Click here to check out Snowsport England’s write up of my recent visit to the GSK Human Performance lab where I met the Duchess of Cambridge.
and in case you missed it – my write up of my visit is here
Today, I was lucky enough to be invited to the GSK Human Performance Lab to undergo a series of rigorous physical and mental tests during a Sports Aid Workshop. The day started with the Sports Aid and GSK staff giving everyone a bit of background information on the Lab, what they do there and what we would be doing. All of the athletes then got split up in to different groups and sent down to the the Human Performance lab. The lab was full of state of the art equipment which analysed different areas of my performance e.g. power, core body temperature, reaction time etc.
Half way through the day, while every athlete was being tested, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, the patron of Sports Aid stopped by. I was extremely privileged to get the opportunity to meet her and have a chat about the day and what my sport involves!
I left the day with a whole list of results from the various tests which can help me identify my weaknesses and begin to work on them!
I want to say a huge thanks to the GSK Human Performance Lab and the staff for allowing us to access their amazing facilities. Thanks to Ian Findlay for accompanying me and to the Sports Aid guys for their continuing support and workshop days!
To kick off last weekend we had a gruelling 5 hour journey to Manchester for the Indoor British Champs. When I eventually arrived I was greeted by a perfectly groomed course. The set up provided options to be creative but also to throw some big tricks. The Format of the competition was the same as last year. Each row of features on the hill were ‘zones’ – the competitions would go through 1 zone at a time and each time the field was halved, until the final zone was reached and only a select group of riders remained. In the final there was only supposed to be 4 riders, but the competition was so tight the judges decided to allow more than this through. The Final itself has to be one of the closest finals I have ever ridden in – every single rider threw down! I was more than happy to walk away with 2nd overall, alongside Chris Wadsworth in 3rd and Chris Mccormick in 1st.
The day after the Brits we took a short drive to Kidsgrove ski slope for their opening day, as well as the Oatcake Jam! Despite it being autumn in the UK, it was still pretty hot! After a lot of laughs and some good, classic, sweaty British Dryslope skiing I was so Happy to find out I had ended up in 1st place! Chris Mavin and the folks at Kidsgrove put on an awesome day at a great new venue.
Recently, I had the privilege to go up to London in order to take part in a SportsAid workshop organised by my SportAid supporter – Prudential. The workshop gave me the chance to learn how to be interviewed successfully, how to use social media to raise my profile and also how to tailor my diet to suit my body’s needs as well as the physical requirements of skiing! It was an excellent day!