Update

I have just realized that it has been almost 2 weeks now with no blog post, so I figured something should be done about that. While I have not any travelling since my last trip to Lake Louise, these past two weeks have consisted of some great training here in Canmore. About a week and a half ago, we had our first Time Trial with the team at the Nordic Centre. It was an 8 lap skate race, which I believe ended up being somewhere between 9 and 10 km. This was a pretty good time trial for me, I started out a little bit slower than I probably should have, as I was trying to conserve my energy a bit too much. After about 4 laps though, Jess, one of the older guys on the team, caught me and I managed to match his speed and stay with him for the rest of the time trial. So that made me feel pretty good about how I am skiing right now.

And yesterday we had another time trial, except this time it was the U23 athletes from our team, as well as members of the Banff Ski Runners, Canmore Nordic, and Foothills ski clubs who took part in this time trial. It was a 9.2km classic race and it took place up at Mt. Shark, which is about a 40 minute drive from Canmore. Unfortunately, I did not have the results I was hoping for in this time trial. I learned after the race that I did not prep my skis quite the way I should have, and this little mistake ended up costing me my grip for the last 3 laps of the 4 lap race. But despite that, for the one lap that I did have good grip, I felt very good and strong on my skis, so I am still happy with how I am feeling leading up to race season (for those who don't know what I am talking about when I say "grip" on my skis, in classic skiing you need to have grip wax on the part of the ski right under your foot so that you can run up the hills without slipping backwards).

So with the time trials in the books, I am now looking on to next weekend when my first races of the year will take place. These will be a classic sprint on Saturday, and a 9.3km skate mass start on Sunday, both taking place at the Canmore Nordic Centre. From what I hear, the competition should be fierce, so I am really looking forward to it. And the Tuesday following that weekend, the team will be off to Silver Star BC for another week of skiing and racing, then I'll spend two weeks at home in Ontario for Christmas, then off to Quebec for one week for World Junior Trials! Time is about to start flying!

Happy Skiing Everyone!

Lake Louise Camp # 2

Last Thursday the team decided that with all of the great snow that is now in Lake Louise, we would go there for a small camp from Saturday through until Monday. We left Canmore Saturday morning around 11am, and arrived at Moraine Lake Road in Lake Louise around noon for our first workout. It was a very good intensity workout, as the conditions were great, it was my first classic skiing intensity session of the year, and to top it all off, I felt fast that day :).

The rest of the weekend was spent doing longer slower workouts, during which I got to test my new skis. This was definately one of the highlights of the weekend, as I have been looking forward to the arrival of these new skis since the end of last season, and they did not disappoint. After about 15 seconds on my new classic skis, I knew immediately that they were perfect for me, so that was a great feeling. It also made me feel pretty good when I tested my new skate skis against my fastest pair from last year, and the new ones were faster. Even more reason why I can't wait for race season! 19 days until the first race!!!

Another highlight from the weekend, while it wasn't quite as productive or beneficial to my training, it was incredibly delicious :). The Lake Louise Inn (where we stayed for both this camp and the previous one) has a restaurant that offers an amazing buffet every Sunday night. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend it. While I am actually still slightly full from my meal (24 hours later), the food was absolutely amazing, and I made sure that I got at least 4 times my money's worth. So while I may have been dangerously full, it was another successful "all you can eat" buffet experience.

Great skis, great skiing, great food, what more could I ask for in a weekend? It was an awesome time, and here are a few more pictures from my time in Lake Louise.

Lake Louise skiing

Take care everyone!

Lake Louise Pictures

This morning a few of us made the trip back to Lake Louise for another great 3 hour classic ski. Once again, the conditions were incredible and there was even more snow than just a few days ago. While it wasn't a great day for pictures, with batteries dying and the cameras not cooperating and such, we did manage to get a couple pictures and videos. The sprint video is quite short, but it was fun at the time. It sounds like this won't be the last time we ski in Lake Louise, so I will keep adding more pictures to this album as I get them. Enjoy!

Lake Louise skiing

Great snow in Lake Louise!

I am very happy to say that by today, November 5, I have already been skiing on snow for 3 weeks here in Canmore. Being from Ontario, I can't say that I have ever been quite this privileged. This morning however, I traveled with my team to Lake Louise for my first bit of good classic skiing. It was also my first time skiing in Lake Louise, so that in itself was pretty cool. Being the occasionally forgetful person that I am, I did not bring my camera along for the trip, so I unfortunately cannot share the experience by means of photos.

We skied on Moraine Lake road, which is pretty much a long uphill road up the side of a mountain. There were two very cool things about skiing at this location. First, it is a well paved road in the summer, but they close it down as soon as they get snow and it gets groomed for both classic and skate. And second, only about 1 month ago I was rollerskiing on this same stretch of road doing intensity. I thought that was pretty cool.

And to top it all off, it was a beautiful day in Lake Louise, and absolutely perfect classic skiing conditions. Being about -3 degrees, it was not difficult to find a grip wax that would work, so it was smooth skiing all the way up, and then loads of fun coming screaming back down (Bob's heartrate monitor had us clocked at a little over 50km/h on the descent).

By the sounds of things, I might get a chance to go back to Lake Louise on Sunday for another ski, so if that is the case, I will be sure to bring my camera. Hopefully conditions will be just as good as today.

That's all for now, cheers!