Alysson Marshall

Westerns Mini-Tour

2012-01-25T14:20:00.003-07:00

This past weekend I competed at the Western Canadian Championships mini-tour in Canmore. It was a busy weekend with races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday plus a Fast and Female event Sunday afternoon. It brought back old memories since my first BC Team trip was for the 2001 Western Canadians Champs in Canmore when I was 12! I arrived back in Canmore Tuesday afternoon to -30 temperatures plus

Whistler NorAms

2012-01-19T11:16:00.001-07:00

After a month with no competitions I returned to the race course at the NorAms at Whistler Olympic Park last weekend. These doubled as trials for World Juniors and World U23 Championships coming up in Turkey. Since I am no longer a U23 I was much more relaxed than usual going into these trials races. Despite not having trials to worry about I was still stressed due to other circumstances. My

NorAms

2011-12-24T22:29:00.002-07:00

I am back at my parents' house in Salmon Arm after a busy two weeks of travel and racing. I returned from Europe and jumped right back into the NorAm domestic racing circuit 5 days later. I spent a couple days recovering from travel then joined the Academy in Vernon for the Sovereign NorAms on December 10 and 11. It was great to see my team again and catch up with everyone after a month away.

Dusseldorf

2011-12-04T15:16:00.001-07:00

I am back in Canada after a month-long European adventure. I was sad to leave the team and the World Cup circuit but I have been enjoying skiing at the winter wonderland of Silver Star and Sovereign and catching up with family and friends. Dusseldorf was my last race weekend of the trip and it was a great finale. The races were in downtown Dusseldorf on the banks of the Rhine. Snow was trucked

Kuusamo

2011-11-27T07:41:00.001-07:00

My first full World Cup weekend is over and though I was disappointed with my races it was a good learning experience and gave me lots of room to improve in the future. I jumped right into the World Cup tour at one of the toughest events on the World Cup calendar: the Kuusamo mini-tour. 90 women and over 120 men started the tour and everyone was fighting for early-season prestige. Friday was a

Ostersund

2011-11-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

I have been in Ostersund, Sweden for the last 12 days. Our home here is Camp Sodergren which is located right beside the ski trails. When we arrived it was one of the few places in Europe with any snow and we spent the first week skiing on a 2km loop. At times we were sliding on a mixture of ice, sawdust and pavement but every few days more snow was added to repair the bad spots so we could ski.

Convergence Trip

2011-10-30T14:11:00.000-06:00

My life has gotten a lot more exciting in the last couple weeks - I have been selected to be on the CCC Convergence Group for some FIS Scandinavian Cups and World Cups! This is a program where additional athletes are added on to World Cup trips to provide more international experience. Kevin Sandau, Drew Goldsack and I are the 3 convergence trip athletes and Graham Nishikawa is also going as the

Fall

2011-10-19T09:40:00.000-06:00

I'll start this post where I left my last one... moving into the Whistler Four Seasons for the National Team intensity camp. We did 4 intensity sessions in 6 days and the highlight was a time trial partway through the week. Chandra, Perianne, Emily and I did a sprint simulation and the guys did a 15km time trial. The roller ski loop is pretty narrow so we ended up doing four individual start

Girl Power

2011-10-02T21:05:00.000-06:00

The last couple weeks I have had a few "girl power" events and it's time to get some pictures up here! On Sept. 17 there was a Fast and Female event in Canmore for Sports Day in Canada. Annika Hicks and I volunteered to take the 9-14 year-olds for the morning and whitewater kayaker Jessica Groeneveld arrived to help us out with our group of almost 40 girls. There were lots of different stations

Whistler Camp

2011-08-29T14:46:00.000-06:00

After a busy and tough Whistler camp I am back in Canmore, happily sleeping in my own bed. It was a packed camp with volume and intensity and lots of high quality workouts. The first memorable workout was a mock-sprint race on the paved trails at Callaghan, joined by the biathlon training centre. It was fun to fight it out in the heats and I managed to come out with the win. Here is a video of

Summer musings

2011-08-16T21:17:00.000-06:00

Way too much has happened in the last month to write it all down but here is a brief summary of what I have been doing since my last update: After the National Team camps in June and early July I took advantage of my rest week and went to Salmon Arm to visit my family. The weather wasn't as good as I had hoped but I did get a couple sunny days at the family cabin on Shuswap Lake. Summer

Haig 2011

2011-07-09T17:16:00.000-06:00

I just finished a 3-day Haig glacier camp with the National Team. The plan was to fly in and out of the camp since there was still a lot of snow on the trail. We flew in Wednesday morning, landed directly on the glacier and did a 3 1/2 hour ski under blue skies and hot sun. Thursday was a shorter day with a 2 hr ski and an equally beautiful day. Unfortunately the amazing weather didn't last and a

Spring adventures

2011-07-03T13:02:00.001-06:00

The last two months have flown by as I have gotten back into busy training mode. We spend most of our time in Canmore with the exception of a short jaunt to Kaslo BC last week for a 3-day camp. I have been feeling really strong training and successfully came into the new training year with a decent level of fitness. We did testing at the end of May and everything went really well. I got a PB by

National Team Announcement

2011-05-14T21:27:00.001-06:00

I am excited to announce that I have been selected to the 2011/2012 Senior National Development Team! I met the criteria at the U23 World Championships when I placed 12th in the classic sprint. I am going to continue training with the Alberta World Cup Academy but I will do some camps with the National Team in addition to the Academy program. The national team announcement from CCC can be found

Hawaii!

2011-04-28T12:26:00.000-06:00

After a long season of racing I needed a break so I convinced my parents to go on a family vacation. My brother was able to get away and my parents got the time off work so we planned a trip to the Big Island. Here are some pictures from our first week! My house in Salmon Arm on Monday, Apr.18: 9 inches of fresh snow! First morning in Hawaii Pools in the rainforest Exploring lava tubes

Season summary

2011-04-12T17:36:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone is enjoying spring! Here is my season summary that I wrote for my sponsors: Early season NorAm races: The highlight of the early season was a bronze medal (top U23) in the sprint in Thunder Bay: this qualified me for the Estonia World U23 Championship trip. World Cup – Otepaa Estonia:A World Cup event was held in Otepaa the week before the World U23 Championships and I was

Nationals 2011

2011-03-22T20:20:00.000-06:00

My 9th National Championships is in the history books and I am satisfied with how the week played out. At the end of the event I ended up with two aggregate awards: 3rd in senior women and 2nd in U23 women. The first individual race was the 5km skate last Sunday. Usually I love 5km races but the tough World Cup course in Canmore is my nemesis and The Wall gets me every time! I felt good and

Golden Games!

2011-03-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

After a fun and exciting Canada Games in Halifax, I am enjoying a much deserved rest back home. I finished the week with three gold medals and one silver medal. As icing on the cake I was selected to be BC's flag bearer at the closing ceremonies! I exceeded my expectations for the Games and had a fantastic time. Departing from Canmore I was feeling less than optimistic about the upcoming Games. I

Goodbye Otepaa

2011-02-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

After a satisfying sleep in my own bed it is time for a recap of the last few days of the U23 Champs. The last race was the 15km pursuit. It was a crazy day for the wax techs and coaches with the junior relays in the morning and U23 pursuit in the afternoon plus packing everything up in time to make the ferry to Helsinki. My distance points aren't very good right now and I was ranked 30th and

Sprint!

2011-01-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was good day for me here in Estonia in the classic sprint. I finished in 12th spot overall and accomplished my goal of making it into the semi-finals. My day started with the qualifier. I felt a little messy and didn't ski as smoothly as I had hoped but it was good enough for 14th position. I felt really strong and controlled in my quarter final and I moved into 2nd spot at the start

First U23 race

2011-01-28T01:59:00.000-07:00

My first and least favorite U23 Champs race was yesterday: the 10km individual skate. I had decent energy and focused on skiing strong and relaxed. The morning was reminiscent of trials in Thunder Bay with a temperature of -22 overnight and -18.5 at race time. My toes were not impressed by the cold weather and I felt like I had chunks of wood in my boots during the race despite 2 pairs of socks

World Cup

2011-01-24T05:44:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I checked one goal off my long list... I raced my first European World Cup! 0.57 seconds was all that separated me from meeting another goal: qualifying for the heats in a World Cup sprint. I am happy with my 33rd place finish but I would have been ecstatic if I had found that extra oomph that would have put me in the heats. That race fueled my determination to do well next weekend in

Otepaa

2011-01-22T05:39:00.000-07:00

We waved goodbye to Finland and arrived in Otepaa, Estonia Thursday afternoon. The drive took about 8 hours with a 2 hour ferry ride over the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn, Estonia's capital city. Otepaa is about 3 hours southeast of Tallinn. We were welcomed by Dasha, Chandra and Lenny who got here a few days before us. Passing our sister ferry as we headed to Tallinn We are staying at an old

Vierumaki training

2011-01-18T13:12:00.002-07:00

Greeting from Finland! After 27 hours of traveling we arrived safely in Vierumaki, Finland. 4 movies and multiple naps made the flights go by quickly, though the 4hour layover in Toronto seemed very long. Aaron had a direct Calgary-Frankfurt flight and he beat us to Frankfurt despite leaving Calgary 5 1/2 hours after the rest of the team! Incredibly, all the luggage from the whole team arrived

Estonia!!!

2011-01-10T19:21:00.006-07:00

The races that have been at the back of my mind since May are in the history books. Three days of racing each year determine who travels to Europe and competes against the best skiers in the world and who stays in Canada trying to find races to keep them occupied until Nationals. Thankfully everything worked in my favor this year and I qualified for the World U23 Championships in Otepaa, Estonia!

Canada Winter Games

2010-12-20T22:39:00.002-07:00

I forgot to mention that the NorAms in Rossland were also the qualifying races for Team BC for the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax. The team was announced today and it is posted here. This will be my 3rd CWG and I'm excited to go to Nova Scotia for the first time. It looks like BC will have a strong cross country team!

Rossland Mini-Tour

2010-12-20T11:33:00.004-07:00

It was a week later than planned but I just finished my first NorAm races of the season. Canada decided to try out a new mini-tour format and it turned out to be a fun addition to the race series. Europeans have been doing mini-tours for quite a few years and I actually have done mini-tours the last two years on the OPA tour in Italy but this was the first one on Canadian soil.Friday was a skate

Racing Again!

2010-12-10T10:48:00.004-07:00

The first races are done and my 2010/2011 race season has officially begun! I raced in two Alberta Cup races last weekend in Canmore. Though they were low profile races, there was a strong senior field because of all the skiers who are based in Canmore. Saturday was a 1km skate sprint race. The day started at 9:30 with the qualifying round. Despite some heavy legs I qualified in 3rd spot, 3.33

Winter has arrived!

2010-11-20T19:16:00.009-07:00

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

Summer Summary

2010-09-04T20:34:00.015-06:00

Wow: almost 2 months since my last post... so much for my resolution to keep this up-to-date! A lot has happened in the last few months. The team has had 2 big training camps, 2 rest weeks and plenty of quality training in between. I had a great summer but I can feel the ski season creeping closer... we hiked in a snowstorm last weekend!The first camp of the summer was the annual week at the Haig

Sunny days

2010-07-15T11:59:00.006-06:00

Last week I took a vacation to visit my parents and go to my cabin on Shuswap Lake. I went at the perfect time as it had been abnormally rainy and cold in the Okanagan before that and I arrived to the first real hot sunny week there. It was almost perfect weather with only a couple slightly overcast days. It was the ideal vacation and exactly what I needed after a busy spring.I spent the first

Spring Training

2010-07-03T21:58:00.006-06:00

Spring has flashed by in a blur and summer is upon us already. I've had a great two months of training, made better by the fact that I haven't had any injuries as of yet (knock on wood!). It's so freeing to be able to do whatever activity my training plan says and not have to adapt it because of some nagging injury.The training season started in May with a camp at Silver Star to take advantage of

End of the season

2010-04-11T13:05:00.004-06:00

I am at home in Salmon Arm enjoying some time off and I am finally getting around to updating this blog. My last big races were the National Championships from March 14-21, way up North in Whitehorse. I felt good in all the races and it was really nice to get that racing feeling back. I finished 8th in the 5km classic, 10th in the 10km skate, 5th in the skate sprint, and 10th in the 30km classic.

Home again: Davos to Canmore

2010-03-01T19:43:00.003-07:00

We got back to Canmore on Tuesday and since then I have been spending most of my spare time watching the Olympics! I felt like I missed all the Canadian moments when I was in Europe so I've been making up for it by watching everything live. But now that the Olympics are over I can get back to normal and get some things done, such as this overdue blog post.I am glad I decided to stay for the extra

Forni di Sopra to Davos

2010-02-18T12:17:00.005-07:00

Last weekend we raced in Forni di Sopra, a little ski town in the Italian Dolomites. It had been 25 years since they held a high-level race but they did a great job. Friday was a classic sprint race. I felt better then I have in a while and I qualified in 13th. I didn't have quite enough gas in the finishing stretch and I came 4th in my heat, not quite fast enough for the lucky loser position.

OPA Tour: Canmore to Campra

2010-02-08T12:48:00.006-07:00

Greetings from the land of the Swiss! I left Canmore Sunday afternoon and arrived in Zurich Monday morning. We drove straight to Davos to train for a few days and get over jet lag. Coach Christian is from Davos so he told us all sorts of interesting facts about the areas which made it a very entertaining drive. We stayed at the Davos Sport Gymnasium which is where Christian used to work. The

Racing

2010-01-28T16:21:00.005-07:00

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

National Development Team Announcement

2009-12-10T14:43:00.004-07:00

In exciting news, I have been selected to be on the Senior National Development Team! It all started last January at the World U23 Championships when I placed 13th in the classic sprint. In August, the news broke that three Russians were caught taking EPO the previous season. I was shocked when I found out that one of them was Nina Rysina, the winner of the U23 sprint. FIS recently decided that

New Sponsor: Sodexo Canada!

2009-11-30T15:04:00.006-07:00

I am excited to announce Sodexo Canada has signed on as a sponsor through the BC Growing Champions program! Sodexo is a food and hospitality service corporation and they have the food and housekeeping services contracts for the 2010 Olympic Villages in Vancouver and Whistler. A big thank you to Sodexo and Growing Champions for helping me reach my goals!We have been on snow in Canmore for quite a

Let it snow!

2009-10-11T10:16:00.006-06:00

Winter has arrived in Canmore and it has been snowing off and on for the last week! It snowed a lot on Thursday so by Friday morning there was a few inches of snow on the ground and the temperature was -13. The team was supposed to have a roller ski technique session but obviously that had to be cancelled.The training options were limited to running or skiing so Sara and I decided to be

Rest Week

2009-09-23T13:33:00.003-06:00

Every so often I get a rest week where I have only 6-8 hours of training. The second week in September was my third rest week since training started in May and my first since June. I had a bit of a tough summer as I was fighting with knee problems after a roller ski crash. I find that injuries can be really tough mentally so I needed a mental break as much as a physical break.I decided to spend

July Training

2009-07-28T11:05:00.002-06:00

I can't believe how fast July has disappeared! Since my last post I've done a testing week, a Haig glacier camp, finished my biochemistry course and put in some solid hours of training. I am feeling good and my spring injuries are a thing of the past as I have bounced back from my groin/hip flexor injury and mildly sprained ankle.We had our first testing camp of the year at the end of June. Going

Fit and Fun

2009-06-21T21:42:00.003-06:00

Last weekend Heidi Widmer, Sarah Daitch and I held the first Fast and Female Fit and Fun event! The idea was to have a mini version of the full day Fast and Female event so that more events can be held in more places each year. Chandra was at the event as well to help inspire the girls.We did a small talk, Chandra led a warm-up then we split the 52 girls into 3 groups and circuited through 3

Spring Update

2009-06-11T13:29:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the long silence, I've been really busy and I haven't made time for a blog post lately. I've been taking a condensed biochemistry course this spring so my "get stuff done" energy has been going into schoolwork and my blog has been terribly neglected! My midterm was on Monday so now I have a bit of relief in the school department and I can start working my way down my to-do list.It's

New Sponsor: Lakeside Insurance!

2009-05-07T20:11:00.006-06:00

I am excited to announce that Lakeshore Insurance from Salmon Arm is my newest sponsor. I really appreciate getting support from my hometown!April was my month off and I spent it mainly at home in Salmon Arm. I was tempted to go vacation somewhere hot (like joining my friend who was traveling in South America) but I decided that it wasn't in the budget for this year. Instead I went home and hung

Season Summary

2009-04-14T21:59:00.003-06:00

I wrote a season summary a few weeks ago and I thought I should put it on my blog and share it with everyone. Here it is:I had a very successful season racing in my first year as a senior woman. I moved to Canmore in May to join the Alberta World Cup Academy and this was the right choice as my results improved and I consistently raced well. I spent a month in Europe competing at the World U23

New Sponsor: Buff Canada!

2009-03-30T17:52:00.008-06:00

I am excited to announce that Buff Canada has signed on to sponsor me at the silver level this year! A big thank you to Peter Collins who made it happen. I'm sure most skiers already know how amazing Buffs are and have a few that travel everywhere with them. Toques, neck warmers, head bands, pirate hats, occasionally tube tops... they have many great uses! If you're not familiar with them check

Nationals Silver!

2009-03-17T13:31:00.002-06:00

I'm back home in Canmore after a successful Nationals. The highlight of my week was the classic sprint on Friday. I qualified in 3rd spot, 0.9 seconds off 1st. I came 4th in the A-final. Two Americans finished ahead of me which meant that I was the second Canadian for the medals! (only Canadians are eligible for medals). It was a good day because teammates Shayla (1st) and Kate (3rd) were on the

National Champs: 2 races down

2009-03-12T19:24:00.000-06:00

The 2009 National Championships are well underway. I didn’t do the first race on Sunday (team sprint) but I raced the 5km skate on Monday and the 10km classic yesterday. The conditions in Duntroon have been crazy. They lost most of their snow a couple days before we arrived and the stadium was reduced to a puddle (ice rink depending on the temperature). The situation improved a bit Sunday night

Schilpario mini-tour

2009-02-24T18:38:00.007-07:00

1 month, 8 races, 5 countries and 24 hours of flying later, I am back home in Canmore. It was an awesome trip but it is nice to sleep in my own bed and cook my own food again!The races in Schilpario were set up to be a mini Tour de Ski so that the results from each race stacked on top of each other with a final overall award after the last race. The results are on FIS at http://www.fis-ski.com/uk

OPA races: Zwiesel, Germany

2009-02-15T10:02:00.007-07:00

We just wrapped up a good weekend of racing here in Germany. Saturday was a 10/15km classic individual start. It was a treat to do a distance classic race since the last one I did was the at the NorAms in Sovereign at the beginning of December (and that one barely counts because it was held at night, part of the course was pitch black, and it was -18)! I felt really good starting out and had the

Bad Goisern, Austria

2009-02-09T10:09:00.008-07:00

On Friday we officially started the OPA tour. We drove to Lyon after the junior relays on Friday. On Saturday we drove for over 10 hours to get to Bad Goisern, Austria where we’re spending a few days training before heading to the first races. We arrived in the evening and we were horrified to see that there was almost no snow on the ground. We were worried that we would have to drive to find

Bittersweet sprints

2009-02-01T11:08:00.005-07:00

The U23 Championships are now over! I came 13th today which is my best International result so far. I was happy with my result but at the same time I was disappointed that I didn't make it to the sprint finals. I had a good qualifier coming in 14th. I really wanted to make it to the top 12 and I gave it my all in the quarter final. I had a slow start and was at the back going into the main hill

Pursuit

2009-01-31T13:48:00.001-07:00

Today was a fun day for me! It was the 15km pursuit with 3x2.5km classic and 3x2.5 km skating. I was ranked in 42nd going into the race which meant I started in the 6th (2nd last) row. We had a bit of an interesting start to the race. The starter gave the 30s to start warning and everyone got ready to start and the stadium was silent. Then the DJ decided to blast

Skate race

2009-01-29T14:29:00.002-07:00

The first race at the U23 World Championships is over! I had an okay (or en francais, comme ci comme ca) day and felt decent but not amazing. Overall my body felt pretty good but I didn't have a lot of fight in me today. I ended up 33rd. Brittany got the best women's result for the team in 22nd then Amanda was next in 31st. A polish girl, Sylwia Jaskowiec, won the women’s race by over 40 seconds!

Ahhhh, Praz de Lys

2009-01-23T12:59:00.010-07:00

Bonjour from France!The U23 team arrived in Praz de Lys, France Wednesday afternoon. The flights all went smoothly and amazingly everyone got their luggage! We even had time to go for a ski in the afternoon. Praz de Lys is a little ski area an hour away from Geneva. We are staying at a hotel right beside the ski trails so we can ski from our door. There is a lot of snow and the scenery is

World Cup start

2009-01-14T22:36:00.003-07:00

I'm hanging out in Whistler waiting to race in this weekend's World Cup! I qualified to race in the classic sprint based on the trials races last week. There are three races being held in Canada - a classic sprint on Friday, pursuit Saturday and a skate team sprint on Sunday. I only qualified for the classic sprint so I'll do that then watch the next two events.Originally the plan was for me to

Yippee!

2009-01-07T16:39:00.003-07:00

After 3 days of intense racing here in Canmore, I have been officially selected to be on the Canadian team to the World U23 Championships in Praz de Lys, France! All the stress, preparation and multiple ice baths in the last week was definitely worth it. The team leaves for France on Jan.20.The distance races on Sunday and Monday were decent for me but not amazing. I was a bit flat in the 10km

No racing today

2009-01-02T19:43:00.003-07:00

Well so much for the first race happening today! The temperature was below -20 in the morning so the organizers made the decision to cancel the race. On one hand it was probably good not to be racing 15km in near -20 weather but it is a letdown to prepare mentally and physically for a race then find out at the last minute that it's not happening.The duathlon is now going to be on Monday the 5th

Happy New Year!

2008-12-30T22:06:00.007-07:00

December has gone by in a whirlwind - I can't believe that 2008 is over! World U23 Championship Trials start tomorrow and I'm excited to get back on the race trails after a brief Christmas holiday.My last two NorAms in Silver Star both went well with a classic sprint where I came 12th, and then a 10km classic night race (on an intermittently lit course) in cold temperatures where I finished 14th.

Race Report #1

2008-12-08T18:06:00.002-07:00

The first races of the 08-09 season have come and gone so it's time for me to fill you in. The first races are always stressful as you want to get an idea of how you compare against the rest of the skiers after a summer of training. It was also especially exciting for the Academy as it was the first event we had ever competed at as a team. These were also my first races as a senior and I wanted

Greetings from Silver Star

2008-11-23T17:01:00.007-07:00

Sorry for the long silence - I started writing a couple blog posts in the last few weeks but got distracted by the many other things on my plate and didn't finish them. I have had a very busy November with school and training plus the quest to find snow to ski on. We had to drive an hour to Lake Louise for most of the month to get decent skiing. Lake Louise gets a lot more snow than Canmore and

Skiing!

2008-11-05T17:35:00.008-07:00

I was handed a great opportunity this week to go skiing! Last Wednesday I was starting to get antsy for snow when an email arrived in my inbox. Teammate Gord found out about Sentry Lodge out of Golden where there is lots of snow and a snowmobile to groom cross country trails. I quickly rearranged my school schedule and decided that I could make it work.Sentry Lodge is in the Esplanade mountain

VO2 test photo

2008-10-26T22:10:00.001-06:00

If you're interested in what the max VO2 test setup looks like check out Brooke's blog:http://www.brookegosling.blogspot.com/.

October

2008-10-18T20:27:00.006-06:00

Well I didn't exactly get a post done after Revelstoke but I'll blame that on school. I came back from the camp and was immediately trying to get caught up with an onslaught of assignments and lab work. Since then I haven't had a lot of down time and when I did have a bit of time I was more likely to flop down on a couch and read a book or watch tv rather than writing an overdue blog post. I

Back to the Books

2008-09-28T16:12:00.004-06:00

Well it's been a while since my last post but that's because I've been a lot busier lately. I'm taking two courses at the University of Calgary this semester (Genetics and Analytical Chemistry). I've been commuting to Calgary 3-4 times a week for classes. I'm starting to get used to the drive but I know it's going to be a lot worse once there's snow on the roads!My first couple weeks back at

Highwood Pass and Haig - 2 camps in one week!

2008-09-04T09:39:00.006-06:00

The team finished the summer with a bang with a double training camp last week. We left last Sunday for the Highwood River Inn on the far side of Highwood Pass. The roller skiing up the pass was amazing with wide shoulders and barely any traffic (though the cattle guards were a bit annoying). The beautiful scenery also helped keep us entertained in our longer workouts. The highlight of the trip

August Update

2008-08-23T19:37:00.003-06:00

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

Uphill Skate time trial and Shevchenko Open roller ski race

2008-08-07T19:29:00.002-06:00

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

First Post! Haig 2008

2008-07-24T09:42:00.004-06:00

Last week we went to the Haig glacier for our summer on-snow training camp. This is as good a topic as any for my first post! The Haig Glacier is located in Kananaskis Country and it is one of my favourite places. We live in three huts that are located a 45min hike below the glacier. Our gear and ski bags are flown in by helicopter, and the athletes run the 18km trail in. We live at 2200m