Quick Trip Home

I was lucky enough to convince my coach to let me take a quick trip home last week.
During this week I managed to squeeze in many hours of hunting, training and a few chances to meet with new supporters of mine. A BIG thanks to LDM who have just jumped on board helping me out financially! I was fortunate enough to drop by and meet Wendy, Steve and the gang down there as well as pick up a cheque! Thanks alot!!! also had a chance to work with the local club passing on some new technique pointers and play some games ( which I still believe is essential to do every now and then). Getting home this time of year is one of the best things for me, even though I tend to over-book myself and turn a "rest" week into a "not-so-much" rest week. It is important to get away from the everyday routine of training and take a mental break, no different than any other job! just don't go telling your bosses that Chris Werrell said you need to take days off!. So a quick break and back to reality, training that is. Unfortunately I have torn my calf muscle, not bad but bad enough to prevent me from doing our last set of testing...Bummer, not to many other athletes look forward to hurting really bad like I do.

Finishing off my trip home was a fund raiser put on by Coast Hotels, in Prince George, one of my other big supporters! a Big thanks to them as well I had a great time and I know all the people that attended did too!

until next time!

Chris

Olympic Venue Sneak Peak Pic's

Hey Everyone,
Here are a couple photos from the Olympic Venue, no snow yet but as you can see the trails are paved and the technical building is coming right along. Also you can see all the PB's all lined up waiting for snow. A big thanks to Rob Bernhardt for the photos...all taken on Oct 21.
A shot of the technical building, coming right along...

"Blue" race trail...


All the new PB's...


More of the lower "Blue" race course fully paved...

Black Tusk photos

Here are a couple photos from the 6 hour run that Jesse and I completed last friday, amazing day, amazing views!


The beach is over there...actually Garibaldi Lake...

The top of Black Tusk...Jesse missed the rest of the view...hard to find a good photographer to follow you up and down mountains!

Fall Training

This is the time of year that requires the most focus as workouts get more demanding, rest becomes even more important (it is always important! more so now!) and so does showing up to every workout with the right attitude. This past week I was face with many tough challenges, first of all on monday, was a fitness test we do, a 4-5 km run at 140 heartrate, very easy test physically, as 140 heartrate is my usual training pace. As your fitness gets better you time should decrease, well this was the first week that my time went in the opposite direction, i was slightly slower, not necessary a bad thing, but mentally it was a little tough to swallow. but looking back at my past few weeks we have been doing more speed work, which will in turn slow down that test, not meaning I am getting slower, but meaning I am getting faster in other areas(trust me a good thing!).
Tuesday Morning was hard!! our team did our world famous (well maybe not world, but a lot of skiers in Canada know of it) Up hill running time trial. it takes around 25 minutes for me (my fastest) and I was also slightly slower, not enough to cry over, since fall has struck the coast here, someone has turned on a shower knob and changed our course, adding a few new rivers and making the trail pretty greasy!
Hard workout #3 sprint simulation, we used an uphill course in the Garibaldi estates area up towards Quest University. Well my efforts were some of the best I have put in this year ( I try to make each one better and better) I got a good workout, My skiing technique right now is what I would consider quite good, even though I have a long ways to go, I feel this is what held me in there with this session! I tend to like to lead sprints and it was frustrating to not be able to! After this workout rest was essential physically and mentally!
Workout #4, 6 hour run up Black Tusk mountain. Jesse and I ran a 6 hour run (photos to follow) and I can honestly say that this was the workout of the year easily, how often do you get sunny 15 degree celcius, get to run up a mountain(with tons of snow!) and back down from point A to point B (thanks for being patient with us Amy) who also ran with the girls for a total of 4.5 hours as well as shuttling the car from parking lot to parking lot!
All in all a great week! I just finished my morning heart rate test and I am rested and ready to head into a U23 world champs trial week simulation, racing the same races I will in January trying to qualify for the U23's.

I will keep you posted and try to add more pictures!
feel free to leave comments on anything I post up here!!!
until next time!


Chris

Rest Week

As I approach the race season, only 29 days until the season openers! This is the time of year to really turn up the focus, the weather starts to get less than desirable, the temperatures get cooler by the day and the focus usually starts to drop. So far so good! I must admit that I have never trained in this much rain in the amounts it comes down in. Despite doing almost all of my intensity sessions in the past 2 weeks in the pouring rain! I take it back to every coach I ever complained to about the rain, this gives me a whole new meaning to the word WET! All in all I am in good spirits still finding it in me to smile during the workouts, in between gritting my teeth. I am now in the middle of a rest week, hoping to return to a rested state to tackle on the next 5 weeks of training which will be some of the hardest training of my life, pushing myself further and harder than I have ever before! in the past I would have looked at my schedule and been very intimidated, now, I look at it with anticipation and excitement.
Well I am off for now, I am on babysitting duty for the coach tonight

until next time!


Chris