Earlier this week we arrived in Bulgaria to the resort of Bansko. Last season they ran a men's Europa Cup event here so this season they decided to bring the women's World Cup event. The resort is actually pretty spectacular and so far the organization of the whole event has been great. The race hill is pretty challenging and demanding, you really need to fight and stay ahead of the course the whole way down. The weather looks to be good for the week and if that holds it will be our second week in a row of good racing weather for the season!!

I haven't written in a while and have completely missed writing about the World Championships…. So let's go back there, although I won't be talking about my results, unfortunately!!

The World Championships in Val D'Isere have just come to an end this past weekend and we are now back into the regular world cup schedule. At the World Championships I race in the Giant Slalom, Downhill and Super G. The race hills in Val D'Isere were pretty challenging, both the men and women had two different race hills for the speed disciplines. It was my first time on the race hill at the World Championships and this usually doesn't happen because the season prior to the event we usually have a World Cup event on the hill. Unfortunately last season that World Cup was cancelled. The hill was steep, tight, and had lots of turns.

The exciting parts of the World Championships for the Canadians was John Kucera winning the men's Downhill and taking the first men's downhill championship gold ever in Canadian history. This was absolutely inspiring. The men then followed up with a bronze on the final day. I was no longer in Val D'Isere at this time but I watched closely from where I was training in Italy. I couldn't believe my eyes when I watched the slalom event and saw my brother get his first World Championship medal. It was another day in Canadian history. I was actually watching the men's slalom race from my coaches' house in Sudtirol. His wife and their two boys were also there watching and their oldest, Filip, had to hold onto to my hand so that I would sit still!

The Canadians and the Americans have a home base in a town in Austria called Kirchberg and after the World Championships, once everyone was back in town, the whole village held a parade in their honor. My brother, John Kucera and Lindsay Vonn, who won two gold medals, received gifts from the local area and were celebrated by all… it was very very cool.

As for now, the excitement from the Championships is definitely going to motivate me through the last World Cup races of the season. Last week I was in Italy, where we had a downhill race and a super g race.

I am looking forward to the end of the season but it isn't over yet…… til the next time.

A new year, a new season of blogging(hopefully more consistent than the last!!)

I am going to take you back to before Christmas to the first races of the season so that you have a better idea as to where things have been going.

Just prior to the holidays we were racing in St. Moritz, Switzerland. I was actually there for 2 weeks, along with the rest of the speed crew. We arrived in St. Moritz right after the World Cup events in Lake Louise. The plan was to catch the Europa Cup events the weekend before the World Cup to get on the race hill. Well, things didn't start off as planned. We arrived in a complete snowstorm and right away the first training run of the Europa Cup was cancelled. Oh well we thought, lets go powder skiing at least. Now, I have mostly been in St. Moritz when it's sunny and blue bird so never quite realized how difficult it can be in cloudy snowy conditions. We arrived at the base of the hill keen for a fun powder morning but this was soon to change. All of the St. Moritz ski area is above the tree line so visibility is instantly brought to zero! We had no idea where the good spots were to ski the powder so just tried to stay close to the groomed runs. Unfortunately the snow that fell was not the lightest – which I should be used to coming from Whistler! However, I also had a very bad pair of rental powder skis, which were more like a pair of water skis. After one run my feet were about to burst out of my race boots and my legs were killing me from sitting back so far and trying to get my skis to run!! We lasted a few runs and had a few laughs then found our way into the restaurant for a cappuccino. And that was just the start of our stay in St. Moritz.

The Europa Cup races did go off but in very marginal weather. In the Super G race I walked away with a 2^nd place finish. I had skied well in difficult conditions.

The following week, during the World Cup week, we decided to take a stab at a little hockey, or rather skating with sticks! We laced up and headed for the ice with our trainer leading the way who is an ex hockey player. I am pretty sure that skating is the cheapest activity in St. Moritz; 5 euro each for ice time. There were a few tumbles and most of them intentional ones! I think we are definitely going to be sticking with ski racing.

The World Cup week started and we were ready to attack the hill. The two training runs were great conditions and the soft snow was getting harder and harder. Come race time though, the weather came back in and the wind picked up. It was snowing like crazy again and conditions were definitely not ideal for a World Cup. Unfortunately it can't always be a beautiful sunny race day and you need to deal with what you get.

The toughest day by far was the Sunday before leaving when we were to be racing the Downhill. We woke up and finally there was sunshine! But there was a catch – the wind had come back to town. We inspected and the gates were being blown to the ground from the gusts of wind. On one of the chair rides I didn't think we were going to make it down! The race was postponed and it now became a waiting game. After 8 hours, at 2pm they finally cancelled the race. And the wind hadn't died down one bit, oh and the chair was closed because of the wind. The girls and I did one last ride up the train to get some fresh air and said goodbye to St. Moritz.

It's now 2009 and so far we have had one downhill race, in marginal race conditions and two super g races, also in marginal conditions and we have already had 2 downhill races cancelled. In less than two weeks we have our next races and from there we will have races every weekend until March. That's what I am looking forward to!!

Since I sat down and wrote my previous blog I have been a very busy athlete. Between training full time in the gym for next winter and trying to catch up with friends and family, and trying to enjoy the summer it has been pretty non-stop.

Over the past few months there have been some common questions that people ask me about training and just life in general as an elite athlete. So, I thought that this would be a good time to answer some of those questions and maybe clear things up a bit about what it is we do.

For the past few months I have been training hard in the gym along with the rest of my teammates. We basically have an 8-week block between our on-snow training camps, which is used to focus solely on our fitness training.

Our trainer will write our program and it will change and progress throughout the 8 weeks. In that time I will spend some of it training at home and will also attend some training camps in Ottawa.

The western athlete's on the Alpine Women's team will meet our training in Calgary for 1-week blocks. During these camps where we meet with our trainer we will continue the same program as at home but it gives us an opportunity to come together as a group.

This naturally elevates the intensity of the training and brings us together to push one another. I have currently just finished up my third and final week of training in Ottawa and will now be spending a few weeks at home with my husband in Collingwood.

Our training is pretty regimented; we have two training session per day which includes both cardio training and weight training and then weekends are off. It is also very important for us to do a lot of core strengthening and plyometric work.

This leads me into one of the common questions I get from people and it usually goes something like this, " so do you get time off now?" The answer there is definitely no! The nice thing about summer is that I do get to spend a little more time at home but I wouldn't call it time off. In the last month and a half I have been to Ottawa three times for 1-week blocks, spent a week in Whistler training and visiting family and friends and have had 2 weeks in my home in Collingwood. My time off will come 3 days prior to leaving for our ski camp on July 29^th. We get our real "time off" in April for about 3 weeks. In those three weeks I sleep like crazy and watch movies!!

Another common question I get asked to me is, "are you on a special diet and are you allowed to drink." Well that one is pretty simple, no we don't have special diets and yes we can have drinks. Obviously though we are smart about what we eat and when we eat certain things. After really hard training sessions in the gym and on snow it is important to get the right nutrition into your body to keep your energy levels up and to help with recovery. And then I usually tell people that we are in a cold sport where gravity is our friend – so bring on the desert!!

My final common question has been related to the Olympics. With 2010 just around the corner everybody wants to know if I am on the Olympic team, or they want to know when our trials are. In Alpine skiing every race we enter is different from the last. Our Olympic criteria is based on our results in World Cup events during the season of the Olympics and the team will be decided probably only weeks prior to the games. I am hoping to make the team but I need to be on my game and racing fast in the 09/10 ski season. Right now my main focus is to train hard, stay healthy and to try and win a World Championship Gold next ski season!  

So there you have it, I hope that helps clear things up a little and now you know a little more about the life of a ski racer.

            Wow is it already May, but I have just stepped off my skis, how could it possibly be May already! Well it's very possible when you are a member of the Canadian Alpine Ski team, just the other week my teammates and I were training in Whistler, B.C. and we had 8 days of excellent on snow training conditions. But maybe you're wondering, well why would they be having a training camp right when their race season has just ended?? What about a little rest? Well I can explain a little about why we do these crazy things…

            From the end of March through to early May we had two on snow training camps, both held in Whistler, B.C. I really enjoy this because I get to stay at home with Mom and Dad and in my own bed – not too bad at all.

The first camp was important because it gave us an opportunity to train on the 2010 Olympic track. We were able to test the hill, set up timing and test our equipment in the conditions. It is really important for us to build up this type of data and for we the athletes to just get some mileage on the race hills.

The second training camp we had was at the end of April and was held higher up on Whistler Mountain on the Peak Chair. This is the second year we have done this camp and I am sure that we will continue with it in the years to come. At this camp we are able to train all four disciplines, (Giant Slalom, Slalom, Downhill and Super G), and it many different types of terrain. We are also able to train some key components of the events such as gliding for Downhill and Super G and also jumps and rolling terrain and on our starts. It's in these areas where we can find those hundredths and tenths of a second that really count when it comes to the competitive season.

It is important for us to do these two camps, even if we are quite tired from the competitive season because it allows us to really make some changes in our skiing while our "skiing legs" are still trained. I say this because after skiing for several months on end you head and body are tired but your body is actually quite "ready" to make some technical changes. From now until our next on snow camp there will be an extensive fitness-training period where we will look to build strength for the next winter season. When we return to snow at the end of July and in August our bodies may have changed slightly and it will take some time to get our "feelings" back on our skis. So in this way, by having already had a training camp back at the end of the season we can easily recall what changes were made either by thinking back to the feeling or what most of us do is write down in our training journal daily. I always look over what I did at a previous camp before entering into the next camp.

So, from now until the end of July we are in the gym throwing weights around and on our bikes training our strength and cardiovascular systems. I will be training in Collingwood, Ontario where I live with my husband, (when I'm not on the road) and then later in the summer I will be training a little bit in Whistler where my family is. As a team we will also come together for some training camps, which will be held in Ottawa and in Calgary. The eastern athletes meet in Ottawa and the Western athletes in Calgary and our trainer will travel between the two cities. This allows us to touch base with our trainer and also to train in a group atmosphere. This naturally brings up the intensity of our training and then I find when I return home to train on my own I still feel the residual intensity from the week with the group.

As you can see our summers are just as busy as the winter competitive season. It keeps us well occupied and out of trouble. But I wouldn't change it for the world because,  all of the hard work is worth it when you stand on top of the podium.