The Countdown Is On...

With a whirlwind Christmas in the Ottawa area behind me, the trials races for Under 23 World Championships are just around the corner. This next week will be mentally and physically exhausting for all the Canadian skiers who are hoping to make it to a world championships. Junior, Senior, and Under 23 world Championship trials races are being held here in Canmore from Friday to next Tuesday. I am racing 3 of the 4 races (all the ones that count towards U23 trials). I will sit out the skate sprint that is only being used to determine the Senior World Championships team.

These are the races that most skiers spend their summer training for and I am no exception. We all want to be in peak shape when we blast out of the starting gate and make our way around the trails. So far I am feeling pretty good (knock on wood...) and I am planning on staying that way. I took it pretty easy today and just tested some skis. I did a time trial yesterday that shook me back to reality after a nice, relaxing 4 day holiday at home. Now I am looking forward to racing and seeing how it all turns out.

Silver Star Update

Last Sunday I raced my first distance race of the season. It was a 10km skate (freestyle) event. I was happy with my performance from a training point of view as I felt like I was skiing technically better on the uphills. Overall my result wasn't fantastic, but I was still happy with my race and how much I have technically improved since last year.

Our next set of races were to begin tomorrow in Callaghan Valley, Whistler at the soon to be 2010 Olympic venue, but due to a lack of snow the races have been moved back here to Silver Star. Sooooo... I have stayed put with my teammates and put in a few more days of skiing here.

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with a sore throat which meant that I had to be moved out of the house with all my female teammates and spend the day at the coaches house. After spending the day like an indoor cat (sleeping, eating, and all the rest...), I am feeling a bit better. I slept for 3hrs this morning and now feel a little disoriented, but my throat is easing up. Luckily I wasn't planning on racing tomorrows race because of such an intense early season schedule so I won't be missing out on that. But, I was planning on racing the sprints on Friday and the classic distance race on Saturday night. I might have to miss out on those if I don't start to feel better fast which is a big disappointment, but I have learnt to deal with sickness as a training exercise. I just have to set up my day like a training ritual of vitamins, sleep, and liquids. I have to learn from each time I get sick so that I can figure out how to avoid it all together as I get older, or at least how to get healthy asap.

As of now, I am on my 6th cup of tea and considering another nap. Maybe I will feel better tomorrow...

Ciao!

Racing on a Cloud

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last few months. I've been focusing all of my effort into training and now I am ready to fill everyone in on the first race of my season.

Today's race was a skate sprint up on the mountain in Vernon, BC in extremely foggy conditions. The first race of the season is always one of the hardest. You never know how you are going to compare to your fellow competitors after a whole summer’s worth of training. There are a lot of uncertainties. In the past, I have found these races here at Sovereign Lake Nordic to be stressful just for that reason. I spent a lot of time this past November trying to get excited for these race, trying to just shake off all those uncertainties and nervousness so that all that was left was the fun associated with skiing and racing. Today, I woke up and was able to ski for fun. This has been the first race in quite a while that I can truly say that I have really enjoyed. I was able to tell myself that it is fun to race and that is why I do it.

I pulled off an eighth place in today's qualifying race, but ended up 21st at the end of the day, only competing in one quarter final heat. My qualifier felt pretty shaky, but I heard a number of people say that same thing today about their own races. I think that the snow conditions were to blame. Now I need to do some work on my heat racing abilities and I will be ready to rock. Once I learn to race the heats a bit smarter things will probably go a bit better.

We race a 10km skate race tomorrow before packing everything up and moving onto Whistler Olympic Park for next weekends NorAms.

All the doubts and stress of November training have passed and now December has brought on a race season that is bound to be filled with many fun races. I'll keep you updated!