Learning and Moving on!

Summer has been jamming right along and I am doing my very best to keep up! I have been in Park City since our 4th of July trip to Steamboat and my time here included US National Championships. The week of US Nationals is a busy time for all Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined athletes as everyone across the US comes to Park City for the week! Nationals did not go as well as I had hoped, my performance was far from what I am capable of. On the jump hill I now realize I hadn't properly gotten my mind into 'competition mode' leading into the comp and the day of, which played a large role in my performance. My mind was more open to outside influences and I did things that I had not previously been doing in training. With my competition jump I wouldn't be starting the race in contention and would be starting by myself. I felt tired much too early in the race for my liking and wasn't able to pick up the pace like usual. I ended the day in 7th place, not what I was hoping for. Although it was one of the worst days I've experienced in a while I learned from it and have moved on. Below are some pics from Nationals.

It's a good thing I was able to take what I had learned from Nationals and move on as my travel schedule allowed for no time to dwell (I like it that way). I had about two days to pack up my apartment as my lease was ending and get ready for the first trip. I was headed to the East Coast for a long weekend and was pumped to go. I went to my families camp in Vermont, I had missed getting out there last year so I was very excited to be able to make it work this year! I spent an awesome weekend with family and friends relaxing and enjoying the weather! After my time in VT I came back to Park City where I am now staying with some awesome friends who are very supportive of my career (Thank You Tim & Sharon). I will be here until Aug 20th which is my departure date for Europe! This year we will be starting off by competing in the Summer Grand Prix series which will last about two weeks. After that we make our way to Planica, SLO where Adam, Ben B and I will be renting an apartment for the months of September and October! I am very excited to be trying the full time living situation in EU rather than bouncing from hotel to hotel. It is also the location of my favorite ski jumps which is exciting as well. There is a lot that I am excited about on the horizon so be sure to check back as I will start doing a better job of posting updates more frequently! Below are some pictures of my time in Vermont!

On a side note, my teammate and good friend Ben Berend had an amazing performance at Nationals and just posted an awesome update that you can read here. ​I also wanted to mention that if you haven't gotten a chance to check out USANS website recently you should give it a look here.