The Lauberhorn calls

WENGEN, Switzerland -- I think they made the right decision to cancel the GS last weekend. We're all used to the delays. It was foggy all morning so we knew it was going to be that way. I blew out pretty quickly. That 360 move was pretty sketchy -- it could have been a pretty bad crash. I was happy I didn't hurt myself.

The slalom was alright. I had some good sections in the first run but I skied pretty bad at the top. It was really different conditions than what we've been skiing on. Considering I've had literally no slalom training I was happy to be top 10 in the first run with what I didn't think was very good skiing. In the second run, I had a technical problem with my goggles. My technician switched my lenses because it gets pretty dark in the afternoon there and I wanted to have a lighter lens. When he put the new lens in, he wasn't really paying attention and put it in inside out. One side has an anti-fog coating, which is supposed to go on the inside. When you breathe on it, it doesn't fog up. But he put in on the outside. As soon as I put the goggles down on my face, which is right before I went, they just fogged up. We didn't have time to switch it out so I just went thinking that maybe they would clear up, but they didn't. I skied with them the whole time and it was really, really foggy. I was just happy to make it down with that. That issue kind of took me out of the race as far as trying to win -- at that point, it was just survival.

My ankle is still pretty sore. It hurts all the time. I didn't have any real sharp pain over the weekend but it the conditions were really icy. When it gets that icy, it's real chattery and that makes it pretty rough on my ankle.

Now I'm in Wengen getting ready for the next races. I'm pretty comfortable on the hill here -- I've won here a couple of times and was second last year. The main thing about the course here is it's so physical -- it's 2 minutes, 30 seconds from the top so you get tired. After a minute and a half, you're already kind of tired and still have a minute to go. The really difficult part is right at the very bottom where it starts to pretty fast. It's the fastest downhill of the year. In one little section, you're going about 155 kph (96 mph) and it's dark and bumpy with a compression at the end of it. You definitely have to stay focused. It makes you aware of your fatigue because in those kind of pressure situations where you're going that fast and it's dark and bumpy, you want to be 100 percent focused. When you're that way, you tend to notice that you're tired more and you get a little sketched out because you're not 100 percent ready to deal with stuff. There are a couple really tough turns right before the finish and the finish is a big jump. You have to be ready for this race.

I'm not where I want to be fitness-wise to race 100 percent but I'm OK with where I'm at at this point in the season considering where I started. I've been making good progress and I'll keep getting stronger.