Like a mess of moments – learning a new track can have a tricky way of cluttering up my brain. Memorizing the corners, building a game plan, reviewing video, reviewing more video, and trying to ignore/handle the pressure I place on myself to “know what to do” sooner rather than later. I remind myself once again to breathe and relax … then, I throw that plan out the window, panic and drag a heavy bottom toe through yet another corner here in La Plagne, France.
“Damnit!”
To date, I have slid and conquered six tracks around the world; La Plagne was number seven.
The 19 corner beast, tucked away in the French Alps (putting us between 3250m and 1250m above sea level), boasts it’s 1992 Winter Olympic history and being one of the lengthiest (1507 m) tracks that includes an epic-long start ramp and a cluster of extremely high-pressure corners.
I won’t recap the entire week of training but run #1 for me included a mistake that found Phrixus and I hitting the roof at the exit of corner 6 – something I had not yet experienced as a slider. I had been verbally explained how to steer this curve, but if history has taught me anything, I tend to enjoy learning things the hard way… or something like that.
Don’t worry mom and dad – I wasn’t hurt – and Latvia’s Martins “Superman” Dukurs hit the exact same place that run, which helped soothe my ego (a tiny bit). Needless to say, I worked hard to make sure I nailed the steers in that area from then on.
The remaining days delivered a truck load of lessons and forced me to once again commit to trusting myself. And in a sport where G-forces are continuously squishing your face against the ice – that is a trickier promise to make than it might seem.
“Two turns at a time,” Canadian-Cowboy, Jan Hudec reminded me mid-week, via text. “No two turns are difficult on their own. Focus on that and link them together in the race.”
When Saturday morning rolled in I woke up, threw open the curtains and did a quick track visualization. On any track, there is a huge importance to visualizing – on a new track it’s absolutely key. It gives us the chance to execute an infinite number of extra runs; ultimately trying to teach our mind and body to work together to react no matter what comes at us.
In 8 runs, La Plagne had managed to both caress me with a gentle touch and slap me with a firm hand.
I felt prepared for a variety of situations – and walked into the start house raring to race!
Behind my visor, my gaze lifted.
I caught our men’s team standing along the left side of the ramp – ready to cheer me on and help me gauge when to load onto my sled and high on the right side, the start clock – ready to be challenged.
Run 1 featured moments where I really enjoyed myself (which was one of my goals), unfortunately my speed was immediately hindered by my weight being over shot on my sled and me not getting settled into my saddle which caused my runners to skid beneath me.
A time killer is always a tough recovery and I did my best to make the adjustments necessary – but my downtime suffered and I had a run that landed me in 13th place.
Run 2 – nothing to lose.
World Cup Race #5 completed.
As I packed up my sled, and took off my race suit for the final time this year – I choked back a couple of tears. They were not tears of self pity but more appropriately those representing release.
The past six weeks have been absolutely incredible. And the truth is, each opportunity I had to hit the ice, I executed my game plan as well as I could. Certainly, it’s tough when I feel as though I left stuff of the table … but it will mean that much more when I finally learn to use everything.
The first half of my rookie World Cup season – a success!
After five races I have 808 FIBT points and am sitting 8th in the world.
I am learning to truly compete with the best. I am learning to claw my way through the rough spots and glide through the smoother curves. Like a door I can’t close when I’m running late … I will continue to revisit the important situations, never shy away from the hard lessons and always, always adapt.
In the meantime, Rider, Mel, E, Monty, Fairbairn, Tyson, Duff and I traveled the 4800 miles back to Calgary – to rest, recover and ultimately, repeat!
