It has been way too long since my last update so I'll do a short recap of my season so far:
December NorAms: I was strangely tired going into December (still not exactly sure what caused it) and I was disappointed with my early season results. My best result was 14th (10th cdn) in the second Canmore sprint.
I started feeling more normal over Christmas and I felt prepared for the World U23 Trials in Quebec. Everything was going according to plan until the night before the first race when I got hit by a nasty cold. I decided to race through it and I spent the next 4 days convincing myself that I was healthy and ready to race. Needless to say, the distance races were very tough. I was the 6th U23 in the pursuit and 7th U23 in the 10km classic. The sprint race was my best chance at qualifying for the U23s. Luckily it was a very short, fast course so I didn't get too exhausted. All the top U23s were in the B final so the first U23 across the line was guaranteed a spot on the trip. I had a slow start but fought my way through the group and was 2nd over the finish line. My teammate Emily won the B final so she got the U23 spot. I hoped that being 2nd on the sprint ranking list would be enough to qualify for the trip but no such luck. They ended up taking 6 U23 guys and only 3 U23 girls (4 skiers can start each race) which was a big disappointment. 7 of my AWCA teammates qualified for the World Jrs/ World U23 teams and have had some great results in Germany!
It took me over two weeks to recover from my cold (racing through a cold is not optimal for a quick recovery). I decided not to go to SuperTour races in Washington with the team because I still wasn't fully healthy.
I did qualify for a OPA/B tour run by CCC and AWCA. We leave on Sunday and will do two races in Campra, Switzerland then a mini-tour with 3 races in Forni di Sopra, Italy, the next weekend. There is a big team going and it should be a fun trip!
Alysson
