Down Time Episode 15: "Volver a la nieve en Portillo"

Off-season training for most members of the U.S. Ski Team involves traveling to remote Portillo, Chile — three hours from the capital city of Santiago — in the fall for some intense on-hill workouts and off-hill conditioning at 10,000 feet. For Kaylin Richardson and TJ Lanning, each had specific objectives in mind when they made the trip south in 2007.
    Richardson's goals involved getting in some serious "high intensity, high speed super G and downhill training."
    "You don't get a full-length course where there's terrain and there's jumps and there's really high speed very often," Richardson said. Richardson said her speed training prior to last season was minimal at best, and the goal this season was to go fast, get that experience, and get comfortable with the speed before the season starts this time around.
    Lanning said he is "always wanting to get more feeling in downhill and trying to be more of a glider because I haven't skled as much speed as most of the guys who run World Cup downhill and super G." Lanning said the high altitude at Portillo makes training tough, and added that it's hard to find a better training hill anywhere than the awesome terrain, jumps, good snow and steeps found at Portillo. During the intense two-week camp, Lanning's day often involves a high number of speed training runs followed by high-intensity slalom training to help simulate super combined racing. 
    Ski Racing and Rival Films present episode 15 of the 16-week series Down Time: The Summer Sessions .
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Off-season training for most members of the U.S. Ski Team involves traveling to remote Portillo, Chile — three hours from the capital city of Santiago — in the fall for some intense on-hill workouts and off-hill conditioning at 10,000 feet. For Kaylin Richardson and TJ Lanning, each had specific objectives in mind when they made the trip south in 2007.
    Richardson's goals involved getting in some serious "high intensity, high speed super G and downhill training."
    "You don't get a full-length course where there's terrain and there's jumps and there's really high speed very often," Richardson said. Richardson said her speed training prior to last season was minimal at best, and the goal this season was to go fast, get that experience, and get comfortable with the speed before the season starts this time around.
    Lanning said he is "always wanting to get more feeling in downhill and trying to be more of a glider because I haven't skled as much speed as most of the guys who run World Cup downhill and super G." Lanning said the high altitude at Portillo makes training tough, and added that it's hard to find a better training hill anywhere than the awesome terrain, jumps, good snow and steeps found at Portillo. During the intense two-week camp, Lanning's day often involves a high number of speed training runs followed by high-intensity slalom training to help simulate super combined racing. 
    Ski Racing and Rival Films present episode 15 of the 16-week series Down Time: The Summer Sessions.

Down Time: The Summer Sessions is brought to you by the following sponsors:

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