Within a short future I’m going to launch my new website ”NVC trip”. In short, it’s a website which combines two of my passions: endurance training and Nonviolent Communication. Once in a while I will write a blogpost. Today I participated in something I want to share.
Two of my friends, Kay and Liv, love cross country skiing. They live up north in Piteå 700 km from Stockholm and most winters they can easily participate in their passion. Me myself living in Stockholm, not so much the last winters. Last time I was skiing was actually two years ago while I was visiting them. Around Kay’s birthday every year the ski race Andörjan takes place. I wanted to celebrate Kay’s birthday and at the same time I know how much he enjoy to share this passion of him with others. So I told him I’ll join the race.
My favourite endurance training is running. It’s just to dress in suitable clothes, put on your running shoes and off you go. Easy and fun. Cross country skiing is not such an easy thing. It’s a project that includes preparing the skies according to the weather and the temperature, finding a good site with prepared tracks and bring yourself there. This winter in Stockholm with almost no snow has not offered many possibilities to go out skiing.
Preperation
So to be able to take part in the ski race and survive I decided to hit the skitrainer at my gym. In a month I exercised on this machine 15 times, starting with 6 minutes and ending with 30 minutes. And from Thursday to Saturday this week up in Piteå, we were out skiing a total distance of 24 km. You could not say I was prepared for a 40 km ski race and I had some anxiety the days and weeks before the race.
Before the race I thought I would be happy if I managed to complete the race at all and if I did it in four hours, it would be really great. The track was about 13 km and one should go for three turns. I was fortunate enough to be able to use Kay’s new pair of skies. The skies doesn’t need kickwax and you could set them up so you could get more or less grip. (I will certainly buy a pair of those skies in the future.)
The race actually went quite alright. After the first turn my watch showed 1:05 and I got some hope. I managed to complete the race in 3:18. That was a couple of minutes better than last time, four years ago when I was preparing for Vasaloppet (a 90 km skiing race).
Living my dream
I think this story is a perfect combination of what my NVC trip web site is all about. I want to go for my dreams, to accomplish things that will not manifest just by living my daily life. To be able to take part in a 40 km ski race and enjoy it, I need to prepare. Just like if I want to have better relationship with people around me, I need to work on my communication skills. If I just do what my impulses say or if I go for the easy way out (not the long term sustainable solutions), my brain would tell me to relax and put myself in front of the computer or say to people around me ”Fuck off and die” or maybe rather in my case ”I’m sorry, I’m a terrible person”.
I want to inspire people around me and those of you who read this blog, to be able to both work on your communication skills and create more juicy relations around you. To go for your dreams even if you don’t know if you are going to make it or not.
I hope you want to follow my journey towards my goals and at the same time follow your own dreams.
See you later!
Joachim Berrgren