Going from Canadian to US national Championships.

Going from Canadian to US national Championships.


After a fairly successful week in duntroon at the Canadian nationals and earning my first overall aggregate award I was happy to come home and relax after a very hard week of racing. We had great snow in Canmore and the skiing was really good. I kept the hours fairly low a few days of volume and a day on the treadmill doing some exit testing for the team as per usual. That shape I thought was still good and was excited to go race in Alaska Fairbanks. I left on Sunday and was held up in Seattle for 10.5 hours enjoying a few coffees from starbucks. I did finally make it and so did my gear which was surprising and I was very happy about. The next day I was able to get on ski’s and see what Fairbanks had for trails, I was impressed with what they had to offer and great classic terrain as well. The 10km /team sprint ( Nish and I) / 30km pursuit will start at 7pm because of the volunteers are at work all day great dedication from them to work then head out to the cold to help run this event. In the 10km it took me a while to find my grove , I finally found it in the 2nd half and was able to move from 4th to 2nd which I was happy about.

The following day brought in some warmer weather which was nice and Nish and I where feeling pretty good about our chances. We both skied reasonably well. I missed an attack on the final lap where I lost 10meter and was unable to make that up. Nish did his best and pretty much closed it but as soon as he did the attacks started off the front. Nish came into the finish line lounging for 3rd just lost ending in 4th.

After those two races I believe I will sit out and support our Canadians with some feeds for (Nish,Dan,Pate,Ivan) in the 30km pursuit.

Unless I feel really good today skiing will see how the body is. My main concentration will go to the 50km on Sunday which will start at a normal time and it will be an extremely hard course. I look forward to that race because of the difficulty of the course and it being the last race of the season too.

Wish me Luck!!!!

Canadian National Championships Duntroon Ontario

Canadian National Championships Duntroon Ontario


We have done 4 races at nationals and one more the big 50km skate. I was home for a week after having a successful OPA trip. I chilled out for a while and then it was back into training mode getting ready for the Canadian championships. Starting the week off with a team sprint my partner Phil widmer and myself where ready to defend our title from last year. Unfortunately we both had bodies that where disagreeing with us. We fought hard but ended a disappointing 4th.

The next day came fast with some rain coming down and warm weather rollin in. I had to get ready for one of my hardest events the 10km skate. I started well and felt really good compared to the day before. I ended the day in a surprise 3rd place only 5 seconds of first wow!!!! I was pumped and felt I skied really well. We then had a day off to let the body recover. Next on the list was one of my favourite races where around the corner 15km Classic. Duntroon holds a pretty good classic course my goal was set a hard pace right off the start. At the end of the day everything fell into place and I won by 50 seconds. I was very pumped and excited it was a good win.

The body was pretty tired and I was happy to have a day off. My specialty was next the classic sprint, I picked the course a part to figure out where I could gain time and ski it smooth. In the prologue I skied pretty much as planned. The last hill was a little crazy but I was still able to keep the speed up. I won the prologue by just over 2 seconds which was a good start to the day. In the heats I felt strong and confident moving through quite easily. In the A final it was going to be hard but I felt strong and ready to take the win. Going into the last corner with some good speed from the downhill I was 2nd about 5 meters behind crooks. Widmer right on my heals ( literally) I took the turn and the next thing I know I am down and 3rd and 4th pass me and now I am sitting in fourth. Oh no what just happened, I got up quickly and started the close my 15 meter gap on the last hill on 2nd and 3rd. In the end I lost the lunge to Widmer who was 3rd. So I had a dissatisfying 4th place finish. It is something us sprinters have to deal with sometimes the ice or what ever it might be take’s us down, just part of sprint racing. So I am not to happy with the end result today but after having won the prologue and being in the mix for the win not that bad of a day. Right now I am leading the Canadian championships for the overall win. We have a day off tomorrow and I will enjoy a sleep in and see what the 50km skate has planned for us Sunday. Wish me luck!