Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. I learned this fall that sometimes the best approach is to take things day by day. I was also reminded how fortunate I am for my family, friends, and teammates. In short, this fall was turbulent and early season was wild...but first I will rewind to the end of the summer.

Summer

Just as I got cleared at the end of July to start using my elbow again, my IT bands got flared up, sidelining me from lower body training. They always say injuries come in pairs, and it is likely no coincidence that my legs flared up after using my legs more while rehabbing from elbow surgery. Although I thought I was being smart in training, sometimes it is hard to foresee these injuries ahead of time until it is too late. Lesson learned…After enough rest, I was able to rollerski and shortly after that I was headed “down under” to winter in New Zealand for a U.S. Ski Team camp, finishing my final exams on the road. With New Zealand’s amazing skiing, not being able to run was no issue. This year, it was only my teammate Jessie Diggins and our U.S. Ski Team coach Jason Cork at camp. It was a small crew, but we had a lot of fun training together, getting focused, quality time on snow, and enjoying all the beautiful things New Zealand has to offer. I was able to log my biggest block of training yet, which included skiing at least 600km (I added up my watch data), 3 races, and a lot of tired laughs in the end! I was really psyched to get in a consistent block of training, especially after a restricted summer of training with my elbow rehab and IT band issues.

Fall

I returned back to Dartmouth really motivated and excited to begin fall term (and my senior year!), hopeful that after 6 weeks of no running I would be okay to ease back into running. Unfortunately nothing had changed and running was still off the table. I also caught the back to school sickness, but never seemed to fully feel 100% for 8 weeks, oscillating between taking multiple off days in a row and trying to do intervals and feeling good despite feeling sick doing any other training.  5 days before heading over the Europe for the season, I finally decided to take antibiotics (which I am usually opposed to taking), and my 8 weeks of sickness finally came to an end right as I hopped on the plane for Norway.

Amidst of illness, injury, and other school/life stresses this fall, I found myself only able to take things day by day, quite literally. I won’t sugar coat it and admit that this fall I was unhappy, frustrated, and lacking purpose. I realized I had lost sight of the things that are important to me and I was unable to engage in the things that normally bring me happiness. After two of my close friends both went through really tough life events, I was reminded of what I am thankful for and it shifted my perspective on how I wanted to approach things going forward.  I was very thankful to be surrounded by caring teammates and friends who supported me and they were also the best training buddies ever.

Winter

I recognized that heading over to Europe, finally back to full health was the perfect opportunity to have the hard reset I needed. I stepped on to the plane to Europe, prepared to be on the road and live out of my suitcase for 4.5 months straight, but unsure where I stood and how the season would go after one of my most rough fall periods of training. The one thing I knew for sure was that the training season had tested my patience, and that I needed to have a lot of patience early on in the season. I approached the first period of racing as a training block, using every race to build my fitness as I worked into the season. I also used the first few weeks on the road to engage with the things that are important to me and bring me happiness, cherishing the seizing the incredible opportunities every day has to offer.

Little did I know, “working into the season” included my first ever World Cup podium and best distance result yet! If anyone would have told me I would podium this season in a World Cup, let alone in the first period, I would have called them crazy. This is not to say I don’t believe in myself, but given how poorly my training went this fall and how much of a mess I was mentally, it is something I wouldn’t have been unable to imagine at the time.

So how did I get there? My good friends called patience, belief, happiness and teamwork. I trusted the plan my coach Pat and I came up with and continued to take things day by day. I approached every training session and race with purpose—as an opportunity to practice, gain experience, and learn from my teammates. I took away the things that went well and identified the things I wanted to continue to work on. I sought out feedback from our staff  and continually worked with my wax tech to dial in a testing process. Some days, I went for a soul ski with my teammate Hailey, trekking through knee-deep powder without any real plan, and some days I followed my speedy teammates during intervals and speeds, reviewing video footage after. After a disappointing race in Lillehammer, I adjusted my plan and continued to believe in what I was doing. Most importantly, I found my happiness again and remembered to keep things fun, goofy, and spontaneous. Thanks to my teammates, that was quite easy to do :)

In Planica, I somehow found myself having an absolute blast (likely having more fun than anyone else out there) while skiing through a cold, torrential down pouring rain storm on a narrow icy strip of snow, intermixed with a lightning and thunderstorms. Maybe I seemed a bit crazy for finding the weather really amusing, but any day I get to whip out my rain suit and embrace New England weather and conditions similar to the Weston Ski Track (where I grew up skiing), it is a good day and an advantage for me. Before I knew it, I was standing at the start of my first ever A final on the World Cup, both excited and very nervous to be lined up against some of the best sprinters in the world. I was so nervous that I couldn’t even go hard the first half of the race since my stomach was in knots from the nerves. Coming up the last hill, I was able to kick it into gear and pass one skier, then another skier crashed right in front of me, and before I knew it, I was sprinting to the finish against my teammate and role model Sophie Caldwell for 3rd place, throwing in the fastest finishing kick of my life and lunging to my first ever World Cup podium. One lesson I took away from this race is never give it, I was off the back in 6th coming into the last hill and was able to ski to 3rd.

Both the Davos and Planica weekend reminded me of the power of belief. I lacked belief in my distance race in Davos until Charlotte Kalla (also one of my ski idols growing up) caught me and I stuck on her like glue for 7.5km, showing to myself it is possible to ski that pace. In Planica, I skied with the intention to move onto the semi final and final, instead of my previous approach of just trying to hang on and ski my best. I took away a new sense of confidence and belief from Planica and plan to carry that with me into the races going forward.

After a short 3 day Christmas break with my family, I headed to my first Tour de Ski, but unfortunately woke up sick on the first race day and had to drop out after racing through a cold the first two stages. I got healthy in time for the Dresden city sprints this past weekend and had a blast racing in some wild, action packed races included lots of crashes and broken poles. The World Cup continues with a double distance weekend in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic this weekend and I am excited to see what distance racing and classic racing has in store (especially after not 8 skate races in a row)!

Thanks for following along and for all the support along the way!

-JKern