Monday, October 1, 2012

Off Season


Hey guys, I just finished up my first camp of the year. That means winter is around the corner and I am starting up my blog again!

My 2012 season did not go completely as planed, but I ended it on a strong note cutting my speed points in half. Right after the season ended I went to Mammoth Mountain in California to test out the new GS skis (35 Meter Radius). At first they were difficult to turn but I don’t think they are going to make a huge difference in the future of ski racing, like some said would happen.

Earlier Last season one of the US Team doctors noticed my left ankle was extremely unstable and weak, which was causing my ankle to constantly roll over. It also explained why I couldn’t flex my left boot all the way. So, immediately after Mammoth (literally the day after) I got ankle ligament reconstruction surgery.  It was a struggle spending a lot of my summer on the couch, but I knew it would pay off in the end.

I started my Physical Therapy in Park City, Utah at the US Ski Team’s Center of Excellence. Whenever someone on the US team gets a surgery or gets injured in any sort of way, they have access to this facility. Some of the nations best physical therapists and doctors are there 6 days a week and are completely devoted to helping the athlete get back on snow at 100% health.

After spending all of May and June on crutches, and then committing 6 days of the week to physical therapy in July, I was finally cleared to start working out.  At home I began working out at Crossfit Wachusett in Fitchburg, MA, and continued Physical therapy 3 days a week in Waltham, MA.  One of my coaches from Stratton Mountain School now owns Crossfit Wachusett, and I go workout with him about 4-5 days a week (when I am home).



Finally, on September 12th, I left for La Parva Ski Resort, Chile. Though the snow was minimal, La Parva was willing to stay open for just the US C and D teams, the British National Team, part of the Canadian National team, and the US Western Region Development Team. When we go down to South America, we like to spend most of our time training speed, but because I was not able to ski over the summer, I trained almost all GS and Slalom (which actually turned out to be really good for me).

Now I am back home and I will continue with my workouts at Crossfit Wa-Wa, and keep up with my physical therapy, as my ankle is technically not supposed to be 100% until 6 Months Post-Op. Next on the schedule is Physical Testing in Park City at the end of Oct. and then Right into ski season in Colorado on November 1st.


Saturday, April 28, 2012

Season Ends

After a long Nor-Am season starting from the back of the pack, I finally got to start in the top seed for my spring series races. In the past month I skied at Winter Park, CO for US Nationals, Breckenridge, CO, Mission Ridge, WA, and Bachelor, OR for my final speed series of the year.

Nationals did not go as planned, but it was sunny and 50 degrees the whole time... can't complain about that. In the Super-G, I had a little mistake at the top of the course, and then went a little too straight down bottom and missed a gate. In the GS I hit a rut that flipped me sideways and fell past the next gate. And then in the slalom I had major struggles the entire way down the first run but set myself up really well to have a good second run and then blew it again.

After Nationals it was time for spring series, which are always the most fun races of the year. In Mission Ridge I posted 2 overall podiums and 4, Junior podiums. In Bachelor I ended up scoring FIS results in every race. I scored my 2 best super-g's and 2 best downhill's (by far). Though I didn't improve my points as much as I wanted to this season, I feel that I improved my skiing technically more than I ever have in a year.

This year was the most fun I have ever had in a ski season, and I would like to thank everyone who helped make it possible. I have been asked back to join the US Ski team for another summer of training, and I find out if I will be named to the team again at the end of May! Now I have to start my dryland training to get ready for next season... as it starts in 2 weeks, May 9th!!!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Le Massif



Nor-Am Finals

Through the end of March, I have been racing in the Nor-Am finals series, or I was supposed to be racing Nor-Am finals. On the 13th and 14th, we had our first East Nor-Ams at Stowe, VT, 1 GS and 1 SL. I was really nice being back close to home and racing on a hill I have skied many times in the past. I had a good race in the GS placing jumping from bib 40 to 22nd, but then had a bobble in the second run that put back to 26th. In the Slalom, I straddled 10 gates from the finish in the first run. After Stowe we drove up to Le Massif, Quebec to do some Downhill and Super-G. Due to the extremely high temperatures of 70 degrees, we were unable to get any of the Speed races off. Though is was a bummer we couldn't race, we got to free ski all around the mountain in the sun for a week and ski some park! This season has been a blast so far and now I am heading out to Winter Park, CO for US Nationals and some Spring Series!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Aspen Downhill


Colorado

For the past few weeks I have been skiing Vail and Aspen in Colorado. At Vail I scored my first Nor-
Am Cup points of the season placing 24th and 26th in the GS races. In Aspen we had our first true speed series, racing 2 Super-Gs and 3 Downhills (one of the Downhills being the National Championship). Being from the East Coast, I have not gotten much 'Speed' experience, So it took me a while to get used to the challenging hill in Aspen. By the end of the Speed week, my best result was 31st in the U.S. National Championship.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Training Block

Now that it has stopped snowing 2 ft. per day here in Soelden, Austria, we can finally start training some gates. We are definitely lucky to have Soelden as a home base here in Europe, so we can train whenever we like. Yesterday we trained some slalom and today we trained some really sweet GS. It's been Bluebird 3 days in a row here in Soelden and I am getting super stoked for our races in a couple days.




Saturday, January 7, 2012

 Powder in Solden
Blue-bird in Oberjoch

Hello Europe

I flew into Munich just this past tuesday... and man has it been fun already. Right off the plane we drove to Oberjoch, Germany for 2 GS races with very competitive fields. Morning of the race we find out they are cancelled due to visibility issues and TOO MUCH SNOW. Instead of racing, we decided to get some training in at Solden, Austria. What do you know, there was 2 feet of fresh new snow on the ground. We made the decision of powder skiing last night when we got to our hotel, and when we woke up there was another foot on the ground with blue skies. We POW skied all day and now the legs are super tired... but it's snowing again and they are calling for another 6-12 inches tonight. Boom, here comes round 2!! So much for ski racing... 

How's the snow in the East Coast US?!

Monday, January 2, 2012

Cochrans Night Slalom

Break

After some tough races in Canada, and getting used to the new Nor-Am circuit, I was finally able to start in some races where I had decent bib numbers. I went to the Sugarloaf Eastern Cups to try and gain some confidence in my skiing, and it actually worked. After each slalom race run, I was improving by a half-second. After getting a podium in the last slalom there, I finally got a break from skiing and got to hang out with my family for the first time in a while. I am now heading out to Europe for some training and racing, where we will be spending most of our time in Austria and Germany. I will begin to post some video of my race runs when winter is in full swing!

Happy New Year!