Ski Camp Life

Wow! What a month it's been. Ski camp life is beyond busy, especially this time of year (pre-race season). Although it's not a very good excuse for my lack of blogging, it does make for something good to write about. Now that I have a moment, (I am home for a week-long break to recharge the batteries before I go back to Colorado for our final training block of the preparation period. And then it's time to race!), I am finally able to update my blog and reflect on the seriously intense yet awesome month I just had in Colorado. The time flew by even though each and every day was chalk full of activities. Even on our few days off when there was nothing planned and all I wanted to do was post up on the couch with a hot cup of tea and write a blog post, something always seemed to come up. And even when nothing came up, there was always something else to do to be productive and make the most out of my day (whether it came in the form of working on mobility, going to the grocery store for the week's meals, analyzing video with coaches, writing in my ski journal, meeting with the sports nutritionist, talking to our team's sports psychologist, giving my skis some loving aka waxing/scraping, cooking a nutritious meal with my teammates, talking on the phone with my parents updating them on how everything was going, or maybe if there was time, squeezing in a quick nap!) And that was just on the days when we weren't even skiing! 

The majority of our days as a U.S. Women's Europa Cup Tech Team athlete looked somewhat like this:

-6 am Wake-up. Immediately check your pulse using this really cool app called Restwise (measures how well you recover from day to day...check it out! http://restwise.com)

-6:15 am Wake up your muscles by foam rolling, using a lacrosse ball, and doing some stretches

-6:30 am Get fueled for the day. My "creature-of-habit" breakfast includes Plain Greek yoghurt with half of a banana, berries, and honey along with a bowl of oatmeal.  

-7:15 am Depart for the mountain which in the last month was either Loveland, Copper, or Vail

-7:45 am Upon arrival at ski area, go for a 10 min run and do a dynamic warm up sequence to get heart rate up and increase blood flow to muscles 

-8:30 am Load lift

-9-11:30 am Train slalom, giant slalom, or Super G bringing focus and intensity to each run

-11:30-12:30 pm Take a break which entails taking the boots off, warming up, and refueling

-1:30-4 pm Round two of training whichever event was not skied in the morning 

- 4:30 pm Arrive home, get snack, and change out of ski clothes and into training clothes for either a recovery, team game, cardio, or strength workout depending on the day

-5:30 pm Wax and scrape skis 

-6 pm Watch video of the day's training with coaches

-6:30 pm Cook dinner with the teammates 

-7 pm Eat whatever yummy concoction we make 

-7:30pm Take a steaming hot shower! 

-8 pm Get in bed to watch World Cup video, write in ski journal, visualize for the next day's training

-8:30 pm Shut my eyes and pass out! 

I love ski camp life for how simple and routinely it is, yet for how jam packed it is too. Each part of the day flows into the next and falls into place so perfectly, so that by the end of the day you are feeling completely gratified yet utterly exhausted. By the time you wake up 9 hours later, however, you are feeling ready to go again and are excited for what the day has in store for you. Although the schedule may not vary too much from day to day, every day at ski camp is unique in its own way. Just like no two snowflakes are alike, no two days on the training hill are either. 

Here's a look at some of the fun times we were able to fit in to our busy schedule ;) 

The Europa Cup Tech Team girls were excited to be skiing again in our pretty pink new coats! 

This is a picture we took for the #helmetsarecool campaign. Check out the inspirational film here: http://www.basics.highfivesfoundation.org

Meet this year's U.S. Ski Team athletes! (Team Naming Ceremony at Copper) 

The Swon Brothers from The Voice played some sweet music for us after the event

Trying out some modeling for a Helly Hansen photo shoot 

WEE! 

GIRLS VS. GUYS...who are the better models?! 

As you can see, there were some extracurricular activities that took place in the last month. As fun and exciting as they were, the ski training was definitely the best part. I am feeling more ready and better prepared for this race season than ever before. I'm in a great place mentally and feeling really excited to start racing. 

In the meantime, I'm at home for some much needed R&R and family loving. 

This is what I arrived home to...not a bad welcome!