Bogus Basin

Hey guys! So last time I left you I was in a pretty bad spot. Let me tell you, it has not improved in the slightest. Like really, not at all. If you haven't read my Sun Valley posts I recommend you read those before reading this one.

Unfortunately my prediction was true and I did retear my ACL. It turns out I need another reconstructive surgery. So that was just AWESOME. AGAIN. I LOVE MY LIFE. But it happens and the best mentality to have is that you'll come back again. Having a hard time with that but, maybe I will come back. The truth is I've been pretty undecided the past couple weeks. I guess we'll see.

Now, I decided it would be best for me to go watch my friends race in Bogus Basin, Idaho because why not. I have surgery scheduled for February 29th so I might as well do something to distract myself from the fact that they'll be cutting my leg open, yet again. 

It felt odd getting ready and packing for this trip for a lot of reasons. I didn't tune my skis for one part, usually the first thing I do. No poles to strap together. No ski clothing packed in my bag at all. Seriously, none whatsoever. It feels weird to be packing for a ski trip without anything related to skiing besides a jacket. It felt like I was leaving a part of me at home. 

When I got to the bus it felt even weirder. I handed my small duffle bag to one of my coaches and she threw it in the cargo van. Then I loaded the bus and was bombarded with questions, mostly from the guys on my team. "Wait, Maxine are you racing?" they asked. "Oh so you're just coming for the trip? Why? Did you tear your ACL again?" they asked. I can not explain how irritating that ten minutes of questions was. It was like I was being interviewed. Why do I need to explain that yes I'm here for the trip, no I can't race and yes I tore my ACL. Seriously aggravating. It only lasted a little while though and after that I was only asked maybe once or twice.

When we got to the hotel another one of my coaches announced that I was in charge of the wax room. I mean, it's not like I had anything else to do and I didn't have to do any heavy lifting because of my knee but you would be surprised how hard it is to get some of the kids on the team to cooperate. 

After that was over we just hung out. My teammates had to tune their skis but other than that we just lounged around the hotel. We also played with face swap on Snapchat which was pretty great.

as you can see we are very talented in the art of Snapchat's face swap filter

I have to say that this was probably one of the more fun ski trips I've been on, you know besides the whole not racing part. Although I couldn't actually see the race it was still pretty fun. The races got cancelled on Saturday so we all went to the movies as a team and that was fun. We played chess in the lobby and played Call of Duty in my room. One of my roommates couldn't find her way around the hotel and that was pretty hilarious. She had to call us almost every time she left the room so we could help her find her way back. A few of us went to the lake near by and swam in it completely disregarding that we probably could've gotten hypothermia or something. I'm not kidding my feet went numb as soon as I stepped in the water.

This was a great trip. It's just hitting me now that tomorrow I'll be having knee surgery and I'll be missing more memories like these. I hope next year we continue to make these memories. I love my team and I wouldn't trade them for anyone else in the world. I'll guess I'll have had knee surgery next post so wish me luck! See you soon!

p.s. sorry this was posted a couple days after I wrote it but for some reason it wouldn't post on the bus and then I forgot haha :)

Sun Valley Part 2

Hey guys! I'm back for the second part of the Sun Valley series. May I say, this race took an unexpected turn. If you haven't read part one go ahead and check that out first! Now, let's get started.

So the bus ride was fun as they always are. We played the game Psych! on our phones together. The object of the game is to come up with an answer to a provided question that you know is not the correct answer. Then you try to trick people with your answer and guess the correct one out of all the answers given by the players as well as the one correct answer provided by the app. It sounds complicated but you guys should try it out sometime because it's really fun. 

When we got to the hotel we all went to the wax room to scrap our skis. I unfortunately didn't get a table so I went to go get groceries for my roommate and I while she was in the wax room. Well guess who couldn't find the market? Yeah, that's right, me. I swear I probably would have been a good two miles off if the same coach that gave me that pep talk I told you about last time didn't find me and ask what I was doing. Talk about embarrassing. The market was literally like two blocks from the hotel. So that was just great. 

Ok anyway, it's the next day: race day. We raced GS first since it's easier and safer to go from bigger turns to smaller ones. It sucked. I skied like a little girl who just started racing. It was really awful. I thought hey, maybe the slalom won't be as bad right? Wrong. The first day of slalom was pretty bad too. I skied slightly better than I did on the first day. I did have a good second run and I felt pretty good about the next day. Well, I was wrong to think that maybe I could have done at all ok at this race. On Sunday, the first half of my first run was pretty fast, but it was sloppy. I was in back seat and before I knew it I was only fifteen or twenty gates from the finish. That's where it happened. Where I fell, and where I'm pretty sure I retore the same ACL as I did last year. I was devastated. Unlike the first time it happened there was no hope that maybe it could be ok. "Maybe it's just the MCL which has a significantly faster healing time," they said. But no, I knew right from that moment that I would be starting over again with same process I went through last year. I was crushed. Here's an interesting article on ACL tears in sports right now incase your interested.

a picture I took on the way back from Sun Valley

The bus ride back was quiet. My roommate also tore her ACL the day before me so it was a little weird on the bus. Although, somehow a guy on the team ended up in those compartments above the bus that hold your carry-on bags and that was pretty fun.

So here I am on Tuesday. It's been over a week since my crash in Sun Valley. I'm waiting for an MRI result that will no doubt prove I tore my ACL again. AWESOME. I JUST LOVE MY LIFE RIGHT NOW. I guess I'll keep you guys updated on how this all plays out. See you soon.

Sun Valley Part 1

Hey guys! It's been a little while hasn't it? Well, I'd be wrong if I said a lot hasn't happened over this small amount of time . . . how about I start with the Sun Valley race that my team is at this weekend. I've decided to write this in a two-part series where you hear the training portion now and the race portion in the second part. Basically, as I'm writing this I'm on the bus and it's been about an hour since we left Park City.

So this trip has started pretty bad for me. After our last race, the Wes Barron Super-G, a speed race, in Jackson Hole, my skiing had been really amazing. 

this is an image of a speed race, the wider and straight set turns are a characteristic of these events
image courtesy of Vail Valley Foundation

Now, speed is kind of my thing and last season I noticed that after we started speed my skiing in all disciplines improved tremendously, especially in slalom. For awhile training was great. Everything just seemed to fall into place. I didn't have any issues with confidence in training, but soon after we started training GS, a tech discipline, on CB's. I tore my ACL on CB's last year and as you can imagine I was not the most confident starting a course at the same exact place as the one from last year. Actually, I was terrified. For me fear = terrible, back seat skiing, and terrible, back seat skiing = bad training. So overall my technique leading into the Sun Valley qualifier was in bad shape.

Now, two days before our departure for the race we trained GS on Shamus, another run at Park City. At the start of training my runs were pretty awful, but as the session went on my skiing improved significantly. I started to look and feel like myself again. I felt like maybe I could do somewhat decent at this race, you know? Knowing I was pretty freaked out about how bad my prep for the race had been that week, one of my coaches gave me a pretty great pep talk. He told me how NCAA studs would go to NorAms, a series of races in North America, and be completely unprepared mentally to face these other skiers. They all have talent and the skill set to do well, but they get destroyed by the other competitors. My coach said that it takes some of them a few days to get over their "slump" and it takes others a few months. He told me to try and get a good day of training in tomorrow and see where it leads me. He said not worry if these results aren't what I want them to be because speed is where I perform. It felt pretty good to know my coaches were behind while I was in my own slump.

Finally, it was time to leave Park City for Sun Valley. We loaded up the bus and said goodbye to our families. My parents decided to come up to Sun Valley on their own for Friday's race so I knew I would see them soon. 

Alright guys, stay tuned as the race continues and I'll give you an update after the race is over! See you soon!