August Update

Lots has happened since my last post. I’m back in Canmore again after a week in BC. I was hoping for some good beach time at the family cabin on Shuswap Lake but the weather refused to cooperate with cold, rainy days when I was at the cabin. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all hot days but I didn’t get to enjoy them since I drove from Canmore to Salmon Arm on Friday, drove to Vernon and back on Saturday to visit my Grandma and then did a running race on Sunday. We went to the cabin Sunday afternoon. Despite the rain we still managed to have a good time with scrabble, monopoly, reading, mountain biking and the adorable kitten from next door. We did do some swimming and motivated by Michael Phelps we attempted to do the butterfly – I’m sure we were a funny sight! We had a few exciting moments when my cousin almost burnt down the cabin after putting a pot with oil in it on a hot burner then going outside and forgetting about it. While some of us were running around trying to find the fire extinguisher (which was on the wall beside the kitchen) my mom calmly found a baking pan and put it on top of the flaming pot averting the disaster. Apparently we don’t have any fire alarms in the cabin...

Last Sunday I did the 10km Raven Run race in Salmon Arm. The idea was to see how quickly I would recover from the two 4-hour workouts earlier in the week. I was clearly not recovered as my time was much slower than last year. The course is incredibly hilly so a bit of tiredness had a big effect on the uphills. The last couple years I have felt really good in this race so it was disappointing to be so tired on the hills. It was also really muggy and humid that morning which didn’t help. I’m glad I’m in a winter sport since I do not like competing in hot weather.

It was really nice to have an easy/rest week this week. Tuesday was my first day off in two and a half weeks! The team has a big week coming up with a 4-day dryland training camp at Highwood Pass then 4 days at the Haig Glacier. I’m excited for some more snow time!

That’s all for now.

Alysson

The remnants of the pot

Another cloudy day at my cabin

Finishing the Raven Run

Uphill Skate time trial and Shevchenko Open roller ski race

Yesterday I did an uphill skate time trial. It is approximately 4km, starting near downtown Canmore and ending past the Nordic Centre. It has varying degrees of steepness with a flat section then a steep uphill into the finish. It is used to measure our fitness and give an indication how we are progressing with our training. I find it tough since there are no downhills to recover on and the lactic acid builds up in my legs the whole way. It is always a balancing act between going hard at the start and risking blowing up or starting slower to ensure adequate energy at the end. I paced it pretty well this time starting fairly fast and holding it until the end though there were a few times where I lost momentum and had to refocus and force myself to keep pushing.

My time was 15:07 which I am really happy about. I was 45sec faster than at the end of July last year and 2min faster than at the beginning of June this year! This shows that I have improved my fitness immensely in the last 2 months and it is encouraging to see that I am ahead of where I was at this time last year. One of my goals for this year was to be under 15min in the time trial so hopefully I’ll be able to pick up at least 7sec by our next round of testing in October.

It has been a week for roller ski racing as I also did the Shevchenko Open skate race last Saturday. It was organized by some of the ski teams in Canmore to provide more racing opportunities and was named for the winners of the 10/15km skate race at the Canmore World Cups last year. Roller ski speed wasn’t accounted for so it was difficult to compare times, but it was still good to do a race. I enjoyed this much more than the uphill time trial as the race was held on the roller ski loop at the Nordic Centre. This meant that there was varied terrain including all-important downhills for recovery. I felt really strong and focused on having good technique and staying snappy even when tired. Fast skier Madeleine Williams started 30s behind me and passed me during the first lap. I decided that a summer race was the perfect opportunity to push myself and I held on to her for half a lap before finally being dropped on a hill. Having fast girls around to push me is one of the great things about living in Canmore!

I am in the midst of 2 weeks of hard training. Next Tuesday and Thursday I have 4 hour roller ski workouts which should be interesting to say the least. I am going home for a visit at the end of next week and I’m looking forward to some good Okanagan beach time! Then it’ll be back to work with a week long camp – the first half at Highwood Pass and the second half skiing at the Haig Glacier.