Tag Archives: Alpine Health and Fitness

Kiwi Winter 2018

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Coronet Peak June 2018

View over Wakatipu Basin from Coronet Peak

Following on from a bit of down time catching the last of summer, I had a great build up of strength and conditioning (thanks to Ben Griffin’s programme) getting ready for the  Kiwi Winter 2018. I also got to experience a WIM HOF workshop in Paradise, Glenorchy learning to be comfortable while uncomfortable, experiencing Cold Therapy, Breathing and Commitment – thanks to the team, I certainly took a lot away from the weekend with some good tools to work with.

Plenty of good weather left in Autumn for dryland training before the first of the snow arrived so took the opportunity to get on the bike as well as hitting the gym.

Autumn
Arrowtown track
Murphy’s Run

In no time at all it was back on snow at The Remarkables for our first camp, back to basics with the NZ Ski & Coberger Team.  We had excellent conditions for so early in the season with plenty of snow cover and good weather.

Excited now for some equipment testing of new skis and boots arriving very soon. In the meantime, more strength and conditioning before our next on snow training block starts.

Shout out to the Skeggs Foundation for their continued support.  Check out their page, and while you are there, why not look at getting a Skeggs fuel card to help out numerous athletes!

Season Done

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After a long Northern Hemisphere season and feeling exhausted, I’ve had a much needed break and it’s time to update and get ready for the new season!

Kranjska Gora World Cup

Moving on from my last post, after the Olympics we headed back to Europe to continue on the World Cup giant slalom circuit.  My energy levels were hitting rock bottom and I got sick after leaving Korea.  Spent four days in bed prior to the next WC race at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia and almost didn’t race.  Conserved my energy in the warm up and was then surprised how well I did in some tough conditions with fresh snow leading up to the race.  Starting bib 50 I moved up to 35 just 0.8 seconds off making top 30.  On arriving back to our Austrian base, I managed to find a doctor working on Sunday and picked up some antibiotics for what turned out to be strep throat.    From Europe we headed over to Canada to race in the NorAm finals but with no NorAm points, flat terrain and more fresh snow I was frustrated to not perform so well.  After the NorAms in Kimberley, BC I headed on to Red Mountain BC for the Canadian Nationals, Willis headed south to Sun Valley and coach headed home back to New Zealand.

Canada

Canadian Nationals, Giant Slalom

Frustratingly we had another foot of fresh snow the night before the races but at least there was a little more gradient on the mountain and I picked up a podium spot for the giant slalom, unfortunately without much slalom training the slalom races could have gone better.

After the Canadian Nationals it was finally time for some down time so a couple of days after arriving back home in New Zealand I hopped over the ditch to Australia for the last  of summer warmth to recharge.  Had an amazing time just relaxing and exploring beaches along the eastern coast before it was time to head home and start back into my dryland programme.

Fraser Island, Australia

Not all dryland happens in the gym, having some fun on the bike

Along the Arrow River

The Northern Hemisphere season was again filled with amazing experiences, along with ups and downs, all of it made possible with help from my Team, generous sponsors, supporters, friends and family, not to mention Fans! Thank you one and all for your ongoing support.

Team Edwards, Snowvision Foundation, One Studio, NZSki, Sotheby’s International, Browns Ski Shop, Wanaka Ski & Snowsports Club, Skeggs Foundation, Community Trust of Southland, Just Dig It, ZoiBri Trust, Robert Moore Chiropractor, Alpine Health & Fitness, Avoca, Merrell NZ,  XTM Performance, Auckland Bone & Joint Surgery, McClean & Co, One Square Meal, Adidas, Remarkables Physio

USA – Beaver Creek December 2017

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Time has flown with November gone and December well and truly started.  The training at Copper Mountain and Vail continued with some excellent progression in my giant slalom with speed increasing.  In no time at all the NorAm races were done and dusted, unfortunately with not the results I was aiming for.  Fresh snow the night before the first races didn’t help and I had 2 x DNF for the GS races.  With just two days of slalom training before the NorAm SL race, I was quite pleased with how I went in the second run but not so much overall.  Had a day trip to Denver and Boulder for a bit of much needed down time and then concentrated on more training getting ready for the Birds of Prey World Cup giant slalom at Beaver Creek on the 3rd December.

Day off, Boulder
Day off, Boulder
thanks Pete

The atmosphere at Beaver Creek was amazing, perfect weather and good slope conditions, started bib 51.  Felt a bit slow out of the gate but had some good times lower down, unfortunately missing top 30 qualifying by 0.64 second.  A little time to hang out and watch second run before the mad rush to pack and head to the airport for our flight to Europe.  Thank you to all the volunteers, athletes, race officials, parents, mountains – all involved in these amazing races.

WC GS Beaver Creek
World Cup GS course
Fans – not much snow
Finish
Young fans
Leaving USA

We are now in France heading for our first taste of training at Val d’Isere where the next world cup giant slalom race will be.

Quiet moment at Lake Annecy, France

Europe October 2017

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We arrived to a very spring looking Europe with a lot of green!  First race of the season on our programme listed as World Cup GS, Sölden Austria.  Training got under way and we got time on the race piste which was invaluable.  Starts with a bit of a flatter section then most of the course goes to a pitch around 65 degrees then flattens out again at the finish.  As described on the official Sölden website: – the superb slope features a different shape every year. It’s easy to explain: the race track is built on glacier ice which moves permanently. Especially in its lower part, the slope has become steeper and steeper over the last years – as if a 65% gradient wasn’t enough!

We also trained on the piste beside the race area (called The Icebox – with good reason!) and got some more great training.  The World Cup race was cancelled due to blizzard conditions so we packed up and got ready to head on to Colorado for the next training block.  Was great to pick up some new skis from HEAD as well.

Soelden training
Soelden with Willis
Solden wind

Blizzard conditions race day at Soelden

After a few delays with flights (mechanical problems, re-routing) we finally arrived into Denver start of November on to home base for the next month in Dillon.  Training has started at Copper Mountain and it’s incredibly tiring at the moment getting into the new time zone as well as coping with the high altitude (approx 12,300ft – 3,750m)

Big thank you to Skeggs Foundation for their funding support, always appreciated! Now we will concentrate on the next training block before the NorAm races at Copper Mountain and Vail followed by the World Cup at Beaver Creek.

Farewell NZ – Hello NH!

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Final round-up to the season came with the Snow Sports Awards at Wanaka where I picked up the Alpine Athlete of the Year award and my coach Nils Coberger picked up the Coach of the Year. (below with Corey Peters Adaptive Athlete of the year)

Coach of the year
Alpine Athlete of the Year
Award Winners

The last couple of weeks of my brief taste of summer at home went far too quickly but managed to get in some quality strength and conditioning sessions with Ben Griffin and the team.   Also had time for the odd bike ride and a few Pilates sessions.  One Studio  organized a really interesting session for us at the Auckland University wind tunnel where we worked on finding our best tuck positions.

Seven Mile
Wilson Bay
Wind Tunnel

We headed over to Europe a little earlier this year as we get ready to start training on the World Cup piste at Sölden, Austria and arrived into Munich on the 16th October to a pleasant 20º C  blue skies and looking very green!  It will take a few days to get used to the time zone but after that long series of flights we were pretty exhausted.  We then made our way south of Innsbruck, Austria towards our base for the next couple of weeks where we will be training before the first World Cup at the famous Sölden!

Many thanks again to all my sponsors, supporters, friends and family.  It is going to be a big season and I’ll do my best to keep you up to date.

Racing Underway

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Racing is now well under way with the Cardrona FIS Series and Coronet Peak National Champs completed.  Bit of a mixed bag with weather and snow conditions making for some tough and long days.  One and a half giant slalom races before blizzard conditions cancelled the second day of racing at Cardrona. Bit frustrating as day one with errors of the flats in soft snow cost too much time for me, but day two produced a good run before gale force winds closed lifts.  Had a 45 minute wait at the bottom of Valley View waiting for bus ride back to base buildings and more waiting before race called off some time later from continued winds and fresh snow. Racing at Coronet Peak was also a mixed bag of results and snow conditions.  Too much warm and wet weather saw one of the slalom race days cancelled and tricky conditions for the remainder.  I was a bit frustrated with my giant slalom being a bit slow in the National Champs – congratulations to team mate Willis Feasey for taking out the title again.  Day two with a good clean fast run but a mistake at the bottom second to last gate cost me a DQ which was disappointing.   First day of slalom was cancelled after a night of heavy rain but we were lucky the following night with conditions freezing allowing the National Champs slalom race to go ahead.  I was frustrated after the first run with mistakes and no timing board but put a strong second run down.  I retained the National Slalom title and managed to score my best result in a slalom race (14.08).  Placed 5th overall with just 0.28 sec off the winner .

A little time now for some more training before we head over to Australia for the first of the ANC series which run 21st – 25th August.

Slalom title
GS title
Slalom Course
Slalom Course
Coronet Peak

Early morning start at Rocky Gully, Coronet Peak.

Many thanks again to all the volunteers, Coronet Peak and Race Department, coaches, athletes, parents and all the amazing sponsors and supporters for all your time and contributions to my sport!

End of Season Review

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It’s been a long season but I am now back home after a couple of weeks getting away from the winter life, enjoying company of friends, warmth and  a change of scenery in Utah and also exploring a very small part of my home country.  Thanks Tucker Marshall for the Utah images!

Beach rugby
Moab Arch
Friends at Moab
Exploring Moab
with Tyler

And a quick road trip visiting some pretty cool spots around the South Island, NZ

By the light of the Stars
Hot Pools
Hokitika
Sunrise
Wharf at Kaikoura

To cap off this Season, I have posted the review by my coach, Nils Coberger and his take on our season!

TO ALL OUR FRIENDS, SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS,

Warm in Aspen!

What a season 2016/17 has been for the New Zealand Men’s Ski Team, arguably our most successful in 25 years! Adam Barwood and Willis Feasey went from strength to strength during the northern hemisphere campaign. The season started early November in Colorado at our base in Dillon where we had four weeks of excellent training at Copper Mountain. When the racing season started in December we moved to Panorama, Canada to focus on the Nor-Am tour. Kicking off in Panorama the boys achieved some great results. At the 2nd Panorama Nor-Am Super G, Adam skied from bib 47 into 3rd place and followed that up with two 4th places in the Slaloms. Willis finished 4th in the next day’s Super-g and then 7th in the GS. After eight weeks on the road in North America it was time for a well-earned break so we headed home to spend time with our families over Christmas and New Year’s.

Soon enough we were back in Europe and racing again. Our first World Cup was in Adelbolden, Switzerland and the boys got valuable World Cup experience after having Beaver Creek cancelled in November. Having had just ten days in Europe we were off to South Korea and the Olympic test event in Yongpyong, the venue for next year’s Winter Olympic GS and Slalom events. Willis finished every race of the Yongpyong Far East Cup tech series in the top 10, and Adam was only slightly behind finishing inside the top 20. After our Asian excursion, it was back to Europe to prepare for the 2017 World Ski Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The Swiss put on an amazing World Champs, the slopes were prepared perfectly and the location was breathtaking. Willis started the World Champs well, finishing the Super-g in 34th. That afternoon we returned to our base in Maishofen, Austria to train and test skis at Hinterreit for five day before heading back to St. Moritz. Because the boys were both top 50 on the start list they go into the main event and didn’t have to do the qualifying race so this gave us a day of GS training two days before the main GS race. We were paired with the French and Austrian GS teams for training, the two strongest GS teams in the world. Hirscher, Leitinger (Gold and Silver 2 days later) and Pinturault, Faivre and Muffat-Jeandet (Adam’s doppelganger) were all training. After the training session was finished, Adam had the 1st and 3rd fastest times of the day and Willis was only a couple of tenths out. ‘Belief’ is a powerful thing, once earned! But training is just that – training! In the GS race Adam finished 31st overall, but in the second run, starting 42nd he had the 28th fastest run and was top 15 in the middle split (very steep), finishing only 1.9 behind winner and World Champion Marcel Hirscher. Two days later in Slalom Willis started bib 65.and at the first split he was 37th and at the 2nd split he was 38th. Unfortunately he crashed at the last roll over, but he could have qualified top 30 and made the flip – in Slalom! And if Adam had skied the first run like his second, he could have qualified top 30 and made the flip in GS!

WSC Kit
St Moritz WSC

This event was the real turning point in the season, or light bulb moment, for both Adam and Willis, although surprisingly not in their preferred events. So even though they didn’t qualify, these series of events over the six days at St. Moritz proved to be highly valuable. Both saw their own potential and what they were both truly capable of achieving! The process of believing in oneself is not easy. Confidence needs to be earned through hard work, tenacity and experience. Embracing the environment and living in the moment, today, now! Competing without fear of failure and only thinking about how to succeed. In this regard, this World Championships was huge, and in my opinion, will be remembered as a key moment in the boy’s careers. Having the All Blacks manager Darren Shand there with us was a real treat. His mental skills knowledge about ‘belief, winning, process and culture’ is inspirational.

Mont Ste-Marie
Mont Ste-Marie
Mont Ste-Marie
Sugarloaf SG
Sugarloaf Nationals

After the World Champs our focus was back on the Continental Cup tour. We originally planned on more Far East Cup races in Japan and eastern Russia at the end of March, but we made the call to go back to North America for the Nor-Am finals and the U.S. Nationals. We knew the Canadian and US World Cup men’s teams would be racing and this would give us minimum penalty races and a better bench mark of where we were at. Willis started the Nor-Am finals with a 4th, 5th and 7th in the speed events and a couple of solid top 20’s in the tech races. Adam started with a 6th, 7th and 11th in the tech races and then 6th and 12th in the Super G.

Time out before Aspen and Vail races

On the 29th March the programme was over but we felt the boys were skiing fantastically well and should seek more opportunities to lower their points. We decided to send them to the FIS Spring Series in Aspen and Vail, Colorado with the help from locals Tim Cafe and the Derwin family, while Oli and I made our way back home. The Aspen series turned out to be the most successful race series ever for the NZ Men’s Teaml! Adam won 3 of the 4 races and Willis was 2nd twice, 4th, 7th and 8th. The end of season internal base points list has now been published – Adam 82 and Willis 88 in the world in Super-g, and in GS, Adam on 9.40 points is #44 in the world and Willis 10.12 is #60. This puts the boys in the same league as the greats of NZ ski-racing, like Simon Wi Rutene.

I feel the success of the season is only the beginning. Both the boys now have goals well beyond what was achieved this winter, which shows me that a vital step has been taken and the belief and path way is there.

February 2017, Europe

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February has been a busy month with racing  World Ski Championships in St Moritz and World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.  It has been a mixed bag of results, highs and lows and some very challenging conditions with snow and weather.  A number of races have been cancelled with the lack of snow and the weather has been particularly warm.  The World Ski Champs in St Moritz were a great experience with a large field of high calibre athletes.  The team was based just outside of St Moritz at Hotel Edelweiss, Sils Maria. Our first race was the Super G and the lighting really made things tough! Very fun course though with 5 built up jumps. I was skiing well on the top half but came into a turn offline and lost all my speed.

St Moritz race hill
Fans
In the Start
Super G
On Course
Approaching finish
Adam & Willis

We headed back to our base in Austria for a couple of days training before the GS race on the 17th where I started bib 48 having qualified in top 50.  I was really happy with the second run of GS which put me into 31st.(28th on the run) just need to do that first run now! Lighting got really flat for the second run with snow falling heavily.

Finish Area
Course Inspection, St Moritz
2nd run Inspection
1st run GS
GS
Storm coming 2nd run
Finished 31

We had to qualify for the slalom with a race at Zuoz on the day before the WSC race where I finished 4th, then had to attend prize giving at Kulm Plaza that evening for the top 6 finishers.  A massive crowd who were also gathering for the prize giving of the Women’s slalom followed by bib drawer for the men’s slalom created an amazing atmosphere. The sun came out for the last couple of days in St Moritz and the track was perfect for slalom. Unfortunately I went inside on the steep which wasn’t great, but think the skiing was going well. It’s nice to see how much closer I am than at Beaver Creek World Champs!

Slalom at Zuoz
Prize Giving
Kulm Plaza
Slalom
Start gate
Course maintenance

After St Moritz we had some races at Leogang, Austria and Golte, Slovenia with races cancelled at both due to poor snow conditions.  Super warm some days and raining others meant the snow conditions were difficult so I struggled putting those two runs together again.

Kranjska Gora race hill
Going well
Not so well
Thanks Oli – Work Room
GS Course
Green light after heavy rain
On course

From Golte, we headed to Kranjska Gora, Slovenia for World Cup races in a stacked field.  Bib 65 for GS and 71 slalom with soft wet snow meant the conditions were pretty rough with it raining heavily the night before the slalom race.

Fans in all shapes…
Thanks Cool Hard Hats
Autograph time!
Thanks Oli
with Tanja Frei-Pieren
Live music!

Time now for a day off before we continue on with some FIS races in the region, weather and snow permitting!

South Korea

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A quick overview of South Korea in some pictures.  Racing started in Yongpyong on the Olympic hill with some Far East Cup races – very icy injected course.  It has been a long time since we’ve been on anything as icy as this so while I had some good skiing, I did struggle a little.

adambarwoodalpinefecpresidentcup2017blvmjipmhxdx

South Korea

We enjoyed sampling the wide variety of food.

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From Yongpyong, we moved five minutes down the road to Alpensia for a couple more Far East Cup races.  For most of our stay in Korea, the temperatures were around the -12°C

Alpensia

alpensia

I will update a little more when the schedule is not so busy.  We are now back in Austria racing and training before the World Ski Champs in St Moritz.

Farewell Canada!

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pano

Toby Creek, Panorama

The Panorama NorAm series are over and now it’s time for a quick break. For the most part, the weather stayed clear for the week however it was incredibly cold with a couple of days approaching -30°C.  The snow-making clouds were more of a problem creating some poor visibility at times.  My toes suffered a little with the extreme cold but hopefully the numbness will disappear over the break.

pano-noram-racing

Alpine Combined, Panorama

sg-panorama-13dec16It has been an exciting week of racing for me with some great results and PB’s.  Starting with Super G and bib 47, I moved into 22nd spot and made a good points result.  Day two, still bib 47 I had an amazing run and finished on the podium in 3rd position and made a points result of 19.36 (currently on 53.48) surprising quite a few people as well as myself!  Day 3 was super combined and I had bib start 61 as I haven’t raced a combined for a while to get any results.  In the super g portion I came 12th, also a points result 21.95 and skied the slalom portion a little conservatively finishing 17th, scoring 39.73 (currently 155)

Moving on to the giant slalom, I made a mistake on day one and came out on a fall-away turn.  Day two I started 21 and skied into 9th, couple of mistakes but pretty happy with the way my skiing is improving.  In the slalom from bib 18 I moved into 4th place, a frustrating 0.19 sec off the podium.  Final day, also slalom I moved into 4th spot missing the podium again by a small margin.

sg-gs-start-panorama-dec-2016

Race start for Super G and GS

On the morning we packed up to head out of Panorama, the temperature warmed up by almost 20 degrees to a balmy -7°C and snowing.  After a successful NorAm series and the long trip home, I’m looking forward to a few days of warmth and leisure before the next  section of training and races in Europe.

Many thanks to all the volunteers and workers who braved those cold temperatures for us, putting on an excellent series. Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and all the best in the new year.