Training in the sun in Sierra Nevada, Spain

Date: 28th December 2010

It has been great here in Spain. I celebrated christmas in true Spanish style with Chio and her family! I am now in Sierra Nevada. A huge thanks to Chio for assisting in arranging me to train with the Spanish SX team and arranged lift passes and of course accommodating me.

We have managed to get in some good training early in the morning before the public come out to play, practising speed. We managed to do some start gate timing and practised a small wutang out of the starting gate. Thanks to the team for having me!

I will head to Granada on the 30th and celebrate New Years Eve down there before heading back to Munich on the 2nd January and onward to St Johann in Tirol, Austria for the next world cup. Be in touch soon!

First news for the new season!

21st December 2010

I am writing this whilst sitting on a train from Munich to Innsbruck. After successfully driving the Vectra aka "Vicky Vectra" from the UK across to Austria, we were unfortunately greeted with pretty bad weather conditions, which kept Molltaller Glacier closed most days. The first world cups were rapidly approaching and I had not yet skied a single feature or pulled out of a starting gate.

I turned up to Innichen, not feeling the most prepared I have ever felt, but certainly with a smile on my face. It was FREEZING! Again, it was about –20degrees celcius. It was great to get back into a SX course, and the training was quite good. In the first race, I didn’t ski well, I made a big mistake on the most vital part of the course, the jump down onto the big flat turn. I was disappointed, not really by the result as I didn’t expect anything, but more than I made the same mistake so many runs in a row. The 2nd race I managed to get the jump right but still mucked up the turn on the flat, so a better time and certainly improvements but not really what I had hoped. I finished in 28th position on both days and now I am off the Spain to catch up with my good friend Chio and her family and have a rest, enjoy xmas, eat some jambon, throw some confetti, see Granada and train in Sierra Nevada with the Spanish SX team. I am looking forward to the races in January. I can’t wait for this year to end, 2011 will be a good year! Merry Xmas!

University Degree Complete and Europe Bound

28th November 2010

It has been a very busy couple of weeks! But it does feel good to know that after 8 years of University, very part time, I have finally completed my bachelor degree in Multimedia (Business Marketing).

I have also been offered a scholarship from Smart Connection to start a Diploma of Management in 2011, in return for being a guest speaker to their Diploma of fitness students. This is a great opportunity to continue my studies and obtain further qualifications in Management.

With my degree under my belt, I had my strength testing which all came out with great results, it has been an intense couple of months and it has been paying off which is always good to see. A huge thanks to Mick and Dave for all their help and support in the recent months.

So off I set, Europe bound, with a stopover in Beijing to catch up with an old friend who I used to ski race with before hitting the UK on the 1st December.

I will drive across to Austria on the 4th/5th of December (pending whether the Vectra will make it...but I have high hopes) and hope to start training on snow on the 6th December. First 2 World Cup competitions are on the 18th and 19th December in San Candido, Italy. With only a few days preperation on snow, I will take these first 2 comps as a bit of a warm up and training opportunity, before hopefully performing optimally in January.

I will be in touch soon!