Today was the first of 2 Olympic sprint trials races. It was a 1.4km classic sprint here in Canmore. After a stressful week back home in the 'Ham I was happy with my 7th place finish.
In the morning qualifier I finished 5th. It was a warm day so I thought that I wouldn't get race cough today. I was very wrong. Pretty much everyone that I saw cross the finish line felt like their lungs were going to explode. It is not a pleasant feeling. Then when I went inside it sounded like a smokers convention with all the coughing. I always think that it is crazy that we can push our bodies so hard that we make ourselves cough because we have shredded our lungs.
I came second in my quarter final later in the day. In my semi final I was a hurting unit, feeling a little pooped after climbing the giant hill in the course at full speed twice already that day. I ended up making it into the B final and was able to pull it together and win that final to take 7th place.
I was happy with my results but I know that it will not be enough to get me an Olympic spot. Tomorrow we race the exact same race all over on the exact same course. The purpose of this is to make sure that they take the most consistent sprinters to the Olympics. It will be a long hard day all over but it should be fun to see how people handle the course after learning how to race it today.
Bye for now!
Kate
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
First Race
Hey Everybody,
Yesterday was my first race of the 2009/2010 season. We are currently in the U.S. racing in West Yellowstone at an altitude of somewhere around 7000 feet (aka HIGH!). Yesterday we had a sprint qualifier (only the qualifier, because USA is picking their Olympic sprinters based on just qualifying results--not heats). It was the longest sprint that I have ever done. It was 1.4km and it took the women over 5min!!! This is a huge difference compared to the normal 3min sprints. I suffered through and ended up in 24th. Eeee... I've got some work to do. I felt pretty flat throughout the race, but hopefully that is just because I am knocking off the rust from not having raced in 6 1/2 months.
Tomorrow I will sit out the 10km skate race, as was planned, to give my body a bit more of a rest before the 5km classic race on Saturday.
Now, I think it is time for me to go and cash in on some American thanksgiving chow!
Later,
Kate
Yesterday was my first race of the 2009/2010 season. We are currently in the U.S. racing in West Yellowstone at an altitude of somewhere around 7000 feet (aka HIGH!). Yesterday we had a sprint qualifier (only the qualifier, because USA is picking their Olympic sprinters based on just qualifying results--not heats). It was the longest sprint that I have ever done. It was 1.4km and it took the women over 5min!!! This is a huge difference compared to the normal 3min sprints. I suffered through and ended up in 24th. Eeee... I've got some work to do. I felt pretty flat throughout the race, but hopefully that is just because I am knocking off the rust from not having raced in 6 1/2 months.
Tomorrow I will sit out the 10km skate race, as was planned, to give my body a bit more of a rest before the 5km classic race on Saturday.
Now, I think it is time for me to go and cash in on some American thanksgiving chow!
Later,
Kate
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Praise You- Fat Boy Slim
Cross Country Skiing may be considered an individual sport, but the average skier is part of a club or team and when I was listening to some of my older songs on my ipod I came across the song that I have used as my title today. There is a line in it that goes like this, "We've come a long long way together through the hard times and the good." This line, and the whole song actually, made me think of how hard I have worked alongside so many different team mates and how so much of my success as a skier I owe to my team mates.
I have had the opportunity to work with many different teams and clubs. As a 7-year-old I had team mates that would build snow forts with me and toboggan for hours after every race that we did. These team mates were the ones that helped me really learn the value of having friends in the sport. I am still friends with most of these people today and it is pretty fun to look back on all of our adventures at Lowney Lake
When I was 10 or 11 my family changed clubs and I was introduced to a whole new group of team mates. These team mates introduced me to the different levels of competition that lay ahead of me and taught me how to set goals and train to achieve these goals.
At age 17, I made the choice to change clubs again because I was the only girl left in the program and I felt that having female team mates and peers was important to my ski career. I made the right decision. This next set of team mates were some of the people that have shaped a lot of my life. I spent 2 years with team McBlennanhauser (sorry, inside joke) and loved every minute of it. This was a group of skiers that had the same goals that I did, loved to train, and were very able to push me in my day to day training. We had some very wacky road trips all over the country and I still have a mix cd that we made after my last year on the team and some of those songs still make me laugh.
When I turned 19 I moved up to the Thunder Bay National Team Development Centre. This was a crazy fun team too. I was one of 2 girls on a team of 8 athletes so I quickly learned how to hold my own against 6 boys. These were team mates who showed me the true meaning of the word team. We were on the road together for pretty much 8 months of the year and this fact alone taught us how the success or disappointment of one individual affected each and every member of the team. When someone succeeded it was a a success for the whole team and when someone failed it showed us all what we had to work on as a group.
Last year, at age 21, I moved out to Canmore to join the Alberta World Cup Academy-the team that I am on now. This team showed me how important it is to have such competitive team mates. On any given day any number of my female team mates can beat me. It is humbling, but it is also motivating. Some of my current team mates don't see the benefit of having peers to train with or learn from, but I appreciate all of the advantages that my team mates offer to me. My team mates are my coworkers, friends, competition, and motivation. I am lucky to have them
So, I want to "Praise you like I should" and say thanks to all of my team mates past, present, and future for pushing me every day and keeping it real.
I have had the opportunity to work with many different teams and clubs. As a 7-year-old I had team mates that would build snow forts with me and toboggan for hours after every race that we did. These team mates were the ones that helped me really learn the value of having friends in the sport. I am still friends with most of these people today and it is pretty fun to look back on all of our adventures at Lowney Lake
When I was 10 or 11 my family changed clubs and I was introduced to a whole new group of team mates. These team mates introduced me to the different levels of competition that lay ahead of me and taught me how to set goals and train to achieve these goals.
At age 17, I made the choice to change clubs again because I was the only girl left in the program and I felt that having female team mates and peers was important to my ski career. I made the right decision. This next set of team mates were some of the people that have shaped a lot of my life. I spent 2 years with team McBlennanhauser (sorry, inside joke) and loved every minute of it. This was a group of skiers that had the same goals that I did, loved to train, and were very able to push me in my day to day training. We had some very wacky road trips all over the country and I still have a mix cd that we made after my last year on the team and some of those songs still make me laugh.
When I turned 19 I moved up to the Thunder Bay National Team Development Centre. This was a crazy fun team too. I was one of 2 girls on a team of 8 athletes so I quickly learned how to hold my own against 6 boys. These were team mates who showed me the true meaning of the word team. We were on the road together for pretty much 8 months of the year and this fact alone taught us how the success or disappointment of one individual affected each and every member of the team. When someone succeeded it was a a success for the whole team and when someone failed it showed us all what we had to work on as a group.
Last year, at age 21, I moved out to Canmore to join the Alberta World Cup Academy-the team that I am on now. This team showed me how important it is to have such competitive team mates. On any given day any number of my female team mates can beat me. It is humbling, but it is also motivating. Some of my current team mates don't see the benefit of having peers to train with or learn from, but I appreciate all of the advantages that my team mates offer to me. My team mates are my coworkers, friends, competition, and motivation. I am lucky to have them
So, I want to "Praise you like I should" and say thanks to all of my team mates past, present, and future for pushing me every day and keeping it real.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
John Lennon- Arkells
The song in the title of this blog has a line that goes "I'm so lost, and I live just around the corner." That line has always made me think of being so confused and in such a tough situation that you can't even tell which way is up. It makes me think of someone who is so overwhelmed that they don't even know where to begin.
I have to confess that in the last month I have felt like that a hundred times. When faced with my dad's stage 4 brain cancer diagnosis I went through every emotion possible. Then I was able to go back out west and spend some time with my team and boyfriend. I was able to get some perspective on my situation and my family's situation by having some time away from it all physically--mentally I was still at home most of the time.
I had never been in a situation that was so stressful and overwhelming that I couldn't focus on my everyday life before all of this. I would find myself doing tasks and not know why I was doing that or get somewhere and not know how I had gotten there. I would space out in mid conversation and have to ask people to repeat themselves. For some reason I had thought that everything would work itself out when I returned to Canmore and that I would be able to distance myself from all of my problems at home and focus on my skiing. I thought that somehow my two worlds wouldn't meet up and I would be able to keep them separate, but I quickly learned that there is only one world and both of mine where part of it.
Once back in Canmore I hopped right back into training and managed to do a few really great workouts with my team. My hope at that point was to tire my body out physically so that it would match the same fatigue level as that I was at mentally. I thought that if I could tire myself out that I would finally be able to sleep through the night. It turns out that no matter how tired you are physically, if you are really stressed out mentally you won't sleep.
I accepted that I was just going to have to do the best I could on the amount of sleep that I was getting and I headed up to the Haig glacier with my team for a week long, on-snow, skiing camp in mid July. The camp started off a little rocky for me just because I was still unable to focus on technique and what my coaches were expecting from me. But, as the week flew by I found myself slowly falling back into a normal training rhythm and all of a sudden I was able to deal with everything that had been set in front of me again. It sounds strange, but by the end of the week of skiing I realized that I no longer felt totally and utterly helpless. My brain was kicking back in and helping me find somewhere to begin tackling my problems.
I say all of this as though I struggled through it on my own, but my boyfriend, coaches, and friends were all there helping me through each and every day and I know that I couldn't have done it without them. I have an amazing support crew all around me and my family.
This experience so far has helped me realize just how much of my training is a mental process. I can go out and do my hours and be completely zoned out with my thoughts miles away, but I am not going to get much out of the workout. I realize that my mind is a huge factor in winning races and mastering technique and training. It is a factor that I have taken for granted the last 14 years of my ski career. So now I have the opportunity to work with a sports psychologist for the first time in my ski career, one on one, so that I can understand how to use my mental capabilities to their full potential and deal with the road that has been laid out in front of me. It could be a bumpy road but I am in it for the long haul.
I am back at home in Pakenham for the week to spend some time with the 'fam, but I head back out West on Monday to prepare for our Whistler camp and spend some time in Canmore.
I have to confess that in the last month I have felt like that a hundred times. When faced with my dad's stage 4 brain cancer diagnosis I went through every emotion possible. Then I was able to go back out west and spend some time with my team and boyfriend. I was able to get some perspective on my situation and my family's situation by having some time away from it all physically--mentally I was still at home most of the time.
I had never been in a situation that was so stressful and overwhelming that I couldn't focus on my everyday life before all of this. I would find myself doing tasks and not know why I was doing that or get somewhere and not know how I had gotten there. I would space out in mid conversation and have to ask people to repeat themselves. For some reason I had thought that everything would work itself out when I returned to Canmore and that I would be able to distance myself from all of my problems at home and focus on my skiing. I thought that somehow my two worlds wouldn't meet up and I would be able to keep them separate, but I quickly learned that there is only one world and both of mine where part of it.
Once back in Canmore I hopped right back into training and managed to do a few really great workouts with my team. My hope at that point was to tire my body out physically so that it would match the same fatigue level as that I was at mentally. I thought that if I could tire myself out that I would finally be able to sleep through the night. It turns out that no matter how tired you are physically, if you are really stressed out mentally you won't sleep.
I accepted that I was just going to have to do the best I could on the amount of sleep that I was getting and I headed up to the Haig glacier with my team for a week long, on-snow, skiing camp in mid July. The camp started off a little rocky for me just because I was still unable to focus on technique and what my coaches were expecting from me. But, as the week flew by I found myself slowly falling back into a normal training rhythm and all of a sudden I was able to deal with everything that had been set in front of me again. It sounds strange, but by the end of the week of skiing I realized that I no longer felt totally and utterly helpless. My brain was kicking back in and helping me find somewhere to begin tackling my problems.
I say all of this as though I struggled through it on my own, but my boyfriend, coaches, and friends were all there helping me through each and every day and I know that I couldn't have done it without them. I have an amazing support crew all around me and my family.
This experience so far has helped me realize just how much of my training is a mental process. I can go out and do my hours and be completely zoned out with my thoughts miles away, but I am not going to get much out of the workout. I realize that my mind is a huge factor in winning races and mastering technique and training. It is a factor that I have taken for granted the last 14 years of my ski career. So now I have the opportunity to work with a sports psychologist for the first time in my ski career, one on one, so that I can understand how to use my mental capabilities to their full potential and deal with the road that has been laid out in front of me. It could be a bumpy road but I am in it for the long haul.
I am back at home in Pakenham for the week to spend some time with the 'fam, but I head back out West on Monday to prepare for our Whistler camp and spend some time in Canmore.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Take a Minute- K'Naan
I have been thinking about writing a blog update now for the last 3 weeks but with what is going on in my life I don't really know how to write it.
Just over 3 weeks ago now my Dad was admitted to hospital with a brain tumor the size of an orange. He had been showing signs of a persistent cold and almost something like depression for a few weeks. Then his short term memory started to fade and my mom took him into the hospital.
Phil (my boyfriend) and I flew back the next morning and I have been back in Pakenham since. Luckily my younger brother and sister were at home at the time and my older sister was able to fly back from Ireland shortly after.
This is one event that I never anticipated having to deal with this year... or ever. I have taken one big step back from skiing and really come to appreciate the things that matter in my life. I love to ski, but I love my family so much more. It has taken me these full 3 weeks to decide whether or not I will continue skiing this year, or decide to be at home in Pakenham while my dad battles through radiation and chemo and beating this cancer.
I turns out that I am hoping to do both. I fly back out West to Canmore on Tuesday to try and hop back into training, a glacier camp, and my life out West, but I will be back and forth between Pakenham and Canmore throughout the next few months and year.
I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming support that they have offered me and my entire family throughout these last three weeks. This experience has opened my eyes up to a whole new level of generosity and kindness and I know that it has made me a better person.
"And any man who knows a thing knows he knows not a damn, damn thing at all. And every time I felt the hurt and I felt the givin' getting me up off the wall."
My little sister played the K'naan song that I have used in my title one night as we were driving back from the hospital and it has been in my head ever since.
Just over 3 weeks ago now my Dad was admitted to hospital with a brain tumor the size of an orange. He had been showing signs of a persistent cold and almost something like depression for a few weeks. Then his short term memory started to fade and my mom took him into the hospital.
Phil (my boyfriend) and I flew back the next morning and I have been back in Pakenham since. Luckily my younger brother and sister were at home at the time and my older sister was able to fly back from Ireland shortly after.
This is one event that I never anticipated having to deal with this year... or ever. I have taken one big step back from skiing and really come to appreciate the things that matter in my life. I love to ski, but I love my family so much more. It has taken me these full 3 weeks to decide whether or not I will continue skiing this year, or decide to be at home in Pakenham while my dad battles through radiation and chemo and beating this cancer.
I turns out that I am hoping to do both. I fly back out West to Canmore on Tuesday to try and hop back into training, a glacier camp, and my life out West, but I will be back and forth between Pakenham and Canmore throughout the next few months and year.
I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming support that they have offered me and my entire family throughout these last three weeks. This experience has opened my eyes up to a whole new level of generosity and kindness and I know that it has made me a better person.
"And any man who knows a thing knows he knows not a damn, damn thing at all. And every time I felt the hurt and I felt the givin' getting me up off the wall."
My little sister played the K'naan song that I have used in my title one night as we were driving back from the hospital and it has been in my head ever since.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
And... We're Off!!!
Well, the new team had been chosen and the season is under way. We are currently at our first training camp in Silver Star BC. Out of the 20 athletes on this year’s team, 15 made the trip to Silver Star for a 9 day on snow camp.
The skiing has been absolutely amazing with fresh snow almost every day and some beautiful sunny days. Yesterday for example we went for a 2hr ski in the morning and then went down into Vernon, the town at the bottom of the mountain, 20min away. It is full on summer in Vernon. We had ice cream and lounged in the sun at one of the gorgeous parks in the area. It was our first taste of summer this year and everyone was pumped.
After this camp I head home to good old Pakenham for 2 weeks of real summer—none of this mountain summer snow-until-June stuff. I miss the heat and the humidity. I am looking forward to green grass, the hammock, some time with my family and friends and of course a good solid game of euchre.
The skiing has been absolutely amazing with fresh snow almost every day and some beautiful sunny days. Yesterday for example we went for a 2hr ski in the morning and then went down into Vernon, the town at the bottom of the mountain, 20min away. It is full on summer in Vernon. We had ice cream and lounged in the sun at one of the gorgeous parks in the area. It was our first taste of summer this year and everyone was pumped.
After this camp I head home to good old Pakenham for 2 weeks of real summer—none of this mountain summer snow-until-June stuff. I miss the heat and the humidity. I am looking forward to green grass, the hammock, some time with my family and friends and of course a good solid game of euchre.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Nationals Crash!
Some readers were disappointed that I didn't do any stick drawing of my crash during the sprints at nationals, but I can do one better. One of our famous wax techs, Tony Stephen, captured the entire event. Here are Tony's pictures:
I am the second person in the photo...Still on my feet.
Turning looks good...
Woman down! Check out the snow flying!
I got a little tangled in the snow fence.
Trying to shake it off and get back on my feet. I was a little confused at this point. It all happened so fast!
Okay, back on my feet.
Back in the race.
I am the second person in the photo...Still on my feet.
Turning looks good...
Woman down! Check out the snow flying!
I got a little tangled in the snow fence.
Trying to shake it off and get back on my feet. I was a little confused at this point. It all happened so fast!
Okay, back on my feet.
Back in the race.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
End of Season/ Start of Season
Yeah, I know… What is the point of having a blog if you aren’t going to update it? A good question, but it’s a new season with new goals and one of them is to keep my blog up to date.
The final races of last season saw quite an improvement in my skiing and my results. I really can say that not making World U23 Championships was truly a blessing in disguise. Not going to Europe made me realize that I could no longer let any of the little things in my training and technique slide. It was time to break everything down and work long and hard on my weak areas.
All that hard work began to pay off when I won the sprint at Western Canadian Championships and came 3rd in both distance races. That was the extra little boost in confidence that I needed going into Canadian National Championships in Duntroon, Ontario.
We saw every different kind of weather imaginable in Duntroon throughout the week, but that didn’t stop the Academy from performing at the highest standards. Everybody on the team came out strong and lucky I was one of them. I had some of my best distance races even in the skating events which is by far my weaker technique. Then, on sprint day, I qualified first. To be honest I have never qualified first in a NorAm sprint event before. That was a pretty big high for me. At the end of the sprint day I was 5th because of a fall in the A final (3rd Canadian). I got to bring home my first senior nationals medal and it is hanging here in my room as I write this. (To read more about nationals or check out some pictures follow this link http://www.albertaworldcup.com/main.php?p=44&s=4 to the Academy web page)
Now the new season is about to start and I am pumped! The new AWCA team will be chosen in the next week and I am excited to meet the new team. I have some big goals this year and I am ready to start tackling them.
I’ll let you know about the new team as soon as I have heard!
~Kate
The final races of last season saw quite an improvement in my skiing and my results. I really can say that not making World U23 Championships was truly a blessing in disguise. Not going to Europe made me realize that I could no longer let any of the little things in my training and technique slide. It was time to break everything down and work long and hard on my weak areas.
All that hard work began to pay off when I won the sprint at Western Canadian Championships and came 3rd in both distance races. That was the extra little boost in confidence that I needed going into Canadian National Championships in Duntroon, Ontario.
We saw every different kind of weather imaginable in Duntroon throughout the week, but that didn’t stop the Academy from performing at the highest standards. Everybody on the team came out strong and lucky I was one of them. I had some of my best distance races even in the skating events which is by far my weaker technique. Then, on sprint day, I qualified first. To be honest I have never qualified first in a NorAm sprint event before. That was a pretty big high for me. At the end of the sprint day I was 5th because of a fall in the A final (3rd Canadian). I got to bring home my first senior nationals medal and it is hanging here in my room as I write this. (To read more about nationals or check out some pictures follow this link http://www.albertaworldcup.com/main.php?p=44&s=4 to the Academy web page)
Now the new season is about to start and I am pumped! The new AWCA team will be chosen in the next week and I am excited to meet the new team. I have some big goals this year and I am ready to start tackling them.
I’ll let you know about the new team as soon as I have heard!
~Kate
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
What Do I Do Now?
I am one of those people who thinks that everything happens for a reason—the good, the bad, and everything in between. I believe that the Big Man upstairs needs us to go through these ups and downs so that we can grow and learn and come out the other end even stronger.
Since my last update I raced my last two races at World Under 23 trials in Canmore. My pursuit race was horrible. It was probably the worst race that I have had in years. I was battling the one year anniversary of my former coach’s death and I really wanted to have a good race to make him proud. But with all that on my mind I went out way too hard and suffered for the last half of the race.
I had to refocus for the sprints the next day, but in my semi final I just got nudged out of making the final and kissed my ticket to U23s away.
So for the last week I have been trying to scrape all of the pieces back together and decide what to do next. It has been a bit of a daunting task. With setbacks like these they always make you stop and take a hard look at what you’re doing. Where did I go wrong? What can I change? Should I even keep trying? All of these questions and millions more have filtered through my brain this week. What do I do now?
To be honest I took a day to file through all my options. By the end of that day I had come to terms with the fact that I would be spending the rest of my season in Canada, but I had also come to terms with the fact that it was okay. It is an opportunity in disguise. I have a chance to pursue other types of goals. I can pick up a little more school. I can do all of the races that I have been missing out on the last few years that I have gone to Europe. I can get some solid training in here at home and work on all the things that are holding me back so that they don’t hold me back when it really counts. I have an opportunity to take this so called disaster and make the most of a miserable situation. I can choose to sit back and except defeat or rise to the challenge.
In a sport like skiing, it sometimes feels like if you miss a step or an opportunity along the way that it is virtually impossible to make it to the next one.
It feels like there is no way that you could possibly make it past this point on the stairway to the top because now there is a gapping hole in the staircase.
But if you take the time to learn from your mistakes and become stronger you can build up that stairway again.
And when the next opportunity comes along you will be ready to make it to the top.
My next opportunity is in the form of a world cup race in Whistler this Friday. I have been chosen to race as part of the national group just like last year. I am pretty proud and excited to race against the rest of the world at the 2010 Olympic venue. It should be fun to rip around that course knowing that the very best in the world will be lining up there next year.
Hope you enjoyed my drawings!
Since my last update I raced my last two races at World Under 23 trials in Canmore. My pursuit race was horrible. It was probably the worst race that I have had in years. I was battling the one year anniversary of my former coach’s death and I really wanted to have a good race to make him proud. But with all that on my mind I went out way too hard and suffered for the last half of the race.
I had to refocus for the sprints the next day, but in my semi final I just got nudged out of making the final and kissed my ticket to U23s away.
So for the last week I have been trying to scrape all of the pieces back together and decide what to do next. It has been a bit of a daunting task. With setbacks like these they always make you stop and take a hard look at what you’re doing. Where did I go wrong? What can I change? Should I even keep trying? All of these questions and millions more have filtered through my brain this week. What do I do now?
To be honest I took a day to file through all my options. By the end of that day I had come to terms with the fact that I would be spending the rest of my season in Canada, but I had also come to terms with the fact that it was okay. It is an opportunity in disguise. I have a chance to pursue other types of goals. I can pick up a little more school. I can do all of the races that I have been missing out on the last few years that I have gone to Europe. I can get some solid training in here at home and work on all the things that are holding me back so that they don’t hold me back when it really counts. I have an opportunity to take this so called disaster and make the most of a miserable situation. I can choose to sit back and except defeat or rise to the challenge.
In a sport like skiing, it sometimes feels like if you miss a step or an opportunity along the way that it is virtually impossible to make it to the next one.
It feels like there is no way that you could possibly make it past this point on the stairway to the top because now there is a gapping hole in the staircase.
But if you take the time to learn from your mistakes and become stronger you can build up that stairway again.
And when the next opportunity comes along you will be ready to make it to the top.
My next opportunity is in the form of a world cup race in Whistler this Friday. I have been chosen to race as part of the national group just like last year. I am pretty proud and excited to race against the rest of the world at the 2010 Olympic venue. It should be fun to rip around that course knowing that the very best in the world will be lining up there next year.
Hope you enjoyed my drawings!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Trials- 10km Skate
Well, all in all it wasn't my finest day at the office, but I was happy with how I skied. Skating is something that I have been working on and I think that this race shows that it has come along a bit this year which is encouraging. I was the 5th Canadian U23 skier (11th overall) today so that doesn't set me up well to be chosen for U23 championships but there are still 2 more races.
It was exciting to see some of my training buddies and teammates step up and excel today. Sara Hewitt and Marlis Kromm both had exceptional races finishing as the 2nd U23 and 1st junior racers respectively. It was pretty cool to get to celebrate with them a bit today.
Now, after a cool down, a cold bath for my legs, and a big lunch I am well on my way to being recovered for tomorrows 15km pursuit. Hopefully tomorrow is a little more promising.
It was exciting to see some of my training buddies and teammates step up and excel today. Sara Hewitt and Marlis Kromm both had exceptional races finishing as the 2nd U23 and 1st junior racers respectively. It was pretty cool to get to celebrate with them a bit today.
Now, after a cool down, a cold bath for my legs, and a big lunch I am well on my way to being recovered for tomorrows 15km pursuit. Hopefully tomorrow is a little more promising.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Too Cold!
Well, my first World U23 trials race was supposed to be yesterday but due to cold weather I spent the day sleeping in, playing cards, and doing a little ski just to get some training in. The 15km pursuit has now been moved to Monday meaning that I will race the next 3 days back to back to try and qualify to represent Canada in France.
It wasn't much warmer today, but when the sun came out the temperature started to climb from the frigid -31 Celsiuses that we woke up to. Today's race at the Canmore Nordic Centre was a skate sprint that was used as a qualifier for World Senior Championships. It would have been fun to race it, but with my main focus being World U23s I decided that resting would be a better choice.
Tomorrow I race a 10km individual start skate race on a pretty tough course. I am excited to race and pretty nervous. You can find results full results at www.zone4.ca .
It wasn't much warmer today, but when the sun came out the temperature started to climb from the frigid -31 Celsiuses that we woke up to. Today's race at the Canmore Nordic Centre was a skate sprint that was used as a qualifier for World Senior Championships. It would have been fun to race it, but with my main focus being World U23s I decided that resting would be a better choice.
Tomorrow I race a 10km individual start skate race on a pretty tough course. I am excited to race and pretty nervous. You can find results full results at www.zone4.ca .
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