Skiing has always been part of my life, but what if it was to become my life? I've been offered the opportunity to begin down the path of becoming an Olympic Ski-X athlete for Team GB in 2018.

One of my best friends is heavily involved in Team GB and has just returned from 3 months in Sochi for the Olympics and Paralympics. We've spoken about this before and seeing our team go without a male representative in the Ski-X has spurred us on to see where this can go. The first leg of the journey will take us to around September or October this year and will be focused almost entirely on gym work, and primarily focused almost entirely on cardio work.

I could go into a long background about myself but the cliffs are:

• Skied my entire life
• Did a lot of sport back in the UK, mainly track and field
• Shied away from ski racing when younger
• Met someone form Team GB, skied with them for a couple years and now find this opportunity
• Graduate university, get a job in the city and find it hard adjusting
• Decide to put the work in over the summer to give myself the option in Autumn about what I want to do with my life (I'm pretty damn sure I already know...)

This is going to be a long 4 years, but it's going to need to be. Even getting to British No 1 doesn't guarantee me a place on that plane, and at the end of the day I don't want to just turn up, I want to be competitive.

Any questions or advice please ask away! I'll be updating this blog with photos etc as we go along.



From no-one to someone.

Wow, very cool. Commit to this - it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

I absolutely agree, it will also be a huge commitment as well, both timewise and financially. I have a very rough idea of what it would cost to find this assuming I get no central funding and it is a fair bit! However, my friend runs a Winter Sports PR company and is on board with this idea so he would be able to guide me on publicity and PR.

Timewise, I'm happy to commit to this. I do think to the future after it though and what I'll do after.

One of the hardest parts of this challenge for me is going to be nutrition. I sit at my desk for at least 10 hours a day and eat breakfast and lunch here. I need to work out some sort of effective meal plan and will probably consult some greater minds here!

Today breakfast consisted of a lonely pain au raisin, my favourite breakfast place in the city has changed so I need to either find somewhere else to eat or bringing food in.

Lunch today was pasta:



And a ham and cheese baguette.

The pasta is probably a good shout but I'd really appreciate any advice on how I can structure good meals at my desk. Not sure what types of food I should really be eating for a training schedule mainly based around cardio work and recovery for the first few months. I'm sure the requirements will change once I move to the strength phase of the first 6 months.

I am rooting for you.

Thanks buddy, just one more reason for me to get up early, pass on the drink and do whatever else I need to do!

Awesome, best of luck, I'm looking forward to following your journey.

Glacier d'Argentiere, 2011

I've stood on top of couloirs before, but never one this steep, this narrow and this long. If you fall here get used to it because you're not going to stop for a while.

This was my first real taste of skiing somewhere where I really didn't want to fall. I'd done my first heli trip earlier that year but this was different, the snow wasn't as good and if you don't know where you're going there were crevasses left and right; just a day earlier we'd seen someone go into one.

Ever since my first trip here my perception of what I wanted from skiing changed, I sought out technically difficult skiing rather than just blasting as fast as possible. I appreciated my surroundings much more and begun to get a better idea of how to read the snow and the mountains around me. I still to this day don't have anywhere near the knowledge to be comfortable on my own in this kind of terrain but it's a start.

Argentiere is a fantastic village made for skiers and climbers. Lightly up the valley from Chamonix it is the gateway to Les Grands Montets, some of the most fun I've had on skis. This place changed my view of skiing but I have so much more to do here, I eagerly await my next trip back.

I'm in. I've worked video production on 5 Olympics and 4 X-Games and looking forward to an athlete's perspective.

I highly recommend everyone attend an Olympics at least once in their life. The atmosphere is amazing.

Awesome!! Gogogogogo buddy ... so few ever get a shot at something like this ... what a fantastic opportunity for you .. I'm sending the run good!!

BEAST it up Jake!!

Cheers mate,
C.

Thanks sir! I believe I've read some of your posts here about the TV work you did at the Olympics and really enjoyed them. I wish I'd been able to do more while the Olympics were in London, the atmosphere around the city was amazing.

If I get permission from him, I'll post some photos from my friend who put this into my head of his time at Sochi, London and other sporting events he has been to. Next up for him is the Commonwealth games in 98 days.

Thanks C (not sure if your name is outed here?), it's going to be a long road!

Next 6 months will be the building blocks, am saving up all my leave from work to use between September and December 31st as well. We're kicking off the training on Monday with an 11k run around Richmond park; I haven't run this far in years and am genuinely concerned. One thought that's been in my head recently is that every time I don't run, someone else is, every weight I don't lift, someone else is lifting it. The progress I need to make physically in the next 6 months means I can't afford to take too many liberties.

which one is you?

I'm on the right, I cover my face to protect your eyes

Wednesday morning, 4:45am



Rise and shine.

Went for a run this morning.



It's not great by any stretch of the imagination but it's a start. I accidentally forgot to restart the app after I'd taken some photos and so a corner got taken off, in reality I think it is probably closer to 10k which is something I've been building up to recently.

A lot of my runs at the moment have been about hammering out any niggles and problems I have when I'm running. After a long period of inactivity my body took a while to adapt to running again and I'm still not even nearly there in my own eyes. A big problem has been pains in my joints but they are subsiding with each run and my body adjusts. I was getting some bad blisters as well but I've found a good combination of socks that meant that my feet felt great this morning, if a little sore from pounding the pavement. In the past I've always lived in the countryside and all my running has been over hills, down muddy tracks etc, now I'm in the city I need to adapt to the harder ground and the great toll it will take on me.

When I run I like to take photos, it gives me a reason to run to places I haven't been before or to find things I like. I'm a big car fan so I'll usually take photos of cars I see around, here are a couple I saw this morning.





I'm obviously no photographer and I'm taking these on my iPhone but it helps take my mind off running if I'm out there looking for stuff I like.

These are the 2 views from Battersea Bridge this morning, one looking East and one looking West.





Finally this is a cat I met along the way, he said hello so I felt obliged to stop and stroke him.




I want to say thanks for all the kind words, with something like this being such a long process you can lose sight of the final goal. I was thinking of what has been said above when I was debating staying in bed this morning and I don't want to disappoint anyone! If I don't make it to the Olympics in 4 years, I don't want to look back on any of this as missed opportunities and laziness, I want to see 4 years of hard work and dedication that will improve my quality of life no matter what the result.

Good luck.

Just watched all of Vicky Coren's performance at EPT San Remo, absolutely fantastic result that could be genuinely great for poker. 9 hours well spent!

Met up with my friend today for a run and was really disappointed in how I felt, I ran the first 4k but just couldn't keep going. I made myself walk the rest of the run instead of going straight home but in truth it was a poor effort.



I think I struggled for a number of reasons:

1. This is the first time I've run during the day recently and it was really warm
2. I've been drinking pretty solidly over the Easter weekend
3. I hadn't really eaten anything proper over the last 3 days

Piss poor excuses but I just wasn't prepared, I really need to stay on top of my nutrition and drinking when I'm on my time off otherwise I just am not going to be able to train effectively.

Outside of this I'm not really in the best place emotionally at the moment, I'm hoping I can use this training as a positive to help but sessions like this leave me pretty deflated. I'm not going to shy away from posting things like this despite how it makes me feel, I hope when I look back on this it will make me laugh!

Still hammering through the chicken and rice.

Do yourself a favor and get a trainer/coach and a nutritionist. You should be able to get both for around $200 a month. They will put you in a training schedule and a proper diet, mostly via email and chat. Without these you're behind already.

GL, will be fun to follow!

Yup I suck at updating threads! Cardio is going ok, have a 5k race this week as a corporate event which should be good. Also have drawn up a plan for a marathon prop bet I've taken, training starts this week, all working towards a strong cardio base before November/December.

5.7k race tonight. Given the 16000 runners taking part in the park I'll be happy with anything under 40 minutes. Should pack up on carbs at lunch right?

I think getting a personal trainer and a nutrition plan drawn up is a good idea, when I have the money I'll get onto it.

I've fallen in love with running again after that race!



I came in the top third of the field but was really hampered by the crowds and I feel I could have pushed on for a better time. I ran the race with a friend step for step and we both clocked in at 29:34 for 5.7k, really happy with that given the crowds.

I can't wait to get back out and run another race, looking for another 5k in London this week to jump into! Also cracking on with the marathon training, 3 sessions planned this week before ramping up in week 2. Anyone have any tips or training plans they would recommend?

I've run 12 marathons and have used several different training plans. As a novice, I would look at Hal Higdon's training programs. Here is a link to a couple of different programs of his. Sorry, they are in miles, not km.

Novice 1 - http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51...aining-Program

Novice 2 - http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51...aining-Program

There are several others on his website for intermediate and advanced as well should you want something with more 'long' runs.

Best of luck in your training. And love this thread.

Ok, I used to be heavily into skiing years ago, to the point of putting my degree in my back pocket and dedicating myself to being a ski bum for 2+ seasons (100+ days on the mountain every winter) while working 50-60 hrs a week. I've always been way more into the Winter Olympics than the summer games so this is relevant to my interests. I also dated a girl at the time whose goal was to make the US freestyle ski team as a bump skier, so even though she didn't make it I had some peripheral exposure to how much dedication it took her to even make the attempt. It was a lot. This could be an interesting thread if it's still going 3 years from now so good luck to you.

So I guess I have tons (or is that tonnes?) of random questions for you.

What's qualification like for team GB for this sport? Lots of people to potentially beat out or do you just need to have the financial resources to walk on to the team like when you see a one man XC team from some country that doesn't get any snow.

Do you have any competitive experience in Ski-X or other racing disciplines or are you just a really talented free skier taking a shot?

Are you going to need to keep working to finance this the whole way? Is your profession flexible enough to leave and get back into if you need to take serious time off to compete, travel, train, etc. Family money? I guess at some point you'd be going for some sponsorships to help out. Or they'd seek you out anyway.

What kind of support could you expect from Team GB at some point? Coaches, training, etc.

I don't really know what the racing circuit is for Ski-X. Especially in Europe. Do you see the X-Games as a necessary part of the process?

What goals/benchmarks are you setting for yourself over the coming months/years that determine if you keep going or bail out.

I guess that's enough for now off the top of my head. GL.

Thanks for your reply, it's great to hear from someone who has an insight into what I'm letting me myself in for! I will try to answer your questions as well as I can.

1) Being number 1 in the uk isn't enough to get to the Olympics, we didn't send any male ski-x competitors to Sochi. I need to be performing to a decent standard on the international circuit to be considered for a seat on the plane.

2) I have a minuscule amount of slalom and GS experience but I would say it's negligible. I shied away from racing when I was younger in pursuit of skiing for enjoyment. Racecraft will be a huge part of my development.

3) My profession is not flexible, if I pursue this I will have to leave my job and find employment elsewhere. Sponsorship is a possibility and I have some decent contacts. There is family money but I wouldn't say I have my parents blessing for this at this stage, I don't see this as a problem, other athletes don't have this advantage and I'm not going to buy my way in.

4) I have no affiliation with team GB, although I do have social links with some top coaches and professionals etc. it will be interesting to see but I assume the first few years I will compete as an independent.

5) There is a decent circuit in Europe, I will likely start with British and French events and build from there.

6) My big decision points are November this year when I have a performance review at work, if it goes badly or so so I might take a full season in France. Next point will be October 2015 when I have to assess my fitness, finances and potential to make the big push up to 2018.

Apologies for the short replies but am on iPhone!