Lake Louise bound

Lake Louise for an on snow camp

The Boys at the top of Half Dome

We have had a nice two weeks to recover since mammoth lakes training, which for me was a great camp and I came out of that camp confident and plenty fatigued in a good way.

Enjoying the afternoon sun in Mammoth

In that time I took on a challenge of renovating a storage room to a bathroom. Which is almost done and I am quite proud of the work that I have done. I never thought of my self a much of a carpenter. The project at this point is usable and looks quite good.

Myself in front of Half Dome what a crazy cool climbing wall

Now it’s off to Lake Louise to get on snow and thankfully put the roller ski’s away I hope.

I was planning on heading to Europe this week to race some continental cups in Scandinavia and maybe some world cups but the powers to be where not having any of that which is sad but you can only argue for so long till you feel like it really won’t change anything. So I have to focus on what I have control. And I have decided to stay in North America and concentrate and a good 3-4 weeks of training so that when Dec 19-20-22 come which are the Olympic trials dates I will have great speed and great confidents in my ability to qualify for 2010. We plan on being around the bow valley for the most part of November. The team and I will head down to the states for a quick super tour opener in last weekend of November. This will be held in West Yellow Stone National Park.

Mammoth Lakes Training Camp Video

MAMMOTH LAKES CALIFORNIA

MAMMOTH LAKES CALIFORNIA

We are back in Mammoth for our annual high altitude camp. This is a quick video to show you what we have ben up to the last 5 dyas. Enjoy

10 Days in at that snow farm and 10 Days left.

10 Days in at the snow farm, and 10 Days left.

Crooks , George, and myself enjoying the sun in the afternoon.

We have been training at the snow farm and we have had some really fanatastic weather and great training day's. The team had one day down in wanaka when we hit the weight room and filled up on chocolate and some cold beverages, also a coffee in a local shop.

Me in the classic 15km it took me two laps to get into race mode, i ended up 5th ( 4th canadian) 1:15sec off the lead. photo-Devon Kershaw

This weekend we took part in the New Zealand winter games. First was a 15km classic followed by a skate sprint, then a 10km skate.

The skate sprint i won the prologue, the in the semi-final i tangled with brent and ended in the B-final wich i won. photo-David Greer

I will be skipping the 10km skate beacuase i will have done the first two races and have done about 23hours in the last week of training so that will be plenty.

Great View from the Snow Farm-photo David Greer

The next week will be some more volume and some intensity session's. The high lite will be a day of where some off us will be heading to the coast to hit the Dunedin city and try to get our surf on. Should be really exciting and some great stories and photos. I will post as soon as i get back.

New Zealand a winter wonderland

New Zealand a winter wonderland

Arriving at In Queenstown pretty excitied about the next three weeks of skiing!!!! looks pretty nice!!!

Some of the boys goofing around waiting for our vans to arrive. Goofing around

Driving up to the snow farm about 1 1/2 hours from Queenstown with these speed wagons.

My room mates and I just heading out for out work out, spirites are up!!

2 hour ski day nothing but blue sky's a head of us. Makes the work out go by so fast when the scenery is so stunning.

New Zealand mountains peaking through the carpet of clouds right below us.

We have had some cloudy and really warm weather the last couple of days of training witch didn't give us mouch to look at or see. This morning every body was excited to getting skiing with a blue bird day a head of us. This afternoon we head down to wanaka for some weights. This will be out first day off the mountain, we are all excitied to walk around town and see some different sites and enjoy a coffee or two.

Till next time

Three week block is coming to an end !!! Ya Baby

Three week block is coming to an end!!!! Ya Baby

It has been a long three weeks and we have had some awesome sunshine at the start on the haig glacier, then in 2nd week i dont think we trained once with out getting wet. This week we started off slow but the sun has come out and look`s like it will be out for a while, which is great news. Our rest week is around the corner so most of us will be soaking in some rays for sure. Here are some photos through the week of the crew doing what we do best.

Water break while crust skiing

Nap time By The NIsh and MCCC MMMUURRRR

The Three amigos bike session in the pm.

The crew on top of a mountain (chinaman`s)

Me looking down at the quarry from chinamans think this triathlon will be fun but pain full on Saturday.

All good, even the golf game

All good , even the golf game

So far i am still waiting for summer to arrive. We have been training in Canmore for about 4 weeks now and i still have not been able to get the usual heart rate monitor tan. The training has been going really well, we had testing last week and so far all signs show the shape is exactly where i need to be at this point. We did most of the testing on the treadmill which is not my favourite, but it sure makes you suffer.

I now enter a fairly easy week before we go up to the Haig glacier. I am excitied to head up there because the skiing will be great and of course there will be frisbee golf and maybe some poker too. Last week a bunch of us skiers joined the Right To Play golf tournament held a the amazing golf course of Silver Tip. Groups consisted of 2 athletes of different sports and 3 sponsor's, rounding the group off at 5. My group was a great mix and some great golf was played as well. Between Mark,Tyler, Russ, Kelly and myself we managed to hit a great -11 under for 3rd place.

Kelly VanderBeek was the other athlete on my team a talented downhill skier with some great golf skill's too. During this easy week i will be doing some swims as well. It is not a usual training discipline for me, but in a months time i will be competing in a triathlon. My swimming is pretty bad so i am putting some practice in so i don't drowned when the good swimmers cruize right over top of me. The triathlon will be allot of fun and most of the team will be competing as well. I hope to stay a float. July 18th is the date if you want to come and cheers us on in Canmore.