Freshman Year

Hey guys! It's been a weird year for me. You all saw my growth from the beginning of the year to the end. If you remember, I started this blog as a school assignment. For my last blog assignment I am supposed to talk about my experience and growth through blogging so here we go.

image courtesy of A Boundless World

Where was I when I started my journey? I was literally no one. No one knew who I was or where I came from except for my ski team. It was weird to have such a small group of friends for me but it is where it is. I also was six months post op of my first ACL reconstruction and I had just started working out with my team again. I had a new coaching staff that I needed to get to know and I moved up a year in skiing. Overall it was a pretty rough start to the beginning of the year.

But that start pretty much resembled the entire year. So the question is, how did blogging help me grow? Well, I guess you can say blogging made me more mature. If you look at my posts from the beginning to the end, my topics have changed so much. I went from blogging about Halloween to blogging about staying positive after injury. Documenting my writing progress has really helped me to see just how much an individual grows in a year. In a way blogging has also helped me cope with tearing my ACL a second time. It may seem like the only thing I talk about here but shoutout to those other four kids on my team that just went through the same thing. It's a hard process that you have to deal with and this blog has helped me to stay motivated and get out of my previous lazy patterns. It's helped me come to where I am now.

Now I have a workout group that I started between five other girls and I all with the same injury. We go to the gym together to stay motivated and work through the difficulties of injury. I've been more responsible for myself and my actions, for example documenting everything active I do in a day so that if I start to have pain anywhere in my body my coaches and I can pin point exactly what caused it. I've taken my first AP exam and maintained good grades throughout the school year. I've been voted the sophomore representative, branching out and making more friends and acquaintances, And finally I've grown as a person throughout my experience. It might even be hard to say goodbye to blogging.

I would encourage anyone reading this to try blogging. Here's an article about how it can help grow your business for any of you older people. This whole journey started as an assignment and now here I am at the end of it. I don't know if I will continue blogging or not but if I do I'll keep you all posted. It's been a great experience and I hope all of you readers enjoyed watching my first year of high school. So I guess this is goodbye for now! Maybe I'll see you soon!

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!

Dear . . .

Dear Bode Miller,

I can not explain how much I aspire to be as good at alpine skiing as you. You literally have no fear hurling down a course like Birds of Prey. It is honestly incredible.

Watching you ski is probably one of the most motivating things you can do. It helps me to get aggressive during training and the night before a race. I especially like to watch the run from 2003 when you finish a downhill race on one ski. It reminds me to never give up in a course no matter how big the mistake I've made is.

image courtesy of www.skinet.com

This run also reminds me that no one is perfect. One of the main reasons you're my favorite world cup racer is because you make mistakes and still make it on the podium. If I were to watch Mikaela Shiffrin ski slalom as my motivation it wouldn't work because I know I can't ski slalom that cleanly yet. It just puts me down. However, when I watch you ski I feel like we have a similar style of skiing and the mistakes I make somewhat resemble yours (your mistakes of course being on much more difficult course and hill).

I also admire how you stood up to the US Ski Team. Haha I have to be careful here because I eventually want to be part of that team but I thought it was pretty cool. As I get older I realize just how political ski racing is and I think it was a bold move for you to train on your own.

You also have some pretty gnarly crashes and surprisingly got out of most of them alright. For example, that race when you cut a gash into your calf. I mean, that's pretty f****** awesome. Like I don't know how you managed to cut yourself with your ski and recover so quickly but it was pretty bad a**. Like, I've been injured once before and it's so hard to motivate yourself after that. I think it's pretty awesome how you kept going through all your years of ski racing.

I'm sad to see you retiring from the sport though. I mean, I can understand why. It's hard to constantly be getting beat up by ruts and steep pitches. Falling only gets harder on your body. But, although not possible I wish you would never retire. That way I'll have endless motivational video for me to watch :)

I hope my blog reminds you of a younger you. Although I'm a girl I hope that this blog takes you back to your U16 (J4/J3 back then) years. I hope you'll come back to read my blog and see as I progress through the world of ski racing as you did.

Thanks for reading my blog,
Max

Snowbasin

Hey guys! The Park City U16 Alpine Ski Team went to Snowbasin for our first qualifier of the 2015-16 season. It was pretty exciting.

the Snowbasin trail map
image courtesy of liftopia

I'm super excited to tell you that I it was my first race since acl reconstructive surgery. I tore my acl last season in February and it was the worst experience of my short life. If you don't know what goes down in acl reconstructive surgery they basically take a "new ligament" and replace the old one with screws and plates and stuff. It never feels normal again and that's why is was so great getting back to races.

So anyway, we usually travel as a team to races but this time we traveled with our parents since Snowbasin is only about an hour away. We got to the mountain and went into the lodge with the sign marked "event parking only" and it already felt like it was going to be a good day. It's also pretty great remembering that you're out doing what you love and other kids are in school haha. I was a little late on the first day because we had to stop for windshield wiper fluid along the way. I quickly got ready in the lodge, grabbed my bib and my pass and head out for course inspection.

The first race was giant slalom and the run looked really nice. As my first race I was pretty excited, yeah I know it seems like I get excited easily, when the course was set nice and straight. For those of you that are not ski racers a straight course basically means that the turns are not as across the hill. Makes sense right?

The next thing that helped me feel pretty confident was the fact that the race hill wasn't all that steep. Being from Pennsylvania I find it hard to get used to the pitches of the Intermountain Division.

The one thing that definitely didn't boost my confidence was my start number. I ran eighty second on my first run and that was awful. Because my start number was so far back the ruts, chunks and lines in the course, were really bad. I suffered a pretty bad mistake at the top of the course and it cost me. I came in thirty seventh. Honestly, it wasn't too bad for my first run back but I wanted to do better.

On my second run I ran thirty seventh since that was where I finished. To my pleasant surprise I came in twenty sixth that run and finished in the same position. Overall Friday was a pretty good day.

Unfortunately Saturday and Sunday weren't as great but there's still a long season ahead of us. I hope you enjoyed my little post on my first race back. I'm confident this'll be a good season. See you soon!

Jackson Hole Trip Part 1

Hey Guys! As some of you may or may not know I am on the Park City Ski Team and we had a training camp this past week (ish) at Snow King in Jackson, WY. Let me tell you, it was a pretty fun camp.

a picture of Snow King during ski season
image courtesy of jacksonholetraveler.com

In February of this year I tore my anterior cruciate ligament (acl) and if you don't know it takes about seven months, after surgery, before you can go back to playing sports. It's been just about seven and a half months since I tore my acl and this ski camp was my first opportunity to train since my surgery. 

Loading up the van in Park City was one of the scariest things I've ever done. I had a couple issues with my knee recently and had been worried about skiing on it, but my doctor cleared me for Jackson and I decided to go. We packed all of our stuff into our U-Haul: two pairs of skis, two pairs of poles, my boot bag, my tuning box and my duffle bag. As if that wasn't enough, I also had a bag in the van with me which consisted of all my school stuff. 

My in-car bag broke and while I ran to Cole Sport to get a new one everyone took their seats leaving me in the very back corner next to all the guys. There were only THREE girls in our red van. Already this trip sounds interesting huh?

Well I dealt with my seat and it wasn't all that bad. We had fun playing gangster rap and playfully making fun of each other for the whole five hour trip. Although, there were a few arguments about what music we should be listening to.

ANYWAY, we finally made it to Jackson where I found out River was my roommate! This was pretty exciting because River and I get along pretty well.

Then it was time to go to bed on the first and I was really nervous. Like, REALLY nervous. It was pretty scary to think I was going to be skiing again because that's how I injured my knee.

I woke up the following morning, got ready and made my way out to the big red van to leave for Snow King. And then . . . 

Stay tuned for Part 2! I'll tell you guys about believing in my knee again and of course all the fun stuff that happened in our free time! See you soon!