Massage, stretch, ice

  Woke this morning to some fairly heavy rain that continued until mid-morning so I was rather pleased that if I was going to have to miss some skiing it wasn’t a good day for it anyway.

   In fact the coaches decided that no-one would ski in the afternoon and instead they ran a session in the gym. I went along and did the warm up and some exercises at the end that didn’t involve the legs. Apart from that and the cool-down stretching I couldn’t really participate which was a shame because doing somersaults off the small trampoline looked like fun.

  Mostly though I spent the day massaging my sore calves and then stretching them and finally putting an ice pack on them, all in an effort to speed their recovery.

  If I ski tomorrow it will only be for an hour or so of very gentle runs but I’ll wait and see how the calves feel first.

Boo Hoo !

  It snowed a little last night but only a tenth of what we’d been hoping for.  Nevertheless some of us went down to the meeting point with our All Mountain skis hoping that we’d be able to get the higher lifts that weren’t open yesterday and still be able to find untracked powder.

  Unfortunately our ESF coaches had other ideas and we were to spend the day on the Méribel Stade, race training, so I had to go back and swap my skis…  Back on the stade my calves were more painful than yesterday and were getting worse rather than better so I decided to call it a day and went how to arrange an appointment at the physiotherapists.

  The diagnosis was that my Achilles tendon is OK as is the Soleus muscle but the problem lies with both sides of the Gastrocnemius muscles, particularly in the lower section where they join to the Achilles.  I probably suffered some micro-tears and it was very tight, probably simply from over-use (or at least more use than it’s been accustomed to).  So I had some massage and ultrasound and was given some advice on using ice, stretching, massage and anti-infammatories but basically what it needs is time to recover or in other words, rest.

Woo Hoo !

  It snowed overnight – about half a metre at resort level (1600 metres) and probably more higher up.  We were supposed to be slalom training on the Méribel Stade this morning but that was never going to happen with all that fresh powder so we went out with our All Mountain skis on.

  The coaches this week are Laurent and Yannick, who are billed as Méribel’s top race coaches so it’s a bit unfortunate that the forecast is for snow all week as that will make the stade virtually unusable although if there’s fresh snow on the day of the Test Technique it will still go ahead so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get some practice of racing in those conditions.

   Initially we all started off as one big group and went up the Plan de l’Homme chair and set off down Bosses, a black run that was already beginning to get a bit chopped up so we peeled off to ski off-piste down a steep route between the trees.  Fantastic powder, mostly knee-deep but waist-deep in places and you had to be careful to look ahead for gullies, boulders and bushes, all of which were disguised by the snow.

  I lost count of the number of times I fell but the snow was so soft every fall (except one !) was cushioned. Because so many people were falling, waiting for everyone in a big group was causing delays so we split in two.

  Laurent’s group took the Saulire gondola up to the first station (it wasn’t open above this point) and down Mauduit which although a red run might as well have been off-piste. The hardest parts were where the piste surface had been exposed – it was slightly mogulled and with the tracked out powder was very unpredictable.

  Hard work, exhausting in fact, and the visibility was bad, and it was still snowing to boot.  All in all it was not great for my strained achilles/calves so I packed it in after a couple of hours to go back to the chalet and put an ice pack on them.  The treatment seemed to have a positive effect so after lunch I put some ibuprofen gel on them for good measure and then got my slalom skis because we were going to the Méribel Stade this time.

   However when we got there we found that although it had probably been pisted last night the snow was so soft we couldn’t set a course because it would have cut up so badly as to be unskiable within a half a dozen runs.  So we just worked on technique for an hour until Laurent said we’d finish with an hour of free skiing, which meant more variable conditions, so I decided I’d save my sore legs for another day and went back for a bath and a hair cut (a number 2, since that’s the only choice).

   Another 40cm forecast tonight !

Chores day

  It didn’t snow overnight, but it did start snowing great big soft wet flakes around 8am.  After half an hour the flakes began to get smaller and this trend continued until lunchtime when the snow petered out leaving us with another 5cm of fresh snow.

  Meanwhile I had booked a flight for Felix to Grenoble, done my washing and various other odds & sods so I had lunch and rewarded myself by going skiing (well, you have to, don’t you).

  Had to give up after an hour or so as the bottom of my calves/top of my achilles got very sore; not sure why, probably a combination of poor technique on slopes (on and off piste) that were very chopped up and variable conditions from soft sticky powder mixed with moguls and exposed but invisible hard-pack.

  More snow predicted overnight !

The less said the better

  Anyway, Brian Ashton said it all:  We were stuffed by the Irish. 

  The only bright spot was David Strettle who had a brilliant debut (if only he could have matched his England Sevens debut, when he scored 5 tries… in the first half !).  Hopefully Jason Robinson will recover from his neck injury before the game against France and then with Josh Lewsey and Matthew Tait we’ll have some real choice of wings who can also play centre or full back.

   On the skiing front, Saturday mornings is the quietest time on the slopes in most resorts because it’s ‘changeover’ day; Méribel is no exception so I got out for a couple hours this morning and as a bonus it was snowing.  We only had about 5cm but at least it didn’t turn to rain as had been forecast.

  The visibility was poor until lunchtime (when I quit in anticipation of the rain) but it was nice to feel fresh snow underfoot even if the skis were cutting through it to the hard pisted surface below.

  More snow predicted overnight. 

Another day, another instructor.

  Last day of shadowing today and I was with the same group again although as expected it was much depleted.  Perhaps unfortunately for the group they had another different instructor today so they haven’t had the continuity they might have expected but the new instructor, Fred, had the best English of all and was soon cracking jokes.

  From my point of view I was glad to be with the same group and working with 3 different instructors gave me a wider perspective than I would otherwise have had.  Fred let me lead the class for about half the lesson and rather than just giving tips to just one or two at a time I was explaining things to the whole group, so I certainly learnt a lot this week.  The group themselves have also progressed amazingly; mostly complete beginners at the beginning of the week, everyone ended up being able to do basic parallel turns on easy (wide and gentle) pistes.

  Normally trainee instructors should have completed 70 hours of shadowing before starting the BASI Instructors course but in fact I have only done 12½ and that’s all that have been scheduled for this course.  From what some of the other trainees have said I can imagine the full 70 hours could get quite boring (particularly with the kids’ classes where it seems that it’s more of a crèche on skis).

  Nevertheless I think I would have benefited from doing more, particularly if I were shadowing classes of different types, say a children’s intermediate and an adult advanced, perhaps with one of the classes being in French.  If I were to be involved in the teaching as much as I have been with ‘my’ group then boredom wouldn’t be a factor at all; quite the reverse, I’ve really enjoyed helping everyone and watching them progress.

Eep’s birthday

  Happy Birthday Eep !

  The class was slightly depleted this morning as a couple didn’t turn up and instead of Loic we had Hervé.   So the class had to get used to a new instructor and Hervé had to play it safe consequently we went up to the mid station of the Pas du Lac bubble and took Chardonneret, a fairly easy blue run, across to the Altiport; a beginners area alongside a landing strip (have a look at the piste map if you want to get a better idea of the ski area).

  Then it was down Rhodos, a green run although it’s narrow towards the end, to the mid station of the Rhodos bubble which we caught down to Méribel before catching the Tougnete bubble up to the first station where we got off and skied back to Mottaret on the same run as we’d skied back yesterday.  This last run proved to everyone that didn’t already believe it that they had improved as no-one had any problems, unlike yesterday, and we skied it quicker too.

   Today was the last day of instruction for half the class so we’ll be even fewer tomorrow and we’ll have a different instructor again even if the class isn’t merged with another.  Hopefully I’ll be with the same class because it would be nice to see them through to the end of their class.

Leading the class (just like a real ski instructor)

  We started the morning by taking Truite down to Méribel; some of the class had gone down it yesterday afternoon when it was hard and rutted so were rather wary despite the fact it’s a green run.  It was in reasonable condition this morning having been bashed overnight so everyone found it easier than they expected (always good for confidence).

  Then we went up the Plan du l’homme chairlift for an easy blue and back up a button before I had a crack at leading the class down a rolling blue back to Mottaret - fortunately I didn’t lose anyone

  I don’t think I’ll be with Loic tomorrow, which is a shame because I’ve learnt a lot from just observing him and he’s involved me in the instruction side much more than I’d anticipated.

   So a big thanks to Loic.

 

French Lesson

  The morning was spent shadowing again (which meant I got to wear an ESF jacket again !).  This time we took a chair lift up to an easy blue, which was the first time on a chair for half the group.  No-one had any problems getting on the lift although there was one faller getting off and two others had a coming together on dismount but stayed on their feet.  The blue run, though easy, had a road section in the middle which proved quite threatening to a couple of the group but they eventually got to a steeper section where they proved that they could turn where and when they wanted and in a narrow corridor when the piste is wider – didn’t do the road again today so hopefully they’ll remember tomorrow that they can do it.

  Most of the morning was spent on an easy blue with a button lift alongside doing exercises.  As the morning progressed so did the pupils’ skiing and we got off the lift higher and higher up until we were going to the top.  Because we were going higher, to steeper parts of the slope, the skiing seemed more challenging so we had to remind everyone how much their skiing had improved.

  For a few their snow plough turns are naturally becoming more parallel without being specifically taught to ski parallel.  It’s not quite the BASI way but for most of the group it seems to be working.

  After the lesson was over I went for a few runs for myself, while the slopes were quiet during the lunch hours.  Then it was back to the chalet for a lazy afternoon until 5:30 when we had our French lesson.

  I think my French is pretty poor, after all I did my O-level 30 years ago and haven’t had a lesson since but everyone else was struggling much more than me.  Nevertheless I’ll have to put in a fair amount of effort to learn all the conversational phrases we were taught so we could make small talk with our clients.

Shadowing

  We were asked to wear our BASI jackets while we were shadowing but mine hasn’t been delivered yet so last night I had to borrow one from someone who is shadowing in the afternoon.  Then I had to get myself over to Mottaret by 9:15, which meant the first lift from Méribel.

  As it turned out we were then given ESF jackets to wear while we were shadowing.  Cool !   I was placed with an adult beginners class with an age range of 14 to 40 and abilities ranging from complete, never skied before, beginners to 1 week 10 years ago beginners.  Mostly English and all English-speaking so I won’t be picking up much French vocabulary in this class although the instructor, Loic (low-eek), does talk to me in French half the time.

  We started on a very gentle slope with a rope tow and everybody quickly got the hang of sliding (straight running) and snow ploughs.  Rather than simply observing I was about a third of the way up the piste and the real instructor was at the bottom so we could keep the pupils more active by sending them back up to me as soon as they’d done their run.  With 14 in the class it would have been tedious to collect everyone at the bottom and go up all together.

  As the class found they could steer and slow down when they needed to we started going higher up the rope tow and getting longer runs.  We soon set up an easy slalom course using ski poles and I took over at the bottom, giving some feedback to the pupils as they finished their run.  We kept the course up for over an hour, using increasingly difficult exercises to get the pupils to go a little faster and to steer more.

  Then we were off to a drag lift alongside a steeper piste.  For at least half the class it was the first time on a button lift but fortunately no-one fell off.  The piste though proved more challenging; for some it was because they were getting tired after 2 hours skiing.  For one or two it was because they hadn’t mastered the snow plough turn enough to cope on a steeper slope and for a couple it was a matter of confidence.

  However everyone made it down and went around for a second run which was good – it gave me quite a buzz seeing everyone improve in just two and a half hours.