A Wild Ride

Over the last two weeks I’ve had one of the craziest rides in my ski racing career. Here is a brief recap:

- Blow my back out on Thanksgiving, crawl into Howard Head Sports Medicine and Alpine Chiropractic
- Receive the Hail Mary of treatment from both places, able to ski 48 hours later in opening NorAms of the season with a back brace and mainlining Advil
- Write Sasha Rearick, Men's Head Coach USST, about using the nation spot for upcoming World Cup based on NorAm performance
- Sasha agrees, puts me in my first World Cup. I officially get inducted into the White Circus with my new haircut
- Ski well first day but not fast enough, get the nod for racing another WC
- Ski not quite as well second day, end up 40th position, was still lots of fun and totally awesome
- Put together a tentative plan with the USST for traveling to Europe in January to race Europa Cups and possibly more World Cups.
- Travel to Panorama like I planned to two weeks ago before any of this happened, except that my head is cold inside my helmet without any hair.

After the second race at Beaver Creek I spoke with Mike Day, Men’s Head WC Tech Coach, and we decided to continue to make the NorAm circuit the priority of the season and to fit in Europa Cups and hopefully more World Cups accordingly. I wasn’t jumping out of my chair to agree with him but I knew he was right; NorAms are the best way to get a better start position for any WCups later this year, which will only help my chances in qualifying for a second run.

Mike also told me that I am invited to travel to Europe with the USST team for the month of January to race in Europa Cups and whatever else. This is great news for me for a couple of different reasons. Most importantly, it alleviates the issue of getting into races while over there (USA is allowed up to 10 spots per race in a foreign country and especially in Europa Cups, which can be an issue when the entire USST is trying to compete in the same race. I will now have the maximum amount of opportunities to fit in these 10 spots).

Traveling with the Team also means that I don’t have to plan the logistics of the trip, allowing me to focus on skiing instead of lining up housing/training/meals while over there. The last couple of years I have battled both of these issues, and while I found it rewarding to overcome certain obstacles, there is no question that the experiences detracted from my focus on the racing component of my trip. I think it was in Europe last year where Adam Cole, my traveling buddy, and I unofficially changed our team name from Dream Team to Team Shitshow. I will miss not traveling with Adam, but will not miss yelling at my GPS to find a McDonalds to score free Internet to respond to emails abut training for the next day and to line up housing for the night.

About to head out to the race hill here at Panorama for some free skiing on the race hill. The snow looks good and the weather isn't sub-arctic so I'm pretty happy with things at the moment. Looking forward to an intense week of racing!

Show Time

Wow, what a weekend. Racing World Cups is fun. Lots of fun.

Since I got the call on Friday afternoon I didn't really sit down and relax until well after the race last night. From getting medical clearance (endless paperwork, a couple rounds of ImPACT baseline testing, a physical at the hospital, more paperwork) to getting my rookie hair cut (detailed by one of my perpetrators here), things seemed to be eating up any free time in my day. However, I'd been preparing for a moment like this for quite some time so there weren't a lot of complaints coming out of my mouth (except for the haircut design) and I was still able to find the time to focus on what mattered the most, skiing fast.

Once I got on the race hill things really zeroed in and it was exciting to be around such a high level of focus. During inspection the USST coaches gave me some great pointers on the course (pretty much to not back dow and pin the hell out everything). Because of a scheduling change inspection got moved and shortened so I didn't have as much time as I wanted to look at the course, but I still brought away a great game plan for how I wanted to ski.

During warmup Peter Lange cycled around with me on the training courses and put me in a great mental state for the race. It's funny how good Peter is at doing this because he doesn't say a whole lot. We have simple conversations and keep the focus on the skiing. The guy is a freaking horse whisperer.

The start was pretty intense as well. For some reason my skis were measuring about one-half a millimeter over the legal stand height (50mm), meaning I had to remove some height or risk getting disqualified. The Nordica guys took care of the whole thing and allowed me to continue to warmup, so this wasn't too much of an issue for me (I told you WCs were sweet!). However, when I was taking my jacket and pants off I had more drama as one of my arm guards fell out of my new USST jacket on the chairlift ride up to the start, meaning my arms were gonna hurt like hell when I got to the finish. This actually stressed me out a little bit, until Mr. Horse Whisperer himself pulled out what has to be one of the greatest audibles of my ski racing career. Cut from a 5-gallon bucket were two plastics shims that he had made for his 12-year old son, Colby Lange, to use as arm guards. Peter turned what could have been a derailing moment into a hilarious one as we were reading the hazardous waste warnings on my new arm guards as I was fitting them under my suit. None of that stuff ended up detracting from focusing on the race, and I credit the great crew I had around me for making that happen.

The organizers had the racers starting at 40 second intervals with no stops after bib 30 so there wasn't much time to get nervous or worry about anything but the skiing. I came out of the gate charging and after making it past the second gate (which I thought was one of the hardest on the course) I relaxed and tried to let it run as best I could. I largely stuck to the game plan except on the last pitch where I was having a hard time getting off my ski at the end of the turn and ended up scrubbing some speed to get to the next gate. I came through the finish pretty happy with my run but had no idea how it would stack up against the field.

I found out immediately when I heard a huge cheer/groan from the crowd as I was coming to a stop. That can really only mean one thing, that I went fast but not fast enough. Sure enough I finished the run in 31st, one spot out of qualifying for the second run. From starting bib 58 that is something to be proud of but it was also painfully disappointing to be one spot away from accomplishing a huge career goal of mine. The splits confirmed what I had felt on the course, that I skied well up top and that most the time I gave up was on the bottom of the course.

The disapointment never really left all day but it certainly got distracted as I got a lot of congratulations for my performance from a lot of friends who were at the race. A big shout out goes out to Tavis Moonan, a teammate from the Williams Ski Team and good friend, who was on hand at the race after buying a ticket from NYC on Friday to come out to the race once he saw that I was competing. That's the kinds of support that one dreams of having, and I can honestly say it gave me the confidence to ski as fast as I could.

Also, a big congrats to Leif Kristian Haugen, Team Leever member, and Super Wiking. The guy crushed it in the race yesterday, coming down the first run into 3rd position from bib 27 before finishing 13th. That kind of performance is nothing short of inspiring, nice job Leif!

After the race ended Mike Day, the USST Men's SL/GS Head Coach, told me he was impressed with my performance and that I have a start for the next World Cup race happening back at Beaver Creek (a makeup race for Val D'Isere) on Tuesday. I am really excited to be getting another chance on the race hill and know that with a couple of adjustments that I can crack the top thirty. I'm much more at ease with the situation and don't have the first-time distractions to deal with, my head is fully shaved now and devoid of any artistic creations, and I'm ready to barrel down that course again. Thanks to everyone for all the support, it's unbelievable hearing from so many people. Let's hope the ride continues!

ITA Showdown: Nordic v. Alpine

A couple of weeks ago when combing my fellow ITA athletes' blogs I realized that I was not alone in my new digs in the Vail Valley. I have never crossed paths with another ITA athlete unless you count going to middle school with Nicole De Yong back in the day. Meeting Sylvan Ellefson, Vail hometown boy and nordic shredder, was kind of like meeting a relative you know you're supposed to know but don't remember in person. I knew about him but I didn't know him. Not that it mattered, we struck up a conversation quickly and started trading stories about our respective plans for the winter. Pretty soon we were comparing our community service programs, and I learned a lot about how and where I could best serve my new community on behalf of ITA.

I frequently meet Sylvan at the gym, as we work out at generally the same time every day. During these sessions I have realized a few consistent themes in our workouts and our different physical, um, capabilities.

Sylvan and his nordic friends are better than I (and likely as an extension most alpine skiers) at:
- all things aerobic
- any ab workout
- arm/shoulder workouts
- turning a recovery workout into an extremely painful experience
- did I mention the ab workouts?

I have them in:
- jumping

I wasn't harboring any illusions that I would be able to hold a candle against a nordic skier in an aerobic exercise, but I was pretty surprised to see how many upper body sets they were putting into their routines. I would be doing an ab routine which I thought was pretty hard, only to look over and see Sylvan's group doing essentially the same exercise, only with a weight belt. I felt like I was in a gym full of skinny meat heads with the number of dumbbells that were flying around. Luckily there was a plyometric power output measuring machine in the room allowing me to salvage some dignity. Not that we were competing or anything.

Long story short: alpine skiers can jump high, and not much else.

Pulleys attach to the vest for added weight, we had it at 110lbs. Sylvan getting ready to jump.

Getting a foot of air never felt so difficult

Nothing says fun like double peace signs!

The Wiking Inwasion

This weekend a couple of Norse skiers descended upon Loveland to train with Team Leever and myself. The training surface in Loveland has continued to impress and has remained rock hard, allowing for a serious spike in intensity when college boy turned World Cup master Leif Kristian Haugen showed up, fresh off his race in Sölden last week. Another Team Leever staple, Andreas Haug, was in attendance as was Norwegian wunderkind and DU freshman Espen Lysdahl.

English is the language of choice when it's just Haug and I, even if I make fun of him for not pronouncing his "V's" correctly (he's nice enough not to mention that I can't speak any Norwegian). However when I'm sitting on a chairlift with 3 wikings and they choose to speak in their native tongue I'm better off just putting my head down or laughing when I think one of them has made a joke. After a while they would usually take pity on me and go back to English. Nice guys.

Back to skiing, it's always good to train with better skiers as they act as a marker against how awesome you think you are. Nothing makes a skier focus in training like the fear of getting blown out by a training partner. Leif set the tone for the weekend on the first run by shedding all of his training clothing and ripping in his race suit. The intensity changed immediately as I realized that if I wanted to stay with him I'd have to go "full strip" to have any accurate comparison of my skiing. Everyone else in the group got into it and by the 2nd run we were all down to just our race suits.

The weekend ended up being a success, I skied well and even posted some top times. It was great to validate what I have been working on the summer and this fall training block. It was also helpful to hear from some top level skiers what they were working on and what they though was going to make them faster this season. Leif's answer: intensity.

Peter, Espen, Andreas, me, Leif, Dan

A Good Road Trip: Touchdown Jesus and Blizzaks

Wow. I'm exhausted.

I arrived today in Vail, CO, fresh off a 3000 road trip that originated in DC and took me through New England before bringing me out West. I haven't done a cross country trip since I headed out to college in the fall of 2004. That time I was accompanied by my best friend and former supercoach Lionel Yarmon, and we had a great time passing through the Lower 48 en route to Massachussetts. We made a rule to play golf at least once every day, and then changed it to playing golf in every state. This time it was a little different. I was by myself and in full hammer mode, at least most of the time. The trip was a success, I arrived safe and sound, but I still made time to have a couple of fun experiences along the way.

About halfway into the State of Ohio I realized that I would need snow tires once I got to Colorado. My Passat has really nice performance summer tires (from the previous owner) but they are horrible in the snow. I was able to make it through last spring without too many slide outs but even then it was pretty sketchy, and trying to make it through a whole winter without proper tires isn't a possibility. So with lots and lots (and lots) of time on my hands I began trying to figure out the best way (read: cheapest) way to get the best snow tires with the least amount of hassle. Fast forward an hour later and I'm calling my older brother Nicholas to ask him to look up Craigslist in every major town I was passing through. About this time I started passing some of those massive distribution buildings for companies that only exist in the Midwest, and a light bulb went off in my head. I had him bag the ridiculous task of meta searching Craigslist (only a brother would do this) and instead asked him to look up headquarters of online tire stores. Bingo. Tirerack.com's WHQ is located in South Bend, Indiana. As it turned out I was able to pick up tires at the factory store, thereby getting internet prices on tires without the cost of shipping! Let your imagination run wild with how many high fives I was giving myself at this point. At 2am I pulled into the Super 8 located a half mile away from Tirerack.com's warehouse, ready to score some sweet Blizzak's at rock bottom prices.

The next morning at I showed up at the super warehouse ready to get my tire buying on. The only problem was that I wasn't the only person who had this ingenious idea, enough so that I had about an hour and a half wait. Time spent not driving is neither productive nor fun on a road trip, but I was able to turn this into a positive as Notre Dame was about 10 minutes away and having never been there I now had a chance to check out the place and even get in a workout. I took in the sites with a run around the unreal athletic complex, saw the golden dome, and said hi to Touchdown Jesus. I got a real kick out of the fact that the convocation and athletic center are in the same building next to the stadium. Church and football at Notre Dame are literally one. Anyway, after my Rudy reenactment I was back at Tirerack, picked up my tires and was on my way.

You just never know what is going to happen on a road trip and what is going to qualify as a successful day. I was also able to catch up with some of the crew of the DC BGC which was great, I miss those guys.Tomorrow morning I'm skiing at Loveland, a couple days of directed free skiing before hitting the gates. I'm super pumped on starting my final fall training block and almost as pumped to know that I'll be sporting some sweet shoes on my car along the way. Good to be out West!

Cold Days in the Wrong Ways

On Friday the summer heat in DC not only turned down but it turned off. The city was down right cold, in the 40s and 50s. I'm a lot happier when it is 20 degrees and I have a winter jacket on than when it is 45 and I am in a t-shirt. This morning I spoke with someone in Fairbanks, Alaska who told me it is 54 degrees there. At the time in DC is was 53. I can't think of a time I've ever heard of DC being colder than Alaska.

Colder temperatures usually bring good news (as I mentioned in my last post) because it means even colder temperatures in the mountains. Unfortunately Loveland, CO, the first training site of the year in the US, has a high today of 82 degrees. I am supposed to be strapping on boards and training at Loveland in exactly 2 weeks and I am a little skeptical about this actually happening. Nonetheless, I got an email from my coaches last night say full steam ahead, that Oct. 17 is still happening....we'll see.

In other news, this week of football was particularly exciting as my Cincinnati Bengals and Detroit Lions (hey, when you're from Alaska you can choose anybody) both won in thrilling fashion. The Bengals knocked off the previously undefeated Buffalo Bills while the Detroit Lions snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by mounting the largest comeback against Dallas in the history of the Cowboys. And, as a little schadenfreude icing on the cake the Boston Red Sox completed the largest September collapse ever September in what had to be my favorite channel changing baseball watching moment ever. What a week!

Here is a link to the alpine buyer's guide from Ski Racing. Happy October everyone!

End of Summer = Fall = Ski Season is Near

The end of the summer is officially here. Earlier this week the temperature in DC dropped to the low 60s and has dropped off considerably.

The summer in recap has been very fulfilling. Skiing in Italy/Switzerland and Chile were both very productive camps, I learned a lot about my new coaches and we are now on the same page with what needs to be done in my skiing this fall. I recently came back from my second trip to AK this summer (a rarity) allowing my time back home to be less hectic and more enjoyable. The BGC has been a great venue to work with again, the staff and of course the kids are high energy and are game for pretty much anything I throw at them.

DC has been a good home to me this past 5 or so months but it's time to start looking forward to the ski season and what it holds. Early reports are that the first training may be as early as October 17th in Loveland, CO. This is about 2 weeks earlier than I started last year so it has come as a bit of surprise but I am ready to strap on the boards and start making the final preps for the upcoming season. I need to do a final run to the Bat Cave (my storage unit in NH) to swap work clothes for more ski equipment before I head West.

It's ski swap time so if you are thinking about skiing this year and you don't want to get totally hammered on prices make sure to hit one up. There is almost always something you need that can be found at a swap. Here is a link to some in VT, enjoy!

http://www.skimaven.com/post/its-ski-swap-time-heres-the-updated-list-of-2011-vermont-ski-swaps/