Hello skiers!

Thanks to everyone who joined our Zoom call last week. Here’s the link if you missed it. Alison will post a blog with resources on the varied topics we covered this week.

Entering your penultimate build week of our Ski Prep program, I hope you're all feeling the benefits of the work you've been putting in these last couple months. Training is a long-term process; even though we built this as a 12-week course, your gains will continue measurably over the coming weeks and months and years, with consistency your greatest ally in that ascent. 

On the topic of consistency, it's not uncommon to get a month or two into a training regimen and find yourself mired in conflicting schedules: work, family, holiday parties... and find that your fitness efforts are suffering and more red days are showing up on TrainingPeaks. Developing that rhythm can be the most difficult part of the long-term progression, but don't despair! Know that we have all ebbed and flowed with how frequently we're able to hit workouts and that the point is to keep trying, even with shorter sessions just to get yourself out the door. 

Last week we hosted a presentation by Dr. Alexandra Simmons, a certified mental performance coach who works with athletes and individuals of all ages to improve performance in competition and in work and personal life. Amongst the many valuable insights she conveyed, her adaptation of Dr. Carol Dweck's mindset work struck me the most. She talked about how we experience and constant cycling between Growth Mindsets and Fixed Mindsets, vacillating between an optimism in identifying our progress and seeking new challenge, and a negativity about what we haven't done and aren't able to do. Even the most practiced find themselves temporarily in that Fixed Mindset and just as lifting weights in a gym helps train your muscles, working to move yourself back into a Growth Mindset is a form of training for your mind. 

So when you're finding yourself a bit bogged down with training, maybe having missed a few workouts or losing motivation, remember that every session is an opportunity to regain that rhythm. It need not be the duration listed, or the number of sets and reps prescribed; even just going through the warmup, or a short jog will suffice to help get you back on track, and in addition to the physical benefits it bestows, you'll also be flexing those valuable Mindset Muscles by shifting toward growth! 

Have a great week!

Sam and Alison