Training has gone really well this fall and I am feeling fit. As the World Cup starts and snow arrives, the start of the race season finally seems realistic. The first races are only 2 weeks away and we are starting our final preparations. Winter has hit Canmore with a bang with lots of fresh snow and very cold temperatures. I went from roller skiing in a t-shirt last week to skiing on perfect snow wearing 3+ layers of clothing! The frigid air and slow snow isn't ideal for training but we have a perfectly groomed 2-3km loop to ski on as well as many kilometres of rolled trails suitable for rock skis so I'm not complaining.
I decided to take a biochemistry course this fall and so my normally busy life has become a little crazier over the last few months. I found a 4th year biochemistry course (Signal Transduction and Regulation of Metabolism if you were wondering). It doesn't have a lab and class is only twice a week so I decided to register for it. It was a good opportunity to complete another course and inch a little closer towards my degree. Some of the information is really interesting but I've forgotten a lot of the basics over my extended school process so I had to unearth old textbooks and notes to figure out what was going on! I am happy to be in class again and it has been a good distraction most of the time.
I'm not going to make you read an essay on my fall training (and I don't want to write one!) so I decided to let some pictures do most of the talking. Unfortunately, I broke my camera at the end of the summer so I had to steal pictures from other people.
My mom came to visit in September - this is on the top of aptly named Wind Ridge (check out my hair!)
Some of the boys training during our Jasper camp at the end of September. I did 9.5hrs of roller skiing and 2 hrs of running in 3 days. (Photo: Eric Groeneveld)
Team picture in Jasper (Photo: Eric Groeneveld)
Racing in a running race in Calgary at the beginning of October. I fell and slid down this bank on my back and elbows on the way back down later in the race! (Photo: Mike Cavaliere)
A 4-day late-season camp in mid-October on the Haig Glacier (Photo: Kevin Sandau) 
We woke up to fresh snow on the last morning and ran most of the way out in snow (Photo: Kevin Sandau)
Janelle skiing on a 20min loop at Sunshine Meadows last weekend. We had to put in some extra effort to find snow for our longer workouts. (Photo: Mike Cavaliere)
Peter Larsson came from Sweden again to work with the Academy and the Alberta Ski Team. He had lots of useful tips! (Photo: Mike Cavaliere)
Winter finally arrives in Canmore! (Photo: Canmore Nordic Centre)
The first races will be two Alberta Cups on Dec. 4th and 5th. We have NorAms in Vernon and Rossland the next two weekends then I'll head home for Christmas. It will be a busy month!
Alysson
