Merry Christmas

Hi guys,

Saturday I got back from a week’s training with Ben Reid out in Austria, where I got to try out my new sit ski. It was a great camp and it was very productive.  The goal for the camp was to get used to my sit ski, and decide on any adjustments that needed making to my new rig whilst also improving my performance in gates. 

We flew into Ljubljana in Slovenia and then took a coach into Austria. Arriving in resort (turracher höhe), the hotel was half way up the ski slope which led to a very exciting trip up to the hotel via a snow mobile. That kicked ass.

The first day we were out on slalom ski’s, where we ski’d down to the training run, instantly my sit ski was comfier, easier to turn and much more reactive than my old one. Which led to many MANY occasions where I was over turning and going back down the hill backwards as I had to put less into it to make it turn that I was doing previously. It was quite exciting at times. 

We got back to the hotel that night and Ben and I did a dowel test on my rig. Which basically involves sticking a broom handle underneath the centre of the ski whilst I’m sat in the sit ski to check which way I tip (forward or backwards) to check if I am using the full amount of the ski correctly. We found that although it was handling much better than my old rig, my weight was too far back. The scarver allows to very easily solve this by undoing a few bolts and moving the whole seat forward…..much easier than my old one as this one would have involved the welding tackle previously…sorry dad. 

I went out the next day and I’ve never turned a ski like that in my life, it was so aggressive and responsive. It took a lot of getting used too but my god, if that’s what it feels like to turn a ski properly I’m going to be in for some fun. That day spent most of the time, really trying to get used to new setup and not crash. This brought back a lot of bad habits but it was just because I wasn’t used to it and over the week this sorted itself out. 

Getting back to the hotel was quite fun, sit skis are pretty well designed for getting around the mountain, you have a rope with a quick release for going up T-Bars and you have a button that you can press to allow the sit ski to release from it’s suspension and be scooped up by a chair lift. The one thing it can’t do very easily is go along a rope pull. A rope pull is basically a rope that you hold onto and it drags you along the snow. This one in particular was fine for the majority of it but the dismount at the top was done on a bit of a hill, which meant that the minute I let go of the rope I would go backwards down the hill and I needed both hands on the rope to be able to pull myself (being a fat b*stard doesn’t help with this one.)  We solved this by one of the guys on the camp Tim, grabbing hold of my sit ski seat and holding the ski flat whilst I dragged us both up the hill, when we got to the top, he slowly rotated me round and stopped me going backwards whilst I could let go and steady myself again. 

Everyone on the camp was fantastic, they couldn’t do more to help, whether this involved bringing my sit ski in at night so it doesn’t freeze, picking me up when I decide I fancy eating some snow or just carrying my coffee. This made my life so much easier and a special shout out goes to Tim who was just mega. 

My favourite day of the camp was definitely when we trained giant slalom, it was fantastic getting back in the gates and I was beaming from ear to ear after every run, even the ones that didn’t go to plan. 

      

During this camp I suffered with fatigue quite badly for the first few days, I think staying at altitude affected me much more than it normally does and it took a few days to get over that. I had to duck out of the afternoon sessions due to feeling absolutely exhausted but towards the end of the week I was raring to go for both sessions. 

Anyways I’ll leave it here for now, I’m really pleased with the new kit and I can’t wait to get back on snow again. Now for a bit of R&R and enjoy Christmas with family and friends. 

Have a lovely Christmas 

Love 

Alex 

Photo Credits Alice Luetchford

New job, new house, still skiing.

It’s been over two years since I last picked up a pen (or a put a finger to a keyboard) to update my blog.  Time has flown by and part of me is a bit embarrassed I left my blog so long.  As the start of my last blog, a lot has changed. 

I left Post Office in May this year after a very enjoyable career there, I enjoyed my time there but it came very apparent the last year I yurned for a change and PA Consulting appeared at the right time to facilitate that change. PA was a massive culture shock joining them but one that was definitely for the better, I have a lot more freedom over my career that I did before. PA see you as an individual that is running your own business, you have complete control over your future and it’s up to you to make the best of it…something that definitely resides well with me. Plus the people are awesome. 

To take this role, it meant I had to up sticks and move down south (or to put it better dahhhhn South.) I decided on St Albans as this had great commuter lines and was green enough to make feel like I’m not living in the city. I have a flat 5 minute walk from the station which is mega.  

Anyway back to the main reason for this blog, I’m still skiing and this year, I’ve ski’d more than I have done. I took a year out of racing to rekindle my love for the sport and focus on the fundamentals again. Racing was not the right thing for me at this time and I needed to focus on learning how to kick ass in a sit ski….which I’m still doing and the races will come.

There was a lot of cuts made when the programme went from being ran by DSUK (disabled ski charity) to British Snowsports. This, although frustrating, was understandable whilst funding and ways of working were being ironed out as this is something completely new for British Snowsports. I found that the costs of training increased astronomically and accessibility to training dramatically dropped. Frustration in lack of personal ability set in but no way to remedy this appeared and lack of time due to work life put skiing on a bit of a back burner, something that I regret.  It took a long hard look at myself, a lads ski holiday to Hintertux and a theoretical slap to the face to realise. “WHAT THE F*CK am I doing with myself?!?” I decided from there I need to own this myself and make my own programme. 

I found my why again. 

From there, I’ve trained more with Scott in Arinsal and found a brilliant race coach through Ben Reid where I’ve managed to get more practice in racing conditions. This is lots of fun, Ben trains an able bodied team, which means the conditions are a lot harder than what I’d be racing in at my current adaptive level. 

I’ve finally bitten the bullet and bought a brand new sit ski, I went for the Tessier Scarver after months (and MONTHS) of deliberating. Sit ski’s are very expensive and being northern and tight…this wasn’t a decision I took lightly. It should arrive in the next week or so, I’m very excited to start testing. The chief engineer is just as excited as I am, although I’m sure he’s a bit disappointed he won’t need to get the burning tackle out.

Outside of skiing and work, I’ve recently competed in my first crossfit tournament after starting the sport last year. Crossfit is a sport built up of weightlifting, aerobics and high intensity training. I love the variety and every day is something different. The competition consisted of 5 workouts over the course of a day and you get points for each one with the best person overall winning the day, this was done in a pair. I competed with the legend that is Rob T. I was surprisingly nervous to start the day and many a nervous wee was had. I did the first workout and I didn’t know what hit me, I knew that the day was going to be a tough one. As the day I went on, I started to enjoy it more and more. 

Overall, I had amazing day and the feeling in the room was electric. Crossfit is more than just a sport and there is a huge community that comes with it that urges you on to just do your best. I was lucky enough to have the last workout filmed and here is just a sample of the camaraderie in the room for you to witness. 

I picked up my new sit ski this week from Seated Sports in St Neots, I absolutely love it, I am very excited to try it out. I went for the Tessier Scarver all in white, I think all I need now to finish the look is a white full-face helmet and I’ll look like a stormtrooper. I am just on my way to Turracher Hoehe in Austria for a week’s training with Ben Reid. We will be focussing on Giant slalom and Slalom training, I’ll update you when I get back.

Love Alex

Norway and Landgraaf

Hi Guys,

A lot has changed in the last couple of months, so I thought I would update you on the changes. I am now officially working back in my hometown, working in process improvement with a strong team behind me and a supportive manager. Post Office have been more than supportive with this change and I look forward to continue working with them.

The sit skiing is coming along nicely now, I still have a very large learning curve to go through. I am starting to see the benefits already. We were in Norway in July, training on Fonna glacier. I love Norway, it is one of my favourite countries, the views are stunning and it is such a chilled way of life.  This was my first official sit skiing camp, which was rather a strange feeling in itself. After a couple of days being there, I realised how much more energy I had and how I was able to ski further, for longer and at a more consistent level. I was coming off the snow and wanting to actually do things, rather than drink copious amounts of coffee.  Dougie and Lynne Mill were the coaches out there and half way through the week we actually discussed goals for me trying not to burn myself out, just because I can. On previous camps when I’ve been skiing I was exhausted but now that my skiing takes so much less energy, I was coming off the snow, wanting to go on runs, bike rides and generally wanted to punish my body because I wasn’t feeling exhaustion, like I used too.  This is something I need to get over and start being a bit more tactical about how much I can push myself and being exhausted every day isn’t something I should strive for…that’s not to say I shouldn’t push myself.

Norway was one of the first camps where I’ve started to realise how crashing in a sit ski is part of the learning curve….some of you may have already seen the pictures but I had a bit of an incident crashing in my rig. It was the last run of the day and I was just heading down to grab lunch. I got into a bit of trouble and was thrown down the mountain, getting into a bit of roll, mid roll the ski decided to pop off and subsequently smacked me in the head, drawing blood and leaving a large stain on the lovely white snow. Dougie and Lynne were incredibly quick to react, they applied pressure to my cut, notified the lift operators, who drove up in a ski doo and took me to medical room, where I was wrapped up in a rather hilarious bandage. Within a short time, I was at the hospital getting stitched up and the doctor even commended my hilarious bandage. I have to admit due to the adrenaline dump, I didn’t actually feel any pain and was actually quite enjoying myself, stopping Doctors and Coaches at various times so I could take the obvious selfies… I have full recovered now and have a lovely scar to show for it.

Last week the Chief Engineer (Dad) and I got back from a week training in Landgraaf. This was predominately a slalom camp but he wanted to come along to get me try as many different positions in the sit ski as possible. We wanted to see what gives the most comfort and the most performance. I would regularly go for lunch, come back and find he had moved the shock or the seat to a different position, quite often hoping I wouldn’t notice…..I did.  Although, we had some obvious failures we were able to come up with a plan for the next few months and how we can get more out of the rig. The camp itself was a lot of fun, although being in a giant fridge for a week can be rather discouraging at times, not having the fantastic views to keep you motivated. We had a purpose to why we were there and we hit it.

This weekend I will be competing in the Super Hero Series Triathlon in Windsor, earlier this year I signed up for it as a bit of a physical challenge for myself. In doing this, I also signed up a number of members of the team and one of my close mates in the process….they love me haha. In true team spirit we have grouped together to raise money for the Development Team for our upcoming season.  If you would like to read a bit more about that, click here.

Right I will leave it here for now, I will update you guys after the triathlon, wish me luck.

Much love 

Alex 

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If anyone would like to sponsor my cause please click here Or email me on alexclarke1992@outlook.com

 

My Journey so far...

Hi Guys,

I was lucky enough to be asked to speak a few weeks back at a Diversity & Inclusion event at work. The purpose was to tell my story so far and they were nice enough to send me a copy of the video after :)
Enjoy...

Much love

Alex

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If anyone would like to sponsor my cause please click here Or email me on alexclarke1992@outlook.com

A change of path

It has been a long time since my last blog and there have been a number of reasons for that. For the last 18 months I have been reviewing my progress in skiing and constantly looking for what is going to give me the improvements I need. If this means an orthotic suit, innersoles, Pilates classes or even dance lessons, I have done it….and had A LOT of fun in the process.

The reason I started skiing was I saw it as a challenge and I wanted to ski with friends, which I achieved. I then wanted to explore the mountain, which I achieved, a year later.  My next goal was to start racing, which albeit it a little early than I should have, I achieved and met some amazing guys along the way.

Now comes a different challenge, I have decided to make the change to sit skiing.

I have always considered this a possibility, but due to my stubbornness and my determined nature, I didn’t want to give in. Over the last year, I set myself goals as a stand-up skier and tracked my performance against them. I’ve also been reviewing how working full time and skiing nearly a full race calendar, affected my condition. The decision to change is mainly around sustainability and the impact that skiing and working has on my wellbeing. This decision also allows me to control the variables more, improving my daily life. Fatigue, coldness and hydration play massive parts on my ability to walk, not only ski and race.  Sit skiing allows me to limit these.

I don’t look back over the last 2 years with the team as a waste, now I have made this decision. I have learnt a lot about myself, skiing, and improved a lot physically and mentally. I achieved many things and I am proud of that.

I have shared elations and also frustrations with you guys and I hope I can carry on doing that.

The most memorable to me, would be finishing my first race in Landgraaf, missing the last gate and having to hike back up. The entire crowd were cheering for me and urged me to cross the line. I received an unbelievable amount of joy and achievement when I did that and will always stand out as a key moment in my career.

SO now brings the next task of getting reclassified to race but also more importantly, to learn how to sit ski.

I have a great support network around me, so I am sure I will be back up and ripping in no time.

I have just got back from a week in Arinsal, Andorra training with Scott Maughan. After a bit of a frustrating start, eating lots and lots of powder, I am started to pick it up.  Scott is great and we had a great laugh, he is really good at focussing the mind and making sure I am not trying to jump the gun, before I have the skills…which I am definitely trying to do.

Unfortunately we only got two days on the snow due to the weather, but I really enjoyed the trip. I am looking at trying to get a long weekend out there early March, to make up for the lost days.

In the meantime I am training hard and currently on the look out for a new job as my contract is coming to an end at work. I am hoping to stay with Post Office but nothing can be guaranteed. Will update you guys soon.

Much love

Alex

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 If anyone would like to sponsor my cause please click here Or email me on alexclarke1992@outlook.com