By: Tazlina Mannix Salomon Athlete Force, APU Ski Team I hear my coaches say it time and time again, “ski racing is about fitness.” “We need to be the fittest people in the world,” and they’re right. Our sport is one of the most cardiovascularly and muscularly demanding endeavors possible, and there’s no doubt in my mind that fitness is the key to world class performance . We need strength, endurance, speed, coordination, and physical awareness. We race short distances and long, classic and skate, and on varying terrain and cannot reach the podium without an extremely high level of fitness. This physical challenge does not deter me in the slightest, but is rather a long-range goal, a lifestyle that I adopted many years back. And, while I understand that this is the main component of success in ski racing, I also know that the little, less significant aspects of being a cross-country ski racer are also critically important. I came to realize this about two months back. With fall ...