Monday, September 6, 2010

Tacen, Slovenia and World Championships Training

Getting to town: Slovenian Style!
Lake Bled (Above) and practicing (Below)


Slovenia is very much like Wisconsin in the Fall. Cold and windy, bright sunlight, crisp air, laiden apple trees - the main difference for me has been that I am here, training for World Championships, rather than starting my Junior Year of High School...which has caught me by surprise! Due to some crazy politics, I found out about my attendance of World Championships two days before I left. My family took it in stride though, and I gound myself on a plane headed to Slovenia a day later!
I am here now, boarding in a Slovenian Police Academy (I definitely know I am safe!), with men and women from all over the globe: Australians, Hungarians, Ukranians, Spaniards, Togo-ans (?!)....basically, quite a diverse group. I have been fortunate enough to spend my days training with other talented Women on the challenging whitewater of Tacen, under the instruction of our three comical French Coaches, Medhi Deguil, Jonathan Marc, and Pierrick Goesselin. They have been wonderful, and helpful, and hilarious at the same time - I feel quite fortunate to have such great coaching!
We've been spending our time off wandering into Ljubljana, the capitol of Slovenia, and a beautiful, ancient city. Also, much time has been spent at the best restaurant in all of Slovenia - possibly, all of Europe - the Kaval Club. I personally adore their Black Truffle Pizza, but the other canoeists highly recommend their Ravioli :-)
I still have several days before the actual competition begins, so I will be training hard and trying to keep energized, while enjoying every minute of my time here!
See you on the river,
Hailey
P.S. I don't have photos of me paddling this time, because I came (for the first time!) solo...and it's quite tricky to take photos of yourself while you're paddling :-)

1 comment:

SSS said...

Hailey, Congrats on a stellar performance at Tacen Worlds. Thanks for leading the USA C1W program into the future (despite the ponderous obstacles). Jim Stuart (Austin, TX).