After three really long weeks in Europe I am finally home. The only real way to describe the last three weeks is that it was a grind. Now let me correct you first by saying that's not because it didn't go well, because for the most part it did. But it was a grind simply because we had incredibly long days - and no breaks.

As a team we arrived in Europe, had one day of rest while we waited for our bags to arrive, trained one day, then raced two, traveled a full day, raced five straight, traveled another day and a half, had one day off, then raced another six straight. If that wasn't enough of a grind, most days started with a 6a.m. wake up, and a 4 p.m. return to the hotel, followed by an hour of dryland training, then a video session of the day's runs, then a team meeting and dinner.

That got us to 8:30 p.m. where we basically passed out and set the alarm for the next day where we would do the same thing over again.

That was one of the most physically and mentally demanding three weeks of my skiing career.

Thankfully I'm happy to report that both I and all my teammates came out of the week relatively healthy, pretty remarkable considering the schedule. The only downside was a cold that swept its way through the team, but everyone should be at the pre-Paralympic training camp and ready to go.

Pleased with results

On to the results: I had some very strong slalom results while in Europe, finished sixth, eighth and 10th in three consecutive slaloms.

I was really happy with how each race went and even more happier to have finished three consecutive slaloms, something that I would not have done in the past. There was also a fourth slalom where I really wanted to improve on my sixth-place finish and in order to do that I needed to take more risks. Unfortunately I didn't finish this race, but I was once again happy with the effort as I really took the chances that were necessary to win.  

Our trip concluded with a week of downhill and super-G races - four in all - in Sestriere, Italy (home of the 2006 Paralympic and Olympic skiing). I had some great sections in all the races here, but was consistently making two mistakes a run on two independent turns. I finished 12th and 13th while in Sestriere and the difference between me and the top six guys was really these two turns.  

I am both excited and disappointed with my World Cup season. I am very happy with my slalom skiing and the results I achieved there, but I also still felt I should have had some better results. I guess that is what keeps me going is that constant pursuit to be better. Every day I would try and improve on the last, and when you don't it can be frustrating.

However, looking back on the season as a whole, I had my strongest, most consistent World Cup season to date. That is very encouraging. I also don't feel like I have peaked yet this season. I was really working hard to do so over the last three weeks, but don't feel like I really reached that point.

Both physically and mentally I was making progress, but really felt like I was missing one step. While at the time this was a little frustrating, it is now encouraging considering in all reality I don't want to peak until March.  

What now? Well for the next four days I'll probably sleep - a lot.  Then it's back to the gym for some recovery, and then off to our final training camp before the last big pull towards 2010.  

I'm very excited for the road ahead. I feel great about where my skiing is at heading into the next two months. I am also excited with where I am at mentally. I felt prepared each and every day and was building each day during the past three weeks. I am encouraged with where I'm at and looking forward to a final tune up before the Games begin.

The intensity in Vancouver and Whistler is continuing to build and my teammates and myself are ready to rock.