Read carefully. This is an incentivised plan for all Otter Ski Team participants, grades 7-12. If you can complete the challenges listed below, you will receive a special, ski team customized t-shirt. The overall winner will receive a t-shirt AND a $50 gift card to Perks. If we have a tie(s), we’ll have a drawing.

Imagine what we can do as a team if we come into the season as fit and mentally ready for an awesome year as possible?! Doing so will make the season less sore, less prone to injury, and definitely more enjoyable!

Many of you are in multiple sports that will also have summer training/captain’s practices. That’s awesome. Work hard at whatever you sport. Have fun and put all you’ve got into training. Whether you’re a starter with varsity or a “third string bench warmer,” working hard makes both you and your teammates better! FIND BALANCE! You don’t need to try and make it to every practice across all your sports. That’s ridiculous. Part of summer is also being FREE! Know that working hard in another sport will transfer to Nordic skiing. 

Summary!

To qualify for the shirt and gift card:

1. Attend at least 2 captain's practices per week.

2. Get Strong 2-3 times a week.

3. Build Endurance 5 days a week.

4. Complete the bi-weekly mental toughness challenge.

5. Take 1-2 rest days per week.

6. Eat healthy.

7. Meet 88%+ of the challenges.

8. Record your progress here.

The Detailed Plan:

• Captain’s Practices: To qualify for the incentives, get out to at least 2 captain’s practices per week. Whether it is for Nordic skiing or for another sport, go work hard and have fun.

• Get Strong: Sign up for the summer weight training program at school, get to the Y, use weights at home, whatever. Work on making yourselves strong. Especially since it is the off-season, I’d encourage building your strength over your endurance. To qualify for the incentives, starting June 12, lift at least 2-3 times a week. 

• Build Endurance: To qualify for the incentives, get in an endurance workout 5 out of 7 days a week for 20-30 minutes or more. This can include swimming, biking, running, roller skiing… Whatever you choose, this is for endurance. For example, splashing around with friends in the river for 20 minutes does NOT count. For those of you all-out people, you should only be going all out twice a week MAXIMUM! Most of your workouts should be slow, easy pace to where you can converse out loud and keep your heart rate down. Don’t burn yourself out before any seasons start in August! Connect with me if you need help with this.

• Depending on how you plan your week, you’ll probably need to do a strength workout and an endurance workout once or twice a week or visa versa.

• Mental Toughness: I’ll be sending out bi-weekly mental toughness challenges. The amount of work to qualify for the incentive will be included in the challenges.

• Rest Days: Build in 1-2 rest days per week. A rest day means no lifting, no running, no roller skiing… it means taking it easy as much as possible, maybe doing some light stretching and, ultimately, giving your body a break… You WILL wear yourself out if you don’t take rest days. Follow the workout plan of almost every elite athlete and you’ll find these days are critical to becoming a better athlete and person! Jessie Diggins and Courtney Dauwalter are two that come to mind if you need inspiration. On the workout log, this is part of the mental toughness category. You can only click yes IF you have completed the mental health challenge AND implemented a rest day.

• Eat Healthy: Eat healthy 6 out of 7 days a week. I’m not saying that you should eat unhealthy one of the days…. Just saying it’s often hard to eat healthy all the time. Use common sense, this can be accumulative for the week. Need help with what eating healthy means? Click here.

• Be honest with yourself, your teammates, and your coaches. Record your progress on this log sheet. Click File > Make a copy and name it. Example: Scharnberg Workout Log. There will be a place in our team Google Classroom for you to submit your log in August.

• 88% Rule! Let’s be real and use common sense. Things will happen: family trips, an injury, illness, work… Let’s allow ourselves some grace but also aim for above average. You’ll qualify for a t-shirt if you meet 88%+ on your summer workout goal. 

• If you need help with a summer workout plan, see our ski team Google Classroom. I haven’t updated days/weeks in a while, but all the workouts are still there under Classwork. If you’re not part of the class, go to Google Classroom and use the join code: q2uaf7h

• If you have access, the hospital’s workout center has two new double-pole machines!