I'm Loving Slovenia
Happy New Year to you all,
I didn't get much chance to celebrate the New Year festivities as no sooner had the bells chimed then I was thinking about packing and getting ready for leaving the house at 3am on the 2nd of January.
This time to head out to Slovenia. I had to look it up on the map as I had no idea where Slovenia was or what to expect. However, after 2 flights and a 2 and a half hour drive from Salzburg we arrived in the beautiful Slovenian Alps - they're stunning.
The race camp this week is taking place at the Planica Nordic Centre, a custom built centre for cross country skiing and also ski jumping. It's an amazing centre and has an indoor ski tunnel, fantastic track and if I was brave enough, the ski jumps are awesome.
There's not been much snow so far this season in central Europe, but the snow making elves have been hard at work after Xmas and the race track is excellent with nice fresh dry snow - good for racing on. Temperatures are expected to drop down to -15C on Friday and Saturday so the racing will be pretty brutal. The cold air does a lot of damage to your throat as you try and suck in as much as possible to fill your lungs during the race.
We're staying, this week, in a hotel.. We don't usually get the luxury of a hotel and it's normally self catering - but the food here is plentiful and with 3 buffet style meals a days means you never get hungry.
I'm looking forward to the races this weekend. 2 of the races are freestyle, my preferred style so I'm hoping I can improve my points tally and FIS rankings. This will be my second season of racing and I'm starting find out what works and what doesn't. I'll let you know how I get on.
2017 is going to be a challenging but exciting year - racing, final exams and deciding what to do next on the education/work life side - no pressure.