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| Graduation (Heidi Left and Hannah Right) |
I've been very complacent when in comes to updating my blog. From April to July I spent a lot of time in the gym trying to increase my overall strength focussing particularly on my leg power and core. Alongside this I worked and caught up with friends.
On July 20th I headed back out to New Zealand for summer training and races. I arrived late, as I didn't want to miss both my sisters' graduating from University.
This left me only 9 days of training to prepare for the Wanaka Tech Series (1st-4th August) which I felt was adequate time to get back into the swing of things. We has some great days training both slalom and GS with early morning sessions requiring 5.15am wake ups (welcome to the gruelling side of ski racing although its totally worth it especially when you catch the incredible sunrise!). Following skiing everyday we have recovered at the gym or back at the lodge doing a combination of light spinning, gentle jogs, yoga and agility training - this included one fun afternoon of ladder drills with one eye blindfolded, which is surprisingly difficult as it alters your depth perception.
On July 20th I headed back out to New Zealand for summer training and races. I arrived late, as I didn't want to miss both my sisters' graduating from University.
This left me only 9 days of training to prepare for the Wanaka Tech Series (1st-4th August) which I felt was adequate time to get back into the swing of things. We has some great days training both slalom and GS with early morning sessions requiring 5.15am wake ups (welcome to the gruelling side of ski racing although its totally worth it especially when you catch the incredible sunrise!). Following skiing everyday we have recovered at the gym or back at the lodge doing a combination of light spinning, gentle jogs, yoga and agility training - this included one fun afternoon of ladder drills with one eye blindfolded, which is surprisingly difficult as it alters your depth perception.
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| Above and Below: two of the many incredible sunrises |
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| One of my roommates Maddie and I |
Much to my benefit the first set of races
were postponed until the 9th, giving me eight additional days of
training prior to my first races of the 2012/13 season.
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| Tori Ramona and I |
On August 6th I celebrated my 19th
birthday! We trained slalom in the morning in coincidentally out first day of
sun following a series of foggy days plagued with bad visibility. I personally
can’t think of a better way to spend my birthday. Later the girls went out to
‘Amigos’ for a Mexican dinner, where they surprised me with presents and a cake.
By the time the races approached I was
still feeling slightly unprepared and not as strong as I had felt at the end of
the northern hemisphere season at Easter. Having raced slalom at Cardrona three
times previously however, I was feeling fairly confident despite my usual nerves. On the
first day of slalom I scored an 86 – my personal best. Unfortunately I
straddled on my second run of day two. Regardless I was very happy with my
skiing and felt my confidence returning.
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| Cardrona Slalom - photo taken by Martin Barwood |
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| Tori and Tessa looking positive during second run inspection despite the foggy conditions |
Following two days of slalom at Cardrona we
moved onto Giant Slalom. The first day was not particularly successful result wise and my skiing was messy – on run one I misjudged the gate behind a roller
and had to throw my skis sideways in order to make it (accompanied by my usual squeal).
For this mistake I can only blame myself due to a poor inspection or lack of
concentration but all in all I feel my GS has come on leaps and bounds since
this time last year regardless of points and position. Day 2 we woke up to
severe fog; after a sketchy warm up in varying visibility run one commenced. I
finished in the top 30 however was not pleased at all with my skiing. This day
was a reminder that I need to work on my mental approach so that conditions do
not faze my attitude. Much to my relief run two was indeed cancelled as you
could barely make out the second gate from the start area.
Besides from skiing most afternoons we
managed to catch highlights of the majority of Olympic events – I personally
enjoyed watching GB’s successful performance in track cycling and also Tom
Daley winning a bronze medal!
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| Japanese FIS slalom |
This year the snow was lacking slightly in
comparison to previous years and the weather was generally a lot warmer, with
much rain and fog. One morning our training was delayed by an hour and a half
as freezing rain that fell in the night had caused the chairlift to break down;
it had also created an ice rink in the car park which created a challenge during our daily warmup and stretches!! The poor conditions also
caused grass and rocks to surface at one of the Japanese FIS slalom races at
Coronet Peak – fortunately I chose not to race that day however in the photo you can see what some of our boys experienced!!
Fortunately a clear night followed causing
the surface to freeze and the following day I competed in the second of the
Japanese FIS slaloms. I skied fairly tentatively but overall my performance was
neither bad nor good, and the points were somewhat disappointing. This also
described my performance in the two Japanese FIS GS races on August 17th
and 18th.
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| A very organised girls van with 18 sets of race skis!! |
I ended my trip with an ANC (Australian New Zealand Cup)
slalom race at Coronet peak on August 21st in yet again more fog.
Having skied 8 consecutive days I was feeling a little tired and my first run felt
like a nightmare; I dropped my pole for a section of gates and it all seemed
very messy on injected snow conditions. Time-wise it wasn’t too bad and my
second run was reasonable. I finished 16th and scored 105, a decent
score when racing against the liked of Eva-Maria Brem from the Austrian World
Cup team.
The following day I travelled home with a growing
excitement inside of me to get back to Europe and compete in more slalom races
this upcoming season. Once again a huge thanks to all the support I received from
TCRA and in particular the Girls Team coaches Chrissi and Schreder, and of
course to the head coach Guenther Birgmann.
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| Myself and Tori Bell at the start of the Cardrona Slalom |
