Markovics Rally E-Team

I just read on Box Score News about Estelle Alphand winning the first Gold Medal at the Innsbruck 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games. The first Gold Medal went to 16-year-old Estelle Alphand as the Alpine Skiing favourite took the Women’s Super G with a time of 1 minute, 5.78 seconds.

Box Score News quoted:

“It’s amazing to be the winner of the first Gold medal,” Alphand said. “But it’s just the beginning.”

Alphand is going for Gold in all four Skiing events hosted at the Patscherkofel venue.

If she can achieve her lofty goal, it could gain Alphand some attention from her idol, Lindsey Vonn (USA), who may visit the Games later this week.

“I’ve never met her, maybe in Val d’Isere but I’ve just seen her,” Alphand said, adding that she would welcome the idea of spending time with the American, who is an Olympic Gold medallist and World Cup Skiing phenomenon.

Alphand has another noteworthy role model, her father Luc Alphand, an Olympian and former World Cup Skiing star who once won the famed Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbuhel twice in one day, in 1995.

It is perhaps from him that Alphand gets her love of speed.

When not at school in Albertville, the Serre Chevalier native rides motorcycles, rides horses, and does almost anything that can give her the thrill of going fast.

“She is one of those people who loves speed,” French ski coordinator Jean Pierre Mollie said. “She is always participating in sports of different kinds when she’s not skiing or training.”

Alphand will continue her quest for medals in the Super Combined when action gets under way on Sunday at 10:15.

I remember when I first moved here 10 years ago, our friend’s son being in the same class as Estelle at St Chaffrey School and being quite ‘taken’ with her, I wonder if he will read this and comment?

With all the hype around one of the most successful home workout systems from BeachBody, I set out to find the answer to the question that so many others were asking, Does P90X work?

Firstly, you might be wondering why I’m asking this question. Well, like many others before me, I started to experience the disdain of realizing that my body had started to show the first signs of going to seed – Yikes!

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t abstain from physical exercise altogether. I did what I thought was enough. However, despite jogging every other morning and occasionally doing a few push-ups, I noticed my physical appearance slip further and further away from the athletic physique of the so many Armani underwear models we all notice on advertising posters and lavish TV commercials. I needed to make a serious effort to get into shape. It was time for action!

I set out to search the internet for information about the best home workout systems. I needed a home based solution because it wasn’t convenient for me to join a gym. While scanning the various health and fitness forums, I kept hearing about a guy called Tony Horton. He was a fitness trainer and had already established himself as one of the best in the business. A company called BeachBody had already devised a home workout system called Power 90. The “90” referred to ninety days, which was the amount of time needed to follow the program in order to really get your body into shape, with dramatic improvements in your fitness level. But in order to turn BeachBody’s customers into the kind of athletes you’d see watching the Olympics they had to really shift up a gear into a whole new level of fitness altogether. So, Tony Horton was brought in to create “Power 90 Extreme”, the more extreme version of “Power 90”. It’s name was shortened to “P90X”.  

P90X reviews

After a quick search it wasn’t hard to find some good P90X reviews. It seemed that P90X was  ideally suited for large people with high levels of body fat and also for folks who are just generally out of shape and unfit. Many of the out of shape people were fairly skinny too, but P90X had not only got them extremely fit, but it had also slapped on a lot of lean, well defined muscle.

The twelve DVD workouts include:

01 Chest and Back
02 Plyometrics
03 Shoulders and Arms
04 Yoga X
05 Legs and Back
06 Kenpo X
07 X Stretch
08 Core Synergistics
09 Chest, Shoulders and Triceps
10 Back and Biceps
11 Cardio X
12 Ab Ripper X

P90X results

I have to admit that the before and after photos of the overweight folks really did impress me the most. It seemed that the system had also helped women who had lost their shape after pregnancy. One of the advantages of P90X is it’s Nutrition Plan. I think that this in combo with the strict but exhilarating workouts are the key to it’s success, and the incredible P90X results.

Another thing that I like about the system is that if you return the system within 30 days, there is a no questions asked 100% refund, and you don’t even have to return the Nutrition Plan (book) and the 16 minute abdominal workout DVD called Ab Ripper X, just for trying the program. So… does P90X work? In most cases the answer is a definite Yes! But even if you decide it’s not for, you can simply return i, so you have nothing to lose.

If you happen to be a senior golf player then you might enjoy a few toys that just help enhance the game a little more. Golf Cow Online has some great gifts and accessories to give that special golf or just buy the things yourself. The first thing on your list might be the Garmin Approach G5.

This is a handy gadget that will tell you were the bunkers are located and some other areas of the course to avoid. This handy rangefinder is something that will have you playing like a pro in no time. It is approved by official entities.

There are other several models of Golf GPS devices that you may want choose from, you can find them all at Golf GPS Reviews.

Senior golf enthusiasts will want a Speed cart to make things easier on those walk only golf courses. Since you cannot have a golf cart, the motorized Speed Cart starts up and away it goes. You can set it to go by itself for up to sixty yards without you behind it to control the buttons. You can sue it as a manual cart or as a self-powered cart that will make your day even more enjoyable. Save your energy for the golf swing, let the Speed Cart do all the heavy work.

You will never need a caddie again.

If you have a few problems finding the golf ball, you might like the Ball Finder Scout. It can help you find them hard to balls that seem to disappear out of sight when you least expect it to.

Never worry about losing sight of another ball. If you happen to hit the ball in water or into a wooded area, the little gadget might not work, but if the ball is even one to two percent visible, it should find the golf ball. For a senior golf player this might come in handy.

Another little compact gadget for the senior golf player is the Zelocity Pure Contact Launch and Flight Monitor. How it works is amazing, how to use it is easy. This is something that can help you improve your swing for distance and tells you how you hit with the club you are using. This is nice for making over that bunker coming around. If you know how many yards you get with that one club, you can accurately choose the right club for that specific shot. This works great for conditioning yourself and teaches you how your swing is decreasing or improving as well.

As a senior golf player, you might also want some little gadgets that have your name on them, such as golf tees, spot markers, golf balls and a hand towel with your name or initial. There are so many different accessories that can help enhance your game and some that just make you feel good about yourself. It is every golfers desire to hit the ball and play like a pro and with some help you can accomplish everything you want to as a senior golf player. Golfing is fun and some minor accessories only enhance the game you might say.

Last tip: click here to read any Golf GPS Review.

If you have been to Serre Chevalier in the summer, you may have seen the Outland shop in Chantemerle packed with mountain bikes and road bikes. Not now, they have all their shiny new ski and snowboard equipment ready to rent out for this season.

If you need to hire ski or snowboard equipment in Chantemerle – Serre Chevalier 1350, you can now pre-order your stuff from Outland (at the bottom of the Luc Alphand piste) and just pay a 10% deposit to reserve your gear and then pay the balance in the resort. They can even deliver to your accommodation if you like, meaning you can be on the slopes quicker than ever. More details about this are here:

• Rent Skis in Chantemerle.