How to Ski 100 Days in a Row, Physical Edition
A few minutes a day keeps the spines in play!
There comes a time in every athlete’s life when they have to admit to themselves that they are no longer a spring chicken, able to off-the-couch a huge bell to bell powder day and be able to walk the next day.
One of my biggest concerns about skiing 100 days in a row was how my body would hold up; I’ve had a few ski injuries over the years (both big ones, requiring surgery, and small overuse injuries), and I have learned the hard way that skiing in pain can put a real damper on the fun factor.
Luckily, one of the silver linings of all of this recovery and PT time means that over the years of skiing hard, I’ve developed a few key strategies for staying mostly pain free. I certainly got tired at times and it’s an imperfect process that I’m always working on, but having systems in place to take care of myself, regardless of if it’s placebo effect or not, really were instrumental in helping me ski 100 days in a row and feel great enough to even go for day 101, just for fun.
Here are two off my most helpful strategies:
1. KEEP A DAILY PT ROUTINE
Five years ago, I was at my wits’ end with nagging aches and pains, coming back from a patellar tendon repair surgery at the same time I was recovering from pregnancy and childbirth with our second. I had a fortuitous chance meeting on a work trip with a physical trainer, Alex Buck, who not only is a skier, but also had recovered from the same knee injury as me. I worked with him remotely to get some workouts for strength, and some PT and mobility exercises. Slowly, over time, the workouts helped me feel stronger. I did the PT occasionally, then ramped it up to a few minutes every night, coupled with a few stretches, a teensy bit of very mellow core stuff for my pelvic floor, and a bit of yoga. I started noticing I could move better. I also realized that the nightly routine helped me sleep better. (This also could have been the fact that our youngest was finally 2 and we were thankfully waking up maybe only once a night instead of multiple times!)
This was pretty positive feedback to keep it going, and now it’s a nightly 15 minute date with myself that I prioritize. I can’t stress enough how great this has been for me in being able to ski, run, bike, workout, and even go down stairs pain-free for the last few years since I started.
PT is great for keeping the body moving, think of it like a daily tuneup for your best machine. Anne Cleary walks it out.
2. MAKE TIME TO WALK
Walking gets often overlooked in favor of more exciting, more gnarly, more challenging, and more sweaty activities, but hear me out. Skiing, biking, and running involve a similar, limited range of motion whereby the knee stays bent in front of the body. Walking and ski touring, on the other hand, allow the knee to straighten and extend behind the body, effectively stretching out the front muscles of the leg and hip in an opposite way than all of those “more gnarly” sports. I used to continue running in during the winter to supplement my downhill skiing, but it didn’t feel great on my knees I realized. So, I started walking, and it’s a great antidote to the adrenaline and the muscle use of skiing, in my opinion. Walking sometimes feels boring and slow, but that’s precisely what makes it a great time to connect with a friend, or work out some of those pesky thoughts swirling in my mind. Walking is the original human movement, and I think it’s underrated!
For me, making the time to do my nightly mobility, strength, and stretch routine, as well as going for walks (or mellow ski tours, a similar motion!) a few times a week, really helped me complete 100 days in a row feeling good, if a bit tired! But a good tired.
Just have to jog around the lake then up that little pass, NBD! Anne Cleary getting ready to power up.
