Monday 8 April 2013
Tuesday 2 April 2013
Nationals - Day 10
Sunday
March 31, 2013
After much packing the evening before, most of the team elected to join Corey in his dream of downhill skiing in Whistler. Corey, Sean, Ben, and Anna rented equipment, Lisle had her own downhill stuff, and Levi rented a snow board. All were at the lift ticket booth when it opened at 8 AM! Megan sent up a few prayers that all would return with limbs intact . . .and 3 ½ hours later all did return with big smiles on their faces and more then slightly stiff and tired bodies. But as Elora and Lisle like to remind us all, “YOLO”.
After much packing the evening before, most of the team elected to join Corey in his dream of downhill skiing in Whistler. Corey, Sean, Ben, and Anna rented equipment, Lisle had her own downhill stuff, and Levi rented a snow board. All were at the lift ticket booth when it opened at 8 AM! Megan sent up a few prayers that all would return with limbs intact . . .and 3 ½ hours later all did return with big smiles on their faces and more then slightly stiff and tired bodies. But as Elora and Lisle like to remind us all, “YOLO”.
 |
| Lisle was long gone by this point, leaving us behind to suit up. |
 |
| hey Ben, how'd you get your head stuck in a bowling ball? |
 |
| a boarder in our midst |
 |
| those are some dorky looking helmets. (don't worry, I had one too.) |
Downhill
highlights, as I understand, were the amazing views from the top of
the mountains, the “peak to peak” gondala, and oh yeah, the
skiing and boarding too. All but Sean had some downhill experience
previously. Sean says it took a bit of time to get used to and then
it was pretty darn fun. Sean was apparently highly entertaining for
Corey as he headed for what he thought was a small bump, which turned
out to be NOT a small bump . .taking some major air and landing in
NOT a terribly recommended way. Good thing I was not there watching
. . .
 |
| fun with chairlifts |
 |
| gorgeous. |
 |
| "ok, hips forward, weight on balls of my feet...wait, what do you mean I'm doing it wrong?" |
 |
| I think he's laughing at me... |
 |
| seriously dorky looking helmets. |
 |
| the peak to peak gondola |
 |
| did I mention it was gorgeous? cause it's gorgeous |
 |
| panorama from the top of Whistler mountain |
Elora and Alex visited shops in Whistler, went for
coffee and had a relaxing morning. Maya elected to re-join her
parents as she was still short on energy. That left me, managing to
valiantly RESIST the team pressure to join in the downhill insanity
adventures. So I headed off on my
own and did a zipline tour which was totally AWESOME!!!!!!!! Yes, it
was great and wonderful and thrilling and I even have the video to
prove it (in case there are any doubters).
 |
| that's...a reasonably long way down |
 |
| she's smiling now... |
 |
| exhilaration? sure, we'll go with that. |
The
drive back to Vancouver once again featured stunning scenery, which
was every bit as good as it was on that first day. And so our
wonderful 10 day 2013 Whistler Nationals adventure came to a close.
note: large amounts of pictures were shamefully stolen from the facebook albums of Ben and Elora.
 |
| do I really need to say it? |
note: large amounts of pictures were shamefully stolen from the facebook albums of Ben and Elora.
Nationals - Day 9
Saturday
March 30, 2013
WOOOOOOOOO
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I
think this, or something very similar was heard coming from the
mouths of Corey and me as we celebrated the fact that today’s race
was a skate race. Yes, a skate race. No grip testing. No sticking
to the wax tubes. No klister. No crazy combos. No stress. (Do I
sound happy? I am quite forgetting myself as I still claim to prefer
classic skiing!)
Alex,
on the other hand, was NOT heard to voice similar sentiments , as he
had the 30 km skate race to contend with. This consisted of 4 laps
of a very tough 7.5 km course, that took in every climb possible. I
once again remind you that this was the Olympic course. All open
men and women raced in the morning before the course turned to mush.
Alex did a great job of completing his second ever 30 km race. The
jump he has made from junior boys to men this season is so very steep
. . .the saying I put on the wall for Alex leading up to this day
was: “strength doesn’t come from what you CAN do . .it comes from
OVERCOMING the things you once thought you couldn’t.” So to
summarize Alex’s race, two words, said in a Russian accent “strong
boy”.
The
remainder of the team enjoyed another relaxing morning of sleeping
in, stretching, eating and otherwise prepping for the afternoon
races. One of the main pre-race decisions of the day was how little
could be worn and still called decent. This especially applied to
the girls, who did not race until nearly 3:00 in the afternoon in the
hot sun. One of my pre-race jobs with the girls (after serving as
minimalist fashion consultant) was to call out at regular intervals
“get into the shade” and “are you drinking water?"
 |
| all set for a day at the beach |
All
Manitoba skiers raced well, with grit and determination in the slushy
and slow conditions. All races were mass start. Lisle fared the
worst in the pack skiing, being taken down by an elbow to the gut and
having the wind knocked out of her. She completed the race
regardless. Go Lisle. Elora put on a very impressive display of
guts on a few climbs especially on her first lap. She finished 39th
of 72 which was very close to top ½ of the pack. Elora is a gem!
Levi had a strong ski and finished 36th
of 73 which was also essentially the top ½ of the pack. Anna looked
strong and held her technique together well. Ben was decently
pleased with his race. Sean says his race was a “sufferfest”,
but he was pleased that he was able to focus on technique despite
lacking much energy. Maya finished the race which was extremely
gutsy given the 4 days she had just spent sick. Wow, it is hard to
train all year and end up sick at the most important event of the
season. Maya is a hero to me.
 |
| Lisle and Elora, looking fierce |
The
day ended with packing up the wax trailer and all gear as quickly as
possible, in order to get cleaned up for the evening banquet event in
Whistler. And WOW did we get cleaned up! Everyone cut rather a fine
figure in our “black and white” themed clothing – check out the
updated photo of us on the Olympic rings! We definitely caused a bit
of a stir as we had to walk through the town from our accommodation
to the conference center. “How was the wedding?” rang out more
than once. Sheesh. You would think those snowboarders in their
dreadlocks have never seen anyone dressed up before! Lisle and Elora
were the life of the evening, staying later than the rest of the team
to visit the free photo booth at least 17 times, and trying to catch
glimpses of National Team skiers.
 |
| I guess we look okay. Ya know, in a blisteringly sexy kind of way. |
(captions by Sean, in case you were wondering)
Nationals - Day 8
Blog
for Friday March 29, 2013
Today was a day off racing but it was quite a busy day none-the-less. All 4 girls headed to “Fast and Female” from 10:30-1:00. We were very happy that Maya finally joined the group back on skis, after having a nasty chest cold for most of the week. Lisle was a bit disgruntled as she somehow ended up in a group that did not match her ability (they were rather slow ) but the rest of the girls had various national team and developmental team athletes as their “ambassadors” for a ski. There was a short presentation afterwards that I snuck into, and I was happy to connect with Leah Kirchmann – our own former Winnipegger and former Red River Nordic member! Leah is now a pro cyclist and member of the National cycling team, and she has become involved in “Fast and Female” events for cycling. On this day, however, she was there as one of the ski ambassadors. One of the big messages from most of the high level skiers who spoke, was that team-mates are important and that it is very important to enjoy what you are doing. This helps for the tough training days and those days when racing is not going as you hoped.
Meanwhile
the guys all went out for a pre-ski, and then glided over to the
nearby ski jumps where the Nationals were under way in that sport as
well. Sean comments that “it was definitely cool but none of us
would have wanted to do it”.
Today was a day off racing but it was quite a busy day none-the-less. All 4 girls headed to “Fast and Female” from 10:30-1:00. We were very happy that Maya finally joined the group back on skis, after having a nasty chest cold for most of the week. Lisle was a bit disgruntled as she somehow ended up in a group that did not match her ability (they were rather slow ) but the rest of the girls had various national team and developmental team athletes as their “ambassadors” for a ski. There was a short presentation afterwards that I snuck into, and I was happy to connect with Leah Kirchmann – our own former Winnipegger and former Red River Nordic member! Leah is now a pro cyclist and member of the National cycling team, and she has become involved in “Fast and Female” events for cycling. On this day, however, she was there as one of the ski ambassadors. One of the big messages from most of the high level skiers who spoke, was that team-mates are important and that it is very important to enjoy what you are doing. This helps for the tough training days and those days when racing is not going as you hoped.
 |
| Lisle on the right, doing some stretches. (both pictures from Fast and Female facebook page) |
 |
| it's either rapt attention or boredom. hopefully the former. |
 |
| the possibility of hill sprints up this thing was briefly discussed and then rejected |
 |
| see the little dot? that's a skier. crazy. |
In
the afternoon Corey and I headed over to hear some coaching
presentations. We caught the tail end of a presentation by Olympic
rower Marnie McBean. If you ever get the chance, go and hear this
woman speak as she is dynamic, funny, and has lots of great wisdom to
share about training, racing, stress, and facing your fears. In our
evening team meeting we shared with everyone some of the things
Marnie spoke about. Some of these things were especially relevant as
we knew the next day’s racing for all but Alex would be a hot
slushy slog in the late afternoon sunshine. Something that stuck was “Remember all your
competitors are feeling the same things, the same fear and pain. Just think about outlasting your
competitors."
Nationals - Day 7
Blog
for Thursday March 28,
2013
Well it seems the blogging job has fallen into my corner, after the team has done such a fine job for the past week. I am writing this now from home without the advantage of being able to consult with everyone for their opinions so I hope this will represent well enough . . .
Meanwhile,
the rest of the team had a relaxing morning of extra sleep,
breakfast, stretching, and generally hanging out. Most of the team
elected to join me in the afternoon to watch the open men’s
semi-final and finals which was pretty awesome racing. We kept the
spectating short, though, to ensure the day was mostly rest and
recovery. The evening was nice down time as we did not have a
coaches’ meeting to attend.
Well it seems the blogging job has fallen into my corner, after the team has done such a fine job for the past week. I am writing this now from home without the advantage of being able to consult with everyone for their opinions so I hope this will represent well enough . . .
Thursday
was a race day for Alex (junior men/senior men sprint) and a rest day
for the remainder of the team. Corey, Megan and Alex headed out to
Whistler Olympic Park bright and early. As usual, the snow was
pretty icy first thing. Corey and I had been optimistic that we
would not have to do as much klister testing this day, and be able to
rely upon some of the combinations that worked on other days. This
was not entirely the case, and we set about klistering once again,
looking for the elusive magic combo.
 |
| the joys of klister |
 |
| hermit's hideaway |
 |
| one of the hermits |
 |
| fantastic job done by these two. |
A
note here on grip testing the past few days: there were many
challenges as the other posts have indicated. The course usually
offered a combination of areas in sun and shade, some icy track and
some more loosely packed. That would mean that a number of klisters
were needed at any one time of day. The other challenge was trying
to anticipate how quickly the snow would soften as the sun climbed
over the mountains. The previous sprint day we had been the most
successful nailing Levi’s wax at the time of day that he raced –
this was the “Corey Mulitgrade” special consisting of a
combination of 5 klisters. Levi had the best wax of the week for his
race, giving the wax techs a 5/5. Corey and I were happy that nobody
had worse than a 3.5/5 which given the difficulty of the waxing we
had to be satisfied with.
Alex’s
sprint course was a difficult 1.6 km with a couple of significant
climbs. Remember, this was the Vancouver Olympic course. Alex gave
all he could but was not able to crack the top 30 to advance to the
heats.
 |
| Alex before his sprint |
 |
| watching the senior men from the top of the course |
 |
| hill climb |
 |
| watching these guys race is pretty surreal |
 |
| looking down on the course |
 |
| best seats in the house |
 |
| Lenny Valjas for the win |
Friday 29 March 2013
Nationals - Day 6
The sprint day brought about a fresh set of challenges. Levi, our first racer, started his qualifier at 9:20 in the morning, with the rest of the team following shortly after. This meant that we had another early morning in store, waking up at 6:00 to be at the race site at 7:00.
Wax testing started almost immediately, as we rushed to find a combination that would afford grip on both glazed tracks in the shade and wet, slushy snow in the sun. Levi had a strong race even after breaking a pole basket and grabbing another pole. He came in at 15th of over 80 boys, qualifying easily for the afternoon heats. Next up for our 1km sprint was Lisle and I. The wax testing the boys had done that morning and the previous morning paid off and we had excellent grip for our qualifier. I skied into 29th place qualifying for heats by .4 of a second. Lisle says of her sprint "best wax I've had in my entire life".
Around 10 Sean and Ben skied their 1.2km course. Ben doesn't consider himself to be a sprinter and was very happy with his racing. Sean was not satisfied with how his race went. After the boys, Anna was last to go as Maya unfortunately had a bad cold and had to stay back and rest. Anna looked very strong coming skiing through the stadium and is happy with how it went. Everyone agreed that Megan and Corey nailed the wax for that morning.
Following the qualifiers the wax techs began prepping skis for me and Levi. With the temperature rising quickly to 20 degrees the waxing was challenging. Megan and Corey found anticipating the afternoons conditions to be difficult as they didn't know how soft of snow to expect. Our team cheered very loudly and Levi and I fought hard in our heats but neither of us moved on to the semi finals.
Meanwhile Sean was working hard in the wax room holding up his end of his deal with Lisle and cleaning the klister off everyone's skis with the help of Ben. Ironically Lisle was sitting outside of the wax trailer on her phone the entire time.
In the evening the entire group went out for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory where we were joined by the Boivins.
- Elora
 |
| early morning |
 |
| the inukshuk at the race site |
 |
| gorgeous. |
Around 10 Sean and Ben skied their 1.2km course. Ben doesn't consider himself to be a sprinter and was very happy with his racing. Sean was not satisfied with how his race went. After the boys, Anna was last to go as Maya unfortunately had a bad cold and had to stay back and rest. Anna looked very strong coming skiing through the stadium and is happy with how it went. Everyone agreed that Megan and Corey nailed the wax for that morning.
Following the qualifiers the wax techs began prepping skis for me and Levi. With the temperature rising quickly to 20 degrees the waxing was challenging. Megan and Corey found anticipating the afternoons conditions to be difficult as they didn't know how soft of snow to expect. Our team cheered very loudly and Levi and I fought hard in our heats but neither of us moved on to the semi finals.
Meanwhile Sean was working hard in the wax room holding up his end of his deal with Lisle and cleaning the klister off everyone's skis with the help of Ben. Ironically Lisle was sitting outside of the wax trailer on her phone the entire time.
 |
| mad thanks to Ben for the help. |
 |
| high off the wax cleaner fumes... |
 |
| lots of klister. |
In the evening the entire group went out for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory where we were joined by the Boivins.
 |
| not entirely sure what's going on here. |
 |
| the elusive wild corey, exhibiting behavioral traits outside the normal... eating salad! |
 |
| main plaza of the upper village |
Tuesday 26 March 2013
Nationals - Day 5
March 26th 2013 - Nationals day 5
Today's menu featured medium distance classic races. The entire team was faced with very difficult conditions. It was hot, sunny and hot. Our Junior girls got the ball rolling with a 10km. Anna was our first girl out the gate followed by Maya. Anna had a good race despite tough waxing conditions coming in at 83% of the winner's time. Maya, who's been feeling under the weather, thought it better to save herself for the classic sprints tomorrow and decided to pull out of the race around 3km.
Next up were the Juvenile girls. Corey and Megan were facing some extremely tough grip waxing conditions. The temperature was changing very quickly and the snow was rapidly turning to mush and slush. Elora and Lisle were putting up a good fight, but unfortunately lacked effective grip wax. Elora came in at 84% and Lisle at 83% of the winner's time. Before beginning her race, Elora noticed a fly had nestled in her klister, she thought it best to leave it in and race on it. Why bother messing with klister on race skis?
Quickly following the Juvenile girls were the Junior boys. Ben had a very good first and last lap, separated by a mediocre one. The race was poor (except for the first lap) as he puts it. Sean spent his first lap trying to find his groove, as he began his second lap, his grip left him and he needed to alter his race plan and muscle his way through the rest of the race.
For Levi, the temperature rose so quickly that his grip wax was rendered useless. He thought it better to save his arms and legs for the sprints tomorrow and dropped out at the 5km marker.
I had quite a bit of time between the juvenile boys and the junior men. I had a nice slow morning compared to the others who got up at 5:45. My race featured a slew of murderous hills which had been used during the 2010 Olympics. They're nowhere near as easy as they look on tv. My grip wax was effective in some spots and useless in others. It made for a challenging race as I never knew if I could climb the next hill. Needless to say that the entire team had a very challenging day. They all handled it with composure and grace.
Today's menu featured medium distance classic races. The entire team was faced with very difficult conditions. It was hot, sunny and hot. Our Junior girls got the ball rolling with a 10km. Anna was our first girl out the gate followed by Maya. Anna had a good race despite tough waxing conditions coming in at 83% of the winner's time. Maya, who's been feeling under the weather, thought it better to save herself for the classic sprints tomorrow and decided to pull out of the race around 3km.
Next up were the Juvenile girls. Corey and Megan were facing some extremely tough grip waxing conditions. The temperature was changing very quickly and the snow was rapidly turning to mush and slush. Elora and Lisle were putting up a good fight, but unfortunately lacked effective grip wax. Elora came in at 84% and Lisle at 83% of the winner's time. Before beginning her race, Elora noticed a fly had nestled in her klister, she thought it best to leave it in and race on it. Why bother messing with klister on race skis?
Quickly following the Juvenile girls were the Junior boys. Ben had a very good first and last lap, separated by a mediocre one. The race was poor (except for the first lap) as he puts it. Sean spent his first lap trying to find his groove, as he began his second lap, his grip left him and he needed to alter his race plan and muscle his way through the rest of the race.
For Levi, the temperature rose so quickly that his grip wax was rendered useless. He thought it better to save his arms and legs for the sprints tomorrow and dropped out at the 5km marker.
I had quite a bit of time between the juvenile boys and the junior men. I had a nice slow morning compared to the others who got up at 5:45. My race featured a slew of murderous hills which had been used during the 2010 Olympics. They're nowhere near as easy as they look on tv. My grip wax was effective in some spots and useless in others. It made for a challenging race as I never knew if I could climb the next hill. Needless to say that the entire team had a very challenging day. They all handled it with composure and grace.
 |
| Our "snow"... |
 |
| Event sponsor shwag everywhere |
 |
| The backdrop of our racing. Awesome if you ask me. |
 |
| Alex taking off for his 15km |
 |
| panorama from the trail. |
Monday 25 March 2013
Nationals - Day 4
Early morning tomorrow, so I don't have too much time for an update. Today was spent testing wax for the tricky snow conditions in the morning, and generally chilling out and relaxing in the afternoon. I spent the day trying to get a handle on my mental state.
Some pictures from the day:
Some pictures from the day:
 |
| we are incredibly lucky to be here. |
 |
| after the fury of wax testing |
 |
| the view from the roof |
 |
| looking down on the competition |
 |
| yoga and naptime on the roof |
 |
| "ok, seriously, give me the camera." |
 |
| goofing around in the afternoon. (cabin fever...?) |
 |
| "i'm almost Elvis..." |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)