Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The last four days

So on Saturday I raced my second World Cup. It was a beautiful sunny day with really icy snow! It was again a good experience. It was interesting coming through the finish line and seeing that I was in 34th...I definitely wasn't as excited as after my first World Cup! I really wanted to make the top 30! Somehow being just outside the flip just wasn't good enough anymore! Funny how quickly our expectations change! The Canadian team had some trouble first run so we all packed up and left after the first run. We drove straight to Munich. After some great Pizza we headed to bed and on flights home the next morning.

I arrived home at about 5pm on the 13th. After a lovely dinner with my whole family I headed home to do some laundry! The morning of the 14th at about 9 30 I left home to drive to Whistler. We raced today (the 15th) Slalom in crazy coastal weather. It was dumping snow with a very soft base. This is actually great conditions for someone like me who grew up in BC! Today I ended up 2nd in the first of two slalom NorAms here in Whistler!

Looking forward to the next few days!

More soon,

Elli

Friday, March 11, 2011

Spindleruv Myln

After a couple great days of training in Saalfelden we left to drive 6-7 hours to Spindleruv Myln in the Czech Republic for a World Cup race! We circumvented the beautiful city of Prague...it looked nice from the highway...! We ended up getting lost as our GPS gave us drections to a hotel with the same hotel name but in a very different city. It believe the city we ended up touring was called Lubrik or something like that! It was a very beautiful looking town! We continued through some back roads to Spindleruv Mlyn a little ski ski town! We trained yesterday are watching the GS today and will race Slalom tomorrow! Its my 2nd World Cup. I am very excited and ready to throw it down!!! I will update again after my race!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Eastern Promise.

Photos from the road!


Its been a very busy few days! Since I last blogged I have done a lot of travelling! I travelled from Dornbirn (see I told you I'd figure out the name!) to Poland, Slovakia and now in Germany. The weather was not great the second day of the Bodele races so we decided to drive to Poland instead of racing. 11 hours later we arrived in Poland. I think we were all a little shell shocked by Poland our first day. Our hotel turned out to by a tiny wooden house. Athletes on one floor and the coaches on the level above us. The beds were tiny with sheets that were a foot too short for the mattresses. The walls were made of wood with bits of rope in between the logs. You could say there was no privacy but that would by a bit much. As well the bathroom had a door with a opaque glass window in it! So not only could everyone hear you they could basically see you too! Not a fan! We arrived fairly famished from the drive to go straight to dinner. It was a cold plate of cheese and meat, egg salad and a petit serving of a light stew-ish soup. Needless to say we were starving!!! Breakfast the next morning was the same cold plate, the same salad, the same bread with a few breakfast food additions. We were starving as we trained the next morning. The town of Zakopane heats their homes with coal as well so that was also incredible. We couldn't place to smell in the air when we arrived. In the morning there was a dark fog over the town which decreased as the sun shone warming up the air. The hill was a great little ski slope. A steady pitch with nice injected snow on the race hill and music playing from the lift towers. It was incredibly sunny and pretty warm while we were there. After training we were so hungry we went and found (I'm embarrassed to say) a McDonalds. YES I KNOW...horrible. Why would you eat at a McDonalds in Poland? Well basically it was a quick, familiar menu where we knew we'd get food that would fill us up a little more! From this first 24 hours the food drastically improved and the sun continued to shine. Despite the weird accommodation..it did have a steady internet connection which was a saving grace...and it was right across from the hill. The race didn't go as well as I had hoped. Steady pitches arent really my forte. I ended up 25th. It was a Europa Cup so the field was really competitive...you really have to ski well to do well. That said I would like to congratulate my team mate Erin Mielzynski on her first Europa Cup Podium! She came 3rd! After the race we went out for coffee with one of the Canadian Team sponsors Hermes head honcho Darius. He took us to a beautiful hotel with incredible desserts! He told us a little more about Poland and the area. Overall, it was a lovely two hours spent in interesting company! After coffee we headed 3 hours over to Jasna in Slovakia where we were racing the next day. It was a beautiful drive through the Tatra Mountains. It reminded me of the area around Invermere...wide flat valley with white tipped mountains all around. Race day it was beautiful and sunny. The track was injected perfectly and it was a flat-ish course one of my favourites! I felt good in warm-up and was excited to really attack the course. I felt good for the first 20 gates. Then coming out a a hairpin I got a little in the back seat and injection takes no prisoners. I was not able to recover and straddled the next gate. My day was over after about 30 seconds of racing!!! It was really disappointing but I know I was going for it. After the race we headed 7 hours to Germany. Today we had a day off which has been a welcome rest. Tomorrow we race GS (exciting!!)

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Cheers

ET

Photos from the road

Poland
Slovakia
Slovakia
Jasna, Slovakia
Top of Jasna!
the sunrise in Poland...beautiful!!
The morning smog created from the the coal heated houses!!
Driving through Slovakia
Hmm...where to go? Budapest or Bratislava?

Our average speed...

I will try to add more photos later!