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

Skiing is Such Bliss

I love skiing. I love being able to go out and just rip it. I haven't exactly gone through the summer progression of drills just kinda of jumped back into the swing of things. Yesterday was my first day back on skis since SkiTAM in April. Amazingly enough I feel pretty good considering I am on a new boot and ski. My foot is in pain but I think that it is the combination of not skiing and new boot cause today the pain was about half that it was yesterday.
We are skiing up at Copper and the weather is awesome. I think that I am bringing my bike back up with me on Wednesday cause it is in the upper 60's and beautiful. I got to the gym today and I realized how spoiled I am at the Olympic training center. I mean the gym at Break. Is nice but nothing compared to what is available at the OTC.

The snow has come!!!

I am so excited, I might get to wear my new winter jacket tomorrow because it is snowing in Colorado Springs. YESSSSS! I am so excited!!! I am also getting ready for everything to start up here. I already have a condo in Keystone for a week of early season training in Copper. I can't wait. Found out Jared, our ski god, got my new skis and boot for the season, wahoo. I did a whole bunch today.
Went to the prosthetic shop and am getting a new foot shell to replace the current one that I have, which has two major holes and the heel is about to blow out. I got the access to the condo in Keystone, visited a doctor friend of mine, she gave Greta and I scrips for the new prosthetic stuff, tested out the new USADA online form, started to discuss photo shoots with SKINS, and may have scored some tickets to the Av's game on Friday.
Today was a good day. Yeah. I still haven't finished moving, bummer, but there is tomorrow in the snow :) I am going skiing in a week :) I might to an Av's game :) I get to hook up with friends at the game :)

Growing Old

What I don't get about growing old is when to exit. I recently went down to visit my great great aunt. She had lived her life active all of the way. She was still mowing the yard at the age of 84. Unfortunately with all old folks the calcium just doesn't stay where it was supposed to be and she fell over and broke her hip. She was in a nursing home for a while but now she is in the care of her daughter and live in friends. She doesn't walk anymore and care takers don't get her outside all that often. I feel as though she has lived her life and is just waiting for the grace of god to take her.
As a society what do we do? Do we end the suffering or do we try to make her rehab against the odds of rehabilitation? I think that we should look at what is left for her to accomplish in life. Her husband has already passed away. There is nothing that she needs to get done, her daughter is grown, her grandson is grown. I think that I have gotten to the point that I know that her next big act is her exit and I see nothing wrong in that. I hope that she does not suffer and goes to God peacefully. I don't expect her to live forever and I hope that others can share my opinion in this.
I just hope that I am treated the same way for I don't want to linger when I have done all that I can do. I what to exit and go on it what ever is to come. I don't what to suffer and I don't want to plead, just everybody understand that it all comes to an end and everybody must face it so except it.

Colorado Springs Chill'n

I suck at this blog thing. I never get on and write but I also think about what I should tell the world. I am doing great. I did nothing for a month and now I am in full gear getting ready for the ski season. I got to move from the barracks to the nicer resident living quarters on complex, so that was exciting. I have been enjoy good and shitty weather, typical for fall in Colorado. So what have I done since my return to the United States. Well I chilled for a couple of days and didn't even try to re-adjust my sleeping hours, I just went to bed at 8pm and up at 4am. I got a lot of shit done in the mornings, and my boyfriend slept through it all. I then went to Dallas, Texas, to visit some relatives and then I did the White House Visit with all of the Olympians and Paralympians, no Micheal Phelps was not there, neither was the Basketball team.
I then cam home and vacation was done, straight to the gym. I also managed to break my socket of my leg and was required to use crutches, uugh. My body hated it, not only was I lifting for the first time in months was also trying to move rooms and that was not cool. My body was in complete rejection. I then got my leg back and to my surprise it was "marble" blue with sparkles. If you know me I don't do sparkles. Apparently they ran out of black fabric material and the owner really thinks blue looks good.
I then got a mountain bike to use for the time being at least until the snow doesn't allow it any more. I have had a blast this weekend. I feel over a couple of times but if you know me I laughed first and then got up and got back onto the bike. I had fun, lots of it. Oh yeah, the bike that I am using is a full suspension carbon Specialized that one of the national team members used last year. I made sure that I put padding on the top tube so that my right leg didn't destroy the carbon, and I have used it very much so. Lindsey Bishop took out for a joy ride yesterday and I was a little giddy school girl. I like mountain biking, it is fun. I might actually have to invest into a bike for my self.

The TT and the beginning of the Vacation

I was happy that morning. I was very happy that day. We got to go out on the later bus so we got to hear how everybody did. Matt had mechanical issues, David had to change his position so he didn't do that well, Oz won, and Pepe was third. Not a bad start to the morning. Mike had just finished his first lap when we had arrived and he was looking strong. We still had about two and half hours of waiting until we were going. I had a bit to eat and then started going. I had yet to ride the entrance to, on, and off the dam. I got all geared up and was off riding around 1:15, I started at 3:15. I wasn't able to get a great head of steam into the unknown territory but I at least got to ride the slip and slide. It was fun. I had some minor shifting problems but those were easily solved. I then hung out for a while while Ron and Anthony got ready to go. Ron was off at 2:25. I then got all ready and started warming up on the rollers. Craig took off with Anthony to follow him on the first lap. He was playing the very eager father roll making sure that all of children were ready for the race. I was as ready as was going to be. I was the second to last athlete to go for the single bikes. I new that I could catch the girls in front of me but I didn't know whether or not Natalie from Germany would catch me. I figured it would be towards the end of first lap. I got started and was pumped. I played it smart. Took the hill with a high cadence and pushed it up over each hill. I wish that I went faster in some sections but I still won the race. I knew I had done well at the end of the day when I could here the announcer saying that I was coming with a very fast time. I got to embrace a very upset Barb because she had forgotten about the factor and the announcer was telling everybody that I had won the race. i knew that I would end up second because of the factor but I knew that if we were at worlds I would be wearing gold. I had the race of my life. I can't ask for more.

I started celebrating right away. The next day I was off to the wall and got some more souvenir shopping done. The wall is amazing. The fact that somebody thousands of years ago wanted a large wall and it got built. It was amazing to see how it just zigzagged the landscape. I went Mary Riddel, former ski teammer. I thought some of my teammates on cycling team liked to talk but she is just as bad. It was fun though, we got to go in a BOCOG vehicle and not the public shuttle. We got there quick and painless. Later a group of us went to an Irish bar with a couple of the Irish cyclist. It was a ton of fun. I got drunk and ended up at another bar with "Gus", and didn't make it home until 3:30am. I slept all of the next day. We then went to an acrobatic show, which was amazing. Three subway trains later we were back at the Village. We then wrangled up Craig and made him keep a bet that he had made, 5 golds and we get to put USA into the back of his head. If we would have gotten 8 then it was a tattoo. Craig looked like a little boy going to the dentist for the first time. We have lots of photos.

It was a great ending to the games and I am having a good vacation.