Kate Brennan

Racing With the Flu

2010-01-28T09:26:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was a rough day for me. I woke up at 1:30am with another stomach bug. I had a very sore stomach and was able to get back to sleep after a couple of hours but woke up in the morning still feeling like I could hurl at any moment.

I made it to the race site telling myself that I would allow myself to race as long as I didn't throw up and was able to stay on my feet during warm-up. Warm-up proved to be slow but possible, so I burped my way to the start line, did a few running sprints, and went for it.

Racing with the flu was a weird feeling... almost an out of body experience. My brain was so focused on keeping everything in equilibrium that I hardly even noticed the chorus of cheers coming from the crowd lining the course or the advise that our coaches were shouting. I just knew that I had to race 3 laps of the course, keep up a pretty solid pace, keep from red lining early in the race, and not let anything else get under my skin because I was just barely holding on. So I blocked everything else out and just raced. Me, my skis, and the snow.

Classic skiing comes pretty naturally to me (I know, I know, cocky, but it's kinda true) so it was pretty easy for me to just put my body into auto pilot and ski. I finished the race in 22nd, walked back to the wax room and lay on the floor until someone could drive us home. I made it home, climbed the stairs to my room, walked right into the bathroom and puked.

This wasn't exactly how I had planned to race yesterday, but it just goes to show you that if you want something bad enough you can do it under any circumstances. Hopefully my body will be feeling a lot better in tomorrow's 15km pursuit!

World U23 Championships so far...

2010-01-27T01:37:00.000-08:00

Both the Juniors and the U23 athletes have each had a day of competition now at their respective world championships. The juniors raced their sprint competition 2 days ago and the U23s raced yesterday.

Team Canada has had a bit of a rough go over here. Almost every athlete has had some version of the flu lasting from 8hrs to 3-4 days. Now our wax techs are starting to get sick too. I myself had a pretty mild version of it 4 days ago. It hasn't been great for overall team moral, but I have been impressed with the way that everyone has handled the situation. It isn't very much fun having the flu at home, but when you are traveling it sucks even worst but nobody has let it get them really down.

We have already seen some solid results. My team mate Heidi Widmer posted a 15th place in the junior women's qualifiers on Monday and finished up 22nd after a heart breaker of a fall in her quarter final. The other 3 junior women and the 4 junior men narrowly missed qualifying for the heats.

In U23 competition our men's team led the way with 3 men qualifying and Len Valjas finishing 9th. I qualified 15th after a bit of a spastic qualifier. I was nervous and it showed in the way the i was skiing. I rushed my strides and got a little tangled up with myself a few times, but I was happy to qualify and make it into the heats.

I felt like I skied my quarter final heat well. I was in second for 2/3 of the race, and both uphill climbs which are not normally my strong point. The European sprinters are much more aggressive in the sprint heats and just staying on your feet with everyone jostling you around and stepping on your equipment is a feat. I held my ground in the sprint, but got a little turned around when a girl stomped on my pole and tugged me backwards and then I lost concentration for just a few seconds and the race was over. I was still happy with the way that I skied it, but just wished that I had been able to finish a little stronger. I finished the day in 21st position. Only one other Canadian women, Emily Nishikawa, started yesterday's race. Emily finished in 27th position after battling with a cold these last couple of days.

I race a 10km classic tomorrow. I am excited to go out there and hammer up those hills. It is a tough course, but I think that it will be fun. We'll see...

Sci di Fondo

2010-01-18T06:35:00.000-08:00

Ciao!

So I am beyond overdue for an update here. Let's start from where I left off...

Olympic Trials: 7th in both sprint events. I qualified 5th on day one then 3rd on day two. I was pretty excited about those results, but they weren't enough to qualify me for the Olympics.

From Trials I went home to Pakenham for a short Christmas break with my family.

On January 30th my buddy Pate picked me up and we drove from the Ottawa area to Quebec city for world under-23 (U23) qualification races.

I was 7th (3rd U23) in the 15km pursuit. That was the race that I was least looking forward to because it was the longest, hardest, and involved 50% skate technique... my weaker technique. Day 2 of racing in Quebec was the skate sprints. I qualified as the top skier in my category, but ran out of steam in a big way for the B finals. I pushed so hard in my semi final to try and make it into the A final but just missed an A final position but cemtimeters for the 2nd year in a row. This meant that I had to race the B final and win it, but I bombed it hard.

I went home after that race pretty shaken up. I felt like I had blown my shot at the world championships for a 2nd year in a row. We had a rest day after that race before or final race--a 10km classic technique.

When I woke up on the 10km day I kinda felt relieved. No one really counts me as a contender for a distance race anymore and it felt nice to have no one expecting anything of me. I knew that I could handle this race 2 ways. I could just give up or I could just throw caution to the wind and really go for it. I love classic skiing so I decided that today would be my day. I hit the trails and hammered for the entire race. I ended up 4th overall and 2nd U23. The top 3 women are all going to the olympics for distance races and I finished right behind then! I was pretty happy. the fun thing was that I didn't really care how my results looked I just knew that I had skied a good hard race and tried my very best and at the end I was happy with it no matter where i ended up on the results.

My 2 good distance results were enough to qualify me for the Under 23 world champs in Hinterzarten, Germany! Right now I am sitting in my hotel room in Livigno, Italy where we are staying for 4 days before we head to Hinterzarten for the championships.

Team Canada arrived in Europe on the 14th and spent the first few days in our home away from home in the Hinterzarten area. We raced 2 days after arriving and that was a weird experience. I was so jet lagged on the start line! I qualified first in the German cup sprint that we were competing in but ended up 8th at the end of the day. 8th and totally sleep depreieved! I was shaking because I was so tired, hungry and confused. I found that there was about a 3 second lag between the time that my brain would decide to do something and the time that it took my body to react. A bit of an out of body experience!

We start World champs in about a week. Stay tuned for updates!

Olympic Sprint Trials

2009-12-19T15:55:00.000-08:00

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

First Race

2009-11-26T15:33:00.000-08:00

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

Praise You- Fat Boy Slim

2009-09-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

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.

John Lennon- Arkells

2009-07-30T19:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Take a Minute- K'Naan

2009-07-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

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.

And... We're Off!!!

2009-05-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Nationals Crash!

2009-04-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

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.

End of Season/ Start of Season

2009-04-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

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

What Do I Do Now?

2009-01-14T18:08:00.000-08:00

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!

Trials- 10km Skate

2009-01-04T13:22:00.000-08:00

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.

Too Cold!

2009-01-03T16:45:00.000-08:00

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 .

The Countdown Is On...

2008-12-30T12:07:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-10T17:13:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-06T17:07:00.000-08:00

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!

Amateur Hour

2008-09-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

In sport, you always hear about athletes that suffer an injury then start to recover, only to injure themselves again because they didn’t give themselves enough time to recover. I always thought that this was a pretty amateur move. Athletes get injuries. It happens. But, as athletes we know that it takes time to recover from these injuries and you have to be smart about it.

I have spent the last year and a half trying to recover from a hip overuse injury. It took probably a year of this time to actually figure out what was causing the problem, but with the years of support from my home town chiropractor and the new ideas and tons of support from my medical team out here in Canmore I finally got some relief late this summer. A year and a half of physio, massage, chiropractor, and doctors appointments all seemed worth while when I finally got to lace up my runners and hit the trails with my team mates on our last trip up to the Haig this summer. For a kid who ran track and cross country all through high school it sure felt good to be able to run again. All of a sudden my hip didn’t hurt anymore and I was pumped…

…Maybe a little too pumped. After sitting out on team runs, hikes and ski walks for over a year I was pretty stoked to be back in the mix and included on these adventures. So this week when I looked a the schedule and saw that the team was doing a 4 hour run from Canmore to Banff and up Sulfur Mountain I was excited. You would think that some kind of little red light would go off in the back of my mind or that some little voice would say “Kate after doing almost no running for over a year do you really think that this is a good idea?”. But, alas, my little shoulder angel was turned off this week.

I made it about 2hrs pain free then things went downhill. I finished the workout but felt like an idiot. What an amateur move. Of course I wasn’t ready for 4 hours of running. Hindsight is 20/20 though. I couldn’t sleep that night because my hip was so sore again. I was feeling pretty rough the next day too. I guess I was just so excited to be feeling better that I rushed the rest of my recovery process. One and a half years of work for 3 weeks pain free. This thought made me really stop and think. I have worked so hard at getting back to 100% and now I have a chance to keep it this way. I now have the skills and knowledge to make my hip feel better and I know that I can do that. I also know that I am NOT going to take another year and a half to figure out how to keep it feeling that way. I made a mistake, but I defiantly learned from it. I am not going to screw it up again.

Summer is Over

2008-09-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

2 weeks on family vacation in Maine, a training camp in Kananaskis Valley, a quick trip to the Haig and the summer is over!

It feels like the summer has just rushed on by and winter is just around the corner. We have already had a dusting of snow here in Canmore (along with 25cm of fresh powder for our weekend on the glacier). Each morning I head out my door into a frosty atmosphere. I can’t believe how fast summer disappeared!

It’s nice to have the cold weather though. I like when my cheeks are rosy and my ears are beat red. As a skier, you notice yourself and your teammates become a little more focused and serious once the temperature starts to drop. For most of us, the fall means some pretty intense training. I was roller skiing the loop up at the Nordic Centre here in Canmore a few days ago and there were at least four different teams doing intervals. It’s pretty cool to be out west surrounded by such a huge group of hard working skiers. There certainly isn’t a lack of enthusiasm out here!

The snow is on its way and we are going to be ready when it gets here. 11 more weeks until we line up to race in Callaghan Valley!

Haig Glacier Camp

2008-07-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

After a spending a week smelling the sweet wafting smells of burning poop and hand sanitizer, playing every card game known to man, and living above the tree line in a moon-like environment, I am home from skiing on the Haig glacier.

The glacier was awesome this year. We had perfect weather, great skiing conditions, and awesome food (thanks John and Joel!) the entire week.

I went into this camp a little leery. I have never made it through a glacier camp without getting sick and I was worried that this trip up would be just the same as usual. I had to hike in while the rest of the team ran because of my continual hip problems, but on my solo journey through bear country I had time to think about what I wanted to take out of this week. I knew that Mike (my coach) had a tough week set up for all of us and was expecting me to bring my game face. I knew that the high altitude would be hard on my body both on and off my skis. And I knew that I would have to step up all my recovery techniques to be able to pull through the week. That said, I also knew that I had an amazing opportunity to pull my training together on snow. I was going to go skiing in July! That’s cool.

The altitude does funny things to my body. It obviously makes my heart rate higher as my body works harder to obtain the needed oxygen. I find it more difficult to sleep and stay hydrated. I also have a problem eating enough food to make it through the night which means that I have to bring a snack to bed that I pull out around 2am.

The first few days of skiing were amazing. I skied my first ever 3hr ski on the glacier and made some huge improvements in my technique work. I immediately noticed that my heart rate was easily 10 to 15 beats lower than last year on the glacier. I have been working hard to bring my fitness level up and waiting for this to happen and it was so exciting to see that all my hard work this spring has paid off.

But, it wasn’t until the 4th day up there that I made my biggest accomplishment. In the core workout, the afternoon after my second 3hr ski day, I opted to do one more set of the core routine with the older girls on the team. It seems like a tiny little thing that anybody could have chosen, but to me it was big. It meant that I was feeling healthy enough to handle a little more, but it also meant that I was stepping up to the plate. I decided to push myself a little harder, to take one more step closer to my goals this year. Then after the core I did 12 pull-ups without stopping! That is the most that I have ever done in one go and that was after 4.5 hours of training that day! I was pumped. While I pushed out the watts on the stationary bike for my cool down I could feel my heart pumping and all of a sudden I realized how pumped I am for this coming race season.

I made it through the entire camp without getting sick and now I have one more though week before I get a nice rest. This week will probably see some tough days where I don’t feel my best, but as Mike says “You will have to travel through the valley of death”. It’s all a part of training.

I don’t think that I have ever felt this excited about racing. I am 100% in this year. I want to race, I want to compete at the best of my abilities, and I want to have fun out there. I am excited about my progress already this year and can’t wait to jump right back into training tomorrow and bust out some tough intervals. Bring it on!

The camp. We hike all the way up to the top left-hand side of this picture to do our skiing!

Practicing some lunges to the line. Hopefully by race season this will be a little better!

The AWCA team!

What's Up?

2008-07-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

So I figured that I should write a little update here before I head up to the glacier in a few hours seeing as my last post sounded like I was dying. I am not dead.

I had a pretty sweet rest week in which I got to head down to Montana to enjoy the July 4th weekend with some new friends here in Canmore. That was amazing. Then I had a kind of average week of training here in Canmore.

Now, I am actually heading up to the glacier in an hour. The team goes up to the Haig glacier for 1 week of on snow training at altitude. It is a pretty awesome training opportunity and I am very excited. I will be sure to let you all know about it when I get back!

Ciao!

But I am Les Tired!

2008-06-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

Today has been a hard day. We had a rollerskiing sprint workout this morning and then a short bike ride with agility and core this afternoon. I feel pretty rundown and overall pooped. I feel even more tired than the day that I biked halfway up to the nordic centre and then realized that I was wearing my PJs underneath my warm-ups, not my clothes for the weight workout!

So I am going to take’er easy tomorrow. I was supposed to do a three hour road bike, but I think I will cut than down—by a lot. Depending on how I feel in the next 12 hours I will probably do about an hour tomorrow really easy then spend the rest of the day pounding the food, water, and vitamins along with some solid stretching and other recovery techniques to help my body through this little rough patch. I just feel incredibly rundown from all the training, but I am lucky that I caught it before I got sick (knock on wood).

Here are the signs that start to show up when I get really tired and rundown and make me realize that I shouldn’t just try to push through it:

1. I stop communicating—with my coach, with everyone around me, and with myself. (I just looked at my ilog today and I haven’t filled it out for almost 5 days.)
2. I get really cranky at workouts, and then all of a sudden I get really quiet because it takes too much energy to even complain. (Let’s just say that today’s afternoon workout was not my finest hour. Sorry team mates!)
3. I am not hungry. No matter how much training I am doing I just don’t seem that interested in food, but as soon as I start eating my meal I realize that I am famished. (Supper tonight was a gorge fest.)
4. Normal, everyday activities like brushing my teeth or taking a shower seem to take me twice the amount of time. (It took me 30min to make a simple salad tonight!)
5. I don’t really feel like doing anything. (Right about now, I would rather sit down on my bed and stare at the wall than even watch TV.)
6. My resting HR gets really low, but my ruskos become really sporadic.
7. I start to forget little things (like what I was doing) and find it really frusterating. 8. Life seems a little less fun than usual.

Now, this list may seem depressing, but I know that with a solid few days of rest, or however long it takes to recover, I will be up and at it in no time. I am not worried, just tired. Hey, it happens. I am an athlete.

So, to all my fellow skiers, I encourage you to make a list like mine so that you know when to take a step back and listen to what your body is telling you. Don’t ever let it get too far because skiing is supposed to be fun. Don’t change that!

Do You Feel Fit?

2008-06-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

This was the question posed to me as I crested the top of a hill at the nordic centre yesterday by my coach, Mike Cavaliere. I thought about my answer as Mike pricked my finger for a blood lactate test.

Do I feel fit? I am in good shape. I’m healthy. I have been doing a ton of training. But do I feel fit? My answer was: “I wouldn’t say that I am ready to hop right back into racing, but I do feel pretty good.”

I have been doing a lot of long biking workouts and double polling to try and make my heart stronger and have been working out at the gym a couple times a week with a pretty intense weight schedule. Those two things have been pushing my body right to its limits which is pretty cool. I’ve been cramming in the sleep, naps and stretching to try and recover in time for the next workout.

Then just yesterday, I had an interval workout and I felt great! I felt like I could have gone forever and even asked Mike if I could do another interval (the answer was no haha). It’s pretty cool that this new training program that I am on can work me so hard, but leave me feeling great at the end of these big weeks.

I am excited for what this means for the racing season!

Testing Week! AHHHH!!!!

2008-06-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

This week is the AWCA testing week. So far I have endured a VO2 Max test, the uphill double poll test, a physio assessment, and I still have one more time trial tomorrow—the skate uphill test.

The VO2 max test was quite the experience. VO2 max is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and utilize oxygen during incremental exercise, which reflects the physical fitness of the individual (Wikipedia). This was my first time doing this test, and because of my continued hip problems, I, unlike all my team mates, had to do it on a bike.

Before the test, the staff at TCR Sport Lab took our body fat readings, weight, height, blood pressure and a few other readings. Then I hopped onto the stationary bike that was hooked up to a computer and got to do a virtual ride through some random desert. It was pretty cool. The giant computer screen in front of me showed me riding uphills and down. When I would go uphill it would get harder to pedal and when I rode down it would get easier.

Then for the actual test, they strapped on the breathing tube apparatus and plugged my nose. The tube runs through a computer which measures ventilation, oxygen, and carbon dioxide concentrations in both the inhaled and exhaled air.

They started me off very easily and increased my workload by 20 watts every 3min, telling me to keep my RPMs at 85-90 or they would stop my test. Once I hit a certain point, the watts were increased by 20 every minute until I could not keep my RPMs in the appropriate range. At first the breathing tube didn’t bother me at all and I barely noticed the change in wattage every 3 minutes, but then I basically hit the wall and suffered through the last few minutes of my test.

As for my results, let’s just say that I won’t be chasing down Lance Armstrong anytime soon. My heart rate hit 207 which surprised the lab pros and my VO2 was on the low side for an athlete which isn’t great, but what it really means is that I am not in good biking shape. Duh, I already know that. Throw me on roller skis and let me try that again! But it did help to clarify my training zones and it also found that my body is basically only burning carbohydrates when I train or race. This means that I cannot go for very long without eating because my body just completely runs out of energy. This also means that I probably don’t do very well at distance events. True. To fix this problem, and the problem of my high heart rate, I have been instructed to do lots of long, slow, zone 1 (aerobic) training. This will strengthen my heart and let it beat slower, more powerful, beats and give my body time to dip into fat reserves and learn how to burn that kind of energy as well.

So all in all it was a great training tool and a neat experience. I look forward to doing it again because now I know what it is all about. I hope that next time I can do it running or roller skiing to get an accurate result, but for now I will be out there pounding out the hours to try and teach my body what it is supposed to do!

Bye for now!

Rising Up To The Challenge

2008-05-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

Wow! A lot has happened since my last update. I am back from the winter wonderland, formally know as Silver Star, where the team was doing some amazing spring skiing, and I am all settled in to my new place in Canmore, AB.

We are 100% back into the swing of summer training now. We have been doing a ton of gym workouts with our new strength coach, Rob Soffer, that have left me feeling a little sore, but stronger. We have been doing some technique on roller skis which is defiantly making me realize that I have some work to do before I hit the snow again. I even went for a road ride.

The road ride was a bold move on my part because after owning my road bike for a year now I have only been on one ride that was 3+ hours and let’s just say that that was not a positive experience…and that was on relatively flat terrain. So on Sunday, when my team mates, Sara Hewitt and Rhonda Jewett, convinced me into another long ride I was a little hesitant. Basically I was scared that I a) wouldn’t be able to keep up or b) would get so tired and fatigued that it would become another one of those horrible biking experiences where it felt like I was fighting for my life out there (formally known as bonking). But, I decided that I needed to give this biking thing another shot.

So, decked out in all my Fresh Air gear, I lathered on the sunscreen and climbed back onto my bike on Sunday morning. Rhonda and Sara broke the wind the entire way to Banff for me as I tucked in behind them, trying to save energy and not get left behind. We made it to Banff in one piece (there was a moment there when I wasn’t sure that that would be the outcome when I had to go over a Texas gate on my road bike…) and then decided to do the Tunnel Mountain loop. I tucked in behind the girls again and had a quick snack as we picked our way through the gaggles of tourists on our upwards trek. The landscape was gorgeous and I enjoyed climbing the hill and checking out all the reasons why people congregate in the Banff area on their holidays. The decent was a little tricky, with lots of twisting road and quite a few slow moving vehicles filled with people propping up their cameras to take pictures of the mountains. We made it down, did a quick loop through town, then Sara and I continued on to do the Minnewanka loop which climbs back out of Banff up to Minnewanka Lake. Another quick stop for a snack, and we were grinding up another mountain. This is where I really enjoyed my day. All of a sudden I realized that I was still feeling good and was able to keep up with Sara and even lead a bit. That was pretty cool. I was still alive after 2hrs of riding! We saw some bighorn sheep that came stampeding down the mountainside and forced us to slam on the breaks which was scary, but kind of neat. Then we made the 17km trek back to Canmore from Banff with a sweet tail wind. I was so exhausted when we pulled into the driveway, but happy. I did it! I made it! 3hrs on my bike and I lived to tell the tail (I know that may not seem like a lot to some people, but for me it is a feat).

Kate: 1 Bike: 0. Bring it bike. I’m ready.

AWCA In the News!

2008-05-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

This is the first team picture of the new AWCA crew (of course I am the only one not looking at the camera...)!

Also, check out these recent newspaper articles on the team!

Canmore Leader Article: http://www.canmoreleader.com/Sports/398996.html

Rocky Mountain Outlook Article: http://www.albertalocalnews.com/rockymountainoutlook/sports/18765464.html

The Alberta World Cup Academy

2008-05-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

I have made the move from NTDC Thunder Bay to Canmore, AB where I am now part of the Alberta World Cup Academy team. It is a new program this year that has attracted many high performance athletes from Alberta, BC, and Ontario.

I am currently sitting at our kitchen table in Silver Star, BC where we are having our first training camp of the year! Silver Star is just outside of Vernon. We are at a fairly high altitude here so there is still tons of snow for us to ski on. It is so incredible to be skiing in May. I have never skied at this time of year before. It is warm and sunny so I don’t have to ever worry about getting cold. Actually the conditions are kind of like the what the European conditions are like all winter.

Today I skied at Sovereign Lake Nordic and the conditions were unbelievable. We can use our good skis and everything! My heart rate was pretty high from the altitude and all of the traveling in the last couple of days, so I decided to just ski for an hour and a half but loved every minute of it. I did a lot of technique work and now my butt is really sore!

The new team is awesome. I don’t think that I have ever been on a team with so many high caliber women to train with. It is really amazing to get to see how they train and learn from them. I am really excited to be here and can’t wait to see how this season turns out!

The End

2008-04-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

So my season is over. The 30km race at nationals was not a pleasant way to end it. I was exhausted, on antibiotics for a sinus infection, and my wax/skis were not right for the conditions. I had way too much grip for my first 7.5km lap. The snow was stuck inches thick on the bottom of my skis until Eric de Nys put down a piece of wood for me to ski over that basically took all the built up snow and wax off my skis. That was really nice, but I was already exhausted by then so I just wandered the rest of my race and finished off a tough season with a tough race.

Now I am in the midst of trying to make decisions for next year. Where to go? What to do? The Cross Country Canada annual general meeting is this weekend so hopefully some big decisions will be made there that help me decide what I am going to do next year.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all my sponsors and supporters. Thank you to my equipment sponsors Madshus, One Way, and Alpina. A special thanks to my financial sponsors Kanata Cross Country Ski Club, Pakenham Civitan Club, and the Pakenham Royal Bank. Thanks for helping me chase my Olympic dreams.

~Kate

Nationals So Far...

2008-03-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hey Hey!

So we have raced 3 races here at nationals in Callaghan Valley at the 2010 Olympic venue. I raced the team sprint, a 5km classic, and a 10km skate. The two last races sucked. There really isn't any other word for it. We raced on hairries (waxless skis) for the classic race because the conditions here are so crazy. It keeps snowing, raining, getting cloudy, clearing up, and that is just in one hour. I have never skied on hairries before so it was a bit tricky for me. I need some practice. The skate race didn't go so great either. I felt okay, but it was snowing really hard and my balance was way off. Something else to work on.

But the team sprint was money! I raced it with my Kanata Racers team mate, Danielle McVicar who raced up in the open category so that we could have a team. We did great and had a good time. We won our semi final heat and headed into the finals. We gave it our all in the finals later that day and ended up 6th overall. We pushed really hard and had some great lap times. It was pretty cool getting to race the Americans Kikkan Randall (who won a sprint world cup this year) and Laura Valas (who won U23 Championships last year). It was also fun getting to catch up with Danielle and spend the day with my old team mates. I have really missed them this year. Overall it was a great day and I know that Heinz would have been proud of how well we skied.

2 more races to go: a sprint and my first 30km ever! Should be sweet!

Italia and Some History

2008-02-27T06:24:00.000-08:00

So I raced my second race here at U23s yesterday. I placed a pretty solid 35th. It very warm 10km classic race. When the womens race ended it was a balmy 24 degrees in the sun. Boiling. I do not think that I have ever been so hot in a ski race before. A big thanks to our amazing wax techs who pulled off some of the best skis I have raced on all year. There were a few girls slipping out there in the sun, but the Canadians were not among them.

Today I decided to take a break from skiing. I already know the race course for tomorrows 15km skate race and my body could use a break from the high altitude at the race site. So a few of my team mate and I decided to go for a run and check out a few of the WW1 bunkers that are barily visible on our drive up to the race site. What a crazy experience.''

The bunkers are huge cement hills covered in dirt and grass. They just look like little hills in the fields but as you get close there are gun holes and little doors that are partially filled in with bricks and dirt. We ran around them and checked out the scene, thinking back to when these buildings were swarming with soldiers.

Of course we decided to go inside and check it out a little more. The five of us stayed very close in the dark confines of the bunker. We thought that it would be just a large open room but with one step inside we realized that it was a maze of tunnels that lead upwards and deep into the ground. With one flashlight, we all stayed within an arms length of one another and ventured in. It was increadibly creepy. It was a lot warmer in the bunker than outside and really quiet. There were ladders that lead down to other floors and stairs that lead up. We found one dead cat that was all dried up and 2D, but no sign of any other animals. The dead cat that I almost stepped on in the dark was enough for me. We negotiated our way back out of the underground maze and headed for fresh air and sunlight.

It was really cool to get to check out such a foreign part of history but I am really glad that I do not have to live down there.

Hopefully tomorrow will be just as exciting!

U23 Sprints

2008-02-24T04:44:00.000-08:00

So I just raced my first under 23 world championship race here in Schlinig, Italy this morning. It was a 1.3km skate sprint. I placed 32. I was just 0.68 seconds out of qualifying for the heats. SO CLOSE!!! I am very happy with my race. I raced it to the best of my abilities.

It was so exciting to go out and race today after the amazing performance of the Canadian team junior athletes yesterday. 7/8 of our junior racers qualified yesterday. They set the bar high and all the U23 athletes just went out there today trying to keep up the great performances. 3 U23 athletes qualified (2 in the top 10!). Congrats to Peri, Amanda, and Brent!

The temperature here has climbed to somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees celcius for the last two days ao we are skiing in some unusual conditions. It is pretty weird to cross the finish line and change out of my race suit into a t-shirt and shorts. Apparently it is supposed to snow in 2 days... yeah right.

The town of Mals (where we are staying) is awesome. This is my first world championships where we have actually stayed right in a town. There is a real sense of community. We see all the little kids rollerblading on the cobblestones (it's really funny) to school and comming home for lunch. Our hotel is right above a little bakery. It is pretty sweet. Everyone has been really nice to our entire team and the meals have been fabulous.

I race again on Tuesday. We have a 10km classic race. Tommorow our juniors race their distance classic races. Good luck!

Livigno, Italy (2300m!!!)

2008-02-19T07:45:00.000-08:00

Pate and I out for a ski here in Livigno.

Hey Everybody,

Well, I am sitting here enjoying a little downtime. The entire Canadian team went down to Bormio to do a little shopping and sight seeing, but I am sitting here listening to Jack Johnson and doing homework. Lame. I know, but I have to do it some time!

Our trip has been great so far. We are staying just outside of Livigno until Thursday to do some training and acclimatization. The altitude here is unbelivable. Our hotel is well above the tree line! It's nuts. The sun is so strong that I can't leave the building without first applying a layer of SPF 30. The first few days I was having trouble breathing even when I was lying down. I had to sleep with my mouth open.

The jet lag hasn't been to bad this time. Today is the first day that the 6hr time difference is really causing me trouble. I am very tired and hungry at all the wrong times. In a few days the old system should straighten out.

The food has been awesome and the hotel staff have been very helpful and patient as we try to sign language things to them. One of the servers only knows my name out of everybody because he uses me to translate. Apparently knowing english and some french qualifies me for this position. It is pretty funny.

I will try to keep my blog updated throughout the races, but internet access is limited and very slow. It has taken me 40min to load these pictures!

Today's "piste sci". Amazing.

NTDC teammates Butler, Lenny, and Jesse all decked out in their Canada gear.

The February Update

2008-02-10T07:26:00.000-08:00

Wow! A lot has happened since my last update. Last time I posted an update I was right in the middle of the World Cup races in Canmore. My world cup experience for this year is now over, but I am ramping up for my next big races: Under 23 (U23) World Championships. As many of you know, these races were supposed to be held in Poland immediately after the World Cups in Canmore, but due to a lack of snow (kind of important in this sport) the championships have been postponed to Feb. 25th to March 2nd and moved to Mals, Italy.

After the change in scheduling, I was going to compete in the Eastern Canadian Championships at Nakkertok Nordic, but during my stay in Canmore I slipped on some ice and twisted my knee very slightly. I wasn’t too worried about it, but when I got home it was still sore a week later and I had trouble straightening my knee and it even hurt when I slept. So after a quick chiropractor/physio appointment I found out that I had bruised or slightly torn the cartilage on the outside of my left knee. I decided to take time off to let my little injury heal. I took 6 out of 8 days off after Canmore just resting, stretching and icing my knee. That might seem a little much to some people, but I didn’t want this to plague me for the rest of my season.

I am happy to say that my knee is back to 100% and I am back into training. I even got to race on Friday night at the Kamview classic right here in Thunder Bay. It was a very well run race and I had so much fun being back on my skis. After three months of being on the road it is nice to be back in Thunder Bay where I can get in some good training before I head to Europe next week.

My World Cup Debut

2008-01-24T10:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a pretty cool experience. I got to race my first World Cup race here in Canmore. It was a classic sprint. I finished 49th and was very happy with my race.

3 of my NTDC team mates are also racing in these World Cups this week and we have been trying to figure out a penalty for coming last (i.e. shaving one eyebrow or something along those lines). I am happy that I don't have to worry about that after yesterday's race.

It was pretty intimidating lining up with the best in the world and having my entire race filmed. For the last 20min of my warm-up I was followed by a camera man who stayed within a metre of me the entire time. It was weird. One cool thing was that I got to keep my race bib.

Now I am getting ready to race in the 10km individual start skate race tomorrow and the skate sprints on Saturday. I skied the 10km course today and it is very hard so I might be shaving an eyebrow after all. There is a ton of climbing right off the start that I am a little worried about.

The skate sprint course isn't quite as technical as the classic sprint course was so I am happy about that. It definitely has a nicer flow to it. There aren't as many 180 degree turns in it.

Also, this morning we were informed that World U23 Championships in Poland are being postponed until the end of February. I was supposed to fly straight from Canmore this Sunday over to Poland to compete at the start of next month, but there is a serious lack of snow in Szczyrk. Now I have to quickly make some changes to my training and travelling schedule to make sure that I will be in top shape for U23s. I will spend today figuring out what I have to do. Maybe I'll be able to go to Eastern Canadians after all!

Skiing With The Home Crowd!

2008-01-17T19:32:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I got to meet some of my Kanata Racers team mates. I was invited to go for a ski with three of the junior racing team girls, Sabina Grossman, Marta Kierkus, Shelby Howard in Gatineau. We worked on some drills and went for a ski. There was lots of talking and laughing and I can’t wait until the next time. Thanks to Steve Howard for setting it up and all my team mates for such a fun day! I would also like to thank the entire Kanata Cross Country Ski Club for the financial support to help with my travel costs to the Under 23 World Championships in Poland. Time to take on the world!

Heinz Niederhauser

2008-01-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

On January 5th the man who introduced me to cross country skiing, and coached me for over 8 years, died. Heinz Niederhauser was remembered last Saturday at a beautiful memorial service in Arnprior ON. My team mate, Danielle McVicar, and I had the opportunity to speak on behalf of many of Heinz’s athletes. Here is what we said:

--Kate--
Everyone will remember Heinz in their own personal way but I know that I speak for quite a few athletes when I say that I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for him. In the last few days I have heard those words from so many people. He was one of the key people in cross country skiing in this country and he will be missed by the entire ski community. He influenced so many people in the sport and he was by far the most influential person in my ski career.

I met Heinz through Sven and Jana at our daycare. He was recruiting even then. I can remember my very first time skiing with him in his backyard at Lowney Lake when I was 6 years old. I remember him looking down at me asking me if I would like to skate or classic. I immediately answered skate thinking that he meant ice skating. I remember Sven skiing circles around me saying “Do you even know what skating is?” It turns out that was the first lesson he taught me.

There were many other lessons along the way but one of the funny ones that stands out in my mind is when he taught Sven, Danielle, and I to never underestimate our opponents. We spent a week at an early snow camp at foret Montmorency a few years ago and on our down time we would play ping pong. The three athletes practiced all week to take on Heinz in the finals and he still managed to annihilate each of us.

--Danielle--
It is rare to encounter a coach who invests himself so entirely into the success of his athletes. Heinz took the time to know me; my personality, my strengths as a skier, and most importantly, my goals. Sometimes I think that he knew me better than I know myself. He dedicated so much of his time and effort to me and his other athletes, and for this I will always be grateful.

Heinz constantly exceeded his expectations as a coach, teaching me the importance of exceeding my expectations as an athlete. All he wanted is to make his athletes the best skiers possible, and he did anything to achieve it. Whether it be phoning me everyday to check up on my training or driving an hour and half to Gatineau Park for only one athlete. Because Heinz wanted to make sure my hills on penguin were always the best that I could do.

He led by example, reflecting his drive and focus onto his athletes. Even if we had a successful race he always thought of the next race, telling to focus for the next race not to compromise it by the celebration.

In his 6 years of coaching me, he coached me in far more than skiing; he taught me what it meant to be a focused, determined individual, and for this reason I attribute most of my success as both an athlete and a person to Heinz.

--Kate--
I think I always thought that Heinz would out ski me. Or at least I thought that he would be there to watch me finish my career as a skier. It never really occurred to me that he would be the first to stop. It feels a bit daunting to know now that I have to put on my skis and cross those start lines and finish lines knowing that he won’t be somewhere in between, cheering me on. He was our biggest fan. He cared so much about each and every one of his athletes. And we know that he will still be out there at each race encouraging us as always.

So thank you Heinz for the passion, guidance, and all of the opportunities you have given every one of your athletes. We owe it all to yo

World Under 23 Championships Trials

2008-01-10T12:35:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was the World Under 23 Championships trials races in Duntroon, ON. There were some good moments and some sad moments.

I am proud to say that after the 3 races I qualified to represent Canada in Szczyrk, Poland (Try saying that name!). The website for the event is http://www.beskidy2008.pl/?catid=1&ver=2. There is not much up on it right now, but soon it will be very busy. The Canadian contingent flies over to Poland on January 26th to begin adjusting to the time change and location. We fly home on February 11th. I don't know which race(s) I will be racing yet. That is up to the coaching staff.

This weekend was also very hard because the man who introduced me to cross country skiing died while out on the trails in Duntroon. Heinz Niederhauser was 72. Without Heinz I would have never made it to where I am today. I owe him so much. Cross Country Canada has lost a great coach and skier. I hope that I can make him proud in Poland.

First Races of the Season

2007-12-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog. Internet access has been sporadic at best over the last few weeks, but a lot has been going on. Since my last update, I have raced my first two races of the season, the team and I have made the terrifying drive from Silver Star BC to Canmore AB in a blizzard, and I have raced once more in Canmore.

Getting back into racing wasn’t as easy for me as it has been in past years. Last year for example, I jumped in headfirst and won the first race of the year, beating out Olympians and national team skiers. This year however, I got nervous. I went into both the sprint and the 10km skate races with a lot of self induced pressure riding on my shoulders. I kept telling myself that people were expecting me to do well and I wanted to live up to those standards.

The results were nothing special. I finished mid pack in both races. I was 12th in the sprint and 17th in the 10km skate race. I didn’t think about my months of training, I just went in with numbers and placings in my head and I couldn’t shake them. I wasn’t having fun or enjoying what I was doing.

After the last race in Silver Star we packed up the van and made the drive to Canmore. The drive normally takes six hours, but it ended up taking us 32hrs because we drove right into a huge snowstorm so the highways were closed and we spent the night in a little motel in a very snowy, Golden BC.

With the delay it meant that when we arrived in Canmore we only had one full day before our next race. I spent that entire day considering not racing the next race and saving myself for the sprint on Saturday. With 8 races in 16 days, in three different provinces and three different time zones I had to decide if it was worth tiring myself out now. I made the decision to race the race, but to use it as a training experience.

Just by making the decision to race I was able to forget about all the pressure. I focused on all the things I have been working on in training and forgot about coming first. I wanted to use that race to have fun and I found myself smiling in the middle of my race. All of a sudden I remembered why I love to race. It’s fun.

**Pictures of Silver Star Sprints to come!**

Race Delay

2007-11-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that my first races in Canmore AB have been postponed due to a lack of snow (kind of important). They are now being held on Dec. 6th, 8th and 9th after the races here in Silver Star. So now the entire team is staying here until the 3rd of December to train and race. Here are some pictures of our training so far. Enjoy!

Out for one of the first skis of the season!

Ski Testing with all my Madshus Skate Skis

Silver Star

2007-11-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

This is our second full day in Silver Star, BC at our on snow training camp. The snow here is limited, but actually pretty good if you climb a little higher on the mountain. There are 12km of groomed trails at Sovereign Lake Nordic and I was able to do a 1.5 hour skate ski yesterday, but today we had to stop early because the wind was so intense that it was blowing 50ft trees down on the trail. I saw 3 blow down before I made it back to the safety of the van! Hopefully that wind will bring some more snow. There have been a few flurries, but nothing major yet. Silver Star is known for its record snow falls so we have reason to believe that the skiing will improve in the next few days.

We now only have 9 days before our first race of the season! We will stay here in Silver Star for another 5 days before we set up base in Canmore, AB for the three early season races. I can’t wait to race!

Getting Ready To Go!!!

2007-11-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

Today was our first ski of the year. There is still no snow in the city of Thunder Bay, but just out of town, at Lappe Nordic Centre, there was about 5cm so the entire team strapped on their rock skis and stepped out onto the trails. It felt good to be on snow again even if we were only on snow 50% of the time. I even had one good fall!

I am now only 4 days away from the trip that begins my racing season. I leave this Saturday and won’t be back in Thunder Bay until the second week of January at the earliest. It all depends on what races I qualify for.

So, on Saturday, November 10th the entire team flies to Kelowna, B.C. for a pre-race training camp in Silver Star. I will stay in Silver Star for just over a week before driving to Canmore, AB for our first races of the year! Then I travel back to Silver Star for the next set of races on the Canada Cup circuit. After those races I will stay in Silver Star for a few days before flying all the way across the country to Quebec City. I will race another set of Canada Cup races before going home to Pakenham for Christmas on December 17th.

Immediately after Christmas I head down to the Collingwood, ON to race the World Under 23 Trials to try and qualify to represent Canada in Poland at the World Under 23 Championships. From there on in I don’t know what my season will look like. I have to wait and see how well I am skiing. Let’s hope it’s a good one!

Welcome To The Swamp!

2007-10-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

For the last two and a half weeks it has rained steadily in Thunder Bay. Some days up to 5cm of water has found it’s way onto our streets (and into our basements). For some of my team mates this has been hard. A lot of them find this disheartening and miserable. They dread having to leave their warm, dry beds. I, on the other hand, enjoy it.

It is a chance to have one-up on everyone else. I know that the majority of my competitors look out their windows at bad weather and see it as an impediment to their performances either in training or on race day. They get depressed and gloomy, wishing that they didn’t have to go out in the foul weather. With this outlook, they are already standing in their own way of achieving their goals. They are already beaten. My positive outlook on the situation allows me to be one step ahead of everyone else before we even get out the door. I am not going to let a little rain hold me back.

We all need to recognize that we have choices. Once we understand that training and racing and having fun is our own choice, we are in a better position to act on it. We don’t have to train. We don’t have to race. Why do we? Some of us like the feeling of pushing ourselves to the limit. Others like travelling to new places. Many of us come to practice to see our friends and have fun. We all have our own reasons. Decide why you like skiing and act on it. Sometimes you have to take a step back to be able to see the choice in what you are doing, but taking that extra time will be worthwhile.

NTDC is now gearing up for our annual “Mental Toughness” camp next week where we are pushed to our metal limits by Eric (our coach), our team mates, and most of all, ourselves. This camp is all about attitude and making choices. These choices turn into opportunities to push ourselves to the next level or settle with mediocre.

So, to all my fellow Canadian skiers and team mates, good luck with your last few weeks of dryland training. Don’t let the rain get you down. And remember, MAKE GOOD CHOICES!