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).

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.

Chamois on the Méribel Stade

  Back to race training today; on the Méribel Stade, which fortunately was a lot firmer than it was a couple of days ago.

  The Méribel Stade is a lot steeper than the Mottaret Stade and I think I need a fair bit more practice on the steeper sections because my performance in the morning was pretty poor.

  It didn’t improve in the afternoon either – we did the Chamois and my time only qualified as Bronze standard; I’m going to have to improve considerably to pass the French ‘Test Technique’

Valentine’s Day Dinner

  We started the day on a slalom course on the Méribel Stade where the snow was soft and deep and cutting up very badly.  On the first run I hit the fourth gate full on with my uphill ski which promptly detached itself from my boot and shortly afterwards I was inspecting the snow surface rather more closely than is necessary.  The impact had left me with a slight pull in my right calf but otherwise I seemed undamaged so I removed my remaining ski, retrieved the lost ski and for some reason put them back on the opposite feet to what they’d been on.  Then I went round again and gave the course a second shot.

  The fourth gate is a right-hander and, apart from the deep ruts round all the gates, there seemed nothing particularly difficult about it.  Nevertheless for some reason I again hit the gate dead centre with my right ski, with the same predictable consequences but at least I know that the bindings on both skis release in a forwards direction.

  The pull in my right calf was a bit more painful than before but I was fairly wound up so I put my ski back on and continued down the course.  For about three gates, until I fell again, this time pulling a muscle in my left calf.

  I finally got the message and decided to quit the Méribel Stade and practise some technique (which I’m clearly lacking) on the piste.  I was hoping to ‘run off’ the strained muscles before the ‘Chamois’, a timed run which we were planning to do at the Mottaret Stade around noon so I skied on over there but the strains didn’t really ease.

  So obviously entering the race would be a bad idea but since I was there and Felix had come over to meet me and watch me race I was obviously going to give it a go, despite the fact it was now spitting with rain.

  Probably because there were quite a few kids from the local ski clubs racing the course was shorter than we have been skiing and it had a very flat start.  Maybe that worked in my favour because I scored a silver placing where my previous best had been bronze, although I don’t know what the pace-setter’s time was nor my own or even what percentage of the pace-setter’s time was required to get silver.

  Felix and I lunched in Chez Bibi because I still wanted to try the galettes – I won’t be having another there, although Felix’s croque monsieur was very nice.  The weather though wasn’t so nice – the rain had set in so we decided to get up high where hopefully it would be snowing and have a long run home.

  Higher up it was indeed snowing, horizontally !  The strong wind made the first few minutes really quite unpleasant after which it eased and the flat light and poor visibility made the next few minutes quite unpleasant and then we were back into the rain for the last few minutes so were quite glad to call it a day and dry off.

  Splashed out on dinner tonight (well you have to, don’t you); we went to Chez Kiki, which is probably the most famous restaurant in Méribel.  It is quite possibly the most expensive too but the food was absolutely superb – we shared the speciality; Côte de Boeuf, accompanied by a very nice Burgundy.

Dead Legs

  We did another timed slalom this morning.  As we improve so the courses get longer and more challenging.  Today I found it particularly challenging as my legs simply refused to play.  In fact an increasing number of people having been skipping sessions over the past week for no good reason and yesterday afternoon we were down by nearly half.

  The ESF coaches have recognised the increasing level of fatigue and have scheduled a ‘rest week’ for the week after next.  It won’t be a complete break, we’ll probably be doing half days possibly shadowing or snowboarding or even both (if we do full days) but we won’t be race training.

  I’ll be easing up a bit earlier as Felix is arriving in Méribel tomorrow so all next week I’ll be race training in the mornings and then skiing with Felix in the afternoons.  I’ll (we’ll) be staying in a different chalet and I’ve no idea if I’ll be able to get an internet connection there, so it might go rather quiet on the blog for the next week…

Training

  This morning we went up Saulire and our coaches closed off the Mauduit piste and set up and GS course for us.  Mauduit is marked as a red run on the map but black on the map at the bottom of the Combe drag lift.  The course started below the steepest pitch (which definitely looked like it qualified as a black) but the slope was still fairly steep.  As Alain put it, we’re training and we have to give 100% every run.  We also have to take risks but then it’s sometimes quicker overall to take a wider line in parts of the course to set up the right line in a subsequent part.  Now I’m starting to get confused and I still have to remember to adopt a wider stance, get my weight forward and more on the downhill ski and get pressure on the front of the boot while angulating (with the knees) more while separating the upper body from the lower… Sod it, I’ll just take a wide line for the first couple of gates, then give it 100% and get into a tuck before I hit the flat section.

  Seemed to work quite well but before the next run the radio crackled into life and Alain was telling me to take a tighter line through the early gates.

  Having just watched two of the previous three starters fall quite spectacularly I wasn’t that keen but I gave it a shot anyway and was pleasantly surprised at the extra speed, until I hit the last three gates where the line I’d previously taken wasn’t so good at a higher speed but I got away with it.

  In the afternoon we were back at the Mottaret Stade and back on a slalom course.  As a result of the morning’s exertions I was making heavy weather of it and then the weather closed in and we found ourselves skiing down a slalom course in thick fog with tired legs.  Not a good combination so I was quite relieved when the session was over.

  Tuesday is the chalet staff’s day off so we have to eat out.  Last Tuesday we went to La Flambee, where, for €25, we had a very nice pizza but pretty awful wine.  Tonight we went to La Galette and eschewing the galettes I had tartiflette and a very nice cider; and for the same price it was much better value.

  Now I just need my poor legs to recover before tomorrow.

New Coaches

  We got down to Chaudanne around 9:20 this morning and met our new coaches, Alain and Christelle, a couple of minutes later.  The morning was on the piste, where we attempted to demonstrate carved turns with a giant slalom radius (20 – 25 metres).  Last week I was struggling to carve because I wasn’t angulating enough but on my first run today Alain identified a likely cause:  I tend to bring my skis together during the turn (and with my legs together it’s all but impossible to angulate).

  So it’s simple, I just need to keep my feet apart and I’ll be able to carve.  Hmm.

  Look here for more on angulation (with pictures, about three-quarters the way down the first page).

  This afternoon we were back on the Mottaret Stade, where Alain and Cristal had laid out a giant slalom course for us.

  Enormous fun (and my legs know they’ve had a workout).

Timed Slalom Again

  This morning’s course seemed slightly more challenging, starting as it did on a steeper pitch.  That said, it flattened off after 4 gates and then even went uphill slightly through a pair of double gates before resuming it’s downhill trajectory.  The target time was set by Lionel (one of our coaches) and our times are then graded as Or (Gold), Vermeil (Red), Argent (Silver), Bronze (!), Cabri (?) depending on how close we get to the target.

  Once again I found myself propping up the leader board, although on this occasion my time qualified for the bronze category (yesterday I didn’t even make the Cabri), so a definite improvement.

  However, the improvement was probably due more to a determined effort rather than better technique.  This was confirmed by the video of our first run, which clearly showed what I felt was my major problem; I don’t angulate enough and as a result I don’t get enough edge and so my skis skid and I lose speed.

  I’ll have to make a point of working on this next week as it was something that the rest of the crew focussed on last week when I was lying on my sick bed (not that I’m making excuses !).

  The afternoon was a bit of fun on the piste and ended earlier than usual with a drink at Ronnie’s (Le Rond-Point) to say goodbye (for the time being at least) to our coaches, Carole and Lionel.

Timed Slalom

  This morning we did 4 timed runs down a 33-gate slalom course on the Mottaret Stade.  The rest of the crew had a go at this last week but it was a first for me.  Not a particularly successful one either as I propped up the leader board, in last place.  Despite the disappointing result, it was enjoyable (and exhausting); it was also the first time I’ve had a real measure to give me an idea of how much I need to improve.  So it would seem that, as Yazz sang, the only way is up.

  This afternoon we trained through a comedy course… It started with half a dozen impossibly tight turns (marked with brushes rather than poles, so we wouldn’t be tripped too badly when we failed to make all the turns).  Then there were half a dozen slalom turns marked with stubbies, followed by three poles laid flat on the snow which we had to jump over, then half a dozen slalom turns marked with full-sized poles and finally half a dozen GS turns (marked with GS gates).

  I have to admit I didn’t expect race training to be this much fun.

Dual Slalom

  This morning was mostly spent on dual slalom, one course of stubbies and a parallel course of full-sized poles.  I think the aim was to get us fired up and attacking the course but the element of competition also tended to be a distraction from technique and line with the result that quite a few of us crashed out.

  Hard work but fun.

  Once the course became rutted (and in places unpleasantly icy) we switched to a line of poles that ran straight down the fall with the occaisional pole out to the side.  Fortunately this was on a fairly flat section as the aim was to get the body travelling straight down the fall line with only our legs going right and left to avoid the poles.

  Quite challenging as you clattered into the poles at increasing speed and frequency. I’d guess that around half the attempts failed to complete the course and that included quite a few fallers.

  After probably the most physically demanding session so far we were given the afternoon off, with instructions not to ski but relax (and prepare our skis).

  So now my skis are freshly edged and waxed (and half my clothes are now dripping onto the bathroom floor).