I just keep going…

Imagine you are with me sitting in the lounge area of this Chalet/Hotel…
The fire is roaring in the corner, with a couple slowly falling asleep in front of it…
With time more people come in from the slopes, tired, quiet on the whole, some go up to their rooms, some stop for either tea or something a little stronger at the bar…

And Hubby and I are ensconced in a corner, out of the way, tea and fruit, laptop and iPad in front of us.

It is day 2 of 3 days skiing here in Val D’Isere with Son, and I ache in places! In fact when I move in certain directions I sound just like my mother, groaning as the muscles catch and scream!

Day 1
A leisurely start of 10am due to the weather…it was a blizzard! Did this stop is? Silly Question when Hubby and Son are involved! We were late arriving at the top and Son was not best pleased as he’d got up early for him on a weekend!! But off we went.
Cries of “but I can’t see where I’m going!” did not deter the chaps, nor the odd “oh help!” Although Son did keep telling me I could do it, and to just keep going, with other words of encouragement. Slowly the moves came back to my muscles and I managed a few runs.
Occasionally the snow lifted and we could see more than two lift cars in front of us – I kid you not!- Then it was great skiing in fresh snow…not so much powder for me, thank you!
Then came a blue we needed to do to get to a hut for a well earned break…it had powder snow on it. It was a blue. Now, I am sure some of you are saying “So what?”, but I hope there are others of you going “Crikey!” Or words to that effect… To those of you I say, EXACTLY!!
“Don’t worry, Mum, you can do this. Just keep to the middle of the slope and don’t go into the deep stuff on the edge” I promise you, he is a good teacher, but he forgot to tell my sore knee to work!
I set off and after only 3turns I was heading for the right side of the slope….you would have been proud, apparently, of the graceful double cartwheel I executed, tho not so proud of the landing on my head and left side!! And don’t let anyone tell you landing in snow is soft!!! It isn’t!!
Son came to get me out of my skis which hadn’t released, dusted me off, and off we went again towards a very welcome break.
I won’t bore you with the rest of that day’s runs, I can see some of you yawning already!
..suffice to say we came down for lunch very pleased with ourselves!

Day 2
Oh boy! Car crash with whip lash is how I felt as we had an early breakfast to hit the slopes in the promised sun today, but the one thing that having a personal trainer has taught me is that you can work through aches as they are just muscles which are not used to moving in that way… So, on with the ibuprofen gel, knee straps, and off we went. We beat Son to the top, too!
The slopes were beautiful! We went where we had first skied yesterday and it was so different! I loved it! 1.5 hours sped by with some sun but also snow and fog, and after a while the muscles started to assert themselves.
We came back down and I went for a coffee whilst my boys went off for a black run or two. I thought I had finished skiing to be honest as my right knee wasnt taking my weight when I walked on it…but then I had a hot chocolate with whipped cream ( of course! ) and the sugar rush gave me wings..we went to a different area and off we went!
I kept going!!
I can’t believe it to be honest! In the past the minute I felt my knees start aching I would sit it out, or go back to the hotel. I am so proud of how far I have come with Adam The Trainer with my fitness, but even more with the change of attitude I have- it is now ‘let’s have a go and see what I can do. I can always stop if it doesn’t work’ and so far it has worked!!