This summer has flown by. It seems like just yesterday I was clicking into my rollerskis for the first workout of the spring. My team and I have been busy putting in a lot of volume over the past few months along with some substantial threshold training. We’ve been lifting and working on specific strength, and we’ve done some great time trials. Although there are a lot of great things happening, I think that around this time of the year, it’s important to slow down, and take a step back to reflect on the full picture of the year. Specifically, it’s a great time to think about your goals.
Me, Sarah and Erin, post rollerski intervals
This past week, my team had a short weekend training camp in Big Sky Montana. Along with training, our coach Andy lead us in some goal setting exercises. Everyone on our team left the meeting feeling motivated, inspired, and challenged, so I thought I would share what Andy guided us through.
Team Dinner!
First, we did a simple goal setting exercise. We each listed three goals, and under each goal we wrote down actions we could take to reach our goals. Although most of us had already set goals for the season, he reminded us that it’s important to come back to them around this time. In the busyness of the summer, it’s easy to let your training slide into an “auto pilot” mode where you go through the motions but aren’t super intentional about every workout you are doing. Refreshing yourself on what you are trying to accomplish and how you are trying to do it is a great way to keep yourself actively involved in your goals. We then shared what we wrote down with the rest of the team. Sharing goals can be hard and feel vulnerable. However, when we share our goals with our teammates, we have a better understanding of what each other are working towards so we can better help/push each other to succeed.
Below is an example of one of the goals I listed, along with the steps I am taking to get there.
Improve my sprint qualifying.
- Work a lot on my hop skate
- Continue working on my double pole technique
- Watch more video before workouts
- Ski behind Sarah and Erin a lot during sprint intensity
- Continue working on my power in the gym
- Incorporate sprint time trials in the fall
- Dial in my sprint warm up. Figure out exactly how much intensity I need to do to feel ready
- Have a good plan going into qualifier, ski course with Andy or teammates for tactics
When our team shared with one another, a lot of us had overlapping goals with different ideas of “steps to get there”. I ended up adding a lot of “actions” under my goals after hearing what other people had to say. This is a really simple exercise that gets you thinking and can bring some intentional thinking into your daily fall training. I would recommend it to all skiers and would recommend sharing your goals with others too!
