Olympics

The Olympics Have been my dream for a long time now!!!

On my way to wining the Qualifier

We had our races in December. You had to win one of the 4 races’s that where held in either Canmore or Silver Star. I won one of the classic sprints. I was extremely happy and relieved at the end of the day. Because for the last few months there has been a lot of planning and talking of the Olympics and not knowing if you where going or not made it extremely stressful at times.

Celebration as i cross the finish line!!

Now I can concentrate on the next few steps and then the big show starts in February. I hope to be racing one or two other events then the Classic sprint. But I will definitely be focusing on that one. I had a relaxing Christmas in Canmore and Calgary. And now it’s of to Quebec for some nor-ams and then I will head over seas for some high level racing. I will return at the end of January where the team will then head to a training camp and start getting ready for the Olympics.

Hope you had a great Christmas!!

West yellowstone USA

West Yellowstone USA

Our team headed down to west Yellowstone for our first official start to the season in north America. I was excited to finally start racing and the travel down was pretty easy a 10hr drive. Watching Nitros circus with my neighbor/wax tech/friend joel jaques made the time fly by. Arriving in west i was surprised how quiet it was and later i found out that West Yellowstone gets all there visitors in the summer averaging about 1.3million.

Taking a cruize on the streets of West

Skidoos where taken to the streets and obeying most of the rules to the road which was interesting to see. First up was the classic sprint qualifier no heats just the prologue. I was excited, unfortunately we skied the course the day before and most skiers where not to stoked on the flat terrain. I did my best as a small dude and not so much a double poler.

Classic sprint, sweet bibs eh

My next focus came in the classic 10km which also was run on a flat course. I was happy with the result even though my room mate/team mate beat me by 1.1 seconds. It makes it allot of fun when it is that tight. We headed home the day after, Hoping to see snow in canmore but that was not the case.

Classic 10km trying to stride what ever i could

We are now prepping for our first race in canmore a small Alberta cup starting with a classic sprint on Saturday and a 10km skate in Sunday. I don't know if Sunday will go because canmore will be entering it's first deep freeze of the year ( highs of -22). And to our surprise it has been snowing all day in canmore which is awesome and hopefully we will be skiing some more of canmore great trail system soon.

See ya on the trails

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