For many of the top ski racers in the U.S. and worldwide, the race season began with World Cups in Soelden and Levi. And, in the U.S., elite level races in Colorado have begun. For everyone else, your first races are anywhere from 4-8 weeks away. So, now is the time to enter the final phase of your prep period, where you’ll shift from training mode to race mode.

Training Mode to Race Mode

This transition requires several essential shifts in your focus and in how you approach your training:

• From a focus on technique and tactics to focusing on going fast;
• From details of skiing to the big picture of skiing;
• From thinking to feeling;
• From lower intensity to race intensity;
• From training preparation to race-specific preparation for training runs.

This shift also involves changing how you think about, and what you do, in your on-snow training, both mentally and physically.

Speed is an Acquired Skill

Like technique and tactics, I don’t believe that speed, going as fast as you can, comes naturally to many racers. Instead, it needs to be practiced and learned. When you first start focusing on skiing fast, you’ll feel out of balance, out of control, and uncomfortable. Your mind and body need time to figure out how to stay on top of a new level of speed.

So, when you shift your focus to going fast, you do the things you know you need to do to ski fast; for example, before a training run, you may increase your intensity, use aggressive breathing, and get yourself fired up to attack the course. But you should also have the perspective that you may make mistakes when you ignite the afterburners, and that’s a good thing because it means you’re pushing your limits. When this happens, you need to remind yourself to be patient and stay committed because you know that your mind and body will eventually catch up with the new speed, and you’ll not only be faster but also finish.

Train Like You Race, So You Can Race Like You Train

Let me introduce you to two essential rules for ski racing success that make it an absolute requirement to train like you race so you can race like you train.

First, whatever you do in races, you must first do in training. This seems obvious, yet is often neglected by racers. If you want to ski well technically and tactically in races, you must first get that technique and those tactics down in training. That’s hopefully what you focused on during your summer and fall on-snow prep. You need to ingrain the feeling of going fast in your training, so it comes more naturally in races.

Second, whatever you do in training is what you will do in a race. Ideally, the goal of training is to develop effective skills and habits that will translate into fast skiing on race day. It also means developing the skill of speed. But here’s the problem: racers often practice bad skills and habits in training, whether technical, tactical, mental, or speed.

Fully train to Race

So, think about what you do on race day to get ready and do the same in your training routine.  For example, do a good skiing warm-up, inspect the course (don’t just slip it), get your body moving at the start, do mental imagery, breathe, and  focus on going fast. Of course, you’re not going to spend 15-30 minutes getting ready for each training run, but you should take key elements of your race routine and shrink it down to a 1-2 minute training routine.

With all that said, let’s return to my original question: Should you race like you train or train like you race? My answer is a resounding “YES!” You should train like you race so you can race like you train. The more you treat training like a race, the more you will ingrain in your body and mind the skills and habits to ski fast in a race. The ultimate goal is that when you get into the starting gate of a race, your body and mind will automatically do what you do in training, and you will ski fast in the race just like you do in training.

Find the Threshold

Your goal in this final prep period before you begin racing is to find the threshold of how fast you can ski. Many racers I work with think they’re at their limits, but when I challenge them to push those limits, they find they can ski faster than they thought they could. The only way to do that is to cross the threshold and either make a mistake, ski out, or crash (hopefully not badly).  You can slightly back your speed off when you cross that line and stay just within that threshold. If you think about it, that’s what makes Marco, Mikaela, Henrik, and Petra so good; they can remain just inside that threshold incredibly consistently.

To find that threshold, figure out how you can go faster, technically, tactically, or mentally. Be willing to take risks to find more speed and recognize that mistakes and DNFs are good signs. And experiment with what you need to do to change gears.

Mindset

A really important shift you’ll want to make is in your mindset. When I talk about mindset, I mean what you’re thinking about 30-60 seconds before you get into the gate. During your earlier prep period, your mindset was probably focused mainly on technique and tactics. But now, your mindset should change to focus only on what you need to do to ski fast.

With most racers I work with, this means adopting a more aggressive mindset. Key tools for getting an aggressive mindset include raising your physical intensity, using intense breathing (forced exhale), engaging in aggressive self-talk (“Attack,” “Charge,” “Let’s bring it”), and using aggressive imagery in which you see and feel yourself attacking the course.

Use Mental Imagery

As you probably know from everything I’ve written about imagery, I believe it is a powerful tool to help you achieve your ski racing goals. It is also essential in this final phase of your prep period. So much of going fast involves getting a lot of repetition with going fast and getting comfortable with a new level of speed. You can use imagery to accelerate that process.

As you progress through this last phase and approach your first races regularly (say, 3-5 times a week), just envision yourself skiing fast. For 5-10 minutes in each imagery session, imagine yourself getting ready to ski fast before your training runs, doing what you’ve learned works in your on-snow. Then, visualize yourself aggressively charging down the course and pushing your limits. With every imagery session, you will more deeply ingrain the image and feeling of yourself skiing fast in your mind and body. So, those same images and feelings will emerge on race day and put you in full “punch it”  mode.

Exercises

To help you make this shift from training mode to race mode, here are a few exercises you can use in your on-snow training:

1. Establish a consistent training routine that is a mini version of your race routine to ensure total “race mode” preparation for every training run.
   1. Equipment.
   1. Physical (move body, breathing).
   1. Mental (imagery, self-talk).
2. Incorporate several “race” runs (i.e., focus only on going fast) into training sessions.
   1. Make the first two runs of training “race” runs to train mind and body to go fast the first two runs (because that’s what has to happen on race day).
3. Do off-snow imagery of upcoming races 3x/week.
   1. Focus on confidence/trust, aggressiveness, and feeling (not thinking).
   1. See and feel yourself skiing really fast.