Summer Training in Tignes

It's been a long while since I last posted, so here's a brief update on what I've been up to!

Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who voted for me in the Jack Wills Young Brits Award 2014, I've made it to the Semi Finals - the final 10! I will keep you all updated with how it goes from here! I would also like to give a huge thanks to Bounce Balls UK who are continuing to support me for this next season. Keeping energy levels up while training is really important and eating the right things while training makes a huge difference! High protein and natural foods are the way forward and the new Mint and Cacao flavour are delicious - I have a new favourite, check them out!!

Most of my time has been spent focusing on my fitness preparation for the winter season. At the moment my training is a mixture of weight training in the gym, sprints, speed and jumping, supplemented with cycling and balance/core exercises. 

(Completing a 110km bike ride with Jazzy Butcher)

I've just returned from 10 days glacier training in Tignes. This was with Motion Team, the new ski team I will be training with this winter. We'll be based in Innerkrems in Austria. It will be a big change for me after skiing with the British Ski Academy for so many years but I think it is time for a change and I'm really excited for this season!!

I've never done much skiing in July/August before so I was really excited to get back onto the skis earlier. In general the conditions were really good, there were only 2 days which we couldn't ski. On the days we did ski, we managed to do full mornings from 7.30-12.30 averaging 20+ runs a day and managing to split the morning between slalom and GSq. The camp was entirely focused on technical work so most of the time was spent perfecting drills and trying out new things. As I normally start skiing again in October, I usually miss this phase of the season of concentrating on technique. I'm really happy with the work I've done over the last 10 days so hopefully it will put me in a better position this winter.

Every afternoon we did dryland fitness training. Luckily in Tignes the facilities are amazing so you have so many options for training, and can mix it up a bit to keep it fun! We managed to go Kayaking, swimming, badminton, use AstroTurf for speed and agility training, and have the use the gym.

Practising Sprints!

Chilled walk round a lake with the team

(Strength training - the gym was great!)

Unfortunately I had to cut my training short. I finally have the surgery to repair my thumb on the 1st August so had to return home. After having the injury for almost 6 years I'm looking forward to having a pain free, fully functioning hand! Unfortunately due to the slight change to the surgery I am having and the risks surrounding it I will be unable to ski or do any real sport involving my hand for 3 months. I am gutted that this means any training I had originally planned to do up to November has had to be cancelled. I'm hoping that I will still be able to continue fitness training involving sprints, leg strength core and agility. I'm really happy with the progress I have made on my fitness this summer and really don't want to lose it. So let's just hope the surgery and recovery go to plan!

I'll keep you updated with how everything goes! Thanks for all of the support and encouragement!

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