Sunday, March 6, 2011

Frequency, quality and quantity

When it comes to skiing, what might count most is the quality of the experience, at least this is the conclusion I'm beginning to draw (you might say, it's about time!) After pursuing quantitative records for the past seasons like total vertical skied and adding all the numbers up, I have taken this season a more laid-back attitude towards my skiing. There might be several reasons for that. First, I'm not getting any younger, and I also found out last season that a guy even older than me had managed to rack up three times more skiing than what I accounted for the entire winter.

I could have done the same or probably more, but in doing it, I would have became a ski slave of sort. That's when it clicked and I began to wonder: What's the point of all this? This soul-searching certainly had a most calming effect on my quest for numbers and forced me to re-assess what my skiing should be. So far, this change in attitude has had a positive impact on my skiing, making vastly more interesting than it has been in the past. In addition, I don't have to stress anymore when I decide to go skiing; in particular, I don't have to keep on doing it until my legs hurt and my physical abilities are beginning to fade.

I ski more fun terrain, ski more frequently in smaller increments and add more creativity into what I do. A much more wholesome and safer approach to my second-favorite sport. An activity that ought to be the way most people envision it: Fun, period!

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