Nor-Am Racing!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since i last posted anything on here. Two weeks ago G-Kill (otherwise known as Greame Killick) and I piled into my Honda Fit with all of our bags, some food, a few bags of yarn and Michaela G-Kills girlfriend. It’s not called a Fit for nothing!
At this juncture I must extend a huge shout out to Chris Manhard, Graham MacLean, and the athletes on the CVTC. They graciously took G-kill and I under their wing for the weekend in Silverstar. They are an impressive group of up and coming athletes and it was great fun to be able to spend a few days getting to know them a little better. One day we watched Harry Potter, played bananagrams, crocheted tuques, and went to the greatest coffee shop on Silverstar Mountain to eat baked goods- all of which are amongst some of my favourite pastimes!
All photos are thanks to Jesse Winter, there are lots more at: www.jessewinterphotography.com



We also raced, and I came away with the win in the sprint which was encouraging and necessary as i was the lone canadian on the start line in the final.
The 10 km skate the next day was uber hard, historically distance skate races are not my forte, and throwing a bit of fresh snow in there just makes it gritty, and although the Americans totally dominated I was happy with my effort. Thank goodness Brooke Gosling laid down a fast time and stepped on to the podium to break up the total American dominance.
From there we moved on to Rossland for the Mini-Tour, and World Championship sprint trials.


The sprint race was up first, and I was pretty anxious to get this day over with, it’s been on my radar since the training season started. This was my chance, so in the final I let’er rip out of the start gate and didn’t look back. I may have let’er rip a little too aggressively as Sadie Bjorenson of APU came past me in the finishing stretch, and Holly Brooks and I ended up in a tie for second. I also can’t report on this day without mentioning the young Heidi Widmer who skied impressively strongly all day.
I also noticed she has a new blog, so check that out here!:

www.heidiwidmer.blogspot.com


Stef- after punching his ticket to world championships in the skate sprint needed a little help getting his poles off...

With the major excitement over we still had two more days of racing, a super short 5km skate, and a super snowy 10km classic race.
I didn’t manage to break onto the podium in the overall mini tour, I ended up with the wooden medal and the Americans took home the hardware.
It would appear that we Canadian women need to step it up with the distance racing!
Now it’s time to head back to Canmore for Christmas! I’m bummed that I will miss the hotly contested, and legendary Boxing Day Burn off at Nakkertok, but it will be nice to get some good training in in Canmore.


Merry Christmas!

A sweet outing...

This is what happens when a motley crew goes for a ski, and I remember my camera.

First Races Done!

It's been a long time since I put a bib on, but this past weekend it was a wonderful feeling.
There were some Alberta Cup races happening up at the Nordic Center, so most people took the opportunity to get some racing in before heading to Vernon for the first Nor-Am of the year next weekend.
I felt great both days, and am pretty excited to hit the trails again next weekend.
Even more exciting though was to wake up Sunday morning and see that my teammates had won a Bronze Medal in Dusseldorf!!
It's awesome to have great teammates, but it's even more awesome when they are lighting it up on the World Cup. A big Congrats to Dasha and Chandra, and good luck to everyone next weekend in Davos.
G-Kill and I are road tripping to the Star...

Well we are still waiting for any trace of real snow to show up here in Canmore. Luckily Frozen Thunder (the loop at the nordic center) is getting longer by the day, and the snow guns have been going like crazy whenever it's cold enough, so soon we should be able to ski around a loop that takes more than five minutes!
It's a little more lonely these days as most of my teammates have taken off to Scandinavia to battle the darkness and take on the world. If this past weekend is any indication (which I think it is) our team is looking pretty good. They had a great first weekend of racing, and the World Cup starts next weekend, so lookout!

This year I'll be sticking around North America tackling the Nor-Am circuit, starting in Silverstar in a few weeks!

For now, the lack of snow has made some pretty awesome skating conditions! We got a hockey game going yesterday afternoon in Banff.



Chris Butler checking out the ice... it must have been safe enough, no one fell in.



The gang, which later grew substantially to over 20 skiers (skaters I suppose)



And a few canine friends- one of which was Blitz who is quite the hockey fan -or maybe just puck fan.

We have been Yo-Yo-ing again back and forth to Sunshine Village just outside of Banff. The kind folks up on the mountain graciously opened up the hotel for us, and fed and watered us. The staff up at Sunshine were busily trying to get things ready for the season, so we are extra lucky that they were able to accommodate us up there!
Our usual protocol involves a couple long days, and an easier one up at altitude, I was enjoying the scenery up at sunshine while out for a hike (I know we should have been skiing!)...





We ran to Banff from the nordic centre and Chandra found a nice soft place to take a nap!


Small team photo up at Sunshine, it was an awesome afternoon up there!

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of some snow here. The snow guns are firing so hopefully it will get colder soon!

Park City!

We had an amazing camp in Park City. The air was thin, the sun was shining, and we had an awesome crew of girls to train with. Thanks to everyone and their camera’s and the great weather there are lots of photos to share!
Here are just a few...




Awesome Rollerskiing and Running...




Kikkanimal joined us for the camp, it was awesome to have a new fast female to follow!



Thanks to everyone for a fantastic camp, and now we are on snow skiing on "Frozen Thunder" here in Canmore!

Mark Oct 30th on your calendar!

The second annual Almonte Fundraising Run is taking place Saturday October 30th at 10am!
I'm super excited to share the proceeds with SchoolBox an awesome local charity that is making education for children in less fortunate countries possible.

Check out their website at:
www.schoolbox.ca

To register go to:
www.runalmonte.ca