This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Alex Hall, an American freestyle skier and two-time Olympic medalist. He spoke with Business Insider as part of his partnership with Rao’s Homemade. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
I was born in Alaska, but grew up in Zurich. I started skiing when I was 3, and began freeskiiing by 10.
When I was 15, I moved to Utah after being accepted to Park City Winter Sports School, and I’ve been based in Salt Lake City ever since.
These days, I’m rarely in one place for long, since I spend most of the year traveling around the world for training camps and competitions.
Here’s what a typical training day looks like.
I usually wake up at around 7 a.m.
I’m definitely an alarm guy, but I don’t hit snooze. I stop my alarm and get my day going.
It’s funny, even on days when I can sleep in, I still have to set an alarm. I’m not someone who can sleep that much anyway, but I don’t like the idea of sleeping through the day. If I don’t set one, I feel weird going to bed.
I try not to stay on my phone for too long in bed and waste time. I’m pretty good about not spending a crazy amount of time on social media, so I’ll quickly reply to some texts right when I get up, and maybe watch one or two videos. After that, I get my day going.
For breakfast, my teammates and I rotate cooking duties
There are eight guys on my freeski team, and two of us make food for everyone each morning. If it’s your turn to make breakfast, you’re up about half an hour earlier than the rest of the group.
The pairing is mostly random, but there’s a little strategy involved. We try to match someone who’s good at cooking with someone who’s not. We avoid putting two bad cooks together because then we know the meal won’t be great.
Usually, we’ll make a big scramble with veggies, eggs, and bacon. I typically have a bowl of cereal on top of that, and then some orange juice.
I’m not a huge breakfast person, so I kind of have to force it down. I’m pretty tired in the morning.
We get all our gear together and hit the slopes around 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.
After warming up, we’ll ski pretty much all day from about 10 a.m. until 3 or 4 p.m.
I’m the guy who doesn’t pay to get service when I’m traveling outside the US. I don’t have an international plan, so my phone only works when I have WiFi. That means once I leave the house in the morning, I’m basically offline for the rest of the day until the evening.
It can be a little annoying for someone back home who’s trying to reach me, but for the most part, it’s pretty nice.
Some people ski with their phones in their pockets to listen to music or check messages between their runs. I just leave mine in my backpack so I don’t get distracted.
I don’t usually eat a full lunch
If I’m training really hard and then sit down for half an hour to eat a full meal, I find it hard to get motivated again in the afternoon. I’d rather keep the momentum going.
Usually, I’ll just take a five-minute break, drink a bunch of water, and have two granola bars. Sometimes I’ll pack a sandwich and eat it fast, then get right back out there. I’d rather finish a little earlier than take a long lunch and struggle to warm up again after having a big meal.
When we’re done skiing, we head back down for a video review. We watch clips of our tricks and take notes on where we can improve.
After that, we do a short recovery session with stretching, some time on the spin bike, and a bit of core work. It’s usually no more than an hour.
If the weather’s nice and we still have some energy, we’ll stay outside a bit longer
Depending on where we are, we’ll play a game, kick a soccer ball, or throw a football around in the evening.
After that, it’s dinner time. Just like breakfast, two people are in charge of cooking, and we rotate through. I try not to eat too much of it, but I do love dessert, especially chocolate or ice cream.
We’ll take some time in the evening to relax, like watch TV or just hang out before bed.
I also use this time to complete my coursework. I major in environmental and sustainability studies at the University of Utah, and my classes are online since I travel so much.
I only take one or two classes at a time, so it’s not every evening — usually it’s every other evening. I’ll do a half hour or an hour, depending on what I have to get done.
There’ve been times when I’ve stayed up an extra hour or two the night before a competition to finish an assignment. But that’s on me for procrastinating.
I try to go to sleep around 11 p.m. and avoid staying up past midnight if I can
I like sleeping with the window open because I hate being too warm.
I get about seven to eight hours of sleep every night, and a bad night’s sleep can really affect my day.
I don’t drink coffee or caffeine, so if I don’t sleep much, I definitely feel it in the morning, though I usually shake it off after a couple of hours. If it’s been a long week of training, bad sleep can sometimes make me feel less motivated.
I usually fall asleep easily. It’s more like I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes. Lately, I’ve been traveling with my own pillow more often, based on a suggestion from some of my teammates.
If there’s space in my suitcase, I’ll smash a pillow in there — and it usually helps.
I’m pretty lucky that I love what I do. If I’m having doubts or a down day, I think about the fact that I get to do this surrounded by great people, and that so many others would be happy to be in my position. Staying thankful, even on bad days, usually helps.
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