Today was the first race of the season and I was really happy to finish 9th. Good skiing both runs and I'm really happy with the progess I'm making in training too. I'm heading home for Christmas and I can't wait to restart the action in 2017... Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
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I'm so happy to announce that I'm joining the team at Summit Worldwide! They do some awesome goggles and I'm really excited to use them this season. I head back out to the Alps this Sunday for the start of my winter season and I can't wait to get back on skis, especially with my new goggles. A huge thanks goes to Summit Worldwide for sorting them out so quickly! That's all for now, but follow me on Social media for more regular updates! So on Friday I took a trip to Castleford Xscape to have a go on "The Orbit" in the Snowzone there. If you don't know what The Orbit is... Well it's basically a treadmill for skiing. It's pretty awesome and so much fun! Admittedly it is slightly different to skiing itself, however that makes it more exciting because you have to adapt to stay on your feet! It's really hard work too, it doesn't stop until you fall or are so tired you have to ask the instructor to stop the machine so you can take a break, so its just like a more entertaining and skilful gym session really! Technically I think that it helped my skiing technique too because it makes you have to commit to your outside ski at the top of the turn, a crucial element in being able to being a fast ski racer. Check out my videos on facebook and Instagram ! Want to read about how my October training went from day 1 in one article? Read my latest blog for the George Fisher community here!
The past 3 weeks on snow have been pretty amazing. In the beginning I started off with slow drills and free skiing and by the end of the last week I was able to get into gates which was really awesome. Having started off in Hintertux (Austria), and then moving to Les Deux Alpes (France) for the last week worked out well, and gave me the chance to really try lots of different terrain and snow conditions. I feel like I have learnt a lot and a huge thanks goes out to all the coaches and staff at the British Ski Academy (BSA) for teaching it all to me! One of the drills (ski pratices) that I spent a lot of time doing was the snowplough, and you might ask why was I doing a snowplough when I can carve, but if you can find your balance and really feel your skis when snowploughing it means that you can really work on technical issues (such as keeping your upper body down the hill) and nail it every turn without losing the quality of your turns. Then, when you build back the speed into carved turns, and there is so much more to think about (such as bumps, terrain changes, other members of the public) it's so much easier to master what you were working on because you have already don't it whilst you were skiing and so the "muscle memory" is there. Now I have 3 weeks at home to focus on fitness (strength, endurance etc) before heading back out to the alps... I can't wait! I have made a short video of my training over the past 3 weeks, which is below. Note the snowploughs at the start have a few slight variances to the normal snowploughs... See if you can spot what they are! It's been an incredible week skiing in Hintertux. The first few days were really foggy and snowy, but towards the end of the week it brightened up and it was awesome to take in some of the views! We started the week on Slalom and although I haven't got into gates yet, it has been really useful just to be doing drills all week and I feel as though I have really improved. Because of the snow conditions in the first few days it made skiing really challenging, a bit like moguls but it was great to ski in these tough conditions because that's what races can be like! On the last day of slalom we followed the ruts of a pro-slalom course which was awesome because it gave me confidence that I would be able to get into gates soon and helped up the tempo of my turns. I've got a day off tomorrow for rest and recovery and I can't wait to get back on skis again for another incredible week skiing (maybe with some gates too!) next week! :D
It's been quite a while since I've gone down a mountain on skis and its about time to go again! My leg has recovered and I'm really happy with the progress I've been making with my fitness regime, part of which has been exploring the beautiful place where I live on foot. Gradually being able to increase the length and difficulty of the walks/hikes has been really satisfying and I feel like I have really achieved something. It was actually a lot more fun than it sounds too! However, it's now time to leave the walking boots behind and stick on 2 planks of wood instead, I'm so excited! I head to Austria for training tomorrow and I can't wait to go down mountains on skis again (far much easier and faster than walking ;) )! I'll keep you posted with how it's going! Ever wondered what it's really like to be an alpine ski racer from Great Britain? Well you've come to the right place because earlier this year I posted on the George Fishers Community about how I was finding it... Click here to read it!
Hello! Here I'll be keeping you up to date with how my seasons going and what's going on, so stick around to be in the loop :)
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AuthorFrancesca Lee Archives
October 2018
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