Andrew Chisholm

Bonjour Quebec, Ahoj Ceska!

2014-01-27T10:03:00.001-07:00

Anyone following the recent Olympic team nominations and selections will know by now that I did not blow anyone's mind at selection trials (at least not in a positive way) and sneak my way onto the team. Truth be told, trials were a bit of a disaster. I just plain did not race well, and I made a lot of mistakes that I shouldn't have. Regardless, someone had some pity on me, and I now find myself in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic, for Open European/U26 Biathlon Championships. How exactly did I get here, you ask? Trials were six weeks ago! Well, I'm going to tell you!

After trials, I took a much needed (albeit brief) Christmas break. All of my mom's side of the family was out in Canmore to celebrate, so we had some fantastic meals and quality time over that break. We also exchanged a number of odd Christmas gifts, which seem to be growing more and more common with these folks... Not that I'm complaining!

Following soon after the break, the first Alberta cup of 2014 took place. It was a pretty cold weekend, and there wasn't going to be a lot of competition in my category, but it was a good chance to see how I was doing after a break. I surprised myself with a pretty good ski performance the first day, combined with some solid shooting. Probably one of my better all-around performances this season. The second day was even colder, so the race was cancelled. I was itching to race, but for the sake of good health, it was probably for the better.

Since I hadn't been performing as expected this season, Richard decided to try something (in his own words) "a little wild" with me. Instead of keeping me at high-ish altitude in Canmore until I left for Europe, he decided that I should head to a low altitude destination to train for two weeks. This location ended up being La Belle Province, aka Quebec! It actually worked out pretty well, I was able to stay with my buddy and teammate Vince at Marco Bedard's house, close to the Valcartier training centre and easy access to everything else that I could need. We had all kinds of weather, from freezing rain, snowstorms, -30, and some absolutely gorgeous days. The trails at Valcartier are pretty tough, they are all mostly either up or down, and since I struggle a lot with big climbs, it was probably one of the best locations for me to train at this point of the season. At the end of my stay, I was able to partake in some low-key racing. I was much more confident in trying to hang on (or even attack) during some climbs I wouldn't have even thought twice about doing so last season, so I was feeling a bit more confident in my skiing. I had some pretty terrible shooting, so the results definitely don't reflect that, but I think the right decision was made in regards to changing my training location.

Vince and I escaped Quebec just as another cold snap was hitting, and after a VERY extended stay in Czech border customs, we finally made it to our first location of the tour, Jablonec nad Nisou. We went there to train since there were some kid's races going on in Nove Mesto, and Jablonec normally has great snow. Well, unfortunately like most of Europe, there was no snow when we arrived. So, we did some day trips to Sklareska Poreba in Poland (about 40min away), and were greeted by some great skiing, and a range to boot! We were surprised by some snow in Jablonec for our last day there, so we were able to train at the Czech national training centre for one day. It was incredible, in a matter of days they made enough snow and had enough snowfall to make a fun 10 minute loop to train on, attached to the range as well! As soon as we finished our session, we threw our bags into the van and hit the road.

And there you have it, we're now in Nove Mesto! We had our first unofficial training day today, and the trails here are just awesome. I think they will be deceivingly hard, but from what I've seen, there is lots of opportunity for recovery and to carry speed into the climbs. The range was pretty windy and tricky to figure out today, but I'm sure I'll have it nailed down with a few more days of practice on it.

Our first race is on Thursday, the 20k Individual. I'm not sure if they will live stream it (or any of the races for the matter) on BiathlonWorld, but there are some probably-less-than-legal streaming sites *cough* sportlemon.tv *cough* that you should be able to at least catch the weekend races on. For you die hard biathlon fans, there is always the live results feed that you can follow along on and watch everyone's split times and live shooting results on www.biathlonworld.com

I'll post a wrap-up after the relays on the 4th, and give you a little preview before the racing starts in Osrblie. For now, it's off to the races! I tried to add some photos to the post, but the internet is too bogged down to try that right now. I've been posting photos almost daily on my facebook and Instagram (@andrewkchisholm), so you can check those out for the time being.

All them eggs.

2013-12-17T16:26:00.000-07:00

Going all in. Charging a gap. Putting all your eggs in one basket. However you phrase it, focusing the bulk of your effort on a single goal or outcome is an exciting thing. It's also a little unnerving. Back in September, I essentially threw all of my eggs in a basket, put my head down, and started sprinting. I knew the bulk of my race season was to be decided on the results of two races in December.

The snow started showing up early on the peaks this year

The fall training actually went incredibly well. For the first time ever, I made it through an entire training season without getting sick. The second Testival didn't go very well in the uphill tests, I was still a little janked from our altitude camp. However, I had a few excellent shooting tests. In both the prone and standing one shot setup tests, I now have times recorded only one second off the record. I also somehow managed to find a second wind for the final time trial, and threw down what was probably my best ski performance to date. Naturally, by Murphy’s law, I missed a few too many targets and finished a bit further down than I had hoped. Still, a good sign of positive progression.

In an effort to boost our morale, Richard put us through a third (!) Testival later in the fall once we had time to recover from our altitude camp. Despite frigid temperatures slowing down the rollerskis (around 0 each morning), I managed to set a new PB in the uphill double pole, and tie my PB in the uphill skate. Additionally, after only a few days rest, I threw down my best running race in years during the Grizzly Ultra Team relay.

Racing in one of many TT's this fall, this was a 12k XC one.
Photo credit: Julien Locke

Not long afterwards, October 19^th rolled around, and Frozen Thunder was rolled out. Frozen Thunder is the “codename” for snow stored under sawdust for the summer, which gets rolled out every October for some early season skiing. And it is great! Yes, you do get a little dizzy skiing for hundreds of kilometers and countless hours on this little 2k ribbon of snow in the woods, but it is still better than rollerskiing.

Under construction.

Taking great advantage of getting on the white stuff, I was racing and timetrialling at every chance I got, including getting my butt kicked at yet another classic sprint. It was also around this time that the reconstruction of my flooded-out basement started up. In an effort to speed things along, and save a bit of cash on the labour costs, I helped the contractor install most of the drywall. I thought I had done a good job keeping up with my recovery, but combining the work with the training and racing, I eventually got to the point where I was so exhausted I couldn’t keep up to some of the younger girls on my team in a warmup for a time trial. This was a week before the first biathlon race of the year.

Mild panic mode officially engaged.

Yeah, you're not supposed to be on the
ground there...

I planned on entering the race season in “less-than-perfect” shape in favour of having some solid races at December trials. Being a little tired was something I was expecting, near-total exhaustion was not. Nevertheless, I charged into race season with everything I had. Unfortunately there wasn’t much there. The most comforting thing was that I was feeling better and better as I went from race to race, so I knew I was getting back on track, other than hurting my shoulder in a bad crash the first race. The highlight of the first six races was definitely my 4^th place in a 20k individual. It wasn’t what I would call great skiing by any means, but I was able to capitalize on some solid shooting in tricky wind conditions. I welcomed the two week break from racing with open arms.

Going a little faster...

Thanks to some near-Arctic temperatures over the past week or so, I got a bit of unplanned rest, which turned out to be a great thing. I am starting to feel normal on the skis again. The passed time also brings us to just a few days out from December trials. As it stands, there are lots of tour spots up for grabs, including one for the Olympics. It’s a bit of a surreal feeling for me. I moved to Canmore after I finished highschool with the long term goal to try and make the Olympics. I never thought I would be given such a direct opportunity so soon. Some of you might not relate the word “soon” with a time span of just under 5 years, but in a sport like biathlon, that time can pass with the blink of an eye.

One of the many views a frigid Bow Valley
has to offer.

With that thought in the front of my mind, I’m pretty excited to race (at least at the time of writing I am, I’m sure the stupidly-nervousness will set in later). It won’t be the most competitive field I’ve ever raced in, but it will probably be the most emotionally driven one. Funny how just putting the word “Olympic” in front of trials can do that. As for myself, I never expected to make the Olympics this time round, let alone have a chance to try. So I’m just going to go out, hammer hard, hit a few targets, and see what shows up on the result sheet. If I’m lucky, I might even have some fun while I’m at it and walk away with a tour spot.

After a year without colour, I added the Van Halen
stripes back onto my rifle. Good looking rifles shoot better,
right...?

Chasing the gap

2013-09-03T22:00:00.000-06:00

I don't think there is a single athlete in the world who expects their off season training to be anything but hard. You can mentally prepare for it all you want, but it's like trying to get ready for a punch in the gut. It's going to hurt no matter what!

Getting my slackline on in Whistler

Since my last post, that has been the main focus of our training. How deep can we go into the proverbial hurtlocker? We've been getting hit with heavy weight sessions, ski-specific strength, intensity, ski-specific strength intensity, ski strength intensity and intensity double sessions... Needless to say, naps have been a bit more than a necessity as of late. There have been some incredibly tough mornings and a few afternoons where I have no idea (ok maybe it was the full french press of coffee...) how I dragged my sorry ass out the door for my second workout.

A few weeks ago my training group wrapped up it's annual training camp in Whistler, BC. Living at altitude in Canmore, we aren't able to hammer as hard or load intensity as easily as athletes living at lower altitudes. This means every once in a while, we need to head down a bit closer to sea level. It was a relatively short and sweet camp, 5 days packed with tough workouts. Four intensity sessions, two strength sessions, and a big mountain hike/run. I even managed to hit a new blood lactate PB (16.7mmol). The week was filled with signs that things are still moving in the right direction.

Within a few hours of finishing the last workout of the camp, I found myself on a shuttle bus direct to the Vancouver airport. I spent the past week in the Provence region of France with my dad's side of the family for a quick reunion. I was lucky that the trip lined up perfectly with an easy/rest week, so I was pretty lucky that didn't have to miss any important training sessions. They say pictures speak a thousand words, so I'll let the pictures do the talking on this beautiful part of the world!

The local market in Cucuron, the town we were staying
just out of.

Driving in the countryside

Le Streetswing Orchestra, an amazing gypsy jazz group
playing during the market in Lourmarin. Impressively big
sound from just a duo.

I found myself back training in Canmore less than 24 hours after landing at YYC. I had just one short week to get back on Mountain time before the group was heading off to it's next camp, the Haig Glacier! It's a hiking camp as much as it is a ski camp, with an 18k run/hike in and out of the camp, and a 45min hike up and down from the glacier every day. Although I generally seem to struggle with altitude changes, I always love this camp. The food is always great, I sleep like a rock, and I'm skiing in the summer, so there isn't anything to complain about! Other than the lack of oxygen...

Wicked fast conditions in the mornings before things warmed up...

One of the things that Richard does at training camps is to have at least one group meeting where the team engages in some kind of discussion, whether it be what we think the characteristics of a champion are, what we think it takes to become a great athlete, why we train the way we do, etc etc. Just something to get your mind whirring about what you're doing with your time in the sport. With not a whole lot to do in that tin hut at the bottom of a block of ice, I ended up doing a lot more thinking than usual. What am I REALLY doing in this sport?

I have admittedly been struggling to get where I need to be for the past few seasons. The last bout of training however, has gone extremely well. I'm skiing technically well with some solid speed, my shooting is stable, and I am just all round stronger than before. For the first time, I am actually feeling confident that I will be able to put out some solid results With this season being an Olympic year, the opportunities to race biathlon internationally have decreased. The thought of my efforts this summer potentially going to waste, and being denied the chance to earn a spot to race for Canada ran loops through my brain. Unsurprisingly, I felt a bit frustrated. Thanks to some new technological advances at the Haig (aka wifi), I was able to cruise the web to try and divert my thoughts.

Stunning views on the hike out of the camp

A click here, a click there... Before I knew it, I was watching a short clip of Ayrton Senna, one of the greatest (if not the best) racing drivers that ever lived. This shouldn't surprise some of you, I have been a huge Formula 1 fan my entire life. After a few scenes of hard braking and thrilling overtakes, a particular quote from an interview caught my ear.

"If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver."

Senna with a busted car

While it may be a bit out of context for ski racing (he was rationalizing his frequent contact and collisions with other drivers), he did have a point. As a racer, you are always chasing after an opportunity to bring yourself forward in your sport. The size of that "gap" shouldn't be something that deters you from giving your best effort in trying to achieve that goal. Sometimes the gap will close before you get there, but all you've got to do is wait until you're around the corner for another one to open up.

With that in mind, I've found myself a bit of extra motivation for this next block of training. That, and getting my altitude-fatigued ass kicked up and down the trails. We are in the middle of round two of the Rocky Mountain Testival, and altitude exposure appears to have taken a bit of a toll on me. We have an easy-ish week next week, and then it'll be the final stretch of off-season training before the snow flies. November trials are already locked up for the men, so my eyes are set on the December trials. With such a small gap, I had better be dropping a lead foot on the accelerator pedal until then.

'Til next time, cheers!

Yep, I'm training again.

2013-07-16T22:11:00.000-06:00

Quite unsurprisingly, the first two months of the training season have blown by with the blink of an eye. While I had fully intended on writing a decent update about every month or so this year, there just wasn't a whole lot to write home about to tell the truth. It seemed like it was a pretty typical start to the training year. We were planning taking advantage of some awesome spring skiing at the nordic centre, easing into some weight training, and starting to pile on the long, slow, easy hours of training. That sense of normalcy was soon thrown into the wind once we really got going. A shift in focus from just trying to get fast and strong by brute force to focusing on the technical side of things meant that I had a lot less spare time than I was expecting this spring.

Beauty crust skiing at Sunshine Meadows

The team is very fortunate to have a full-time technical coach on board this year. Kathy has been coming out to almost every training session where we are on (roller)skis, taking video, giving pointers, and just helping work towards becoming technically sound skiers. For myself, I can already see this making a huge difference. I have never been an efficient skier, so I need all the help I can get. It was pretty humbling to come home from what was supposed to be an easy ski, only to be sore for three days afterwards. Making changes in your ski technique makes you start using muscles differently than you're used to, and in my case, even starting to use muscles you weren't before! Kathy has also been pretty diligent in getting our technique video up near-immediately on the interwebs for us to review at home. It would be safe to say that the team has been transformed from a bunch of jocks, to a group of diligent students of sport.

At the end of May, I was fortunate enough to get invited along on a trip to Toronto with DYNAMIS. They were running a booth at the Toronto Pro Supershow, the premier fitness expo in Canada.

Cliche tourist CN Tower shot.

It was a different experience to say the least, I haven't spent much time around the fitness world so it was interesting to just sort of take in the atmosphere. I managed to give away about a hundred or so of my athlete cards, so you could say it was a mild success for the sport of biathlon in that regard. I also somehow managed to get interviewed by Naked News when I was there. Since I didn't feel like paying 15 bucks to watch myself talk about biathlon and supplements, I never saw it and I never will.

Nearing the end of our 6.5h ride

In June, the team headed out to Pentiction for our first training camp of the year. Camps have several purposes. They provide a mental break with some different scenery and training locations than you're used to. Endurance training can get pretty monotonous staying in just one place year round. They also are meant to be tough and relatively distraction free. You're there to eat, sleep, and train.

Skaha Lake. Not a bad destination for a camp.
This beach was a 2 minute walk from our hotel

It was a tiring camp, but the training was amazing. We put in some great long bike rides, went rock climbing, did some uphill rollerski intensity, and even managed to fit in some whitewater rafting on the first day. It will be my biggest training week of the year by far, I managed to pack in 30 hours of training into 7 days. I was more than ready for some rest when I got home from the camp. As soon as the team van pulled into Canmore, I hopped in the Vous and drove to Calgary for a few days of rest.

Relaxing our last night in Penticton, jamming out with
Coach Kathy.

Well, I thought it was only going to be a few days. As I'm sure most of you know and have seen pictures by now, Alberta was hit by massive flooding. The highway got closed the day I had planned on going home, so I ended up having a few extra days to spend in Calgary. It was mind blowing to see the damage that the rivers were wreaking on the city, but what I found more incredible was how such a large city like Calgary was able to come together and respond as a whole to the disaster at hand. Fortunately, my parent's home in Calgary is well above the river, so we were in no danger of any flooding.

There were three layers of drywall here. THREE.

My house in Canmore was not so lucky. I got a call from my roommate Gerard on Thursday evening (the day the highway closed) and our basement was taking on water. He acted quickly and was able to either move everything upstairs or get it raised up on wooden blocks, so we didn't lose any personal property. We did however have a massive mess on our hands. Thanks to a clutch group of skiers, we got the bulk of the basement gutted over two days. I still had to do quite a bit of work by myself, but the process as a whole was waaaaaay faster than if I had to do it on my own.

Breaking up the basement gutting with a Canada day BBQ.
We crammed about 130 people in the back yard that night!

Believe it or not, we're caught up to present day now! Last week I took part in the annual Rocky Mountain Testival. It's a series of fitness and shooting tests run by the national biathlon team. We do a running race up Sulphur mountain, a precision shooting test, an uphill double pole (skiing with your arms only) up Norquay, the "National Team" test (essentially shooting as fast as you can and hitting as many targets as you can), and then finally a straight ski race up Norquay.

Things didn't start out well. I got my ass kicked in the uphill run and a mediocre precision test at best. The two weeks of late nights squeegying basement water and busting up drywall had started to catch up with me, and I just felt exhausted. That made the second half of my week all the more surprising. Despite feeling like garbage, I had PBs in both of the Norquay tests, a two minute improvement in the double pole and a 90 second improvement in the skate. I also managed to have a pretty good national team test. I challenged a few of the records in the different portions of the test, but managed to find a way to come up short one way or another. Thanks to the hospitality of the Davies family, we had a great BBQ wrapping up the week of competition and crowned the King and Queen of the mountains (overall Testival winners), Jean-Philippe Leguellec and Rosanna Crawford.

The champions with their cake

For the first time ever, I was satisfied with the way my testing week went. This is my third year taking part in the Testival (which happens twice a year), and in the past I found myself ending each week with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. It never seemed like my results in the tests were reflecting the work I had been putting in at training. The fact that I was feeling terrible and showed big improvements spoke volumes that all the changes I made leading into this year are actually working. Nothing like a bit of a confidence boost leading into the second half of the training season!

And with that, I'm going to get back to getting the most out of my rest week. Richard warned us to get well recovered, because the training is going to get really hard from next week onward. Richard is the unofficial master of non-verbal communication. Any time he uses an adverb, you can bet he REALLY means it.

The post might not have been much to read, but hopefully the pictures were at least interesting. Cheers!

Ok, I haven't been totally resting this week. I played some ball hockey for
charity (Fivehole for Food) yesterday. I was on a "team" with (Left to right)
Justin Wilkinson (bobsleigh), Eric Neilson (skeleton), Devin Rochon (Motocross),
Rob McLeod (frisbee), and Jan Hudec (unpictured, alpine skiing).

The road ahead

2013-04-10T17:12:00.005-06:00

As I said in my last post, It's the time of year where skiers around the world are trying to relax and recover from the season that has just come to a close. It doesn't really matter who you are, everyone needs some time to slow down and decompress from the past 11 months of hard work, whether you’re lying on a beach in the sun, getting face shots in some fresh powder, or hanging around at home.

Personally, I've been doing the latter. Richard prescribed that I take about three weeks completely off of training. Considering how I felt in my last race of the year, I was sure I would be welcoming it with open arms. Wrong. I’ve been a little antsy, but I’m starting to get creative with how I spend my days. I’m finally learning how to sit still again, and in the past week or so, I've finally been able to get a grasp on exactly what happened in the past 365 days.

Making the legendary Vous look good with a "new" bumper sticker

For whatever reason, I struggled getting back into the swing of things last season. I went to the first practice in May feeling somewhat indifferent about my goals for the season. I had moved out of CODA and into our family’s new house downtown, so I figured that I was subconsciously stressed about that. Despite settling into my new home, I found myself having to drag my sorry ass out the door to get individual workouts done. It was a very different situation than the year before, when I was constantly tacking on an extra half hour, or found myself going for an evening run just for the hell of it.

The training year passed rather passively, and before I knew it, it was time to get ready to race again. Entering my first year in open men, I had a strange cocktail of nervous and excited energy riling up inside of me. I had some expectations of myself, and I didn't think they were too high, but with me being me, they probably were. I raced the first half of the season being somewhat uninspired and frustrated.

For whatever reason, the races in Altenberg got my fire for competition back. And with that came the realization of how silly my attitude had been for the past several months. It was too little, too late though. Beating myself up and not training as smartly as I should have been meant I was quite exhausted, both physically and mentally, with more than a month left in the race season. With this change in attitude though, the suffering in racing became a game instead of a chore, and while the results weren't really there, I wasn't letting it get to me.

This new sense of perspective also made me look at the bigger picture of why I do this sport. Four years ago I had graduated highschool, and was getting ready to move on from sport and into life as a university student. After a well timed Facebook message from Roddy, and with a bit of nudging from my friends, I moved to Canmore to pursue an Olympic dream.

Teaching this skeletor how to skate ski!
Check out Cassie's blog, she had quite the rookie world cup season
Not to mention it's much more well written than mine...

My friend Chris started a rumour about me, that I could never turn down a challenge. While he had this directed more at different situations, such as being stupid enough to eat two of the hottest wings from the Iron Goat (they made me cry), it applies to everything else too. I saw the challenge of succeeding in biathlon, and I took it. All that happened this year was that I forgot there would be some bumps and potholes in the road to success. It's just a matter of always looking forward.

With that epiphany, I've found myself able to take some rest a bit more easily. I've been seeing my family, hanging out with friends, both new and old, and even managing to fit in some musical diversion now and then. I still find myself wishing I could just go out for a long crust ski, or go lift heavy in the gym, but I know that wouldn't be the right thing to do. I can take solace in knowing that in a short time, I will be returning to my sport with renewed passion and drive.

As always, I have some people to thank for the success, albeit brief, that I enjoyed this season. Richard, Petr, Tom C, Kathy, Rob, and the rest of the BATC staff that have provided me with great coaching this season, the athletes of the BATC for the great team dynamic we kept going throughout the year, Canmore Nordic for always having that second team "family" to go back to, Evan, Matthew, and Ian at DYNAMIS Nutrition for providing me with safe, banned substance free supplements that have been aiding my recovery the past three years, Jacques at Rossignol for his continued support with providing great skis, Tom Z for helping manage my fleet, the guys at SportCafe for promoting and putting my blog on their site, and last, but by no means least least, my mom and dad who have always helped keep this dream alive.

So, I leave you for now with this quote that my old coach Alain put up just before nationals, I found it extremely fitting.

"Love the game. Love the game for the pure joy of accomplishment. Love the game for everything it can teach you about yourself. Love the game for the feeling of belonging to a group endeavoring to do its best. Love the game for being involved in a team whose members can't wait to see you do your best. Love the game for the challenge of working harder than you ever have at something and then harder than that. Love the game because it takes all team members to give it life. Love the game because at its best, the game tradition will include your contributions. Love the game because you belong to a long line of fine athletes who have loved it. It is now your legacy. Love the game so much that you will pass on your love of the game to another athlete who has seen your dedication, your work, your challenges, your triumphs... and then that athlete will, because of you, love the game."

---Unknown

Having a blast (briefly) leading in the team sprint. Photo by Justin Brisbane

See you in May,

Andrew

Since I've been gone...

2013-04-10T14:51:00.002-06:00

It's the time of year where skiers around the world are trying to relax, recover, and reflect. The season has once again blown by in the blink of an eye, and while I am reflecting on what went down this year, I remembered that once again I have neglected my blog (reoccurring theme of my posts it seems...). You'll be getting a bit of a read with this one, but unlike times past, I have more than two photos. If my writing won't keep you engaged, maybe the pictures will!

Rewind to my last post, and I was entering the mid-season IBU cup trials in Valcartier. I've always had my qualms with this venue, big climbs and soft conditions hardly ever agree with me. Regardless, I was motivated to put together the races that I needed to punch my ticket to Europe.

For the most part, I did just that. As per usual with my luck here, extreme amounts of fresh snow made for some extremely tough racing. After day one of the trials, I was well positioned in the ranking list to race the full IBU cup tour. Day two brought a bit of a disaster, in form of dumping snow and a broken binding. Fortunately, I caught a bit of a break, and I was awarded a force majeure, earning a spot on my first international tour!

Start of day 2 of trials. This was happening the entire race.

As I was in Canmore for the few days before I hopped the pond, I was having some mixed feelings. For reasons I couldn't explain why, I was not excited at all to be racing overseas. It was completely baffling, I had reached a goal that had been my focus for years, and I don't think I could have felt any more indifferent about it. I brushed the thoughts aside for the time being,

Bags packed, I journeyed overseas and met up with the Canadian team in Munich. Our first stop was in Slovakia. I wasn't supposed to race here, but thanks (?) to a bit of sickness in the team I got to start my first IBU cup race a little earlier than expected.

Cleaning up the mess. Luckily nobody was hurt!

It didn't go that well. A combination of jetlag and nerves made for a bit of a disastrous day, finishing well down the result sheet. The day still proved to be exciting though. While the women were zeroing later that day, the range actually collapsed due to the extreme amount of snow that had been falling since we arrived.

After a pretty successful weekend (despite half the team's rooms getting robbed), we packed our bags again and drove to Altenberg, Germany, to race some German cups. It is a ski and sliding crazy town, they are a regular stop on the Bobsleigh/Skeleton World Cup tour and a regular IBU cup stop as well. I'm not sure what happened there, but something in my state of mind changed, and I fell in love with racing all over again. I didn't find myself preoccupied with my performance or how I was going to achieve my goals for the race, I was just out there hammering. On the pursuit day, we woke up to an extreme (but not uncommon) amount of fog, which meant the biathlon race was cancelled. Instead, they ran a mass start cross country race! It was pretty neat to see the race organizers still manage to pull a race off, I don't think that would ever happen in Canada.

Going up the main climb in Altenberg. It was a doozie.

Next up was European Championships in Bansko, Bulgaria. Each day, we would have to take a 25 minute gondola up to the race site. It was a bit of a different scene racing here, seeing as the biathlon range and race trails were in the middle of an alpine ski resort!

While racing at 1600m above sea level was proving to be challenge enough, we were also faced with some pretty wild weather. There was some extreme fog that would roll in right around race time, which resulted in the men's sprint being cancelled mid race not once, but twice! The last (and only) time a race got cancelled like that was at the Nagano Olympics, where the race got cancelled due to too much snow. Due to so many changes in the schedule, it unfortunately meant that the men's relay was removed from the program. When the sprint finally did run, I didn't have a great day on the skis, but I hit 10/10 for the first time in my career. I finished 45th, and was the top Canadian. It was pretty hard to be anything other than happy with my race that day!

Getting a bit of TV time as the race gets cancelled...

The pursuit turned to be a bit of a disaster. Since I didn't have an amazing result in the sprint, I was starting fairly far back, and I knew that if things went south on the range, that I would be at risk of getting lapped. Things went south, and I did get lapped, but for whatever reason, I didn't get pulled. Which meant that I got to ski my last loop by myself, on camera, for everyone to see. When I realized what was going on, I couldn't do anything else but laugh, give a wave, and pull a stupid face to the cameras as I came across the finish line.

One wild night and a long trip home later, I found myself back in Canmore getting ready for the last chunk of racing for the season, biathlon AND cross country nationals in Whistler, BC. Like last year, the competitions were back-to-back. While I appreciate the convenience, it made for a pretty tough two weeks of racing! 9 races in 15 days to be exact.

Typical wet weather during biathlon nationals

Biathlon nationals were a bit underwhelming. I was pretty tired and somewhat deflated, but I was nonetheless motivated to try and get a good result. I struggled trying to put both parts of this sport together on the same day, but I finally did that on the day of the relay. I finished biathlon nationals with three 10th overall/7th Canadian places, and I tagged my team off in 4th for the opening leg of the relay. Not a bad way to bring the biathlon season to a close!

We were greeted with some beautiful weather for XC nationals, which we all welcomed with open arms! We had some pretty wet and rainy/slushy weather during biathlon nationals, so the change was greatly appreciated. It was t-shirt weather on a regular basis.

Damn Whistler, you look good.

XC nationals were a bit of a different story for me. I knew I was going to be tired, so I basically just tried to have as much fun as I could with each race. Strangely enough, both of my classic races went quite a bit better than my skate races. I capped the season off with a tough-going 50k, and I was ready to go home.

So those are the not-so-gory details. I've decided to break up my season wrap-up into two parts, the next post will provide a bit more insight into how I think things went this year.

Hitting that good ol' reset button...

2013-01-14T21:27:00.001-07:00

Well the first half of race season has already blown by, and I can quite easily say, it went nowhere near as planned. Training leading into the first races of season was going near-perfectly. I was feeling fit, shooting was steady, and in the first on-snow time trials I was showing noticeable improvement from last year. Heading into IBU cup trials I was definitely nervous, but I knew that I had a solid chance to make a tour. The first day of racing went alright, shooting 9/10 and skiing acceptably. The second day was a bit of a disaster, I felt terrible on the skis and fell apart a bit on the range, shooting 14/20. As I discovered about an hour after the race was done, the terrible feelings were the cause of a norovirus bug going around Canmore. After a very long, stressful, and frustrating selection process, I found myself stuck in Canada while there was an open spot on the tour that I could have taken.

After I tried to recover after my brief-but-violent illness, I raced the first cross country NorAm of the year. I was still pretty wrecked, but I hadn't lost much of my top end speed. That was perfect, seeing as one of the races was a skate sprint. Alas, bad luck would strike me again. I hit a patch of ice on a sharp corner leading into a big downhill, and I crashed myself out of the race. I was pretty disappointed, but I looked forward to a bit of self-redemption the next day, a 15k classic. While it was not a great result, it was probably the technically-best classic race I had done to date. It gave me a bit of confidence leading into the next weekend of racing in Vernon, which was a 15k classic mass start and a 15k interval start skate.

Vernon was some really fun racing, but I was definitely pretty tired. I didn't have much punch in my legs or power in my arms, but I finally found some fight in me that I hadn't had in a pretty long time. I am not sure of the exact reason why I was so fried that early on in the season, but I knew I needed some real rest.

Fast forward to the new year, and it's a much better situation. I am feeling rested, strong, and eager to race. I managed to get in some quality training and recovery in over the Christmas break, and after blowing the cobwebs out in an Alberta cup race weekend, I think I have finally fully absorbed the training load from the preseason. My coach said that at this point of the year, you shouldn't be training harder to make the fitness rise. A balancing act between maintenance and hard workouts seem to have been doing the trick. I cranked out my last hard workout in Canmore on Saturday, and now I am on a bit of an open-ended trip.

Currently, I am just outside Ottawa staying with my old coach Dave. I need to get my Estonian passport renewed, and if you want to get that done, you have to go to Ottawa, or to Estonia. On Thursday, I will be getting a ride to Valcartier, where I am racing this weekend. Depending on how those races go, I will either hop the pond to race in the last IBU cups of the year, or I will stay in Eastern North America racing NorAms. Regardless of the weekend's outcome, I have a lot of racing ahead of me and I won't be home for at least a month. This will be my longest race trip yet, and I am extremely excited!

I will try to give an update after each weekend of racing, as long as I have internet access. Here's a quick photo from the Alberta cup at the start of January. Cheers for now!

Fall is here!

2012-09-25T21:10:00.001-06:00

It's official, summer is over and fall is here. The mornings are getting chillier by the day, and everyone is waiting with baited breath for the first snowflakes to start falling (ok, maybe only skiers share this mindset...). Race season is just around the corner, and that means training season is on it's way out.

Map courtesy of Phil Villeneuve's blog!

In my last post I said that I was going to be racing the NorAm Championship rollerski races and immediately heading up to the Haig Glacier for some high altitude skiing. Unfortunately, my body had a different idea. I managed to get sick halfway through the Testival, which meant no racing and no glacier time for me. It was a bit of a bummer, but that is just a part of being an athlete. Instead I stayed in Canmore and focused on getting healthy. Fortunately I got better in time to partake in what was probably the longest workout I will do in my life, the Canmore 4 Peaks Challenge!

The Canmore 4 Peaks Challenge is fairly basic in concept. You start at your house, you summit the main 4 peaks of Canmore (Grotto, Lady Mac, E.E.O.R., and Ha-Ling), and you come home. You can only walk/run/hike everywhere, which means no bikes, cars, planes, wingsuits, hangliders, etc. This amounts to around 53-55k of foot distance travelled, and about 4700m of elevation gain. Our team was doing all 4 peaks in one day, travelling from each peak by car, but my teammate, Kat Stone, and I decided that we wanted to do the challenge "the right way". Our coach had set certain deadlines where we had to be at the base of each mountain by a certain time (11am at the base of Lady Mac, 2:30pm at EEOR, 5pm at Ha-Ling). Since we had to run from peak to peak, Kat and I decided we would have to start about 2.5h earlier than everyone else, which meant starting our journey at 4:30 in the morning. I won't delve too deeply into the details of the challenge, as I am currently working on a video that almost documents it, but here are a few stats from my attempt!

Looking down from the trail up Grotto Mtn. at 5:30 in the morning!

~14h moving time, took about 16.5h total
Burned over 15000 calories (read very hungry for the past week!)
Bonked 3 times, thank goodness for the re-energizing powers of Coca cola!
Probably should have used a cane to walk for a few days afterwards.

My watch with the running time at the top of Ha-Ling (final peak)!

I will throw the video up on here, as well as my Facebook and Twitter once it is done. I actually tweeted during most of the hike. If you feel so inclined, you can check out my twitter feed here and backtrack a bit to see the breakdown of the hike. I got some pretty cool photos during the hike!

Since I was sick for about a week, that also meant that I didn't get an official rest week this past week. It wasn't too bad though, it was just Zina and I, so we got lots of one-on-one attention with our training. Interestingly enough, I found out that I have been using poles that are too long for basically my entire career. I tried using some poles that are about 4cm shorter than the ones I had been using, and it seemed to make a difference. We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks.

Next camp up for us is Park City! We will do a quick stint there to get some high quality altitude training, and get back to Canmore just in time for the start of Frozen Thunder. The Canmore Nordic Centre is getting better and better at storing snow over the summer, under giant piles of sawdust. We are hoping for a 2.5k loop to start the year off, with the "festivities" starting on October 15th.

That's all for now, til next time!

So I went to Whistler again...

2012-09-02T17:29:00.000-06:00

I seem to be making a habit of going to the Callaghan Valley (aka Whistler). I went to the first biathlon race ever held there, I raced my first national championships there, and I have been there at least once a year since the park opened. This year has been no different. I raced cross country U23 World Championship trials there in January, and I just got back from the my team's low altitude intensity camp!

As is the common theme with our training camps, this one was a doozie. 5 intensity sessions (including 2 time trials), 2 weight sessions, and one crazy hike / run in 6 days! Most of our spare time was spent either sleeping or eating.

I didn't get a lot of photos, but I did get some this time! Most of them were during the hike/run that we did. We started at the Garibaldi lakes trail, circumnavigated Black Tusk mountain, and ran back to the old Olympic athlete's village via the Cheakamus lake trail. All in all it was about 28k, and there were some pretty impressive views!

Running across some volcanic rock with Black Tusk Mountain in the background

The first epic view of the hike. And Macx's head.

Best photo of the hike by far. Garibaldi lake.

We also had our annual slackline competition. It was pretty neat to see how much everyone improved from last year. Having the slackline in our back yard for the entire camp got me hooked too, I think I am going to buy one from MEC the next time I am in Calgary!

Double slacklines! (What does it mean...)

We capped our last day off in Whistler with a time trial. I didn't have the most amazing race, but it was good enough to beat out the other guys. At the Whistler Olympic Park, they have the podium set up for tourists to take photos on. Naturally, we decided to have a cheesy "awards ceremony" on the podium with the Olympic rings in the background and everything. Since we took our group photo on the inukshuk leading into the park last year, the team went dorky tourist again and took our photo on top of the podium as well!

The fastest skier (Macx) and the best shooter (Mel) tied!

The team! (Minus EJ, who was smart and was hanging out in the shade)

On our travel day home we stopped in Revelstoke to do a little bit of training. We did a very lax uphill time trial on the Mt. Revelstoke road. I say it was lax because Richard started it while half of us were still trying to get our skis out from the van. Macx and I sort of tied after he decided to take a detour into a waterfall to cool off 3/4 of the way up and let me catch up. It was a pretty sad sprint to the finish on my part but Richard couldn't see who won so he called it a tie.

All in all, it was a pretty successful camp. It was a little crazy at first (6 crashes and 2 trips to the ER in the first two days!), but once things got settled we laid down some solid training!

We are almost done our hard training block. We are doing the fall "Testival" this week, wrapping up with the North American Summer biathlon championships. On Monday next week we go up to the Haig Glacier and get to spend a few days on snow at high altitude, and then on that Sunday we have a surprise workout. All we know is that it is going to be long, hard, and take at least 12 hours.

I think Richard might be taking the phrase, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger", to a whole different level.

'Til next time!

Starting back up!

2012-08-07T21:29:00.000-06:00

Well April has come and gone, and I'm already over a month deep back into training! I think I took a bigger rest than ever this April, 3 weeks entirely off. It made for a bit of a huff n' puff getting back into a regular training regime, but I am sure that I will appreciate that extra rest later on in the year. Seeing as I have had this post in my draft's folder for about a month now, and I've figured out people actually read this thing, I should probably update you all...

Last year in general was a pretty freakin' good year for me, I just didn't seem to perform to the extent I needed to on about 6 given days. With that in mind, I'm not planning on changing a whole lot this year, still going big or going home. It is my first year in the senior category, which means even more competition for a few precious tour spots. Especially this year. Depending on who you talk to, there is potentially only one free spot open for athletes not on the national team to fight for. Regardless, there will be lots of great domestic racing opportunities this year as per usual, so I am not to worried about being stuck and bored in Canmore!

Enough looking into the future for now, though. This June my team did a volume training camp in Penticton, British Columbia! We spent a lot of time in the saddle, doing some fantastic rides accompanied by great weather! Julia, one of my teammates, is from Kelowna and is always raving about how terrible the weather is in Canmore and how great and sunny it is in the Okanagan. Well, for the most part she was right! We had warm weather every day, and although we did have some pretty wild rainstorms, they either didn't last too long, or it was still really warm! I think the lesson here is that in June, it just rains in western Canada. 'Nuff said.

One of the few photos showing we were actually on bikes that camp!

July was spent mostly in Canmore, but we were lucky enough to be given a rest week away from group training! I took advantage of this to head out east to Ontario to visit a bunch of family and friends I hadn't seen in a few years. I also went on my first rollercoaster ride, ever. I spent the day at Canada's Wonderland with my uncle and a few of my cousins and I had an absolute blast. I'm not sure why I didn't start riding rollercoasters earlier in my life...

And all of a sudden we are in August. We are currently in an 8 week long VERY hard training block, and all we can do is hold on for the ride. The team is pushing hard for individual improvements so we can all achieve our goals this winter. Next up on the schedule is a week long training camp in Whistler, BC. We will take advantage of the lower altitude and do lots of hard intensities while we are there. Hopefully I will be more diligent in bringing my camera along on training sessions so my next update will be a bit less bland (and much shorter)

Cheers for now!

Where did race season go?!

2012-04-05T19:51:00.001-06:00

Once again, race season has flown by in a massive whirlwind. Training, racing, waxing, scraping, driving, flying... the whole shebang! I should probably catch up my massive audience of readers (ha) up with everything.

Racing in chilly Fort Kent!

Back up to January, the Fort Kent NorAm's. We headed down to "the county" to do some low-key competitions to help tune up for World Junior trials. Unfortunately, it was bitterly cold, averaging around a humid -18 on both race days. This made the conditions slow and pretty tough, but seeing as we are in a winter sport, we had to adapt. I took the races a lot easier than I would have normally, and it worked surprisingly well. I shot 8/10 and 17/20, good enough to come 2nd both days and finish 2nd overall on the weekend. I was feeling pretty confident leading into World Junior trials.

Despite having had one of my best competition years with strong skiing and consistent shooting, I managed to once again, not make the World Juniors team. Whether I was too tired, too nervous, or just trying too hard, not a whole lot went right at these races for me. I was crashing, I was missing too many targets, or I was just plain skiing slow. After an OK mass start and a brutal sprint, everything was coming down to the pursuit race, which is normally my favourite competition. I was in contention for the last spot with two other guys, and although I felt nervous I was feeling fairly confident that I would be able to pull off the race I needed. I started off with 2 misses in the first two prone stages, one in each. Not ideal, but definitely not the end of the world. I came into my first standing and cleaned, and headed out in contact of the guy I needed to beat that day. While normally I am very strong in standing shooting, and especially in the last shooting of a race, it didn't quite turn out that way. I came in and missed 3 targets. I skied my butt off in that penalty loop and tried to claw back time on course, but my legs just stopped working and I saw my World Juniors berth ski away. It was a tough pill to swallow, but that's just the beauty of biathlon, you never know what will happen.

Unfortunately the rough legs stuck around with me for another few weeks, resulting in some horrendous trials races for the IBU cups in Canmore and then just constant pain in my quads for the week afterwards. Then, surprise surprise, I got sick! So, after some forced rest on top of some planned rest, I got back into regular training to get ready for Nationals.

Before I knew it, I was on my way back to Val Cartier, Quebec. Feeling rested, well prepared, and ready to race with a whole new mindset, I was itching to get to the startline. Official training went smoothly, I had a good pair of skis picked, and I was ready to tackle the slushy conditions that are typical of Quebec this time of year. We kicked things off with the 12.5k mass start. Right from the get go, I tried to keep myself in contact with the lead pack, but unfortunately the conditions had other ideas for me. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong with my ski selection that day, but I knew right away it was going to be a tough slog, so I had to adjust my race strategy a bit and put a lot more focus on the shooting, because I wasn't going to be doing any damage on the skis! Every time I went into the range, I got closer and closer to the podium, leaving the range after the last shooting in 3rd place! I tried my damndest on the last loop to catch the guy in front of me, but the downhills weren't agreeing with my skis, so I had to settle for bronze. Not a bad start to my nationals!

I was hoping for a bit of redemption in the 10k sprint, but I unfortunately had a similar ski day with not as stellar shooting, only hitting 7/10. I crossed the line in a disappointing 9th place. This warm weather and slushy snow was wreaking havoc on me!

On the podium after the mass start

This left just one more race left at Biathlon nationals, the pursuit. I knew that if I had a good day on the range that I would have a crack at the podium, so I set a goal to hit 18/20. I hammered out of the start gate hoping to catch the guy in front of me to hitch a ride for the first loop, but yet again I had less than stellar skis, so it turned into another extremely tactical race in terms of trying to conserve my energy. Every time I left the range, I was in a better and better position. When I came into the range for the last time, I was directed to the third shooting lane, so I assumed this meant I was in 3rd place (in the pursuit you fill the lanes depending on your position entering the range). I hit my last 5 targets and was on my way, very happy with my 19/20 shooting! As I hammered past one of the Alberta coaches, I was told I was 48 seconds behind a Quebec athlete and 30 behind Macx. This confused me to no end, so I turned on the afterburners and hoped for the best. Unfortunately it wasn't enough and I crossed the line in 4th. All in all though, it was probably one of my better races of the year and it was a ton of fun. Not a bad way to end biathlon nationals.

Another clean shooting in the pursuit!

A quick bag re-packing, and we were off to Alex Harvey's stomping grounds, Mt. St. Anne, for the Haywood Ski Nationals! I think the weather we raced in this week will be hard to top. On the day of the 15k skate it was 20C at 10am! Fortunately it "only" got up to 23C when I was racing around 1:30pm that day. I started out with a good pace, gliding well, and holy crap I had awesome skis. I took a feed (yes, it was that hot) and lapped through the stadium, ready to start kicking the pace up a notch. Unfortunately I decided to ruin my day and crash on the straightest downhill you could imagine and get stuck in a snowbank. A very nice spectator ran down the hill, helped dig me out, and send me back on my way. Unfortunately I had lost a minute or two already and I started panicking, two very bad things to do in a ski race. I managed to blow up and suffer into the finish line for a pretty bad result. Next up was the skate sprint. I was feeling even better than the 15k, but I was lacking the ever important snap needed to have a great sprint day. I was pretty far off of qualifying, and this left me with only the 50k classic left. Yes, believe it or not, I decided to sign up for a 50k classic race. Most of my friends know that classic skiing and I have had an interesting relationship over the past few years, but I think it is getting better. The 50k was probably the most chaotic race I have ever done. Skiers crashing everywhere, my faulty boot lace and zipper, trying to count 10 loops without getting dizzy... it goes on and on. A few of my Quebec biathlete friends built a fire on the side of the trail and were trying to give me beer feeds! While extremely tempting, I decided to opt for the pedialyte and coke feeds that my club had prepared for us. It was an extremely tough race (2nd hardest 50k in Canadian history, according to Alain), but it was a ton of fun. I even got asked for an autograph at the finish line.

You can see my boot coming undone. Awesome.

Now I'm back at home, trying to recharge the enough batteries to get ready for another big training season. I am going into my first year of senior men, a whole different world of competition. In the words of Ronnie Coleman, "There ain't nothin' to it but to do it!". I'm looking forward to training harder than ever this upcoming season, but for now, it's time to rest.

Thanks for reading this monster post! I'll try to keep them shorter from now on in...

Happy New Year... and rest of last year!

2012-01-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

I did it again. I ignored the blog. To be frank, my life wasn't all that interesting for a few months and then my bad habit of not updating led right into the race season. SO. Lets have a quick recap.

November: Senior national team trials. Being the first races of the season, they were a little rusty and didn't go as well as I had hoped. A learning experience to say the least.

December: Believe it or not, I raced more XC than I did biathlon this month. "Regular" race season started with Biathlon Noram Cup #1 in Canmore. I had a pretty good race weekend, I came 3rd (shot 7/10) in the sprint and 1st in the pursuit (shot 18/20). The weekend marked my first win of the season, my first Noram Cup win, and I was tied for first in the Noram Cup overall standings. That would be short lived, since instead of going to West Yellowstone for Noram Cup #2, I went to Silver Star for some XC racing! Unfortunately, both races were classic technique (not my strong point, at all). I ended up having some halfway decent races for myself, and then we were off to Rossland. The Rossland races were both skate (woohoo!), but unfortunately I managed to catch a bit of a cold on the Friday afternoon, so both races were less than stellar. I was glad to get back to Canmore / Calgary and have some good recovery time over Christmas.

Now we're in present day (aka January). I raced Calforex Cup #2, and I placed 1st in the 15k individual (shot 18/20) and 3rd in the 10k sprint (shot 7/10). Saturday was an average skiing day and a great shooting day, but Sunday the wheels kind of just fell off. I had that horrible pained, cramped feeling in my legs again, just like last year. I couldn't hammer or anything, and my shooting just wasn't confident. An afternoon of panicked bag-packing and some serious napping, stretching, and eating, I was off to Whistler for U23 XC World Championship trials. I didn't have any expectations leading into these races, they were mostly just for more experience. Yesterday I raced the 30k skiathlon (my first race ever over 20k), and I am a little mixed on the results. I pulled a bit of a newbie mistake when I tested my skis before the race and I ended up not having much grip. I suffered through the first 15k and came to the exchange (switching from classic to skate) zone with open arms. As I first started for the first 2-2.5k, my legs had that horrible feeling in them again. The last time this happened they hurt for weeks on end, and this close to World Junior biathlon trials, I was beginning to question whether I should finish the race or not. I decided to man up and just finish the race, and I am glad I did. I started passing people and my legs started feeling better and better, up until the last 500m where my body seemed to shut down and stop working. Every time I blinked my vision would go dark for a few seconds and then come back. I haven't had that feeling in a while, and in a crazy sort of way, I missed it. I managed to sprint past one more of my competitors and drop him going into the finish. All in all, not that bad of a 15k skate. Too bad I had to ruin it with an abysmal 15k classic beforehand.

Tomorrow are the skate sprints. There are 50 open men registered, and I am not entirely sure what to expect. My goal before (when only 35 men were registered) was just to qualify for the heats. I guess I'll just keep it at that. Now, I'm going to put my legs up and have a nap. Cheers for now, hopefully I will get some photos up soon

Testing week!

2011-09-12T11:24:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone! This past week we have just had our second testing week of the year. We did two uphill tests at Norquay (one double pole and one skating), two shooting tests (one 600 pt precision test and one drill oriented test), and capped it off with the Alberta Summer Biathlon Championships! I managed to improve on all of the tests, with an average 2.5 minute improvement on my uphill tests! I had a new PB for the precision test, at 489/600. My goal is to break 500 by next spring, so I am getting there. Some rough prone shooting held me back that day. During both of the uphill tests, I felt much stronger, but there is still room for improvement. A combination of better pacing and improved fitness lead to my improvements.

Racing in the pursuit, photo by Frans Diepstraten

With Friday off from any tests, we got to prepare a bit for the competitions on the weekend. A bit different than usual, we had race start times at 4pm on Saturday and noon on Sunday. Needless to say, all of us winter athletes were suffering during our races at the hottest part of the day. Saturday was a bit of a gongshow on the range and out on the skis, but Sunday I managed to put a bit better of a performance together, hitting 17/20. This weekend there was no senior men's category, so all of us juniors got bumped up a category. I finished 7th on Saturday and 6th on Sunday.

Our testing "week" continues into this week, with another uphill time trial and double pole test! While they are both shorter tests, they are still extremely hard efforts! Hopefully I will have more pictures by then!

In other news, I have managed to get myself sponsored by Rossignol for the fourth year in a row! I am extremely excited about this, as it means I will be getting more great equipment to race on this year. I will have the peace of mind knowing that I don't have to worry about the quality of my equipment when I am out on the course this winter!

Cheers for now!

A year with DYNAMIS

2011-08-01T12:59:00.000-06:00

Repainting my rifle turned out to be a bit of a failure, so I'm redoing it this week... There WILL be a photodiary!

In the meantime, I came to the realization last week that I've been sponsored by DYNAMIS for well over a year now! And what a year it has been. Their support is great and is growing all the time. They have been supplying me with all of the supplements I need, sweet swag, publicity, and this upcoming season they are going to be supporting my racing and training directly by helping out with some of my fees related to racing and training! Having a sponsor like DYNAMIS really helps me race and train to my full potential. While I obviously can't attribute all of my success in the past year to them, they have definitely played a crucial part in helping me achieve my goals.

First triumph with DYNAMIS...
2nd Place at North American Rollerski Championships

Cheers to another great year coming!

Spring update and start of summer, whoops.

2011-07-25T16:39:00.000-06:00

Ah, blogs... Bringing procrastination to a whole new level.

After spending April in the gym lifting weights and taking advantage of the amazing snow conditions, I started training with my new team: The Biathlon Alberta Training Centre. The name is less than creative, but I have been loving the program since day one. We have a top notch coaching / support staff, headed by the one and only Richard Boruta.

After a nice break from shooting over April, I was feeling ready to get right back at it. I had less than stellar shooting performances the past season and I was ready to make improvements. First practice back, I couldn't make a group or hit a freakin' target again! Pass three more practices of frustration, and finally we start getting into the guts of my rifle and get it tested. One of our shooting coaches, Petr Zidek, took my action and bench tested it. This process involves clamping the rifle into a vice and firing 10 shots to test the grouping of the rifle barrel, thus taking out human error. The picture above is the "group" my barrel made. Where are the other two shots of the ten you ask? Nobody knows. Needless to say, this meant I needed to get a new rifle barrel. Pass one week without a rifle and voila! New barrel and I am able to hit targets again!

We kicked our training off with an on-snow spring skiing and road biking camp in Silver Star, British Columbia. Hammering out the first high volume and hard intensity workouts of the year kicked off in a good way. Unfortunately, a lack of a camera on this trip makes for a somewhat boring update! I'll start bringing my GoPro around with me more often...

Camp ends, we're back in Canmore. I started, finished, and passed my spring session class, went through two different testing weeks (one with the World Cup Academy, another with the Biathlon National team), and pounded out lots of training hours. I unfortunately had to miss a stint of a training camp out in Radium, but I was still able to get the hours done.

Fast-forward to present day, and it is finally summer in Canmore! The sun is shining (sometimes), training is going great, and

This is probably one of the most scattered and stale updates I have done, but seeing as I will be writing on MUCH shorter time spans from here on, I think you can expect something a bit better.

Cheers for now! Next up, a photo-log of the refinishing of my rifle stock!

...and that's a wrap!

2011-03-30T13:38:00.000-06:00

Well another season has come and gone. I unfortunately didn't get to race the team sprints at XC Nationals since my teammate came down with a sudden illness, but such is life. I raced the 10k skate and 15k classic and I surprised myself entirely with my results. I had a fairly brutal 10k skate race. I was thinking that I would at have improved on my performances compared to last year, but it became quickly obvious that I had forgotten how to pace for a continuous 10k race instead of 3x3.3k! With that sudden epiphany on this crazy thing called "pacing", I raced the 15k classic two days later.

As many people know, classic has been a real challenge for me the past few years, but I went into the race just hoping to pace it well. I arrived at the site, tested my skis, pounded back some Fuel-XRM and Ignition-XT, and went for a quick warmup. I ended up having the best classic race yet! My skis were amazing too, I was flying down the downhills and tearing up the climbs. The speed was startling at some points, I almost went careening off the course and into the trees! Yeah, I still got my butt kicked by a good pile of competitors, but it was a 12 place improvement from the skate race and an even bigger improvement from my classic races last year! This was a big boost of motivation heading into biathlon nationals!

Lapping through, maybe looking too relaxed?

Photo by Sylvain Beaudry
http://www.teamgrizz.blogspot.com/

A week passes, and after a long day of travelling, I found myself in Charlo, New Brunswick. I had been waiting for this week for over two months, and it was finally here. I was feeling good, rested, and ready. My shooting had been sort of iffy for the past two weeks, but I just decided to roll with it and let the results come. I had made a goal earlier in the year to have top 5 performances at these championships, and while I had worried myself earlier in the month with some extremely dismal performances, I managed to just shrug that off.

I kicked the racing off right with a 3rd place in the 15k Individual competition! I had a bit of a mediocre shooting day, hitting 15/20, but my skiing lifted me up onto the podium. This was the first medal at nationals of my career! I could hardly sleep that night out of excitement, but I tried my best seeing that I had the 10k sprint the next day. This race would not turn out to go as well, as I hit 6/10 and wasn't skiing as fast by any means. I dropped down to 8th spot that day, but I was hoping that I could pull off a better result in the pursuit. That didn't happen either, as I had one of my poorest shooting performances of the year hitting 10/20. I was fairly disappointed in myself as my fitness was there, but when you are skiing 1500 meters extra, it is going to take a good chunk out of you both mentally and physically. With those two less than perfect performances, I was put onto a senior category relay team with two other women, Cindy Clark and Melanie Schultz (normally in a 3-person mixed relay you have 2 men and 1 woman). While my hopes of winning a medal in the relay were reduced, I got to start the relay with a lot of the senior national team guys so I knew I was going to have a bit of fun. The first loop I managed to stick with the pack for the most part, other than when I was getting tangled up with a few of the other competitors. I came into my first shooting feeling fairly relaxed, but in combination with some crazy wind and a bit of tension / nervousness I left the range with 3 penalty loops, a BIG no no in the relay. Skiing like a madman, I passed a few competitors on that loop and made up some time on another. I came into my standing shooting and just went for it, and ended up using 2 spares to get all of the targets down. No penalty loops this time, good! I stormed around my last loop, passed one guy, and tagged off to Mel. Again, my shooting let me down. Fortunately, both of my teammates didn't have the same troubles I did and we ended up finishing in 3rd place! Since we were the second Alberta team (the other one won!), we didn't get a medal. Too bad! Always next year...

I'd like to send a BIG thank you to my sponsors, Rossignol and DYNAMIS.

Rossignol provided me with great skis again this season and I look forward to the next racing season! I didn't think that the gear could get any better but this season has shown me otherwise!
DYNAMIS has provided me with great sport supplements that has aided both my training and my recovery, and with all of the new stuff they have coming up, I am nothing but excited!

April is going to be my recovery month, with some easy training and visiting with friends and family! Til next time...

Nothing like a bit of tension beforehand...

2011-03-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

A bit of a bummer this evening, my teammate has come down with a bit of a cold so I might not be racing the team sprint tomorrow. Fingers crossed that he's feeling better though!

In the mean time, I leave you with this video of Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey's brilliant gold medal performance in the classic team sprint at World Championships a few weeks ago. The video was taken by one of the national team skiiers, so it is a VERY cool video hearing all the cheering coming from them.

The wait is over!

2011-03-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

So, I am blaming my lack of updates on two things:

1. I've been a lazy bum
2. There hasn't been a whole lot to update about.

BUT. That has all changed. I've had a few race weekends and I'm now entering the most exciting part of the year, the BIG competitions! The next 3 weeks are jam packed, kicking off this Saturday with Cross Country Nationals, followed by Biathlon Nationals, then followed by the North American Biathlon Championships!

Now, to update you on the past few weeks...

Grande Prairie was cancelled due to bitter, horrible, cold weather. Not extremely disappointed, seeing as it was going to be a ridiculously long drive to compete against two of my teammates.

Two weekends ago were the Western Canadian Biathlon Championships. It was insanely windy and there was blowing ice and snow, making the conditions for both shooting and skiing miserable. On the Saturday, I competed in my first 15k individual, and despite having a despicable shooting score of 10/20, I came first. Go figure, I had one of the best shootings in the field, and with those 1 minute penalties, it made a difference to hit every shot you could! I was hoping for a repeat on the Sunday, but that was not to be. I had a case of "rigor mortis" and was unable to ski at any sort of speed. Shooting wasn't too great either. I would come 5th on the day, and feeling rather confused. I went from one of my best skiing performances to something horrible. I just thought it was a bad day, and moved on.

The next week I would feel tired and achey, but no real symptoms of any sickness. We travelled out of town once again to the rosy-smelling town of Hinton. We would face cold temperatures and insanely slow ski conditions once again. I wasn't feeling great, but I'd figure I'd just go hammer as hard as I could. I probably had two of my poorest performances of the season, not being able to move at all on the skis or hit the broad side of a barn on the range. This worried me a great deal and I wasn't quite sure what to expect heading into this final competition stretch of the season. We took quick action, cutting my training hours a bit to ensure I absorbed my last training block and ensuring a final peak, and fortunately I'm starting to feel a bit better. And just in the nick of time!

My week was made this afternoon when I found out that one of my teammates decided not to race in the team sprint, which left a spot open for me! I'm not particularly good at sprinting, but the races are so much fun that I just couldn't believe that I was going to have to sit this one out! Perhaps this stroke of luck is a sign of things to come? We'll see... I'll be consuming copious amounts of Fuel-XRM and Ignition-XT before these races for optimal output, hopefully I'll whip out something awesome!

Seeing as how I always like putting pictures or videos in my posts, I figured I had better throw something this time. And seeing as my friends and teammates seem to question my diet at times, I present you my dinner this evening. I made braised beef, shaken with BBQ sauce. I ate this mixed with a pile of brown rice and had a sliced avocado as a side. I cooked up some frozen veggies afterwards as well, but they would have ruined the "beautiful" composition of my plate.

Delicious!

Seeing as there is going to be something cool happening most days from now onwards, I think I will be motivated enough to post something fairly often. Check back often!

Cheers for now!

DYNAMIS!

2011-02-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention this in my previous post, but my supplement sponsor, DYNAMIS, has been up to some mischief and has some exciting stuff coming out! I can't say much about it, other than everything is going to be re-branded and there is a new product that is currently known as "Project ARC". It is another pre-workout drink, and I can't wait for the chance to try it! It is going to be able to work together with all the other products that DYNAMIS currently has available.

So excited!

The new website has also been launched, and I have a new and updated profile on it! DYNAMIS has been a greater deal of support than I could have ever imagined when I first joined the team, it just excites me to no end to see how quickly the company has grown. Check out the new website: http://thedynamisdifference.com

Catching up

2011-02-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well after some slightly disappointing results out East, I figured I had better catch you all up on what happened and what I'm up to now!

On our 2 week tour we first arrived in Jericho, VT. The course was fairly easy, and coming down from altitude my lungs felt unstoppable when we got there. We did a fun night race on the Thursday where I shot 7/10 and came second a bit behind my teammate Beau Thompson (check out his blog at http://beauthompson.blogspot.com). I was racing up a category into senior men during this tour, so I went into the first race not expecting too much, trying to take a bit of the mental pressure off. Truth be told, I crapped the bed a bit and hit 5/10, and came 7th. It was an odd sensation skiing, I wasn't running out of breath, but I just couldn't move any faster! Either way, I tried refocusing for the next day in hopes for some better shooting and some better skiing. I improved a bit on both parts, but combined with the freezing cold weather (it was about -19C) and a bit of nerves, I still didn't pull off a great race. I ended up 5th after some decent shooting, albeit a hiccup on my second prone with 3 misses.

We quickly packed up and loaded up the van to go to what would soon top my list of favourite places to train... the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center! Why is this place so wonderful you ask? Well, for starters, the all you can eat buffet 3 times a day! It was included with us paying for our rooms, so every meal I was chock full and feeling great! Ok, maybe sometimes I ate a bit too much... but it was still awesome! The trails at the training site were great as well, everything from easy to "holy crap" difficult. That leads me to the race trails... it was all either straight up, straight down, or flat. Nothing quite like the flowing trails of Canmore, the only recovery you got was when you didn't need it... coming out of the range! This was going to make for some tough racing!

The first day (the sprint) I was fairly nervous. These races were serving as senior national team trials for the World Championships and European Championships, and being a junior racing into the senior category with a bunch of guys hitting a peak, I was a bit intimidated! I did my best to calm myself down before my start, and I thought I had for the most part. I rolled into my first prone thinking nothing special, hit the first two shots, and then proceeded to miss the next three. HMMMMMM. I had some time to think about what went wrong as I was making myself dizzy in the penalty loop. I fell asleep a bit on my second loop on the flats, so I think that my lap time wasn't that great, but I came into my standing shooting and knocked 4 of them down. A bit of redemption there. I came across the line fairly far back, but I didn't let myself get down. The next day I decided to just throw all thought of pacing out the window and just try to hike my lactates up as high as I could. Turns out that was just what I needed in terms of getting my head straight, as I managed to end the tour on a bit of a high note hitting 16/20 and climbing up the ranks a bit. I probably would have done a bit better if I had tried saving something for the last lap, but that's all in the past.

I'm now entering the final training / loading phase before the final competitions of the year. My coach has decided to try something different with me to try to get me to have a solid peak (best racing shape possible) at Nationals. I'm going to be doing a lot of intensity and speed work instead of having the typical high volume and recovery phase, so in plain English, I'll be racing and going fast every week leading up to nationals! We know this will work, we just don't know how well my body will respond to it. So, to kick off this intensity loading, I will be heading up to Grande Prairie to race in the Calforex Cup series, there's gonna be a mass start (exciting!) and a sprint.

Cheers for now!

Packing and getting ready to go, and as per usual, procrastinating...

2011-01-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

I'm getting packed up and prepared for my trip out to the Eastern United States right now, but as usual I've found myself procrastinating and spending some time on youtube. Hence, I'll give you guys a bit of an idea of what a World Cup competition actually looks like. This happened last week in Oberhof, Germany. It's the 10k sprint (2 shootings, 3x3.3k loops) and obviously this has been cut down to just highlights. I'll make a more involved post later this afternoon!

Cheers!

Now that's more like it!

2011-01-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

After an extremely slow and disappointing start to my season, I am finally starting to come into the form that I was expecting!

In the middle of December I raced in the Noram/Calforex Cup #1 in Canmore. At these races I had less than impressive shooting and although I was skiing much faster than last year, I just knew that I could and should have been skiing faster. Despite those setbacks, I was selected to represent Canada at the World University Games in Erzrum, Turkey. I declined my spot, as I had hopes to make the World Junior Championships team. Those trials races happened a week later in the Whistler Olympic Park at the Callaghan Valley, and once again I fell short of my expectations. Upon analysis after the fact, it would have been a great feat if I had great races there, but as my coach always tells me, you analyze, learn, and move forward to improve in the future.

And improve I did.

This past weekend we had the Noram Cup #3/Calforex Cup #2 come to Canmore. After not making the World Juniors team, I made the decision to just pile on the hours and intensity leading up to Nationals so that I would still have a possibility of making some of the Junior National squad criteria. This meant that all I was worrying about this weekend was hoping to make the easy attainable (but not if you screw up horribly) 85% performance benchmark to earn my spot on the provincial team.

Needless to say, I was worrying about nothing. I came 2nd place in both the sprint and pursuit competitions! I put in two of the best race shooting performances of my life, despite some tricky wind conditions and blowing snow (9/10 on the Saturday and 19/20 on the Sunday!). I didn't miss a single prone shot all weekend and I was skiing faster than I probably ever have before. It was a great feeling representing both Rossignol Skis and DYNAMIS Fitness and Lifestyle to my first (and hopefully not last) podium finishes this season. Rossignol has been providing me with great skis, boots, and poles since the 08/09 race season and DYNAMIS has been providing me with extremely effective supplements since June, and I greatly appreciate their continued support!

Now I am sitting here asking myself... why am I racing so well now instead of 3 weeks ago in Whistler?? There is probably a shopping list of reasons why, but that doesn't matter. On January 18th I am traveling to the Eastern United States to compete in Noram Cup #5 and #6 in Jericho, VT and Lake Placid, NY respectively. At these races I will be racing up into the Senior Men's category for extra competition and to try (a bit of a long shot) to make the Canadian IBU cup team that will be travelling to Europe for February. Wherever I go after that, I will be making the final preparations for our national championships in Charlo, NB. Apparently they don't have any snow there right now... perfect.

In other news in the ski world, congratulations to Aaron Gillmor for making the World Junior Cross Country Championships team! He made the WJC team for biathlon, but has decided to give the XC skiing a go this season, so as a result I am also congratulating Aaron Neumann on being the next in line to wear the Maple Leaf in the Czech Republic this January! Best of luck to the both of you!

Right now I am working on a training / racing video with my sponsors in mind, expect it to be up in a day or two! And now that I am done school and have a lot of time to kill, you can be expecting blog updates more regular than All-bran buds can get you.

Photography is by Sylvain Beaudry!

Cheers for now!

Yeah yeah yeah...

2010-11-10T21:12:00.001-07:00

Yeah I know I said that I'd have a post up on the weekend, but my account was "under maintenence" or some crap...

ANYWAYS. Most exciting part of my week so far is that the snow is blowing! Artificially... but it's there nonetheless! The nordic center has been making the snow like crazy ever since it got cold a few days ago, and hopefully we'll be skiing on a loop bigger than 1k by the weekend! If we've got snow tomorrow, I'll be sure to post some photos!

We wrapped up our athlete-coach meetings on Friday, so the final plans have been set, now we're just waiting for the race season to start! I'm going to be racing the first Alberta Cup of the year on December 3rd (a free sprint), and then just 2 weeks later we're racing World Junior trials, yikes!

The last big haul...

2010-11-03T15:30:00.001-06:00

So again, despite good intentions, I have managed to neglect my blog for an extended period of time. Since I've managed to create some structure in my life with school and the ridiculous commute between Calgary and Canmore, I'm going to start fitting in blogging along with everything else I love to do...

So, update! A few weeks ago we did some testing at the University of Calgary, where we did three different fitness tests. We did anthro testing (body fat, thigh volume, etc), a vO2 max test, and incremental lactate testing. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to eat / drink anything within 2 hours of the testing, so I wasn't able to rock any FUEL or IGNITION. I'll just have to save that for the race season ;) I haven't seen any results on paper yet, but they are apparently in! I will be meeting with my coach on Friday to go over them and make plans for the quickly upcoming race season! Perhaps the coolest part of all the testing was the incremental lactate testing, which we got to do on the rollerski treadmill! It is definitely an odd feeling, (I felt almost claustrophobic every time I kicked) but it is a great training tool! You had mirrors in front of you and at your side, so you were able to have immediate feedback while skiing! Heres a photo of me looking a bit uncomfortable with some AWESOME technique. Not...

After we got our testing done, I started a two week volume loading block. This meant lots of long hours, and a fair amount of time in the gym! I was able to put the DYNAMIS triple threat (IGNITON-XT + FUEL-XRM + REFUEL-S6k) to great use, aiding with both my pre-workout and postworkout nutrition. After having dealt with a brutal illness for a good chunk of September, this extra load of training really helped me get back to where I should be. With just over 6 weeks to World Junior trials, it's really turning into crunch time!

This week we've got a moderate amount of volume, but some pretty hard intensity! Today we did some Zone 5 (maximum effort) ski striding intervals at the nordic centre. It would have been nice to get them done on snow, but "Frozen Thunder" (the 1k snow loop) isn't looking so frozen anymore... Hopefully we'll have some snow soon, our next big volume camp at Lake Louise is at risk of being cancelled! It would be nice to get onto snow as soon as possible, but sometimes the weather just doesn't cooperate. Fingers crossed!

In news unrelated to training, my gear from Rossignol arrived on Halloween! Seemed fitting as most of it's all orange and black... I've been getting great stuff from them for the past two seasons and I'm looking forward to racing my third season on Rossignol!

In means of trying to break a bad habit, ACTUALLY check back this weekend for another post!

Photos were taken by Roddy Ward, originally from the Canmore Nordic Twitter http://www.twitter.com/canmorenordic

A visitor and a new sponsor!

2010-06-28T22:05:00.000-06:00

Since my last blog post, I've managed to get incredibly sick, get healthy, and all at the same time pile on some training hours. At the start of June we had a training camp in Radium, where we did a lot of roadbiking, some hiking / running, and some uphill ski strength (double poling). I came home feeling pretty good, but within a few days I was ill. Whether I trained too much or I came into contact with a bug at some point, I don't know. Long story short, I'm better now and I'm back at training full force!

Just over a week ago, my friend Clément Jacquelin arrived in Canada! I met him at one of the races I attended in France, and he has come to train in Canada for the next month and a half. The past week, we have spent some time doing and checking out "Canadian" things, like gopher blasting and looking at the overly-massive stores like Bass Pro Shops. More importantly though, we have been getting in some high quality training! The greatest part about having a new

training partner is the exchange of ideas and workouts, so you can try implementing them into your own training. We've been trying / combining our different training regimes, and needless to say it's working us fairly hard. We also climbed Grotto mountain on Saturday, so Clém got to experience the skree and high winds of the Canadian Rockies first hand. This week, we will be competing in the July 1st running race in Canmore, and then heading off to Jasper to build up some volume and ski strength training. We'll be hiking, running, and mountain biking.

Now, the exciting part...

A few days ago I sent an email to DYNAMIS Fitness and Lifestyle. They are a relatively new sports nutrition company who recently just released a brand new line of product. Not known to many people outside of sport, preparing and recovering from the really hard workouts are just as important as going out and doing them.

I try to aid my recovery and prep process by supplementing my diet with some extra protein and special recovery drink. When I first sent my email to DYNAMIS, I was thinking I'd maybe get a discount and a free T-shirt, if that. Much to my surprise and delight, I have been offered a spot on Team DYNAMIS! This means that I will be getting free supplements and promotion on the DYNAMIS website among other things. The best part about these supplements, is that not only are they proven to be effective, they are also certified SAEF (Safe and Effective First), so I don't need to worry about producing any sort of a positive doping test should I ever be found in that situation! With the support of DYNAMIS, I'll be able to recover faster, train harder, and speed myself towards achieving my goals.

Come back and check for an update in the next couple days!