Questions:

• Walk us through a training day — what time do you wake up, what does your body feel like, what’s the mental rhythm?

Training days have a huge variety based on where you are in the season, from easy sunny low-pressure spring training camps in California to dark icy early morning sessions in the middle of January. But in general, the days are still somewhat similar, and far more busy than people expect. We’ll wake up at 6ish, give or take based on where we are and when the sun come up, hit an early breakfast, and then do a physical warm-up to get the body moving. Then it’s time to hit the road to wherever we’re training that day, and once we get to the lodge, do another more ski-specific physical warm-up and get all our gear on. We head up and get to training after a few warm-up runs and a quick look at the course set for that day. After training the day keeps going, with lunch and back to the hotel. We move straight into physical therapy, then a workout (either lifting weights or a core session or an endurance session). From there it’s on to watch video of the day’s training and talk with the coaches about what needs fixing, and then to the ski rooms to meet with our ski technicians and make a plan equipment-wise for the next day. Finally it’s off to dinner and bed to start it over again the next day! A bit groundhog-day-like at times, but I weirdly love the routine. 

• What’s something about training that most people would never guess — a weird ritual, an unglamorous moment, or a daily habit that keeps you grounded?

I think people overestimate the amount of packing and unpacking we have to do on a daily basis. We move places every handful of days for the entire winter, and every time have to pack and unpack probably 10-15 pairs of skis. And that’s not including our personal duffel bags with clothes and your ski bag with all your ski gear as well. So we get quite good at being efficient with packing our stuff and finding a system that works where you don’t have to put too much thought into it anymore. But certainly not the most glamorous part of the job. 

• How do you balance the repetition and grind with the joy that got you here in the first place?

For me it’s always been super helpful to remember that I chose to do this for a career and every day intentionally decide to make these sacrifices. And as long as I keep that somewhere in the back of my mind, it no longer seems like a grind but instead something that comes along as part of the job and enables me to do what I love for a living. Because every job has some sort of downside. So for me the long days in the gym or hours spent packing bags is my equivalent to a doctor having to spend a few hours filling out forms and doing computer work instead of treating patients. And if that’s the most annoying part of my job, I can live with that any day. 

• When do you know you’ve had a “good day” on snow or in the gym?

I try to think of “good” or “bad” days as mainly effort-related. As long as I can finish every day and think that I gave it 100% of my focus and effort while I was on the hill, then I think that’s all I can ask of myself. Whether I won the day’s training or lifted more than ever before or if I just sucked, it really makes no difference as long as I did my utmost to be professional and get that tiny percent better. Because in the long run I think that showing up every day and putting in the work consistently is what pays off. Consistent small difference on a big time scale are game-changing.

• Can you recall a single breakthrough — a run, a feeling — when everything just clicked?

I’m not sure if I had a single moment per say, but the most similar thing I can think of is when I was in high school and broke both of my hands 1 month apart. So I couldn’t hold a ski pole in either hand, but I still wanted to go train so I managed to fit some oven mitts over my casts and go train GS. I skied for probably a month straight with no poles, and suddenly when I was allowed to use my full hands again and get my poles back, I realized I had found this newfound comfort and center of balance and was able to be so much more athletic on skis. So I recommend that to anyone looking to get better. Spend even a few runs without your poles, and when you get them back, you’ll feel like a hero.