Paige Schember: Shaking Out the First Races of the Season: Trust

Hello from Bozeman, Montana! With the last few weeks, the racing season has officially started. It's absolutely surreal to finally be putting on a SVSEF Gold Team race suit (thank you to Podiumwear), and standing on the line facing the courses and competition after all of the hard work, sweat, and tears (that's actually not a joke though) that went into this summer and fall. Racing season is HERE! And I literally couldn't be more excited. Clearly.

These past two weekends were eye-opening reminders of how unforgiving ski racing can be, and therefore, how much trust goes into the process.

Now. You're probably all like "Dude. It's skiing. You start, you ski as fast as you can, you finish. Why would trust matter?" Well, let me enlighten you. First we'll start with a quick definition, just to clear things up a bit.

Trust (noun): firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone of something.

Synonyms: confidence, belief, faith, certainty, assurance, conviction, credence, reliance

Alright. Now that that's all cleared up, maybe you can see it. Trust underlies almost every aspect of nordic ski racing.

First, you need to trust your skis. Whether this is cornering on skate skis, kicking on classics, or just surviving sketchy downhills, having trust in your skis is starting the race confident that you chose the right pair. I am notorious for not trusting my classic skis. I'll work all season trying to learn which skis work for which conditions, how to kick each pair of them, and where my kick zones are, but ask me by the end of the season and I'll probably tell you I only truly trust one or two pairs. But this season, I'm really trying to get it down. I'm confident that Fischer has sent me some awesome pairs, and the classic races this weekend gave me a chance to "bond" with them. (Literally, each training ski is like a date.)

Pre-race in West Yellowstone!

Tim, Clark, Andrew, Tom, and Colin = the SVSEF A Team

Second, you need to trust your coaches. This one may seem obvious. Your coaches pick your wax, they prep your skis, they give you tactics, they calm you down or pump you up, they write your training plans, they drive you to the races, and they put all of their energy into doing everything they can to help you perform your best. If you don't trust your coaches, racing can get real hard real fast. (Shoutout and thank you's to the A TEAM this weekend: Colin, Tim, Tom, Andrew, and Clark completely nailed it, and it made the weekend awesome!)

And while you're at it, fill out your training log. oops.

Third, you need to trust the training. It is so easy to get to the start line and have a mini-freakout in the back of your mind about all the work you have (or feel like you haven't) done in the past 6 months. But let's be real, you can't cram a season's worth of training in at last moment. There's nothing you can do about it now, so you might as well take a deep breath, realize that the training plan is created the way it is for a reason, and whether you feel ready or not, it's time to race.

Fourth, you need to trust your competitors. This weekend we faced one of the iciest courses I have ever skied on, and it didn't help that it was a classic mass start race. And I'm not exaggerating, the race was delayed by a full hour because even the coaches were afraid to go test wax. Once the sun hit the race course, the snow slowed down a little, but the downhills still mimicked massive ice slides. In this case, you had to be confident that the skier next to you wasn't going to crash and take you out at the same time. And if you weren't confident in the person next to you, you had to trust your instincts and adjust your line on the course to stay on your feet.

Finally, you need to trust yourself. This one is my favorite, but it's also the hardest. Confidence creates successful performance in so many ways, but it's dynamic, unstable, and susceptible to change at the slightest event. Great example: when you're racing and you make a mistake (ahem, crashing into the V-boards and the fence on the lap turn), you've got to be confident in your ability to calm down, catch up, and get past what just happened (no matter how embarrassing). If you let a mistake slip you up, you'll spend the rest of the race wasting energy by panicking. And that's not productive.

So. Trust. What happens if you don't have it? You second-guess decisions, you overanalyze your technique, you avoid taking risks, and you dwell on past mistakes. Nobody wants all that in their head while trying to race their best. Trust the process and the results will come.

After a couple great weekends in Montana, we're heading up to Rossland, BC tomorrow for some classic sprints and classic distance racing. I'll be back in Minnesota on the 17th, and headed up to senior nationals on the 31st. Hooray!!