By Casey Dunleavy, Grade 7

Day 1: This is going to be tough.

I left my dorm at about 7 a.m., after I rolled out of bed at 6:15 and got ready. I got to the mountain and went out skiing in the wet, sticky snow at around 8:30. By the middle of the first run I knew it was going to be a long day. My legs were burning, but then again the last time I was on skis was about 8 months ago so this was expected. I went back up the chair lift for a 15 minute break before I would have to drag myself down to Mid Station for a break. As I was still waking up from the morning, my coach decided to video us all skiing slalom turns down the half covered trail that is the only one open. Still with sore legs, I went down the trail doing moderate ski turns (not usually what I am capable of) and then did it all again till about 11:30. I got all my ski stuff off, and then we loaded the bus back to school for lunch then school. On the way to the school, sometime during the first fifty yards of the trip, my coach (also the bus driver), Mergs, does a thing called “break check” and everyone on the bus is slammed to the seat in front of them. He also yelled “SQUIRREL!” and swerved the bus, jerking everyone from side to side.

Day 2: Oh my goodness, this is NOT MODERATE.

Today the skiing conditions were terrible. It was rainy and almost all the snow was guaranteed to be gone by lunch.  So at 8:30 in the morning we headed down to the Olympic Training center just around the corner of the school for a cardio and abs work out. By that point I was thinking, “I’m going to die.”   We started with running about 2 miles around the hockey rink, while doing just what the Brazil Soccer team does before a game (throwing the ball behind us then the person behind you would catch it, if you were the last person in the line you would have to sprint to the front then continue the cycle). We did this for about 20 minutes, my legs were burning, my face was beat red, and my heart rate was going faster then ever before. After the run we got a 4-5minute break till we had to do stair running. We ran at a 50% rate (every stair jogging), 75% rate (every other stair jogging) then 100% full speed, sprinting up the stairs. We did this forward and backwards in a twenty minute span. Then we hit the weight room for one hour to work on abs. After the one hour work out in the gym we went to the Carpet Room and had another ab work out session. After that, we did an obstacle course consisting of log rolling across the room, backward spider crawls, standing on one leg for 10 second, rolling twice on a mat, then lifting yourself above these bars. Then we were done for the day and I hit the books for four hours until I fell asleep on the couch.   Eventually, I took a bath to cope with the soreness and went to bed. All I could remember that night was my coach saying “This is only moderate”.

Day 3: I want some real snow!

Snow blowing in a blizzard…not a good mix with fog. My goggles had a sheet of ice covering the outside of them. The weather was below freezing.  Fog causes you to see what is only 3 feet in front of you and the ice covers half of the mountain.   So, due to the weather we are unable to train so we all just free ski and my coach watches us to make sure “no one dies”. By around noon we make it back to National Sports Academy for lunch then school. Later that night, two other students and I  made sugar cookies for everyone in our dorm house. Then lights were out at 9:30.

Day 4: Skiing & Olympic Center

There was skiing in the morning and doing regular drills.  The weather was really good.  Whiteface was blowing snow on all trails hoped to be open on the weekend. It was a nice day to ski then have a hot chocolate. It’s the days any ski racer looks forward to. I went to lunch then the library for school. Tonight I had another workout,  a one hour work-out in the Olympic Center weight room. We worked on core strengthening. I have to be honest and say I really liked this workout. It had me feeling really good after we left. Later that night,  some of my room mates and I made brownies, then went to bed pretty late.

Day 5: Sore but Managing

I could barely lift myself up to get out of bed my core was so sore. I dragged on my ski stuff and get on the bus for the mountain. I drank up some energy drinks and went out to ski. The whole place was pretty crowded. I got cut off multiple times. Before I knew it, it was time to leave and we headed to school for lunch. All flex term students had the day off from school.  So, my roommates and I went into town and did some shopping. It might be a little corny but we went to the toy store on Main Street and shot some rubber band guns. After doing this for about half an hour, we go down to “K-Nails” and get manicures. It was so much fun. After dinner, we had the choice of either seeing a movie at the house or going out to the movies. I went out to the movies with one of my room mates, Camryn, to see New Years Eve. It was a great movie; it was really funny too. After we went back to the house and went to bed.

Day 6: NYSEF Begins

Today I started my weekend ski racing program at Whiteface. I got to see all my friends from last year. Today wasn’t anything big, just some drills and mostly free skiing. The mountain was so packed there was really no way to do some serious skiing. If you went over 45 mph, either you would hit someone or ski patrol would yell at you, so we racers were a little stuck with doing moderate today. This afternoon I did not want to ski the because of all the people so I decided to just go back to the house and do whatever. At the house, I tuned and waxed my skis most of the time then went to dinner. We all just chilled out and watched TV that night.

Day 7: Second Day of NYSEF

Today was less crowded so actual skiing was good in some areas. It was a little icy but some spots had major powder. We did some video of everyone doing slalom turns…I almost fell on my face (Ha Ha). But the second video of me was pretty good. I did a lot of free skiing and saw some former people I raced with. I went back to the house and me and my room mates watched Criminal Minds and played Apples to Apples. It was a nice day. Well, a nice week. I think I could get use to skiing everyday. I know that someday I won’t want to get out of bed but it will all pay off on the hill.