the feeling of accomplishment when these milestones come earlier and more often and are less tiring than each previous year. Now I can fully justify all the pumpkin pie I have already started eating.
In continuation of posting different aspects of the sport and tidbits from the elite skiing journey, this installment is Lessons Learned from Indi Racing Part 2: How To Keep Skiing Forever. The first installment had to do with the over-arching, big picture lessons: having a team, training altitude, continuity in race support, etc… But the day-in day-out of training is all about the minutia, the things you have to wake up every morning executing well, the parts of skiing having more to do with lifestyle and intrinsic character. It deserves its own breakdown, and applies to all levels of skiing, independent or not, and everything else in life as well!
All training gear, organized, ready to use and kept in good condition.
Planning the entire training year planned out by individual block and week
The Sustainability of Elite Racing from Personal Lessons:
Stoke your intrinsic motivation: This might be the most important aspect to anything one does. For me, with skiing, it is the combination of absolute love for skiing, love of the process of long-term goal achievement and love of pushing my mind and body to be the best it can be. Those factors motivate me every day to do what is required to be the best I can be. My motivation is not fed on results or a timeline or external validation, it is wanting to do it because I want to do it. It is reminding myself of and acting on those passions and reasons which stoke them. Otherwise I’d be wasting my time skiing if I truly did not want to be doing it.
Think and act as a professional: This is something I had to do in in the beginning order to be taken seriously by some while gaining support during my re-entry into the sport. AKA fake it until you make it. But as I continued portraying myself as a professional, I realized I truly had to think of myself as a professional because this is what I chose to make my professional career, to go all in and put 110% of my energy into, regardless of results and others views. Thinking this way not only gives a confidence boost but holds myself accountable to the path and steps along the way. This self-accountability is a key ingredient to success and applies not only to actions and mindset, but to the equipment I use to the lifestyle choices I make, the races I compete in to showing up on time, prepared and motivated, and every other aspect to the sport.
Learn to ask for help when you need it and build a support community around you: Both of these lessons came with the realization of being alone just couldn’t achieve my goals no matter how strong my resolve is. Not to mention, it is so much more fun when working with others. Whether it is asking for wax support at a race or a friend to grab a technique video of me skiing, I needed a lot of support to get to the next level of skiing. It takes a lot of work to be constantly reaching out, following-up, networking, calling on others, saying thank you (very important) and being generally on top of it, but it’s absolutely worth it. Here I owe two major thank you’s!!! Firstly, to the Aspen Valley Ski Club and the AVSC Nordic program lead staff of August Teague and Sari Anderson: without whom the start to my first season back would have been a dismal flop. Secondly, to the US Nordic community at large: to everyone who helped wax, house, transport, give advice, commiserate, test, find equipment, financially support, tell me I’m not too crazy and more. You can’t go far alone.
Get the right tools of the trade and use things you love: Being the son of a master carpenter, I was raised with the ideology that nothing is better than the correct tool for the job you need done in order to achieve a successful outcome. For skiing this meant acquiring high level race skis/boots/poles for racing, sharp pole tips and round wheels for roller skiing, HR chest bands and a good HR watch, training log tracking the correct things and others. As for everything else, I found things/gear I love using! Drink mix I love the flavor of, shoes that make me excited to run, training clothes I want to wear all the time, a PT tool I can’t get enough of and a bed I want to rest and recover on… Now I never hesitate to train and have done everything I can to be set up for success. If you are surrounded by the right tools, equipment you love using, and a personalized training plan; watch out world!
Treat yourself and goals like a business: This is more of an organization and mindset lesson. From end to end, ski racing can be thought of as a business and who wants to run a bad business? My ski career is a set of inputs and outputs. Training, funding, equipment, coaching, racing, recovery… all go into “The Ski Career” business. The outputs, which can be completely decided by goals, are my longevity in the sport and results: to be able to continue competing at the highest level I can and have the best results I can. The rest is about adjusting the inputs to make the desired outputs a reality. This is not easy and not simple, but with energy and dedication, I can attempt a successful business, not a pet project in the garage. And anyone who has been a part of a small business will understand just how much energy and dedication it takes. In my case, 100% of everything I’ve got.