March

It is March and I all ready have tanning lines from my bike shorts, spring has definitely hit the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. So what have I been up to lately except for cycling, obviously. Well March was about being sick, had a fever for 12 days, and getting fit again, for the last races of the season in which I have to give it my best.

Last Sunday I went to the beach with a friend, it was a nice sunny spring day. We loved this sleeping dog, so cute, makes me miss my own dog though.

Two weeks ago I broke my daily orthosis so I wasn’t able to walk for two weeks, could limp with my crutches for small distances though.

That sucked, luckily I could still work out because I use my sporting orthosis for that. And I could ride my bike because I don’t use my leg at all, so I coped, by not going to school. To compensate for that last part I read my books in the sun every day, so this was a good excuse actually. And when classes where mandatory I went by car but parking at the hospital, even with the disabled parking permit, is widely expensive so I couldn’t do that for every lecture.

Today my orthosis got fixed again, for now, because it is pretty far gone and needs to be replaced. Also today I had test fittings for my new ‘leg’ we made some changes in the design compared to this one and I think it is going to be good, an improvement. Well I will know soon get it April 27. Thanks to Frank Jol and his team.

I have also been on my bike a lot more last month, soaking up the sunshine. To learn more about cycling and the technique and because I want to get better at it I joined a local club. I train 2 times a week with the club, those are good training sessions and I all ready made progress. And Saturday I made my first long bike ride of the season with a friend.

So that was March so far, leaving for Suisse tomorrow time for the last races of the season, wish me luck.

Sestriere Februari 27-29

I have been back from Sestriere for over a week now but I haven’t been blogging about it because I have been sick since I got back and the trip turned out to be some kind of a disappointment. I went to Sestriere for a short trip with my brother, so it was just the 2 of us no team. I had raced in Sestriere 6 weeks earlier as well and it felt like a good opportunity to go back there and learn from my earlier mistakes and I did.

On the 27^th I trained GS and I was skiing much much better than 6 weeks earlier, really charging the course now. Next day was GS race day and I felt confident and way more relax then I usually do in the start, first run was pretty good, I charged the course again, did make a big mistake on the middle steep part but recovered nice after that. The Italian girl that won these races last time was racing again so I could compare my times, I was out about a third less than last time, I improved even with that mistake. Second run I charged again and this was my first completely clean run in a race ever! I was so much faster still behind Melania but she is nr3 of the world so that’s ok for now, I took a big chunk off my time again.

In the end results I had cut my race points in half compared to last time I raced here and I was so happy because with this results I was half way qualifying for the Europa Cup and the national team. And I was the second fastest girl overall. But now the disappointment part….

When I first came back from the hill there was a result list with the race points and the penalty and I got the result I needed and wanted so I was happy. I went to the price giving ceremony and it was there that I found out that the penalty for the girls race was removed, making the results unofficial. Well that was a shock I drove 1150 km to get myself some points and now I found out that I wouldn’t get any points at all. The problem was this was a national championship and somehow they allowed people to race without an international license and off course those girls didn’t count in the international results and after they were removed the number of competitors on the girls side was less than 5 making this race unofficial…. Sucks but can’t do anything about it now, would have wanted to know this upfront because I wouldn’t have come all this way. The organization was sorry for me so they offered to let my come next year for free, which I really appreciate, thanks, off course they would have wanted a bigger race on the girls side to. The men off course didn’t had this problem.

Well the next day was slalom but unofficial as well. Melania invited me to go out with her that night and I went and had a lot of fun. The next morning I woke up hot with a sore throat and some weakness in my good leg, thought it was because I didn’t had enough sleep but as it turned out I was hit with a bad case of the flu. I went to slalom race far from feeling good but I wanted to race anyway, race to finish. in the first run one gate was skied out, but they had let me start before changing the gate, so well I needed a restart. I started again after the last standing male and because I wasn’t feeling well I wasn’t skiing full out I skied a bit conservative and made it in to the finish without any major mistakes but slow. Second run I was feeling better and I thought this course would suit me better so I tried to attack more in the second run, which let to me almost DNFing again well probably because my leg was feeling a bit weak and I couldn’t react as fast as I am used to, but I managed to stay in although I was standing almost still. After this I skied the bottom part pretty good and I finished.

Got another second place. But still no official result in slalom. After that my brother and I drove home and we arrived back at home at 2.30 am. Big thanks to my brother who drove almost the whole way because I was too sick to drive, only did 240 km out of the 1150.

So last weekend I was being sick sitting on the couch trying to come up with a plan on how to ski my point limit with only one Giant Slalom and one Slalom race left in this season.

I was watching the lady’s worldcup in Ofterschwang and I saw Erin Mielzynski win her First worldcup without even breaking in to the top 10 before. I have been reading Erin’s blog (and the blogs of some of the other Canadian girls Like AnnaGoodman, they are really good, check it out!) since the summer of 2010 so I have read about everything she did to achieve her dream about the disappointments on the way. And well this win inspired me because if I ski like I did in the second run of my GS race in Sestriere I can still make it in the last race in Switzerland and if I don’t well at least I have tried. I know I can do it, keep faith, I have been growing in my season getting better results in every race.

If you are having struggles keep going Erin Mielzynski march 4 2012