I started to feel the adrenaline kicking in

Tuesday August 10, 2010

Just before I woke up, I started to feel the adrenaline kick in to my body. I try to tell myself that my arms are okay, but when ever I test them I can feel a sharp pain. Because I strained both arms, I’ve only skied six times the past six weeks, where it should have been between 20 and 25 times. I’m concerned that I’m losing muscle strength, especially for the backward starts that I do in three of the four starts for each round.

There are three rounds, elimination, semifinals, and finals. All skiers ski the elimination round and basically the top 50% advance to the semifinals, then the top 5 from the semi’s advance to the Finals.

I ski in the ‘Senior’ division, which is for 35+ age group and I’ll be 59 this week; basically I’m much older than the second oldest skier here and the oldest males barefooter to have ever skied a World Championship. There are three events and I qualified to ski in the Trick and Slalom event. To quality to ski a World Championship, you have to achieve a qualifying score in the event that equals or exceeds the 20th ranked skier score. In Tricks I’m ranked about 12th in the World, and for Slalom I’m ranked 10th.

Based on my World Ranking scores, it’s not likely for me to advance to the Finals, but if I perform as I can, I would advance to the Semi’s; but I have to have a ‘stand up run’ – meaning I have to have the ‘ski handle’ at the end of both passes.

Every run is ‘new’ and there are lots of things that can happen to result in a fall. The most critical is to make the start, then be relaxed as the boat speeds up to 40+ mph, not freak out, not rush, stay in the zone, do what you need to do, and in 15 seconds it OVER. Then you get to do this again for the return pass. Years of training lead to the World Championship; where you get two – 15 second passes for the trick and slalom event. Now is not the time to SCREW UP; especially since they have a huge video screen in the middle of Lake 1.

I’m taking a deep breath, holding it, release, and doing it again. My adrenalin level right now as compared to yester day is about 4 out of 10, where yesterday it was 1 out of 10. Need to get dress, get breakfast and find out what time I ski. Since they are video casting the Worlds, you ‘might’ be able to see me. I’ll take my computer to the site and let you know about an hour or two my ski time. Maybe you’ll get to see me! Great more pressure, the family is also watching…