Colorado and Turkey Day

I have not written on here in a while and today is Thanksgiving so I thought I would give a little update. I have been in Colorado now for about ten days. I just finished an 8 day National Development System camp in Keystone. I ended up getting 4 days of slalom and 3 of GS at this camp. The camp was a labeled a “Nor-Am Prep Camp” which basically meant lots of timing and little coaching feed-back. Video was done everyday but not in depth and the coaches were usually busy repairing the course or videoing to give detailed feed back on an every run basis. The volume was also very very low due to the NDS philosophy and the long lift lines at Keystone. The snow was fairly soft too, but despite the problems I just listed the camp was a general success. One day in Slalom I posted the 1st and 2nd fastest slalom runs out of 4 runs. I am feeling good about my slalom skiing, as long as I stay forward, roll the top of the turn with my knees and ankles first instead of just drifting into the top of the turn and make sure that the top of the turn is in the right place I think I can ski fast. GS did not go quite as well, I’m not positive of my time placing but I think it was more middle of the pack, and not everyone at this camp is racing the Nor-Ams so I was nearer the end of the guys racing the Nor-Ams. Fortunately for me the GS Nor-Ams were recently cancelled and changed to Slaloms. In GS I am working on rolling into the turn well while being forward and that comes from having a good end of the turn before which means getting off the ski early and projecting myself forward towards the next gate instead of just re-centering upwards. It is funny how in Mt. Hood where we basically only skied Slalom I was not feeling very good and in Chile where we basically only skied GS I was feeling pretty good. Then I get to Colorado and somehow they flip flop and I feel good better in Slalom. Now I am on my second day off before I start training for the Nor-Ams again. The Nor-Ams start in three days with 2 Slaloms at Loveland before a day off and finish with 2 more Slalom’s at Winter Park. I think I’ll be starting dead last in all the races but I’m excited. I’m coming into these races with no expectations of placing well but at the same time giving it everything I have and looking to ski as fast as possible. I have nothing to lose from going all out or close to it and if I don’t I know I won’t have any results. My goal is to at least make the second run which at a Nor-Am means placing in the top 60 after first run. I’ll give another update after the Nor-Ams. For now its time for me to get ready for Thanksgiving and start my world famous sweet potato recipe that actually has no recipe and is different every year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kieffer