Pre-Season Training with Katya Crema

After 6 weeks of living and training in Sydney, I am now back on home turf, Melbourne. At the end of April, after being home from the northern winter season for less than a month, my coaches told me to pack up my stuff and head to Sydney for an intense 6-week block of training. At first I was hesitant, after hardly having unpacked from the previous trip. However once I arrived and adapted to the northern beaches lifestyle (surfboard in the boot and bike on the roof), I soon learnt that Sydney is a pretty great place for training.

Cliffs at Palm Beach

I moved in to an apartment on the beach with Snowsports teammate Chumpy (Alex Pullin, World Champion BX racer) and got straight into it. Up at 5:30am, three training sessions per day, plus a surf if I could fit it in.

Mona Vale Beach

For the 6 weeks I was training one-on-one with OWI strength and conditioning coach John Marsden. The goal was to increase my strength and power with a very specific weights program and diet. After the first week (12 sessions in the gym, 2 on the bike and one crossfit), I was definitely feeling it in my legs, core, back and arms.

West Head Ride

Sunset at Northern Beaches

I trained mostly out of NSWIS at Sydney Olympic Park, a new facility built for the 2000 Olympics. I also did sessions at Sport and Rec in Narrabeen. It was great to train with a bunch of the wintersports athletes all in prep for Sochi 2014. It’s hard to believe that it’s less than 18 months away. The Vancouver Olympics felt like yesterday!

NSWIS photo shoot

In two weeks the National Ski Cross team will be heading to New Zealand for a two-week technical training block at Mt Hutt. We then return to Perisher, NSW for the majority of the season, and then back to NZ for 3 weeks in September. I’m super excited for the season to come, especially the Chicks with Stix sessions I will be attending at Buller and Thredbo during the season. Now fingers crossed the snow gods are generous and deliver a fantastic season!