November 12, 2009: Growing Pains

Copper Mountain, Colorado – The race didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped, both with regards to my performance and the race itself. Due to technical difficulties, the race didn’t actually start until two and a half hours after it was scheduled, and because the problems with the timing weren’t resolved they changed the format from a parallel GS where you go head-to-head to a two run GS, solo.

I think the delay does something to your mental state. Since we had no idea when we would start, we were all sitting in the lodge and the moment someone stood up we all thought it was time to go. So we would put on all our gear only to find out that we wouldn’t be starting anytime soon so we’d take it all off again. The constant up and down along with the antsy energy was draining.

By the time it was my turn in the start, I felt focused with the sole thought of getting down as fast as I could by trying to find speed in the carve. The set was challenging; the course was turny and if you went too straight you’d be in trouble. But I had the thought of riding like my role model, and that seemed to dissipate any doubts I had about my abilities in the course. And with that I pulled out of the start.

I don’t really remember the first half of the course. I do remember getting to the middle of the course and thinking, “I’m going too straight and getting too late.” And at that time it was too late. My focus went away from going fast, and immediately went to what I was doing wrong. Then I got in the backseat and wasn’t driving forward. I went into a heelside too straight, hit the rut and went down on my hip. So suddenly like someone pulled the board right out from under me. The sort of good thing is that I must have been doing pretty fast because I just slid down the course, passing and missing the next gate. But I was disqualified.

I got down to the finish and. I wasn’t sure what to think. I think I was in shock. After a few moments I think it all hit me and I fought hard to keep from tearing up. On my way back up the lift I started wallowing in that dark place of disappointment and those thoughts of sadness crept in. But I talked to Coach Mark and he said my line was too tight. Then I asked myself, “What good does crying do?” I analyzed what happened from a technical standpoint and realized that I made a mistake. A lesson for next time. There’s so much disappointment with racing because I want to do so well all the time, but I do make mistakes and I have to accept and learn from that. I’m still a good rider but I’m not perfect all the time.

I took the advice from the book I was reading before (Finding Your Zone) about looking at things that frustrate you with curiosity instead of with emotions. Getting sad or angry doesn’t change anything, and that energy should go into figuring out what the heck went wrong and how not to do it again. And it was magical. Just like that I was back in a good, positive state. No more tears. Just confidence and excitement for tomorrow’s race.

Later I asked Coach Shan how my run was and she said the attack was good but I was pinching the top of the turn. I also saw video of the run and it looked pretty good although I was too straight. And I was carrying speed before I went down which looked so sudden that there was nothing I could have done to save it. When I’ve gone down in the past I usually end up go way out on the side but this time I went down and kept sliding down the course. Maybe that’s a good sign that all my energy was going down the course instead of out to the side. Whatever it means, it was a new mistake and experience so I must be growing.

November 10, 2009: Excited to Race!

Copper Mountain, Colorado – Today we had a simu-race day, with two inspection and two qualification runs stripped down to our racesuits. We were to treat the day exactly as if it was a race day, down to prepping our boards with race wax and doing our pre-race routine.

My focus for today was to get down as fast as I could by being aggressive and mimicking one of the top girl racers that I’ve been watching. My first run felt pretty good. I was attacking the course and didn’t run scared or fearful of falling. I had a little trouble with a gate that was wide set but other than that it felt great! I got the thrill of racing again and loved it. That run was about 1.5 seconds out of the top girls time.

The second run was good up until that one nasty gate. I thought I set up properly for it but I held on to the pressure too long and wasn’t looking ahead to the next gate and ejected way too wide. I held on and tried to correct as fast as possible, but I had lost too much speed and time. It’s amazing to me how one little gate can cost so much time.

I took four more runs for the day, working on perfecting that one gate while maintaining an aggressive attitude. Miraculously I didn’t crash all day even though I was going for it. I was able to clean up that one gate but had problems with other ones. My last run for the day felt smooth, even some of the turns felt like I was just freeriding (a good thing).

So overall it was a really good day technically. More importantly, I had a lot of fun racing the course and realized my love for racing again. Sad to think that it is my last day of training ever on Copper Mountain.

November 9, 2009: Carve, Carve, Carve

Copper Mountain, Colorado – Today was not a great day. I was hoping to build upon yesterday’s good riding, but tough snow conditions combined with a difficult turny set and low energy did not help the situation. I tried to stay focus and aggressive but tiredness and lack of sleep got the best of me.

Right from the first run I could feel myself struggle through the course. Similar to my last 5k race, but with snowboard racing I don’t have the time to take it easy on a couple of gates to muster the strength for the rest of the course. Each gate was a fight; obviously because I was late and didn’t take the right line. And I couldn’t find the fight in me.

I had a couple of decent runs where I was able to find the right line, but would make a mistake that cost time. I didn’t get too down on myself though and was able to maintain a somewhat positive attitude. After we did video, Coach Mark told me I need to carve, carve, carve and have that in my head for every single run, and when I put the board on edge my body has to be moving down the hill to initiate a clean carve.

Tomorrow is our last day of training before the race. We’ll be simulating a race day so that’ll be good practice. My focus will be to get down that hill as fast as possible and to carve, carve, carve.

November 8, 2009: Flipping the Switch

Copper Mountain, Colorado – Today I woke up ready to ‘flip the switch’. I had great sleep and was ready to take on the race course. I was really looking forward to jumping into the gates with the mindset to run the ‘car’ at 220 mph, instead of 160 mph, with the primary focus being get down as fast as possible.

I might have been too amped up for the first few runs, but I was really aggressive and going for it with the thought of going fast, while having high pressure and looking ahead. After my first run I immediately found out just how important looking ahead is, even if it’s just one gate. I found that I wouldn’t hang on to the old edge too long since I knew exactly where I needed to be. Before, I would look only a few feet ahead of me and get thrown laterally, instead of down the hill, and sometimes into the fence. But now that I looked ahead I didn’t have that problem, and my wide turns were minimized.

Here’s a rundown of my runs:

• First Run: Really went for it but wasn’t prepared for the speed and got in the backseat and cut a turn too tight and DQ’ed.

• Second Run: Still really went for it and had a solid run.

• Third Run: Went too straight on a toeside turn and fell after getting bounced in a rut

• Fourth Run: Here’s a doozy: Cut a toeside even worse than last run and while my feet when in between the stubby and the panel/flag (DQ), I took the tallpole directly to the chest. While these poles are just PVC plastic, hitting one that’s upright deep into the snow at maybe 25mph was pretty excruciating. Even now, 11 hours after it happened, it hurts to breath deeply or make any type of arm movement on my left side. Even laughing is uncomfortable.

• Fifth & Sixth Runs: I had to dial it back to make sure I could actually finish a run. I finished but it didn’t feel too fast. Coach Mark reiterated the fact that I need to carve right from the get-go, and even pointed out on a few gates where I need to be to pressure the board. He said that it’s better to carve the turns a few feet off the stubbies than to pin each stubby but scrubbing speed to do so.

• Seventh Run: I really made the effort to carve the second gate (it was painful to pull out of the start so I just glided by the first one), and I found the feel of the carve and was able to hold it for the first half of the course. I didn’t feel like I was going at 220, but afterwards Coach Mark said it was good riding, model riding, and if he wanted to show others how to ride, he would’ve used that run as an example. Unfortunately I got late at the end of the course and scrubbed a lot of speed, so while I wasn’t super agro, it was a lot cleaner which equals faster.

• Eighth and Ninth Runs: I had the same focus as the seventh run with trying to find the carve, and they both felt solid.

At the end of the morning, Coach Mark said he was happy with my riding, and it was really good with a lot of potential to get faster. After we saw video, he pointed out that I had good body positioning and was starting to get the line down (high pressure). Yay! And to my surprise, my fastest time (second run) was less than a second off the fastest girl’s time for the day. So I know I have it in me. This just gave me the confidence to let it out.

So now I just have to keep finding the carve at every gate, and incorporate the aggressiveness and desire for going as fast as possible. Conceptually it’ll be tough because finding the carve to me kind of means slowing things down and making it smooth which goes against being aggressive and all out. But I’ll have to change my thinking and find a happy – and super fast – medium.

November 6, 2009: Inspirational Words

Avon, Colorado – I got a little down on myself this afternoon and looked to my former trainer/coach for advice. He gave me a great pep talk, which basically came down to a few key principles:

• Flip the switch (mentally) and do it now. Make changes in different aspects of life to shake things up
• Things are not linear; find the big breakthroughs
• Find and carry the speed, and it doesn’t have to be pretty or perfect
• Be excited and don’t ever get negative or down on myself
• There is a greater purpose to what I’m doing than just for fun and games
• Don’t think too much. Getting down the course as fast as I can should be the primary focus. Think about Speed. Trust your abilities and equipment.

I’m so inspired I wish we were training tomorrow (we have it as a day off)!

“There comes a moment when you have to stop revving up the car and shove it into gear.”  – David Mahoney

November 6, 2009: New Board!

Copper Mountain, Colorado – I took up my new Kessler board today. I had been riding a used one that I bought from one of the top women racers, and while that board has been really good for me, it’s about time for some new and fresh equipment.

I took a couple of freeruns and immediately noticed a difference. The new board is stiffer, feels more solid and is more damp (doesn’t snap out as much, which for me is a good thing). I still wasn’t totally comfortable on it (it’ll take a couple days of riding), but I jumped in the gates anyway. Best way to know what the board is going to do is to ride it in the course and see what happens. Also there were too many courses set to really freeride.

My first run felt good. The board was pretty solid and seemed to cut through the snow nicely. The nose of the board also didn’t flap too much like my old board did. Of course that also means that I have to work harder to bend that nose of the board to initiate my turns, but that just translates to getting more forward and driving it down into the snow. The next few runs felt fine. Not great, but okay. I was still pretty conservative on the board, not as aggressive as I was yesterday because I wasn’t sure how the board would react. Still testing the waters. Although on my second run I overturned/bottom-turned and ended up in the fence. Again. Thrown into the backseat and got stuck there. But it was simple fix: get forward and don’t bottom turn.

About halfway through the morning, Coach Mark told me that I wasn’t starting my turn high enough. I was getting on the new edge and pressuring it only two board lengths above the stubby, whereas I should be initiating at about four board lengths, and that was causing me to bottom turn and shoot across the hill instead of down the hill. To me that meant switching edges about halfway between the stubbies. But that was his lesson of the day: High line, high edge angle. A side lesson is that I need to carve right from the get-go to set a good rhythm for the rest of the course. On a few runs I would get a bad pull out of the start because my brace gives that arm a different pull from the other so I’m a little lopsided going out and then would slide into the second gate. Ugh, same problem as before. So I have to remember to stay forward after coming out of the start and to really carve that first gate.

Coach Shan also made a good point that we should be riding with the flow of the mountain and gravity, and when we’re fighting the forces we’re moving across the hill instead of down, which means lost time. It shouldn’t be such a fight.

Overall it was an okay day. I didn’t feel like I was riding my absolute best but I did want to take the day to get used to the board. My toeside felt a little funky, not like the toeside I had yesterday. I couldn’t find the balance point today. I still have develop a trust for the board and things will come around.

November 5, 2009: Overcoming Pain

Copper Mountain, Colorado – Last night I massaged the life out of the muscle or tendon on the outside of both ankles. My back leg was hurting twice as much as my front leg so I really focused on that and work on it to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore. Throughout the night I woke up and felt both sore legs, and when I got up this morning they were really sore.

But I just sucked it up, booted up and went up on the mountain. We were training an extra long course which could really aggravate my legs, but I decided to just ignore it and hope for the best. Right off the bat my front foot leg started hurting, probably accelerated by skating on that front foot (back foot out of the binding) when setting the course. Not the best start to the day, but what could I do?

Since there were so many terrain changes, my focus for the day was to get forward, forward, forward. Getting late in such a long and fast course would not only lose the race but also had the potential for a major mistake and crash. My first run felt pretty good and smooth. It actually was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be; the snow was really good and the set flowed well. By the end of the run I was out of breath but my body felt good.

The rest of the day went well. I continued to focus on getting forward and Coach Mark said I need to carry my toeside turn across the hill a bit more so I could set up better for my heelside. I had some mistakes here and there, including a very close encounter with the same fence as yesterday, but overall I felt strong and aggressive, and I’m gaining a real understanding of what I need to do and what it feels like to do it. Even during the run when I felt like I was rushing through it I had to keep reminding myself to ‘relax, relax’ (just like in my 5k race). And it helped to keep my energy up and slow down the turn transitions and really feel the carve. Unfortunately on my last run of the day I hit a ball of ice on my toeside and fell hard on my stomach and slid but I was really going for it. Ice balls usually aren’t in a race course so that shouldn’t happen again.

My front leg hurt a lot when I was just standing around and on the lift, but I didn’t feel it when riding. My back leg had no pain at all during the day. I think it is due to the fact that when I was riding yesterday I was jamming down from edge to edge and those specific muscles took the brunt of that. Today I focused on slowing the transitions down (down-up-down-up as opposed to staying down and switching edges so brutally) and I believe that solved most of the problem. (I also wore thicker socks which may have helped.)

At the end of the day Coaches Mark and Shan said I had some really good turns and that I was going for it and being aggressive, especially coming over the knoll (where all I thought was ‘get forward, get forward’). Coach Mark even said it was like a new Eden out there. He added that if I continue to ride like that while keeping a good line (i.e. minimizing my mistakes) then I’ll be in good shape for the races. Yay!

November 4, 2009: First Day Back in Gates

Copper Mountain, Colorado – I took two days off of snow to give myself a rest and to be fresh for our first day in gates today. I think my body is finally acclimatizing to the high altitude here; I got my appetite back and am finally sleeping well.

We had a 6:15am lift call and boarded the lift before the sun rose. Thankfully the temperatures were mild, maybe in the upper twenties, making for a comfortable and beautiful ride. We were one of only two teams training on the limited slopes so we were able to get a lot of freeruns in before hitting the course. Freeriding felt very good. I felt confident and rode strong, although I did keep putting my hand down in the snow on my toeside. The coaches told me to focus on slowing down my edge transitions (by bending and extending my legs) since I was switching edges too quickly and too early and thus sliding out the turn. So after a few more freeruns, it was time to get into the course.

I’ve been advised that every time I’m in the start gate that I should have the attitude that I’m the best out there and that this is the run that’ll win it. Supreme confidence. Confidence is one of the most important things to have in racing, yet is commonly lacking. With that mental focus I stepped into the start gate, took a few deep breaths and pulled out as hard as I could. I find that my pull out sets the stage for the rest of the course. A strong, aggressive pull leads to aggressive riding, while a weaker conservative pull usually leads to a weaker conservative run. Since I used to have the problem of getting into a rhythm for the first four gates (where that could mean winning and losing the race) I try to overcome it by just attacking right from the get-go, the start gate. My coaches told me to focus on really driving the nose of the board on my heelside into the snow to get the most out of the board. So I pulled hard out of the gates and the first four or five gates went well. I felt the speed and the carve of the turn, but then on one heelside I was so focused on bending that nose of the board that when I did I got a lot of performance out of the board. Unfortunately I wasn’t exactly ready for that performance and I got thrown into the backseat and lost control of the board. I fell on my hip at a decent speed and slid straight into the side fence. I put my board up to break the impact with the fence and when I hit I got spun around, facing down the hill again. So I just got up and finished the course. I didn’t want to stop and think about what happened; it would be best for me to just keep going and forget about it so I don’t dwell on the possibilities of what could have happened.

So while my first run back in the gates was a crash into the fence, the rest of my runs went well. With each run I felt better and better and I was really starting to feel the carve of the turn. Coach Mark said that he’s seeing progression in my riding and it felt great just to be back in the gates. Reinvigorating.

Unfortunately by the end of the day the muscle/tendon right above both of my outside ankle bones were really painful. By the time I took off my boots, my legs were so swollen and painful that I could barely walk. Oh no. I’ve heard of that this type of injury doesn’t heal and you normally have to take time off of snow. But I don’t have that kind of time. So I’m just going to ice it and massage it a lot and hopefully that helps. I’ve been riding the boots and liners for the past two weeks and haven’t had this painful a problem so I’m not sure what it could be. But whatever it is I just have to work through the pain.

November 1, 2009: Bending at the Waist

Arapahoe Basin

Arapahoe Basin, Colorado – Figuring that most people would go out the night of Halloween, stay out late and thereby wake up late, I went to bed with the intention of waking up extra early to get to the hill. Well I forgot about daylight savings time and the fact that on weekends the lift starts at 8:30am instead of 9:00am. Luckily my phone automatically updates but when I got up I was scrambling to get to the mountain by 8am.

When I pulled into the parking lot at a little after 8am, it was already filling up. Ugh. I had brought both my GS and freestyle boards, hoping to get a few solid runs on GS before switching over. I had also heard a rumor that they would be opening the upper lift which would offer more acreage and terrain. But it was still closed.

I hurried through my warm up and by the time I got to the lift line it was packed! Three rows deep, and with the temperatures warming up against a perfectly clear sky, I knew that it was only going to get worse. My first few runs were good. I had to be aggressive and fast to get through the people and surprisingly the runs did have several breaks of open space (probably because everyone was waiting in the lift line). I focused on driving the nose of the board into the snow and releasing at the apex of the turn (moving my turn shape up) and it went really well on my toeside. I felt that my hips were inside the turn and my legs were slightly extended at the top out and I could really feel the carve and the generation of speed. It was exhilarating!

I also focused more on bending a little forward at the hip. I’ve been taught to maintain an upright upper body position but noticed that some of the top women riders bend at the waist in an aggressive stance and it seems to help drive forward. I also realized that when I do keep a very upright upper body and I sink down, all my weight automatically goes to my back foot and thus the backseat, and I can’t push against my back foot and pressure the board with my weight just falling down onto it. But if my upper body is bent a little, then the angle of my body (head to back foot) to the board is diagonal instead of straight up and down, so when I sink down I pressure the back foot simply by pushing and resisting against it. That drives me forward and makes me feel more aggressive.

My heelside, however, was a different story. I didn’t feel the responsiveness that I felt on the toeside and when I put it on edge it felt like the board wouldn’t get as high an angle as normal and it slid around instead of carving. Almost like there was too much play (space) either in my boots or between my boots and bindings. Something felt loose, like my body was in the right position but the board wasn’t following. I’ll have to examine my equipment and maybe tighten up my bindings a bit. The warm weather could also have attributed to the softness of my boots.

After about four runs, the wait at the lift line was getting to be about 15 minutes for a 30 second run. I still noticed that the run itself was not too crowded so I took a couple more. The snow was holding up really well and I was able to get some nice sections in, but when a skier came too close and almost hit me I called it a day.

So today was a little bit of a revelation. It’ll take some to get used to and it feels a little scary but overall it puts in the right position to stay forward and get into the next turn early. We’ll see how it translates into the gates on Wednesday.

Hope you had a nice Halloween!

Crowds at the Lift Line

October 30, 2009: Riding Soft Snow

Arapahoe Basin, Colorado – When I got in the car this morning, I thought, “Oh no, this is going to be a nasty drive.” Several times on my journey to the mountain when it was so whiteout that I had to wear my goggles to drive and speeds topped out at about 35 mph on the freeway due to snowpacked and icy roads, I thought about turning back. But snowboarding was calling and I needed to answer.

It wasn’t as cold as two days ago, but it had snowed a few inches more than I had expected. I don’t always look forward to soft conditions on a race board because you can dig the board too deep and wash out, and eventually the runs get cut up making for a bumpy ride. But it’s a good lesson in balance and discipline so I was gung-ho.

The first run was amazing. There were quite a few people ahead of me when I got to the lift but I still managed to get a super smooth, untouched part of the run, something worth waking up an extra half hour early. Of course I dug in too deep on my heelside and washed out, but it was a lesson on staying forward and adjusting to the soft snow. I focused on staying forward and aggressive on the subsequent runs, and they felt good, despite the choppy snow. And my boots felt snug.

Unfortunately the crowds took over and I had to call it a day but I was happy with my riding. I have one more day of freeriding before the team gets here and the intense training begins.

World's Smallest Snowman