Off to race

Hi guys,
I'm just about to lerave lofer now to head to kaunertal for my first races. I'm feeling in a good shape and the nerves are low which is a good thing. So let's hope all goes smoothly and i'll just have to see what happens. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow when i'm done

take it easy
Harry

Hi everybody,

Been training with the europa cup team over the last couple of days near Schladming, which is an hour and a half away. Very cold and early mornings, but the training has been totally worthwhile. For the last two days we have been waking up at 5.30 and travelling over there so, we are ready for the first lift. Tomorrow is the same programme but Slalom instead of GS. It's weird how the summer's training has simply flown by and to think that tomorrow is our last day training before the race season really starts. Nevertheless, i feel ready and can't wait to race on monday and see where the summer's hard work has got me. I want to say good luck to my great mates T.J and Pete who are racing in their first europa cup on Monday in Reiteralm which im sure will be a great experience. The one thing about skiing is you make some great life long mates and we have all grown up together and despite our competativness we really do have to spend a lot of time together and watch eachothers backs. I'm gonna hit the sack now because the recommended 8 hour sleep is decreasing fast.

Take care x

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Not a great day today but found out my race program

Hi guys sorry once again for the lack of contact,
Just had dinner and been on the bike for a recovery session and did some core as well.Today we skied super g in -15 (-25 with the wind chill factor) which was ridiculous haha. Did not ski great but to be honest i am not a big fan of the piste and am never too fast on the flats. My first races of the season are on the
-01.12.2008-02.12.2008 in Kaunertal SLALOM + GS
-06.12.2008-07.12.2008 in St.Moritz 2x GS
-09.12.2008-10.12.2008 in Bormio 2x GS
-11.12.2008-12.12.2008 in Bormio 2x SL

I'm really looking forward to racing Kaunertal next week as it is a really nice piste and generally a good race to score so if all goes smoothly without mistakes things should work out. Although it was where i broke my hand last year. Over the next few days we will be training around the Kitzsteinhorn and Schladming then take a day off before the first races.

Bad News!!!

Hi guys. Sadly this time i have some pretty bad news. Chemmy Alcott (Britain's number 1 female skier) has broken her ankle training Giant Slalom. Chemmy has had a great start to this season finishing top 10 in the opening race of the season in Soelden. Let's hope Chemmy get's back on snow fast and is racing again as soon as possible. Yesterday was a really good day training for me after i took a day off because of my knee. I skied both Gs and Sl and had a very good feeling in both disciplines. So it looks like i could be racing next week after all but im not 100% sure as of yet. Today the lifts closed after one run because of the wind, but that one run was just enough time for us to leave our bags at the top of the mountain which was a bit of a problem. We managed to convince a 'lifty' to take us up on a ski doo which saved us some walk. We have spent the last six hours taking our skis, bags and all sorts of equipment from the mountain and bringing it back to base. Everybody dreads days like this because they are such an effort especially considering it was pouring with rain..

Good luck with the injury Chemmy.

Bye guys

Fantastic News for 'Snowsports'!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/7735735.stm

Bad knee

Hi guys not too much to report, skiing is going ok although I did not
ski much today becase I hurt my knee training yesterday. It's nothing
major just some bruising and swelling. Shoul be ok tomorrow which is
good. Going to train slalom tomorrow because it will be too windy to
train anything else and most lifts are closed. Just about to watch the
football and them catch an early night. There is also a chance I may
be racing next week which will be an early start to the season but I
feel ready so let's hope all goes well.
Bye
Regards
Harry Brown

My home for the winter

A Pretty Cool View!!!!!!!!!!

Back at Base

Hello everybody,
We just got back to Lofer today after an interesting week. We skied a single session of slalom today which went really well. Last season slalom was probably my worst discipline and now it seems to be one of my best which i honestly did not expect to happen. If I stay in I usually have always managed to be fast and have won quite a few Championships along the way but last year I was constantly crashing out of races, but now things seem to be a lot more consistent which is great. Yesterday we were doing dryland training in the gymnastics hall (up the mountain) and one of the guys fell and hurt his ankle pretty bad. We all thought he had broken it because of his instant reaction but it turned out it is just ligament damage and he should be ok within a couple of days which is a relief, our main concern though was how we were going to get him off the mountain if he needed hospital treatment (lifts were closed) so all in all we were quite lucky.

I'm just going to be resting over the next couple of days and maybe go to the gym a couple of times.. And watching the draw for the Carling Cup. Come on Spurs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Catch you soon

No civilization

Hi all,
Stuck up a mountain and found a very slow internet connection believe it or not.However all the sites I need to go on are blocked (facebook, msn, gmail, the blog). But the good news is that the training is really good and we are the first people on the slopes every day.We skied super g first thing this morning and I was skiing reasonably fast which is reassuring. Gs this afternoon was not so good and I seem to be getting 'stuck in the back seat' and need to get that sorted today.I'm really tired so I'm probably gonna go to bed and have a VERY early night.

See
Ya
Regards
Harry Brown

Where's the Snow!

No Internet or Phone!!! What do we do now?

Just to let everyone know that Harry will be posting today, he is 'living' on a mountain this week with very few facilities, hence the lack of contact! it is good to see so many people checking the profile, please hang around as well because the season races get going soon and hopefully harry will be able to share some good results for both himself and the team with you all

School Work

Hello everybody,

Just in Lofer at the moment which is a small town outside of Salzburg in Austria. During the winter this is our main base where we train out of and travel from. It is owned by the British Olympic Organisation and is the nearest thing we have to home and a place to keep all our equipment. We are having the weekend off but it's not quite as i planned. Lots of school work for Loughborough which is a bit of a pain but not much i can do about it really and I need to keep all my options open in case of injury. Last weeks training went really well and i'm very happy with my progress over the summer. On Monday we will be skiing on the Kitzteinhorn glacier for 4 days to make up for the lack of speed training last week. We are staying up the mountain in a small hostel (haha) with no real civilization which should be great fun! The reason for this is that we can get up earlier and train before the public start skiing and then can finish early and hang about all day!!

Well i'm off to watch X Factor now but i will be in touch

Harry

Robert Poth - One for the future

A big shout out to Robert Poth www.robertpoth.co.uk and everyone at mysnowsports.com, I hope your hand is better and you are back training hard very soon. I will ask Dave when I see him and also the jacket is great thanks, keep skiing fast and I am sure you will get your own one day soon. My first races will be the end of the month or very early December. Everything looks good for you apart from of course your football team who are rubbish! Up the Spurs.

Thanks for checking my blog mate.

Good Luck

Harry

PS : Nice website Robert

Training is going well

Hi everyone just getting ready for bed now after preparing my skis. We
have been skiing giant slalom all week because the snow has been to
soft for super g and downhill. We've been getting up before 6 every
morning now so I'm quite looking forward to having the weekend off.
Probably will be going out for a couple of drinks tomorrow as it is a
couple of the guys birthdays. Anyway I will give you more detail over
the weekend when I have a computer in front of me.

See ya

Regards
Harry Brown

Europa Cup Races

In the Europa Cup race today Andy Noble finished 6th starting from bib 84 (22.86) and Dave Ryding finished 18th (23.21) great results from my fellow GB team mates. Well done boys.

Europa Cup Boys in action

Good luck to Dave Ryding and Andy Noble who are competing in the Europa Cup SL in Landgraaf on Thursday 6th November (Dave was 19th in the indoor EC SL competition on Tuesday 4th November in Amneville, France - his best EC result to date)

I will let you know about my day later.


See ya

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New Kit and high winds!

Not a great photo but I hope it gives everyone a quick look at the new kit we got last night. Skiing was a bit if a let down today with poor conditions and very strong wind. Up to 130km/h expected tonight which should be fun!!!!! Apart from that, all is good and the new clothing is really nice and warm luckily enough ! It is good to be back with the boys and everyone is here apart from Nick Robinson who is still injured. I hope he gets fit and back soon.

It is meant to be a four day speed camp but we often have to work with the weather so will be training giant slalom tomorrow (because certain lifts are not open for speed training) which suits me down to the ground as to be honest as that is always my preferred discipline.

I know this may be a short message, I'm on my phone which is a serious mission to type as well as spell words correctly so excuse me for any grammar issues.

Bye for now
Harry

PitzDULL - Valley Town

I am just finishing off my packing before heading off to the airport and then Pitztal in Austria for some speed training. We had a big family Sunday Lunch yesterday and then watched Lewis win the Grand Prix which was really exciting. I am away for seven weeks this trip which is quite a long time to be away from everyone but I also can't wait for the first races to start and hopefully get some good points quickly for the first list.

Pitztal is 3440m and is pretty dull tbh. I have just checked the weather and it is going to be about -12c all week with some light snow, it is one of Europe's highest and most snow-sure ski areas, and certainly the highest mountains in Austrian Tyrol, Pitztal's glacier ski area is accessed by an underground funicular with 10,000 stairs running along the side of it just in case it breaks down! Apres-Ski is virtually non-existant in Pitzal and there is really not much to do at all, in fact our hotel does not even have WI-FI so we will all be watching a lot of movies I guess. Still we have really early starts (5.30) so we will be sleeping plenty and certainly not partyin or drinking this close to the season. It is amazing how much time we spend hanging around airports, hotels and in the van between races. You really need to have a lot of Patience when you are a ski racer and this is a very important training camp for us guys.

Speak to you soon x