Camille Cheskey

pre nationals...

2010-03-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

To my great enjoyment, the National Championships this year were held in a place I had never been! This to me is always one of the highlights of racing. I have discovered more of Canada from traveling to ski races, than any other way. This new place was the great white north... so I thought. As far north as it is, there are no igloos, or great, vast frozen oceans. it is merrily a place which is a little colder than where I am from, and the sun light is incredible! The huge mountains are far from intimidating, they are not steep as I am used to in whistler, they don't block the view, the just enhance it. The majestic slopes are deceivingly long and large, and the peaks, in the region, are the highest in the country. Yet the huge Panoramas are appreciated with the sun not setting until 8:30 to 9:00. Enough said, I was simply blown away!

I will leave the suspense for photos to come.

until than.

CHEESE!

2010-03-08T13:39:00.001-08:00

With the Olympic Hangover easing now (i hate using that word because it sounds way too cliché and overused), maybe i'll just make a metaphor to describe how people might feel after Olympic Games.Living through the Games as a spectator is incredible, you live EVERY moment with the athletes, every single high and low impacts you in some way. for me it was even before the games had started. Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian Luger who tragically lost his life at the whistler sliding center on the day of the opening ceremonies was the first moment for me. I never met him, never even saw the accident (my choice) but i felt as though someone i knew had passed. it was the scariest thing to hear about it struck me way to close to home. my thoughts are still with him. Following this extremely sad moment the opening ceremonies were the complete opposite, even being on the same day it was a complete celebration of canada. it made me feel incredibly canadian and extremely joyous. this roller coaster ride of emotions kept going through out the whole games, knowing that some athletes missed the podium, or the gold medal by fractions of seconds and points was tough, and being an athlete i know what that feels like. that moment plays its self over and over in you head for days, nights, even months. you keep telling yourself that if you had that moment back you knew exactly what you had done wrong and that you'd fix it. but thus is the beauty of sport. it is that singular instant in time, that fraction of a second, which makes athletes, athletes. the ability to act without thought, but with full intention, to put everything you have learned and practiced to one goal. Gold.

for every near chance, we, as a country managed to put gold on the podium. this blew my mind. i will allude to my previous post and say that after the rocky start, we proved that we could own the Podium. 14 Golds! incredible. toping this incredible medal haul, on the last day was the mens gold medal performance where as with Bilodeau (the PERFECT HERO), someone, somewhere, wrote the golden moment for Canadian hockey. Canada's Golden Boy, scored the golden goal. Sidney Crosby is one of those athletes. where, when the pressure mounts (overtime, after blowing a to goal lead) they find a way to do what has seemed impossible for so long. score on the best goalie in the tournament!

following this incredibly emotional 16 days (both up and down) came March 1st. and this was as if your heart got broken by the love of your life. it was a low beyond lows. the village was empty, the busses were gone, the police officers at every corner were gone, and the driving restrictions were gone. i almost wanted all the hassle to come back. it was as if any second i'd wake up and everything was back to normal (Olympic busy), but no. it was over. Olympic Hangover? i think in whistler thats just from all the partying. olympic withdrawal is different, you don't feel sick, noxious, or dizzy. you feel as though you were left on the side of the road in the middle of no where with your heart broken.

but as with everybody else. i am just fine! here are a few pictures to keep motivated for four years from now!

the title is cheese, for no related reason other than i had delicious cheese this morning which my mother sent back with me from Ottawa. it was very good!

enjoy the pictures!

well, i am back!

2010-03-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

It seems that I always try and write short posts so that I don't bore people with novels. But that is too hard when I only put a post every month or so. So, my plan: frequent shorter posts! Thats a promise!

This past month and a half has been a whirlwind adventure of Olympic proportion! Thats right, I said it, the Big 'O' came to town! To keep This post short, I will leave some things out to tell in later posts! First off, to all the Own the Podium critics; how about that medal count? Sure we weren't first overall, but a nation has never in OLYMPIC HISTORY had its anthem played 14 times at a games... Since EVER! Secondly, in the overall count, we were 3rd, two spots below where we wanted to be. But the fact remains thats the goal of every Country, to win! We DID top our best ever medal haul by 2! Now how is that grounds for complaint.

I do have to say, as an athlete who is not yet at that level but is striving to be, the funding for our type of athlete is still dismal. And if the Country ever wants to literally Own the Podium in medals and deepening of athlete pools, we need much more money to be able to perform at the level.

Now my ranting put aside, for me, these games represented exactly what I am striving for. After all the goal of skiing to compete, and perform is to put more Canadians on the Podium!

So to me, these were the most inspirational, moving, and CANADIAN games i have ever witnessed! I was one proud kid during this time. Walking through the Whistler Village and taking part in spontaneous rounds of O'Canada, and different cheers. A truly Canadian, party!

The whirlwind adventure is now partially over, and it is now time to reflect and put that inspiration into my training and racing, though I have already started.

another short one to come soon, with some pictures!

Cheers!

ANDY SHIELDS GOES TO EUROPE!

2010-01-13T14:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a terrific Article about a great friend of mine and someone with whom I learned to ski when I was little. We come from the same original club Waterloo Jackrabbit club, and he is one to watch in the years to come. Lucky for me I still have 2 years before he is my competitor! Good luck in Europe Andy!

(click on the post title for the link)

1 or 2 posts? that is the question... i opt for one!

2010-01-06T13:31:00.000-08:00

Today, I am sitting at home for my first day back at my moms house since I left last June for Whistler. I love it here! There is nothing that can beat meals cooked for you! This epic post sums up these last couple of weeks for me, and once again its full of first time experiences!

Since moving to whistler I have become used to being the learner and always going around with an open mind. The experiences that I have come across have been life changing, and enlightening. And they remind me that I still have a lot to learn.

After the Olympic trials in Sovereign Lake and Canmore, I headed home for a week back in Whistler. This was the first of the 'firsts'. Christmas alone. A hard one to stomach, so as i've learned this year when things get tough, I have to just put my head down and focus on what I have to do. This way I get what I need done. What did I need? two things; money, and a good recovery and prep period before the biggest focus of my season other than Nationals: U23 World Championship Trials. I had at best an extremely slim chance to be selected for the world champs, so I thought I'd have just give it my best shot and see what I could learn from the races.

That was my focus of the week, shortly put, I worked everyday from the 23rd to the 27th. Trained every morning at Lost Lake (a 10min walk from work). Treated myself to a beautiful Christmas morning ski up on the upper Fairway and Blacks Loop! Than when that week was done I hoped on a plan for Quebec City!

After all the terrorist scares I was a little apprehensive about flying, not so much about the risk. But the hassle of the security measures. I ended up flying out with a friend of mine, Kajsa (also racing in the up coming races) and let me tell you, it went without a hitch! my life long never-beep-through-the-metal-detector-luck just keeps rolling! the flights were pleasant, the company was great, and we were greeted on the other side by a VERY fantastic family (Kajsa's cousins).

RACE TIME!

At U23 Trials, there are 3 races, and the winner of each is selected than the next most consistent athlete are picked to complete the team of or five if the room is available. The first race was a 30km Pursuit, I was registered, but opted out of it to save my legs for the sprint the next day. As a sprinter, I thought I'd give it my best shot in that event. This proved to be a good decision! So far this year I've steadily moved up in my sprint races, from 96th in Soveriegn, to 55th and 49th in Canmore, and than 17th in Val Cartier, QC! All of a sudden I am right in the mix! This race felt good, but I really surprised myself with my qualification! I was 18th after the time trial! BOOM! It shocked me, but as I took it in, I knew I could do better! So I went into my quarter final with one goal, beat as many people as I could and try and move up! It was a very fast heat and I let it get a little close for comfort at the finish line, we were 3 lunging to the finish for 3rd spot in our heat. I still don't even know who took it, but with the results up now, I finished 4th in the heat, and moved one spot up in the overall results! I had accomplished my goal! My first ever Senior mens heats, and a very solid performance! I am still pumped! I ended up 9th U23 in the country and so think that there is still a LOT to come from me this year. As it turns out now, I think I had a better crack at being selected than I had thought, but its still a tough race, and next year will be that much better!

The 3rd and last race of the trials was a 15km classic technique individual start. This was going to be the first hard distance race of the year for me! I had decided to not try and hold back, but to go for it from the start! As a sprinter I have always had trouble with these middle distance events, as I find its too fast for too long, I much rather a good old fashioned long distance race.

The morning of the race I felt good, and motivated! The race began fast, I pushed from the beginning, and might have paid for that a bit in the second of 3 laps of 5km. The course was extremely hard, big climbs, soft conditions, and fast technical downhills. At the end of the race I clocked in my best distance race in a year! So I am very motivated to keep going and start focusing on the next couple of races!

That was one of the longer posts I have ever written, Pictures will be coming!

Cheers for now!

suspension of thoughts midway through the week

2009-12-17T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well, it is that time of the year, where the first races are under my belt, and all I had hoped for coming from those races was to do well and learn from them. The first races are always a HUGE learning curve which is so needed. After a whole summer and fall of training and not racing, I entered my first races in Sovereign Lakes Nordic thinking I remembered what it felt like. The first event was the 15km Skate. As I know this is not my forte, especially as the first race of the year, I had planned to use it as a primer for the Sprint the next day. I think I executed my race plan, which was to go out relaxed and speed up as the race went on, pretty well. BUT, the altitude hit me a LOT harder than I had thought. Skiing at 1600m of elevation caught up within the first kms of the race. I was skiing relaxed, but going Dog SLOW! I crested the first hill and thought, "Oh damn, I am tired already!" well yes I was, but as the race went on, I found that I was able to push harder. In that sense, my race plan went well... too well actually. I managed to Negative Split my laps. Something that should never happen. I did feel that I tired myself out, and that was the Goal for the next day. Jump start my body into feeling PAIN!

Race #2, 1.1km Skate Sprint. Today was the day. My goal: To come out of the starting gate, and ski with POWER! well I did that perfectly, I gave it my all, finished, and felt

good about how I skied. When the results came up, I looked and looked everywhe

re for my name, I couldn't understand. Had they missed me? Am I just totally blind? No; was the answer to both those questions.

I was there, in 96th overall, 66th Senior man. Ouch. I guess its 'Welcome to the Big Leagues Son!' I couldn't understand, I felt good, people were telling me I looked very strong. Whatever happened, I was not one of the 30 athletes to move on. This was hard to stomach, but hey, I can only control what I do, not what the results do. I will just try even harder next time.

I pushed these thoughts to the back of my head, and decided to start focussing on the next races in Canmore, 2 Classic Sprints. Than, I realized what happened las Sunday. People were telling me I looked good, because I was trying to ski powerfully, rather than fast. Something that is very effective if you have power. Something I do not have. I can hold my own, but I can't ski a full course FAST just using power. As I am a small and light sprinter, the one thing I have against the big guys is pure speed and turnover. All of a sudden it clicked!

I am now in Canmore, waiting eagerly for this weekend. I have been working on skiing fast with speed, rather than powerfully.

So first races under my belt = learning!

I vow to do better than 66th this coming Saturday, as these are the qualifiers for the World Cup in early February!

Happy Holidays

interview, en Français avec Radio Canada Vancouver

2009-12-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

voici un interview que Mélanie Cossette de Lemission Phar West, sur Radio Canada Vancouver, qui était enregistré Vendredi Passé.

http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/colombie-britannique/emissions/emission_Chron.asp?pk_region=1&id=1190&IDEmissionFR=687&IDCat=6&leMois1=2009/12&sub=%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F

le titre est: Le "pouls olympique" de la région de Squamish-Wistler

pour mes amis francophone :)

IN THE PRESS

2009-11-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

Click on the title to read a terrific article in the Peak News magazine in whistler about our program this year. enjoy.

here are some pictures from our Silver Star Camp!

would you like a side of snow with that?

2009-11-03T10:11:00.001-08:00

This post is going to be short, but with lots of pictures. I have been working hard at getting healthy these past few weeks, and it seems like I am finally getting somewhere, I am also now convinced that I have experience the wrathe of the H1N1... (OH NOOO!!!) well I think. I know reports say that it affects people differently, but if anyone is affected like I was, trust me, its no biggy. This flu bug hit me no worse than the regular flu. Yes it put me out of commission for a week, and i felt less than pleasant for 4 days, but thats it. Period. Now that I am healthy in my head and body which most important, and I am back to training as well as ever! The focus now that snow flakes are in the air and in the plans, is to train smart and rest even more smartly. Here in whistler, there has been snow on the ground, and in the forecast a few times over the past weeks, but long term, nothing yet which drive us skiers to travel to find skiable snow at this time of year. With the first races about a month away, we have that 'urge' to have 'white stuff' under our feet.This week is shaping up as one of the more exiting ones of the year so far for me, because on saturday, we hit the road to head to Silverstar mount

ain near Vernon BC, where they are reporting mid winter conditions! http://www.skisilverstar.com/ check the webcams, a thing of devine beauty!

That is my short post, now the pictures come!

narrowing the focus with snow in the air!

2009-10-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, skiers in Canmore starting skiing, only a 400m loop, but skiing non the less.

Here in Whistler, we don't have such snow making capabilities, as we rely 100% on natural snow. We also, being on the west coast, don't have the cold temperatures that those albertans have. So the result is we are not skiing on white stuff yet. It still wet cold pavement under our rollerskis.

These past few weeks have not been the most stellar for me health wise, so the training has suffered. I am at the tail end of this virus, and so, getting ready for training tomorrow, and really pumped and stoked about getting the FAST on. As the snow approaches, because it has teased me several times on the mountains, i get more and more exited to race. There is lots going on in my life right now, all involving skiing still, just as the fall rolls on and winter is coming gear is coming in, business is picking up at the shop, and training is getting really fun. It has been a while since my last update, but with the last couple weeks mediocre, I don't have any awesome training stories. This will change. Till next time.

back at it... full throttle

2009-09-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

So, my rest period has now finished, I am not sure what to think of it. It seems I have some serious lack of judgement and focus when I am not training full time. In the past I have always had lots to do during my time off, (school, work). But this time, only working part time and being in whistler in september when it is really slow economically here, I had not much to do. So that is why I thought I'd keep things fresh with my trip to Vancouver. Well that was a huge highlight, but training wise I felt like I was not focused at all. A very weird feeling after being so dialed into my training all summer. I guess its ok, though it did lead to some hairy situations for me. I think it started with my fall at the end of my last big workout, than I had a moment at the gym where a little lack of thinking made me try too heavy of a squat (nothing happened, but dropping the bar and waking everyone up in the gym with a very loud clang) than the next day, I was doing a 'recovery' run and slipped again on some wet roots. In the past I have prided myself with being agile and sure footed, and all summer I didn't have any problems with this. So my conclusion is that I was losing my focus not training many hours. The thing that saved me from doing any further damage I think is that it was only 2 weeks. I am back in a biggish week. Training doubles some days (two sessions a day), and I feel like I have my focus back with two time trials in two days under my belt.

Now onto the time trials...

I wasn't sure what to expect with these. My first one was a 2 km uphill double pole time trial and I hadn't done that since late june. The second one was skate, up the same hill. Coming off two weeks of easy training I wasn't expecting huge improvements since I'd be a little flat. The double pole was going better since my overall fitness has come a long way since june, I had decided that. It did prove to be better, 2 MINUTES BETTER! I was pretty happy, especially with coming off some down time. I was pumped. Than this morning was the skate version of the TT. After yesterday, doing that well and not feeling very 'poppy' in my technique, I thought that today was going to be good! In my warm up I felt really solid, so I thought I'd try and PB, well I got ahead of myself. The last one I did was just before our last trip to Canmore, and I was ON then. I ended up being 13 sec. slower this time. Feeling as though I had really given it my all, I was a little disappointed. Lee was quick to point out the differences with last time, mainly coming off a slow week and that I have always performed better in the summer while on the go. So good TTs behind we set off tomorrow to tackle Duffy Lake Rd. The plan is to Bike to the bottom than throw the rollerskis on and classic up. I am very exited for this, it is one of my favorite things to do on rollerskis and bikes.... go uphill.

what do i do when i have extra time and energy due to small training hours.

2009-09-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

Alright, one week of easy training past, and for the beginning of that week I didn't do much. I mainly focused on recovering from my rediculous fall runing the sunday before (nice bump on my tibia bone), and worked a bit. Work is slow in september. Whistler being a resort town relying solly on tourists to keep the economy rolling makes the non tourist seasons very slow, therefore work is virtually non existent. This makes life tough for the full time athlete relying on a retail store to keep some food on the table. So instead of wasting time pondering this and wearing out the old brain with these thoughts, I decided to head to Vancouver. This was a time to shake things up a bit. It was not a very long stay (I feel like I could live there) but it deffinitly took my mind off the same old same old. It is a very effictive place to go to achieve this. I ended up staying at my super awesome friend Linnaea's house, which is also super awesome. Quite the place in the city, located close to everything important. The beach, Sushi, downtown, Granville Island, the list goes on. You can't go wrong living there thats for sure!when I got there Linnaea found a single speed for me to use to get around the city and have fun...fun underlined the whole stay. I met some really cool roady friends of hers (they ALL ride road bikes it seems...) like a whole underground culture with track races, bike polo, sprints, you name it. What they come up with is incredible. They also deserve a ton of credit for (most of them) riding all of this on fixis (no free wheel on their bikes, a bit like little kids bikes, without the pedal break). nothing we did was not fun, although the sunday night was bythe highlight. It was filled with some really random fun bike rides, climbing adventures on Ganville Island, and really pleasant laughs.

... and ended no earlier than 2:30 am. That goes to show you how much energy I have when I train little amounts. I am already halfway done my second eas

y week and get to finish it off with two time trials up Kadenwood

, double pole on saturda

y and sk

ate on sunday. This is a 2km uphill time trial which in the past has been death. it is steep, it is hard, and we

make it fast. Finally after that we head into the the first intensity block.

I will tell ou guys all about my first fun week of hammering when i

t comes.

cheers,

-photo credit of Linaea Kershaw

Body and Mind

2009-09-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

Well that time has come for me to say good by summer. Well give me two days, than I can say that. For a cross country skier the summer is all about building a base of endurance to build on in the fall with intensity so that sustained speed is the end product, to be fast in the winter. So this is a change in pace for all skiers. You complete the summer and take some time to recover and rejuvenate mentally so that when the time comes to start putting in intensity blocks instead of volume blocks, you can really hammer and and reap the benefits of these workouts in the fall period.

So now I am getting ready to have a physical break from training, by doing two small weeks (never completely off training). In these two weeks I hope to be able to leave whistler for a couple days to give myself a mental break at the same time as physical. There are still long weeks and hours to put in and it is much better to stay sane during those days so breaks are encouraged.

Cheers.

there and back again....AGAIN.

2009-08-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

I am writing this post back at home, but having completed another epic road trip to Canmore and back. This last trip has been sort of same old same old, yet brand new at the same time. The same old part was Canmore. It seems, you only need to spend a couple of days there (either in the summer, or winter) and you know what its like there all year round (the one exception was the glacier camp when all our time spent there it was raining). So this time, well it was back to good'ol Canmore. Not a cloud in the sky, cool-to-cold every morning and warm during the day. But where the sun was, it was hot. So, the point of this camp was volume, period (more emphasis when it is spelled out). When it comes to volume, there is no better way to do it than rollerskiing. Simply put it is the best training for skiing. As crazy as it sounds, but it gets really monotonous when the scenery is the same. Therefore doing this in Canmore wasn't too bad of an idea after all. In fact, I really enjoyed it. as much as Canmore is boring, it is always a super good change of scenery and therefor my trash talking is just talk (hold tight guys, i still love it!). To make this a shorter than epic post (so i can include some unreal pictures) the week broke down like this.

Saturday the 22nd:

5 Peaks R

unning race on

top of Whistler Mt. 10.6km in 1:06:34 (sounds slow, and was, but even the winner (Ed McCarth

y, props to him, undefeated in his 3 races from the series) walked up the huge hills. Than aft

er than bone crushing run, jumped in the van and drove to Revelstoke.

Sunday the 23rd:

Morning in Revelstoke, 2h rollerski up Mount Revelstoke. Jump in van, drive to Canmore.

Monday 24th:

2h rollerski kick dp up Silvertip, 1h run.

Tuesday 25th:

4h total, rollerski sk, run and core..... than Inglourious Bastards!!! super good movie.

Thanks a million to Tasha for those warm ups, they are perfect, and I don't have to make them fast, because she has already done that. Really appreciate it!

Wednesday 26th:

3h rollerski cl on HWY 40 toward Highwood Pass, with AWCA. + 1h run.

Thursday 27th:

4h total, rollerski in am, Hike up a mountain.

Friday 28th:

1 work out, 4h, sk rollersk

i up and over Highwood Pass. Than back up from the other side.

Saturday 29th

1.5h classic and 30min intensity double pole.

Than jump in the van to head back to whistler. one shot.

Sunday 30th:

Sleep in than 2h at the gym.

15 days straight completed, now I am done! rest tomorrow, than one more big week.

To back track one week before that, it was a week of testing and fun intensity.

So to start that week on the sunday, with some short Z3 ski strid

ing intervals not far from rainbow mountain. The next day was off to the Big City.

Vancouver, actually Richmond. The Oval to be specific. This morning was dedicated to VO2 and Lact

ate testing. This was my first ever experience in a lab, HAMMER as hard as I could, and thats basically the point of it. You get readings from your heart rate, blood lactate levels, breathing rate, and gas exchange to measure the VO sub max.

This was super interesting for me since it was my first time.

Than the next piece of intensity we had was our uphill skate time trial up Kadenwood. This was awesome, really hammered, it was the first for the year for me becuase I had a stumach bug the first time.

Finally the last piece of intensity was the race which I mentioned earlier on top of whistler Mountain. So this completes my entry. I must say it went a little longer than thought.

Peace for now,

All photos credit of Lee Churchill

CRAnkWorX @ Whistler

2009-08-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

This past week for me has been quite relaxing. I have taken some big steps in my life of living in whistler. I had been hunting for a place to live for the winter since had gotten back from the Haig. After some very frustrating no reply emails and tons of time spent trying to find a place without braking the bank account. I managed to get a room with a family in town. So now I am no longer homeless for the winter. I had begun my job hunt. Not so stressfull, but deffinitly important for me being able to train here this year. I had given my word to Jen Scholte, and made a brew bet with Lee (in other word beer was on the line), that i'd have a job by the 10th of august. Something which was hard without procrastinating. So the Thursday comes along and I finally get some resumes printed and get a couple handed out that day. Friday comes along (the 7th) and I made a point to get out and bassically give those resumes out as flyers. Most of the shops I went to said that they would see for the fall (since it is still the beggining of august most of the businesses still have all their summer staff until september at least). This made me realize that this was going to be a much harder battle than I had anticipated. Sunday came and, with Thomsen back from YK, the three of us (Lee, Thomsen, and I) headed up Whistler Mt. during that time Lee, smoothly mentioned, that "we are the... 9th today? that correct?" My answer, "yeah." Than he said "so tomorrow is the 10th?" i piped out "yep!" than... "right." I had no job yet... So seeing as we had not really layed out the rules of this Brew bet I decided to lay them out, and said "i can get a job on the day of. And that counts!"

The 10th came around and I decided to follow up on some of the places I had visited earlier. The first one I went to, the nordic shop, hired me on the spot! So bet won, and word kept. I am employed and housed for the year!

with my easy week i had a lot of extra time on my hands. I only worked 1 day of this week, so the rest of the time I had, I spent in the village checking out Crankworx.

These are some shot I took from the Slopestyle competition. This was one epic comp, let me tell you.

I totally enjoyed this week from a tourist point of view. But I am exited to get back into real training so that my days are full and nights are all sleep.

One regret from the week though. I missed the Cheese rolling competition. the legendary whistler Cheese roll! So next year I will for sure watch it. If not even participate. Deffinatly a regret.

I have a decent sized week coming up. A lot of intensity and testing, than off to Canmore for the BC camp!

Peace for now,

mmmm....barbeque over a wood fire...the whole valley smells like it!!!

2009-08-04T00:12:00.000-07:00

Wait, that could very well be the worlds largest BBQ if people just decided to pull out all their burgers, sausages, drumsticks, and hot dogs from their freezer and set them out side! What an idea. BC would hold a record for the guinness book for sure!

Thats the funny way to think of these last two weeks. the truth is almost every morning, before the wind picks up, all is still and the smoke from the ridiculous amount of forest fires in BC settles in the valleys over night. It really does smell like a wood fire BBQ, nice redwood/cedar smoke, toss in a little Fraser fir, and Hemlok. Life in the last two weeks has been almost completely normal for me (kind of crazy to think this way but its true), I have not strayed one millimeter from my routine. Every day I set out and do my training. The smoke here in whistler, really has not been that bad, the first few times it really shocked me, and I was able to notice the smallest amounts. Now i seem to take it more like "oh, its smokey again today, oh well, i'll just train a little later, give the time for the wind to pick up and push the smoke out of the valley." That is the most these fires have affected me...physically. Mentally, as a newcomer to BC and totally foreign to the thought of forest fire danger I have been "internally" freaking out. The first was the fact that 4 fires surrounded the valley. the closest was 32.4KM from whistler, yet as soon as that number was under 100km, it seemed to knock a little louder on my door. It was still well south and over the whistler mountain, so not too bad. Than, Blackcomb. In the blink of an eye, it was burning right in town! (not literally, because it was still a little ways away, but you could definitely see it from the village). This is what truly made the whole forest fire ordeal strike home. It made me realize that this danger was totally real, and that this is something that fire crews, no matter how big can't really do anything about. Try as they may, without rain, they would not win. Two days of thinking over what would happen if I were to be evacuated, and I realized, I can prepare myself as much as I want, but it really does not matter. For now, the fire is burning, but away from the village, it is on the east side, and we have had nothing but westerly winds. So really there isn't any danger there. Unless the winds change. They never seem to here.

All this while, I was keeping the good training happening. A couple of really good Rollerski intervals at WOP, some nice rides, and some rockin strength sessions kept the volume up for me, so I didn't really have the time to worry about any of this.

Last sunday was the workout of the year for me so far. At the beginning of the week, since I felt like i was still getting better from a super hard calf day at the gym, Lee proposed that instead of ski walking up Blackcomb (and because the fire was still going) that we would do a long ride. Not any ride either. It was one I had been looking foreword to since hearing about it. Duffy Lake Rd. The plan was for me to ride from home, meet Lee who would bring the van to Pemberton, continue riding together on 99 climb the legendary Duffy Lake Rd hill, and come back down and finish at the van. It ended up being three hours and 40 minutes for me total, and the climb was an hour and three minutes of that. to be in the saddle once again and climbing for that long really reminded me of my ride up Alpe d'Huez last summer. And nothing made me happier than completing it. The epic climb, and the decent which took about 15 minutes, hitting 75km/h a times, just made the day absolutely unreal. I think if I was not a Cross Country Skier, I could totally do the cycling thing.... But I don't deal well with heat that much... So winter is way more fun!

So now I have made a couple of deals with people (bets) to finding a job before a deadline, and the house hunt is (cross my fingers) in its final stages. And life is good!

So I'll keep the training going smoothly, last big week until Canmore!

Cheers,

More Haig shots

2009-07-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

Aprés ski routine...in the lake. cold water is nothing new for me, but the walk barefoot, sure added extra pain to the already frigid water pain. (Adriene Underhill)

Dialed and ready go bomb down the snow pack with the BC'ers. Boot skiing!!!(Nicole Perrin)

and now is the present

2009-07-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

Post glacier. I came back to Whistler with the legendary lee Churchill, (I'll skip the driving part because I mentioned it previously). Now, once in whistler it occurred to me that it was extremely dry, and the heat was equal to pre glacier, the sun, relentless, but not humid like back home in Ontario, it was a dry hot heat, tolerable, but brutal, I found myself drinking a lot more fluids than previously. Both in workouts and in chill sessions. Apparently the weather had been like this basically since we had left for the rainy Canmore. There was a day or so where there were some thundershowers, but that's it, and thundershowers do not hydrate the ground, because it is so hot the water starts evaporating once it hits the ground, all it does is cool the temps for a little while.

So back in training mode, I was facing a very comfortable couple of weeks ahead of me. Nothing huge, just in the 12h hour range. The Thursday of my week back lee and I headed out to WOP (first time for him to roller ski there as he had finally switched his wheels) and hammered some awesome death intervals. Nothing unreal, just taking advantage of the altitude the week before. It was rest and get feeling good again. This week was the second chill week, nothing huge, just sitting around 12h. Today was the day. We hit up the gym (if anyone knows me, they will know the feat in that) and pulled a super solid weight session. I surprised myself in some areas, and others like the bench press....well lets just say its not my forte. So after punishing my body under a ton of weight, I took a short nap that afternoon and decided to go for a recovery ride. And guess what. It rained! We were supposed to have thundershowers through out the afternoon...we had one. At 5:00 PM the time I was heading out for my ride. So as I was quite the down pore, I sat it out under a spruce tree for the majority of the wetness, than I got fed up and headed out, the rain subsided and I ended up having a superb ride. I felt like I was flying! With all this Tour De France I've been watching, I'm trying to adjust my riding style to what I see, and let me tell you it felt GOOD! So i am back, just over a week and a half since the glacier and that epic week, I am feeling ready to conquer the world! Well lets start with some intervals tomorrow and go from there.

One thing this rain has made me realize (as I was headed out for my ride) is that, that sunny hot weather is and has been impeccable to train in, you just have to head out before it gets really hot. It is so good because it is consistent, I have been plugging away since I've arrived here. The weather has made my motivation, work ethic, and general mentality very focused.

but we need rain. that is for sure. Its dry to the point where forest fires are more than a possibility here in whistler, the ones around kelowna are just a reminder of what can happen with this dryness. We are supposed to have another 14 days without rain and it is going to be hot....35°C. So, let the training be solid!

2009-07-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

Lee enjoying the killer day on the crust

Thomsen rippin it on the frozen snow

The HAIG... and the adventure

2009-07-14T19:46:00.001-07:00

To start this next update, I would like first to thank all those super fun athletes who were at theHaig with us....the BC team and the BC development team...good times. And next, to thank Joel and john for their brilliant witty remarks... and for their gigantic amount of help with everything around the camp.

Now... for the details.

Following a long drive with Lee from Whistler to Canmore, and that dreadful day of postponement in Canmore, we ran into camp. The 18km run started a little on the warm side and I started feeling a little stupid about wearing long spandex bottoms and even carrying a small camelback with a jacket in it, plus my drink belt. I think I remember Thomson even making a witty remark about me being overdressed... karma my friend. About 14km in, the weather changed, no longer was it sunny and warm, the wind picked up the clouds rolled in and, so did the sleet and snow. All of a sudden the guys i was running with started commenting on being cold...not me, I was just right!

So after a nice run in, nothing special, 2:35. The camp had begun.

When the next day came I was super pumped to ski, this is what I had waited for, for what seemed forever. Maybe I was a little too eager to get up there. Once skiing, I got tested and my lactates were way too high....bummer. I was crushed at my stupidity of heading up to the glacier to ski to fast. so my day was cut short, and I headed down to rest up and see what my levels would be in the afternoon. A combination of this and the altitude adjustment, I believe was the culprit of this. The next day was much better, in fact I was so scared to get my lactates too high that the were super low and Lee told me to pick it up...I felt awesome!

This continued to build an epic week. Putting in good quality training hours on the snow, and enjoying the beautiful sun which came out more permanently as the week progressed.

A ton of card games later, and some enormous quantities of food consumed, I came to my last day on snow. This one was beautiful.... not a cloud in the sky, it froze overnight so it was super fast skating, which meant I could really work on technique rather than plaude along on super slow skis bringing my heart rate up, than as I got slower I switched to classic to put the hairies to work. This day left me with the best feeling of spring skiing in my legs, I was PUMPED! But super tired as well because if the very big week of training.

The next day was the run out... I didn't want to say anything the evening of, but when some of the athletes slept out on the helipad that night I thought that they would be running inside mid sleep because of the rain. It just seemed to fit. i was wrong, but only partially, what had been a pristine cloudless night had turned to a very cool very cloudy sky in the morning. and of course, just as Thomson and I finished our last game of cribbage (which he won...payback for skunking him the time before i assume) the rain started... well no, the hail actually. So Lee, Thomsen and I (last to leave the camp due to the game) set out in the hail storm which included some pretty impressive lightning strikes, and the lower we got in the run out, the wetter it got. It was monsoon season in Kananaskis country. everything was soaked... everything. Somehow or another once back in Canmore it started clearing up...our luck of course...

The luggage on the other hand was a whole other story. Because of inclement weather, the helicopters are very limited in flying since they do not have all the high tech navigation systems such as planes. Mainly because they do not just land on huge runways. They rely almost exclusively on the pilots vision and training to be landed and flown. So when the cloud cover is too thick, they don't fly.

So when it came to our bags no one really believed they would be able to fly them out. I was staying the night in Canmore anyways with Lee because we did not want to drive the 10h trek back to whistler right after the run out. But not everyone had our logic. They pretty much left at their first chance to head either to the airport or home. Without bags because it was unsure whether or not the helicopter could fly in. An hour and a half later of course, we get word that all the luggage is back... and soaked. everything. soaked inside and out.

Now the adventure begins...for the first time in my life I have a cell phone... something I have faught my whole life against because I think they are stupid... and now I have conceded.

wow... big update...

2009-07-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

enjoying a nice roller ski at WOP.......saw my first black bear since arriving in whistler!

THE HAIG...

2009-07-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in the rocky mountain ski lodge in Canmore, getting ready for my first in the country glacier camp. It will be my second time skiing on a glacier, however it will also be drastically different from what I had experienced last year.

recap.

In the summer of 2008, I decided to travel in Europe after finishing high school. I took this opportunity to join my ski team in Ramsau Austria. This was one of the big highlights of last year.

But I heard often from people to not take it for granted. Cable car rides up to the glacier for two skis a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared for you. A nice warm bed in a hotel 200m from the cable car. This was the life.

Well now I know that I was extremely lucky to have that as my first glacier experience. Because as I said I am waiting in Canmore. We were supposed to run up today to the glacier, but the weather was no help as the helicopter could not fly due to the rain and heavy cloud cover. So now our camp has be pushed back to tomorrow WEATHER PERMITTING!!!!!!

I just seems a little ridiculous having to base everything off of weather when you are set to head up. Anyways, I am sure I feel this way because my first experience was so incredible. So I'll just chill and see what happens, but now I don't think we will be skiing tomorrow assuming we make it up tomorrow which is a huge bummer. Oh well. Life goes on. I will add a little good thing that has happened because of this. I felt pretty tired after our big week blocks and even with this easy week i didn't feel rested, mostly because I haven't been sleeping well these last couple of nights, so this gives me one more day to rest up before going full tilt on the glacier so I can really take advantage of the altitude and snow. Skiing in the summer for a week is worth more than a month of rollerskiing. So I am absolutely pumped to get up there and feeling good!

All that said, I am super exited to go skiing, hoping the weather gets nice, which it looks like sun is on the way, just too late for today. i am sure my next update will be super positive about the camp.

jumping on the fast train!

2009-07-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

Well these past two weeks have been stellar in terms of training. Putting two very solid volume weeks together. Just on little hickup which was I got a stomach bug, but luckily it only lasted about 36h so I was back on my feet quickly.

After a few epic trail runs, High altitude hikes, and some superb WOP rollerskiing Canada Day came. With it, the annual Pemberton spud run. well not yet annual for me, my first. This race was extremely fun, my first running race of the year, we were all expecting a 7-8km race and it turned out to be 10, so other than the fact that everybody suffered in the last km. It was awesome. The weather, just like the rest of the week was picture perfect. Not a cloud in the sky, 15 degrees C. The sun was so intense though that half way through, at 15C we felt the heat (it felt more like 30C) while running on the road section.

It was a good finish for me... as I am deffinitly not a runner, I did run a PB.

I am getting ready to head to Canmore now, we have a week gracier camp with Cross Country BC which should be a ton of fun. I'll see some friends I don't otherwise get many chances to see.

till the next time.

And now, to whistler we go!

2009-06-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

Since my move to BC, i have been living the life. to me this is brand new, even though I have been centering my life around skiing for the past two years, I have always had something else on the go, in 2007/2008 I was completing my grade 12 with a full course load of 8 courses. In 2008/2009 I was one step closer to full time skiing, but I was working everyday during the week. Now, to my dreaming mind, it has come to reality (for the instance). I am and only, an athlete for the summer. I feel amazingly fortunate to have this opportunity. Now my gratefullness is stated lets cut to the chase.

I am living in whistler village for about 2 weeks with my teammate Thomsen D'hont...the one and only teammate so far. The location is ideal in terms of getting around town on foot and proximity to rollerski paths and running trails as we can literally step out our door and be on a path or trail within 200m. The training possibilities here are absolutely amazing.

The last couple of days I have been feeling sick, I came down with some sort of stomach bug. one of those 24h bugs, but it left me pretty weak since my system was empty, and I hadn't eaten, but now I am feeling better, and I am eating, which for me, is one of the most important things out there.

I am getting ready for another big volume week and than we are off to the Haig until mid july.

2009-06-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

i think that this is one of my favourite pictures i took during my travel through France last Fall, this is just outside Cassis in the Provence.

work, and the move, and finding a place, and finding a job, and....figuring out my life of course

2009-06-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

So, today as it stands, I have a flight to Vancouver, but that remains about it. 10 days away from my move I am looking for a place to live and looking for a job out there. Currently I am finishing up my work here at Highlands Nordic which has been amazingly fun, busy and enlightening. I think that I have learned much more in my one year at highlands, that is useful, than my four years in Highschool. That being said I am not against schooling, in fact I think it is totally necessary, but it just shows that the quality of learning is about 10 time better in the real world...I think most people would agree with that. Now I have put myself into a situation which, come to think of it, is becoming very fermiliar...diving blind into another world. This time, it is whistler and the training center. I seem to believe that things just work out, but I have to say it gets more and more stressful as the moves get bigger. I am not going to lie, I do believe that things will always end up working out, sometimes you just have to be patient. It is just the stress of believing in your decisions that makes most people not like these situations....or so I think. I have a few ideas about where I might live, and a couple of thoughts about possible jobs, but for now they remain thoughts, it is an adventure that I am getting myself into so I have to remember that. there is the latest view into my life, next update will likely be from whistler! cheers, C.

Decision Making 101

2009-05-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I have in the past needed to make some big decisions in my life, however I do not think that I have ever needed to make a decision which tore me apart quite like this last one. I realize that this is definitely not going to be the last one, but it is the first one which I have come out sick. physically. It was a week last Friday when I got the call from the Callaghan Valley Training Center. I was offered a spot on their team and I realize that this should have been a no-brainer to me, but my values made it hard. I had agreed about two weeks prior to now on a rent, and on joining a team in Thunder Bay because I had decided that I needed some training partners to help me get to the next level in cross country skiing. So now that I have put the context into context (so to speak) I think that I have become a little wiser, though not flattering myself, I am only 19, and a wise 19 year old does not exist. I'd like to think so, but its all in the reality. This Decision that I had forced myself into, proved to present a conflict that I had never experienced, as I mentioned above, this conflict was between what I knew was a good decision and my moral values. to me, I had committed to something, and so that is what I would stick to, at least in the past it is what I have stuck to. (not saying that i have thrown my moral values out the window, but I think that I have learned when to put them aside to attain something that I know will benefit me in my future). so as I had to, I did put my values aside, with the help of many people which I have to say I respect enormously for helping me find my way, I made the decision to head out west to Whistler and Callaghan valley to further push my skiing centered life. small lesson, but very important, i think, in forming myself as a person.