Turkey Time!

The Vail camp is finished, and to be perfectly honest I’m already salivating for some turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy! The ladies of the family are coming up for Thanksgiving in a few days; I can’t wait to have the whole family together again! The camp concluded on the 20th, and these last few days have found me hanging out, lifting, and schooling in Dillon with our family friends the Johns. I just realized while at the gym today that its been five weeks since I’ve had a serious leg workout, so put in my time under the squat rack and the cleaning pads this afternoon. It feels great to get the power muscles going again!

 
The Giant Slalom race the USST hosted at Vail didn’t go quite as well as I would have liked, but it was still a good experience and a confidence booster. I had a few mistakes in costly areas, but ended up decently placed amongst the field. I could have done much better, but sinced I’m skiing really well that's all that really matters. I had one more week of training in Vail after the race, and man it was a long one! The double sessions every day really took it out of me! Six hours of amazing four event training in the morning led to great bounds in performance, tired legs, and lots of afternoon naps. I’m really feeling fast right now and can’t wait for the NORAMS in Loveland and Aspen the 27th-30th. That said, I still have some turkey pounds to pack on before then! :-)

Colorado

So I am in Colorado for the whole month of November training in Summit and Eagle counties. I’m staying with the US team in a lavish hotel named Manor Vail right at the bottom of Gold Peak. I wake up every morning and walk 100 feet from the room to the bottom of the lift… how can you beat that??  The team injected the slope last week and the surface is about as good as I’ve seen. I think it’s helped my skiing a lot to get on a solid, icy surface that makes me work to hold an edge. It took me a little while to figure it out, but now I feel great on it. A good confidence builder for sure!


I’m really feeling good on my skis right now and am getting a lot of power in the top of the turn. “The move” that I have been working on the last 6 months is now automatic, but I still have to focus on giving my body room at the gate in order to get the full benefit. I’ve got this annoying tendency to pinch off the top of the turn and hammer the panels, (It feels way sweeter but it’s definitely not the fast line) so fixing that is one of my biggest focus points. There is a USST race next week in Vail for all the Team guys and a few selected invitees. It should be a fun race and hopefully a good points opportunity!