Summer Training

It literally seemed like I was barely back home before I was packing bags again to leave for France. I joined some of the team in Les Houches for a few days of fitness training with Steve from Sterling Health and Fitness. We hiked into Switzerland to Barrage d'Emosson, went white water rafting and mountain biking. It was a valuable few days where I learnt a lot about where I was going wrong with my current training programme and adaptations I make to make it better.

 

Me and Amber taking delivering a core workout

Due to the poor conditions in Tignes there was a change of plan and we ended up skiing in Les Deux Alpes for 2 weeks. I've never seen the glacier looking in such bad condition, yet we were incredibly lucky and the conditions for skiing were awesome. We only lost one day due to poor weather. Despite such a long time off skis and not doing my usual summer gym training. I was feeling good on my skis and was putting together good turns especially in GS. This was my first camp with different coaches, although the 'Canadian invasion' isn't kicking off until October it was refreshing to have some change and I really enjoyed it. It was good to have kids from BSA on the camp too as we finished the fortnight with a mixed team event. The FIS team took the 'fancy dress' a lot more seriously than the younger guys and we went with a Pants and Pigtails theme! We had plenty of strange looks that day and lots of people asking for selfies!

The FIS team the moved over to Zermatt to finish off the camp. I've never been before but now it's definitely one of my favourite glaciers. Snow was awesome and training was really good. Disappointing that we lost 2 of our 5 days to weather. But the 3 days we had were really high quality and it was really cool to train alongside Swiss, Canadian, Austrian and Croatian national teams - we were in good company! 

It's been a really intense few weeks but I've got a lot out of it. I don't feel like my time spent off travelling has caused me any major set backs I think it may have been beneficial to take a little time off. I'll now be working as a coach for the British Ski Academy dry slope camp at Norfolk for the last week of August! and I've now got time to prepare for university. I'm really happy to have been awarded a sports scholarship at university of Manchester. I'm now trying to figure out potential flexible training arrangements for the beginning of the season. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you

After a well needed break back at home, I had a pretty good intense training block of slalom and giant slalom in Hinterstoder, Austria. It was then time to go to Bormio for the English Alpine Championships. Bormio is definitely one of my favourite places to race, the weather is almost always perfect and the hills are great for racing!

Hinterstoder

The races didn't go too badly, I think it took me a while to get into it. I didn't feel hugely race ready, its not something I've experienced so far into the season before but I think I managed well. In the first slalom I put down an average first run full of mistakes, but followed it up with a pretty fast second run. I need to find the right mindset to nail it on the first run next time! Then came my first GS start of the season, and it didn't go to plan. I wasn't confident enough and a huge mistake on the flat meant I didn't finish the first run.

Bormio FIS GS

The Super G in Bormio is always great fun. I don't ski a lot of speed, but it is probably my favourite Super G. Despite not being on my skis since October and not had a proper Super G run in gates since February last year. I was feeling pretty good and confident. I was happy with my performance, I would have liked to have been a bit closer to the leader but I skied to my points in the first, and scored points in the second - can't argue with a personal best!

I got a second attempt at the GS a day later in the NJR races, I think skiing the Super G made a big difference. I was happy with my performance, although I didn't make points I'm now definitely ready to get some more GS races under my belt. 6 races in 5 days is a pretty intense programme, I finished the week with another slalom race, on a pretty strange hill but came away with a personal best score in slalom which I was pleased with and I know there is room for more :)

Chamonix Valley

After Bormio I returned to Les Houches. I decided to leave my team in Austria. I wasn't happy and wasn't sure things were working out. I think its hard to perform your best when you are in an environment you aren't happy and comfortable in. I think I made the right decision and hopefully things will get a lot better towards the end of the season. I'm now back training with Ali at the British Ski Academy and things are working out well. I've got 3 races lined up for the end of this week (providing snow conditions are good) 1 slalom in Morzine and 2 GS races in Les Gets. Fingers crossed I can my head down and put in some good performances!

BIG NEWS

Quite a lot has happened in the last month! My focus has mainly been getting back to full health so I can return to training properly. 

Two weeks ago I went to Les Houches to see my old team mate Jazzy, I was meant to be easing myself back into training gently... But we decided to go hiking both days, each taking 5 hours each and climbing 1000m vertically each time! It was hard work and I was stronger than I thought so now I'm super motivated! It was weird going back to Les Houches in the summer and climbing up the pistes I'm usually racing down, and the views from Chamonix - Lac Blanc definitely made the effort worth it! 

As soon as I returned back to England I was working for BSA again at Norfolk Snowsports Club for the race camp before the All England Championships. I was with working the youngest group, most of them all too young to race in the championship but I look forward to seeing them race in the next few years! A huge well done to two of the boys who I've had great fun coaching when I've been at Norfolk Alex Ogden and Joseph Thompson who are now U10 and U12 English Champions! 

Now a BIG announcement to make!! Over the past few months people have been asking me what happened with the Jack Wills Extraordinary Young Brits award 2014. I am thrilled to announce I was a winner in the Endurance category!!! I've known for about 2 months and it's been so hard to keep it a secret!!!! This means I've won £5000 to help fund my winter season, and round the world travel next summer. I'm also extremely lucky to receive mentoring throughout the winter to help manage my season. It's a fantastic opportunity and I'm having so much fun! Over the last few months I've done photoshoots and interviews, and I will feature in Jack Wills stores from the 18th September! I would like to thank EVERYONE who has helped support by voting and sharing, I could not have done it without you! I'm now super excited to see how this winter goes and hopefully help raise the profile of British Ski Racing!

Here's a sneak peak at some of the behind the scenes pictures from my photoshoot! (Pictures were taken by the awesome Matt Holyoak!)

 

 

I've now started back fitness training and progress with my thumb recovery is going well. I've had my cast removed and I now have a removable splint. Fingers crossed I will be able to get back on skis at the end of October!

Will keep you updated!

Nia x

Back in Les Houches

There's not much snow in Les Houches at the moment. After arriving on Saturday we trained slalom gates on the Sunday on the bottom section of the World Cup hill. The snow was almost all artificial and we had to use the minibuses for the turn around as none of the lifts were open! Hard work but making the most of what we have. 

Monday, we went up the valley to Argentière to do some slalom free skiing, again most of the snow was artificial but it was refreshing to ski somewhere different to Les Houches. It was good just to cover the mileage on our skis and get some runs of drills in.

Today we went over to Italy to train in Courmayeur. The conditions were good enough to get out on the GS skis in the morning. I wasn't feeling particularly comfortable on them after the camp in Tignes. Now I've skied on them on hard packed snow I feel much happier.

Tomorrow we're running a couple of runs of slalom gates before we leave to go to San Pellegrino for 2 slalom races. So excited to get back into racing!! Fingers crossed conditions are good!

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