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!

Bad weather doesn't mean a bad day!

Yesterday we managed to set up some GS gates on 35. The visibility was poor and very high winds made another tough day training. With lifts stopping/breaking/closing frequently it meant the turn around for each run took much longer! In the end it was a matter of quality over quantity, I was lucky enough to get 3 runs in gates,  some had none! 

With the soft snow, I struggled on the new skis, but took positives from my runs - I was taking the right line and attacked. Next challenge is to nail the timing and transition.

The weather took a turn for the worst today as we woke up to heavy rain and low cloud, then told the glacier was shut. Luckily having seen the weather forecast, BSA had made arrangements to use the sports hall for a sprint session in the morning and basketball in the afternoon. Although I'd much rather be skiing, today was good fun!

GS for the week has now finished so we're moving onto the slalom skis tomorrow. Weather is looking a lot better so it should be good!

Photo courtesy of Jazzy Butcher: Me, Megs, Yaz and Abi tucking on the bridge on our walk to the lake.

Cloud moving down the valley: