Paige Schember: "Personal Days"

Yep, we went paragliding in France. UN-REAL.

First off, my apologies for slacking on the blog front, I got caught up in travel and racing and decided to throw my energy into enjoying it! (I also might have left my computer charger in Slovenia but that's another story.)

The Gold Team/coaches in Chamonix

As our season has come to a quickly approaching close, I've gotten the chance to look back on the year that has absolutely flown by. And although I've been racing for Sun Valley for about 5 months now, the lessons are seemingly endless. I stepped into this year thinking that skiing professionally wouldn't be too different than skiing in college. And in some aspects, it's not. You train your butt off and you travel around to race, just like at school. But the similarities end right around there.

The differences in professional skiing lie purely in the fact that skiing is now your job, not just an extracurricular. You have to want to work hard each and every single day, but when you have bad results, it's even more important to shrug them off and stay motivated, because this is it; you don't have school or a job or other extracurriculars to fall back on. You can't just expect to step out on the race course and pull off results like you did in college every weekend, because everyone you're competing against has been working for this and wanting this for years, sometimes even harder than you have. And instead of heading back to school on Sunday nights to focus on catching up on homework, you're on the road for weeks at a time, around the same people, staying in unfamiliar places, following a routine that at sometimes seems nothing but monotonous.

Eisenerz, Austria

It's a whole different ballgame, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth it. We get to see some pretty spectacular places, and meet a whole host of wonderful, adventurous, charismatic people. We get to watch the hard work we put in on the roads and trails pay off in the races, and look forward to the chance to work even harder and get even better. This lifestyle shapes not just who we are as athletes, but also who we are as human beings: friends, family members, teammates, future employees, and more. The lessons we learn with each year of being a skier are invaluable and eternal.

The most recent lesson I've learned: the importance of recovery days.

"Seriously Paige? I've maybe been told that about a hundred thousand times." - aka what everybody reading this is probably thinking right now. And it's true, as endurance athletes, we are relentlessly reminded about the importance of valuing easy workouts, off days, and recovery between intervals. But it's so surprisingly easy to get caught up in the atmosphere of traveling and racing, especially on the road or across the sea, that soon enough you find yourself disregarding the lessons stamped in at home.

So what do we need to remember? Even skiers need to take personal days.

1. Travel days are not spa days.
The fact that you are sitting on your butt in a van or on an airplane for 8 hours does not mean you can chalk the day up as a rest day. Travel days put an incredible amount of wear on your body and mind, which is pretty contradictory to the endurance athlete "nothing-under-an-hour-is-a-workout" mindset. But surprise, lugging over 150 pounds of bags and gear through customs at an airport is surprisingly not easy (especially if that airport is in Zurich). So make sure to write "travel day" next to that big fat "0" in your training log, because it's worth the reminder.

Taking a rest day to explore and eat croissants

2. Sometimes you have to put your foot down.
Skiers visit some pretty cool places, and possibly our favorite thing to do is get out and explore new trails. But you know your body more than anyone, and if you feel tired and have upcoming races, it doesn't matter how exciting the venue is, you might have to resist the temptation and take the rest day instead. You'll feel it in the long run, trust me. So prop your feet up, grab a book and some chocolate, and treat yourself.

3. Mental rest is just as crucial as physical rest.
Racing season is exhausting because we spend so much of our time psyching ourselves up for the races, and then calming ourselves down afterward. When you've been focusing on one thing for so long, you reach a point where you don't even realize you need a break. And this is why getting out and doing cool stuff is totally justified. (Like paragliding in France, SAY WHAT?!) To quote Pat (the coach of SMS T2), "Man.. that sh** is good for the soul."

4. The off season is there for a reason!
Once the racing is done, it's time to acknowledge the good, forget the bad, and start recharging the batteries for next season. The off season is designed to let our bodies and minds take a break from focusing so hard on results and enjoy the places we're fortunate to call home! Stay away from the roller skis and go exploring. You'll have plenty of time for training in a little while.

While the season didn't end quite as I had wanted, I feel pretty fortunate to have had the opportunities that I did this year, and I'm even more psyched to start working hard for next season.
I'll be in Sun Valley full time (with the exception of some training camps and visits home to Minnesota) so if you're here and want to go hiking, give me a call!