Quick New Year Update!

Happy New Year!!

I arrived back in Les Houches on the 28th of December. New Year is one of the busiest weeks in Les Houches and at BSA so I was helping out coaching the minis and providing race support.

I managed to squeeze in some training on New Year's Day for the Scottish FIS night slaloms in Chamonix.

On the 5th and 6th of Jan, I helped out with the under 10s race support before heading off to Chamonix to race.  Very tiring but worth it. On the first day I DNF first run, I was really frustrated as I felt quite confident in training but was unable to put the confidence into my race runs. The second day was much better. I skied technically well but could have taken more risks. I still ended up scoring a personal best for my SL points. 

As soon as the children's races had finished I had the chance to go free skiing on my super G skis before 2 Super G races in Tignes. Originally I hadn't planned on skiing Super G at all this season. In previous seasons I hadn't had much training so my confidence was pretty low and I didn't want to buy new regulation skis. Last minute I changed my mind and luckily I managed to get hold of some skis. I'm glad I did, they're so much fun! 

The course in Tignes was short, fun and fast! The winner completed the course in under 50 seconds! The start had to be moved down due to the snow conditions. 

I loved the course and really enjoyed the race experience. Girls from the Canadian, French and Andorran teams were racing so the standard of competition was higher than I'm used to, it was great to watch. Added bonus, I scored my best 2 super G results - something I wasn't expecting! I'm looking forward to my next chance to do some speed races!

Now it's just time to get my head down and train hard during the week to prepare for the Welsh Alpine Championships and upcoming Citizen races! I'm still continuing to coach the under 10s and 12s on the weekends, it's hard work but I'm enjoying it!

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Last day in the gates..

The GS skis are unfortunately travel waxed and are ready to return home. So, onto the slalom skis it is! Having skied lots of slalom over the summer on indoor and on dry slope, I was feeling a lot more comfortable on the shorter skis. 

Yesterday I spent a lot of time working on my free skiing and experimenting with the transition and start of the turn. Towards the end of the morning we skied stubbies, the soft snow conditions meant the course rutted pretty quickly, adding the extra challenge. Taking positives from the day, I made some good changes to my line and attacked each run.

We finished off the day with another short sprint and bounding session down in the sports centre in Tignes. Having a head to head and relay race through an obstacle course involving hurdles, cones and boxes.

Today we again had beautiful conditions, however still slightly soft under foot. We moved onto full gates today. I managed to get in 7 full runs of 43 gates before lunch. Hard work but definitely worth it!

Tomorrow we're aiming to cram in some slalom free skiing, before a number of us fly home. I wish I was staying out to go to Les Deux Alpes, but I have to go back to work....

Now to start the packing....

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:

New season, new skis

After a long journey yesterday (with a lot of kit!)

we finally made it to Tignes in the sunshine. A quick look at the weather forecast for today, we were praying the sun would stay and the temperatures to drop.... Unfortunately that didn't happen. 

This morning visibility was pretty poor, and there was a couple of inches of soft snow underfoot. As me and 2 other

skiers in the girls group today were moving onto the new regulation skis, we went back to the basics and tried to get a feel to the added length and longer radius. It definitely took a few runs of slow drills to get the balance right, we all found the new skis to be pretty unforgiving if you made a mistake at the top of the turn. They're hard work to lay over in the soft snow but I found once I carved out turns on the flat they're extremely stable and fast at high speeds. I can't wait to try them out on a hard piste!

Unfortunately the day was cut short slightly as the wind and the snow picked up so the lifts had to close. We were greeted by torrential rain as we got off the funicular so fingers crossed this weather passes!

Just light stretching and ski prep planned for this evening, then looking forward to what tomorrow has to bring!

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