For the 38 skiers who made tonight’s class there were several big discoveries [in addition to the birthdays of the Thrillsome Threesome]. One was what a difference focus can make on effort. A simple thing like were you place your eyes can help direct you down the track.
Another was breath control. When you dictate breathing effort and timing you can actually facilitate forward motion. Lastly was the visualization of a goal or target. I always raced with a TBF or Time Before Finish outlook. If the finish was at, say twenty minutes away I doled out my effort so that I too was finished…at the finish.
We saw all of that tonight and most completed the efforts strong and with a better focus than in earlier weeks, a very good sign.
Homework: With the weather likely to tank Thursday/Friday this would be a great time to do some of those balance drills. Use a mirror or darkened window and spend some time and effort there. This would be a great time to also catch up with your waxing and cleaning. With any temperature swing of thirty degrees or more waxing is more than needed but critical. The difference between our skis and a world cup skier’s is not the ski but the sheer number of times it is waxed (and used). Their [World Cup Athletes] skis may easily have 100 wax jobs on them, fast is not an accident, it is a lot of work.
Watch the weather and check with www.skinnyski.com for trail updates. If the weather really goes south remember to preserve the trails. An hour slog is not worth the potential damage to the base. On a related note the county has extended the open season on Trail Walkers, bag one today.
More news and such. The Door County Triathlon registration opens midnight on the 1st. Check out the new race video at http://www.doorcountytriathlon.com/index.php We have a skate ski class, a wax clinic and the Women’s Tea and Ski continuing in January along with the second session of Bay Nordic for kids. See www.incompetition.com for news on that.
Lastly I had a nice visit with Bryan Fish the other day. We both had a very very busy December but we managed to get a nice chat in. Bryan is a former UWGB skier and then Coach who moved on to coach the CXC Team http://www.cxcskiing.org/ He recently advanced to become an Assistant Coach with the US Ski Team. He just returned from the early World Cup races in Scandinavia. Having done the same a decade or so earlier I found it refreshing to hear that the success of the USST was not a fluke or luck but rather the culmination of hard work and preparation. In reality success in skiing is about doing the difficult work so that the effort becomes the reward, regardless of your level.
Nice night tonight. I saw much progress although you not have felt that way it is coming. We will keep pushing the bubble a little but for now get out and enjoy skiing. Next week at 5:56pm as we ring in the new year. Oh, and for you young and not so hip amongst us.
Blasting, billowing, bursting forth with the
Power of ten billion butterfly sneezes,
Man with his flaming pyre has conquered the wayward breezes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChCbewCAk-o Be more hip than you possibly can be.
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