And Then It Poured...

So the fall weather has blessed us here in Squamish...not just a little rain...A downpour. I realized this as I looked outside as I opened the door to head out for a 3 hour roller ski this morning. I thought this was bad, then I turned around to see that a freakin bear decided to rumage through out garbage can...again (not the first time). So I took a deep breath and turned back to the rain, the garbage can wait. So I decided to tour around a bit today instead of the normal Brackendale route. Hitting up some of the different neighborhoods, seeing some new scenery felt pretty good, maybe it was just the distraction from the fact I was already completely soaked 4 mins into my ski...Anyway I have felt pretty tired this week. We started with an easy day that I didn't feel great on but had an alright submax. I figured it must just be the travel from the day before. So we jumped straight into our no pole/double pole test, which 1 of the 2 tests went well, We then had the uphill run planned for the next day but still side lined on Physio's advice I did legs only intensity...can you guess what test I didn't do well in the day before...Strength in the afternoon was a mental battle but still was a quality workout. Today of course was a 3 hour OD classic roller ski. Quite demanding. I feel better now than I did a day ago so I am digesting the training quite well and with one more day of double workouts before my rest day I am sitting well. Next week we run our famous (well maybe just famous with our team) Trials simulation week. Which helps give our coaches an idea of how each person will react during the Trials week in January. For myself I have 2 sprint simulations slated and am getting pretty excited for them. I love the fact that the race season is getting closer and these tests can help get us mentally prepared and start thinking about race mode!

well until the next post!

C

Back at it!

Well it was nice to have some downtime last week! I managed to relax, cut the hours back, get a little bit back into running, play some golf and eat some turkey! Sorry no pic's following I forgot to pack the camera....anyways... This coming week our team has not wasted anytime jumping into. Today we did our final uphill double pole and no pole skate test. Ouch... the double pole test went smooth, I missed my PB but with all respect, the temps were colder and the road was wet. The no poles skate was hmm...let me try to sugar coat this....BAD! I went rigamortis legs with a quick heartrate spike in the first 100meters and was done, I skied in the best I could, basically sitting at red line in first gear...going no where. Thats just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. So looking further into this week our team has the uphill running timetrial slated for tomorrow and I don't think I will take part in it. For 1 i still have hardly any strentgh in my foot ( I rolled it while stepping on a rock blowing leaves) and 2 I feel that the Max VO2 test coming up in about 2 weeks will provide me with better information to which way I am heading. And for the rest of the week we will ease off a little bit and have the last focus as the 4 hour OD. With the following weeek we move into trials week. simulation of our biggest race weekend of the year. For that I have 2 sprint races planned with Thomsen. Then we fall upon another rest week and hopefully we will have snow after that!

anyway I gotta get going I'll keep ya updated as the week goes on.


C

Roller Jam!

The past 3 weeks have been pretty busy with reference to training. I have started to ramp the intensity up to start sharpening for the up coming race season. I am glad to say that I am heading into a rest week!!! I have decided to head out to Canmore to hang out for the week and take a break from Squamish. Yesterday Thomsen D'hont and I competed in a mock classic sprint at Whistler Olympic park. It was a great intensity. We ran 2 prelims and 2 head to head. the first prelim was a "get around the course as fast as possible" run, and the 2nd was a double pole only. The two times were pretty close but striding was slightly faster. The head to head competition was a good battle between us. I lead both of them from the start and worked on staying relaxed. When I hit the climb I decided to try out my legs and went for it and the result was a small gap between Thomsen and I.

Erik got a great shot of the battle at the top of the climb.

It is awesome to have Thomsen here to knock heads with, he is a tough guy who can push himself to the max, which helps push me to the max! It's quite refreshing to have another sprinter and a whole new team. We have had a lot of fun so far this year as a team and I am excited to see the team do awesome things this winter!

When I return from my rest week I will jump into another 3 weeks of volume and intensity. I will try to post an update of my exciting rest week!!!


until next time...

C