baby bambi

A little visitor we had for a few hours while I was home. A one day old Baby Bambi who was safely taken back to the forest after some goats milk and a careful hands off policy! If you see a baby bambi do not remove it! This is something we did not know beforehand! But now we do! No harm done! Enjoy!

Home and Calgary...again..and repeat!

Hello!

Being home after being is Calgary for a month was like discovering paradise all over again! Mountains, lakes, Mountain Biking, Horseback riding, Hiking, Canoeing, Consistantly hot weather, my own bed, a car to drive, a free washing machine, good coffee, someone else making breakfast, sleeping in, and last but not least my family! There is alot going on in Heffley lake that I LOVE!!

It felt incredible to be able to see my friends and enjoy all of summers little pleasures! When I was home my teamate Kelly McBroom came and visited me for 5 days. I could hardly sit still! All I wanted to do was show her EVERYTHING! I have tried to describe to my team mates where I live and what I do but nothing really makes sense until it is seen with your own eyes! So having Kelly was incredible! Finally an opportunity to play show and tell!

On her first day we decided to go for a walk before dinner. We brought my two dogs Benny and Jazzy along. half way through our walk we decided to go for a canoe. It was an easy walk over to where we keep our canoe and everything was going well until we got onto the water. Benny is now 15 and quite docile so we brought her into the canoe with us. jazzy being a hyper 2 year old black lab was left out of the canoe on the shore. It didn't take her more than two seconds to decide that we were not leaving without her. As she swam after us she whined non-stop. To the house on the edge of the lake it must have looked like we were purposefully trying to drown the dog! Needless to say, feeling it necessary to avoid having our neighbours call the SPCA for dog abuse I pulled her into the canoe. For the first few mintues she seemed content to rock to canoe as she pelted from one side to the other whining after ducks and other items on the water. Through all this Kelly was taing beautiful scenic shots of Heffley Lake. As we neared the island at the last leg of our little tour we spotted a huge thing of caterpillars dangling off a branch over the water. Kelly being the photographically capable type of person she is leaned in for a good shot of this phenomenon. At this precise moment as Kelly leaned slightly over the edge of the canoe to capture nature in action jazzy decided to rush to the same side of the boat...FLIPPING the canoe!!! Now it must be understood that this particular day, it was not sunny..in fact it had rained in the early afternoon. Therefore Kelly and I were dressed appropriately in Sweaters, lululemon pants and running shoes. NOT the best swimming attire! It took us a good 15 minutes to find both paddles, empty the boat of water, negotiate the canoe away from the HUGE red and black butted water spiders and recommence our voyage across the lake...SANS Jazzy! She had to swim....




That was only one of the many adventures we had while kelly was at my place! It was incredible to have her over! Thanks Kelly!

Hello,

So I am now two weeks into my first dryland training block back with the team! We are in Calgary and have been training at the University of Calgary, at the Olympic Oval. It is incredible how different I feel strength wise compared to just a few months ago. I actually feel strong again. It is incredible, when you are not strong you don't really notice it but when strength is returned...WOW..I feel like superwomen sometimes! So far I have been very happy with my ability to keep up with my teammates in all activities. Before arriving in Calgary I was not sure how far behind I would be and how much I would actually be able to do. I still had my "I'm injured" excuse tatooed to my face. However, now that I am here I have found my "injured" mask sliding off! I can now actually do lunges without pain, i can bike for 2 1/2 hours, I can jump...overall I feel great! With strength apparently comes peace of mind! I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful late spring!

Cheers,

Elli

Skiing

Since I will shortly be recommencing my ski journey I thought I would post a video of my skiing prior to my crash in Pitztal. This video was shot in the spring, summer and fall of 2008. If you watch you can see that I become a much better skier throughout the summer! I am very proud of what I accomplished with my skiing last year and can't wait to continue where I left off!

Hope you enjoy the video!

Elli

Hello everyone!

Well it has been a long time since I have had a new post!

I have been waiting till I had a bit to write about!

Well, now I do!

In late March my team mate Kelly McBroom and I went to the carribean.

Since we are both recovering from blown ACL's etc we decided it would be a golden opportunity to use up some aeroplan miles and get away from the snow for a while! We ended up going on a 9 day cruise (the deals were too amazing to pass up) and after the cruise we ended up on a tiny island called Nevis to visit my great Aunt who lives there! The ship had 5 ports of call including the Dominican Republic, Tortola, Antigua, Barbados and St. Lucia. It was an incredibly interesting experience between the individuality of each island and our fellow passengers aboard the ship! I don't believe I have ever seen such glutony as aboard our cruise. Dinner plates heaping with dessert, 24 hr buffets and bbq's that lasted all day were the daily theme! The gym aboard the Norwegian Jewel was great, especially for us gimpies who spent several hours in there daily, though in comparison to the size of the ship it was small and in comparison to the amount of passengers aboard it was empty. It had a sign out front that read "the average person gains 9-18 lbs on a 9 day cruise". Gulp. That was a bit of a shocker! Beside the sign was a scale. What a smart was to get people into the gym! Too bad the poolside sun was so appetizing! All in all it was an amazing trip! Sun, interesting people, Aquamarine coloured ocean, palm trees ahhh the life! It was great after the cruise to go and stay with my Aunt Bonnie where it was serene and the ocean was right out of her front door! Kelly and I spent our days with oceanside walks and collecting coconuts, shells and carving calabash! It was over too soon!

Now that I am home, I am concentrating on getting back to skiing! With only about a month and a half to go I am really getting excited! I have dreamed about skiing every night for the past week! I went to Whistler with my parents as moral support as they participated in a level 4 exams. I saw my trainer Craig who developed a new program for me. So all in all things are looking up!

Cheers,

Elli

SO!

I am currently half way through my stay in Calgary and it is going great! It is incredible how fast the body can realign itself! At the beginning of the week my knee wobbled and shook like a leaf when doing single leg exercises NOW however I can feel my leg smoothly moving through its range of motion without..or at least...minimal shaking!! I feel stronger and more stable going down stairs AND.................................I HAVE STARTED LIGHTLY JOGGING!!! It feels incredible!! I have been dreaming of the day when I could run again since October 10th at about 9:31Am Austria time...the moment after this journey began!

Achieving little goals every day has been key to moving forward for me. So although I am in the gym, working really hard and getting really stiff in the process...I am not pushing myself too hard right now with the weights. I have decided that QUALITY is better than quantity. If I want my leg to return to top shape I need to build it correctly and efficiently. This is a lesson I learned last summer when I got up to 173lbs! Sure, I was very strong but I was no longer able to move as fast as I needed to as a technical skier. So, my new motto is quality NOT quantity....do it right the first time and be steady....the results will show in the end!

On to another very exciting topic..My teammate Kelly McBroom and I are going down to the carribean on a cruise!!! We are both recovering from knee reconstructions and both needed to get away from snow and skiing for a little while. it will hopefully be the perfect mental break for us before the summer.

Ciao for now!

Well, another stage of recovery is almost over. Since my last post there has not been much "exciting" progress to report. I am currently in the slow steady recovery phase. I am working on my low cardio range as well as building general muscle strength in my legs.

However, this has finally allowed me the chance to fully reflect (in a fairly non-emotional way) on my life, where it has been, where it is going and my life right now...inbetween. As an injured athlete it seems that you have a past (when you were skiing) and a future (when you'll start skiing again)-life on the road to recovery is a black hole with no meaning but to get back to where you were before. It can become quite frustrating to realize that your life, from other people's perspective, is on hold. Someone just pressed pause. This is a sad concept as I am learning and living so much right now. It may be in a very average way, nothing spectacular, but it is still a important part of my life and my career! This is the part of my career where I am able to figure out what I am made of mentally and physically. After a break from skiing I am now able to look back and know how amazing my life has been. How good I was at my sport, how much I love it AND I can live without it and feel successful. A few weeks ago I helped organize a free community sports event that had about 5000 people show up. It was a very interesting experience. It was amazing to me how much my ability to focus and work hard translated over into this VERY foreign type of work. It was nerve racking but, just like in skiing, you have to get over your fear and just do the work. Thank you to Caroline Boomer and Sukh Heer from Pacific Sport for allowing me that amazing opportunity.

Tomorrow I am going to travel to Calgary for my first real block of training. This is the next big step for me on the road to recovery. I will be working with the Canadian team physio Kent Kobelka every day. It will be great to be in a training environment again! This will be a great way to refocus myself and slowly start the process of being a ski racer again!

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Elli