Training Log: May 11: in which we find a dead deer

Hiked Kirk Hill as fast as I could to the Hodgeman Canyon trail, and, since I've never been down there, I decided to see where it went. Of course, I forgot my camera in the car, so I can't post a photo of the AMAZING full deer skeleton that Wya (my dog) and I found down by the creek in the canyon.

It was laying down on it's stomach, and it was picked clean to the white bone, except for the legs, which, from below the knee down had fur and the hoofs. Otherwise, the inhabitants of the Kirk Hill area had been eating well for a month on that thing! It was oddly beautiful to see.

Anyhow, it was a lovely hike. Gym later that night, chest day. Chest Press, Dumbell Flys, Bench Press, Front, Lat shoulder raises on one foot on the Bosu ball, rear delt cable pull on same, assisted pull ups, tricep pull downs, abs on the ball and incline bench. Shannon worked out to failure for the first time today! YEAH!

Training Log: May 10

No cardio... today is DENTIST day! Yeah! Got my stitches cut out of the gnarly surgery site in my mouth, and had my new front tooth put on (because my three year old broke it in half by head butting me back in February... yay!)

Back day at the gym: Lat pull downs, seated row, hyper extensions, abs on the ball, abs on the incline bench, preacher curls.

Reality Check: Food Deamons

Okay. Here goes. I think its important that people know that while it is fun and exciting to be training, there was a period in my life where getting physically back to a place where I could train seemed impossible. I am writing this blog as REAL as I can, which means that I need to FESS UP to being a former fatty. This is what I used to look like, only add 20lbs, because I don't have any photos of myself that fat. The highest weight, (more than two years post my last preganacy...) 189 ladies and gentlemen. And 42% body fat. And just stable there. Ugh.

This photo is from about 2 years ago, and I packed that extra 20lbs on when we moved to Montana. Alright. Now you know.

This is not something I really WANT the world to know, because I am ashamed of it. I hated my body, I hated how weak and slow and ugly I felt. I liked to tell everyone that when I got pregnant the first time, I was almost 15% body fat and training for an Ironman distance triathlon. But that doesn't really matter. It doesn't change how people SEE you now. You don't suddenly get a "hotness filter" that shows what you used to look like. You still just look, well, fat.

I had always assumed that I'd be great at being pregnant. That I'd stay thin and hike and do yoga and grow a perfect little basketball for a tummy. Then, I'd give birth, revel in my perfecly napping new baby, stroll lovingly with him in a stroller all day long sipping lattes, wearing flip flops (well, I lived in California) and wearing my size 0 jeans.

The only part I got right on that one was the flip flops! Now I need to say here that having kids has been an incredible adventure, and I am so glad we have them. I love those little grommets fiercely, they are confounding and difficult and highly entertaining all at the same time.

But what I didn't love is what happened to me. Over time, I came to realize that I have an eating disorder. My pregnancy allowed me to indulge in it to the maximum... yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am a binger. So sometimes, I feel like this.

The hardest part for me was that I felt like I was walking around in an alien body. I'd see myself in the mirror and be SHOCKED. I'd delete photos of myself, thinking I was going to get back in shape any day. And I had lots of good starts, each of which helped me to loose 10lbs or so... but they'd fizzle out for some reason, usually relating to the fact that I wasn't able to strap my insane children down into any sort of jogging/biking/hiking device, they just aren't made that way. They are like me. They want to get out and be active.

And I am NOT blaming my kids here, but I gotta say, I felt thoroughly thwarted. The childcare at the gym was making them catch every cold in the world, babysitting is expensive, then I felt guilty for being away from them for something as selfish as exercise.

I thought my life as an athlete was over. I thought I was dead. I decided to accept this, to find the silver lining, and just be okay with being fat and out of shape. My amazing husband always told me he thought I was sexy no matter what, that he loved my body because it had made and delivered those amazing kids, and not to worry. But I was hiding, and sad. I had been a competitive athlete my entire life, and suddenly, in six years, that was erased, and replaced with this.

I was trapped in this new body that I created, and unable to affect change. I was redefined as "mom". I love to be that person, to be the mom, to cook and care and love and all the great stuff that goes with it. I just wished I could be fast and lean and hard and strong and nimble at the same time.

And then I ran into the man who would rescue me, change my life forever and help me take it back. Dave Evans. Snowsports supervisor at Bridger Bowl. I had just decided to go back to work the night before. We were low on funds, and one of our local moms had been asking me to coach figure skating. I finally agreed. Then I ran into Dave, while I was waiting for Ethan to come down the hill so I could put a snack in his pocket. I mentioned that I had taught BRIEFLY at Northstar in Tahoe, and he pounced on it. "We need alpine instructors!"

Uh, Dave, I am sorry, did I not tell you? No, no, I don't ski anymore, I haven't been on snow in six years, and on skis in over a decade, my last skis were 195 straight skis, I've never been on shaped skis... I am fat, out of shape, and I can't be a ski bum, that part of my life is over! I'm a mom now!

Needless to say, two weeks later, I had started part time, I was putting together a hiking/adventure program for the Ridge Athletic, I was beginning to work at Spire climbing center, and I was coaching figure skating. Wow!

To make a long story short, I had to struggle hard for balance. I got addicted to skiing, even more addicted to being in training again, and I missed my kids. Meanwhile, I had lost 18 lbs, just skiing every day! So suddenly, I was starting to feel like Kate again. But I missed this cute kid and everything that went with him.

Our little family got rocked hard by my schedule: up at 3:45 am and not home until 7:30 pm (because now I was staying to have beers after work finished up around 5...) New found Freedom!

Luckily for me, Tom told me "You obviously need to cut loose and be wild for a while. We'll be here when you calm down again." What an amazing man. What a selfless gift. It took about 5 weeks.

Anyhow, things are more balanced now, and I am feeling more like myself, in a body I am finally beginning to recognize. But that food thing... that evil binger still creeps up on me.

And I wanted to say that, because I think a lot of people think its easy to be thin and fit and energetic. I wanted to put out there that my relationship with food is a daily struggle, (I binged for the first time in a month the night before last, and I was just SO angry at myself. I work TOO hard to make a mistake like that.) But it, like finding balance in family and work and play is also a constant act of adjustment and forgiveness. Its a work in progress.

So here is what I do. There is an old Evian ad from the 80's that I love. It said simply "Every day is a new chance to feel healthy" and its true. But I like to change it to "Every moment is a new chance to recommit to doing something that makes you healthy".

So here are some of the mantras that keep me going when I don't want to go to the gym, when I want to eat five helpings of strawberry shortcake and an entire bag of smartfood.

Does this help me reach my goal?
Don't give up, you can start over NOW.
This is a new chance to begin. Now.

and my personal favorite (from an old No Fear ad)

Somewhere, someone is practicing harder than you are. And when you meet them in head to head competition, they will beat you.

That usually gets me off my ass and headed out into the world to get it done.

So those of you that are struggling, who ask me how I do it, who think they never could... there is a Dave Evans out there somewhere just waiting to help you make a decision that will give you your life and body back forever. Don't give up. Just be patient.

Training Log: May 9

Boring. I did my taxes and paperwork today. Special, No? Then we did legs at the gym. For those of you keeping track: Leg Press, Seated Hamstring Curl, Dead Lifts in the Smith Machine, Squats in the Smith Machine (50 lbs! Yeah!), Standing Calf Raises, abs on the ball. Working to failure right now. Go team.

On a MORE EXCITING note, scroll down to see the photos from my now working camera on the Saddle Peak training day. Its like 2 below this. Enjoy!

Video Bonanza

HEY, I got that Blackmoore video clip to work, thanks to that most awesome site, PhotoBucket.com.

So the set up: I go adventuring with Josh and Joe. They say, as they book out of the parking lot: "Okay, when we loose you, just follow the skin track, there will only be one! Ha ha ha!!" and they take off, with some funny boyish idea of handing me my backcountry ass. Or whatever.

You decide.



For the full post, scroll down on the sidebar over there, and click on April Archives, its the third post down. Training Log: April 20. Silly me, I can't remember how to make each post have its own page, or I'd just give you the link. I'll get right on that... (not...)

Training Log: May 8

Hiked Kirk Hill to the fire road and across the canyon, down to Leverich Canyon in about 3 hours today with my friend Virginia. I think its like 12 miles or so. Haven't seen Gin in a long time, and she's a bit of a spark plug, so we chugged along, getting a nice sunburn in the process and catching up on old friendships.

We encountered surprise snow up on the road cut and ended up postholeing along the North side of the canyon (sometimes up to our thighs! in short! and ankle socks! brrrrr!)

I wish our camera was working, this is as close as I can come to a photo of my bare legs in the snow, sorry...

Came home and made bean bowls, ate them hanging in the hammocks in the sunshine in the back yard with the kids climbing all over us.

No gym tonight, not enough sleep last night. Hitting it early early tonight for a 12 hour power sleep! YEAH!

Training Log: May 6: Saddle Peak

WEEE HOOO! I did Saddle Peak today with Anglea! This woman is unbelievable. She is like an amazon goddess, taller than me, I think she's 6', bright blue eyes, endurance forever, (She came in 2nd at the Ridge Run at Bridger, 19 laps up the boot pack in 5 hours. HOLEY CRAP.)

So she hauled my sorry ass up this AMAZING mountain today. I am having camera issues, so I don't have any of the great photos we took (and there were only 3 because I had to do everything I could to just keep going so I wouldn't get TOO far behind...)

Okay, things I learned today: How to PEE WITH MY SKIS ON! Yeah! Point your ski tips uphill in a V (skins on, of course), lean forward, drop trau, put one hand in the snow and let er' rip. Awesome.

I also learned that its important to keep your Dynafit bindings clean. Yeah. I have been skiing where its muddy and icky, and I guess that was a problem. But I am ahead of myself.

So Saddle peak is just past Slushmans. Slushmans is going to be the new lift-served terrain with the old P-Dog lift from Snowbird in the 2008-09 season at Bridger.

So we hiked on the dirt along Summer road to the cat track at the end of Missouri Breaks and put our skins on. We skinned along until we got to Emigrant, and then skinned up and across the South Boundary, out into Slushmans, across the gully and then UP to the ridge. Needless to say, I still need work on my kick turns.

HERE, however, is a great place to say THANK YOU to Jay at Barrel Mountaineering, for cutting my skins so excellently. He decided that the best (and rather unorthodox way) to cut them would be to cut them wall to wall, rather than leaving the edges exposed. This is like the third time I have found myself all the way on my edge, and still going up. Thus, most grateful for the extra grippy edge supplied by Jay and his maverick skin cutting. May I say, I am SO glad I decided to buy local, rather than ebaying all my crap like I was going to. Because I have needed those guys like six times for all my nonsense, toes hurt, boots don't fit right, skins just so... good lord. If you need gear, go to Barrel. They will take care of you like no one else. I mean it. And NO, they DON'T give me free crap. Yet. But we are hoping this is a good start.

Okay, so top of Slushman area, a bit South of there, and its time to ski along the wind lip in our PSIA-approved Side Slip. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am SO glad I have been practicing side slipping, falling leaves and pivot slips. BECAUSE I NEEDED THEM!! The wind-lip is freaky, inconsistent, narrow, with a giant snowy drop off that is rather more than vertical on the Bridger side, and full of shale and trees on the Bozeman side. Yipes! Also rather glad I've been traversing on one foot, because even though I didn't need to do it, I was much more comfortable traversing PERIOD because of it.

After a while of grandma-ing it along the lip, Angela was cold from waiting for me and rarein' to go, (I am working hard at becoming fast and efficient... at least I can put my skins on quick, now, and I know to flip my skis over on the top of a mountain so they don't slide off if the wind blows and disappear down the hill, and all kinds of useful tidbits...)

So we pack our skis on our packs and start a-hikin. Now, I had been skinning up in a tank top, which was lovely, and suddenly, its friggin' cold on the top. So I have my wool hat that my mom gave to my little sister, which I immediately poached after her dog chewed it (hey, its got character!), my hood is up on my shell, and the little patch of skin thats exposed on my cheek is rapidly getting wind burn! Talk about a change in weather!

Angela, being the original Antelope (the only person I know that can hand Joe his ass in a basket... who'se Joe? See the Blackmoore post for photos of us shooting his shotgun off the top of the last big local back country hill we did...) hikes outta there with a reassuring "Don't fall!" I decide, after a second of vertigo, not to look to either side of me, but just to look at her footprints in the shale and follow them exactly. I know the windlip is too solid to slide, but I am conscious of staying close to the ridgeline just in case.

The hike isn't nearly as steep as the Blackmoore summit, but overall the whole thing is much steeper and more sustained. I put my head down and come in only about 5-10 minutes behind her, which is okay. (I am a lot slower on my skins because I am still learning and often slide back or down on my face as I am figuring shit out. It's embarrassing, really.)

We get to the top, and she goes "Hi! I'm gonna get out of the wind." and promply drops off the windlip onto the Bridger side. I pull myself together, skis off pack, upside down, skis on, gloves all situated, pack back on, helmet on, hat in bag, lunch in pocket, etc. etc. (record time for me... Of course by now, Angela has had lunch and a latte... hey, I'm workin' on it!)

I drop in next to her, and the first five feet are crust and ick. And suddenly... ahhh. A foot of fresh, untracked POWDER. You've GOT to be kidding me.

We eat and take our photos (which I'll get up when I get the camera working) and then we go, one at a time, down a rather steep upper pitch, about 20 turns. I am determined DETERMINED not to have my first six turns suck, (And by suck, I mean, like never having ever skied before, stem Christie turns, resulting in a sit down or a blow up. I'm not kidding. I am an IDIOT when I skin. I don't know why. Its like the skiing part takes me totally by surprise.)

Okay. So they don't totally suck! This is about how steep it felt to me, but of course, that's not quite correct. The turns are bigger than I want, they have a bit of traverse in them, but they aren't totally over the handlebars, just a bit extra forward, and they are simultaneous with the feet, so hey, I'll take it. And its only the top 4 turns that suck, so we are cutting it down by 2. Excellent.

Then. YEAH, I ski it. For real. And it's pretty steep, and I really don't want to pack it, because I HATE wasting terrain when I've hiked for it, and even though the slope is bomber, I don't want to load it any more than I have to.

So I get to Angela and she goes "Nice turns!" and I am so Happy! They were schmedium, and I was hoping for small radius, but I just don't trust those yet, so we'll go with what gives us control right now. (Us, of course, being Me, Myself and I as we all ski down arguing with each other.) The second set of turns were even better, and I found myself grinning and covered in goosebumps, which has yet to happen in the back country, because, well, lets face it, I am usually concentrating too hard on not just PACKING IT hard, and trying to TURN.

Then I crossed my tips. I was so surprised! I was like, "What does this mean?" I haven't done that in a while, and I think I ski so grandma like in the BC, that I haven't really had an opportunity to try that move yet. And I ate it. Crud. But not too bad, and I got up, smiled at Angela, said "Welcome to skiing with Kate" because, as Josh and Joe can tell you, I do spend an inordinate amount of time on my head out there. And I put my ski on. Angela said "Yeah, but great turns up till then!" And I was just, well, proud. Because I had thought so, too, or hoped so... I mean, they felt really good, and powerful, and in control, and similarly sized and all that... so I was hoping...

And then I did two more turns and stepped right out of my ski. Pop! It took off down the hill, and luckily, as I stood there staring dumbly at it as it raced away from me (visions of earlier in the year when It launched off a cat track and just kept going because the brake didn't deploy... and Maggie, who I was skiing with at the time looking up at me in Avalanche Gulch and going "You're FUCKED! Hahhhahahah!") But NOT today, Angela POUNCED on that thing like a cat, and caught it just as it rocketed past her. We were PSYCHED.

Then I tried to put it on. And it wouldn't clip. The toe pieces wouldn't go in. So she suggested skiing down in Touring mode, which doesn't allow the ski to release at all, and we cranked on that sucker until it finally popped in. Angela suggested "conservative" skiing so I didn't pressure the binding too much more... which worried me a bit, because I am just not that good of a skier to begin with, and having just sort of figured out how to MAKE a turn, and then LINK another turn to it, I wasn't sure I could adapt that and still actually, you know, ski.

So I sort of did one ski turns on the left side and good two ski turns on the right, and the snow was awesome, fresh, and we had all these little angles and slope variables and some gullies and then the snow turned into velvet and we skied that...

It was most most excellent. And we got down and I wanted SO badly to lap it and do it again, but I was supposed to meet the crew for climbing in the afternoon, so I left Angela heading back up the slope for another go, and I skied out.

That afternoon, we drove out to Whisky Gulch with the kids and hiked in, but I was wiped and I have the MOST gnarly blister I have EVER had (I actually even have a picture of it, it's so gross...) so I couldn't climb. But it was a beautiful day, and I got to see my sexy hubby in his climbing shoes on real rock, which was a treat, and the kids bouldered a bit...

So all in all, it was a pretty awesome day.

No weight training Sat or Sun, gym today. (I know this is a boring wrap up, but this is how Mike keeps tabs on me.) Chest day, bench press, dumb-bell flies, seated chest press, tricep pull downs, tricep over the head thingies with the medicine ball (guess I'll have to learn the name of those) dips on a bench, assisted pull ups, front shoulder raises standing one foot on bosu ball, lateral raises on bosu ball, rear delt cable pull also on bosu ball. Abs on the ball. Owie.

Tomorrow, laps on Kirk hill! Wee HOO!

Back Country Moron

Okay, let me first say, these aren't my turns, there wasn't nearly this much snow, but its the best photo I could find of short radius turns, as mentioned below. Next time, I'll take my camera. Read on for the nonsense...

Hi. My name is Kate. Every time I get out in the back country, I ski like an idiot. Why is this? For some reason, I forget that we are skiing, I am hiking away and then it is time to turn around and ski down and I look at my skis and think... uh... what do I do with these?

And by the time I get it figured out, I am usually on my last 2 turns. Why oh why? The snow at Bridger was lovely today. Soft, spring velvet. I was skinning in my tank top. I was happy.

Then we were at the top of a very easy run, Thunder Road, and I just couldn't ski to save my life. AT THE FREAKIN' SKI AREA! I mean, come on. I expect this when I've just hiked 6 hours and I am looking at a chute full of avalanche debris. But at the top of Thunder Road? COME ON!!

So my first six turns just SUCKED. And that, of course, is nearly the entirety of the black part of the run. And then I got it figured out, and I did some outside ski turns, and I felt myself suddenly feeling the skis, the snow, the movement.

This is the first time that I have felt the sidecut on my Shucksans operate. Depending on the pressure I applied, at what part of the turn, the skis were rolling and turning under me, and my body was moving through the arc described by my feet. This is the second time I've felt my body moving down hill through the series of arcs, which is a great feeling, but the first time I've felt it at Bridger Bowl.

I moved to small radius turns, the turns I was having the most trouble with at Snowbird, and felt them stay consistently shaped, the skis squirting and then steering back under me. Suddenly I thought of what so many have told me, that when I drop my shoulder (IE don't level to the terrain) I fall back and to the inside of the turn. But I have been so busy thinking about turn shape, in order to have ANY turnshape. And then, when I have been thinking about leveling, my turn shape goes to hell and I gather speed whilst trying to level.

But I had this strange sensation today of feeling my feet travel back and forth underneath me, and thinking of Mike and things he has said about feeling, thinking and flow, and I just sort of... let it go. So I ski badly. Whatever, this feels pretty good, I am going to go with what feels good. And letting go of it, suddenly I realized I was rotated and tipped uphill on my right hand turns, and I thought... not of moving in the direction of the new turn off my new uphill foot, but of just NOT being back and inside.

I thought of how back and inside is twisted and tipped, and instead, I wanted to feel that clean arc under me, so I just lightened the new uphill foot, and straightened out a bit... not as an instructive "now do this, then do this" but just more as a "huh, lets not be back and inside any more". And the turns down the bottom of Thunder Road felt so good...

And when I got to the bottom, I looked up at my tracks, and I was happy and not surprised to see my first set of clean tracks that matched left to right from top to bottom. Same turn shape, same amount of skid, same size. Same. And looking at the tracks, I could feel in my lower body again the inside arch pressure pushing the camber of the ski down into the snow, and the little squirt nimble turn action of the skis as they steered under me, rather than running away under me. First to this side, and then again on that side. And this gyroscopic feel of my upper body floating in a powerful line above this buttery softness.

So, skiing.

Training Log: May 5

Hiked Bridger Bowl today, 2 hours on skins to the top of Thunder Road with Shannon. No weights today, making strawberry shortcake with the kids! Balance Board drills last night and today, boot drills in kitchen today with Ethan, table tipping and weight transfer.

Weigh In: May 5

25.7% body fat
160 lbs

lost 3 lbs of fat
gained 1 lb of muscle

Training Log: May 4

No cardio again today, as I was in a bit of a Darvocet Coma for a few hours, drooling on the couch. Whoops! Spitting out my stitches (because I am JUST that hard core), I pulled my s**t together enough to get to my meeting with Mike Hickey, coach of doom. We had a great talk, about so many things I'd love to blog on...but sorry, what Mike says is just for me.

Hit the gym after for back day, did hyper extensions, seated rows, concentration curls, lat pull downs, lay down rows and abs on the ball. Hiking laps at Bridger Bowl tomorrow!

Pics are in!

Andy Docken holds court with Georgie of the NZ Alpine Demo Team, and Megan Harvey of the American Team swooning at his side...
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Andy "You're a Tiger" Docken rockin' it at the Aeire bar at the Cliff Lodge in Snowbird. ************************************************************************************

Skippy the Kangaroo getting ready to party the night away.
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Here is the lovely security guard who let us party in his OFFICE when we got too loud in the hotel room... In this photo, he's in the process of handcuffing the kangaroo, just before I leaned in to blow in his ear...
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This is Jackson Hole, WY, the first day I was ever away from my kids overnight! They took it great, and Shannon, Angela and I skied that sucker (4316 vertical feet) top to bottom in good form! (After Posing a bit). Bulletproof to hard butter to corn to slush to full on water skiing. Awesome.
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Nick nursing only his second drink of the night... with the lovely and talented Kiwi by his side...
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Megan Harvey, ladies and gentleman. Shannon and I get a squeeze in with our coach of the week.
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This is actually from the Bridger Bowl employee party, and yes, we are that cute, and yes, we are that hammered. It was a good party. Sue me.

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The girls ski Jackson!

On Gratitude

I am a bit overwhelmed, and I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to everyone who is making this possible for me. Never in my many pursuits have I had a team of people pull so hard and willingly behind me, gathering me up and pushing me onward.

Ever since I made the decision to train to the D team, I have heard nothing but "Go for it!" "Let me help you!". I must admit, I am at a bit of a loss. I remember when I was skating taking the buss to the rink at the crack of dawn to get a patch session in. Standing next to my friends while they had their lessons, and then making them re-teach me what they had just learned. Sewing my skating dresses in my underwear so I could try them on and fix em.

There are two careers that my mom never wanted for me, one was that of an athlete, and the other was as an actress. Both are such tough roads, with such enormous competition, and with such huge possibility for failure. Unfortunately for mom, I pursued both of them rather vigorously. And here we are again.

But this time, something is different. The amazing Mike Hickey, a gold mine of skiing knowledge and passion for the sport, former D team member (1976) and race coach, has agreed to coach me. His colleague at Bridger Bowl, Kurt, is going to supplement the training and coaching. My sister, Liat, a nutritionist, has agreed to donate her time to my nutrition coaching. The Ridge Athletic Club is being incredibly supportive with sport specific programs, and is allowing me to run a hiking group this summer (now I can get paid to get my cardio in.)

I can't ski without gear, and honestly, Tom and I are flat broke right now, and lo and behold, Megan hands me her skis. And offers to train me. She handed me gear I desperately need and can't afford, and I can't wait to get out there and get my ass kicked by her when the season starts again.

Then there is my incredible husband. Tom comes home early and gets the kids ready for bed so I can get to the gym and get my strength training in. Weekends, the only time I'll really see him, he's watching the kids so I can hike for snow.

And speaking of my kids, I come home and they want to know how my workout was. They are practicing on the balance boards with me. Ethan is doing boot drills in the kitchen with me. "Mom, are you skiing in the kitchen?" "Yes..." "Can I ski with you? Can we go fast?" Look at those little 5 year old ankles flex...

And my older sister, who sent me a credit card. For emergencies. For training. So I can go to places like Snowbird when I don't have any money for gas or food. But she does much more than that. This woman tells me I can do it daily. She emails IMS from Germany (where she is working on the new Speed Racer film) and makes it a priority in her 18 hour day to tell me she is proud of me. This is the girl that used to throw me out of her room for having sticky fingers!!

My mom flew out from California to watch the kids so I could go to the Academy, and she ended up paying my way. After buying me all my backcountry gear, which I taught on all year and will be training on all summer.

This doesn't include the incredible notes of support from Nick McDonald, trainer extraordinare, and Rob Sogard, the coach of the team I dream of. Thank God I have people like Josh Spohler and Nick Herrin to tell me I suck and slap me down, all the while grinning and challenging me to try harder, because you need that too. They set the bar high.

All of this hit me kind of all at once, and here is where Shannon came in. We were at Snowbird, and I noticed that my face was leaking. I was an emotional wreck. I am used to having to fight and swim upstream so much, that all this help and support was downright strange and foreign. And Shannon said, Kate, what you are feeling is good, its called gratitude. Enjoy it. Allow it. So I did, I sat in the bathroom and cried for a bit, feeling what it felt like to have a huge group of people pull together to make your dream happen, and then we went out and ripped it up on the hill. So thanks for putting me back together and being the chick I can ski with...

So thank you. If I never made it further than this point, it has already been an amazing experience for me. And since we WILL be moving forward, I want to say thanks to everyone who hangs in there when its tough, not so fun, scary, and looks impossible. With your help, we just might get there!

In utter amazement,
Kate

Training Log: May 3

No cardio today. Crud. Raining (would have loved to hike in it). Legs at gym. Squats in smith machine, dead lifts, leg press, seated hamstring curl, standing calf raises, abs on the ball.

Weigh in: May 2

159.5 lbs
26.5% body fat

Training Log: May 2

Okay, here is the catch up.

April 26 drove home from Snowbird with a big hangover. Ha ha. Good training day.
April 27 gym work out: back: hyper extensions, lat pull downs, assisted pull ups, face down row, abs
April 28 hiked kirk hill with Bodhi in the back pack, 3 miles
April 29 swam 1 hour (17 lengths) in olympic sized pool, began to teach Shannon the Total Immersion method of swimming
April 30 no work out
May 1 no work out, tooth extraction, darvocet coma all day
May 2 hiked kirk hill almost to road, 5 miles, 1.5 hours, chest at gym

Backed up!

I owe a couple of training logs and a weigh in... i know... but I got a couple of teeth extracted and spent some much needed time with my kiddos and my hubby... updates to come in the next few days... thanks for reading!

Also coming soon: the team bios, book suggestions from my nutritionist, and dry land training ideas.

By the way, does anyone have a used road bike I can borrow for the summer? Too broke to buy one... I am 5'11".

Thanks!

Kate

National Academy Wrap Up - Photos and links coming soon!!

Okay, Shannon had the camera, and I haven't got the photos from her yet, but I wanted to get the story up, so check back in a bit for the pics.

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Wow, that went fast! Here it is in a nutshell. Friday night, I was still calling Karen Hagaman (The incredible woman co-ordinating the Academy) and asking if I had got in!

My mom was here, having flown out from California to watch the kids so I could attend.

The beautiful and talented Shannon had also been trying to attend, but it looked like neither of us was in. I tracked Karen down in her hotel room at Snowbird, and begged her to let me in. She said that the hotel was full, but I offered to stay at a Motel 6 in town, so she called down and got me a single room for an additional $312.

The next morning, I drove to Shannon's house at 9am and asked her if she wanted to go to Utah with me. She was a bit shocked, "Do they have a space for me?" "I don't know, but I doubt they will turn you away if we show up!" I said. I called Karen and left her a message that told her that Shannon had a place to stay, and would need a credential that night if possible.

Shannon had her self packed in an hour, and we hopped in the Bronco and hit the road. Awesome. We drove through West Yellowstone and into Idaho, made it to Snowbird by 5, checked in, got a room with two queen beds, and didn't have to pay the extra $312 after all!!

I called Karin and told her "Well, we are here!" and she answered "Um, by we, you mean..." "My friend Shannon. She came on the off chance that you might have space for her, and she has a place to stay." "Oh. Well, I don't think that we... We can do that. I'll have to hand write her credential, and you can pick it up at dinner."

SWEET! She's in.

We got dolled up and headed down to the opening night buffet. The only people that I knew were Nick Herrin and Rob Sogard, and I didn't see them anywhere, and they were working, so we fended for ourselves, got a $5 beer and found a table, got our spiffy credential and our itinerary, ate a fabulous amazing dinner, and sat back to hear two amazing men get inducted into the Skiing Hall of Fame. The stories these guys told were incredible, and we gave them well deserved standing ovations. I’ll post links to them as soon as I get their info.

Later on, wandering around, I ran into Nick who gave me the most amazing hug and said “You made it! We were wondering if you’d get in!!” Yay! I was happy to be there anyway, but Nick is a ton of fun and a great teacher, so that was cool.

After dinner, we split into groups and looked for a coach. It was great, like controlled chaos. We milled around and found our way to the top end of the middle group, where we attempted to decide between Nick, Megan Harvey and Richard, the Aussie D Team Guy.

We ultimately decided on Megan, the author of the Alpine Technical Manual and in her third term on the team. (“Lets ski with a chick! Yeah!”), and were SO happy that we did. Nick’s comment on that was “You are skiing with Megan? That’s perfect.” Really? Why? “Because you like to know everything and she likes to tell everything.” GREAT!

Later on I ran into Rob, who was a doll and checked in with me all week “How are your skis, how is your clinic, how is Megan?” and so on… Most excellent.

We hit the bar for a while, met a hot buff blonde cutie, ordered our whiskey and tried to figure out how to extricate ourselves from the Ski Camp Ick whom we ended up in conversation with. They were lovely gentlemen, don’t get me wrong, but rather obviously trolling for a hook up, ew ew ew. Welcome to Ski Camp.

Anyhow, we hit the sack early, after saying our hellos and making our social appearance, and went to bed giggling for tomorrow.

The next day, we had our first lesson with our coach for the week, and I got on a pair of Demo Volkl AC40s (next year’s awesome all mountain ski) Unfortunately, they had them in 160, which is a bit short for me, but I skied a run on them anyway.

I liked them, but they were squirreling around, washing out and I couldn’t find their center. Megan told me to fight for the center of the skis, and I’d change them out at the bottom of the run. I do what my coach tells me, so I fought. And fought. And by the end of the run, they had stopped washing around.

Got to the bottom, and Megan and Rob had a little discussion about wether I should move up or not, hard to decide what to do because Rob wanted me to stay on them and figure it out, and Megan wanted me on longer skis, I think so I wouldn’t hold up the group. I was good to go either way, and I ended up on Rossi Z-11 170s for the next two days.

These little freight trains weigh about 4 times what my Shucksans do, and have a wicked side-cut and quite a bit of camber, so the second you step on them, there they go! I felt like a pig on roller-skates, and it was once again demonstrated to me that I am NOT the world’s best skier! I was determined to be able to turn these suckers in the crud/powder/freeze that we were skiing, and actually the snow for the first two days was lovely, although the visibility was downright TERRIFYING!!

Our afternoon clinic on the first day was video, because I was thinking of having video at the front and back of the clinic for comparison. We did video with Sean Smith, a technical coach for the D team, in basic white out conditions.

Not to mention that I wanted to air it out every turn to feel safer, and I was skiing with my feet nailed to the snow. These are NOT the nimblest skis in the world. And Shannon kept telling me “These are freight trains. Let them do what they want to do. Let them bust through it. Let them turn, keep them on the snow.” But I was just ready to throw them down the hill, I was so damn frustrated. By the end of the second day, I could ski them a bit, I was not fighting them and trying to ski them how they wanted to be skied.

I was going to go to the Rossi Radical, which has less of a sidecut and is a more racing type ski, but the guy was gone for the rest of the week, and the Volkl guy went to Hawaii, so Megan said I could try her skis, and for the rest of the week, I skied on her Ativa Volkl 170s, which are only twice as heavy as my Shucksans, have a moderate sidecut and a lot of camber, so it was FUN!

I loved them immediately, and had a blast for the rest of the week. By the end of Wednesday, I felt like I was basically ready to begin instruction. Crud.

For electives, I worked with the international team of Rich, Josh, and Georgie (Australia, Canada, New Zeland) and it was a great experience. Their teaching styles were all complimentary, and they all skied slightly differently, which was awesome. Josh has a tremendous blend of grace and power, and as I am shopping for a skiing style right now, I am thinking of trying to overlay Josh with Nick and coming out with a cheerleader on steroids… we’ll see how that goes.

I also did carving with Andy, which I wrote about earlier, and steeps and bumps with Josh Foster the next day. Super fun, MAN did I learn a lot. I have been having a huge leveling issue, and Josh fixed it in about five minutes: plant your pole with your elbow lower than your hand. This creates the pinch and draws the swinging shoulder down. YEAH!

Suddenly, I can occasionally find flow in the bumps! Rock on!

Did steeps and bumps the next day with Bobby, the director from Telluride, who just had a new baby! And who was great to ski with, he challenged us with some good terrain in the icky poo crud of doooom which I need to be able to ski (This was probably my best two hours of skiing of the whole week.) He didn’t give me a new focus, just had me keep working on what Megan gave me, and it went really well. I am looking forward to skiing with him again.

Megan ended up making me want to perform beyond all, her ownership, her enthusiasm, her joy of skiing, of training, is just phenomenal. She took us through some Aikido exercises that were great for grounding and centering. She asked me to traverse any side hill on only my uphill single edge, and challenged me to do it in the right body posture. She invited me to come train with her in Aspen (and told me I have a place to stay…) and at the end of the week, she gave me her skis. Yes.

Which was an amazing thing. Because when I was a figure skater, I skated on broken equipment for years, skates 2 sizes too small that I got from my friends when they were worn out, and I used to poach their lessons until I was, gosh… 10? And even still after that…

I was overwhelmed. And that’s the subject of the next post.

The end of the story is the amazing blow out party that went till 4am in the security guards’ office (We have a pic somewhere of him handcuffing skippy the blow up kangaroo, whom Richard bequeathed to me, while I am blowing in his ear… most excellent.) We didn’t have to ski the next day so it was whisky after whisky after PBR and some other odd mixed drinks, made some good friends and partied until we couldn’t stand up anymore. Then we went up and worked on the wobble boards! Insane.

The next morning was a quiet, headachey affair, Shannon picked up some AMAZING shots of herself skiing for the blog, and we hit the road (after nursing the Bronco at the Oil Drop for a minute) The ride home was quiet, and we both had big stupid grins on our faces, can’t wait to get back and share it all with our coach, Mike Hickey, and get to work for real.

Not a bad way to spend a day or six!!!

See you next year at the Academy!!

Balance 360 boards are here!

I have wanted one of these for a while, it is the ultimate balance exercise. I emailed Kevin at Balance 360 and asked him if he could overnight us a couple of boards to the National Academy, and he did it! We got two skinny boards, which we took down to the bar before the technical talk.

The thing that is incredible about these boards is they roll all directions, demanding excellent balance and precision. It is an awesome core and leg workout!

It was a blast!! Everyone got on them, props to Andy Docken (American Alpine Demo Team) for being able to stay on the board the longest! We got great video of Deb Armstrong (Olympic gold medalist) and Rob Sogard (Head Coach of the Alpine Demo Team) working the board, as well as Josh Foster (Canadian Demo Team) and so many more!!

It was great fun, the demo guys were tossing the extra balls back and forth to each other whilst balancing on the boards.

Thanks for the quick work, Kevin, I probably could have sold at least 10 of these things in those two days!!

Now that I am home, Ethan and Bodhi and my husband, Tom are all working on the boards a couple times a day. Awesome. (Well, its a bit addictive...)

At the National Ski Academy!!

We are HERE! We made it! I have a LOT to blog about, but here is just todays info... I promise to catch up as soon as I can!

Today was amazing. It was our elective day, so we got to choose the clinic we wanted to ski in. It was So hard to pick! Scotty McGee was here doing a telemark clinic, and, since Mike had decreed that I shall now be a Nord, I was sorely tempted to learn from the best. However, now I have a reason to drive down to Jackson Hole and visit him, so I decided to pass for the day.

Other choices were steeps and bumps, crud and powder, and carving, among others. I decided to go with carving, because I figured that just chasing Josh down the hill and trying to look like him isn’t working, and just tipping the skis isn’t working, so maybe I should take a class! You can’t carve if you can’t ski!

Andy Docken was our clinician (I ended up in the “I kind of know how to carve, but I need to work on it” group). I’m not going to go through the whole clinic (It was four hours long, and as Andy said, we basically covered the whole Alpine Technical Manual).

Here are the things I had been working on, or that people had been asking of me:

1. Get to your edges early.
2. Stay on your edges.
3. Stay in the front seat.
4. Move your core in the direction of your next turn.
5. Keep moving (no camping).

When I combined these ideas previously, I was hucking to my new set of edges as early as I could, and in my mind, that meant going all the way to a hard edge, and then riding it around. “Just tip it, and ride it around.”

It had NOT occurred to me that the angle of tip can be a progressive movement, as well as the flex and extension in the body being a progressive movement, or the fore/aft can be progressive.

I have had a couple of people tell me to be more patient in my turns, but I felt like they were asking me to stay on a flat ski, and I was getting this huge, ugly, out of control traverse in my turns. I didn’t understand why I didn’t have control, and then, I would look for control and end up going back to getting to my edges “earlier” wich, in my mind, also meant “harder”.

Frustrating.

Here is how Andy fixed it in one fell swoop:

The skis, when they are flat on the snow, are at 0. Tip them just a hair, that is 1. One more degree of tip, that is 2. Higher still, that is 3, and that is just before the apex of the turn (That last bit is me, not Andy, but that’s when I felt it). Ride this just through the apex, and then begin de-edging… 2….1…0… and now we are in the transition.

Interestingly, this is a lesson that I also had to learn in tennis. I like the forehand down the line shot. I like it because it clears the net by three inches, it is powerful, strong, driving and true. I like to try to take the cover off the ball when doing it.

Getting an accurate shot down the line DOES take athleticism and power. BUT, like in carving, not all the engines are burning full fuel, open throttle all the time. Do that, and you loose accuracy, touch, directionality, control and your temper.

The TRUE elite athlete is patient. It takes discipline to be patient. It takes more discipline to wait for your shot, to roll the skis just enough, to listen to the feedback of the ball/snow/skis/body than it does to train hard to be able to hit the ball hard. Holding back often times takes more training than going balls to the wall all the time.

Lesson learned. Again. Andy took the “pop” out of my turn, and in turn, gave me about 150% more control than I had before. The turns link, they flow, I am not chasing my skis down, trying to get back in the front seat because I was hucked to the back of my skis at the bottom of the turn BECAUSE I was over steering BECAUSE I was throwing to my “most extreme” edges in an effort to get there early, and the skis were taking off without me!

Wow.

Carving takes touch.