Quote: “There is stability in walking an uncertain path, because you never allow yourself to be misled by what you think you know.”
Question: Is there a way to get better at accepting uncertainty?
A quick story about my physical testing in July to remind me of a couple very important lessons followed by a photo update of a wild October.
* as always, feel free to skip to the photos!
At the end of July, I flew to Park City for our mid-summer dry land testing.
As quick context, this is the first off-season that I have fully committed to the US Ski Team’s dry land plan. In past years, I have either run my dry land completely myself (while I was an independent athlete) or have done a hybrid of US Ski Team workouts and my own workouts that I know have worked well for me in the past. I feel strongly about focusing more on optimizing your strengths than working hard on fixing your weaknesses (and I’ve written a couple blog posts about why), but mostly I’ve chosen to do my own workouts because I’m also a big believer that no one knows your strengths and weaknesses and what your body needs and responds well to better than yourself.
However, this spring I made a conscious decision to fully commit to the full strength and conditioning program because the women’s team started working with a new strength coach, Per Lundstam, who is incredibly experienced and knowledgable and I really respect him and the thought that goes into his planning of our program.
My ‘baseline’ dry land test results at the beginning of June were some of my best numbers yet, especially my power (jumps), and my results from the end of last summer (2023) were also very strong. So I went into our mid-season testing in July with high expectations. I also went in quite sore, because I tested at the end of our team conditioning week which was very challenging (but of course I didn’t take this into account headed into testing).
For more context, I worked incredibly hard in the gym in June and July, some of my hardest workouts ever. So, I was quite eager to see the fruits of my labor.
Unfortunately, I was quickly let down.
As I went through the testing, I was immediately disheartened because almost all of my numbers were a bit lower than June.
My mind quickly started spiraling “was the hard work for nothing” “I shouldn’t have trusted the program” “I’m trying so hard to get stronger and be better at skiing and it’s not working.” Etc. etc.
After a small mental breakdown from frustration and exhaustion after testing I reached out to Per for reassurance, and he provided valuable perspective. He explained that while some numbers were down, the key metrics (weighted jumps) showed improvement and that it’s normal to see fluctuations in the middle of a training block, especially given we just finished a hard week.
After much discussion regarding my concerns and worries with Per (who I am tremendously grateful for his patience), I realized that my initial disappointment was mostly due to a lack of context and understanding.
Some other very important lessons that I (re)learned from this:
In order to fully buy into anything you need to understand the plan.
I didn’t take the time to fully understand the plan, and know the why behind the plan, so I was less committed to the process and more focused on the results. Because of this, I immediately fell victim to the ‘questioning everything trap’ as soon as something went wrong. When I was an independent athlete, I made pretty much every single decision by myself (with the advice and input of others), and because of that, I had to think each decision through carefully and completely. Now, I’m in a position where the people (coaches, Ski Team staff, etc) are supposed to have my best interests in mind, but the reality is that I still need to understand the why in order to feel confident in the commitment. It’s been a bit of a balance between accepting when and who to trust (and knowing my own limitations), and also trusting my gut, while realizing that it won’t always be black and white.
2. Trust my own knowledge
Ultimately, I know myself best, and, most importantly, I am the one who is always going to be most concerned/invested/thoughtful about ‘what is going to make Tricia better.’
Smarter not harder
A big part of the reason I was so disappointed with my bad test results was that I had worked so, so hard for the past two months and it felt like that was all in vein when I performed poorly. But working hard does not guarantee results, so it shouldn’t be used as a benchmark for expectations. Working smart is what pays the biggest dividends.
The good news is that we had our end of the season testing in September before flying to our last Chile camp, and I had my best strength numbers (highest force plate result ever for me!) and really good power, agility and anaerobic strength. So the mid-season crisis was a bit pre-emptive, but I learned some good lessons, dove deeper into the science of our workouts, and definitely bonded with Per (who I look up to tremendously). Maybe we do learn the most from our mistakes?!
Now for the photos!














Dear Tricia
I always read these with the knowledge that in individual sports (skiing, tennis, golf etc) the differences are infinitesimally fractional, and, quite frankly, unconscionably to those of us non elite athletes. Always leaves me in awe.
This month though, I found some parallels that I fully understand, and relate, to the rehab work I do with others. The changes, hard work, do not ever become instantly fully realized. There HAS to be a time of reset, a double clutch. What you hang your hat on is one thing that improves. Everything positive change always starts with one thing.
Finally, we always need to be our advocate, but not our own counsel. Smart old saying, the worst patients/clients are those who choose to be their own Doctors or Lawyers. Again, in my parallel, my best thinking got me here.... perhaps I need to listen and interpret.
Keep going. You are inspiring others, and in the end, the spirit of the one who tries, is not the goal, but the exercise.
Joe
Love the insights and the guidance, Tricia.
Thank you for sharing!!
Your efforts and successes, on the water, on the trails, on the mountains, and in life are "soul supporting"!!!
Keep on rockin' Girl.