These past 5 weeks my motto has been efficiency, not just in one area of life, but all of them!Efficiency:1.The state or quality of being efficient, or able to accomplish something with the least waste of time and effort; competency in performance.2. Accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort.
3. The ratio of the work done or energy developed by a machine, engine, etc., to the energy supplied to it, usually expressed as a percentage.
Part 1: School
I am exactly at the half way point of my fall term at Dartmouth, with 5 weeks left until the term ends. As I walk though the library at school, it astounds me how many people just sit there on the their phone, getting absolutely nothing done. One of the things I think I have done well this term is that when I sit down to do work, I use my time as efficiently as possible, not browsing through social media or just blankly starring at a textbook. Not only do I get my work done much faster, but I get more out of studying when I am uninterrupted.
Part 2: Training
One major reason I have tried to be really efficient with school work is so that I have time to train. Between getting ready for workouts, doing them, and driving time that is sometimes included, training can take up a fair amount of time in a day, especially the double days. I have surprised myself with the hours I am able to accomplish in training while in school. However, school can still limit the amount of hours you train, but as a true believer of quality over quantity, I find every workout is extremely focused and effective. As some people would say, "the best bang for the buck".
Part 3: Within Training
I started to feel fully healthy about 3-4 weeks ago. Although I was only sidelined for a few weeks, I did lose some fitness and definitely noticed that when I was coming back into regular training the past few weeks. My approach: I might not be as fit, but maybe if I can really focus on being efficient through my technique, then I can keep up with my teammates while still skiing easy? Technique is always something that I will be working on, but I concentrated most of my focus towards technique during every session the past few weeks and found that my approach actually seemed to work pretty well. I feel like I have made gains particularly in my double pole technique and strength. Even in running, where I feel like skiers don't think about their technique, I was thinking about in which ways I can be more efficient in my stride.
The combination of feeling 100% healthy, being able to train at full capacity and feel good, and being focused on being efficient has made me feel more fit than I have in a while. One of my favorite days on the week is Sunday because our team does a 3-4 hour run/hike on a different hiking trail every Sunday. Who knew that doing 3-4 hour runs on hiking trails every weekend makes running on normal trails feel like a piece of cake?! We have had an unlucky streak with weather, managing to end up in the clouds at every summit along our adventure runs. However, we have been lucky to have no rain (except for a little hail) and cool temperatures that are perfect for long runs.
A few weeks ago I also got to see my SMS teammates when we held a free clinic for kids in Hanover area. We had a great turnout and it was cool to see how enthusiastic the young skiers are in the Hanover area!
Now I am resting up at home for a few days before I head out to Park City, UT for a U.S. Ski Team training camp for two weeks. I am hoping that if I am efficient, I can manage missing two weeks of classes!
I hope to post my next update after my training camp in two weeks!-JKern
