Sunny Snowy September
Wow- What a busy two weeks this has been. My coach Shawn and I flew to Europe at the beginning of the month for a high intensity two week camp. It is always a big risk when you only come for two weeks, as at this time of year, you may only get two days of good weather and not a lot of skiing on the glacier.
I am pleased to say that we only lost two days to bad weather and have had sunshine and amazing snow for 95% of this camp.
The aim of this camp was to continue working on the technical side of my skiing and transition my progress from a freeskiing environment, to Giant Slalom (GS) and then into a Ski Cross course. We started with one week training in Saas fee, Switzerland along side the Canadian Ski Cross Team. We did lots of freeskiing and even more GS. The small amounts of Ski Cross that I did were almost like a reward at the end of the day. It was so great to be more or less 'with' the Canadian team, in particular after skiing where I would join in their dryland/gym/recovery sessions. It has been a few years since I have had female team mates so it was great to slot in with the best girls in the world for a while!
After a huge week in Saas Fee, I travelled to Gavirate, Italy for one night of R+R at the Australian Institute of Sport European Training Centre. I have visited the centre many ties over the winter months, but nothing compares to visiting in Summer/Autumn! There were other athletes around, it was 25 degrees and I even snuck in some physio (Thanks Judi!). After some training and treatment we set off for Stelvio Glacier, Italy.
Stelvio is a unique place. We stayed at 3200m above sea level and were training even higher than that. You are literally above the clouds. The focus shifted back to skiing pretty quickly at Stelvio, again with some Ski Cross head to head racing after volume sessions of freeskiing and GS. I really struggled at the high altitude towards the end of the week. Sleeping at altitude is tough (especially for a light sleeper like me!) and training all day at that altitude is tough too. I don't think I have ever been so tired on a ski camp before. Altitude aside, I had another week of awesome training with the Canadian and even some Ski Cross action with the German, Austrian and Italian Teams.
After Stelvio I visited the HEAD Ski Factory where I had my new boots fitted and picked up my new skis. The skis are now with Martin my Ski technician getting nourished for a fast winter!
I am now about to jump on a (very long) flight back to Sydney. I will resume training with John to prepare for the next block of training on snow in November- The most important one.... The pre-race Block! First World Cups are in December! I am looking forward to being back in Manly and an altitude I can sleep at. But most of all I am looking forward to a month of hard physical work!
Thank you for your continued Support :-)
Happy Skiing/Surfing,
Sami
