The Cold

The last week in Canmore has been an interesting one. When we got back from Silverstar we were greeted with frigid temperatures. Canmore was like a ghost town, no one was walking around on main street, no cars were driving and evidence of our van that had turned into an icebox around lake louise definetly all pointed to a very uncomfortable arrival home.

Even the first two days, I tried to remain positive, but after not being able to fullfill the volume block of training on my plan, I started to panic a bit. Then I started thinking about intensity and how I would keep things moving forward from the first races and well all I could think about was how much I wanted to go home to Ontario.

It is now only -14 in Canmore. Which is much more tolerable and I can do intensity in this weather too. We did do a 60 min z3/4 pursuit yesterday in -18 which is legal for races, so I figured I would have to get used to racing in the cold, slow snow. I was pretty tired at the end, but happy that I did it because I feel a lot more confident on this snow then I had other years.

The nordic centre is still taking their sweet time with opening the world cup loops- I am very anxious to get on these and do some intensity!

We have lots of workouts planned as a group which will keep things sharp.

have a great day!

Brooke

Haywood NorAms #1 and #2

Hi There,

We just returned from two weeks in Silver Star for the first two NorAms of the season. Overall they went really well, I feel like I've been able to transfer a lot of my strength from the summer and fall onto skiis and I am definetly a lot fitter then I was last year.

The skate sprint was great! Although after the qualifer I wasn't all too happy. I had qualified in 17th and had to claw my way through the heats. I have actually never skiied that aggressive and without so much as a negative thought and then all of a sudden I was lining up on the startline for the final. I noticed I was a lot calmer through the heats then I have normally been and I think this saved my energy! I ended up 4th on the day, my best sprint result ever!

The 10km skate individual start was pretty good. I followed my race plan to a tee. My lap times were about 2 seconds apart. So I think that maybe I could start a bit harder. Lesson learned. I ended up 4th again. Bitter sweet because I was only 9seconds off of a medal! BUT I am very happy and content with where my skating is for this point in the year and also that we haven't let up on training at all. So I am pretty excited to start to taper a bit!

The 15km skate mass start was okay. From and effort standpoint I did what I could on that day with what I had. Unfortunatly it wasn't enough to hang with the pack and I finished about 1minute back, which I am not overally happy with, but I know that I have to just trust that when things come together they will really come together. It was more of a battle with myself and knowing that I had to be tough and that is what would pay dividends later.

The classic races were a bit tougher for me. It took a few days to recover emotionally from the distance race, but when I looked at objectively I really can't be too upset. There are no excuses for the performance, but I definetly have to dress warmer for cold weather and start to read the terrain better so that I don't burn my arms out, I think it is also important in adverse conditions to just keep your blinders on and race your own race. I was racing everyone elses race except my own. So a tough result, but a good lesson!

Its pretty cold here in Canmore, but it seems that everyday its warmer then -20 it seems to be like a balmy sunny day! After the NorAms the one thing I'm sure of is that I need to learn to race and ski better in cold conditions, so I decided to stay here for Christmas and just aclimatize and work.

I think the first set of NorAms went pretty good. Of course I want the win and I can feel it getting closer. I'm pumped for trials and I'm excited to just improve again.

See you on the trails!

Brooke