On Overcoming Road Blocks

Any athlete will tell you that sometimes things just don't go your way.  It rains. You get sick.  Injuries occur.  Motivational blocks hit you.  Bad luck happens.  But for me, the main difficulty in any obstacle to training is the mental challenge that comes with it. We're trained to put so much value into our workouts, whether easy or difficult, that to sit out on any of them, especially in a professional setting, is no easy task.

Junior year of college, I sprained my ankle in October, got mono in November, and crashed and ended up with a concussion in January.  (We called it the trifecta from hell.) It was the season of bad luck, but out of the struggles of trying to train and race around sickness and injury, I learned to read my body and train based on how I feel. By the end of the season, I thought I would always be able to make the right call when it came to training while being sick or injured.

Or so I thought.

It turns out, each new season brings with it a refresher course on "making the right call".  Even though I learned some solid lessons the year of the trifecta, I've figured out that the first (or maybe even second) time I get sick/injured in a new season, those lessons aren't always the easiest to remember. 

That's when we need our teammates and coaches and family and our subconscious to remind us that not only is the training important, but the recovery is part of our job too. And it's better to miss a couple of days than be sick for a couple of weeks.

So, for stubborn, anxious, high strung people like me, here's a list of wonderful things to do while you are quarantined on the couch:

• Read a book. (or four)
• Learn to knit. (I did that when I had mono and made 12 scarves in 7 weeks. Your friends and family will absolutely love it.)
• Take advantage of the steam room. (It seriously helps with coughs/sore throats/congestion, no matter how claustrophobic it is. Just pretend you're in Hawaii.)
• Blow through entire seasons on Netflix. (Highly recommended: New Girl, Criminal Minds, and Gilmore Girls.)
• Stretch and roll. (You might as well be helping our your muscles some way while you're resting.)
• Figure out how to perfect fruit smoothies. (Recipe ideas here.)
• Color. (Kid you not, it's pretty therapeutic.)
• Call a friend - or your mom - to catch up. (Sometimes all you need is a conversation to take your mind off of being sick. And who better to do it with than someone who loves you right?!)
• Take deep breaths. (Yes, you're missing a workout right now. But would that workout be doing you any good if you coughed your way through it? Probably not.)

Basically, you can't get over the roadblocks in training by forcing your way through them, no matter what level of skiing you are at.  You just have to be patient and make the harder choice to wait until you're in the clear. And we all need reminding sometimes.

Choose BeFAST.

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Ski Camp: Lake Placid Edition

The girls training group was giant, and so much fun!

A couple of weeks ago we wrapped up two weeks of training at the Olympic Training Facility in Lake Placid, New York.  Mary, Ben, Colin, and I joined up with skiers from the U.S. Ski Team, SMST2, the Green Team, BSF, and more, to put in some solid and intense training hours.  Highlight workouts of the camp consisted of some threshold intensity workouts, a quality bounding session up Whiteface, two time trials (a sprint race simulation and the Climb to the Castle), and a couple of ODs (a run up Mt. Marcy and a classic ski). Needless to say, I was pretty tired, but it was a happy tired.

So one of the main objectives of ski camps like this for athletes like m is purely to learn. The camp offers the chance to train with not only some of the fastest skiers in the country, but the world. These skiers have been through the ropes before; they know how to get sh** done. (Not to mention they're pretty darn awesome people to be around in general!)

Group shot after the last workout of camp

 For the sake of making a list (because who doesn't like lists??), here's some fun stuff I learned.

1. Technique

We worked on technique on almost every single workout. We watched videos of World Cup skiing before the workouts, and videos of ourselves after the workouts. All of the coaches were extremely helpful in giving us advice out on the roads, and we spent entire hours focused on striding, starting, double poling, skating, climbing, and bounding efficiently.  I learned that for me, it really helps to follow other skiers and mimic how they ski. The distance you cover flies away when you spend so much of it concentrating purely on your motions. 

Working on striding technique with Coach Pat biking next to us

2. How to climb a hill.

The second to last day of camp, we tackled the Climb to the Castle, a skate rollerski race up the roads on Whiteface, one of the highest peaks in the Adirondack mountains.  The race is a little over 5 miles long, and has legitimately no flats or downhills. Honestly, it was one of the hardest races I hae ever done and it's probably a good thing that I had no clue what was coming because I probably might have hidden in the woods to "accidentally" miss the start if I had. But if there's any time to figure out how to climb up a hill effectively when you're dead tired, that was it. Shoutout to Liz and Tim for dominating! 

Gorgeously vibrant views at the top of the climb..

I may or may not have thought this sign was lying.

So. Much. V1.

 3. How to inspire.

We had the opportunity to participate in a Fast and Female event, a program devoted to inspiring young girls to get out and be active, even if they aren't a part of an organized sport.  And it was so much fun! Even though the group was small, it gave us the chance to interact with the girls one-on-one, and hear about the girls' passions and dreams for the future.  The Champ Chat (question and answer session) helped me realize how much of an impact professional and amateur athletes can have on younger athletes, even if we don't realize it at the time. Our actions through training and every day life reflect how we reach our successes or failures. It's a pretty big, but pretty awesome responsibility. Oh. I also learned how to African dance, albeit not very successfully.

The group before the festivities began.

4. The East Coast isn't too bad of a place.

I'll let the picture below explain it. The rollerskiing in Lake Placid was some of the best I have ever experienced. Thanks to Ben's family for hosting us for dinner, and Colin's family for letting us stay with them on travel days!

 

5. How to tackle a Vermonster.
(I'm a little amazed at how disgusting I did not feel after eating all that ice cream. And cookies. And brownies. And candy.)

The complete list of everything involved in what we devoured.

Pre-pig-out.

 6. Home will always be home.
 After camp, I got to spend an amazing week at home seeing my family, best friends, and Sam. It really made me feel that no matter what part of life I am in, or where I am living, Minnesota will always hold a big chunk of my heart, and will always be my true home.