The Countdown Starts!!!

ONly 4 more sleeps and I am going to my paradise!  The mountains!  I was taking to my wife about it on the weekend, and it has been a while since we have gone on a holiday that does not have a race schdule attached to it.  So, 4 more sleeps and we are off to Jackon Hole for a week of dynamite skiing and chillin out!  Surrouded my mountains, snow and the exhaustion of 25000 vertical feet of skiing at the end of each day!  Can you tell that I am absolutely pumped about this trip!  Take a look at some of the fun to be had at Jackson!
http://vimeo.com/18072664

As well as the countdown to this trip, is the countdown to training go time!!!  On March 13, I will tie my shoes on for the first schedules workout of my 2011 season!  Although I am currently blurred by the snow and downhill rush, the structure of my program for this year is exciting.  I am truning it up from last year.  Being my first IM ;last season I put in the miles and the time, but did not push the intensity to hard.  With last summer of training and results in the memory, I have put together a training plan to ideally find improvements across the board with heavier focus where I believe I might make the biggest gains.  So, after my week of smiles and steep and deep fun, it is time for a few months of pain for the pleasure of racing. 
As my winter and ski teaching is coming towards an end, I must say that it has been the greatest teaching winter ever!!  I have had the opportunity to work with 3 groups of great skiers who were enthusiastic and wanted to learn.  I set a gold for the season for myself to make each lesson a memorable one for them and I believe I accomplished my goal.  From the first day this year to a lesson I taught yesterday, I saw some great changes.  They started the season skiing comfortably on moderate terrain and finished the season attacking steeps with comfort.  Being a part of those successes is a blast as a teacher.  Discussing the progress with them and hearing the understanding that they have developed is also great, it is a good sign that both myself and hte students enjoyed the process.  The tough thing is to now begin to develop my program for next season to make certain that the growth they have experienced continues and they are stronger than ever.