Those Dang Hills!

On January 7th the team headed to Bear Valley to get some skiing in. We knew that we would be having timed trials, but weren't sure what else to expect that day. The drive up was uneventful and we even got rained on a lot. The fear in the car was that we would be getting rained on the whole time we were outside. When we arrived at the lodge we soon realized that our fears were nonsense! It was snowing after we got out of the car....it was so pretty. But as you may or may not know, cross country skiing in fresh snow is a lot harder then skiing in packed down snow. So we knew that we had our work cut out for us.

Since we arrived early, I was able to warm up for a good 30 minutes before we started out team practice. They broke us off into groups and off we went. My group took off almost immediately. Our team had 2 coaches that day, one that was a normal coach and one that was volunteer for the day to help us.

Now that we are all fairly comfortable on the skis we are able to pinpoint problematic areas that we need to work on. Mine is still the hills! I am getting more confident on the smaller hills, though the larger hills just fill me full of anxiety!

We broke for lunch after 12pm and our head coach gave a speech on overcoming stress and anxiety when it comes to skiing and competing. We were told that instead of beating ourselves up, we should be speaking positively to ourselves. Instead of saying, "That was stupid! Why do you keep falling?" and continuing to stress yourself out, you should be saying, "You can do this hill. You've got it!" So after lunch we were scheduled to do an 11K. My buddy and I took off b/c we were freezing waiting for everyone else to finish. We kept a good pace and I was feeling really confident....until I came upon that hill that I had fallen on earlier in the day.

One of our coaches was there to watch me (which only made me more nervous) to see what I was doing wrong with my snowplow. The combination of already being freaked out about this hill and having him watching me, just added to the stress level and I biffed it so hard that it took the air out of me. It had been snowing earlier in the day, but by then the sun had come out and had turned things to ice. Well I hit the ice as I was going down the hill (which by the way turns to the left and if you don't turn you go off the side!). After starting to go out of control, I somehow flipped and landed on my chest and then preceded to slide down the hill on my face. The kicker is that I yelled out, "Oh crap...Sunny Bono!" Which had a few of my teammates in stitches.

After regaining my breath and dignity...I got back up and took off. Unfortunately that hill did a number on my already tired and injured back (I have an existing condition with my lower back). I wasn't able to do the full 11K, but I was able to do a 9K...so all toll that day I got in a 16K. Not bad for someone that didn't know how to cross country ski last month. :)

This week I have been laying low with practices b/c of being slightly under the weather. I have only worked out twice! But I am working out on Sunday and will be going skiing with a few of my teammates on Monday up at the Royal Gorge. I am really looking forward to concentrating on the hills there to master my fears!

Until next time......