After 17 years of high performance sports, Curdin Perl has decided to end his active career. The Grisons athlete looks back on his successful years, where he participated twice in the Olympic Games and came fourth in the Tour de Ski.

For many years, your training determined your daily, weekly and yearly rhythm. What does your life look like today?

At present, my everyday life doesn’t really look that much different. Yes, maybe I no longer train quite as intensively, but I still do at least one unit a day, and my weekends are still filled with recreational cross-country ski runs. Apart from that, I am in the process of laying the foundation stone for my future career. That also takes up time. 

What would you do differently if you could turn back time?

I would have started listening to myself much earlier on. In retrospect, I allowed myself to be dictated to by other people for much too long about what I should or should not do.

In November, you climbed the Piz Palü with cross-country skis. Can you tell us more about this experience? 

The idea came about because I was (once again) on the search for sponsors. A 24-hour sponsored run was originally planned. However, the idea was picked up upon and gradually developed into the Palü Project. It was a very exciting and instructive experience for me. The project took up the whole of last spring and there were quite a lot of unpredictable components, such as the weather, conditions on the mountain, and so on, which could only be assessed on the day. 

To start with, many people didn’t really like the project because they neither knew anything about mountaineering, nor could they imagine what it meant to pull off such an ascent with cross-country skis. The end result fortunately turned out very well and reached a broad public audience. The première of the film in Pontresina was surprisingly attended by more than 300 people. I was happy and incredibly relieved when the whole thing turned out to be a success.

In March, you will be taking part in the Engadine Ski Marathon. What are your most important preparation tips for amateur cross-country skiers? And which ones do you have for the race?

My tips for the preparation:

• 2.
  Cross-country skiers are made in the summer! So, start early on with a solid structure and a lot of basic training. The foundation is essential!
• 4.
  Vary the intensity. Time and again I come across ambitious amateur athletes who always seem to train at the same level of intensity. In the longer term, however, you can achieve much more if you vary the intensity. But there are no general rules on this topic. The training plan needs to be individually adapted to fitness level of each athlete. 
• 6.
  Don’t travel to the Engadine Ski Marathon on Friday! If you don’t namely live at 1800 meters above sea level, your body will then find itself at the highest level of the acclimatisation phase on Sunday and is not 100% ready to perform. 

My tips for the race:

• 2.
  Don’t start too fast! I know it sounds trite, but especially at the Engadine Ski Marathon it is tempting to start too quickly. 
• 4.
  Try to ski smart! Take advantage of the stretches where you can ski with little effort. Set aside some power reserves for the section from Zuoz - S-chanf. Many already get into the red zone there.
• 6.
  Enjoy it! The most beautiful race in the world’s most beautiful valley!

In future, you will be passing on your knowledge to amateur skiers. In your eyes, what are the keys to success?

The most important thing is to enjoy doing what you do! In my opinion, nothing works with a crowbar. I would like to show my customers that small changes to their everyday training and training habits can achieve a lot. And above all, I would like to embolden them to listen to themselves and perhaps even take a new and unconventional path. (Detailed information on my training courses is available here)

Do you have a secret tip you would be willing to share with us? A training, nutrition, or recovery tip, for example.

Last summer, I consciously started to limit my consumption of dairy products. For me, personally, the associated physical changes were striking. I can only recommend that you try it.

Foto: ZVG