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.

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.

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”. 

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."