A Great Ending

This year seems to be to full to account for it all. I have had my ups and my downs. I have had my moments of brilliance and my moments of stupidity. I have both success and failure. This year like many of the years in the past has been jam packed full of adventures and excitement.

Almost a year ago today I was getting ready for the 2009 World Cup Season in Europe, S. Korea, and Canada. I am about to embark on a similar adventure in two weeks. I will be going to Rinn and Abtenau, Autria and then on to Sestriere ,Italy. I then have another NORAM in Kimberly, BC in February. After another couple weeks of training I will be at the World Cup Finals in Aspen, CO leading up to the start of the Paralympics in Vancouver, BC. I am ready to go!!

Just 15 months ago I was competing at the Beijing Paralympics and now I am just three months out of the Vancouver Paralympics. I enjoy doing both sports for the reason I am always striving to do better in every aspect, whether it is about transitioning from one sport to the other or just to be better at the individual sport itself. I don't do two sports for the glory, I do it because I love the sport. Skiing gives me the freedom to be able to go just as fast and just as far as my peers. Cycling allows me to be with friends that also don't stand still and love to better themselves.

I get to bounce back and fourth between two very awesome groups of people, where we are all family. Skiing brings fourth brothers that I have never had and cycling bring a since of unity even though the ability is vast. I am glad and honored to be apart of both teams. This season has solidified that, having trained months with both sports and always welcomed not matter where my adventure takes me.

So the season has officially started. I have been skiing for the last five seeks and it is going great. I have been training at Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge, and Copper Mountain. I have been able to get onto most of my new equipment and am skiing great. My winter is off to a great start.
The team has been skiing together for the last two weeks and it has been a blast. I have gotten to get to know my teammates better and I am looking forward to the European World Cups where the almost the whole team will be there. We are looking strong and ready. We have skied at two NORAMs so far and are ready for two more coming up tomorrow and Friday. I won both the Giant Slalom and the Slalom in Copper and am ready for the Super-G and Super-Combined to finish out the week.
First on the list of trips is to go back to Colorado Springs for the holidays and to spend time with the family. After that the next stop on the list is the World Cups in Rinn and Abtenau, Austria and Sestreire, Italy. I leave January 4th and will be racing through the 23rd.

The Begining of Another Season

It is fall once again and I have finished one sport and focused on the other sport. The track team went on to bring home 11 medals from the Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Manchester, England. I did not join them, I was in the gym getting ready for the up coming Winter Paralympics in Vancouver, CA. I really haven't done anything all that exciting...
Vacation!!!!

I got to go to San Antonio for a Military Paralympic Camp at Fort Sam Houston. I got to teach disabled soldiers how to ride bikes. I also got to hang out with my Aunt and Uncle in San Antonio. After San Antonio I went to Reno, NV to watch my dad fly his little fast plane around in circles fifty feet off the ground. That is an amazing thing to watch and to see in person. They fly feet apart at 200+ miles per hour. Every time I watched my dad race I had goose bumps. I thought skiing at 60 miles per hour was frightening but there is no way I would every fly that plane. After my dad was done planning evil ken evil we drove down to Las Vegas and went to Interbike. I had a blast there, though I couldn't walk afterward. I am looking forward to going back again next year to represent. After a long drive home with the most annoying dog ever, Abbey, I was home a blissful two days and then I was off to Boston for a Ski Ball. I had a great day there, got to catch up with Keith for a awesome meal in China Town.

I went home for a little while and then hit the road for one more trip, Utah!! My favorite state in the country, where even the Dairy Queen closes at 8:30, lame. I was there for the National Park and Recreation Congress. I then got to go to Palo Alto, CA for another Ski Team function. After a wonderful trip to California I went home.

Well today was the first of what will be many days of training for this season. Nothing to spectacular just some free skiing on the twin tips at A-Basin. The was awesome good snow, not a lot of people, and beautiful weather. I am staying up here in Keystone for the next couple of nights. My new skis have been mounted and I get to go play on the slaloms and Ian is going to break in my Super-Gs for me.

Until next time cause I need to go and update my USADA location form.

Winter Has Come to Colorado

Winter has come and I am not ready for it. First of all I am not in what I would call skiing shape. Most tell me that I have set to high of expectations but I want to be the best is so the higher the standard the better I will be. Second I don't want to pull my ski clothes out of storage just yet. I want to wait but for tonight and tomorrow's Rockies games I am busting out the largest down jacket that I own, gloves as well.
Last night and today I spent almost 20min just de-icing my car. That is just wrong for this time of year. I was mountain biking last year and now I am reduced to rollers in the hot box. So not cool. Ooh well, winter is here and I must face it. All that really changes is that instead of riding my bike to sports med and the gym, I get to negotiate a couple of iced over stairs and handrails and the slippery path. I get to ride my road bike on the rollers instead of borrowing a mountain bike to cruise the front range. So now I must face the reality that winter has come, it may disappear for awhile but it will return.

2009 TT Bogogno, Italy

Yesterday was the TT in Bogogno, Italy. It was a great course, corners, hills, false flats, downhill straight away. I had a good go ate it as well. Started the day off way to early, not having packed my bag until that morning. Made the mad dash for breakfast having to wait for 20 or so Asian Tourist. Departed the hotel at 7:15 for a 10:15 start. Greta and I were able to get onto the course to just roll a lap. Once we got back I found out that I was going out first in my class, meaning nobody to chase down. With that mess up I got to have Craig follow me in the car, thanks the lord Jeebus. Start went well, Greta had just passed the start for her second lap and I just went. Shortly after loosing sight of G, Sarah Story passed me and I paced off of her for a bit longer. I was having a good ride, trying not to over do it but not to slack off. I was able to take all of the turns with good speed at that, and then there was the stair step of hills. So the hills consisted of 3 minor climbs with the last two covering 1 kilometer. On the first hill I was doing great then I went to shift down to the little chain ring and my chain fell off to the inside because in my moment of no focus I forgot to shift the rear casset into the middle instead of leaving in the small gear on the inside. oops. That is why I am happy that I had a follow car and was able to get quick help from Chad who was riding shotgun for Craig. After that nothing dramatic happened and I rode like hell. I knew that I was behind at the end of the first lap so with encouragement from Craig over the radio I pedaled like crazy and mad up that time plus some more.
Un-factored I was 1st with a time of 32:30, Paula (New Zealand) 32:49, Barb 32:55.
Factored Barb move up to 32:04 and took the white jersey. Oh well I will make it up next year.
Greta got 2nd, Jenny got 2nd, Karissa & Mackenzie got 1st, Clark & Dave finish in 5th, Amazing, Craig V and Mike went 8th and 9th respectively. Good day for USA!!

Guess I am something

I had a really cool experience today and I am very proud of myself for it. While here in Europe I don't check my email much but try to do it daily. Well today I had a bit of a shocker, my third and never really even been used email account, allison@jonezyrocks.com, had a message waiting for me. I was completely taken aback but initially thought it was a system email from google or something like that. It wasn't though. A person, other then family, actual read my blog and bio. Who knew that I could be found. After responding to the email I figured two things were going for me. One was the fact that the money that I invested into my website and the many hours that my sister and I have spent on it was well worth it. The second thing is that since I now know that people, other then family again, are reading what I have to say, i thought it would be smart to step up my game on the blogging. So here it is, I am going to keep better attention to my website and to both blogs.

Italy...

I love Italy, even on the muggy days. It is beautiful here and the people are very nice. The scenery is amazing and I am glad to have finally made it here during the summer and see just how green it gets. The company is also awesome. There is a new guy, normally referred to the FNG, but he has out right skipped that position with how nice and professional he is. During camp I was the escape from his roommate and now he stepped up and has been my escape from my roommate. We are staying at a very nice hotel and the staff here are awesome. The seemed to have already forgiven us for the fact that we can not speak Italian and are butchering what every we try to say in Italian, ie Poste Cardo when looking for a postcard.

So far this trip has gone by way to fast with not much getting done. Craig G. has had us riding only once a day, what a concept. I am not sure what to do with myself during the rest of the day. I am definitely getting more and more anxious for the race and I have had to stop myself multiple time from trying to second guess what I should and shouldn't do. Some race tomorrow, Oz, Alejandro, David, and Anthony, while the rest wait until the following day to slay the course.

Why make things simple, it would be boring otherwise!!

A teammate of mine talked the other day about being in the moment. I understood the comment and the idea behind it but I don't think I have every experienced "Being in the Moment" outside of sport. Is this a bad thing? Am I not enjoying life to the fullest? Should I slow down and just focus on today, the moment?

I have been pondering this for the last couple of days and I think that I am getting a better understanding of where I think that I should be. I should be right where I am. I am doing what I love to do and living a life style that I am almost content with. I have a lot of ideas in my head of what I would like to do when I grow up and face the world outside of sport but I don't know if that world is what I am imagining it as. I have only a couple of friends that would carry outside of sport and I am willing, almost wanting, to make more. I am not sure what life has in store for me but I am sure I will enjoy the ride. I might be making some new radical decisions that will most likely shock the world for those that don't truly know me and what my desires in life truly are.

How do you call it the end when life isn't over yet? I know that I am ending one chapter in my life but I have always had two or three going on all at once. So with end of one why not start another or two. I know that I want to go back and pass the FE exam but I also have had some other prospect come into mind that I might go take advantage of. If I got my way I would live the craziest life style possible that I could live. I have no intention on making things boring or dull. Exciting, fun, and risk taking are what I have in store for my biography.

GS is ugly

As much as I try I just can't grasp GS. GS is not complicated but it frustrates me every so much. The crappy part is that I can't stand the passive nature of the staff. I know that they want to see us all succeed but at times I don't see the passion for the event. There is no energy in the way they critic, "It is looking okay." tends to be the common statement. The problem is that it isn't okay, I have to be beating the men on our ski team in order to be competitive with the Woman's world cup field. I am not there consistently and the staff seem to be in neutral with helping me out. I was skiing the drills awesome, there was little to no spray, shoulders level, movement in the leg, and and aggressive line. Now I am back to skiing like I did last year, stiff legged, tipped in, pinchy, and spray through the whole turn.

I hope that I can get it together by the World Cup Season. Slalom is up next in the camp and I am really ready for it and I don't want to go through the potential pain in my arm. I know that I can get through it with little worry but my thoughts are focused on cycling right now. I am excited about racing and am ready to crush the course. All is to be positive in my head and I am ready for it.

Questions

I have to propose a big question to myself. I am hoping that my coach will help me out in this decision. Do I stay with the ski team or do I go independent so that my cycling career does not flounder. After this last race, US Nationals/World Team Trials, I realized that no matter how much I tapered on the bike the training on the sis killed me. I am now questioning what my performance will be at the road Nationals/World Team Trials with yet another ski camp before the event begins. This is what is boggling my mind any help....

Mt Hood

So a lot has happened since I last posted to this blog. I went to Korea and Whistler with the ski team and Manchester, England with cycling. Cycling has been awesome this year with some new PR's in England which was amazing considering it was May and I had only truly been riding for six weeks. I enjoy the bike so much that I look forward to hard workouts. You can see the results even though you feel exhausted at the end of the day. Training has hit an all time high even though I ride the same roads over and over, there is something there that makes the repetitive rides enjoyable. After Whistler I hope to find the same feeling on the skis. Bliss is such a great feeling I want to experience as much as possible and in any way that I could.

Hood is has been amazing. This is a camp that has had an impact with the whole team. Everybody is make huge leaps and bounds with their own ski technique and working together as a team. The staff is also amazing this camp, there has been no wasted time with redundant drills, which are sometimes necessary. We are being treated like adults and the respect is a major two highway, where athletes are respecting staff, staff are respecting athletes, and athletes are respecting athletes. There are no true rookies here yet so we are not a full compliment in the house but we are a great group of veterens.

Training for me has been awesome. I am back in the stiff boot and I feel great. Things are finally going forward and I am not struggling against an unknown force. I am a bit excited that we are not doing Super-Combined, slalom is awesome but it takes a higher toll on my body and now I will have a better chance of being ready for Nationals in LA, ooh yeah forgot to mention that I leave for LA in a couple of days. Scary...

La Molina - World Cup

Hello All,
I have arrived in Europe, with no bags. I luckily brought my ski boot on the plane with me and extra under wear, thank God. I am excited to say that my clothes bag arrived yesterday afternoon and my speed skis arrived today. Unfortunately we race tech, ie Slalom and Giant Slalom, here in Spain. I am fortunately borrowing Laurie's skis until mine arrive.
On the flip side the mountains here in the Pyrenees are a lot like those of Colorado and Utah. There are pinny trees and great snow. The hill that we are skiing on was used for an Able-Bodied World Cup in December so it is phenomenal, steep and hard. We went exploring, I was on Stephani's slalom ski and Brad Alier's poles. The snow was soft on the rest of the mountain.
The hotel is fun, we have mini apartments with kitchens the size of what Haley's first New York City apartment. There is a workout out room that is very expensive, so I won't be going in there. The tuning is happening in the parking garage with giant heaters keeping everything warm.
We are racing Giant Slalom for the first two days then two days of Slalom after that. So for now that is all that I have, until next time,
Ali