Well, one month and 19 days of skiing later I’m on my way back home to Canada. I’ve truly enjoyed my training camp and return to snow program. This camp (after a 4 days in Calgary) began with 3 days in Passo Stelvio, Italy (which was a throw back to my days on the development team), and 16 days of training in Solden, Austria. I’m now set to board the plane and begin my journey back to my own bed where I’ll rest my head for a short break before the racing season kicks off.
During this camp I spent most of my time on getting my skiing back to a place where I was comfortable to push my limits again. This consisted of a lot of drills to help organize my skiing body from the feet up. Although we didn’t have any intense speed training, I did get a good number of days of my SG skis and one day of DH ski testing. We tried some new ideas with my boots (that unfortunately went terribly awry) however, we did learn a few things in the process.
In many respects, October training reminds me of the first week back to school. Running into old faces, revisiting friendships, seeing what retired athlete’s have moved onto, catching up on summertime gossip, and generally enjoying the excited air around the hill. I’m happy to be back.
I also spent 8 days with our Development girls before my team arrived. I really enjoyed getting to know these girls better and was impressed with their work ethic. We had a lot of fun both on and off the hill.
I also caught up with our Men’s Teck team – most notable was seeing Thomas Grandi again (he spent the last year in retirement). It was great to catch up with him and see him back on the hill representing Canada as well as ever.
The World Cup opening race in Solden is happening this weekend, so be sure to tune in and cheer the Canadians on! Racing for the girls’ side will be Gen Simard and MP Préfontaine.
As far as my knee goes, it’s still not 100% but I pushed it pretty hard and it held up quite well. Otherwise, I’m feeling great and look forward to the upcoming season.
Till next time,
Kelly
