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The Cowboy Chronicles: Keeping the down time up tempo

Thursday, 10 June 2010 17:00

A Q&A with World Cup winner Manuel Osborne-Paradis

When talking about athletes on the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, one has to be careful tossing around words like 'off-season' or 'down time.' Sure, there's a period of the year when snow recedes from the great race courses of the Northern Hemisphere, when the skis are retired back to the factories to be analyzed, tested, and improved upon, and when the men and women who put those skis through the paces step back from the limelight to refocus, re-energize, and...

Well, wait. What exactly do these guys get up to in the few months they have 'off'? As we've already talked about here in The Cowboy Chronicles, official dryland training kicked back in recently. So where have the boys and girls been since the end of the GMC Canadian Championships in March?

Obviously, getting a full itinerary of activities from every athlete on the team would be a bit of a stretch, so I've focused here on talking to Manny O-P. As it turns out, for someone like Manny the term 'off-season' doesn't necessarily translate to 'time off.' In fact, Manny's summer schedule sounds damn near exhausting.

How did you feel following the end of last season? Looking forward to/needing the time off?

"After being in Europe, doing race after race across the continent - it's a little bit draining. And this year was maybe a little bit more so because of the Olympics. After a while you maybe get a bit tired of being cooped up in a hotel room and only getting to see your friends every couple of months. The end of the season is definitely a bit of a relief. In racing, especially in downhill, all you're trying to do is just avoid injury and go fast while doing it. And that's the hardest part I think. If you get hurt and can't ski, well, skiing is your job and you're not doing it. So getting a break from that situation of constantly pushing it to the edge and trying to be healthy the whole way through, yeah, it's a relief."

The first thing you did following the last race?

"I actually went right back over to Europe to the Verbier High Five, which is a big meet and greet with a bunch of the sponsors in Europe. The Top 20 racers in the world were there for the men and women, so I got to hang out with some of the racers who I didn't get to spend time with all year when we too busy competing against each other. So we just kind of hung out. I roomed with Didier Cuche, Marco Buechel, and (skier-turned-race-car-driver) Luc Alphand, which was a lot of fun, Then I came back to Calgary, took off for a couple weeks to Mexic, and that pretty much took up all my time before Cowboy's Camp (in Whistler, BC) started. And after that, we were starting to train again."

But what was the first thing you wanted to do following the last race?

"Nothing (laughs). No, I guess the first thing I want to do at the end of the season is see as many friends as possible. You've been cooped up all season and what you really want to see your family and hang out with your girlfriend and see your friends. You know, do 'normal life' things."

How are you spending the time off in between camps?

"There isn't really any 'in between camp' right now actually. We do a week-on/week-off with the trainer, but every week is still a hard week right now. There's no off time. It's been a bit hard to juggle doing a day of training in Invermere and then having to the next day travel to wherever. A lot of amateur sports haven't started training yet - we're one of the only ones who have - so there are still a lot of functions going on that we're expected to attend. You know, (super-G Crystal Globe winner) Erik (Guay) and I were in Toronto on Thursday night and then on Monday we were in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday we'll be in Montreal. After that I'll have a little R&R with my girlfriend in New York, and then we're back (in Calgary and Invermere) for a couple weeks. Then I'm in Ireland for a week and New Zealand the week after that. So it's a lot of travel and it's just a matter of trying to piece in every workout you can in between all of that."

Coming off of your most successful season ever, how do you go about trying to prepare yourself to be even better for the year coming up?

"Questions like that are the things that play in your head all the time. I've been trying to become a little bit more professional every year. I've been gaining 2kg of muscle every year. Being in the gym, doing the last set, pushing myself a little harder on the bike or whatever; those little things are something I try and focus on. Out there on the snow it's just the mental game of knowing that you're good enough and that it's there, and that even if things aren't going good you can go back and find where you were at before. Off-season, I try and go out and be active on the weekends, pick up those little extras that maybe other guys aren't doing. It's an individual sport, so you can go out on your own and go that extra mile."

I know you've been trying to play a lot of golf lately. Have you got any good rounds in lately?

"I played the National Golf Course of Canada in Toronto last week with the Calloway boys. That was the hardest course I've ever played, but it was a treat to get on there and play it. I think I did all right."

Cool. Now tell me how you can out-drive me by 100 yards when you've been playing the game for about 13 years less than I have?

"(Laughs) I dunno. I just hit it and it went far, and then I started learning how to correct it and make it go in a straight line. It seems to work. Actually, one of the golf pros out here has got me changing the path of my swing and it's got me in a bit of a slump. But I think I'll be able to manage it after a couple more times at the range. Anyhow, I found it came pretty naturally the first time I swung a club. You probably felt the same."

Well, sort of. I'm going to say it's because of your ski legs. Ok, so, I spent some time with you at your place in Invermere, we had a nice day, a couple hours hanging out on the lake...it was what I would consider a pretty good summer day. What's your ideal summer day?

"I guess an ideal summer day is just getting the chance to enjoy summer. I probably wouldn't be training that day. I'd get up and sit on the deck, have a coffee and not really have anything to worry about. I think that's my big thing. You spend so much of the time worrying about your body feels, how you're feeling, how mentally fatigued you are. Are you ready for the month coming up? Are you ready for this camp or this race? Are you ready for Kitzbühel? I like to have a couple days a year, especially in the summer, where I just wake up and have my coffee and have nothing else going on. You know, read a book or play a round of golf or go to the beach and just sit there and not have to worry about what's next."