Ready for return

Travel this time of year is brutal. We're driving all over Europe chasing snow. Everyone has to seek out these random spots where there's good training and they're not always convenient to get to. It would be easier if we had private planes or helicopters. There are good spots that are easier to get to but they tend to get taken by other teams like the Austrians and the Swiss. They block off the spots so we can't train with them. But once the season gets underway, there's snow everywhere. We have a deal with a place in Italy just across the border from Austria. That's really good training but they don't have the right conditions this time of year.
 
I haven't skied since indoor training last week. I've been focused on conditioning and have gotten in some good dry-land training. I was fast on the indoor although that's not real indicative of how you'll do in a World Cup race. I was surprised at how quickly the skiing came back. The coaches and I know that I'm not in my top form although the skiing doesn't feel that bad. It's just physically there are certain things that there's just no skimping on.
 
I think everyone is of the same mind that since I'm skiing fast enough, I will race in Levi. I hope I can make it down both runs without totally hitting the wall. The course is fairly short, under a minute. Slalom is pretty strenuous. You start to get really fatigued in the really cold air. But I was right there at the top with the other guys as far as speed.
 
I'm pretty comfortable with my equipment which is usually a big question mark before the first races. At lot of times in the past I've had two or three different models of skis and different generations within those models. Normally, I'm doing a ton of testing this time of year because you want the very very best for your race. This year, the newer skis are far better than the older ones so I didn't have to do any comparison testing after the first couple days. I'm really comfortable on the set up I'm on which saves me a lot of time and I can just focus on training instead of testing. It's definitely better for your head and lets you rest a little more.