First off, it was great having my brother around as a friend and a coach. Granted he’s not the most well versed ski coach I’ve ever worked with, but when there is someone looking after you with your best interests in mind everything is a whole lot better in this game.

Since I dropped Guy off at the airport in Munich – a few days ago – I was able to get one good day of GS training with the Finnish Ski Team and competed in 2 GS races in Kirchberg, Austria. The first day, I finished 10th and put together a great second run with a little mishap near the finish, but I was really happy with how I skied on the pitch. The second day of racing, yesterday, I was in 8th after first run and went a little straight in a turny section up top and blew out. It was too bad I blew out, but it was great to see Dane Spencer put together a good race finishing 4th (he’s been struggling a little bit on his comeback from a near death ski injury two years ago). Dane’s a good guy and it was nice to see him in high spirits.

Anyway, right after the race I ran into the Team America crew, that’s Bode’s team, and was able to get some incredible slalom training with Bode, Ted Ligety, and Steve Nyman. The whole situation was entertaining because the Team America crew gave me the invite without mentioning it to any of the USST coaches. Johno, Forest, and Mike were psyched to see me training with them, while it was clear the ski team coaches we’re nearly as excited that I joined them. Either way, it was the best training I’ve had all year and I have to thank the Team America crew for making it happen. Not to mention, it was great to get some coaching. They are all flying high right now off Bode’s dominate week at Wengen and all they can talk about is how much he’s killing it.

After the training, I drove to Patsch for the night and started to feel an aggressive head cold coming on. I was up most of the night with a fever, got an appointment at the doctors office in Igls this morning, and found out I have the Flu. Bummer. Next year I’m definitely getting a Flu shot in the fall. Luckily, they had some antiviral Tamiflu medication so I’m on that, but I still feel pretty miserable. I guess there has been an out break of the Flu in eastern Austria in the last two weeks, awesome. There is a big gap in races over here so I booked a flight home in two days to take a little break from skiing and then get a solid block of training. Hopefully by then I’ll be in good enough shape to travel.

Hope you’re all doing well, w