Canmore Addendum

In breaking news, a Tweet from Beckie Scott to Manitoba XC Ski Twitter account confirms that indeed, the team did push the stuck truck with her! 

Canmore the rest of the story

Wednesday and Thursday the team skied twice each day.  On Wednesday morning Levi N and Conor joined in with the Winsport group for some intervals under the watchful eye of Eric de Nys.   Eric is a  former National Team coach and he is leading the newly formed Winsport junior cross country ski team.  The intent is to bridge the gap between High School and National Team Development Centers. The remainder of the Manitoba looked great in their interval sets.  Wednesday afternoon was a downhill technique session with Rich Pettit.  We should have had a before and after video (3 of 7 skiers missed the first corner of the session and luckily no one plunged over the edge . . .it was a bit dodgy though).  The skill on downhills improved significantly, with a focus on "control the hill, don't let the hill control you".

Thursday saw some speed work on skate skis, with the group showing some great snap!  By late Thursday afternoon we had news that the planned weekend Alberta Cup races were cancelled due to extreme cold temperatures predicted, and lots of new snow on the way which promised to make driving treacherous.  And the snow fell.  And fell.  Strangely the snow machines continued to pump out new snow all the while.

Friday was to have been a more restful day in preparation for races.  The weather was extremely hostile, with lots of snow falling and howling winds.  We had planned to join the Newfoundland team and do a session with Lisa Patterson.  Some of the team were fixin to mutiny, but Lisa sent a message "suck it up" so out went the team.  Levi's description is that it felt like skiing in the Arctic on the frozen tundra.  Elora had a nice random skier give her a hot paw for her frozen hands.  Word was that you could ski zone 3 on the downhills.  We did a drill with Lisa and finished off with some sprints, working on shooting the foot at the finish.  We were just a bit happy to get inside and warm up. Conor had painfully cold feet and some unorthodox methods were tried in order to help him warm up. There may have been a reference to child bearing.

Canmore Howling

All afternoon the weather got worse and the roads were pretty bad.  We moved to new accommodations as the Alpine hostel had still not got their water sorted out.  Banff Boundary Lodge gave us quite a bit more space and especially a bigger kitchen area.  One of the rooms accommodated floor space for a much needed yoga session in the evening.

Highlight of the day on Friday was the arrival of Steve Scoles, who had endured a scary slow drive in from Calgary to join us.  Steve continued to be the highlight of Saturday as his arrival heralded the "Downtown Nordic World Cup Season Opener"  time trial.  Joined by the hardy Newfoundland team, Manitobans did a fun 4 km time trial, handicap start.  A Newfoundland girl won the coveted Downtown Nordic buff and awards took place in the Canmore club house  (unsuspecting locals joined in the applause).  Steve was thankful that Team Newfoundland came all the way for this season opener,

 The team spent Saturday afternoon at Canmore's indoor climbing (bouldering) and the guys (Steve leading the way) hit the pool afterwards.  Steve screamed louder than anyone on the water slide and coach Alan had to drag him away from the slide to go home.  Evening entertainment consisted of sherades as organized by Steve.  Team Ratchets took on Team Tool Belts.  Sam proved his acting abilities with "Dora the Explorer" and Levi somehow acted out LF4 (wax).  A good time was had by all.

Today (Sunday) is gloriously clear but still very cold.  The team are maxing out their km's and skiing twice on all the freshly groomed trails.  Highlight so far was helping to push a van on the road near the Nordic Center, 99%  sure they got help from Becki Scott.  Ahh.  Only in Canmore.

Photos to come once Elora gets going.  The season is under way!! Looking forward to a good one!!

What is a good ski unless you can share it with a good friend!

Canmore Early Snow Camp November 2014

Hello from cold and snowy Canmore!

Happy to be in Canmore!

The scenery was o.k

 

We have 7 members of Manitoba's High Performance ski community here for some early snow training.  We loaded up 2 vans and made the long drive out with Alan, Megan and Pauline sharing the driving duties.  Our 5:00 AM departure time was a rude but a necessary evil considering the distance. I am happy to say the drive was uneventful and the roads largely bare.  We wondered where all the snow was.  We hit Costco in Medicine Hat to get our large stock of essentials like kale and quinoa (you are not surprised, if you know Pauline).  Alan was heard to say "are we in Calgary?" at this point, and we re-oriented him. We made a team purchase of a cheap blender for breakfast smoothies which proved to be a hugely successful investment of $30.

We had planned to stay in the Alpine hostel but got word 2 days before that they had water supply issues, so Pauline worked her magic to find us accommodation at the Rocky Mountain Ski Lodge.  We had 2 units which were nice but severely cramped for kitchen space (especially lacking in counter space) so that was a bit challenging.

O.k., the reason we came out:  the skiing!  The biathlon trail area had been open for a little while starting with Frozen Thunder, and the snow making equipment was constantly pumping out new snow.  There was skiing concentrated in around the main stadium, biathlon stadium and areas nearby.  The snow quality was very good, right from the first day.

We were looking for lots of zone 1 skiing with a technique focus to make the transition from roller skis.  Technique was awkward initially but came back nicely.  The first day we did 2 hours skate ski, with a short break in between.  In addition to getting on snow, and the great scenery, a highlight of the day  was the evening information session "Deep Thoughts with Coach Alan"  on the topic of the effects of training at altitude.  The team was most interested in the researched scenarios, especially "live high train high" and to great amusement this was the first post on the newly created team Twitter Account.  A clarification was added to point out that this was, in fact, in relation to altitude and not other possible scenarios.

Day 2 saw the team classic skiing in the morning, and in the afternoon we got in a strength training session at the Bill Warren Training Center.  We almost had the place to ourselves.  A Cross Country Canada employee remarked that he was impressed we were going in for a strength session, as not many young teams do so when they are in Canmore.  The evening of day 2 we had guest speaker Rich Pettit visit our wax room for a discussion on ski characteristics, bases, stone grinding and waxing.  Rich is a former Manitoba Provincial coach.  He has been in Canmore 8 years and now works primarily as wax tech for Canadian biathlon teams.  He has been to 5 Olympic Games.  He shared some most interesting information about the fact that biathlon focuses primarily on high fluoros to speed up bases, with quite a small focus on base glide wax.  Some team members were heard to say we should sell most of our wax supplies but I don't think we are quite there yet!

 

The team's technique is really starting to come together.

New video of Manitoba Team Canmore trip 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V4L1adXAQ0

Exploring more of Newfoundland

Well we have not been great at keeping our blog updated this trip . .will have to come back to it and comment on how great the racing went during the last 8 days of competition.  We had some amazing highlights, one big one being Conor finishing 2nd overall in the aggregate points for juvenile boys 1999 birth year.  He was called up at the banquet and shook Jesse Cockney's hand to get his loot, which included a knitted Newfoundland style toque and a CCC belt buckle that we joked was something like getting a WWF belt!  We were certainly proud for Conor and for  Manitoba!
Levi Nadlersmith also had some huge results this week, including his 4 th place finish in the mass start 10 km classic race on the last day, just 14 seconds off the winner!!

I should also mention top 10 finish for Lisle in the classic 5km interval start and top 10's for Levi N in the interval start 7.5 km skate race. The Red River Nordic team sprint teams of Anna and Elora, and Dominique and Conor were in the top 1/2 of their respective fields.    Many personal goals were set and met by the team as a whole.  Great work!

Our wax technician Tim nailed the wax all week which was no mean feat on the classic days.  We were lucky to benefit from his fleet of test skis (thanks to Mike from Fischer) and also from the wisdom of coach Mike Neary from Alberta who was in our wax room.  I tried to learn as much as I could . . .

The banquet last night was good. . .our athletes stayed for the dance at the end and most of them enjoyed the mosh pit dancing which was sweaty but a lot of fun, apparently.  Elora was seriously hoping to crowd surf but the DJ put an end to that after several athletes were passed along the top of the dancing frenzy.  There were a couple of dodgy looking moments that Pauline and I witnessed as the crowd surfer seemed to finish in a rather head down sort of direction . . .

Today we had a free day as we travel home tomorrow.  Pauline organized a snow shoe and cookout birthday celebration for Levi N's 16th birthday today.  We drove down the west coast a bit to Stephenville and met up with a friend that Pauline had met through MEC gear swapping.  Lori Deeley and her son Kip met us at the Whaleback Nordic Ski trails and provided us with 10 pairs of snowshoes from the local high school.  We spent a wonderful afternoon snowshoeing the trails and had a birthday hot dog roast and birthday cake for Levi at a warm up shelter on the trail.  The team may have invented a new sport that they call extreme snowshoeing, involving leaping repeatedly over the nearby stream ON the snowshoes.  Somehow there was also some dangling of each other by the ankles to lower head first to the stream but I don't know exactly how that fit into the picture.  I think a video account will make its way onto the blog in the form of some sort of  P90X training video.  Stay tuned . .

Travel and Tourism Day- Nationals 2014

Elora here, I haven't been able to update the blog as I've been sick and have spent all my spare time sleeping. A few members of the team have been down with a pretty bad bug but we've all been eating cloves of garlic raw and drinking endless amounts of  tea so we're on our way to recovery, all though everyone seems to smell like garlic.

Today was our first of two rest days so we went on a trip down the coast to the ocean. It was about an hour drive to our destination where we had a good view of the ocean, which is still covered in ice. We arrived in lark harbor and some park that I can't remember the name of and the Levis and Conor immediately started climbing up a large hill/rock. They didn't quite take the trail and just scaled their way up and suddenly just popped up at the top of the hill (really high up) and waved at us. I still don't understand how they got up their, but they did come down with soaked pants and shoes... Lisle, Fiona and I tried to follow their footsteps, but weren't quite as either courageous or stupid. We took the more beaten trail and ended up somewhere else entirely which was by Lisle's description more lame. After that we went to some other little area close by and most people went on some other hike hoping to find a lighthouse. I was really excited because I'd been wanting to put my toe in the Atlantic ocean, but wasn't thinking we'd find open water. Thankfully there was a pier where we'd stopped. We managed to find some breaking ice and I think almost everyone dipped their toe in the salt water. It was a pretty cool day.

pauline and megan exist

if you look really close you can see the Levis and Conor

climbing

Free willy 3

Lisle on a bridge

Titanic 2

High school musical 4

Jaws 12

In other news Levi N and Dom bought live lobsters to bring back to the hotel and cook yesterday. There was some news of them terrorizing Fiona with them before they were eaten. We ate large amounts of pancakes for dinner last night, which Dom and Levi ate with their lobster.

I spy Fiona

Lisle is sad that apparently there are no puffins on this side of the island. She had stated earlier she wouldn't leave without seeing one, so I guess were gonna lose Lisle to Newfoundland. In other news, she found a nice hat.

Other funny events included the boys stealing an entire box of cookies Pauline had bought for THE ENTIRE TEAM not just the boys. In revenge Fiona stole Levi N's ipad. That really upset him, which was good. Me and Lisle and Fiona then proceeded to write a peace treaty in which the boys were supposed to buy us a carton of chocolate milk, and provide Fiona with a band aid (she somehow cut her knuckle while attacking someone to get the Ipad). They would receive the Ipad if they followed those small requests. Levi quickly came to our door with a full jug of chocolate milk (but no band aid but we so kindly forgot that) so we gave him the Ipad. We were really happy so poured some highly anticipated chocolate milk, WHICH WAS ACTUALLY A CARTON FILLED WITH WATER.. We have yet to get revenge.

just kidding she found one!

Yesterday me and Lisle woke up in the hotel alone after a nap to find everyone had ditched us to go to the laundromat. So instead we went on an adventure with Megan, but no we still do not have any clean clothes. We did find a lighthouse, which we expected to be a bit bigger, but it was still a lighthouse. Here are some pictures we took.

really proud of this picture and yes I fell seconds after

probably prettier than the laundromat?

selfies with the lighthouse

Tomorrow we will head out to the trails again to pre ski before our last race, and hopefully the weather will be as nice as it has these past days. 

adorable

Lisle is a leprechaun

2014 Nationals- day 2

Day 2

We woke up this morning around 8:30 for breakfast before heading to the venue to ski. It was pouring rain/hail we arrived there and we all thanked megan for telling us to bring our rain coats. We put on as much water proof clothes as we had  and headed out to ski. The trails weren't exactly marked yet as today was not officially a training day but most people figured it out eventually and we will have another chance at it tomorrow.  

river beside the motel

snowbanks on the way to the venue probably 10 feet tall

The trails were challenging as it was a combination of ice and slush and puddles. We skiied until we were soaked and I think most people soaked through 3 layers of clothing. Some teams later went out and skied in garbage bags which would've been a good idea. Seeing as it wasn't actually that cold, I thought it was actually kind of fun.

The rest of the day was pretty much a really relaxing day in the hotel. Highlights include the making of a group imessage including megan and pauline, and a trip to buy half price craft underwear.

lisle's hair by fiona

Nationals 2014- Day 1

We have arrived in Corner Brook safely. Our first plane ride, our plane was pretty empty so we all took that opportunity to claim 3 seats each and make an attempt to catch up on some sleep. There were two Sochi Olympians on our plane, Heidi Widmer and Jesse Cockney. Fiona was really excited when Heidi Widmer asked us if she could squish by to go to the washroom. It was a thrilling moment for all of us. 

leaving winnipeg

long process of wing defrosting

We managed to get here relatively on schedule and with all of our luggage. Apparently other teams didn’t get as lucky and either have delayed or cancelled flights due to weather in Toronto or their luggage never arrived. We finally are having some good luck while travelling and somehow got through Toronto with little delay.

We have two rental vehicles, a van and a truck. Initially fitting all of our ski bags into the small back of the truck was kind of interesting. They ended up all piled up pretty high, and I wasn’t sure they would all make it the half hour drive to our hotel still in the truck. Pauline ended up doing a quick run into town to buy some tie downs, which solved our problem.

lisle trying to load all the ski bags solo

Before going to the hotel we made our way into town to Sobeys. Lisle and I were impressed by small colorful, tight packed, houses on hills, similar to the commercials you see about Newfoundland on TV. The area is a lot more mountainous then I think everyone was expecting.  Lisle insisted on playing Great Big Sea on the car ride, to complete the Newfoundland experience.

downhill skiing

After everyone refueled at Sobeys we came back to the hotel, which is right on a river. We have 4 suites with a double bed, a single and a futon. We found the room a little jam packed with weirdly arranged furniture, but after an hour of interior designing and remodeling by Fiona and Anna, we’ve decided it’s pretty cozy now. The Levis, Dom and Conor did some remodeling of their own, and made a really interesting set up with chairs and tables to lay all their skis on. It’s only 9:00 here, and only 7:30 in Winnipeg but we’re pretty much ready for bed. Also Lisle just stated she isn't leaving Newfoundland until she sees a puffin, I'm going to make sure she doesn't see one.

 

we found a bridge

Westerns pictures

Here is a slideshow of pictures from westerns  stolen from Pauline, Alan, Fiona and some of mine
http://fgr.am/f/qDOrjyvs4W

Westerns final day - skate mass start races

Junior girls looking happy before their Sunday race.

 

 Our final day here in Prince George again gave us great temperatures, around -2 C.  No complaints!

ALL raced well.  I was very happy to see Fiona race her 7.5 km as she had been battling a chest cold all week.  Levi W was very pleased with his race and felt that his fitness level was there for him.  Alex, Alan, and Pauline were happy to have the time to get out on course to cheer.  Our team handled the climbs and the technical downhills extremely well.  We are so proud of everyone.



Manitoba is gaining momentum!  Conor 3rd in juvenile 1,

Lisle 3rd in juvenile 2 and Levi N 2nd overall in juvenile boys. 

 



Team pauses for a photo before leaving the Waterfront Lodge.

The journey home was not as long or arduous as the day we left Winnipeg.  But Prince George airport does not have a big enough scanner for ski bags which meant a long time spent with EVERY ski bag being zipped open and inspected closely.  Good thing we had arrived with a buffer of time to spend on that.  I hope they get a big enough scanner for Canada Games next year!

We narrowly made our connection at Vancouver airport, with the departing WJ flight being slightly delayed for us while our PG flight sat on the runway waiting for enough ground crew to receive us.  We essentially jogged from one gate to the next, straight onto the next plane.  And you guessed it, folks.  The skis did not make it to Winnipeg with us . . .and this time neither did any of our luggage.  Well anyways we made it back to Manitoba and will enjoy the rest day on this stat holiday!  We are hopeful that this will translate into more travel vouchers to go towards future team trips.  More "fundraising" - it all works out in the end!!

Westerns Day 5 - Ben's classic sprint day

Well, Ben got the short end of the deal today as he headed off to race bright and early with Alex and Megan as his support crew.  The weather was mild once again and today the trail conditions were superb.  Ben was, as he put it, as pleased as he has ever been after his classic sprint race today.  We managed to give him decent grip and glide and he skied the very tough 1.6 km course once for qualifiers and again for the quarter final heat.  To put Ben's field into perspective, it is on the small side but almost every other skier is from a training center team.  Ben was not deterred.

 

 

 

The remainder of the team had the chance to sleep in a bit and have a relaxing morning.  There was some work involved as there was ski cleaning and travel waxing to be done, getting classic skis ready for home.  I heard some unverified reports of unconventional waxing methods and reportedly Dom picked up a bit of slack . .

 

We were given space in the boathouse below the Lodge

so we were able to do lots of waxing on site.

 

 

 

The afternoon focus changed to skate skiing.  We all had the chance to ski the trails in the afternoon, with the athletes pre -skiing their courses for Sunday. The support crew got our own chance to head out on skis, including me.  Conditions were beautiful, around -2 and warming up to near zero, still with a firm base of snow.  Pauline and I did some exploring and we saw parts of the race course and also the view from up near the top on one of the upper trails.  It was a very therapeutic ski.

 

The afternoon was spent resting, with most of us napping a bit.  The team was showing signs of the long week but they were able to use their refocusing skills after the team meeting in the evening.  Last sleep tonight and last race tomorrow.