Boom Boom Pow!! Lots of Pow

05th Sept 2010

I cant believe how much time flies between each blog. I seem to think I have only just written a blog and I check my website and its been a week – the time is literally flying by here at the moment!!
Since last week not much has gone on, we have been training pretty hard this week on snow, we had a beautiful bluebird day where we freerode all day training on carving and our free riding. It seems like we are in the consolidation stage of our freeriding, we just need to refine the skills by practising more and generally thinking more about our riding. Everything is on our riding we just need make sure we refine and make it better. When we have fun and freeride we don’t have to think about all the things we have been taught they are just there. They need refining though for sure. We need to stop letting our trainer get in our head and just really focus on enjoying the ride.
I was told that I let myself get too tense and frustrated and I need to get out of that mindset and more into the enjoyment mindset and thinking ahead to how i am going to make each run better.
That was the most memorable day of training however we had an indoor session focusing on pedagogy, the art of teaching other instructors how to teach snowboarding. This is more the trainers side of the course and is something i find I am relatively comfortable with.
The other training day was spent teaching freestyle lessons in whiteouts and then doing a little bit of freeriding. We’ve had two closed days this week which allow us to relax, catch up on life, and we had our indoor session on one of those days.
Been training real hard at the gym and this new programme is intense for sure!! I am definitely feeling stronger but I am also feeling hungry like all the time!! Its all good though, I have moved from a maximum deadlift of 55kg to 90kg in about 3 weeks, backsquats have gone from 50kg to 80kg. Its definitely the novice effect of never having trained my legs which is why I am jumping up so high for sure.
What else has been going on? Josh has settled in well at Miro St – He has had a couple of days snowboarding and is in some pain. I feel bad as I havent been able to snowboard with him yet, its either been closed, I have been training or I have been working...hopefully we can get something sorted soon. He is making a good impression amongst all of the people he has met and its good prep for uni for sure!! He is cooking dinner for 4 people tonight including himself. He is going for a Roast Lamb Dinner which I have no idea on how to do but I will help – definitely going to be a challenge.
Work has been going ok, not getting huge hours of teaching time to be honest, just getting minimum and today I took a day off which doesn’t help the bank balance at all!! I taught for an hour yesterday a pair of kids called Ben and Daniel, we had some serious fun! It was cool they were both 8 and had no real idea of speed control and their toe edge turns were both shocking, but using imagery and guided discovery I managed to help with their lower body steering and using their knees to turn. They looked so much better I was happy with the outcome after an hour of teaching them.
Today I have taken the day off work because my knee feels pretty sore which sucks, its been niggling me all season but its not the normal pain its right at the back of the knee which makes me think its a strain to the PCL. I am treating it and will be going to the physio for a diagnosis later on today hopefully its not too bad. When I rest it feels ok, its just when its at its extremes, like hyperextended or hyperflexed.
There have been a few crazy nights out this week! Tuesday night was the standard Turoa night out, I ended up having a fiar bit of fun and staying till quite late then Thursday night it was Rob G’s birthday celebrations at suitcase, which was another fun night out. The social scene is real good here and Josh has really got in the swing of things here which is pretty cool.
Other things that have been on my mind are Accenture and recent promotions and however the more time away from them I spend the more my career vesilates whilst others blossoms. I found out 2 of my peers in my start group made Manager which is huge and 2 Managers I worked for on a previous project made Senior Manager which I struggled to believe for various reasons – oh well! It seems the whole promo cycle is all about playing games, and not actually done on merit, you cant do just an amazing job anymore and get the rating you want. Struggling to believe I will return as I think the transition back to work will be so hard.
Lastly, I have signed up to do my NZSIA Ski Level 1 which means I will be a qualified ski instructor only able to teach beginners how to ski but thats still pretty handy for increased hours and pay rates so its all good. I am talking like I have already passed, still need to get better at skiing and learn the progression, which I will be spending the day doing today.
Also just ordered a new board - ahhh yeah - Ride Society UL 154 for £235!! Its a £440 board!!
Thats about it guys – peace and love