Monday, December 14, 2009

1st NORAM experience

I just finished my first race series of the season.  This was also my first NORAM level competition.  What a great way to start!  The week started with two official training runs.  I skied well, but was trying to figure out which tactics worked on different parts of the course.  When the race days came around I knew what I wanted to do, and executed my plan well everywhere but at one turn on a big break-over.  Gosh, that thing bugged me!  I still scored close to my downhill points, which is pretty good for this time of year against an international field.  The final race of the week was a Super G, on the same slope.  It's a totally different game than the Downhill due to only one hour for inspection and no training runs on the course.  I had a really strong run and scored 38 FIS points!  This is my best result ever in any event, so as you can imagine I'm pretty excited!  Next on the schedule is two slalom races at Jackson, WY, some Giant Slalom training, and a return to Canada for a tech series.  So far it's been a great start to the season and I'm planning on keeping the ball rolling!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Home and off again

I spent three days at home for the holidays and then headed up to Panorama, BC. It was great to be back on snow again! GS this morning started at 10, but the sun still had not crested the mountains by the time we got up there. Fortunately, being a Pacific Northwest skier, it was not the first time I had found myself in flat light. I was glad the snow was grippy. It is such a pleasant change from theshiny ice that predominated my last few weeks of training. in Colorado. Another positive thing was that my knee did not hurt at all! What a relief! I felt like I could really push the line more direct and use my strength to get myself out of trouble. That said I am still trying to get the touch back, but it is comming along nicely. Tomorrow I'm doing Super G for two hours in the morning, and Giant Slalom for a few runs in the afternoon. Looking forward to another sunny, 4 degree day!