Wow, we had amazing weather for the weekend!
After the World Cup and Rossland races I was pretty confused and upset and this added to the water I was throwing on my fire for racing! Not good at all!
So after a week of sleeping and basically walking around like a zombie I snapped back into reality and gave myself a quick kick in the ass! Life is too short to be bummed about something that I can't change!
So after some deliberation I decided that the best thing to do was to stay in Canmore and get fitter and work on my weaknesses. I wasn' t in the head space or physically prepared to go to Europe, so along with some of the other girls on the team we decided to "get faster".
Its been a good month, I feel like I am learning something everyday in technique and what works for me and my body is absorbing the training. Its also been awesome to bomb around with my teammates and just know that everyday I am improving. It definetly isn't world cup, world champs or OPA tour, but this is what I had to do. Its kind of like working your way up the corporate ladder- you have to pay your dues with a smile and enthusiasm, even if it means bringing the boss their venti, 1/2 foam, vanilla, non-fat cappachino with a sprinkle of chocloate and a pinch of cinnamon steamed at 104 degrees double cupped with a cup sleeve and stir stick. Meaning its tedious and frustrating, but you know that the hard work will pay off at some point. This is pretty easy to achieve under a blue bird ski, -1 temperature not skiing on a trail more then once in 3hrs- Note to readers...the Nordic Centre is AMAZING right now!
Westerns was a lot of fun! However the ankle biters on the Academy are getting fit FAST! So this wasn't going to be a walk in the park, and knowing you "should" win seems to provide enough pressure that I didn't need to add to it, so for the weekend I went with a purse to carry around the race trail instead of matching luggage. Wow, it was way lighter!
The sprints were not so fun. I really don't know what happens in classic sprinting. I have speed, I have strength, but something happens during the course of a classic sprint that inevitably makes me resember a "recreational" skiier (words from the coach!). So yeah, we will chalk that up to experience...BUT props to the girls from my team, man they are on fire right now...watch out Nationals!
The 10k classic was fun, I didn't have the same snap and energy that I had at the Bow Corridor the week before, but I did ski technically really well and I LOVED hearing a split in a classic race that I was first, I almost started giggling on the side of the course! I don't think that this has ever happened...pretty cool! That all said I need to be about two more minutes faster if I want to win a Noram.
The 15k skate. Oh man, this course was not a good one for someone who relies on climbing. the first 2.5 k of every loop was down hill and then there was some rolly sections, but no long steep climbs that are characteristic of Canmore. Let alone the downhill sections were technical and I am a bit of a sketch ball decsending. I'm never in control and the phrase "I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm okay I'm okay, sweet, sweet I made it, okay now go" seems to be on repeat when I go downhill. I decided that I wanted to win and win by a lot, so this kind of made me go a little too fast at the start and although I held it for about 11k I started to get to the point where I no longer could wipe the spit off my face and the downhill turned into a swearword-a-thon...all bad! I glanced behind me and saw a red arm...and then I just started skiing for survival. It was actually a lot of fun to know I could change gears, I haven't had that in a while. Huge props to Sara, she threw down and gave me a run for money...it bruised my ego a bit as I tend to think I am a skate specialist, but the 15k has always been a tough one for me!
All in all a great weekend!
We are racing at the Kananaskis ski Marathon/ Cookie race on Saturday...I'm so excited to get out there. K-contry where the venue is got over 50cm of new snow so the course I'm sure will be pristine and amazing!!!
have a great day!
xob
