Our Journey

Archive for November, 2009

We got our first win of the season!

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Hey Everyone,

We wrapped up our intense Copper training camp on Friday and our last week was by far the best and most productive. We were able to train alongside the Swiss, the lone Swede Daniel Biveson and the Canadians for most of the week. We set duel courses and even held a mock race one day with a cash purse that everyone chipped in for. Klug represented well in the mock race placing second and just losing by a couple tenths to Silver medalist Simone Schoch.

Everyone parted ways and went home for some much needed rest on Saturday. I was able to spend a few days at home but had to pack up and head over to Europe on Wednesday. I’m still in need of a World Cup start for the upcoming event in Limone, Piemonte so I needed to come to Austria and race in some Europa Cup’s.

Yesterday was the first race and my decision to fly over paid off, I started 33rd (once again a stacked field with a lot of the top World Cup riders) and ended up qualifying in 9th after two decent runs. The riders in the finals had their work cut out for them as there were over 200 riders in yesterday’s race so the snow conditions looked like a war zone with craters and ruts you could lose a small horse in.

I advanced through the first couple of rounds and soon found myself facing Anton Unterkofler from Austria in the finals with Adam Smith and Manual Vieth racing for 3rd and 4th. Anton had me by full penalty after I made a mistake on the 3rd gate from the finish in the first run. However, he ended up making the same mistake at the very same gate in the second run and I was able to hold on for the victory! Adam rode well both runs and took 3rd place.

Today’s race had a little better snow conditions but that came with hurricane force winds. I started even farther back today with the arrival of a few more good riders from the World Cup but I ended up qualifying 3rd and ended the day in 4th after they decided to cut the finals to one run duels because of the wind. Overall a great weekend for me and a good confidence boost for the World Cup in Limone!

Zac

Posted in Zac Kay | 3 Comments »

Copper Cup Racing

Monday, November 16th, 2009

We had two days of awesome racing action at Copper Mountain, Colorado. The conditions were perfect for carving. It was a strong field of international riders. I got off to a fast start in Thursday’s Giant Slalom race, winning the first run. I ran into problems on my second run and fell to fifteenth. I was bummed I didn’t hold on for a podium finish, but stoked to be riding fast. Friday’s PGS was super fun. I had a good battle with Canadian Rider Jasey Jay Anderson. He advanced to semis, beating me by. .02. I was hoping to claim a podium in the two races, but stoked with my riding and loving working with Rob & Ian and my AST Teammates. There’s no doubt in my mind that AST is the best program to put us all in a position to accomplish our snowboarding goals. I’m excited to work hard this week training at Copper and be ready to rip in December. We travel to Italy in early December for our World Cup PGS Opener in Limone Piemonte, Italy on Dec. 6th. We will keep you posted! Thanks for checkin’ in!

CKCopper09web

Posted in Chris Klug | No Comments »

Nor Am Races

Monday, November 16th, 2009

ZAC_Copper

We had a good week of riding, but a couple if ill timed mistakes cost us the results we hoped for. We’re all riding fast and loose – we just need to minimize our mistakes. Despite the set back, the entire team feels well poised to make some noise this year.

Posted in Zac Kay | No Comments »

All Work and No Play? No Way!

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Halloween in Aspen with AST…Need I say more? ASTHalloween09web

Posted in Chris Klug, Erica Mueller, Josh Wylie, Zac Kay | 1 Comment »

Indian Summer?

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Well we’ve had the week off and are now gearing up to be back on snow, but what a week we’ve had!!! Colorado has been about 65 degrees and sunny! Is it really November??? I had a great week off, despite free riding a couple of days. Because we’ve been riding gates so much, and there isn’t a lot of room to free ride at Copper lately, I went up to A-Basin for a little “extra-credit” to work on my technique! So some much needed runs as I am trying to get fully dialed in with my technique as the race season is about to get underway.

Being back at home in Steamboat for the last few days has been awesome! Justin and I stained our deck, did some laundry, and paid bills! It seems like that’s all I do when I go home in the winter… Unpack, laundry, repack, pay bills… But needless to say, it is great to sleep in my own bed, cook a meal in my own kitchen, and spend some time with Justin. Thankfully I’m all caught up and well rested, gearing up for a busy week!

We have our first Nor-Am (North American) races this week in Copper on Thursday and Friday. By the sounds of it, there are quite a few teams who made the trek out here, so it looks like the field will be stacked with North Americans, Asians, and Europeans. It should be a great race. AST has had some great training days on the race hill and we are all feeling well prepared! So with a little luck and all of our skills, we should come out with a few podiums!

In the meantime, we have a couple more days of training and I’ve got my Sports Psychology book to read, In Pursuit of Excellence by Terry Orlick! Gotta make my head fast too!

Posted in Erica Mueller | No Comments »

Back On Snow!

Monday, November 9th, 2009

After taking off a few days off last week to recover from my hand injury, Rob and I decided it would be a good idea if i rode a bit this week. With the team off for the week, and Rob and Ian home, I had to organize some training on my own. I spoke with Steamboat Springs coach Thedo Remelink and ended up joining them in A-Basin for three days. I free rode working on body position and pressure on Tuesday and then joined the Steamboat team in the gates on Wednesday and Thursday. The snow was great and I really appreciate the Steamboat Team for letting me ride with them. Im looking forward to a few days off now before Rob and Ian return and we begin training again next week. I’ve got a few projects before then so it will be nice to have the time off to get everything done. Zac and I put some of our race boards from last year up on Bomber Online for sale, so if any of you are looking for boards that AST members have ridden in the past they are available online.

Posted in Josh Wylie | 1 Comment »

On-Snow, Pre-Season Training Almost Done!

Monday, November 9th, 2009

We are approaching the end of our on-snow, pre-season training. We trained 29 on-snow, pre-season days since August 24th. We only missed one on-snow training day due to bad weather! There was one athletic injury (Josh Wylie’s dislocated finger) with a loss of only 2 ½ training days. All things considered… that’s pretty good!

We have 5 on-snow, pre-season training days left for a total of 34… assuming no more bad weather days! We will complete our on-snow, pre-season training at Crested Butte, Colorado from November 16th to 20th.

My main goal for our on-snow, pre-season training was to increase training volume & intensity significantly in conjunction with an expectation of a very high “race-run” completion rate & a very low “momentum robbing” mistake rate.

I believe that we are close to meeting that goal… the final 5 days of on-snow training at Crested Butte will be the real test! I will update you after November 20th.

I want to thank the athletes for all of their hard work. You can rest assured that the training volume, but not necessarily the intensity, will decrease after the Crested Butte Camp.

And a special word of thanks to Ian Price for all of his hard work and collaboration. Awesome!

We are on the road to Vancouver!

Posted in Coach Roy | No Comments »