BY Jill Young
A year ago I would have cringed at the thought of being a weekend warrior (no offense), but it’s safe to say I have changed. Being a weekend warrior means we have the best of both worlds; culture, action, adventure, good restaurants and hey, doesn’t hurt to be able to pay the bills! I have grown to love the challenge of fitting in as much fun as possible in those precious 64 hours I have between 5 pm on a Friday and getting back to work Monday morning. In the effort to maximize these hours and feel as physically exhausted as possible when the weekend ends, I think as weekend warriors, we actually end up doing more.
After a number of years enjoying life in the Whistler bubble, where skiing on your lunch breaks is a reality and skiing the resort on the weekends is often laughed at, I found myself packing up every piece of sports equipment in my extremely small and unpractical Honda Civic and driving down the Sea-To-Sky highway: en-route to a life as a weekend warrior. I now work all week, drooling over other people’s adventures on social media, while the other half of me tries to stay focused on redesigning supply chains in my MBA classroom in downtown Vancouver. Torn by my split-personality syndrome between a world of business and one of outdoor adventure, I knew I would have to figure out a few things to make the city life work for me.
Well, I’ve got it figured out. Not to sound like a weekend warrior snob, but I think if there was a weekend warrior Olympics I would qualify. It’s not always an easy task. Sometimes the last thing you want to do on a Friday afternoon is pack up your car and start driving in weekend warrior traffic. But don’t worry, I have this program dialed and I am willing to share my tricks. As fellow warriors we need to support each other in our search for the most eoic 64 hours every time Friday afternoon rolls around.
Here is a list of DO’s and DON’T’s of becoming a master weekend warrior:
- DO make a plan, or say ‘yes’ to anyone else who has made a plan. There is nothing worse than Friday rolling around and not having an adventure planned. That said, be flexible if said plan doesn’t go as planned.
- DO exercise during the week. You need to be able to keep up with your non-weekend warrior friends, or even better, pass those jerks. Sometimes no matter how many spin classes you do, it’s just really hard to keep up
- DO pack your car on Thursday night or Friday morning. It’s like a transition in a triathlon, you want the switch from work to adventure to be as seamless as possible, no gear left behind.
- DON’T show up to your friend’s house that your crashing at without beer. I often forget this rule, sorry Andre and Sarah.
- DO watch the weather and make your decisions accordingly. Touring on the Duffy, resort skiing, grabbing your bike when El Nino hits – you have a lot of options and sitting on the couch isn’t one of them!
- DO put your skins back on and get out there for one more lap. Because when Monday rolls around, you are going to regret it if your legs do not feel like jelly and your face isn’t red with wind burn. One more lap!
- DON’T go into the backcountry without your gear (beacon, shovel, probe) because you rushed away from the city so fast you forgot it. It’s not worth it, and you’ll look stupid.
- DON’T be a jerk to the other people in the lift line on a pow day. We all get powder anxiety. We’re all going to get to ski it. Let’s be honest, your legs will be tired in a couple of hours anyways.
- DO après. It’s the weekend.
- DO take a moment and realize that regardless of the weather, or the kind of day, you are so stoked and lucky to be the in the mountains!
- DO just stay the night on Sunday and drive home early Monday morning. Avoiding peak driving times is always a good idea and what’s the rush?
- DO snap some good photos so you can keep your Instagram on point throughout the week and make people think you are always on an adventure.
- DON’T be that guy that is only obsessed with getting good photos. You are there to ski.
- DO let everyone at work know you had an awesome weekend.
- DON’T remind them every hour that you had the best weekend ever and skied the sickest lines and the deepest pow! They will hate you.
- DO get out of bed, shake off that apres hangover and get outside!!
So here’s to us. Working our asses off all week and pushing it as hard as possible in those 64 hours. See you on the weekend!
