Sorely tempted

  I thought I’d already decided not to do any more race training in order to let my calves recover and to avoid a recurrence of the strains that have meant that I haven’t skied for the best part of the past 2 weeks.  Nevertheless when I found that this morning everyone was going over to train on the stade at Les Menuires where the Test Technique will be held on Tuesday I was sorely tempted.

  Eventually common sense prevailed and instead of my race kit I went out with my all mountain skis but I still skied over to Les Menuires only to find that I was there before everyone else.

  The snow conditions have changed enormously during the week I’ve been away; the lower slopes are now very soft and there doesn’t seem to be any decent snow below at least 2000m and really you have to get above 2300 to find consistently good snow.

  So I skied on to Val Thorens to gain some height and after stooging around for a while decided I’d better not overdo it on my first day back on skis so headed back to Méribel.

  A good morning’s skiing and no pain from the calves, although they were a bit stiff by the time I got back to the chalet.  I’ll have to see how they feel tomorrow but ideally I’d like to ski all day (as there are usually far fewer people on the pistes on Saturday because its change-over day).