Saturday, December 25, 2010

Home for the Holidays!


It’s good to be home. Time on the road isn’t bad -- the racing is fun to watch, the food’s OK, the rooms are warm. But there’s nothing like being home with family. It’s been a while since I made a post here. Between chasing races in Canada, coming home to prepare for Christmas, and working with our ski team at Schweitzer every day, life has been rather hectic. So I’m using Christmas afternoon to catch-up on stuff.

Scott’s December race results weren’t what he’d hoped for, but he’s far from beaten. He knows he’s skiing well and the final two tech races left him encouraged. I’m actually quite impressed with his self confidence and motivation. Of course, a number of his teammates and friends continued to race after the NORAMS, at regular FIS races in Canada and Colorado, where the point opportunities were better. Several scored good FIS points, which left Scott feeling left out. He wasn’t aware that the option existed and thought time off in his schedule to be mandatory. He’s lamenting the points he might have pursued.

I, on the other hand, see these two weeks at home to be important. We’ve been on the road for 9 weeks. No matter how strong and healthy he feels, travel takes its toll… subtly. When Scott flies out Jan 1st, he’ll be on the road for another 7-8 weeks with about 20 or more race starts before getting home for a few days. So I’ve been paying attention to keeping him focused on the schedule ahead, not the missed opportunities.

The NASTAR folks asked Scott to be the pacesetter at Schweitzer this winter. By doing so he saved the mountain $1500 in travel expenses, which may very well have saved the program. He donated a few days skiing with the local pacesetters and giving them a chance to get back into the swing of things. NASTAR isn’t exactly a real race, but it’s good fun. It was also fun for Scott to paceset the same guy who was the pacesetter in Scott’s first ever time through gates when he was four years old. Kinda cool!

We’ve both been working a little with our home ski team, filling in when the group coaches aren’t available. The younger kids get really excited to have a US Team guy skiing with them, even though they’ve known him for years. Funny to watch.
Tomorrow's supposed to be a powder day. We gave Scott powder skis for Christmas, and he has a seat on one of our snowcats tomorrow. The perfect storm...

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