New Boots

I got my new boots and they are great, a lot better then my old and broken boots. And I noticed it in my skiing, I feel I can turn much better and faster now.

And the best part, because I got foam boots I don’t have pain in my ankle while wearing my boots anymore. With big thanks to Menno Koelewijn from MK skiservice who also was creative enough to adjust the boot so it would fit perfect with my skiing orthosis.

Last week was our third and last pre season training camp in Landgraaf. I’m very happy with the way I skied those last 2 days I made progress and it felt awesome. Which I needed after I was skiing pretty bad last time.

It was a fun 2 day camp and the regular national team was in Landgraaf too, nice to hang out with them and see how they ski. I also train with some of them in physical training in Amsterdam.

Yesterday I went to Frank Jol to get my skiing orthosis ready for the season, it needed a new strap and the gas spring was worn out so that needed to be replaced too. I trained hard over summer, I lost some weight and my leg is thinner as well so my ortheses where getting to wide especially around my thigh, they filled the extra space of both my ortheses and now they fit again. Just when I wanted to leave I heard a big snap and felt unstable on my leg, I broke my orthosis, speaking of timing it was fixed right away and I was on my way 30 minutes later, great service!

Last week the fall semester started so I’m back in school, nice to see all my study friends again. The first course is introduction to clinical medicine after 2 year of gaining lots of knowledge we learn how to apply it now. And today I learned how to measure blood pressure, to be honest it wasn’t my first time, finally we start to learn how to do a physical, actually becoming a doctor ;-)

Next week I leave for Austria (Hintertux) for our first camp, there is a lot of fresh snow, so stoked. Just need to prep all my ski’s….

About fear to break another leg

This week I had another 2 day training camp in snowworld Landgraaf. I know I wrote last time that the snow conditions wheren’t great but this time it was worse, the snow conditions were actually pretty bad. There was still the dirty old ice but now with huge amounts of loose snow over it which off course didn’t stick, so it went from a hard slope into a very soft slope halfway.  Last time I broke my ski boot and since my new boots wheren’t in yet it got repaired, I was skiing on a unpredictable slope with a messed up boot. Saying it was because of the conditions isn’t my thing but in this case..... it made me feel unsafe which made me hold back. Yes the first training session I was skiing pretty bad, I was scared holding back and too late for every single gate. I was afraid to fall and brake another leg and my ankle was hurting because the messed up boot put too much pressure on the plate in my ankle. So things wheren’t going like they were supposed to, but it made me realize that it is in conditions like these where you can learn the most. Without a bad training every now and then you can’t have good training sessions. And as the coach told me it made me feel what I need to work on even better, because I still made the same mistakes as I normally do only worse, extreme.

We had another slalom session that night and it got better by then, I wasn’t scared to fall anymore. By the next day I sort of got over it and started to ski again, I was actually quite happy with my last 2 runs they felt good and fast. The coach made another video of this camp, my bad runs are on it as well, but like I said they are the best learning material.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eETQRX7c8rs

September 14 and 15 we go back to Landgraaf and I start training with my ski club next Tuesday. Monday I get new ski boots! With big thanks to Menno Koelewijn from MK ski service I get foam boots which will fit me better with my ski-orthosis and probably get my skiing to the next level, so excited! I have my old boots since 2004, I know they are ancient.

The plate in my ankle was pretty irritated because of the boot, but the surgeon told me it would get better with new boots. I’m still gonna try to leave it in for the season and have the surgery in the beginning of april. I had my one year check up with the surgeon yesterday and except for the plate irritation things are looking good. And he told me he was impressed with all the thing I do and can do with my leg, most patients wouldn’t even try he said. Well that was nice to hear but I think; The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything but they make the most of everything.