All,
A little respite from GDHL before the big final weekend, and an opportunity for good training to prepare for the final push. Hopefully the snow will have ended by the time most of us are able to drive north and will be timed so as to be groomed out, rather than side slipped. Not that we should be fussy about snowfall, but I think we’re entitled to a bit of consideration from the weather for a change. See the side slipping reminders at the bottom of this message just in case!
SCHEDULE
We will be training GS Saturday and Sunday at 0930 on Birches. Watch the board at the National Chair for any updates. We expect to have timing set for both sessions.
No GDHL, but Interclub is at Craigleith on Saturday afternoon. It is GS and we look to see whether we can win a fourth straight team race, clinch the regular season championship and set ourselves up for the finals at the end of the month.
Friday training is GS in the morning and afternoon.
Looking ahead to the Family Day weekend when there are two GDHL races scheduled, please let us know if you have thoughts about training. We are considering having dual SL on Saturday morning to give more people an opportunity to brush up before Saturday afternoon’s final SL of the year.
GDHL / INTERCLUB
Last Sunday's GS race featured a challenging surface, but that did not keep Jeff Sutherland from recording a faster time in his second run and continuing his excellent inaugural GDHL season with a third-place finish. Doug Jarvis lost his posted twenty-something time in his first run to a timing malfunction, but rebounded with a strong rerun and an equally good second run to finish sixth overall, his best result yet in his rookie season. Peter Rockandel continued his strong season with a seventh place finish, while JF Courville got a nice return on his investment in bib 1 and a few last-minute runs in the morning training session to finish 10th.
Glenn Blaylock continues to demonstrate that the path to ski racing success is in part to recover from illness and retire from work as he finished 11th. Craig Shibley finished 12th despite ending up with only one ski in the finish area, while Randy Dalton appeared to be at risk of a different kind of crash and burn in the finish area. (Trent 94, Randy 91. I have Trent's best scores as 102, 97, 96 and 94, with Randy at 104, 98, 95 and 95, which leaves Randy at +3 with two races to go.) Jerry Patten had another highlight, finishing 23rd from his 41st seed, while Byron Darlison was 32nd from 50, Stephanie Biddell was 33rd from 56, Michael Thompson had another big jump from 94th seed to 47 finish, Rob Bruce was 54th from 76 and Tim Lute was 58th from 85.
Meanwhile, Saturday's Interclub race resulted in a Craigleith victory in slalom by a three-point margin over Osler. Allan LaChance says that Craigleith beat Osler at their club back in the day when Leo Vogrin and Rob Safrata skied for Craigleith, but this is the first time I remember it happening. Results are attached.
Anne Mathers, Allan LaChance, Jeff Sutherland and Greg Cavers were among the category winners for Craigleith. Meanwhile, Chris Fregren made a strong debut scoring 26 points. Craigleith now holds a 41 point lead over Osler in the overall standings (without any adjustment for there being different numbers of points available in different races because of different numbers of teams). Osler, TSC and Jozo Weider 2 are the opponents at Craigleith on Saturday.
SELF IMPROVEMENT / LIVE IN HOPE
Last weekend we timed everyone from the start to the first gate. Those who worked hard and had reasonable technique were generally within 0.2 or 0.3 of a second of each other, but those who dawdled or stumbled lost much more than that. We did not have a ramp, which makes a difference. It seemed to me that those who were fastest were using a small kick through the wand followed by about three good skates with double pole pushes. They were able to do their skating smoothly and in balance, then carried their momentum into the first turn. They did not pinch the first gate in the hopes of cutting a fraction off their time at the cost of not having a good line to the second gate. Their first steps out of the gate also landed them in a skating (i.e. skis diverging at the tips, rather than parallel) position.
Here is a link to an article with some more thoughts about starting.
Some did not see the same good technique that I saw in the picture of Marie-Michelle Gagnon that I included last week. She finished sixth in the World Cup race at which the picture was taken, so it cannot have been all bad, but it reminds me of it taking 10 ski instructors to change a light bulb (one to rotate the bulb and nine to comment on the turns).
Attached is a sneak preview of an opportunity to ski with the Canadian Cowboys in Collingwood next month, and also check out next year’s Spyder race suit for CAST (in some respects, this seems an unfortunate acronym for the Canadian Alpine Ski Team). Try this if you don't get your fill of skiing from the NZ Dawn to Dusk race.
Our injured program members got good company this week as both Lindsey Vonn and Kjetil Jansrud suffered serious knee injuries during Super G races that seemed to be the causes rather than the results of their falls in the races. Hopefully they will both be back to full form next year. As we have seen with the Canadians, recovery can be a long process and the margin between winner and also ran at the World Cup level is very slim. Fortunately, GDHL is more forgiving that way and, as we have seen, a couple of years on the disabled list seems sometimes to be a recipe for GDHL success.
FASHION NEWS
Here is Carrie at work on Sunday in the Hera jacket in Black with Sunrise (orange) and Splash (blue) accents and Splash pants. Saturday had featured the Verve jacket in 'Flirt' (pink) with “Boring Black” pants (perhaps not the official designation). Disappointed male bystanders apparently felt that classic black ski pants don't have the same cachet as the classic "little black dress.”
DIVERSIONS
Things that are difficult to say when you're drunk: cinnamon, indubitably, innovative, preliminary, proliferation
Things that are VERY difficult to say when you're drunk: British constitution, loquacious trans-substantiate, passive-aggressive disorder, speciality
Things that are downright IMPOSSIBLE say when you're drunk: "Thanks, but I don't want to have sex." "Nope, no more alcohol for me." "Oh, I just couldn't! No one wants to hear me sing." "You are quite right, I can't jump over that table."
JWM
SIDE SLIPPING is an unavoidable part of training gates, but there are a number of different techniques that can be employed, depending on the objective. Most basic is “slipping the line,” which is relevant before training if there is a small amount of unevenness or loose snow on the course and between runs to try to smooth out small ruts and chatter marks. This involves skiing the racing line in a high speed snow plow, and may be supplemented by special effort to knock down small berms or ruts in the area of the gates. If there is a bit more loose snow, you may be asked to “slip wide.” This is often done in pairs and involves slipping on either side of the racing line, only pushing loose snow farther to the side you’re slipping. For example, if you are slipping wide right, you will be plowing with your right ski, you will ski wide of the left turn gates, pushing snow outside them, ski low towards the next right turn gate pushing snow downhill as you approach the gate and then ski high from that gate to the next left turn gate, pushing snow uphill until you start down the fall-line wide of the next gate. Last Sunday, we were able to clear 10 cm. or so of fresh snow from our SL course fairly quickly by having teams snow plow straight down through the course in a V formation, with all snow being pushed by successive team members out either side. If there is more snow or a wider GS course, it may not be possible to sweep the course entirely. In that case, it may be best to set a high track and then have people simply push snow straight down from the top of the track to a level approximately even with the next gate, then release it there and start again at the top of the track when it starts again below the gate. Finally, after training on days like we had last weekend, when large ruts develop, our goal is to fill in the ruts. This involves snow plowing outside the berms and pushing them back into the ruts. Again, it is likely best to only slip one side of the course when doing this.