February: Dutch Nationals

The Dutch nationals abled body where held February 16-23 in Zauchensee Austria. On Sunday we trained GS in Zauchensee. It was a good training day and I definitely felt a lot stronger than in December. On Monday the first race was scheduled, a GS point race, in the abled body field I finished 5^th. Tuesday it was time for the national championships Giant Slalom. I was fore running this race, I had the chance to run 4 times, both runs from the youth start and bot runs from the adult start. It was nice to have the chance to do a run twice with race circumstances.

This week we got lots of fresh snow and powder! We free skied the powder on Wednesday instead of slalom training. I had a lot of fun playing in the powder. Later that day most tracks got ruined a bit with big humps, I crashed over a hump and I heard a nasty snap. I was sitting in the snow checking myself when I realized what caused the snap,  my orthotic was broken otherwise I was fine.

I was disappointed thinking I wasn’t able to ski anymore that week. I got a ride down on a ski doo and my leg was checked by the event doctor, removing the rest of my orthotic. After that I made a call to my orthopedic technicians’ office to see if there was a possibility to fix my orthotic in Austria, I got an address of an orthopedic technician in Salzburg. The next day I drove to Salzburg and Tappe fixed my orthotic that day! I was so happy I could ski again.

Friday it was time for the national championships slalom. I was forerunning again, now with the opportunity to ski 6 runs, this is because the youngest athletes ski a stubby slalom with short gates. Six runs was a bit too much, the schedule would have been to tight, so with other forerunners we divided the runs. I did the stubby slalom and the long run in the adult slalom. The stubby slalom was very tight and challenging that way, the kids have shorter ski’s. It was a lot of fun especially with the kids who requested me to forerun their slalom, they were very spontaneous asking lots of questions about my leg and orthotic.

The adult slalom had a nice first run, it was fast and a bit strait just the way I like. The second run was a lot rounder which made it more challenging. It was a good ‘race’ day. After 8 years it was great to be back at the Dutch nationals.

January: back in training

January was a bit different because I didn’t had any races on my schedule. There were only world cup races in January for which I’m not qualified yet. It was a bit disappointing not to ski in January but it also gave an unique opportunity to get some extra dry land training in. Time to look back at the beginning of the season and to make a little training schedule to do even better in the second part of the season, stronger, better, faster. All in all my season has been ok thus far especially considering the circumstances; ‘On September 20 I had done gym training in the morning and I felt fine training went very well nothing to be worried about. I went to a couple of lectures in the afternoon and I started to ache a bit, sore muscles? When I got home I felt a bit tired and my back hurted.

Well long story short in 5 hours I went from normal to seriously ill. I was admitted to the hospital that night with a high fever and a very sore back. It turned out I had an acute urinary tract infection which has spread to my kidneys in just hours. I stayed in the hospital,l got antibiotics and started to feel better quick. Five days later I went to Austria with the team, well needless to say skiing didn’t go well, I pushed for it and I really shouldn’t have… I got some more antibiotics and then some more again because this was one stubborn infection, just like me honestly. Well I much needed rest and so I did I took the full 6 weeks of rest that was needed to get rid of the stupid bug. I missed out on all the other training weeks in Austria but I did start some light gym training with my physical therapist. It was a long road and still is I’m not fit yet but getting stronger and back on ski’s.’ This was the situation at the Landgraaf races, I did got fitter for the races in December but still was missing some basis. So with the opportunity to train for 6 weeks I could cover the basis better.

December: Pitztal and Lenk races

Ohw damn I have been neglecting this blog so badly, sorry guys, time to catch up month by month.

In the beginning of December I took a trip to Pitztal for IPCAS races Super G (2x) en Giant Slalom, Pitztal was so damn cold -30 brrr. I drove the 1000km to Pitztal alone, which was a bit a challenge considering the blizzards and traffic jams but I made it safe. Nick and Thomas where already there. The first day we trained some Super G, I hadn’t been on my Super long Super G ski’s for almost a year. The next day we had two Super G races scheduled, the first race I was slow, holding back and not attacking. A result of a lack of training and with that a lack of confidence. The next race was a lot, and a LOT better, I climbed one spot and was a lot faster (something like 24 seconds…). In that race I skied my best Super G result 277,78 points.

The next day it was GS time, first run I made a big mistake which cost me some valuable time, second run was pretty good. All in all I was happy with the races in Pitztal, I drove home after the GS race and stayed home for 5 days before leaving for Lenk.

In Lenk I skied my first European Cup races. I arrived in Lenk on December 15, celebrated my birthday the next day on ski’s. December 17^th was the first race day, we started with 2 days of GS, since I’m not GS EC qualified yet I couldn’t race. The first race I was able to be a forerunner, it was a challenging course and I was glad with this opportunity. The next day I did some free skiing on my  own. On December 19^th I skied my first EC slalom, this course was a lot more challenging then IPCAS races, it was much longer and steeper. Unfortunately I straddled a gate in my first run, so no second run for me, I used this time to get some extra training in. The next day a new chance I had a so so first run, bit slow not attacking, I finished 11^th . The second run was much better I started attacking more and I finished 8^th for the run 9^th in the race. After that it was time for Christmas! The Lenk races where a lot of fun, we watched the night slalom races on TV in the lobby of our hotel with the other athletes.