Ligning up the training

Wow things are moving fast! Here it is the middle of February and we are already planing into the end of the summer.

Now that my mom is back, she's moved here with all her stuff now, and the kids are settled in school and both are skiing, and we are mostly moved in, and Christmas is behind us, its time to realize that I've got all my ducks in a row, and its time to implement the reason we came down here.

I've been doing what I can to get to as much training as I can, from MA to on snow to technical concepts in conversations and books, but its time to stop filling in the cracks and build a program.

A good friend of mine asked me if my Fairy Godmother came down and gave me everything I needed to have as high a chance as possible of making the team, would I still write my blog? The answer, of course, was yes. Because I don't write my blog to get stuff, I write my blog to connect with people who are living the same dream, who are human just like me, who love to ski and want to make better and better choices, to grow and become who they can be while they help other people become as well.

But his question got me thinking. If I could build myself a program that had everything I could need, like I had at the Olympic Training Center, what would it consist of? Lets pretend that there are no time constraints and no financial issues. purely in pursuit of getting my body as strong, fit, balanced, responsive, flexible and whole as it could be.

I would go to yoga four times a week. I would train with the sports Physiologist who used to train the US Ski Team who runs the performance center at the Aspen Club four times a week at least. I would alternate swimming with skinning up Aspen Mountain. I would see a nutritionist, a massage therapist, and acupuncturist, and a chiropractor, as well as a performance therapist.

I would attend MA and early morning training, I would get new snow pants and new boots. I would replace my down layer.

I would increase my core strenth CONSIDERABLY and work on balance like crazy. I would watch old ski films, re-read all my ski books, and keep growing my library of both. I'd hike the bowl and do all the training I'm already doing, and get out there and play with my mentors on the snow.

There's more, but this is where I would start. I think what I'm going to do now, is prioritize these things, for instance, I need to increase my core strength, but I can do that at home with my skier's edge machine and some sit ups. Since I'm not at the Aspen Club right now, I can't work out there (I took myself off the schedule so that I could spend more time with my kids).

Anyhow, stay tuned, because I'm going to post my training schedule and some thoughts on how to build from here to tryouts rather than waxing and waning on my way there.

The next piece I need to look at is summer training. I have Academy, a Rossignol Race Camp and a trip to Portillo Chile in the works, as well as the possibilty of going to a NASTC camp and a trip to Alaska for some steep Heli Skiing and an article. These things all take a huge amount of financial commitment, so again, that's the wish list, prioretize and see what gets done. I can write some articles for some of these things, so they may be easier to do. We'll see. I do know that I have 808 days to get my feet there, and while my skiing is changing every day for the good, I have a LONG way to go and a LOT of work to do.

Lastly, I plan to take a course in organization so that I can handle all the pieces of this rapidly evolving career and still take great care of my family as well as my clients.

I'm enjoying the process of focusing down, I hope as I focus down that everything runs more and more smoothly. It seems to be trending in that direction. Keep your fingers crossed!