Racing at home

I’m having a rough time at the moment. I feel like I’m skiing well and I’m trying to keep my head held high but each day I face a new challenge. It started on Friday this past week. The weather has been horrible and because of a 50 mph wind gust during early morning training, I had a bit of a crash. I strained a muscle in the upper part of my leg and around my hip. It’s not bad enough that I can’t ski but very bothersome during racing. I skied Saturday in a race course and just didn’t feel that great. Instead of pushing it I went home and tried to stretch and rest. A good friend Nancy Chang worked on me and tried to loosen up that leg. I felt better afterward but come Sunday morning I still felt a bit unsure. The first run of my SL race just didn’t go well. I didn’t feel like I could get on and off the edge quickly and I straddled a gate. I hiked to stay in the race but that’s not fast. Second run was lots better but my movements still weren’t very quick. At the end of the day I was a bit discouraged but optimistic for Super G since the key to that discipline is subtleness.

Today, for the first time in a very long time I felt comfortable on my speed skis (despite the sore leg.) This was a huge confidence builder. After a couple good warm-up runs and a thorough inspection I knew I could have a good run. Super G is one of the hardest events for me because at the higher speeds my legs don’t always cooperate. Today was no different and I definitely second guessed myself toward the bottom of the course, but, I hung in there and placed 5th. I’m not disappointed with where I finished, just with some of the unnecessary technical mistakes that I made in my run. We have another Super G tomorrow and I’m sanguine (I used a Thesaurus to find that word {smiley face}) that I can build on today and can have a better race.