Testing Out Fresh Powder Part 2

So I told you about my new little interest in Part 1, now I will explain how my experience in the powder turned out.

The Sun Valley Camp was intense in terms of the hours we put into the snow and for the first half of the week my hip flexors were screaming for me to stop.  I was doing Classic style Nordic skiing for the first half of the week and the constant flexing and extending was out of the ordinary for my little muscles.  They adapted quickly because they knew I wasn’t going to stop.  I began feeling more comfortable staying in the 20-in wide tracks and keeping myself forward.  That is, I was comfortable up until the point I had to go around a turn or up a hill.  Then things started getting dicey. 

On Thursday, we did a 6K time trial and I had a nice little female guide.  I managed to get through the fairly flat course without any accidents but there were many close calls.  A group of locals decided it was dog day and had their dogs running all over the ski tracks.  Me being new to the sport and not confident with quick decisions almost had two major collisions.  The first one included a small little Boston terrier bolting right in front of my ski tips nearly getting pierced with the sharp front edge. The second involved going over a bridge having no side railing where there was again a dog pound in my way. This time I was also going down a hill and had picked up a lot of steam. As I got the bridge and was heading right for the people and the dogs I took two steps out of the tracks and just missed the collision as well as managed to stay on the bridge and not go flying into the below stream. I was so relieved that I had dodged the elements. I finished the time trial in a very respectable 17:45.

My next test was also my first true Nordic ski race. It was the Boulder Mountain Tour Race, which was a 30K race, but we (the training camp athletes) would just do the last 15K of the race. Before the race I took my secret weapon AdvoCare products and with guide Steve Cook started cranking.

I had yet to go full power on skis so it was not all smooth sailing. The course was very windy and a few turns got the best of me. I took three falls in the race but when I was not falling I was hauling. I finished the 15K in 44:49, which was first of the Paralympic camp athletes. When taking into account the factor system for Paralympics I had beaten the next guy by only about 20seconds. My lungs were on fire. I am used to pushing myself but in cold weather it’s a whole new ball game. The pain was good pain though. The pain that makes you want to do more. As a matter of fact I think I will do more.

My experiences with Nordic skiing have led me to pursue the US Paralympic Ski team. The 2010 Winter Paralympics are right around the corner and just outside my backyard in Vancouver, CAN. Stay tuned because you may just see me on the start line!

Testing Out Fresh Powder Part 1

As I mentioned at the end of my 2008 Review, there may be a few new things in store for 2009. Its time to shake things up. Put a new twist to my athletic career. My ADD has been telling me that I need to go strap on some skis and see what I can do. This idea has become reality. Just this past week I flew out to Park City, Utah to attend the National Ability Center and look at the facilities. From there, 7 time Paralympic medallist in Nordic skiing Steve Cook loaded the SUV to head up to Sun Valley, Idaho.

Over 20 Paralympic hopefuls gathered in Sun Valley for a training camp put on by the Woodriver Ability Center. The camp was four days long and involved two a day ski workouts each day. By weeks end I put in 17hrs of training in the skis. Talk about getting whipped into shape. My eyes were opened to a whole new world. A world where I was now the novice just trying to keep up.

The camp was packed with talent. Some of those taking part included two-time gold medal wheelchair racer Josh George, former professional cyclist Ryan Barnett, Paralympic cyclist Sam Kavanagh and many Paralympic Nordic skiers from past games. The coaching staff at the camp was just as star studded. Basically this meant no slouching.

I found out real quick that the strongest don’t always prevail in Nordic skiing. It takes a little finesse. Believe it or not I was a gymnast back in my childhood days. The cobwebs need to be shaken out a bit but somewhere inside me there is probably a little ballerina. Well, that may be exaggerating a bit. One doesn’t need that much finesse but you get the idea. The sport is not designed for grunters.

That’s it for part one of Testing Out Fresh Powder. Part 2 describes my first real test, my first Nordic ski race.