Thoughts on January

Alright, I am going to be honest with you guys. January was not the most stellar month for me. As far as racing went, it felt like a divine power was just reaching down and adding a second or two to the clock every time I finished a run. Rewind to November and December where GS was my supremely confident discipline, finishing 13th for my best Nor-Am result to date. In this past month it had become a struggle to find any speed in the event what so ever, hardly finding top 10 at an E-Cup! (I actually don’t think I even found that…) What happened then? Speed just doesn’t disappear. It’s got to be mental then.

I have been focusing a lot on my technique, trying to make adjustments here and there and have been getting a lot of feedback from lots of people. Too many people I think. My head is a cluster of information on what to do and what not to do and all the while I forget what is most important. The speed. I understand that my technique needs to be stronger but I’ve been so focused on it, that I lost the idea of pushing myself, so I lost the competitive edge. Just struggles of the average ski racer I suppose.

First step, is admitting you have a problem! Right? Haha, fast forward to now.

I trained slalom at Echo mountain, (which is just outside of Denver), two days ago with GMVS and the BC Canadian provincial team. My SL has not been so bad this month actually. I got my first Carnival podium at Stowe and at the next University race I attended at Sugarloaf Maine, I was only +0.01 at the top split before getting caught up in a hairpin and ejected from the course. Besides finishing 50th that run I was 6th at the top split on the second run before getting ejected yet again. This time for good. I received a lot of polite comments on how well I was skiing though for which I am extremely grateful. It is a serious bummer to DNF a race, but to know you are skiing well, it takes a bit of the salt from the wound.

Well, slalom feels pretty good anyhow so I moved on to GS to try to find some of that speed again. I trained with Denver University yesterday at Loveland which was great. (Thank you guys!!!) But I still did not feel really, super awesome, so I opted out of the rest day today before my race tomorrow and searched around for some more GS training, eventually contacting Burke Mountain Academy and hitching on their plan for the day. (Thank you guys as well!) Even though it was dumping snow, very cold, and windy beyond reason at times, I am still extremely glad I went up today. It may not have been “super awesome” but it did wonders and I finally felt that I found some of my speed again.

That speed will be tested tomorrow as we enter into the last Nor-Am tech series before the finals. And guess what?! I am still in the seed, (top 15), for Giant-Slalom!! I was concerned that I had got knocked out of it after my last Nor-Am GS where I DNFed and my overall ranking moved from 18th to 27th. Tomorrow however, I start #9 and I am looking forward to jumping up in the rankings again with a solid performance, full of great tactic’s and SPEED!

Assuming you’ve read this long, good job! I probably would have stopped much earlier myself… Here are some pictures to reward you.