All,
Thanks to the 60 or so of you who participated in our last minute New Year's sessions. Now on to the nine week program! We have over 50 signed up for the Saturday and Sunday sessions. While I expect we will often be able to accommodate attendance adjustments as in the past, those signed up for a particular day will have priority on that day. This will be particularly relevant tomorrow morning.
We have some new participants this year. I have tried to find email addresses for them. We also have more second generation participants this year, which is great.
Here is the weekend schedule:
Saturday training is GS, starting at 0930. We expect to be on Venture. We will put a note on the board at the National chair to confirm. Please be sure to help with slipping at the end for those following us.
BECAUSE OF THE GDHL RACE SUNDAY, SUNDAY TRAINING IS MOVED TO SATURDAY AFTERNOON. We will also be doing GS. Again, we expect to be on Venture and will confirm on the National chair board. We will start as close to 1230 as resetting etc. allows.
GDHL Calcutta is in the South Lodge at 5:00 pm Saturday, preceded by a tuning clinic from Squire John's at 4:30.
First GDHL race is GS on Big John at 1000 Sunday. Please be there early (say 0920ish) to inspect as I understand there is another race scheduled to follow ours, so timeliness is important. (I think this is what Supervisor Cindy meant in her New Year's Eve email message to me.)
FYI, we will likely be training SL next weekend, to reflect the GDHL schedule. The Sunday class will likely move to Sunday afternoon because of the GDHL race on Sunday morning.
Finally, please permit me a few thoughts about being a weekend warrior:
- The racers we watch on tv, and whose skiing we aspire to, do dryland and on-snow training, get medical attention, eat, sleep and (don't) drink as if their job depends on it, because that is their job and it does. (JF and I did a bit of dryland with a US development team racer this fall. Among other things, he did 500 consecutive situps. We did fewer. He also had promised his parents that he wouldn't drink until he quit racing, although he was quite keen on guns.)
- The gap between the performance potential of the equipment that we use and the equipment that the World Cup racers use is much smaller than the gap between our skills and athleticism and theirs.
- Ski racing is technically very difficult and physically demanding. Sadly, we are not going to become consistent winners overnight. In fact, there are enough of us training (and buying) hard that we're doing well to maintain our results even if our skills are improving. Still, I think we as a group are better skiers and more fit than most of the escarpment population, so if we keep working hard there will be some golden moments. (Hint: find someone to be Trent to your Randy, or Tiana to your Byron.)
- Skiing and ski racing are inherently risky activities. Each of your coaches has had a significant skiing injury in the last couple of seasons. Fortunately, it hasn't diminished our enthusiasm, but we recognize and accept that sh*t happens.
- So, please think about how hard you should go in your first few gate training runs of the year at the Club, especially if you can't do 500 consecutive situps, haven't had 40 or 50 days on snow already and maybe haven't had any warmup runs that morning. And please don't be upset if we have to fit in a few sideslips between runs, or if Carrie suggests that you've had enough runs for the day. It's a pretty long season and a long life, and the chances of your eureka moment coming on that one extra run are pretty slim.
See you tomorrow!
JWM
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Subject: RE: Craigleith Adult Gates - New Year's Training Update
Here is the URL for the video shot this morning. Thanks to Sarunas (Mr. Carrie).
Friday we will do GS in the morning and will do SL as soon as we can in the pm.
And here is a video that has nothing to do with skiing except it was used in an Alpine Canada presentation about safety and the need to take responsibility.
See you on the hill!
JWM
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All,
Great first day of the special camp, despite limited visibility. There have been requests for some slalom training, as the second GDHL race is slalom. We are working with some constraints on scheduling so that we can coordinate with other groups that are training. As a result, it looks as if we will do GS for the next two mornings, probably on Big John as with today, and will do SL on Friday afternoon, probably on Venture.
See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
JWM
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Now that I have safely sent the important news, here is some amusement, and another installment of how to start a fight:
I took my wife to a disco on the weekend. There was a guy on the dance floor giving it large; breakdancing, moonwalking, backflips, jiving, the works. My Wife turned to me and said, " See that guy? 25 years ago he proposed to me and I turned him down." I said, " Looks like he's still celebrating!!" And then the fight started ...
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Hello All,
Skiing and gate training at Craigleith are getting better by the day! We have one more day of our Christmas Camp. Today saw full gate GS training and video. (We are checking to see whether in fact the video recorder is only replaying in slow motion.)
In response to a number of expressions of interest, the Club has agreed to offer more adult gate training next week. The schedule will be Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings from 0930 to 1130 and Friday afternoon from 1230 to 1430. This will be GS training and, depending on numbers, the hill space may be shared with a small group training with Dan Hadley. Cost is $215 for four sessions or $65 for each one.
I understand a number of people have already signed up, but it is important that you do so pronto if you want to participate, so that the Club can confirm that there is sufficient interest to proceed with the sessions and/or maybe provide separate hill space. See Laurel Armstrong in the Club admin office, or email her if you're not at the Club.
Hard to believe that the first day of the nine week program will be finished by this time next week, and the GDHL Calcutta will be getting underway. Since the first race of the GDHL season is next Sunday morning, we will reschedule the Sunday morning session of the nine week program to Saturday afternoon next week only, so that those in the Sunday session will have a chance to train before the GDHL race. The Saturday session will proceed as usual on Saturday morning for those registered in it.
See you at the Club!
JWM