The last week has seen some great training conditions, with fresh snowfall taking a break and cold conditions making for firm pistes to train on. It’s been awesome to vary the training hills also, as our lift passes cover 17 areas this week we went to Stoos, Andermatt, Stuckli and a place that I can’t spell but sounds like melt-ze-fruit!! Going quite hard out on Wednesday I straddled the last gate of a GS course, with one leg going around the gate and the other between the poles and under the flag. Initially I thought it was bad as my lower leg bloody hurt and I’d ripped through my salapettes Continue Reading...
Today I had my first race, sooner than expected but it was the Welsh championships, known for good points for rankings due to low numbers of racer entries… It was however cut short after the timing had broken and by the time it was replaced at 1 pm there was not enough daylight time to run the second run of the boys. It’s a shame, the races are usually run very efficiently and are a good atmosphere because lets be honest, noone expects fierce competition from the welsh at a wintersport. It’s ok though, I got the feeling of a raceday again which I wasn’t really expecting Continue Reading...
Tomorrow I will travel to central Switzerland for my base for the season, in the small town of Brunnen. Once again this Kiwi run team (WorldSkiConnection) is clearly the best choice for me, with coaches, training hills and a support system I know and trust well. Training hills close by include Andermatt and Stoos, well away from the most tourist tracks which makes for a great choice for training lane space. I am still not sure who my coach will be for the season, probably either Swissy Cedric Maret or Italian Pirmin Karbon who also coached me in Nz in the summer. The team stays in a hotel Continue Reading...
Every year I have the same difficult decision as to who to train with in the ‘northern season’ and this year’s more difficult than usual. With there not being many British run teams and the unrivalled wisdom that Europeans have of racing I always choose to train with a European run team. However with two of the teams I have trained with before evolving onto something else and my favourite WorldSkiConnection (Kiwi and Swiss run) either running too elite a program for my own needs or to basic I am looking for new options. Important for me is the cost, so I am looking at a couple of resort local Continue Reading...
It was amazing trainnig last week, with Bluebird days and a win in timing by 1.9 seconds. This weekend had the arrival of snow in Europe for the winter and in the last two days there is well over half a meter here in Tignes. This makes gate training impossible as it’s too much snow to ‘slip’ away and training in soft stuff makes knee injuries likely. So Power it is! What a Monday and Tuesday it has been. Yesterday we gave up on the lifts so skiied back home around the flat lake in Tignes, I tried a grind which was great for the first meter but I’m no Park monkey aye! Continue Reading...