FeaturesSunday Conversation with Wendy WagnerFasterSkier · November 3, 2003Sunday Conversation with Wendy Wagner – FasterSkier
, my training has me more excited coming into the season is more<br />
than it has ever been in the past. </P><br />
<P> </P><br />
<P><B>How have your preparations been tailored to reach your goals?</B></P><br />
<P>In New Zealand this year I had a great realization, thanks to my coaches Pete<br />
(Vordenberg) and Trond (Nystad). My realization was I have to be rested. This<br />
has been my focus since then. I’ve seen improvements time trials, in the<br />
weight room, and my motivation to ski, all through being rested. This has given<br />
me confidence for the year.</P><br />
<P><B>In training have you been trying out anything new?</B></P><br />
<P>I’ve been more consistent in the weight room – even more so than last<br />
year when I did well in regards to this. I feel the strength improvement when<br />
I ski. This consistency is not missing a strength session <I>and</I> making<br />
my time high quality while there. Basically I’m getting after in the weight<br />
room.</P><br />
<P><B>What preparations bring you into racing form?</B></P><br />
<P>I don’t taper a whole lot. Maybe my volume tapers, but not my stress load.<br />
Racing form is a psychological state, knowing when I need to be racing. I need<br />
to get up for this mentally.</P><br />
<P><B>You had success racing at Western States College. What made this program<br />
so successful for you?</B></P><br />
<P>The team. The team made Western States successful. Here we were, cutting edge<br />
Americans winning races. This included Miles Minson’s coaching. When I<br />
first went there I wasn’t at the same level. The team brought me to their<br />
level.</P><br />
<P><B>What was the biggest transition between collegiate skiing and skiing professionally?</B></P><br />
<P>Time management. Finishing college, I needed to balance mental stimulation.<br />
In college you have so much stimulation and then one day you get a diploma and<br />
maybe a summer job but there’s so much less distractions, so much less<br />
stimulation. You need to find an outlet for this energy, and it can’t be<br />
just all skiing all the time.</P><br />
<P> </P><br />
<P><B>Why make Park City your best ‘home base?’ Is this the best place<br />
to take your skiing to the next level?</B></P><br />
<P>Absolutely. It’s where I need to be to reach my potential, without a doubt.<br />
Park City works for me because the US Ski Team has created an atmosphere conducive<br />
to being the best in the world. Just as when I left to go to Western States<br />
I’m in Park City to be a part of a winning team. I see us (the national<br />
team) as a winning team.</P><br />
<P><B>Tell us about working with national team coaches Trond Nystad and Pete Vordenberg.</B></P><br />
<P>It’s fantastic. I respect both tremendously. They know the sport and support<br />
the athletes. They want me to succeed. The care and belief they have in ‘their<br />
athletes’ shines through. On the field they are taking lactates, videoing,<br />
working on technique. Then they go above and beyond by bringing the team together<br />
off the field. I know the members of the national team as people, not just racers.</P><br />
<P> </P><br />
<P><B>Alright you’re at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine for the 2004 National<br />
Championships. Chummy’s counting down three, two, one….the 15km interval<br />
start classic race is underway. Bring us into the racer’s mind.</B></P><br />
<P>I’m nervous! I’m excited, thinking about the first downhill. I’m<br />
getting nervous just thinking about it… just smiling, happy to be racing<br />
there.</P><br />
<P> </P><br />
<P><B>The US Ski Team seems to have a new identity, way of doing things that looks<br />
less and less to foreign countries for inspiration (training ideas, etc). Do<br />
you believe in this?</B></P><br />
<P>100%. I believe completely in our new philosophy. We implement it in the way<br />
we want. It’s changed how I think about the sport. Champions are cutting<br />
edge and they do it their own way. Trond says some look at what others have<br />
done, others say screw you Imp going to try it another way and see if it works.<br />
It’s been shut up because we’ve been trying to copy rather than find<br />
out what works for us. We’re Americans and were unlike any other nation.<br />
Were going to take risks and this is already working.</P><br />
<P> </P><br />
<P><B>Why put yourself through all the training and pain of racing? What’s<br />
it about skiing or racing that keeps you going?</B></P><br />
<P>First I love the training, especially since ski training means being fit and<br />
a healthy. I like how it’s not all just skiing. I get to do so many activities.<br />
Climbing, cycling it all has their place. And second, there nothing like racing.<br />
It feels good to hurt and have one of those perfect races. You rarely have that<br />
perfect race but when you do it keeps you searching for it to happen again.<br />
The perfect races keep you going.</P><br />
<P> </P><br />
<P><B>At what point did you think I can do something special here in skiing?</B></P><br />
<P>I never thought that. I never saw myself doing something special in skiing.<br />
I just loved doing it. Now, being on the U.S. Ski Team is where the path has<br />
taken me. I didn’t have those big dreams when I was ten. I lived for the<br />
day and let this take me where it would.</P><br />
<P><B>Tell us about the tightrope balancing act it takes to be a national class<br />
athlete. 100% professional and at the same time don’t you have to be careful<br />
to have balance, still find enjoyment in gliding over snow and have a life outside<br />
the ski world?</B></P><br />
<P>Pete talks about the 98 % athlete, the one who trains but doesn’t worry<br />
about going out to the movies or hanging out with friends. Doing something besides<br />
resting or training leaves me super excited to have a great day training. I<br />
look at my life as a big circle and having a beer with my friends keeps me super,<br />
hundred-percent excited to train hard the next day. </P><br />
<P>Ironically, with this attitude I end up training more and better than with<br />
my old ‘train all the time attitude.’ The ‘you must train attitude,<br />
that I must train and that’s it’ attitude has been dropped. </P><br />
<P><B>Do you believe in sport psychology?</B></P><br />
<P>Yes, I very much believe in it. I do a lot of visualization and relaxation.<br />
I use a lot of the techniques my sport psychologist Jon Hammermeister helps<br />
me with. I use for everything from getting a good night’s sleep before<br />
a race to energizing myself before the race’s start.</P><br />
<P> </P><br />
<P><B>What stands in the way of you skiing even faster?</B></P><br />
<P>My head. I’m working on that. I think my head gets in my way. </P><br />
<P> </P><br />
<P><B>Wendy, thanks for your time. Best of luck this season.</B></P><br />
<P> </P><br />
<P> </p>
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