Training with Whitney

What an eventful first week in Florida! This week I have been skiing with Whitney McClintock, who had just come back from winning the Moomba masters in Australia! I was interested in a week of coaching by her because having achieved what she has, I can learn a lot from her lifestyle as well as what she can teach me in terms of skiing. Since I had been more focussed on my nutrition and work outs recently, I was very interested in what she could tell me about this. This was quite a big difference, since she eats vegan, whereas I love eating meat and dairy products. I was curious how my body would react, but also a little nervous that I might miss eating what I normally do, even though it was only 4 days. As it turns out, it was very easy to eat according to her diet for a couple of days. There were so many delicious products to eat instead, that I barely even missed eating meat or snacking on a yoghurt. Even when on the third day we were offered some chicken, I didn’t want to take it (nothing to do with peer pressure at all… :D). Along with this nutrition, I also learned more about PiYo, a mix of Pilates and yoga, and joined in her warm up before skiing. I don’t think I will go vegan now, I mean I already ate steak at the first opportunity, but I am more open to it than I was before. I think I could start doing it every now and then for a full day, but I’m not ready to make a switch just yet. I also think I need to do more research into which vitamins and such I need to replace if I take out part of my diet, so this will take some time.

Whether it was the diet, lifestyle, environment, the vibes, or the preparation pre-season, 1 thing is for sure, I skied really well. I felt very strong in my slalom sets and controlled enough to make changes and adjustments according to the feedback. This resulted in running my 14 meter pass on the first try of the year. I was really happy about this, but will still be working on the 16 meter pass more in order to improve my technique more. In tricks I was especially surprised, because in the first toe hold set since December, I already managed to land a trick I had been working on all winter. I worked on the TWO in December with Vincent, but was just unable to make it before I left. Now back on the water, I tried once, got one more tip and actually landed it the second try. I was beyond amazed! In hands I will now be able to work on the 540 wake turns that I had been wanting to learn, but put off because of my torn ear drum. Whilst learning these, I am the absolute queen of face plants, so Whitney told me to try them as surface turns every set and then work them on the wake. This is a fun warm up and will help a lot, though I still managed to fall head first into the water doing this today.

On the last day skiing with Whitney, I was able to jump on my new jumpers for the first time. This was the first time jumping in 3 months, and the first time ever on the longer skis. For some reason, I still cut towards the ramp like there was no tomorrow, which resulted in my first jump crash, ever. Looking back I don’t know why I didn’t just take it easy, it being the first set of the year and on new skis… Luckily, I was able to continue jumping, though it did hurt quite a bit. I took it very slow the jumps after this and was able to get the feel back. I’m very happy with the skis and I can’t wait until I can build back to the level I left off, and further.