Colorado...not so easy on the lungs.

So turns out that Colorado's 10,000 foot elevation, my pneumonia recovering lungs, and the extreme lack of physical activity during my sickness have made for an interesting and difficult combination this week.  It is extremely frustrating coming from the shape I was in and what my lungs could handle, to now being out of breath after walking up a short flight of stairs or a small hill.  Luckily I have a decent amount of time here to try to get acclimated and get my lungs used to having to work again.  

I have had a few really fun free skiing days at Breckenridge and I have started to get a good feeling again.  Much thanks to my host Alex Palma for hooking me up with some free housing and free ticket vouchers.  I spent most of my time on the hill just doing very focused free skiing and some drills, trying to get a good stance back and get my balance dialed in.  I have been scrambling around trying to set up some training with any group I could fit in with and luckily I will be able to hop in with Middlebury at Vail the next couple days.  I'm really psyched to get over there and ski with those guys and really appreciate the help Stever is providing by letting me train with them.  

It should be a little interesting tomorrow as I think it will be a bit more taxing than the low volume free skiing runs I have had recently but I'll just have to make sure I'm smart about what I'm doing and take breaks when I need them.  The snow has been a little soft to really get my set-up dialed in but I think I'm pretty close already.  The DODGE boots have been extremely responsive (and absurdly comfortable) and the stance feels so natural for me that my balance already feels great.  My Head GS skis also seem to be working really well for me.  I'm really psyched to get in a course tomorrow and hopefully get on some harder snow so I can start making some official calls on canting, mounting positions and other things of that nature.  

I might be able to get some video and pictures of training in the next couple days, not sure but I'll give it a shot.  In the mean time here are some pictures from my time in Breck the past few days:

Amazing meal the night I flew in.  A small KMS '04 reunion with Alex Palma, Jeff Hackett and myself joined by friends Theo and Mike.

Top of the chair where I did most of my skiing.

Riding up the lift this morning.  Cold and windy, but bluebird.  Tough to beat.

Can see the wind whipping off the top.  It blows pretty hard here.

Tried to get a picture of the bowls to the left, but this didn't really do it justice.

Amazing view from the top of the T-Bar, overlooking town.  Only problem was that it was gusting too hard to take more pictures.