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| Happy to be in Canmore! |
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| 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.
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