Spring Training: A Day in the Life of Graham Watanabe

PARK CITY, Utah (May 19) - As the snow slowly melts into puddles outside USSA's training facilities, U.S. Snowboarding's Graham Watanabe (Sun Valley, ID) pedals intensely on a stationary bike for the first ten minutes of his spring training regimen. Recovering from injury, it's clear Watanabe has one main focus in mind.

Though he maintains focus on the speed of the bike, Watanabe's attention is drawn for a moment to someone doing pull ups nearby. "I can't wait till I can do that," he says, resting his left arm, wrapped in a red cast, on the handlebars of the bike.

Watanabe, a two time World Cup winner who spends an average of five days a week at the training center, is nursing a couple injuries. He has begun a rehab program under the direction of the center's trainers and will, when given the go ahead from the training staff, raise the bar from rehab into all out training this summer.

"It's crazy motivating for me to be working under the same roof as other athletes who aren't rehabilitating," he says. "It's more of a motivating factor to stick to the trainers plans and follow the guidelines."

Watanabe's moves on to the gym floor where he puts a large elastic around his ankles and lunges across the room. He admits that without the direction of his trainers, he may not have as much success in his training.

"I'm not the best self motivator, so having the training center and staff is great because I just go in there and they tell me what to do," he says. "If I were elsewhere, the trainers may still be able to write me a program, but it's up to me to find a facility and get it done.

"The hands on stuff is irreplaceable. There's so many tools right there and it makes it a much more efficient process than if I were doing this on my own."

Stepping out of the elastic, Watanabe is ready for the next leg of his workout - a giant treadmill that will require the snowboardcross racer to run uphill.

"In the past, I've been a worthless lump at the end of the season," Watanabe admits. "We travel for about four months and I do not work out when we're on the road. By the end of the season a lot of us have lost our general fitness and now begins the time where you bring that level back up."

Following the treadmill, Watanabe nears the end of his workout on a resistance squatting machine.

"It's at this point that thoughts start coming into my head like 'am I done yet?'" Watanabe says as he squats. "But you look and see other athletes still going and you think about what you've been able to do in the past and what you can do in the future and you realize that you have the perfect tools to reach the place you want to be and you're in the perfect environment for it."

But Watanabe's workout is done, so he makes his way to the physical therapist's room where he wraps his leg in a brace that runs ice water through its sleeves, essentially icing his leg, but without the bathtub full of ice.

"During the season, you're focusing on equipment, sleep and downtime, but this is when we work the hardest," Watanabe says. "I put a majority of my work in during the off season. It's an oxymoron - off season. The off season is when we winter athletes work the hardest.

"It's a team effort," Watanabe says of his rehab and training. "There's really no separation. From trainers to therapists to coaches, it's really a team effort and everyone's making sacrifices."

After ten minutes in the brace, Watanabe is finished for the day. He'll be back tomorrow, though, to get ready for a season that's still months away.