Back to Work!

After a wonderful (and short) stay at home I am now back in Burlington. My time at home was great. I did a few days of training, saw family and friends and took care of a lot of business! It has been a great time to reflect on how good I am feeling and how thankful I am to all my supporters. There is nothing like coming home to make you feel truly awed by peoples kindness and support. I think I must come from the most supportive community (Sun Peaks Resort and Kamloops area) in the world! So what I am taking away with me from home is a profound sense of thanks and a strong desire to be as supportive and kind to others as people in my community have been to me. Let it never be said that there is no love in the world, that is a completely false statement.... it just shows itself slowly with small gestures instead of grand strokes. Thank You so MUCH!

With this in mind I am looking forward to starting school on Tuesday! I did a lot of running around this morning catching up on groceries and other things that need to be taken care of after a long absence. This afternoon will be spent reviewing calculus and physics!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UihjadQUJEk&feature=youtu.be

This is a link to a better quality version of the video I posted last time!

Home for a Rest...

Here is a video of the footage from all the World Cups I did over in Europe. Tried to keep it short yet as unedited as possible...Thanks for all the support it was a great opportunity and look forward to doing my next world cups!

The last race I did over in Euroland was the Zagreb Night Slalom. This was an interesting experience for me as in the past two world cups I was SO close to qualifying so in the training in between Lienz and Zagreb I really searched for where I could close that .2 of a second gap. I really worked on being closer to the gate, in a more forward stable position and finishing my turn at the gate to keep my skis in the fall line. Unfortunately we didnt get a very good chance to warm up prior to the race in Zagreb with the serious lack of snow we found in Croatia. I think it would have been great to get some really good feedback with the "re-newed" focus on those certain areas of my skiing. Alas, as can happen regularly it seems on the eastern european tour this was not to be. So standing in the start I decided to really attack and take a fairly straight line out of the gate. However the course was a little turnier than expected and my straight line put me in a weak position to move cleanly through the corridor and I ended up making a large mistake on about the 4th gate which I was unable to make up time for. The course had a LOT of flats...and on hills like that is it very important to have as a mistake free run as possible. So my run ended up being slow. My worst result thus far in World Cup...41st. But I am overall very happy with my skiing and I like how I have been approaching these World Cups. I am currently sitting in the Vancouver airport waiting for my last little lag of the long journey home to Kamloops. This will be my first time home since JULY!!!! I am extremely excited to see my friends and family and to ski at my home resort of Sun Peaks. In fact I will be training there this weekend! Training GS...for the first time since the summer! Can't wait!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful January!

Elli

In honour of Sarah Schleppers retirement

Sarah Schlepper, a great American ski racer retired in Lienz. We are really going to miss her!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTjN_MjGqNY