Friday, November 29, 2013

Loveland Nor-Ams


This past weekend were the Opening Nor-Ams at Loveland, CO.  I was lucky to have enough Nor-Am GS points from last year to put me into the top 15 seed in the World Cup field. Had I had 1 less point, I would have been starting 45. The first run went smoothly finishing in 19th place putting myself in a great position for the 2nd run flip 30. I was content with my first run, but I wanted to make a move to get into the top 15. I didn’t hold back at all second run, and luckily, it was clean as well. I carried all of my speed from the pitch to the bottom flats, and kept trying to build speed with every turn. With a 6th place on the second run, I came in 11th overall, scoring a 15-point result.  I was ecstatic to say the least. I feel accomplished by being right in there with top world cuppers such as Phillipp Schoerghofer, Marcel Mathis, and Davide Simoncelli. The Second day did not go as well with a fall on the first run. These first Nor-Ams always have the most stacked fields, and I am happy with where I stand, with my best Nor-Am start ever.

Here is a video of my 2nd place run at the Copper NJR last week. 




Thursday, November 21, 2013

NJR Series


Over the past two days I had my first GS and SL races at Copper Mountain. These races were NJRs, which means anyone under the age of 21 can enter. Monday was the GS and I drew bib #6.  I was training GS well over the past week and I knew I had a chance to throw one in there.  After first run I was sitting in second by just .02 seconds. My goal for second run was to just have a clean run and ski like I had been in training. I did just that with a little bobble midway down the course and finished the race in second place by .27 seconds. With my second place, I scored my second best FIS result ever with a 19. Tuesday was the SL, where I drew bib #4 (luckily). First run went ok, finishing in 7th place. Unfortunately, the snow was not holding up in the slalom very well due to the early season snowmaking. Despite the conditions, I just wanted to finish. For 90% of the run, I was executing my plan, but the gates began to stack up near the finish and caught me off guard. I fell on the third to last gate! It was an unfortunate end to the NJR series but I am now confident I can put together some fast runs. Now I am getting ready for this weekend’s Nor-Am’s at Loveland, Colorado. 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Week 2 in Copper

I have now been in Colorado for a week now. I have had 6 days of training and 4 races. Training is starting to go really well and I am making huge gains every day, which is pretty exciting. My first races however did not go that well. Saturday we had 2 Downhill races. I skied pretty descent in both of the runs, but for some reason I just couldn't find the speed, and as a result, I was sloooooow. Sunday we had 2 Super Combine's (1 Super-G run and 1 Slalom run). One SG run I fell and was unable to finish, while the second SG run went well and set me up to start 4th in the SL. The SL run went ok at best. I haven't been able to ski slalom since August because of my back problems, which left me at a disadvantage. Without any good results from the weekend, I am putting these races behind me and getting ready for the next ones! I now have a SG training block with some GS thrown in there as well!

Monday, November 4, 2013

Colorado Time!

After 6 months (on and off) living, and training in Park City, Utah, winter has finally come! We got to Copper Mountain on Saturday, and I will be living here for the next two months! It is a great setup here at Copper with the US Ski Team Speed Track right outside my window. Yesterday we free skied Super-G and GS and today we got some Super-G and GS training. Tomorrow we are up for some Downhill and GS. The surface is perfect for training and we keep getting more snow every night! So excited for winter!