Jumping Journal: February 11, 2008

What else should I expect???

 

The lovely snowfall from the weekend ended up bring 4 inches of fresh snow to the area by the time this morning arrived.  The clouds had moved out and left us with a nice sunny day.  Granted for most of the daylight hours it was windy but it had calmed down by the time I was jumping.  The temperatures hadn't recovered much.  I guess it did make it up to 20 this afternoon after a chilly 7 degree start this morning.

 

Since the high school alpine racing teams were at state meet today they didn't have practice so I wasn't needed to help with the lift.  I still arrived at the hill around 3PM and after killing some time in the lodge I walked over and decided to shovel off the steps on the landing hill.  That didn't go so well.  The plastic  shovel I was using wasn't the right tool for the shoveling that snow.  It was borderline ice on the steps.  I guess it was quite wet snow that froze nicely overnight and made for rather difficult snow to try to shovel with a plastic bladed shovel.

 

I finally gave up trying and headed back in the jump inn and laid down and took a nap for a bit before Cannonball and Nick showed up.  They headed out to rake the part of the landing hill that Jay didn't get with the groomer.  Jay had only made one pass down it and the rest was to be ski packed.  I finally suited up and headed up to ski pack the side we normally have the much greater tendency to land/ride towards.

 

After finishing it up I headed up for the first jump of the evening.  I was the only one out jumping tonight.  With the trouble I had both last Monday, the last time I jumped the 50, and over the weekend on the K64 in Salisbury, I knew that I just needed to work on the inrun position and get it back in line.  Admittedly, I now realize why I had trouble last Monday and over the weekend as well.  Crazy head games.

 

I put on the ski and head down for the first jump.  I was sitting back some on the first one or two jumps of the evening.  The one problem I was having more than anything was jumping on time.  The first jump I was very late.  Each jump there afterwords my timing constantly improved.  The first jump ended up being one of the shortest jumps of the winter.

 

I did a better job at keeping my butt up on the inrun for the second jump but the timing was still late.  The third jump was better all the way around.  The fourth jump was the smoothest feeling inrun of the night.  I was on top of it the whole way down the inrun.

 

The fifth jump had the best timing of the evening and also ended up being the farthest jump of the evening.  I did manage to get down around 35-36 meters.  The rest of the jumps were all around 30-35 meters.

 

Jump six I really started noticing that it seemed like I was getting tossed around on the inrun.  As I walked back up I noticed it looked like I had push the left side of the left ski track out.  I figure it was continuing to happen on each jump and I was noticing it as a result. The new track was nice and soft and it made it easy to push it out.  Unfortunately I wasn't doing the best job, especially in the beginning of the evening at riding on the whole foot.

 

By the time the evening was over I was doing a much better job and it came as no surprise to me.  I had figured all day long that tonight would play out the way it happened.  Gee, I guess I have jumped WAY too long to not see/understand what is going to happen next.

 

It all sounds good for tomorrow and then another storm is forecast.  Currently the forecast is calling for 4-8 inches of snow Tueday night/Wednesday morning.

 

Crash