PISTE

PRESEASON WORK MADE RIDING GREAT ON DAY ONE AT WHISTLER BLACKCOMB

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

What a journey since September to get to my first snowboarding day of the season.

I did everything I wanted to do in terms of preseason training. I went into the gym to strengthen my muscle groups, especially my legs after having this sudden realization after road cycling season that my legs were no longer strong enough.

I had moved my residence and no longer bicycle commuted up and down a hill every day all year long. The first year did not really impact my leg strength, but when I started to get injured, I realized I needed additional strength training.

I joined a gym and got on various leg machines. And when I thought I had them where I wanted them, at a kind of Max Q, I tried also to increase my level of cardiovascular fitness, after taking a long rest from road cycling, by playing drop in basketball once or twice a week. I got to three drop-ins a week last week, and felt good enough to go snowboarding on the first sunny day.

I was so sore after my first basketball session, I felt like I had been run over by a military-style civilian vehicle.

Friday was to be a Blue Bird Day at Whistler Blackcomb, and I just happened not to have any business appointments either. And it’s a long weekend in the United States, with Martin Luther King Jr Day on Monday, January 20, which is also, by coincidence of time, US President Elect Donald Trump’s Inauguration.

I get to Whistler from Downtown Vancouver by commercial bus, which charges this year a bit more, but probably the same as the cost of gas if I had taken the passenger vehicle, which I no longer own.

The first day of the season always has me tossing and turning the night before, this uncontrolled fear that I just will not have the same skills and ability this year as in the previous year, at season end.

But the first run of the day was rock and roll. And I immediately noticed an added ease in carving with the increased leg strength. I had also been working on increasing my flexibility by doing low knee squats during warm up. Basketball also helped with flexibility as I practice rebounding, with all my missed shots.

I was also able to ride the long runs without stopping, which I have never been able to do on the first day of the season. I usually need at least two or three days, maybe four to 10 days, into the season to complete the Dave Murray Downhill without stopping.

I was able to do the Dave Murray Downhill all the way to Creekside without stopping, not once but twice.

I then stopped for lunch at the Roundhouse Lodge, with poutine and shredded pork chilli, and a large glass of mountain fresh British Columbia tap water that is available in the Lodges on Whistler Blackcomb. 

I then took the Peak to Peak Gondola to begin the late afternoon on Black comb. I was pressed for time with the lifts closing at 3 pm.

I had scheduled a later bus back to Vancouver at 5:30 pm, instead of 4 pm, so I could ride out the day all the way to the lifts closing, and then have a pint or two of lager with dinner in the Village, before heading back to Vancouver and arriving in the Downtown at 7:30 pm.

Just a note, for all those people waiting in line for a table in the main Whistler Village square area, the restaurants behind the first set of restaurants and hotels and pubs have lots of tables available.

I had a great day with some tweaks in my knees after an active preseason training. It is not ideal to start the season with any aches and pains, so I had a hot bath with some bath salts the night before, which really helped. It wasn’t until my right calf muscle turned back into a pumpkin, after a couple of hours of riding, that I started to have problems again with mobility in my right knee and right leg.

I had a great first day with 26,227 of vertical feet recorded over 13 lifts on the Epic App. I double checked the lifts, and I had a few more lifts at the end of the day that went unrecorded, on the Excelerator Express as I moved over to my favorite run, the Honeycomb, from the top to the bottom of the Excelerator Express.

No hard feelings though, I will just add a few thousand vertical feet as the app has my last ride at 2:15 pm, but I watched the clock because of the closing time, and reached the top of my last ride around 2:47 pm.

So, the only question remains is, do I have tendonitis or tendinosis, and will I make it through the 10 days on my ten day pass, and recover before road cycling season.

A little too much weights on my legs too soon, and a bit too ambitious basketball, too early, like I was 16 years old all over again, but with an entirely different body and physical recovery cycle. 

I remember playing a pick-up game with friends in the middle of the summer at the age of 16, after being inactive for several months, when we were transitioning into senior high school, I was so sore the next day. This time, recovery may take a few weeks, and perhaps even months.