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!