When do you say enough is enough?

[Horton]

I know guys who will ski 4 or 5 sets a day on the weekend because that is the only time they can ski. They just want to ski as much as they can even if their bodies are screaming "NO!"

 

I am feeling pretty old. I just can not ski 2+ sets very many days in a row and have the skiing be quality. The question is - ? Do you stop when your body is no longer fresh or do you get all you can no matter what?

[Chef23]

I do tend to ski a little more frequently than I probably should in mid summer because the season is short. I try not to though because then I wind up hurting myself and not being able to ski.

[Horton]

I saw my evil trainer girl at the gym Tuesday and then skied. I then went to ski Wednesday. First set on second day was not bad but second set was a total waste. I ran 4 passes and went back to the dock feeling OLD. I should have skipped that whole last set.

[thager]

Pretty much no more than 2 sets followed by at least 2 days off. Aging vacuums!

[gt2003]

Beginning of year only 1 set per day. The body just doesn't have the ski endurance right now. I found myself in good body position (for me anyway) but breaking at the hips on about the 5th pass. It was time to rest. Am I finally at the age where knowing my limits is better than pushing it too hard and hurting myself? I expect that 1 set will extend into 2 sets but not until a little more conditioning occurs.

[keithh2oskier]

I almost never ski more than 2 sets but we also don't spend all day at the lake so the time between rides might be an hour or two at the most. Early in the season I might stop after 4 passes. I would rather have 4 good passes than just run scrappy passes when I am out of gas.

[Than_Bogan]

Rest is key. Practicing exhausted can mean going backwards in technique AND fitness.

I'll push some on any given day, maybe going back to opening pass to work endurance. But then rest and recover. Without rest, you're just breaking down muscle and not building it up.

[MrJones]

I have less mental energy than physical. For what I am trying to do, being focused and giving max effort is more important than skiing lots of sets. Probably a side affect of age and other responsibilities that override skiing...

[BRY]

For me it used to be that when I had the opportunity to ski balls I would ski as much as possible whenever possible even when my body says stop. Only got to ski buoys on weekends and not always regularly. Younger then and longer lines/slower speeds so body could go much longer. Now have easy access to course so 1 set, 8-10 passes, 5 days on, 1 day off. In season sometimes do two sets but 6-8 passes there and take next day off. Seems to work really well. All good through 35 but working on 38 makes me feel it.

[Texas6]

Pushed the wrong button - I ski buoys until my body tells me to stop. I ski two sets on occasion on the weekends, but one set a day is my norm. I am 42 years old, and usually ski around 4-6 sets a week one way or another during the warm months. But when my body starts to ache, and everything is sore, I take a day off or I just drive my ski buddy and try to resist the urge for a day. Business travel oftentimes provides my body with a much needed break as well.

[6balls]

Life is short as is MN summer so I ski buoys at every opportunity. It's good that I don't have more opportunity b/c when I do I break down and ski progressively worse after a few consecutive days. My brother @razorskier1 is a piece of leather and doesn't tire. 28, 32 and 15 successful 35's may just happen on one of 4 sets in a day. Another might be twenty 32's. If the weather is nice the next day he's going for more and so on.

[disland]

Once I got past 52yo two slalom sets on the same day became pretty rare

[disland]

@6balls your brother is nuts

[Horton]

I want to leave California but MN seems way worse

[ALPJr]

With age, comes better communication between the mind and body, and hopefully common sense. An ideal training schedule for me would be 1 set, 3-4 days per week from April to October (including a fun relaxed free ski once a month), with 1 tourney weekend per month in June, July, August and Sept.

[Marco]

Since my back surgery 18 months ago, I typically ski between 6-8 sets over the course of 4 days, then a 3 day break. I'll ski less if I feel worn out. Last year I hung it up a month early (late September) because I was just worn out. Nothing good about getting old!

[lakeaustinskier]

Maybe another topic should be WHEN is everybody's trigger to stop skiing? For me its when I have a bad gate pull-out. As soon as I lose my "pop" on the pull-out I quit.

[lpskier]

In Florida, I ski two six pass sets two or three times a week, one set six to eight passes two or three days a week and no sets one or two days a week. I also go to the gym twice a week for 2.5 hours per trip.

 

In the summer in northern NY, I ski one 8-10 pass set four days a week and the go to a tournament, or just about every day if not a tournament week. Rain or wind picks the days off and there are enough of them to keep me rested.

[MrJones]

http://goo.gl/fDIQre

[Horton]

@MrJones

http://media.tumblr.com/fe497dd337d9af8479bb6398b9565d16/tumblr_inline_mg6n5ltl6X1rxe4lt.gif

 

[Ilivetoski]

It helps that I am 21, but I have skied 4-5 sets a day Thursday-Monday before (Dad travels Tuesday-Wednesday). If we have a tournament at our home site we normally put the boat in the water and I will ski 1 or 2 sets after the tournament or if its a site about an hour away we will come back and ski. Is it smart to ski that much? Probably not. But I just dont really ever want to stop skiing.

[Horton]

@Live2ski yes we were all young once.

[smalor]

First time getting pulled forward (broken) on offside is my signal to call it a day

[SkiJay]

There's definitely an inverse relationship between skiing quality and skiing quantity. But I believe you need to do both. Mixing up your approach to training breaks through mental patterns. Skiing lots improves familiarity and consistency. Skiing only a little but hard, pushes the limits of your ability. Mixing it up maximizes progress. For me, this means skiing myself limp for two or three days, fully recovering for a day or two, then a couple of days of one set as deep and hard as I can go.

[xrated]

I free ski and last year was the first year I would actually stop when I was shot. Maybe this year now that I can ski all week as well as weekends I will keep it up.

 

Or I will get back into the good condition I used to be and grab the rope and point all the way across the lake and tell the boat to go until I fall.

[thager]

@xrated So 20 feet then? :smiley:

[Razorskier1]

What is this tired thing of which you speak?

[gsm_peter]

I tend to overski a bit.

Especially early in the season.

Less when next ski occasion is near in the future.

More when I can not ski for some time.

 

Find it hard to over-ski too much.

 

[Alberto Soares]

I ski 2 sets/day, tuesday, thrusday, saturday and sunday, the other days I hit the gym or the mountain bike (all year long) I do feel tired sometimes, just can't stop... (51 years)

[Horton]

@Alberto Soares that is an awesome schedule

[gsm_peter]

@Horton

Thanks for this poll.

It helped me to wake up and changed my skiing habits.

So now I do stop in time.

I also slowed down the boat to run many full passes to get better training.

:)