Cory continued with his intensive training program with 3 days of working in Giant Slalom race courses with BC Adaptive in their Building Our Best program. And it wasn't easy as the day started with a lot of cloud that soon became a lot of rain - time for those ponchos!
Whistler Village, waiting to load the Whistler Gondola...
With Building Our Best Coordinator Ben Thompson at the top of the race course, on....
The Dave Murray National Training Centre (with teammate Christie)
Ponchos don't make for fastest skiing but it does allow for training to go on...and with just a month to go until the National Games, Cory wasn't going to let a bit of rain interfere with his preparations.
He has been working on more up-and-down movement as he makes his turns to put more pressure on his edges in order to make a cleaner carve and prevent his skis from skidding through the end of his turns.
After a few runs, Coach John from BC Adaptive suggests that Cory start trying to do some counter-rotation. This is an advanced race technique that allows the racer to ski ever closer to a gate, thereby shortening the race course and improving the times.
But it requires Cory to make major changes to his body position, rotating his arms and shoulders in the opposite direction that he is moving towards. Coach John says this technique will improve his race times considerably, but with so little time left to the National Games, it will be challenging for Cory to perfect this technique in time.
Here at the evening video review of the day's training, Coach John asks Cory about what he's working on while a fellow racer has some complimentary things to say about Cory's skiing.
And then of course, time for beer in the hot tub to end the day...the life of a racer:
The next day brings more poncho weather and after some instruction from Coach Morgan on making quicker switches from one turn to the next....
Cory gets some good encouragement from Ben during the evening video review:
Then it's race day, 2 Giant Slalom races of two runs for each race, and the rain turns to a gentle snowfall. These two races will be a good test for Cory's progress as he competes against his main rival from Special Olympics BC. Cory has set his sights on the National Champion from Quebec (who is also the World Champion since 2009) who he will face at the National Games, but his times from these two races versus his BC rival will show whether Cory has progressed since the BC Provincial Games last year.
There were some apparent timing issues for the first run which showed Cory trailing his rival by one second......
But the results for the second run show Cory winning by nearly two seconds, for a combined win of .8 seconds:
In the second race, Cory posts two terrific times, winning by a combined time of nearly 4 seconds over his rival. And since he won at the Provincials last year by 1.03 seconds for one run on a longer race course, it's a very encouraging result that indicates Cory has improved significantly since then.
In spite of those results, Cory went right back to work a few days later at a Gatebusters Slalom session at Whistler. He's been trying to improve his starts...
We expect Slalom will give Cory his best chance to reach the top of the podium at the Nationals, and practicing here on a more challenging race course at Gatebusters than he'll see in Newfoundland will give him some valuable confidence for the Games.
And once again back to Whistler the following week for some Giant Slalom training with Gatebusters, on a very soggy rainy day. But Cory looks aggressive and his coach likes how he is charging the race course throughout the day...
With less than 3 weeks now to the start of competition at Marble Mountain in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Cory will reduce the intensity of his training program, working with his Special Olympics teammates on Monday nights and perhaps a visit with his Blue Streaks friends on Grouse Mountain. But now it's time to rest a bit and look forward to putting down his best race runs ever in Newfoundland on March 2, 3, & 4.
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