Silver Star Part Deux

First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!

So yesterday went quite well for me. I raced a Nor-Am sprint at Sovereign Lake Nordic club in Vernon. The classical style sprint was interesting, almost all the open men went on skate skis with no grip and double poled the whole 1.1km track.
My qualifier round went very well, I came in 3rd place, just under a second back of first place. This helps with the first round of heats. The higher you qualify, the better positioned you are in heats. I lead the Quarter final and cruised in pretty cushioned. The Semi final I also lead out hard and cruised the last 200 meters, in 3rd, a for sure ticket to the a-final. The worst I could now do was 6th. I started out the A-final on a bad note, a short lane with a boat load of powder at the end, I struggled to try and move into the train but wasted a lot of energy trying to get there, from there I just started to fade a slowly, lost my snap on the gradual uphill and even more on the little steep. From there on I had totally Blown up!!! I was pushing as hard as I could and going absolutely no where!!!!

Me getting extreme leading the Quarter final- Photo: Sam Lindsey

I cruised into 6th place, totally shot. I am satisfied with this result, because I know I can improve on it, I am just missing a small bit of sharpening. Getting sick 2 weeks ago for 8 days I am sure was a little bit of a contribution, But I am coming back strong quite quickly. With trials starting in a couple weeks in Canmore, I am sure I am on track, and things are pointed in the right direction. My coaches are happy with things and that gives me a lot of extra confidence too!!!
I was also lucky enough to have a bit of a cheering section show up to support me!!

Thanks a lot Shy!!! The green toque was totally good luck!

Stringing-out the Quarter final - Photo: Sam Lindsey

Tonight we are suppost to race a 15 km classic starting at 5pm, this will be weather permitting, it is suppost to get quite cold and with a windchill factoring in it could be very brutal!

Until next time!!!
Just Giv’r


C

Season Openers

Well there i go again falling off the Blogging train again...I missed the lead up to the first race...things went pretty smooth and I got to race on some new boards!!!! Exciting!
Well I only raced once this weekend, I was suppost to race the distance race on sunday, but I unfortunately woke up with a sore throat. Luckily enough I ended up kicking it pretty quickly after a day at home. Anyway...all over the map right here...sorry...I raced the sprint which went fairly well for the qualifier. I skied like Bambi on ice, and managed to qualify about 4 seconds out. not a bad start. I executed the course exactly how I wanted to with a strong finish! Unfortunately my team mate Thomsen misjudged his start time and missed his start, its ok though he will be back this weekend to unleash his Northern Fury. Anyway back to me again...I ended up messing up the first heat with a rookie tactical error and went out early, Quite embarassing for me...I spent a fair bit of time de-fusing the situation and figuring out what went wrong and I have a whole new race plan. This weekend will be different, I know I have the speed right now, I just got to get with it in the head to head...No problem... until friday...

Keep Em pointed straight!


C

T-Minus 1 week...

Well I am now down to less than 1 week (exactly 5 days) until I kick off my race season! It will be in Silver star, beginning with a freestyle sprint on saturday and a classic 15km on sunday. We did a team time trial on saturday after a week back of training from being sick and it went well pacing wise as well as skiing wise. I was further off the the leaders than I wanted to be but the feel and use of technique was where I was happy. I know I am no where near at my best and this gives me the confidence going into the race season with trials slated for early January. I will use the first 2 weekends of racing to get back into it and try to execute some of the goals I have laid out and hopefully look like an actual skier again!

I will try to update daily with all the nerves and daily happenings leading into the 2008/2009 race season.

Keep 'em pointed straight!!!!


C

SKIING!!!! at WOP

Well the skiing at the Callaghan Nordic Center is great! We received about 35 cm a few days ago and have been skiing since. Erik took this shot of me skiing at the Biathlon Loop:

Skiing the Biathlon Loop @ WOP

...Kinda looks like winter!!! Today we were unlucky and got some rain, We are hoping to stay skiing at the venue until we leave for Silver Star for the season openers on Sunday. If the rain kills all the snow we will have to ski up higher on the Callaghan road up towards Callaghan Country Lodge. until next time!


C

I'm Back!!!

Well I am happy to report that after an agonizing 8 days of no training I am BACK!!!! I had a great ski today at the Callaghan Valley Nordic Center. Sam, Alistair and I headed up there bright and early at 7 am....ya ouch....Anyway the skiing there is only snowmobile packed at the moment but they are expecting more snow by Tuesday....from the forecast I would say rain...Even though I hope for snow!!!!! Well I had some great downtime in Kamloops, even though I was sick but I think it was the perfect thing for me to do with the situation I was dealing with. It was tough being sick and not able to train...especially 2 weeks from the season openers at Sovereign Lakes. I had some great distractions and had some excellently needed Chilaxin' time!!!
In the next two weeks I will find myself starting to fine tune my final preparations before the races begin. I will have to alter things just a little bit from the original plan, due to getting sick, but I am confident things are going to go great for me! Well at least I hope so....haha. Anyway I should think about heading to bed....

Cheers!


C

Sick

Sorry for the lame update, But I have been Sick since last friday and have had the cold, relapse twice now...Hopefully I will have better news for you soon, I will be attending the Official opening of the Day Lodge at the Callaghan Nordic Center at WOP. So If your in Whistler pop up there for 12 noon.

See ya!!!


C

Fallen of the face of the blog World...Again.

Well once again I have had quite the gap in my updates...My apologies! So my last update was talking about the rain that had blessed us finally. Well I am happy to say that I can write about the snow that has dusted Silver Star Mountain resort! I have been skiing there since Monday and the skiing has been very very good considering the base they have. Luckily enough the Egan family has taken me in and been super amazing hosts! A huge thanks to them! I decided to take a rest day today (Wednesday), and hang out and get caught up on little things...such as my blog. Lucky you! Anyway to back track a bit, the fall has been super positive for me with lots of great workouts with the other guys on the team and some great downtime as well. I would like to take a second to say a BIG thank you to Hampton Lumber Mills and M. McPhail & Associates Inc.. for jumping on board with me and helping me out with some Donations! Without great people like you I wouldn't be where I was today or able to pursue my goals! Well unfortunatly I only have one photo for you for now its a grimacing photo of myself about 50 reps into 100 on our roller board in Squamish...enjoy...or something hahaha.


Obviously I will try to get some skiing pics up asap! until next time!!!

C