Racing days are over.

Last week I made the decision to retire from racing. In effect I didn't have much option as it's got to the point where I can no longer afford to make it through the season. I perhaps could carry on in a kind of part time way but I know how much time and commitment it has taken me to get into top shape and compete at World cup in the past, I just can't do that now. Injuries have also made my situation very hard to manage without much of a support team. Tristan works tirelessly but there is only so much one guy can do.

I have been lucky over my 15 years as a full time racer on the GBR team to have some excellent coaches and teammates who inspired and helped me to get further than I ever would have imagined when I started to take racing seriously. I believe I got close to my potential although I would've loved to    be better and bash out a few top 10's when they were well within my grasp.

Thank you so much to all of my sponsors over the years. I want to say a massive thank you to the people of my hometown, Aviemore and the surrounding area, who's unwavering support and belief in me throughout my career has been incredible!! Especially when I had the toughest times. It's been a privilege to represent Great Britain and the Highlands of Scotland.

I would like to stay involved with ski racing in some way, at the moment I have got some coaching weeks lined up, hopefully I can land a more permanent role somewhere in the future.

I would've written this post earlier but I broke my thumb last week in a bike crash, typing is a bit of a challenge and I was avoiding it.

Cheers
Noelie

Cardrona time lapse at night

Pretty awesome vid of Cardrona where I've been training the last few weeks. Conditions have been great the past few days and should stay like this till the weekend when I'm heading home.

Overhead Squat from June Test

Thought I should start getting on top of things with my blog. It's been left for way too long. I've had quite a turbulent 6 months or so, in which I had a brief return to racing which was great but things didn't really work out for a number of reasons and as it was so close to the end of the season I put things on hold for the 2012 season. After an enjoyable spell of coaching the Scottish team and resting my knee for a while. I got stuck into my fitness programme for the summer at the end of April. It was a tough first month or so but I could feel I was making great improvements all round in my fitness. The improvements showed in my June tests also where I did a PB for Overhead squat and my Back Squat was good too, on the bike I was showing good efficiency at the low end and had a great base to develop as the sessions would become harder over the summer. However......... much to my disappointment my knee started to play up. I made an appointment with the physio, seen the doctor and both referred me to the orthopaedic surgeon. All were convinced I had damaged meniscus and I was taken in for surgery the next day. The surgery showed in fact I had not torn any meniscus (bonus) but I did have a lot of debris floating around and also a build up of scar tissue around where the ACL graft is attached to my Tibia. So in the end he tidied it all up and the surgery wasn't too invasive. My recovery period was 6 weeks, just enough time for me to squeeze in my sisters wedding and catch the end of the season in New Zealand. Since arriving in NZ I have gradually built up the intensity of my skiing but also put a fair amount of time into building up strength and fitness as I lost a lot after the surgery, the weather wasn't really playing along with me though and I had to ski in all sorts of weather which was not helping me to build confidence. After 2 & 1/2 weeks here I was beginning to think the whole camp was gonna be a nightmare but the last 3 days have more than made up for it with 3 days of perfect weather and snow conditions for training and I am quite amazed how I improved in the last few days. All the technical work in the terrible weather seems to be paying off, my knee is feeling good again but I have a lot of hard work to get back into top shape. It's a tight timeframe to get ready by the end of November for my first race but I am well on track.

Cheers for now.

Some disco moves from last week.......

Stop, Start.....

I was meant to be back into racing today at a Europa cup race in Oberjoch, however it was cancelled yesterday due to too much snow. My next race was scheduled for 3 days later in Mt Pora, that's has now been cancelled due to lack of snow..... crazy eh!?

So my master plan for a return to racing needs a re-think. I was fine with the races being cancelled, actually it gives me more time to work with Jimmy our physio at making the final push to being 100% ready and able to charge, he has picked up on a few things on my left leg which I have been working hard on, the hard work unfortunately took its toll on my skiing performance which really frustrated me this week after having a good couple of weeks prior, but I know that I need to go through that to be firing on all cylinders again.

Had a great day powder skiing yesterday which was a bonus of the "too much snow" :-)

Here are a few runs from the past few weeks. 

Catch up

Been a busy 6 weeks or so since getting back on snow. I spent alot of time up in Norway coaching the Scottish team and gradually getting into a bit of training alongside them when there wasn't too much going on. I really enjoyed coaching the youngsters and trying to get them skiing better.

Last week I made my way to Zell am See to join the British team again. Back into full on training now and working hard to get back to racing, my aim is to be racing again in mid February which feels within reach now. It's dumping snow like crazy at the moment here so perhaps I'll have to shred a few powder turns before its suitable for training, I'm hoping to forerun in the Eropa cup races this week which will give me a clear picture of where I'm at with regards to being fast.