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!

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!

October

For the past couple of weeks I have been spending a lot of time in the gym, between fitness and physical therapy. Now is the time of year where we try to rest up and get as healthy as possible to go into the season fresh and injury free. I have spent a lot of my off season trying to get my back and hips ready for the winter, and I hope it pays off. Next week I have physical testing to see how much we have improved our fitness over the summer. I am excited to see the gains I have made, and then it is off to Colorado on November 1st. Here are some shots of me and my teammates I took with my GoPro in Chile.

Chile Camp

For the past two weeks I have been in La Parva, Chile. I was extremely excited to get on snow but wasn't sure how my previously injured back would react to skiing.

At first the pain was terrible. I could barely make a right footed turn with pain streaking down my back and right leg. For about a week I was really struggling to get some good training. After about 8 days of playing around with different stretches, exercises, and massages, my physical therapist finally found something that helped. All my pain was in the lower back, so at first (obviously) we paid all of our attention to the lower L4-L5 vertebra, and the muscles around the lower spine. When that wasn't working we moved up to the L2, and surprisingly, the tense-knotted muscles in the mid-upper back were causing all the problems.

After making headway, I had a very successful Chile camp and got some GS, SG, and DH training. Oh, and we got a sweet powder day, which I have some footage of. For now, here is a time lapse of a Chilean sunset with my GoPro.

August

This past month of August has had its up and downs. It started great with a productive on snow camp in Hood where we had 3 SL days and 3GS days. After the Hood camp I took a 3 day road trip around the Oregon Coast to go surfing and camping in the Tillamook Forest.

After that it was back to the gym for a 5 week fitness block. In week 2, my minor back problems took a turn for the worse. On one of our heavy lifting days I felt my back give in on a power clean, and all of a sudden it was a struggle to walk and even sitting down was uncomfortable. I saw a back specialist the next week to get some x-rays and an MRI. The doctor diagnosed me with 2 inflamed discs in my L4-L5 and L5-S1, and they found an old micro fracture in the lower spine as well.

Over the past 3 and a half weeks I have been getting Physical Therapy every day, and strengthening my core muscles to support my back. Surprisingly (to me too) my back feels great now and I am ready to get back on snow. I just arrived in Chile, and will be skiing tomorrow! This training camp is mostly Downhill and SG. Luckily the speed events are easier on the back then technical events.

Out on the lake with my friend and teammate Sam Dupratt

Hopefully in about a week I will have a video of full length DH on here. Maybe even a couple POV shots with my new GoPro!

Rope Swing!

Here is a video of me and a few friends hitting a rope swing in Oakley, Utah. GoPro hooked us up with  a few GoPros for a couple days and here is what we came up with. There is a few shots of our party barge in there too. Also, make sure you watch in HD... makes it way better. This is the first video of many to come! Enjoy. 

Summer Fun and Summer Snow

I posted my last blog at US national championships. I had hopes of going into the national event fully healed from my ankle injury, but unfortunately I could only race at 75%. My season then ended short. I headed back to Park City to get it checked out and get some physical therapy done on it. I got it healthy enough to get back on snow for the US Ski Team tryout camp in May at Mammoth Mt. California. I performed well enough there to get a promoted to the ‘C Team’.

As a member of the C Team, I am now required to live in Park City for the summer. Although we have been working out from 9AM to 3PM 6 days a week, my teammates and I have found some time for some fun. So far we have set some time aside for some rope swinging, wakeboarding, waterskiing, skateboarding, volleyball, mountain biking, and our big summer project so far… building a boat! Here are some pictures of our building process. 

 

After we finally got the boat together on land, we tossed it up onto my friend's truck the next day to get it on the water. It actually stayed floating way better than any of us thought it would. We got some carpet for the floor, a mini basketball hoop, 2 grills, and 22 people all on the boat before it started to sink. We got it out to a lake in Oakley, Utah that had a rope swing, and where we camped out for the night. 

It has been quite the summer so far between fitness and fun, but I am looking forward to getting back on snow this week at Mt Hood. Coming soon to my blog will be a video of some summer activities so far. For the end of the summer and all of next ski season, I will be traveling with a GoPro, provided by Wachusett Mountain. Hopefully I will be able to capture more skiing and other fun with the GoPro, and share my crazy lifestyle with you guys!