Jordan Cascagnette

New Website is up and running!!

2011-04-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Chris Kontos at PROS Marketing in Midland ON, I now have my very own website!! This new website will be taking the place of this blog, so this will be the last post you see on here.

The new site will serve as both a means of keeping everyone up to date on my happenings and whereabouts, as well as providing the public, anyone who is interested that is, with a means of supporting me in my goals of reaching the Olympics! This can be found on the right side of the home page, and is a Donation button to my paypal account.

I also have some big news about my new living and training situation on the blog section of the website, so check it out!! http://www.jordancascagnette.com/

Back to Ontario

2011-04-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

In my last post I mentioned I was unsure as to what I would be doing for the past couple weeks, so I figured I should let everyone know what ended up happening. After a couple days of some tough decision making in Canmore, I decided that it would be best for me to call it quits on the season and not go to the races in Sun Valley last week. So with that decision, I ended up spending one last week in Canmore, getting in as much skiing as I could before traveling back to Penetang for my month of recovery. I arrived here at my parents' house last Tuesday night, March 29th, and have just been enjoying my time and catching up with friends and family.

Being the beginning of the month, I really don't have much in the way of news yet. The decisions that decide my fate won't be made for another couple weeks, so until then I'll be staying around here and starting my sponsorship campaign again. The Penetang/Midland area has been absolutely incredible in supporting me in the past couple of years, and I'm hoping to get out there and give as many more people the opportunity to work with and support me as I can.

Until next time, cheers!

2011 Canmore Nationals

2011-03-20T11:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked the final day of my 6th Canadian National Championships of my career. This year Nationals were here in Canmore, which was a very nice change of pace, not having to travel anywhere and getting to race on the great trails at the Nordic Centre. Another big highlight to this past week was that my parents were able to make it out for the whole week, so it was great to have them here and see my new home, as well as a week of racing. Jacquelyn's parents were also able to make it out for a few days, so I had a great time showing them around and having them see just what cross country ski racing is really like.

Going into this past week of racing, my confidence really wasn't too high. After a long season of travel and sickness, I have been unable to sneak in any solid weeks of training since Christmas, resulting in my fitness not being where it usually is at this time of year. So after deciding to sit out the team sprints last Saturday in order to try to conserve some energy, my first race was last Sunday, a 10km skate individual start. My goal for my races at Nationals was to get that feeling of desperation and ability to really push myself past my limits back, because that has been something I have been really struggling with for the last 6 weeks or so. So on a positive note, I was able to do that in every race this week, so I am relatively happy about that. Unfortunately, my lack of fitness means that even pushing myself past my limits isn't enough to achieve the results that I know I am capable of. So I ended up finishing the 10km last weekend in 18th in my category, which is considerably further down the results than I would have liked/expected.

My next race was the 15km classic individual start. This race was a similar story, though I was feeling a bit better than the previous race. I managed to ski my way to 7th place, which, given my current state, I was not overly upset about. The following day was the classic sprint, and a very difficult day for the wax techs. The conditions made it nearly impossible to have both fast skis AND good grip. So with the conditions coupled with my fatigue, I fought my way into the B final, and finished 11th on the day.

After the sprints I had two days off to recover and prepare for the final race, the 30km skate mass start, which took place yesterday. Having never done a 30km skate race before, I was a little bit nervous about how it could go. It was a very tough race on a challenging course, and I skied my way to a disappointing 20th place. While the result was really not what I was hoping for, I felt that I raced it as well as my body could have done. With about 2km to go, the muscles in my legs started spasming a bit, and on the last downhill I very nearly blacked out. So I clearly could not have pushed my body any harder than I did, so that was the positive aspect that I was able to take from the race.

Last night was the Nationals Banquet, which was held at the Banff Springs Hotel, and I can easily say that this was by far the best Nationals Banquet I have ever attended. The awards went smoothly and in a timely manner, the food was fantastic and plentiful, and it was very well organized. Great job organizing committee!!!

I am now taking a day off to recover from this past week, and am actually awaiting a phone call that will decide what my plans are for the next couple weeks. There is a chance that I may be heading over to Sun Valley, Idaho next weekend for the Supertour Finals, which would be 4 more races to finish off the season, before returning to Canmore a few days into April. If I do not go to those races, I'll likely stay here in Canmore for another week or so and take advantage of the great skiing we have here before heading back to Ontario for a few weeks.

That's all for now. Once I figure out what my plans are for the next couple weeks, I'll be sure to throw an update on here to let you know.

Until then, cheers.

Canada Winter Games and beyond

2011-03-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last post, so I'll just pick up where I left off. My visit home in between Easterns and Canada Winter Games was a little bit bittersweet. It was great to see and spend time with everyone again, though the week ended with me developing some cold symptoms just before getting on the plane for Halifax. Getting sick during race season is a terrible feeling, but doing so on my way to Canada Winter Games just made it that much worse.

I played the week day by day, seeing how I was feeling and then deciding what the best course of action would be. So I ended up sitting out the first two races, in the hopes of getting better for the 3rd and final individual race. I woke up that morning still definitely with a cold, but due to the fact that this was my last chance to ever race at a Canada Winter Games, I convinced myself that I was ready to race. Unfortunately, no matter how convinced my mind was, my body just did not cooperate. Right off the start of the 15km classic race, my body just felt so heavy, with no energy flowing anywhere. After a grueling, and frustrating, 6km, I pulled off to the side of the course, removed my bib, and dropped out of the race.

So while the racing aspect of the week was tremendously disappointing, I still managed to have a great time just being there. The city of Halifax did an amazing job organizing the entire event, with over 6,000 volunteers! While I spent a good chunk of my time in bed trying to get healthy, I still managed to get out and see a little bit of Halifax, and got to know the way from my hotel to the Athlete's area (lounge and food place) very well. I also had some fun taking part in the pin trading that took place throughout the week (sounds lame I know haha, but actually became a priority for nearly everyone at the Games). As soon as everyone arrived in Halifax, every athlete was given a bunch of pins from their home province. So I made it my goal to get one pin from every province and territory. It was close (the market was immediately flooded with Ontario pins, making it very difficult), but I managed. I put all of my new pins on my athlete accreditation lanyard, and it made a good Canada Winter Games souvenir.

Feb. 27th, the Games wrapped up with the Closing Ceremonies, and I was finally going home to Canmore. I spent last week doing some easy training, just making sure my cold was completely gone, before starting back into some harder training this week in preparation for Nationals. Nationals this year are here in Canmore, running March 12-19, and I can't wait!

Race days are Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. I'll try to get some updates up periodically throughout the week. Until then, cheers.

2011 Eastern Canadian Championships

2011-02-14T05:35:00.001-08:00

I have just wrapped up my latest weekend of racing at the 2011 Eastern Canadian Championships at Nakkertok in Ottawa. The Academy and I flew out to Ottawa last Wednesday, and spent the next 36 hours hours preparing for the first race on Friday. Eastern's this year was in the race format of a mini-tour. So what that means is, it was 3 races over the course of 3 days, and your times from each race were added together and dictated your starting position for the last race. This meant that whoever crossed the finish line yesterday first, won the overall tour.

The first race was a 3km skate prologue, and was my first ever prologue. So I wasn't entirely sure how to go about it, but with a very big climb about 1km into the race, I decided it would probably be best to go out a little conservatively and then slowly wind it up, so that I didn't blow up at the 1km mark and have nothing left for the last 2km. So I went with this plan, and actually managed to execute it perfectly, but unfortunately this was not the best course of action. I ended up losing too much time in the beginning, and ended up finishing 7th Junior. So lesson learned, in prologues it's best to just giv'er from the start and hope that you don't start really bonking until you can see the finish line.

Saturdays race was a 1.4km skate sprint. This was a very up and down day for me. My qualifier was a pretty mediocre race for me, it was anything special, but I felt pretty good for it. I ended up qualifying 8th Junior, which was definitely further back than I had hoped, but I knew anything could happen in th heats, so I wasn't too discouraged. My quarterfinal went amazing well, I managed to get to the front after the first 100m and stayed there. I felt great and skied it tactically perfect, and ended up having enough of a lead coming into the finish to just ski easy for the last 100m. Sadly, this high in energy did not last much longer. The first half of my semi-final felt OK, but then I started hitting the wall and finished that heat in 5th spot. So my last race of the day was the B final, which was just brutal. The energy that I had had in my quarter was completely gone, and I skied in to the line to finish 12th on the day.

Going into the last race of the weekend, I was not feeling good. Having not had a proper nights sleep since I returned to Canada 2 weeks ago, I figured the fatigue from that was really starting to catch up with me. And with the next race being my first ever 30km, it's safe to say that I was pretty concerned, and wasn't even sure if I'd be able to finish the race. But, it just goes to show that everyday is a new day, because I ended up starting the race yesterday and moving my way up through the field to finish as the 3rd Overall Junior for the weekend. Considering my mentality before I started the race, I was quite pleased with my performance.

The 30km was a very cool new experience for me. I hadn't really thought, going into the race, that it would be any different than all of my other races (aside from just being longer, obviously). But at the 10km mark I thought to myself, "I'm going really hard, and I still have another 20km of racing to do...I don't know if I can hold this pace." But after a couple minutes that thought subsided and I just put my head down and kept pushing through the pain, and before I knew it the race was over. So these greater distances are way more of a mental game than I thought, and you really just have to trust your body and all the training you put in leading up to it to get yourself through. I thought that was pretty cool. A little nerve racking haha, but cool.

So all in all, it was a bit of a disappointing weekend for me. But, in the end I managed to pull through and get on the podium for my 5th straight Eastern Canadian Championships, so I'm pretty happy about that. I'm now back in Penetang for the week, before flying out to Halifax on Saturday for the 2011 Canada Winter Games. I got to try on all my new Team Ontario clothing last night, made me a little more excited :). So the goal for this week is to try to get my sleeping patterns back in check before I leave, because I really don't want to be going into the Games with a massive amount of fatigue building up in me. So with the help of my own bed, and my magical bedtime shake, I'm hoping to get back to sleeping normally and be ready to go by Saturday.

Until next time, happy skiing!

What a Trip!

2011-02-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

Well, my first trip to Europe and first set of International races is now in the books. While I didn't really get to do much in the way of exploring cities and checking things out, I did get to ski at three different ski sites, and spend two weeks in two new countries, and it.. was.. awesome!

In my last few posts I talked about my experiences at the Scandic hotel in Finland and my journey to Otepaa, so I'll pick up from there. After my first race on the 26th, there were races everyday, alternating back and forth between Junior and U23 categories. Canada's first day of huge excitement and success came in the U23 mens 15km skate race, as Kevin Sandau raced his way to a 5th place finish. Us Juniors watched from our hotel, screaming at the TV as Kevin skied his final few kilometers to get his first ever top 5 finish at a World U23 Championship race. This result earned Kevin a spot on next years Canadian Senior Development team.

The next day was the Junior classic sprints. My qualifier was pretty disappointing as I broke a pole early on, so did not qualify for the heats. Sadly none of my other teammates managed to get through the qualifier either, with Andy being our top finisher in 31st spot (so close!). On the womens side, Heidi Widmer and Janelle Greer both managed to qualify for the heats, but were unable to advance past their quarterfinals.

The U23 sprints were the following day, and provided us spectators with some very exciting racing. On the womens side, Academy teammate Alysson Marshall managed to crack the top 12, getting her a spot on next years Canadian Senior Development Team. And on the mens side, Jess Cockney skied his way miraculously through the heats and found himself in the A Final! Qualifying in 30th spot (the last qualifying spot), he was able to ski his way to a comfortable 2nd place finish in his quarterfinal, which earned him a spot in the semis. And after finishing 5th in his semi, his luck kicked in big time. The other semi ended up being slower than his, and one of the Swedes who finished ahead of him ended up being disqualified. So after all was said and done, he managed to sneak his way into the last spot in the Final. He finished the day with an impressive 6th place, earning himself a spot on next years Senior Development Team as well.

The following day was the Junior Pursuits. Another disappointing race for me, but another experience in the bank. The top Canadian male of the day was Andy, finishing in 31st spot, and on the womens side, Annika Hicks finished as the top Canadian, also in 31st.

The next day was the final day of competition with the Junior Relays and the U23 pursuits. Our mens relay team managed to edge out the Americans and take 9th spot, while our womens team finished in 11th. The biggest excitement of this day however came in Mens U23 30km pursuit, as Canadian Olympian Alex Harvey was the top ranked skier in the field and looking for gold. And after 30km of racing, Alex out-sprinted Russia's Belov and took the win and got his first ever World Championships Gold medal. Watching Alex win this race was amazing to say the least. Getting to see the Canadian flag hoisted into the air and hearing our National anthem was possibly the most inspiring experience I have ever had.

Despite not having the results I was looking for, this trip was an incredible experience for me. In the past couple of weeks I have been reflecting back on what my goals have been over the years, and it’s hard to believe that at 19 years old, I have already achieved one of my lifetime goals of racing for Canada at the International level. It just goes to show that if you’re willing to put the time and effort in, as cliché as it sounds, anything is possible.

After we finished watching Alex's awards ceremony, we headed back to Helsinki where we spent the night before getting on the plane and starting the journey home. All in all, it was a 22 hour trip from Helsinki to Canmore, and I arrived home around 3:30am Wednesday morning. I will be spending 6 more days here, taking a short break before pressing on with the race season. I'll be heading to Ottawa next Wednesday, Feb. 9th for the Eastern Canadian Championships which will take place Feb. 11-13. I'll then head back to Penetang for a few days before getting back on a plane and flying out to Halifax to compete in the 2011 Canada Winter Games. This is by far the busiest race season I have had to date, and I'll still have another month of racing and traveling after Canada Winter Games, so it's safe to say that I am thrilled with how things are going this year!

I think that's all for now, I'm still a bit of a hurting unit from the jet lag, so I apologize if I left anything out. If anyone has any specific questions about my adventures, past, present or future, please don't hesitate to fire me an email!

Cheers.

First taste of International Competition, Yikes...

2011-01-26T05:16:00.000-08:00

Well my first race at World Junior Championships here in Estonia is now in the books. It came in the form of a 10km skate individual start, and I ended up finishing 64th. It was a hard race, and I'm still trying to find the words to describe my experience. All in all, it was a fairly mediocre race for me. It was definitely not as bad as my race in Silverstar before Christmas, but nothing like my 10km skate in Rossland.

I'll leave my race debriefing comments for another time, but long story short, I am fairly disappointed with my result. Coming into these races I had no idea what to expect, having barely ever raced anyone from outside of Canada before. So I was hoping for at least top half, which would have been 51st spot, but I came up 34 seconds short of that goal.

The rest of the guys said they also felt their races, for the most part, were less than stellar. Andy Shields was the top Canadian in 49th spot, followed very closely by Russell Kennedy in 50th, myself in 64th, and Aaron Gilmor in 68th.

Full results from todays race can be seen here: http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=CC&raceid=17717

Our next race will be the classic sprints on Friday, so we're all hoping for better things then. The U23 racing gets underway tomorrow, so we're looking forward to seeing how the rest of our team will do. Live broadcasting also starts with tomorrows race, and will continue for the rest of our races through the weekend.

Cheers.

Estonia!

2011-01-24T22:48:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning around 11am, the team and I packed up our things at the Scandic and started our Journey to Otepaa. We drove for about 1.5 hours into Helsinki where we caught the ferry that would take us across to Tallinn Estonia. The ride on the ferry was about 2 hours long, during which time we had some lunch in one of the cafeteria places and explored what the ferry had to offer. The most noticeable difference between this ferry and the ones that I have traveled on in Canada was that in every shop, or place to buy anything on this ferry (and there were a lot), you could buy alcohol. The supermarket was pretty much 60% booze, 35% chocolate and 5% random stuff.

The most exciting part of our ferry adventure was probably when we almost got trapped in the landing on the garage floor. It was that little room that separates the garage from the stairwell, and in our case, the elevator. So myself, Russell, Andy, Janelle and Patrick all piled out of the elevator into this room, where there were two big blue doors, one on each side. So after the elevator closed and left, we concluded that we couldn't get the doors open, and then we saw the sign that said the elevator was out of order. So at that point we all just kinda looked at each other with slightly concerned looks on our faces. Being slightly claustrophobic, I thought for sure I was going to start freaking out, but to my surprise and relief, I didn't. We pushed the elevator button in the hope that the sign was wrong, and after a minute or so of thinking we were trapped, the elevator came back. Once we got off the ferry, it was about a 3.5 hour drive from Tallinn to Otepaa. We arrived at the Arula Motel, where will are staying for our time in Otepaa, around 7:30pm.

We got up for a slow, relaxed morning yesterday and left for the race site at 10:30am. As I predicted, when we drove into the race site and I saw the Stadium and all the Nations flags, I started to get a little nervous. Unbelievably excited, but a little bit nervous. I skied for 1.5 hours on all of my race courses, and that just doubled my excitement to race. The trails are incredible, I did some zone 3 and 4 on the 3.3km loop that I'll be racing on for the 10km tomorrow and it was sssooo much fun. Some awesome climbs and a crazy fast downhill, it's going to be fun.

Yesterday afternoon I went for an easy recovery run with Russell and we discovered a small downhill ski centre just down the road from our accommodations. After dinner last night we had a team meeting where we all got our Athlete bibs and accreditation which will get us onto the race trails and into the facilities at the race site. And we get to keep these bibs, so I have my first souvenir from the trip!

The Junior Men (myself included) aren't heading up to the race site until 1pm this afternoon, so I'm going to head out for a run now just to keep my legs feeling good. I have some pictures from the ferry and our first day in Otepaa up on my facebook page now, so feel free to give those a look. I've been trying to get some new pictures up there every day to keep everyone back home up to date. With races starting tomorrow it's going to be a little harder to find time for pictures, but I'll do my best. I'm guessing my next post won't be until after my race tomorrow, for those of you who check back here frequently.

So until then, cheers!

2011-01-22T03:37:00.000-08:00

I have about 20 or so pictures up now on my facebook page from the past 6 days here in Finland. And for those of you who have been asking for some shots of me, I finally got a few from todays TT in Lahti, enjoy! (follow the link below)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=493108192683&id=510412683&aid=265944

First Few Days in Vierumaki, Finland

2011-01-19T01:39:00.000-08:00

Wow, I'm tired. Apparently this whole jet lag thing is really getting to me. I did my first bit of intensity today and was really feeling it, so I'm really hoping I start getting back to normal soon.

I had a great journey across the Atlantic on Monday and arrived here at the Scandic Hotel around 4:30pm Monday afternoon. The hardest part of the trip was not falling asleep on the flight from Frankfurt to Helsinki, and then on the drive from Helsinki to Vierumaki. That was pretty rough.

Our set up here at the Scandic Hotel is pretty awesome. The ski trails are only about 200m down the road, so easily within walking distance, and the trails are great. So far I haven't really explored the majority of the trails, having just stayed on some smaller loops in the past couple days. Though I have been told that there is about 30km of trails, so on my 2 hour ski tomorrow morning I think I'll try to explore a bit more.

Last night we had our first team activity (other than training and eating that is) in the form of bowling against the USA team. So each category (in skiing) played against the same category from the other country. Due to my incredible tiredness at the moment, I'll explain that better in case that made no sense at all haha. My team was the Canadian Junior Mens team, and we played against the American Junior Mens team, and all of the other categories, including the coaches, did the same. Little did we know, it seemed as though the American Junior Men must have bowled whenever they weren't skiing, because they pummeled us pretty easily. But, despite that fact, it was still a very good time. This afternoon I don't have a 2nd workout, so I have no idea how I am going to keep myself awake. Maybe I'll find some teammates and go back down to the alley and practice up a bit haha.

I'm going to be posting all of the pictures that I take on my facebook page as soon as I have some to post. Here is the link to my profile: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=510412683

I'll try to get some up in the next 24 hours.

Well, I'm off to lunch. So to all of you back in Canada, enjoy your breakfast in a few hours haha :).

Cheers... Hmm, I'd like to say that in Finnish, that's my new goal for the afternoon haha, so next time!

Dare to Dream

2011-01-10T10:24:00.000-08:00

For the past 10 years or so, since I began skiing, it has been my dream to represent Canada in skiing on the World stage at the Winter Olympics. But since then I have learned many things, one of the most significant lessons being that nothing like that happens overnight, so it's pretty important to figure out the path that you need to take in order to achieve your desired end result. So for me, about 2 years ago, after making the Academy team, I decided that my first step towards my goal of international competition would be to make the Canadian Junior National Team. So last season I made that my goal, and despite how far-fetched it may have seemed at times, I made it happen. From there, the next step in my mind would be to qualify for World Junior Championships, so I decided that that would be my goal for this season, as it would be my last shot, being my last year as a Junior. And now, after an amazing week of racing in Thunder Bay ON, I am overwhelmingly thrilled to say that I have achieved this goal.

While my preparation for these selection races may have started 10 years ago, my journey to Thunder Bay for Canada's World Junior Trials began last Monday morning. We arrived the Thunder Bay that afternoon and took the rest of the day to settle in to our hotel. The next two days were spent training and testing skis for the first race, which for me was a 20km pursuit on Thursday.

Thursday brought with it some very cold temperatures, and some very exciting racing. The pursuit was a mass start race, so for my category, Junior Male, there were about 60 skiers all desperately trying to get to the front of the pack. So, like in many mass start races, not even 30 seconds into the race, well over half of the field, including myself and my two teammates, found ourselves crashed into the snow in a huge mangled pile of skis, poles and people. Lucky for me, I managed to not break any of my equipment, so after everyone had finished falling on and around me, I was able to get up and go again. On the downside, for me anyway, some of the other big name contenders in the race were not involved in the crash, so that meant I had a lot of catching up to do. I managed to make my way back up the ranks over the next 10km of classic skiing, and ended up coming into the exchange zone in 7th place, 30 seconds behind the lead group. From there I had an amazing skate leg, picking off 5th and 6th early and then finally catching 2nd and 3rd on the second last big climb. I decided to stay with them for a minute or so to catch my breath a bit before attacking as hard as I could on the final climb. To my surprise, I had enough left in the tank to get a lead on the 3 guys behind me, and I held on to finish 2nd place.

Two days later was the classic sprint day, which in my mind was my best shot at qualifying for World Juniors. Sadly, my body did not cooperate with that thought. I felt very heavy and sluggish out there in my qualifier, and my quarterfinal felt even worse. So I ended that day finishing as the 21st Junior, and tremendously disappointed. That night I did everything I could to forget about that day and look on to the following, which was Sunday's 15km skate interval start race, the final race of the weekend.

Going into this race, I knew that I needed to finish in the top 5 if I wanted a chance at getting a spot on the World Junior Team. After my first lap of 5km, I was feeling pretty good, though I was very temporarily disheartened when Andy Shields, the top Junior of the day, caught me. Andy had started 30 seconds behind me, so since we were only 1/3 of the way through the race and he had caught me, I figured he was having a pretty good day. Like you should always do when in that situation, I did everything I could to match his speed and stay with him, and it worked. We skied the next 10km together, pushing each other as much as we could, until the final climb, when I attacked and managed to open up a small, 3 or 4 meter gap. After a very anxious 40 minutes or so of waiting for the results to be posted, they finally came out and showed that Andy had won, and I had tied for 3rd place. I was ecstatic.

It wasn't long after this that I had a pretty good idea that I had made the team, but it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that I received official confirmation that I have been selected to represent Canada at the 2011 World Junior Championships in Otepaa, Estonia later this month! This means that I will be leaving from Toronto next Sunday, Jan. 16th and flying to Helsinki, Finland, where I will spend about a week training. We will then travel to Estonia for the races, and then return to Canada on Feb. 1st.

On a slightly smaller scale, though still very exciting for me, my performance in the races this past weekend have also qualified me for a spot on the 2011 Canada Winter Games Ontario team. This means that I will be travelling to Halifax around mid-February for my chance to represent Ontario at the Canada Winter Games.

So, all in all, I'd say yesterday may have been the best day of my life haha!! I am now back in Penetang for the week before meeting up with the rest of the Canadian Team in Toronto on Sunday.

Here are some relevant links in you are interested:

Pursuit Results: http://www.zone4.ca/results.asp?id=3331

Sprint Results: http://www.zone4.ca/results.asp?id=3343

Skate Interval Start Results: http://www.zone4.ca/results.asp?id=3344

Junior and U23 Athletes representing Canada at Worlds: http://cccski.com/main.asp?cmd=doc&ID=7601&lan=0

Ontario's Canada Winter Games team: http://xco.org/

This is Incredible

2010-12-20T09:58:00.001-08:00

You have to see this:

http://www.wimp.com/sophisticatedbeats/

Wow.

Rossland Haywood Multi Stage NorAm

2010-12-20T09:01:00.000-08:00

After a couple weeks spent racing and traveling around BC, I am now back home in Canmore for a couple weeks before my next racing adventure. I believe my last post left off when I was just about to leave Silver Star, so I'll pick things up from there. Last Tuesday the Academy and I traveled from Silver Star to Rossland for the next chapter in this years Haywood NorAm circuit. Having never been to Rossland before this, I was very excited to get to ski on some new terrain. And to my surprise, the trails at the Blackjack ski club (race site) were very similar to the trails back home in Ontario. This was surprising to me, as everywhere else I have skied out here (western Canada) are very similar with huge long climbs and long fast descents. Rossland however was much like the trails in Ontario, with no super long climbs or descents, just lots of rolling hills. To be honest I have missed racing on trails like this, so it was a nice change of pace (figuratively speaking of course :) ).

As I mentioned in the title of this post, this weekend of racing was a muti stage race. That means that everyones times from the first 2 days of racing were added together, and then that dictated the starting order of the last race on Sunday.

So, the first race was a skate sprint on Friday. This really was not my day. I got off to a slow start in my qualifier, and it wasn't until about halfway through the course that I started to feel good, by which time it was way too late to expect good things. My quarterfinal was a bit of a similar story, getting off the line in 3rd, and despite my best efforts, was not able to find a way around 2nd place, and that was the end of my day.

Day two of racing came in the form of a 10km interval start skate race. After my disappointing performance in the interval start skate race the weekend before in Silver Star, I was admittedly a little nervous about this race, as my skating confidence took a pretty hard blow. But, I ended up having my best distance race of the year so far that day. I felt really strong for both laps of the 5km course, and I ended up placing 4th in Junior, just missing the podium by 2.5 seconds, and 16 seconds off the win. While it's always a little disappointing finishing 4th in a race, I got over it fairly quickly. I had a great race, and to make it even better, it was my best points race in a distance event to date, and in case anyone isn't already aware, I am kind of obsessed with points :).

The final day of competition was the 15km classic handicap start (3 laps of 5km). I learned a pretty big lesson here when I didn't test my classic skis the day before. Because of timing and things like that, I did not get a chance to test my classic skis, so I just talked to my coaches and made a decision based on what I knew about my skis. Bad idea. So, I started the race 2 minutes and 58 seconds behind the top Senior man, and 22 seconds behind the top Junior Man (based on the handicap from the previous days of racing). My game plan was to just kill it off the start to catch the first Junior, and then ski with him for a while, but that didn't exactly pan out. By about 30 seconds into my race I knew that I had picked the wrong skis, as I had very little grip, and they weren't all the fast. I ended up trying to fight through this and still try to go super hard off the start, but that took its toll on me a few minutes later. I had a brutal first lap in which at one point I got the top of a hill and seriously considered dropping out of the race (this is a thought that has never crossed my mind before in a race, so I was not feeling good). But I decided to keep going, and I am very glad I did. I'm not sure what happened, but I was able to put my head down at the start of my second lap, find that next gear, and I went for it. I managed to make up some very big deficits on the next two laps and I finished with the 4th fastest Junior time.

*****If the whole "handicap" start thing doesn't make sense to anyone, please feel free to email or facebook me and I will gladly do another post explaining it in detail. It can be a little confusing if you don't know what I'm talking about :)*****

Unfortunately they did not do awards for the overall Junior mutli stage results, but after I arrived home last night I looked over all of the results, and I learned that I actually won the weekend overall for Juniors. So I can now safely say that I am very happy with how this weekend played out haha :).

I will now be spending the next 2 weeks here in Canmore preparing for the World Junior Trial races that will be taking place Jan. 6-9 in Thunder Bay ON. I'll likely do another post just before I leave for those races, and if not, there will definitely be a recap of them up here by the 11th.

So until then, Merry Christmas everyone!! And Happy Skiing!!

Cheers!

Sovereign Lake NorAms 2010

2010-12-12T15:32:00.000-08:00

This weekend was my first chance of the season to battle the rest of Canada in the 2010 Sovereign Lakes NorAm. It started off yesterday with a 1.5km classic sprint. Before yesterday, I had never done a sprint over 1.2km, so I was very curious to see how I would fare in the longer distance. Despite a small concern of going out too hard and blowing up before the finish, I decided to go for it in my qualifier right from the start, and it ended up working out fairly well. I was the 4th fastest Junior after the qualifier, which put me in a good place to start the heats a few hours later. My heats went very well, skiing the best I think I ever have in a sprint. My technique felt solid and I managed to stay nice and relaxed for the majority of the time.

I was able to make my way into the A Final, after finishing 2nd in both my quarter and my semi. I got off to a pretty good start in the Final, tucking myself into second place going up the first climb. I stayed there until the bottom of the 2nd climb, where I decided to move up and challenge for the lead. With this being the longest hill on the course, I managed to break up the group a bit and Patrick (Stewart-Jones, Quebec Ski Team) and I led the way into the final climb. Unfortunately for me he was able to surprise me with an attack on the last clmib, and after a quick slip on my part, he was gone. I continued to fight hard into the finish and held on for the Silver medal.

The final results were 1: Patrick Stewart-Jones, 2: Myself, 3: Andy Shields

Today brought a 15km Skate Interval start race. Unfortunately for me, it would seem as though having to race through that sprint course 4 times yesterday really killed my legs, as when I woke up this morning my legs were pretty fried. This, for obvious reasons, did not play into my favour, and I ended up finishing 11th in the Junior category. It was a tough race on a very demanding course, and the conditions were not helped by the foot of fresh snow that we received overnight. I was a little disappointed with my race today, but overall it has been a great weekend of racing.

I will now take the next 36 hours to rest and recover from this weekend here in Silver Star, before jumping in the vans and heading to Rossland BC on Tuesday. The second NorAm of the season will be taking place there next Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the form of a Multi-Stage mini tour. This means that our times in the sprints and the distance race on Friday and Saturday will determine the order in which we start the final race on Sunday. This creates the effect of having the entire weekend seem like one big race, but with some breaks in between. I have never done a stage race like this before, so I am very excited to see how I will make out. I have been hearing rumors that the Rossland Ski Centre has made some changes to its sprint course in order to make it one of the hardest in Canada, so I can't wait to check it out on Wednesday.

I'll do another post after next weekend to let everyone know how things go, so until then,

Cheers!

T'is the Season, Finally!! Alberta Cups 1 and 2

2010-12-05T14:57:00.001-08:00

This weekend was the first race weekend of my 2010/2011 race season, and came in the form of a skate sprint and a 9km classic interval start race, both here in Canmore. The racing got underway yesterday morning with the qualifier of the skate sprint. For me, it was a little disappointing, qualifying as the 6th Junior (I was hoping for 1 or 2). But, after returning to my house for a few hours to recharge a bit before the heats, I managed to turn things around in the afternoon. I made it through my semi final fairly comfortably finishing in 2nd. Then it was on to the A final, where I was the lowest ranked skier of the 6 of us, but I knew that didn't mean too much. I had a bit of a slow start, but we were all very tightly packed going into the first hill. Unfortunately for all but two of us in the heat, a guy at the front crashed and caused 3 of us to be slowed down while we navigated around him, while the other two guys were able to take off and get a lead. They managed to stay out in front and take 1st and 2nd place, and I was able to hold on for the bronze medal. So, all things considered from that days events, I was fairly content with my end result.

Todays race was a 9km classic interval start. It was 3 laps of a very hilly 3km course. I was feeling pretty good in my warm up this morning, so I was hoping for good things. I decided that I would go out harder than I have in the past, and hope that I wouldn't blow up before I reached the finish line. This tactic proved to work out pretty well for me, and when I crossed the line I felt really good about how I skied my race. I ended up falling 15 seconds short of the podium, finishing in 4th place in the Junior category, and 21st in the overall mens results.

Now that the Alberta Cups have wrapped up, I'll do a couple more days of training here in Canmore, and then it will be off to Silver Star BC on Wednesday for the first NorAm of the season, taking place next weekend. From there, we will pile back into our team vans and drive to Rossland BC for the next NorAm, which will be taking place the following weekend. These two weekends of racing will be my first chances of the season to see how my competition from eastern Canada is looking this year, and I can't wait!

I'll try to do updates like this one immediately following each race weekend to let you all know how things are going. Until then, happy skiing!!

Yikes, It's Been a While...

2010-11-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

I just realized that it has been over a month since my last post, so I figured since I have a few hours to kill before going to see the latest Harry Potter movie (Yay), I would write a little update.

I left off in my last post mentioning a journey home to Ontario. This was a great week, spent partially in Guelph with Jacquelyn, and also in Penetang with my parents. Being my first time in Guelph, I didn't really know my way around anywhere, which made all of my running workouts a new adventure every time. After doing some intervals in the Guelph Arboretum, and a couple easy runs through the streets of Guelph, I got to know the area around the University pretty well. Living with Jacquelyn in her residence just for those few days was also an interesting experience in and of itself. I had never really thought about what it would be like to be living on my own and going to University, and what that life would be like. So it was cool to see how everything works on campus. In these few days I also managed to meet up with a few of my friends from back home who are currently studying there. Having used to jam with these guys all the time in high school back in my drumming days, it was more fun than I could possibly have imagined to get together again in their basement and play some old tunes. My stay in Penetang was just as fun, the highlight being getting to see my parents again after six months, but also getting to do some workouts with some old teammates, as well as meet up with some old friends.

I returned to Canmore on Oct. 27th I believe, and got right back into my normal Canmore routine. A few days after I returned, the Academy and I did our Fall uphill running time trial, which starts near the bridge in town, and follows the road all the way up to the top of Spray Lakes Road. Having been sick the two previous times that the team did this test this year, I was unable to participate. This meant that this was only my second time doing this test, the first being last Fall. I was expecting good things from myself in this test, since I had been feeling pretty good, and I felt that my time from last year would be pretty easy to beat (34 minutes, 58 seconds). So I was hoping to get under 34 minutes, which would break what was the current Junior Men's course record. And after a very hard effort, I managed to finish with a time of 33 minutes, 13 seconds. This was enough to beat the old Junior Men's record by 1.5 minutes, so I was quite happy with it.

Since then I have just been doing my normal training/working when I can routine, preparing myself for the upcoming race season. For the past week Canmore has played host to some very frigid temperatures, this morning being the worst of it at -30. While this makes training slightly more difficult and perhaps uncomfortable, it also means that the Nordic Centre has been making snow 24/7, so the trails are looking great. They are a little limited at the moment, but there is definitely enough snow now, so they should be extending their trails any day now.

The forcast is saying only one or two more days of these temperatures, and then it should be back to nice winter conditions, which should be just in time for our pre-season time trials. I'll be doing a short hill-climb prologue time trial on Friday, and then another short TT on Sunday. After that I'll be preparing for my first races which will be the following weekend, Dec. 4th and 5th, here in Canmore. Those are the first Alberta Cup races of the year, which we will be using as tune up races before heading to Silver Star and Rossland for the next two weekends of NorAm racing. Once the season starts you can expect more posts on here, as I will try to do some race reports and maybe reflections after each race.

Until then, cheers!

Great Fall testing! Now off to Ontario!

2010-10-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

This past week was my Fall, pre-season testing week. Having missed the testing in June due to illness, I have been eagerly awaiting this past week for a very long time. I did four tests over the course of three days late last week: a body comp. test, VO2 max test, double pole test, and a sprint prologue test.

Last Thursday I made the trip into Calgary to TCR Labs where I had my body comp. test and then the VO2 max test. Having dropped almost 10 lbs since last year at this time, I was very curious to see what my body comp. would be, and it turns out that I lost a few pounds in muscle, and am now down to 4.4% body fat from last year's 5.6%. I'm pretty happy with these numbers and the decrease in weight was evident in my VO2 max test which followed this one. The VO2 max test is to see how efficient the body is at using the oxygen that you inhale during exercise. So to do this, I wore this interesting piece of headware that made me breath through a tube, which measured the amount of oxygen that I was inhaling and exhaling, and had my nose plugged so that I could only breath through my mouth. I then got on a treadmill and ran at a 1% grade at speeds that increased every 2 minutes until I reached my threshold (basically until I started breathing very heavy and was getting tired). Then the speed was decreased by 1 mph and I started into the climbing phase of the test. This is the last part of the test where you run for as long as you possibly can while the incline increases by 3% every minute.

This was an amazing test for me, as it showed that I have improved my VO2 max over last year's 66.5 ml/kg/min to this year's 70 ml/kg/min. The test also showed that my heartrates are considerably lower this year than last year when moving at the same speed, which is a good sign that my training is paying off. And finally, the test showed me that I am stronger mentally than I thought I was, and I can take more pain than I thought I could, which is possibly the most beneficial knowledge that I got from the whole test.

Two days later, I completed the double pole test here in Canmore. Having been just on the verge of getting sick when I this test in June, I was definitely expecting to beat that time, and my goal was to set a new PB (which I set last year at just over 5 minutes). I ended up setting a new PB pretty handily at a time of 4:49, so I was very pleased about that. That afternoon was my last test, the sprint prologue test (skate rollerskiing). Having never done this test before, I didn't really know what to expect, and came out with a time of 3:33. Being my first time doing this test, I didn't really learn anything about my fitness level, but it was still a good hard effort.

I am now enjoying some much needed days off to recover from this past training block and prepare for the next one, which I have been told is going to be a very hard one. And I am very happy to say that today, Oct. 18th, was my first on snow ski of the year up at the Nordic Centre where they have a very nice, 1km-ish loop open.

Tomorrow morning I will be getting on a plane bright and early in Calgary and heading first to Guelph to spend some time with Jacquelyn and a few other friends who are going to school there. Then on Friday night I'll be heading back to Penetang for a 5 day visit with my friends and family. Can't wait!!

That's all for now, cheers!

Time for an Update: Ski Season is Approaching!

2010-10-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

Now that I actually think about it, this last month has been both very long, but at the same time feels like it just flew by. The first few weeks of September were fairly uneventful for me, with the exception of the very unfortunate six days from the 8th - 14th when I was sick. While normally I would be very upset about looking back and seeing that I missed a week of training, as soon as I came back after my cold I felt more fit and stronger than I ever have before. So to me, it meant that I just needed some time to reboot the body and ever since then I have been feeling great!

About two weeks ago I finally got to meet one of my new sponsors in person, Jamie Coatsworth. We had a great breakfast and chat up at the Summit Cafe here in Canmore, and then myself and the rest of "Team Coatsworth" (Jamie sponsors a good chunk of the Canadian National Ski Team, and we are referred to as "his team"), threw him a surprise birthday dinner at Ticino's Restaurant in Banff. It was a great evening of amazing food and great company, and we even had some team shirts made up for all of us :). It was great to finally meet Jamie face to face, and what he does for myself and fellow sponsorees is truly incredible. Thanks for everything Jamie!

While on the topic of sponsors, I would like to thank McLaren's Canada, as well as my Aunt Gail and Uncle Stew, for coming on board and providing me with some of the financial support that I need to train and compete at this level.

My next training adventure came last Monday when the Academy and I traveled to Jasper AB for a 3 day training camp. Being my first time ever in Jasper, I had a great time on this camp (though we didn't really have much time to explore the town). It consisted of some trail running and A LOT of rollerskiing. Over the course of those three days I rollerskied a grand total of about 170km, all of which was great training!

We came back to Canmore on Wednesday night and spent the next couple days doing our normal training, and then it was off to Calgary yesterday for the annual Calgary Roadrunner's River Park Classic running race. The weather this year turned out to be a perfect 22 degrees C and a cloudless sky (compared to last year's O degree temperatures and snow). And while the higher water level in the river crossing slowed most of us down, I managed to finish 6th overall, improving on my 7th place from last year, so I was fairly happy with my race.

I am now enjoying a very nice day off to recover and prepare for my next week of training. Tomorrow morning I will be joining the other Junior and U23 athletes of my team for a 1 night trip to Lake Louise for a very mini training camp. From there we will arrive back in Canmore Tuesday night and finish off this week's training, before starting our Fall testing week on the 11th. I am looking forward to getting to test my limits and seeing how I compare to myself last year at this time.

That's all for now!

Cheers!

August Update with the Whistler training camp

2010-08-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

What a month! I guess I should probably go all the way back to where I left off on my last post (sorry about the time gap). As I mentioned at the end of my last post, the first week or so of August was a low training time for me, as I was recovering from the 3 preceding weeks of hard training, and it was also when Jacquelyn's sister, Lindsey, and our friend Jeremy from back home were coming out to visit. The four of us had a great time that week, exploring everything between here in Canmore and Lake Louise.

For my birthday we all, along with my roommate Bob, went to Banff for the day to check out what the town's day life was like (I have lived here for 14 months and have never done this, crazy, I know), and then stayed there and enjoyed Banff's night life before walking up to Tunnel Mountain, which is not actually as far as it might sound, and camping overnight. A few days later Jeremy, Lindsey, Jacquelyn and I all went to Lake Louise. The three of them took in the sights of Moraine Lake road as I did my workout for the day, before heading up and canoeing on the lake, which was absolutely gorgeous. (Pictures from these adventures can be found on our Facebook pages). The next day, August 12th, the four of us drove to the Calgary Airport and Jacquelyn and I had to say our goodbyes as her and Lindsey were heading home for the rest of the summer before starting university in September. After a few difficult moments of desperately trying to keep myself composed, Jeremy and I managed to escape the airport and find our way back to Canmore. Jeremy stayed the night and then headed out for Saskatchewan the next morning. It wasn't really until Jeremy left that I realized how much I had become used to having extra people in the house... Everything soon became very quiet around here.

However, my spirits were lifted by that great passion of mine that is now my life: skiing and training. Two days after Jeremy left, myself and the rest of my team packed up and started our trip to Whistler for our 4th training camp of the year. This camp would total 10 days and consist of training in Kamloops, Whistler and Salmon Arm. This was a great camp not only for the obvious reasons like getting to do tons of training in new, cool places, but also because we had a guest coach for the first half of the camp. Peter Larsson, retired Swedish sprinter and 6 time World Cup winner, accompanied us for our first 5 or 6 days of the camp, teaching and helping us with some of the latest techniques and tactics.

After a great time in Whistler, the morning of the 24th rolled around and it was time to pack up and start the journey home. For me, this journey started in Pemberton, about 30km outside of Whistler, where I hopped on my bike and started what would be a gruelling four hour ride with some killer climbs. Unfortunately for me, these climbs were just made harder by my bike having a small chain ring which no longer works. So I spent these four hours in big ring, which may have made me go faster, but it definitely took its toll on my body in the following days. After finishing up this ride, which for me was about 100km and brought me to Lillooet BC, we all hopped in the vans and drove to Salmon Arm where we spent the night. The next morning we woke up and did a great sprint workout in the farmlands of BC before continuing on our way and driving home to Canmore.

I am now finally settled into my normal life of training and working, with some slight changes. I am currently working on changing my diet, which I realize to many people is not very interesting haha, but I am hoping that it will have a significant impact on my fitness level and racing this season. I am also awaiting the arrival of my third roommate, Matt Wylie, who is going to be moving in at some point today.

That's about all that has been going on this past month, so it's safe to say that I am now pretty exhausted, and very happy about this week being a rest week.

Until next time, cheers.

Haig Camp 2010

2010-07-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

Two Mondays ago (July 19th), the team and I set out for the Haig Glacier for our third training camp of the year. Despite a very cloudy and wet looking first couple of days, we ended up having fantastic conditions for the majority of the week, which made for some great skiing. From a training stand point, I had an amazing week, getting in over 25 hours of training, and over 200km of skiing. Getting back on the snow also helped to get me all fired up again and excited to start racing this winter.

With the Haig camp also came the annual Academy Disc Golf Tournament, which is put on every year courtesy of teammate Jess Cockney. This year's tournament was full of surprises and was a blast to both compete in and spectate (being put out in a fairly early round, I was able to do a good amount of both). The two time Champion, Chris Butler, was dethroned this year when one of our coaches, Eric Groeneveld, put him out in the semi finals. And after a 9 hole over time and 3 or 4 sudden death holes, teammate Drew Goldsack managed to edge out Eric for the win. While I ended up finishing 9th place overall, I managed to not go home empty handed by getting the only hole in one of the week. So that was my highlight of the tournament.

The camp wrapped up on Sunday for most of the senior athletes, while myself and about 9 others ran out on Monday. So I am now back in Canmore with one last week of heavy training before I will be treated to a much needed rest week to both recover from these past few weeks, as well as to prepare for our next camp in Whistler. I have resumed my job at Boston Pizza, and yesterday I also tried out busking at the local weekly market. The idea was put in my head by a couple of my teammates while on the glacier this past week, so I thought I would go out and see how I could do. I ended up making $15 in about 90 minutes, and despite being a little nerve racking at first, it was pretty fun. Now I just have to learn some more songs and try to find more opportunities to do it.

Jacquelyn and I are both eagerly awaiting next week, as her sister and one of our friends from Ontario will be joining us for a week which, as timing would have it, puts them here for my rest week as well as my birthday.

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I did get some pictures from the camp, and I have posted them on Facebook. Here is a link for those who are interested:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?id=510412683&aid=191000&s=0&hash=7d09ea4f9e3884f3556ecb0ca33538ee

Cheers!

Summer time!!!

2010-07-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post in June (I apologize for the big time gap between posts), this past month has been a very exciting one. Picking up where I left off, I had the pleasure of joining the Parker family in the Canmore "Try-a-Tri" triathlon on June 20th, and it was lots of fun. I ended up posting the fastest time on the bike by almost a minute (over 9km), so I was pretty happy about that.

The next week was the team's first testing camp of the year, and while I had been looking forward to it for months, I unfortunately got sick at the beginning of that week. So after discussing it with my coaches, we agreed that the upcoming training camp in New Denver was much more important for me than the testing camp, so I took about 5 days off training, missing the testing, but was able to recover in time to join the team for the 3 day camp in B.C.

This camp was very fun, as it was lots of training and lots of km's. The first day was our long road ride around the Silver Triangle (New Denver to Nelson to Kaslo to New Denver). Hats off to teammates Kevin Sandau and Graham Nishikawa for being the only ones to complete the 220km loop, taking them a total of just over 7 hours. For myself and many of my other teammates, we stopped at the 170km mark, which for me took a total of 5.5 hours. The rest of the camp was spent running, ski walking and rollerskiing, and of course, the warm up game for the "World Series" (if you will) baseball game which will take place at our camp in Whistler next month. This game was a bit of a blowout (24-12 I believe was the final score), so team Pepper is going to have to pull up their socks if they want to compete with Team Salt in Whistler.

We arrived back in Canmore the evening of June 30th, at which time I was greeted by Jacquelyn who had arrived that afternoon. The next day I had the Canada Day running race, which went far better than I expected, as I won the 18 and under age category and was 13th overall. A couple hours later my teammates and I got into our Academy race suits and cowboy hats and rollerskied through the Canada Day Parade, which involved our usual short sprints and horse-mess dodging.

The parade was the end of my busy couple weeks, and then I was treated to a much-needed rest week last week. This week I have been ramping up the training again in preparation for my next training camp on the Haig Glacier, which will be taking place next week. VERY EXCITED!!! I am hoping to get some pictures from that camp, so I will try to get them up as soon as I can after I return from the Haig. Until then, Happy Summer!

Feeling like an overdue update

2010-06-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

These past few weeks haven't been tremendously eventful, however I feel like I should be doing an update, so here goes. Last week I started my new job at Boston Pizza here in Canmore, and it's looking like I'm going to enjoy it once I figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. The people are great, and the manager is awesome when it comes to scheduling my shifts around my training, so I'm pretty thrilled about that. I'm not a huge fan of the first few weeks at any job, as it can get a little stressful when you know you should be doing something, but you don't know what or how. So I figure by July I should be a little more comfortable there, so I'm really looking forward to when that time comes.

These next couple weeks should prove to get pretty exciting/fun starting next Sunday, as my schedule will be slightly less monotonous. Next Sunday I'll be doing a very short bike portion of a triathlon here in town, and then I will be riding from that to Sunshine, on the other side of Banff, to meet up with my team for the remainder of my workout. Next week is the team's first testing week of the year, so throughout the week I'll be doing a VO2 max test in a lab in Calgary, as well as an uphill time trial and a double pole test here in Canmore.

After a couple days of rest, the team and I will be traveling to Kaslo BC on the 27th for our next training camp. While it will only be a 3 day camp, it's sounding like it could be a tough one. Our first day we will be setting out on our road bikes with hopes of riding the Silver Triangle. This is a loop that goes from Kaslo, to New Denver, to Nelson, and then back to Kaslo. In total this route is around 220km, and by the sounds of things we will be riding a total of 6 hours that day. So while it is very unlikely that we will complete the whole ride, I'm very curious to see how far we make it in 6 hours, and how well my body takes it. Having never spent more than 4 hours on a bike, I'm very excited!

After a couple more days of training around Kaslo, I'll be arriving back in Canmore the night of the 30th, by which time Jacquelyn should be here! The next day being Canada Day, I'll be getting up early to run in the annual Canmore Canada Day running race. That will be followed by the parade, which the Academy is once again going to be a part of, so I'm looking forward to that too.

So ya, not much happening right now, just the usual eat, train, work, sleep, repeat. But very exciting times to come!!

Cheers.

Thank you Sponsors!

2010-05-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

While there is nothing overly exciting going on here in Canmore at the moment (despite the frigid temperatures and snow :( ) I thought I would do a brief post to thank my two newest sponsors, Midland Ski Club and Jamie Coatsworth, for coming on board and supporting me in my Olympic dream! Your support is tremendously appreciated because, without all of my sponsors, I would not be able to live here in Canmore and train with the best of the best. So to Midland Ski Club and Jamie Coatsworth, along with all of my other sponsors, THANK YOU!!!!!

P.S. Today is also Jacquelyn and my 1 year anniversary, so happy 12 months Jacquelyn!! :) xo

First Camp of the 2010 Off-Season: Silver Star B.C.!

2010-05-17T07:47:00.001-07:00

For the past seven days, the team and I have spent our time in the beautiful Silver Star, British Columbia for our first training camp of the year. Being my first time ever going to Silver Star in May, I was shocked to see how much snow they still had and how incredible the conditions were when we arrived on May 10^th. Thanks to the 20+ degree temperatures however, I don’t think they will be skiing for very much longer.

We skied every morning, except Wednesday, with great snow coverage and temperatures up around 20 degrees Celsius! Talk about prefect spring skiing. I also got to ski on trails which I didn’t know that Silver Star had, so that was lots of fun. We had 2 afternoon workouts throughout the week as well, one being a strength workout at a gym in Vernon, the other being a track running workout. Due to some problems I have been experiencing with my Achilles, I was not able to partake in the track workout on Friday. So instead, I was driven down to Vernon with my bike, and got to ride back up to Silver Star. I knew this was a hard ride, being about 20km of climbing a mountain and all, but I had no idea those hills were so steep. I completed the ride in just under 1 hour and 20 minutes, with some pretty shaky legs. But when I arrived at the top, I was able to look down the mountain and see the city of Vernon, and how far I had ridden, so that felt pretty cool.

Wednesday morning was our one morning that we did not ski. We left our houses in Silver Star and drove to Armstrong to begin our 100km bike ride. This was an awesome ride, taking us just over 3 hours to complete. Having done this ride before I climbed up to Silver Star Friday afternoon, I would have said that one of the climbs in Salmon Arm was the biggest climb I have ever done, spanning a mere 2km. That being said, it was still a pretty demanding climb, on which our group of riders went from 7 or 8 at the bottom to 3 at the top. Luckily, Eric, one of our coaches, was waiting for us at the top with some more fluids and energy gels.

The camp wrapped up yesterday, Sunday May 16^th, with a classic sprint workout in the morning. From there we went back to our houses to shower and clean up, then began the 6 hour drive back to Canmore. Now that we are back, I am back to my usual routine of training and working. Our next camp will be sometime near the end of June, which will be immediately followed by the arrival of my girlfriend, Jacquelyn, for a visit here in Canmore, so I am anxiously awaiting both of those events. CAN’T WAIT!!

That’s all for now,

Happy training!!

New house in Canmore!

2010-05-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

Here are some pictures of my new place! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=168884&id=510412683&saved#!/album.php?aid=168884&id=510412683

Gotta run! Hope everyone's having a great beginning of May!!!!

It's almost Training Time again!!!!!

2010-04-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

It's almost May 1st! But I'm sure you all know that.

Last night just after midnight I rolled into Canmore to begin the next chapter of my skiing career. I have spent the last 4 weeks back in Penetang, ON for an amazing visit with my family and friends. It was a great month of relaxing, recovering from another great season, spending quality time with loved ones, and of course, eating my mother's incredible cooking!

While training was at a minimum for those 4 weeks, my mind was still very much in skiing mode, as I was anxiously awaiting some very exciting phone calls. I am proud to say that I have once again been selected as an athlete on the Alberta World Cup Academy team for another year, and I am even prouder to say that I have also been selected for the 2010/2011 Canadian Junior National Ski Team!!! Needless to say, I am incredibly happy with these developments, and cannot wait to get back to my training!

Now that the 2009/2010 season is officially over, I have had some time to look back on it and realize a few very important things. It was a great season. The coaches and athletes who I have met out here have made my first year in Canmore such a great experience, and are a huge part of my accomplishments this past season. And before this great experience could even get off the ground, it was my sponsors who made this dream of mine become a reality. Salomon has been a tremendous sponsor for the past 3 years, always giving me the fastest skis possible. And to my sponsors from back home, Twin Lakes Motor Club, I.B.E.W. Barrie, Tiny Trails Lion's Club, Midland Lion's Club and Midland Civitan, this whole experience started with you. So from the bottom of my heart, I thank you.

Now on to the 2010/2011 season! I want to thank Septic Consulting and Design as well as Georgian Bay Transport for coming on board this year and supporting me in what I know will be another great season! With my first training camp in less than 2 weeks, I cannot wait to get back on the roads and get some solid training hours under my belt.

That's all for now!

Cheers!

Nationals 2010

2010-03-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

From March 12 - March 22nd I, along with about 400 skiers from across the country, traveled to Whitehorse, Yukon to compete in the Canadian National Championships. It was a great week of racing with great conditions and lots of exciting racing.

The first race was a classic Team Sprint in which I competed in the Open Men's category with my teammate Bob Thompson. We did a lot better than I was expecting, and just narrowly missed qualifying for the final. Being our first year in the Open Men category, we were fairly pleased with our result.

The next race was the 10km classic interval start two days later. This was a 2 lap race in which I managed to ski my way to a 9th place finish in the Junior Male category. I was really hoping to get a top 10 in at least one race during the week, so I was pretty happy with achieving that goal in the first race.

The next day however was not quite as good a day. I decided to try a different binding set up on my skis for this race in the hopes of being able to shave a few seconds off my time. Unfortunately, I really should have practiced on this new setup before hand, as it resulted in both of my feet falling asleep half way through the race. This made it very difficult to ski the last 7.5km of the 15km skate race, and I finished in a disappointing 29th place.

The next race, last Friday, was a 1.2km skate sprint. I was very happy with my qualifying result, qualifying 9th in Junior Male, and only 8 seconds behind the fastest Open Man. Sadly, the heats did not go so well, and I did not advance past my quarterfinal. It was still a very exciting, and even shocking day for Joey Burton and Bob Thompson from my team however, as they finished the heats in 2nd and 3rd places respectively. Being Bob's first time this season making it past the quarters, it was an amazing day for him.

The last race of the competition was this past Sunday, in the form of a 20km classic mass start for my category. Despite the cold temperatures and feeling a little sick in my warm up, I had a great race. I managed to finish the race in 6th place, which was very exciting for me. I also ended up being the fastest for my year of birth that day, which got me my first piece of Hardware. And thanks to that 6th place, I moved up in the overall aggregate standings for my year of birth, finishing 3rd in that.

So while I am a little disappointed that I did not finish in the top 3 in any of the races, looking back, these results are a HUGE improvement from the last 2 years for me, so I am very happy with my week of racing overall. I arrived home in Canmore yesterday afternoon, and will be here finishing off my year's training and working until next Tuesday, when I will be flying home to Ontario for a 4 week visit/rest month. With over 620 hours of training under my belt for this year, I can't wait!

Happy rest month!

Off to Whitehorse for Nationals!

2010-03-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

While I haven't competed in any big races since Eastern Canadian's at the start of February, this past month has been a very good month of some solid training, with a couple of smaller local races thrown in there. Feb. 28th I did my longest race ever, at 24 km. This race was super fun, as I felt great for the whole time and managed to finish 4th overall. And to make it even better, it was called the cookie race, so when I finished I was able to help myself to the largest assortment of cookies I had ever seen :).

So now that my season is drawing to an end, my last big races of the year are taking place March 14 - 21 in Whitehorse Yukon. I will be leaving Canmore in a few hours from now, and should arrive in Whitehorse around 7pm local time tonight. I have been feeling great for the last couple weeks, so I'm hoping this high is able to carry on into next week and hopefully bring me some good results. My first race is a team sprint on Sunday, and it will be my third year skiing with my teammate Bob, and we are both looking forward to it. Having moved into the Open Category for this race this year, we aren't expecting medals or anything, but it should be fun to see how we do against the National team guys.

In this seven days of racing I have a classic team sprint, 15km skate, 10km classic, skate sprints, and a 20km classic mass start. It should be a great week of racing, and a great opportunity to discover another one of Canada's beautiful towns, so I am very excited.

That's all for now,

Cheers.

5 Tons of Maple Syrup? Really?

2010-02-22T11:24:00.000-08:00

This post is not really an update, more just something that has come to my attention courtesy of a TV commercial. In the Women's Team Sprints in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, a Canadian athlete broke her ski pole, and was given a new one from a Norwegian coach on the sidelines. With this, she was able to still ski to a silver medal. So on that note, well done Sara.

However, as a thank you to that Norwegian coach, Canada sent him 5 tons of Maple Syrup. I realize the thought and sentiment behind this gesture, but lets think about this for a second. First of all, he could share that syrup with his entire country and it would probably still be way too much syrup. Secondly, I can't even begin to contemplate how much money that would cost, both for that ridiculous amount of syrup, as well as shipping it (5 tons!?!) across the Atlantic.

So, thinking about the situation from a slightly more logical, maybe even intellectual point of view, Canada could have sent him one bottle of maple syrup, and a thank you card, and we would have achieved the same thing. Then, with all of that money we saved by not sending 5 tons of syrup, we could have, I don't know, maybe supported some of our athletes a bit? Who are tremendously underfunded in the first place!!!

So there's my rant for the day, hope you enjoyed it!

Cheers :)

Canmore World Cup!

2010-02-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

After much anticipation, the Canmore World Cup finally arrived, beginning last Friday. Not only was it incredibly exciting to watch the fastest skiers in the world battle it out for the win, but quite a few of my teammates got to race in these races too, so it was really exciting to watch them as well. And to make it even better, 2 of my friends from Midland ON, Angela Schmidt-Foster and her son Joey Foster, came out and stayed at my place for the weekend to watch the races. Angela competed in the 1988 Olympics for cross country skiing, so I was very happy to help her to come back years later to watch a World Cup and relive some great memories.

The races began on Friday with a skate interval start race. The course was a grueling one spanning 5km, with the women doing 2 laps while the men had to complete 3. Being a Forerunner for the event, I, along with about 8 other people, had to ski one lap of the race course right before the start of the women's and the men's races to insure that it was ready to go and that all of the cameramen were ready for the race to start. After my forerunning duties were done, I was able to go watch the race. With the big names like Axel Teichmann (German), Dario Cologna (Swiss), Giorgio Di Centa and Pietro Piller Cottrer (both Italian) racing, I was very excited to see who would come out on top. It ended up being Di Centa taking the gold, with Piller Cottrer and Cologna finishing 2nd and 3rd. The most exciting part of the race however, in my opinion anyway, was Teichmann, who in the last 5km moved from outside the top 20 into 5th place! I was very impressed by that.

The next day was classic sprints, which was I was most excited to see, as my Swedish sprinting hero, Emil Joensson was racing. I had no doubt in my mind that he would take the gold, but I did not quite expect him to do it so convincingly. He won the qualifier, to no one's surprise, and then went on to win his next 3 heats by a minimum of about 50m. I also saw another Swede with a very interesting and effective starting technique that I have never seen before, so that was really cool to watch too. And on a happy Canadian note, our own Sara Renner managed to move up from her 15th qualifying position and make her way into the final and take the bronze medal! This was the biggest excitement of the day, as it gives the Canadian skiers who are on their way to the Olympics a bit if extra hope and momentum as their big races draw nearer.

While these were the only two races that took place for this world cup, there was also a lot of excitement going on all weekend in town. From Thursday - Sunday night, the main street in Canmore was turned into a ski trail, as the town trucked in loads of snow in order to hold fun little events all weekend on the main street. I competed in a relay on Friday night with two of my teammates, Lucas and Bob, as well as Beau Thompson, who is a biathlete living in Canmore. It was a very interesting relay, as it wasn't quite just sprinting up and down the road 4 times. This relay involved each member of the team having to complete a certain task during their turn to ski. These tasks included carrying an egg on a spoon, throwing bean bags, hoola hooping, and my task, saying "She sells sea shells by the sea shore" 3 times after I skied, with 3 crackers in my mouth. Just so we all know, it's a lot harder than it sounds :).

My last bit of excitement for the weekend came on Sunday night, when a group of us skiers got together and played hockey on one of the outdoor rinks in town. Having only played, or even skated for that matter, once in the last 7 or 8 years, I was curious to see if I could still stand on skates and hold a hockey stick. But to my surprise, I wasn't as bad as I thought I would be, and it was a lot of fun. And what made it even better was that I was able to ski (on rock skis) from my house to the rink, so that made the experience just that much better.

So that was my exciting Canmore World Cup weekend, I had tons of fun and it was great to see Angela and Joey again. Life here has settled down again, but just a little bit. I am anxiously awaiting the start of the Olympics, as it will be the first time I have ever watched someone that I personally know compete in the great event. So, on that note, GOOD LUCK GORD AND MADELEINE!!! :)

Eastern's 2010

2010-02-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

This past weekend 6 members of my team traveled to Gatineau Quebec for the 2010 Eastern Canadian Championships. Having competed in these races for the past 5 years now and always having a great time, it was a highly anticipated trip on my part. And to make it even better, I got to see my family, Jacquelyn and my old friend Thomas again, as they all managed to make it out to watch me race. Being the only time any of them would see me race this year, I was very happy about it, and really wanted to make it an exciting weekend for them.

The races started out on Saturday with a 10km skate interval start race. With the exception of a little coldness, the conditions were pretty good, and very fast. With the combination of the icy trails and my love for the Nakkertok race courses, it was a very fast, and very fun race. I raced my way to a 4th place finish on Saturday, 49 seconds behind the winner. I was hoping for a top 5 result, so I was fairly happy with my result.

Sunday brought with it slightly warmer temperatures for my 15km classic mass start race. Classic mass start races have always been one of my favorite types of races. It's the excitement of a mass start without the high risk of broken equipment and crashing that comes with skate races. Seeded 4th starting the race, I had no problem staying at the front and avoiding any potential crashes that could have held me up, so I was pretty happy about that. The race was very fun, I ended up leading a bit more than I had hoped I would, but it worked out pretty well for me in the end. I managed to hang on for a 2nd place finish, 1.3 seconds behind the leader, so I was pretty happy with that. This race was also another good reminder of what I have to work on in the future, so it was a very good day for me.

After the race on Sunday, I said a sad farewell to Jacquelyn and my family, then set out to kill some time before our 7:30pm flight. We found ourselves in the Ottawa market where we had a late lunch, then headed to the airport to await our flight home. I ended up getting back to my home in Canmore around 12:30am (local time), in a very tired state.

So, that was the Eastern's 2010 adventure, another awesome weekend in the books. Big thanks to my parents for bringing more food than my Canmore kitchen has ever seen (and of course for coming to see me :) ), and to Jacquelyn for making the long trip to come see me race!

That's all for now, Happy February everyone!

Super Tour races in Washington

2010-01-18T16:46:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday part of the team and I traveled to Washington where I competed in my first ever races in the U.S., which were also my first ever Super tour races. The Super Tour is an American race series that goes on over the course of every season (in case you were curious). This was an awesome weekend for me, with Saturday being my first of the season where I actually felt really good.

So the weekend started off on Saturday with skate sprints. Being my first time racing in the U.S., and being one of only three Canadians in my category, I really had no idea what to expect after my qualifier. It felt pretty good, and I ended up qualifying 4th in my category (1st of those 3 Canadians). This gave me some good confidence going into the heats in the afternoon. Lucky for me, as the day wore on the icy race course became a little softer and by the time my heats started the snow had turned into my favorite kind of snow for skate sprints. I was pretty happy about it. So my heats started with my quarterfinal, in which I was able to let up with about 100m to go to take the win and advance to the semifinals. The next two heats, the semi and the final, required a bit more effort on my part, but I managed to keep the trend going. I ended up leading all three of my heats on Saturday from start to finish, and capturing my first Super Tour gold medal. As you can see from my new Blog picture above, I was very happy about it.

Sunday's race was a 15km classic individual start. I wasn't feeling quite as hot as I had been the day before, but I was still hoping for good things. The course was 3 laps of a 5km course, which was basically one long grind of a climb for a few kilometres, followed by a fast, technical descent back to the stadium. Sadly for me, I managed to crash on not 1, but 2 of my times going down that descent. Not my best day. Despite my crashes however, I did feel pretty good for the rest of my race. So when I saw that I finished 3rd in my category, I was pretty happy about it.

After Sunday's race and awards had ended, we started the drive back to Canmore, spending the night in Vernon, BC. We ended up pulling into Canmore around 3:00pm this afternoon. So now that I am back, I'll spend the next 10 days training and working, and then I'll be off to Ottawa for the Eastern Canadian Championships. I have had some great times racing at Nakkertok over the years, so I am really looking forward to it.

Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Super Tour races in Washington

That's all for now, cheers!

Best Smoothie ever made

2010-01-10T11:00:00.000-08:00

So I got home from training about 20 minutes ago, and, like I always do now, I took out my magic bullet and started contemplating what kind of recovery drink concoction I should try out today. As you can probably tell by the title of this post, I am very happy with the result, so happy that I am sharing it with anyone who reads this blog. So for anyone who enjoys trying new things, I strongly recommend this:

- Frozen berries (I used strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries)

- Plain yogurt

- 1 egg

- Chocolate milk

Very simple, yet crazy good. As you can see I never measure out how much of anything I put in my smoothies, it makes it more fun that way I think.

Enjoy!

Christmas and Trials

2010-01-08T13:22:00.000-08:00

A little late I know, but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!! I hope you all enjoyed your holidays as much as I did mine. I had a great 2 week visit with Jacquelyn and my family, it was so nice to see everyone again. And a huge thanks to everyone who came out to the Snow Dance on the 19th!! Not only was it a great night of music (big thanks to all the musicians who played) and getting to see everyone again, but I can't stress enough how much I appreciate everyone's support in what I am trying to accomplish. And on an organizational side of things, thank you so much to Jacquelyn, the Parent family, and of course my parents. This event never would have happened without you guys, so thanks a lot!

As I mentioned before, I had a very nice visit home. Christmas day was definitely a highlight, what with having both my family's and Jacquelyn's family's Christmas dinners in one night. And just getting to eat my mother's home cooked food every night was a very nice change of pace.

After my visit home I traveled straight to Val Cartier, Quebec for World Junior Trials. This event consisted of three races, a 20km pursuit, skate sprints and a 15km classic race. While none of these races were very spectacular for me, they weren't bad races either. I ended up 16th in both the 20km pursuit and the 15km classic, and qualified 14th in my sprints.

With the last of these races being this past Tuesday, my journey back to Canmore began Wednesday afternoon. With a 3 or 4 hour lay over at the Montreal airport, my flight didn't arrive back in Calgary until just before 11pm Wednesday night. From there I said farewell to my teammates and found my way to one of the hostels downtown Calgary. This was my first time staying at a hostel, so I was hoping for some excitement. However, I was only really there from 1:30am - 6:45am, so needless to say, it was pretty quiet. I then made my way to the Passport office to take care of some better-late-than-never business, then I managed to catch the early bus and be back in Canmore by 10:30am. It was a very busy, yet fun and productive morning.

So I am now back at my place in Canmore, and my newly constructed mattress bed, our new couch, and of course my new can opener and magic bullet, are all making it feel even more like home. I am going to be staying here for another 5 days, and then I am off to Winthrop, Washington for a couple Supertour races! Being both my first time to Washington and my first Supertour races, I am very excited.

So, I think that about covers this past highly eventful month. That's all for now, Happy 2010 everyone!!

GORDON JEWETT IS GOING TO THE OLYMPICS!!!!

2009-12-15T07:20:00.000-08:00

The title says it all, the biggest news from the Sovereign Lake NorAm/Olympic qualifier, my teammate/friend/landlord is going to the Olympics in a couple months!!! I don't think I have ever been happier for someone else, or heck, even myself, as I was when I found out that Gord had qualified for the 2010 Olympics on Saturday in the Men's 15km Skate individual start race. So, Congratulations Gord!! You're my hero, and good luck representing our nation on the trails of Callaghan Valley! It's safe to say we will now be very well represented in these games.

So, in other news (now making my races far less interesting), I also competed in the same races as Gord this past weekend, these being the 15km skate race on Saturday, and the 1.1km skate sprints on Sunday. Finishing about 5 or 6 minutes behind Gord, I managed to get myself an 18th place finish in my category of Junior Male. While I was hoping for a top 15 result, I am fairly happy with my race, and it ended up being very tight. Over the 15km of racing, I was only 4 or 5 seconds out of the top 15, and less than 1 minute out of the top 5. So all in all, not a bad day of racing.

Sunday brought with it the skate sprints, which I had been looking forward to for quite some time, with this being my first skate sprint since Nationals in 2008 (almost 2 years). So not having competed against this field in a couple of years, I wasn't too sure what to expect. Despite a slow tempo in the first half of my qualifier, I managed to pick it up and qualify for the heats in 22nd place. This put me into a quarterfinal with myself, and the 5 other guys from the Quebec ski team. I raced my quarterfinal exactly according to plan up until the last hundred metres. With the top 2 advancing to the next round, I was in a very highly contested battle for 2nd, but unfortunately came up about 0.3 seconds short, so I did not advance.

I am now back in Canmore for today, then I am off to Calgary tonight, then flying home for a 2 week Christmas visit tomorrow morning.

That's all for now, and once again, CONGRATULATIONS GORD!!!

Alberta Cup Races

2009-12-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

My first two races of the season are now in the books, having the Alberta Cups 1 and 2 this past weekend here in Canmore. They started off on Saturday with classic sprints, which did not go quite as I had hoped. I ended up leaving too much time between my warm up and the start of my qualifier, so by the time it was my turn to go the effects of my warm up had worn off quite a bit. So that was a good lesson learned. And then in heats in the afternoon, as there were only 3 of us in my semi final, we all advanced to the A final. This final started out very well, but I did not ski it as intelligently as I know I should have. I sprinted up to the top of the course in a comfortable 2nd place, but as we all came down the hill to the finish I learned a nasty lesson in drafting. So while it wasn't a great day for me, I learned some good lessons that I will be able to take into my upcoming races.

Sunday brought with it some very cold temperatures, so in the morning it was unclear whether or not the races would still take place or not. However, at 9:30am after delaying the races by 1 hour already, the race organizers decided that it was not cold enough to cancel the races, so I got to compete in my first distance race in the Open men category. It was a 4 lap race of 2km (8km race) and it was a skate mass start. This race was a huge improvement from Saturday's sprints. I felt great for the whole time, and I managed to finish 1.5 seconds behind the leader of Junior Men, and I ended up 10th in Open Men. Great day of racing!

Tomorrow morning I will be heading to Silver Star BC with the team for a week of training and then the first NorAm (North American) races of the year next weekend. With a 15km skate interval start and 1.1 km skate sprints, it should be another great weekend of racing!

Happy skiing!

Update

2009-11-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-16T18:44:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-08T14:46:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-11-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

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!

Inspirational/Motivational Video

2009-10-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I had a bit of down time, during which I found this awesome video on Youtube. I highly recommend watching this video to anyone who is looking for some motivation to get something done, and especially to any athletes who are looking to either get psyched up before a big race/game, or for the motivation to just get up and go train. When I found this video I must have listened to it 5 times, it's definately going on the ipod.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhvlXkD4yWc&feature=related

Hope it has as great an effect on you as it did on me.

Testing and Snow in Canmore!

2009-10-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

Last week was the team's fall testing week where we do some of the same tests that we did in the spring in order to see how far we have come with our training over the summer. So last Wednesday I went in to Calgary to the sports lab and had my VO2 max tested again to see if I am any fitter than I was 3 months ago. A VO2 max test, for anyone who has no idea what that means, is a test to see how efficient you are at using the oxygen that you inhale while you are exercising. So in order to test that, I was put on a treadmill and had to breath through a tube which measured the amount of unused oxygen that I was exhaling. They had me run at a speed which increased by 0.5 miles/hour every 3 minutes until I reached my anaerobic threshold (the point where lactate begins accumulating in the blood), and then I ran at 9.5 miles/hour with an incline that increased by 3 % every minute until I could no longer run. I ended up running until 15 seconds into the 13% incline, which was better than my 10% from last time. I also learned that I have gained a little over 3 lbs in muscle over the summer, so that made me feel pretty good.

Normally our 2 other tests that we would do would be a double pole test and an uphill time trial (both on rollerskis), but thanks to the snow that we received last week and the week before, we could not do those tests as the roads are no longer all that safe (what with all the gravel that was put down). So instead, we did a 7.5km uphill running time trial. It wasn't the greatest time trial for me, but it could have been worse. Looking back I really should have ran the course the day before or something, because I did not know that the last 3 km's were the steepest part of the course. So as a result, I bonked pretty hard around the 4 or 5 km point. But the first 3 or 4 km were pretty good :).

And the big exciting news, as previously mentioned, we have snow in Canmore! While all of the natural snow is now gone, it did get cold enough a couple weeks ago for the Nordic Centre to make some snow, so there is still a short loop for us to ski on. Being from Ontario, never before have I been to say that my first on-snow ski of the season on October 14th, so I am thrilled about that.

So ya, that's about all the excitement from the past week. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

The Visit to My Home in Ontario!

2009-10-13T07:03:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, Oct. 4th, I travelled home to Ontario and arrived at Pearson airport just before midnight. My lovely parents and beautiful girlfriend were waiting for me to pick me up and bring me home, and what a great thing it was to see them all again. It was an amazing week of getting to spend lots of time with Jacquelyn, getting to be with my family again, seeing some old friends, and of course, eating delicious meals all week. Mmmm.... Home cooked meals... :)

I also got to play a good amount of volleyball over the course of the week, which was a very nice added bonus. The Turkey Tourny (PSS's annual Thanksgiving vollleyball tournament) did not disappoint, as it was a great morning of volleyball with lots of old friends. And another added bonus, I didn't lose this year!

The Thanksgiving weekend was lots of fun, I got to meet a good portion of Jacquelyn's family on Saturday night for the first time, and then Sunday I got meet some parts of my own family that I had never met before, so that was pretty cool. Then after that we went back to my grandparents place for another Thanksgiving dinner with just my immediate family, who it was great to see again. Might have eaten a bit too much that night, but it was Thanksgiving, so it was worth it.

With my flight back to Canmore being at 7am the next morning, we needed to leave my house by 4am in order to get there on time (so side note, huge thanks to my parents for getting me there, as well as to Jacquelyn for gracing me with her presence for a few more hours). My flight back was a good one, I didn't have anyone sitting next to me so it was easy to get some much needed sleep.

So, all in all, a fantastic week returning to Ontario and spending quality time with family and friends. Now I am back in Canmore and about to resume my usual working and training schedule, and looking forward to this next week of what should be a great week of testing!

Cheers!

Lake Louise Camp, Moving Day, First Snowfall and Calgary Running Race, What a week!

2009-10-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

In all the excitement of this past week, it's been tough to keep up with my blog, so here's a an update of what an awesome week it has been!

It started off last Sunday morning when the Juniors and U23's of the team jumped on our road bikes and rode from here in Canmore to Lake Louise. A little over 80 kms and 3 hours later, we arrived in Lake Louise and got settled in to what would be our new homes for the next 4 days. That afternoon we had another 2 hour workout, and then went out to a great all you can eat buffet, which was a great way to wrap up Day 1 of our camp. The rest of the camp went by in a similar manner, the notable workouts being the 28 km 4.5 hour run (it was only supposed to be 3, but it took a little longer than expected), and the intensity workout (5 x 8 minutes) was also another very fun training session. Thursday morning we got up, packed and cleaned our rooms, then rollerskied for 2 hours towards Canmore, and then switched to our bikes and rode the rest of the way. We arrived back in Canmore around 2:30pm Thursday afternoon, and after getting all of our gear back to our place, Bob and I pretty much just crashed as we were incredibly exhausted.

The next day, we woke up, packed all of our belongings, cleaned our house from top to bottom, then moved into our new place in town! We have been looking for the past couple months for a place to live in town, as living up in CODA (where we were living) through the winter really would not have worked for us with the freezing cold temperatures and such. So despite the fact that I am currently looking for something to sleep on other than my nicely carpeted floor, this place is very nice, and the location couldn't be better. I am now only a 10 minute walk from my work, and 15 minute walk from the grocery store! Very happy about that. And I have teammates living below me (also my landlords), next door and across the street, so I'm pretty excited about that too.

When I woke up this morning, I realized just how perfect the timing was for our move. When I looked out the window, the mountains were (and still are) covered in snow, and it has been snowing all day here in Canmore. And it was also snowing for most of the day in Calgary, where I had my first race in a long time. It was said to be a 8km running race, but I believe it was more like 6.5km. Despite having to run through a river twice, it was a very good race, and I am very happy about my outcome. My legs weren't a huge fan of having run through water when it was already only around 3 degrees, but they seemed to get me to the finish line in a timely manner, so it was a good race.

Tonight I have managed to find myself at least a pillow, and I have some leads about some mattresses, so I'm hoping to get one of those for tonight as well. Tomorrow morning I will be doing some trail work at the Nordic Centre, and then I will be off to the Calgary airport, and then I should be back in Toronto by midnight (Ontario time) tomorrow night!

So seeing as I have just moved into a new place, my address is no longer 11 Spray Village. So that being said, if anyone would like my new address, please feel free to send me an email and I will get back to you ASAP.

Here are some pictures of my new place, in case you are interested.

New Place!

That's all for now, and if you're currently in Penetanguishene ON, I will see you in a few days!

Cheers!

Update

2009-09-25T07:40:00.000-07:00

While I haven't gone on any trips or adventures since my Ha Ling climb a few weeks ago, these past couple weeks have still brought some excitement with them. Firstly, as of a couple weeks ago I am now good and healthy again, and back to training full time, which I am very happy about. I had a 4 hour rollerski the other day and it was lots of fun. I skied most of it with my teammates Joey, Terrell, Bob and Lucas, and we explored some of the trails in Canmore that I have never seen before, so that was quite fun. And we located a playground which I intend on revisiting before the snow arrives, as it looked like a very enjoyable playground :).

And the big news of these past couple weeks would be that my roommate Bob and I have finally found a new place to live in town! So we will be moving into a 2 bedroom second floor apartment on Oct. 2nd, and we are thrilled. No more biking up mountains with groceries!! It also means that I will be no more than a 10 minute walk from my work, and probably about a 15 minute walk from the grocery store. Big thanks to Gord and Rhonda Jewett for offering this place to us, as it was beginning to look like we might be spending the winter in CODA!

In other news, I will be headed to Lake Louise this Sunday to begin my next training camp with the team. While this camp is a shorter one, only lasting 5 days, assuming my training plan doesn't change, I will be completing almost 22 hours of training in those 5 days, so I am very excited about it. And the cool thing about this camp is that we will not be driving to or from Lake Louise. Instead, we will be training. So on Sunday, we will get up in the morning here in Canmore, jump on our road bikes and ride to Lake Louise (we plan on it taking 3 hours). And then we'll have a little break, and then do a 2 hour rollerski in the afternoon once we are there. So 5 hours in day 1, always a great start to a training camp!

After this camp, I will arrive back in Canmore sometime Thursday afternoon, and then all day Friday will be spent moving into our new place, as well as packing what I need for my trip home. And the next day, the team is doing a running race in Calgary, so while I know I will be completely exhausted, I am still very excited about that. Then Saturday night it looks like both Bob and I will stay in Calgary, and then I'll be flying home on that Sunday night. It's going to be a very busy week! And I can't wait!

That's all for now! Cheers!

Ha Ling Descent video is finally up!!!

2009-09-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

After lots of trying and failing to get our video up somewhere online for everyone to see, Bob has finally managed to load it on youtube! Follow this link to check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m86zXusj5qk

My Canmore Map

2009-09-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

So it was brought to my attention that the last picture from my Ha Ling Climb album doesn't make a lot of sense without a bit of legend, so here it is...

Red arrow - Safeway, where I do all my grocery shopping

Blue arrow - Black Rock, my work

Brown arrow - Canmore Nordic Centre

Green arrow - My house

And that is my map of Canmore. I figured this would help everyone get a feel for where I live (although it all looks flat, so that part's a little deceiving).

Ha Ling Climb

2009-09-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

So as I mentioned in my last post, yesterday morning Bob and I decided to go for a hike up the Mountain in front of my house called Ha Ling. We weren't really sure what to expect, as we had never been up there before, but we knew it was going to be quite the adventure. And it did not disappoint.

We left the house around 7:45am to begin the hike to up to the start of the trail which we were told led straight to the top. After probably a little under an hour, we broke out of the tree line after doing switchback after switchback, and we could see the top (it was still very far away, but we could see it). And as much fun as walking up a cleared trail was, we figured it would be way more exciting to make our own trail and just hike straight up instead of winding our way on the trail. And with the combination of the loose rocks and incredible steepness, it was quite the adrenaline rush to say the least.

After about 30 minutes of climbing through the loose rocks on our hands and feet, we reached the top. It was so sudden, neither of us could believe it. I just walked up to a big rock and peeked over to see what I thought would be a flat surface before the cliff. But to my surprise, that rock was actually the start of the cliff. I can't begin to describe how beautiful and "unreal" if you will, the view is from up there. I was firing pictures left, right and centre, trying to get as many as I could to hopefully help everyone reading this to get a feel for just how incredible it was. From the top we could see all of Canmore just sitting right in front of us, to our left we could see the snow covered mountains on the other side of Banff, and if we looked towards Calgary, we could actually see some of the towers from the city. Being 110km away, that was truly spectacular.

After taking pretty much all the pictures we could from Ha Ling, we decided it was still early enough that we had time to hike back down a little bit and then back up the peak next to it. I'm not sure what this one is called, but it was very cool, and definately tested my fear of heights (I won't get into details). So we sat down at the top of that one and ate lunch, then began our journey back down the mountain. We definately had some fun with this, taking videos of ourselves attempting to run as fast as we could down the mountain, while still being in control of course. Bob has those videos, and we're currently working on editting them and they should be up on our facebook pages in the next few days.

So that was our Ha Ling climb experience in a nutshell, another one of Bob and Jordan's great adventures. I have put most of my pictures up in a new album on picasa, so if you're interested feel free to follow the link below. Take care everyone!

Ha Ling Hike

27 Days!

2009-09-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

I couldn't think of a title for this one, as it is just an update of the past week. The 27 days is in reference to the number of days before I come home for my Thanksgiving visit, which I am very excited about.

So anyway, this past week has definately had it's ups and downs. It started off last Monday when I woke up and realized that I was sick. It's just a cold, but it has still prohibited me from training all week, which was very upsetting. However, looking on the bright side, it allowed me to take some time to relax a little bit early in the week, and it also allowed me to work 40 hours in 6 days. While this might not have been a big help to my sickness, it means a nice pay cheque :) . And it also took my mind off the fact that I was sick, so that was a little extra bonus. And I seem to be getting better, slowly but surely, as now my only real symptoms are congestion and my senses of taste and smell are coming and going. And my energy levels seem to be getting back to normal, so I plan on doing my first bit of training tonight, that being an easy strength workout. So we'll see how that goes.

While being sick was the definate down side to last week, Jeremy, a good friend from back home, spent all last week driving across the country to go to his new school. And with Canmore being right on the way, he was able to stop in for a little visit on Sunday to recharge before starting the last long drive to his new school. Jeremy showed up at my house around 9:30am on Sunday morning, and unfortunately I had to work 10am-5pm, but he managed to keep himself occupied for the day by going for what was, by the sounds of things, quite the hike. So Sunday night we kind of just roamed around town looking for something to do, and after spending a bit of time at the HOE (Canmore Hotel) playing pool and waiting for the band to start, we decided to just come back to my place and go to bed, as we were all pretty tired. Jeremy left the next morning around 9am to finish off his long journey to BC.

I don't know if it was just the fact that he brought me some of my own stuff from back home (just kidding), but despite the fact that we didn't do anything overly exciting, it was really good to see him again (more so than I thought it would be that is). I got to hear all about the adventures that he had had over the past week with all of his travels, and I don't know, I guess just the fact that we both new what the other was going through/had gone through with leaving home for the first time and going to a new place... I have no idea, kinda just making stuff up now, but I had a great time hanging out with him again and look forward to his return in a couple weeks. All the best in BC Jeremy!!!

So, that's about all that really happened last week. Got sick, worked a lot, saw Jeremy, getting better now... yep I think that's it. Bob (my roommate) and I are planning to hike up to the top of the mountain in front of my house on Friday, so if that actually works out I should hopefully get some good shots of the whole area and I'll post them when we get back down. That's all for now, thanks for reading!!

Sam Came to Visit! And She Brought Puppies!

2009-08-29T16:59:00.000-07:00

The past three days finally brought some real excitement to our house. My sister, Sam, graced us with her presence along with her boyfriend, Marc-Andre, and they're friend Richard. The three of them spent their summer way up north working in Inuvik, NWT, and they are on their way home to Ontario. And while it was great to see them all again, it was also a huge bonus to get to meet their 9 week old Husky puppies. They. Are. Adorable.

So during their stay, we obviously spent lots of time with the puppies, playing with them, cleaning up after them, watching them burn out and crash into things thanks to my incredibly slippery floors, but we also explored the town and went to places and did things that I haven't even done here yet. On Thursday night we went to the Canmore Hotel and got to see the "Dreadkneaughts" play. It was really cool, they are a celtic punk band from Vancouver with lots of energy, so it was really fun to watch.

We also hiked up to the Grassi Lakes rock climbing area to show them just how beautiful it is up there, and while the puppies did seem to enjoy themselves on that long journey for them, they were pretty pooped by the time we started walking back down. And Richard, Marc-Andre and myself went for a little dip in one of the lakes up there, despite a long period of time spent standing at the side waiting to see who would have the guts to dive in first. This water was easily the coldest water I have ever found myself in, so I was very proud of myself for being the first one to take the plunge.

The three of them departed from my house sometime between 7am and 8am this morning, and are now finishing off the last few days of their road trip heading back to Penetang. It was a great few days hanging out with them, and I wish them all the best on their journey home. And now that I'm back on my own again, I am back to my usual daily routine of training, working, eating and sleeping, until next week when it sounds like I'll be having another house guest. Assuming all goes according to plan, I should get to spend some time with my friend Jeremy, as he is going to be driving through Canmore on his way to BC. So I am really looking forward to that, seeing all these familiar faces is a nice little change of pace.

So I didn't get many, but here are a few pictures that I got with the puppies from the past few days. That's all for now! Cheers!

Sam's Puppies!

Crankworx '09/ Whistler training camp

2009-08-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures from my trip to Whistler! I couldn't upload the videos that I took from Crankworx on the picasa site like the rest of the pictures, so I will put some up on my Facebook page for anyone who is interested. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=510412683&ref=name#/profile.php?id=510412683&v=app_2392950137&ref=name There's a link to the videos. Enjoy! :)

Crankworx '09/ Whistler training camp

Whistler Update - Mid-day of Day 5

2009-08-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

So with a couple of hours before my next workout, I figured I would write a little update on what I have been up to these past few days here in Whistler. With Crankworx going on all week, there is always something exciting going on somewhere around here, and as a team, even without that great event, we seem to be keeping pretty busy.

The other night (Wednesday I think?), we had our first baseball game between the two teams into which we divided ourselves, those teams being Team Salt (my team) and Team Pepper...Can you tell we made these teams while sitting in a restaurant awaiting the arrival of our food? So anyway, it was a very fun time, especially for those of us on Team Salt, as we took a pretty comfortable win over Team Pepper. Although we have a rematch scheduled for Sunday night, so we will see if Pepper has what it takes to redeem themselves...unlikely... haha just kidding...kinda... we'll see.

So while we have been having some good recreational fun like that, we have also been training pretty hard all week. We did a long road ride the other morning, and I'm not sure, but I think it must have been no more than 5 degrees when we started our ride in the pouring rain. But after the first 30-45 minutes or so the rain died down and we were no longer feeling hypothermic. And my bear sightings count since coming out west is now up to 2, as I saw another small black bear wandering around a drive way during our ride. For myself, Bob, and Annika, this ride lasted about 2 hours and 40 minutes, as at that point in time we needed to get back into town for our massage appointments :). The perks of training camps with the Academy haha.

Another morning (Thursday maybe? Yes, Thursday), we had an actual sprint race simulation up at Whistler Olympic Park on our skate rollerskis. While it was definately not my strongest day as a rollerskier haha, it was still pretty fun, and talk about a good eye opener, having to do heats against guys like Gord and Jess...they're fast haha.

So yesterday I got to experience some actual Crankworx excitement for my first time since we arrived. I watched some guys practicing for the slopestyle competition which is taking place tonight, and I also got to see the Finals of the Slalom race which was very cool to see. I took lots of pictures, as well as some video, but I think I am going to wait until I get back to Canmore so that I can upload everything all at the same time, because I intend/hope to get some more footage from tonight's festivities.

That's all that comes to mind at the moment, so time for a power nap before the day's next workout!

Thanks for reading! Cheers!

2009-08-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

Aug. 11 – Day 1 of training in Whistler

After arriving in Whistler around 7:30pm last night, it took about 3 hours to eat dinner, track down some groceries and get settled in to our room. The team is staying in a pretty nice Hotel called Wildwood on Blackcomb Mountain, and I am sharing a room with the other three Junior Men on the team (Joey Burton, Bob Thompson and Lucas Jungmann).

Our day began at 7am this morning for breakfast and to get ready for our first workout in Whistler. We met up with the rest of the team at 8am, and were then driven out to our starting spot for our 2 hour skate rollerski workout. I didn’t really know where exactly we were (I knew we were somewhere between Whistler and Squamish), but after 50 minutes of legs only skiing up this constant climb, I ended up reaching the Whistler Olympic Park. I must say it was quite the pleasant surprise, not only because of how cool it was to be back there, but also because it took my mind off how absolutely dead my legs were feeling (but in a good way of course haha).

For anyone who does not know, this is where the cross-country skiing, nordic combined and biathlon events are going to be taking place for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Having been there a little over a year ago for the Canadian National Championships, it was very cool to see how far they have come in preparing for the Games. The buildings appear to now be completely finished, some of the ski trails have been paved (made for some very nice rollerskiing), and there are a few massive screens in various locations which I would assume will be for showing constant footage of the races as they take place.

So after the workout this morning, we returned to our hotel for lunch and some down time before our afternoon rollerski workout. I took this time to wander over to the Whistler Village and check out the whole Crankworks scene, have a nice little chat on the phone with my girlfriend, and of course, make a stop at the grocery store. Once I got back to my room it was time to get ready for our afternoon workout, which was an easy 1 hour rollerski around the trails that run throughout Whistler. There was a plan on where we were going to go, but by the time we found it, it was time for me to turn back and head for the hotel.

And now it’s time for supper, not real sure what it’s going to be yet, but I need to help make it. So that’s all for now!

Exploring my backyard

2009-07-26T14:11:00.001-07:00

Exploring my backyard

The First Few Weeks

2009-07-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, talk about a big time life change. You don't realize how much food you eat until you're buying it yourself hahaha. These past few weeks have meant some big adjustments in my life, but now that I've been here for a while, I'm starting to calm down and get used to being on my own.

For anyone who doesn't already know, I was recently (May 1st) named to the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) Ski Team for the 2009/2010 season, so I have moved out to Canmore AB and am now living in a 3 bedroom house with my friend/teammate Bob Thompson. Having been out here three weeks now, I have already done some of the best training of my life, both here in Canmore as well as on the Haig Glacier, and I have also found myself a job at one of the local gift shops.

So as I just hinted at, I just returned to Canmore from my first training camp with the team, which took place on the Haig Glacier. It's about a 1 hour drive from Canmore, followed by a 2-3 hour hike. With an elevation of around 2300m, the only means of accessing this beatiful piece of land is by hiking in like we did, or by helicopter. This was my first time ever being able to ski on snow in the middle of July, and what a treat that was. In the 6 days of skiing that I did, I did a total of 25 hours of training and skied about 150km. So it's safe to say I am now completely exhausted, but talk about an amazing experience.

A typical day up there started out around 7am with breakfast, then we would all hike up another 300m in altitude to the glacier where we would ski for the morning. Once we finished our ski, we would hike back down to the camp, eat lunch, and then relax for a few hours of the afternoon. This time would be spent either napping, lounging around, eating, and of course, playing/competing in the annual disc golf tournament that the team holds every year at this camp. Being the rookie that I am, I didn't go too far in the tournament, but it was very fun and got pretty intense watching some of the final games. Most days we did another small workout around 4pm, then we would eat dinner, followed by watching the Tour de France and going over the technique video that our coaches shot of us from our ski that morning.

Being my first time up on the glacier, I had an amazing time, not to mention one of the best weeks of training I have ever completed. Now, with my first AWCA training camp under my belt, I am looking forward to our next team camp taking place in Whistler from August 9th -19th. Between now and then however, I have lots of training and working to occupy my time.

That's all I really have to say at the moment, but if anyone is curious about anything else that's going on out here, feel free to contact me and ask.

Haig Glacier Photos

2009-07-21T09:54:00.001-07:00

Haig Glacier trip

Canmore Photos

2009-07-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

Life in Canmore

So...How does this work?

2009-07-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

Hello,

So I now have a blog, but I haven't quite figured out how it works yet. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon and be able to get some pictures up and such.