Cross country skiing is one of the hardest sports in the world, if not the hardest. I don't think any of you would dispute that statement. Do you have any idea how much strength, stamina, coordination, agility, balance, and focus goes into those intervals you were all just doing Thursday? When you actually stop to think about it, skiing is unbelievably difficult. To master this sport, there are a whole lot of pieces that all have to fall into place, but when it clicks, when that feeling of gliding along feels beautiful and natural and easy, that's when you know you're doing it right. Put yourself in that happy place where you're kicking along with your best friends on an extra blue wax day under bright skis and perfect corduroy - find that memory. That feeling, the glide, the nuances of the snow, the coordination of your movements - that is the meaning to a skier's life, far as I can tell.
But in the day to day grind, it's too easy to lose sight of the flow. We get wrapped up in taking our heartrates and measuring our limb angles and finishing those intervals to the exact second and breaking our PRs and keeping ourselves organized, and we do all these details really well. These details are really important, but they're not the reason we ski. This dryland season is dragging out, for sure, but we gotta remember: the reason we train, the reason we work as hard as we can and rest even harder, is so that we're ready when it snows. We do it to remake that memory of a perfect day on skis.
No comments:
Post a Comment