The return to Chile came quickly after an action-packed ten days at home between camps. When I signed off in my last post, I was working on the final preparations to launch this year’s Helmet4Hope contest and fundraiser, I was eager to spend some time fishing as the salmon returned to the rivers, but I had also completely seized my back up on the last day of skiing in Portillo. Taking care of my body was the number one priority to make sure I was ready to ski again, but of course I was eager to squeeze in some extra-curricular activities as well before going “back to work”. I am learning fast that those passions outside of skiing are what rejuvenate me most and make me feel fresh once I get back on snow. Many of the European athletes I have spoken with shared that their teams opted to stay in South America for 4-6 weeks straight rather that go back and forth multiple times. We’ve done it that way before and I can attest to how much more it wears on me to be down there for so long. While the travel from Canada to Chile is always a long ordeal, I was still grateful to have that short break in between camps.
I was also very thankful that once my back muscles had calmed down from the initial spasm, things seemed to improve quickly and without any major underlying problem. I was right back in the gym, building up slowly and methodically with a modified program. The best news was that standing in the river with my fishing rod for a few hours at a time didn’t seem to aggravate it either. I was able to cross off my goal of catching a salmon on the fly rod, and in fact surpassed it by bringing home 6 to filet for the freezer. Then it was time to make the trek back down South, which would be a three day affair this time around. It takes en extra day and a 7-hour bus ride from Santiago to get to Nevados de Chillan, the site of our second camp. Similar to the time leading up to the first camp, all the talk was about how little snow there was on the hill this year. It was already looking super thin and there were concerns about being able to ski for another two weeks. And in a classic deja-vu moment, we arrived in Chillan to a massive snow storm that magically made everything look wintery again. Go figure.
The fresh snow bought us some more time in terms of the coverage, but as soon as the storm passed the warm temps returned. We spent the first few days training GS due to the soft, fresh snow, but already the surface wasn’t freezing overnight. Unfortunately for me, I was taken down by food poisoning on the one day of our first week that seemed to have good snow. For the first couple days on the speed skis, the snow was so dense and wet that it almost felt solid underfoot… almost. But the wind was strangely hot for being half way up a snow-covered mountain, and sure enough there was another small storm on the horizon. We managed to time a day off perfectly as the weather rolled through and blew huge wind drifts all over the downhill course on the upper mountain. Finally the weather stabilized a bit as we got back to downhill training, but the daytime temperatures were back up into the teens and once again the snow was melting fast. When we arrived there was at least a foot of fresh snow on the ground right outside our ski room. Now we were walking about 100 meters through the dirt to get to the snow, and dodging rocks while riding up the T-bar on an ultra-thin strip of dirty white. But winter wasn’t done yet as another massive storm entered the forecast threatening to dump 40-50cm on us again. With only a few days left in our camp, our team decided it was probably a better move to head home a bit early rather than fight to get one or two more half-decent training days. So we wrapped up our camp with 5 runs of super G on a Friday morning, lunch at the hotel, the 7-hour bus ride to Santiago, a 1:15am flight to Panama, then Chicago, and finally landing in Vancouver at 10:15pm Saturday night. Easy peasy.
As I break down the summary of our camp now, I realize it sounds like it was a bit of a mess. There were certainly lots of challenges with weather and I suppose not many days with high-quality conditions. However, I think there were still quite a few positive things to come out of it. For one, we got so much done during our first camp in Portillo that we weren’t exactly hurting for reps. We were already “warmed up” from the first camp and poised to get the most out of the good weather days that we did have. I felt like I made strong gains in Portillo, but my goal for the second camp was to see if I could translate that onto the much flatter Chillan downhill track. Gliding has always been my biggest weakness, but for the first time in my career I found myself competing with the other guys on the flat sections. After years of trying to improve my gliding I wish I could tell you that I figured out some big secret, but to be honest I’m not really sure what changed. I’m just hoping I can keep that up when winter comes around and it actually matters.
This year we are fortunate to have one last lengthy break at home through the rest of October before we take off again and the season is essentially underway. After missing many Thanksgiving dinners over the years, I’m looking forward to being home to carve the turkey this year. On second thought, I’m definitely looking forward to the stuffing more. It’s also time for another short trip to Calgary to do our end-of-summer fitness testing in the lab, so I just have to make sure I take it a little easy on the gravy. It’s a bit crazy to think we just have a couple more weeks of training in November before the racing starts in Colorado, but I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself. For now it’s time to make the most of my last weeks at home, and of course enjoy finding out what my new helmet design will look like!
Happy Thanksgiving eh!
Brodie:
I really enjoyed reading this latest Blog.
I have been fishing too and its great this year.
The ALS /MS pickle Ball Tournament was good again this year with some decent funds raised.
Have a great Racing Season .. looking forward to skiing at Whistler and getting Joe out there again .
If you ever want to tune up your PB give me a shout
The best to your Dad. His strength is always a pillar of life for so many.
Drew
Take care,
Drew