Feeling Better

I skipped my planned workouts on Thursday and Friday. But, after that, I had four days of skiing planned, and I didn't skip them. Saturday morning, on the way to the mountain, I felt terrible. It was hard to imagine how I was going to ski. But, once I got outside and got moving, I felt fine. Every time we took a break, I felt like crap. Every time I went outside and put on the skis, I could forget that I felt sick.

Saturday night, a bunch of ski instructors with early January birthdays got together for an annual birthday dinner. We had a great night, with a potluck dinner and some nice beers and wines. I had to be good so I'd feel OK to teach skiing on Sunday.

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday; I felt great while skiing and felt sick while sitting. After skiing on Sunday, I got home as quickly as possible to get some rest before a long drive on Monday morning.

My ski clinic the past two days was called Movement Analysis. Within PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America), we are required to take at least one educational clinic every other season to keep our certification level current. I tend to take a clinic every year though. My last few clinics had been all about fun and hard skiing - "Trees and Steeps" and "Advanced Bumps". So this time, I opted for a more technical clinic with a goal of learning how to watch skiers' movements and then apply appropriate lessons to help the skier improve. But, because Smugglers' Notch resort has such great snow right now, we spent a lot of time on hard terrain. The clinic was a great blend of technical information and the application of that knowledge to both easy and difficult terrain. I learned a lot and really enjoyed the clinic.

My cold is better, despite the four consecutive ski days, but not quite gone. I'm going to try to lift today and run tomorrow, before I have another ski clinic on Friday. The clinic on Friday should be amazing. It's being led by Matt Boyd, a member of PSIA's Alpine Team. Matt and his brother Jeb are both on the national team, they are both great skiers and great coaches. The clinic on Fridy is "Train the trainers", where Matt will help us to become more proficient at coaching other coaches, rather than just teaching skiing to our normal customers. For the past few years, I've done some staff training at Sugarbush, and anything that can help me to get better at this should be fun. Plus, skiing with Matt will be a treat, and the other clinic participants will be some of the best skiers and instructors at Sugarbush.


Of course, I have to remember my day job as well, and it's time to get back to that work right now.