Another month has now past, meaning its time for my October's blog! I am writing from Team Evolution's base in Radstadt, Austria where I train in the winter. At the beginning of the month I was at home, working part time on a construction site. I think it's important for me to start making my own way in life. I learnt lots of manual skills on the job which will come in handy some time in the future. After work its straight to the gym where I'm working on building more strength for the winter ahead. This is something I find quite hard but this year I'm certain I can make some big improvements and see some real benefits! Unfortunately a week later I found myself with the rest of my family in quarantine, as we had developed Covid 19. The two weeks were really tough knowing that my fellow teammates were out skiing, but this made me hungrier to improve. The two weeks finally passed and we had the all the clear to travel to Hintertux, Austria. Getting back onto snow was amazing and just made me realise how privilegedI am. The following three days were Giant Slalom training which felt surprisingly good to say I hadn't skied since August, the vibes in camp were sky high. Shortly after we returned back to the Team Evolution base in Radstadt to take a well earned rest day.
It was decided this week would be a week off the training hill, instead we would prepare new skis and equipment and perform fitness testing. Although I have only been away for just over a week at this point it is nice to step back and make sure all the basics are done right! My new skis from Fischer arrived earlier this week, so many hours were spent in the ski room getting the skis ready and making sure the set up was correct, ready for training days ahead.
Physical testing day soon came around and I can say that I am still sore to this day! The team has adopted the Norwegian style Iron Man test which consists of 8 test .These are completed in a single morning, you recieve points for performing well and the more points you score the better. I'm happy with the results of the test and I believe this is a true reflection of all the hard work I have put in over lockdown.
Over the last two days I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to Telemark ski with Mario Rhodes, the Croatian world cup coach. This was an amazing experience to learn a different type of skiing that I'd never experienced before.
You may of gathered it's been a pretty busy month for me, but I'm so happy to share my journey with you guys! Many Thanks for reading, Robert Holmes