One Quote
“Being wrong is the only way I feel sure I’ve learned anything.” - Daniel Kahneman
One Question
How can I get better at knowing what priorities to manage at what times in my life?
Recap
I started writing this blog last week after US Nationals and stopped because my results at US Nationals were pretty average, and my thought process was maybe if I wait a week I’ll have something better to report on. Which turned into quite the self fulfilling philosophy (stay tuned to the end of the blog), but I still regret waiting to post a blog until I had good news, because that is quite antithetical to the point of this blog!
So let’s reflect on US Nationals first. After coming back from the last World Cup of the season, I had a couple weeks off, and it was honestly quite nice to take a step back from the intensity of the season and switch gears a bit. I got to spend time with my family and friends, and I started to think more about the spring and summer, how I wanted to spend my ‘off season’, and what jobs I wanted to apply for. Which were all important questions that I needed to address…. BUT when I flew out to US Nationals, I was defintiely still a bit distracted with planning the next couple months and wasn’t really able to switch back into race season mode.
I’ve known for a while that I perform best when I’m 100% dialed in on skiing in the middle od the season. In fact, one of my favorite parts of skiing is the intensity of the race season focus and I feel incredibly privileged to be so fully consumed by one goal that I think about it 24/7 from the moment I wake up to when I go to bed at night (and usually dream about it too). From pretty much December to April, my number one priority is how to get faster at skiing.
So when I began to add more priorities into the equation during our break and US Nationals, it was quite alarming just how off I felt while skiing. It was almost like I wasn’t able to dial in the intensity I needed and as a result it felt like I wasn’t able to focus in the same way I did for the rest of the season. I was aware of it in the moment but couldn’t really pin point why I was feeling that way or snap out of it. Looking back now, I truly think I was more focused on figuring out logistics and plans for the next weeks and months than I had been the rest of the season, so I wasn’t used to being ‘distracted’ in this way (which is ironic becasue this was how I had to operate for all of last season!) I also think that had I just been more consicous of needing to dial back in on the hill, I could have readjusted quicker. So ultimately this was a good lesson for me to be more aware of shifting priorities throughout the end of the season.
After two disappointing days in the SG and GS at US Nationals, I was able to shake myself into realizing I still had some important racing to do and started to get the intensity and focus back for an awesome day of SG training last Tuesday. Then I raced a FIS GS race on Wednesday in Sun Valley (and won! - first win of the season :) before flying to Denver and driving the rest of the way to Taos Wednesday night to race in the pro tour Thursday- Saturday. I had an awesome weekend dualling it out with some super speedy ladies and even managed to defend my title as World Pro Tour GS World Champion and took home a very nice check as well.
Well noted that I struggled to perform at US Nationals after a long break away from skis, and then had one of my best days of the season at the Pro Tour after being on skis for 8 days in a row!
Photos
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