The Typical Week

“It’s T-G-I-F day”, someone declared. “Thank God its Friday”. I thought about for a second and grinned. Fridays are great and all, but I would just assume thank God its Monday, or even Wednesday. If you’ve watched “Office Space”, or have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, you might also have had the misfortune of hearing the phrase "sounds like someone’s got a case of the Mondays." What does that even mean? For a skier like me: not much. For the most part, weekends are race days, and weekdays are training days. Switch Mondays with Fridays and I’m almost back in high school, minus the academics.

Since Mondays mark the end of a race weekend, they’re just about the best day there is (exception: birthdays, Christmas ect.).

Tuesdays are great because you’re a little more recovered from racing. Monday you are relieved, but also fatigued. Tuesday you have the whole week ahead of yourself and you’re feeling stupendous.

Wednesday you’ve got intervals to do. You work hard but you know it’s for a good reason. When it’s done, it’s done. Wednesday is satisfying because you’ve accomplished those killer workouts. Unlike Tuesday you can now look forward to not doing intervals tomorrow.

Thursday is chill. There’s no stress because you’ve still got another day before the next race. You’re on holidays. Build a snow fort.

Friday is the last of the “training days”. You’re nervous but you’re in a great mood because you’re excited to race and you’ve just built a snow fort.

Saturday you’ve got to bust your ass. You waited all week for this now you get to turn on the after-burners and hit the NOS. If you win your drag race it’s a bonus, if you lose you have another race tomorrow!

Sunday you’ve got to double down: all or nothing. If you win your drag race you get to pop champagne (yesterday you couldn’t because you had a race the next day), if you lose you have the whole next week to look forward too.

Westerns

Westerns: I was in Canmore once again. It was a relief to have the trials over with and now it is time to prepare myself for World Junior's in Turkey this February. Raph and I decided to race senior as to have better competition and experience.

The first couple days in Canmore were cold. 10 to 15 degrees warmer than home but still a good minus 30. The forecast had Friday pegged at just above minus 20 (the cut-off for races). I put on my warmest long underwear; 260 merino wool Icebreaker. The first race was a 10km classic, individual start. I went out nice and easy because I know what those hills in Canmore can do to a man. Right off the start I felt my skis were hard to kick. In testing the day before I decided to go with Brent's second pair because they were faster than my first... rookie mistake. I should have known that Brent not only out-weighs me, but is also able to kick just about any ski out there. The wax was great, but the skis were too stiff. I had to work a lot harder than I should have to stride up the hills. "Steeper than a cows face" they would say in Alberta. To make thing worse, there was a drastic change in the weather, where it warmed up 10 degrees in a little over an hour. There I was in my wool shirt and long johns, desperately trying to climb the hills as I gasped for air. When it was all over, I was two and a half minutes off Brent's winning time. My first not good race of the season.

The next day was the Sprints. It was my first sprint in the senior devision. It was another hard sprint course, with gradual uphill leading up to a steep pitch before you go back down into the stadium. My qualifier was good. I was 14th. In the quarter final I was paired up with Jesse Cockney, Colin Abbott, Steffan Lloyd, Patrick Stewart-Jones, and Etienne Richard. We were all evenly matched throughout the whole race, skiing side by side and cutting each other off the whole time. It was a mad sprint to the finish where I ended up third behind Jesse and Steffan. There was five of us within one second of each other. Unfortunately I just missed out for the "lucky loser" and finished the day in 14th, same as the qualifier. A satisfying race.

Now it was the 15km skate. It was a pursuit start where we start in accordance to where we finished in the previous two races. I had some ground to make up from the classic race. I bolted out of the start to catch Etienne, Andy, and Patrick who started just ahead of me. Before long we were skiing as a pack and reeling people in. On the last lap we had lost Etienne and Patrick and picked up Steffan and Harry. We all had Raph and John in our sites leading up to the finish. with about 500m to go I found my self with a pole between my legs and flat on my face. I got up quickly as I could but I was clearly out of the sprint by that time. It was a disappointing way to finish the race but I was happy with how I skied leading up to the fall so it was a good race all the same.

Back in rainy Quebec now. Next on my list is Easterns but right now I'm focusing on the snow fort Etienne and I are building in Camille Pepin's front yard.

World Junior Trails

It was a great weekend for almost all Yukon skiers at the races in Whistler this past weekend. The conditions were mild and sunny with the exception of Saturdays race when it dumped snow. Leading up to the races I knew I was more than capable of qualifying as long as I continued racing how I had been earlier in December.

The first race was the 20km skiathlon. Racers ski a 2.5km course 4 times in classic, switch skies, and ski another 4 laps of a different 2.5km course in skate. Raphael and I took turns leading a group of 4 other skiers in the classic portion of the race. The last lap I made a push on the big hill out of the stadium to drop some of the scragglers. It was now just me, Raph, and one other skier who managed to hang on to us. I had a really fast exchange from classic to skate and came out of the exchange zone just ahead of Raph. On the second lap of the skate portion, Raph was pulling away from Alex and I. I continued leading Alex for the rest of the 3rd lap of the skate while Raph slowly put seconds on us. Its a shame Alex and I couldn't work together more to try and close the gap. Finally, Alex tried to make a move on the last lap of skate which I was able to follow. My plan was to stay behind him going into the stadium and to out sprint him in the finish. Alex unfortunately, turned into the inside lap lane when we were finishing. When you enter on the wrong side of a v-board you have to turn back and go around the right way. Knowing this, I expected Alex to turn around in which case I could easily coast in to the finish. Instead he cut through the lap lane, to the finish lane, and we continued sprinting to the finish, where he nipped me to the line. I was mad at myself for not pushing over the last uphill and for losing the sprint but i also knew cutting the corner into the finish was not allowed and that Alex would be disqualified. Its really too bad for him because it was a great race for him and even if he had turned around, he would have place comfortably in 3rd place.

After a day of rest and skiing the sprint course, It was now the sprint day. I had a great sprint in Rossland so I was excited to sprint in Whistler. Thursday through Saturday had been sunny, hard pack conditions, but we woke up sunday to 6 inches of fresh snow. The makes skiing a lot slower. The qualifier was brutal for me. Hills I could usually one skate I was off-setting. Instead of gliding on your skis you were lifting them over deep ruts of fresh snow. In my quarter final I was once again matched up with Alex Mahoney. This Time I got the best of him in the finish shute, even though I had the outside track in the powder. Some luck for Alex this time though, he was lucky loser anyway. (The top 2 athletes in each heat qualify automatically and there are 2 "lucky losers" who post the next fastest times). My Semi final went a lot smoother where I won over Geoff Richards. Raphael had won the qualifier but told me he wouldn't challenge in the final to save himself for the following race. (otherwise I think he could have won). I started fast but blew up hard on the first up-hill. My legs were at their maximum lactate threshold. The deep powder snow never made me feel more helpless as i dragged my legs along using my upper-body. Geoff Richards who favours these conditions, was the clear leader on this day, which was more or less "last man standing". I "bonked" so hard I was sure I would be caught and finish last. It was by far the slowest final I had ever skied. some how I manage to hold on to second place. Turns out everyone was as tired as I was. Here I am lunging Ezekiel Williams By 12ms to take 2nd place.

I was completely spent after the sprint race and two 2nd place finishes still did not guarantee me a spot on the world junior team. I did everything I could to recover. I napped, drank lots of water, stretched. To my surprise, I felt not half bad in the morning. I started out nice and smooth on the 15km classic course. The hills are massive but I had great wax on my skis and was able to stride them easily. I felt like I skied really smooth right into the finish. A great race especially considering how exhausted I was just the night before. The only thing that could have made it better was if I had someone to ski with. I ended up 10th overall and 2nd junior behind Raph who got a ride off David who also had an amazing race placing 3rd overall and first U23.

The World Junior team is yet to be announced but it looks like it will be a great team. I will be joining my CNEPH teammates David Greer and Raphael Couturier as well as my yukon teammates Dahria Beatty, Janelle Greer, and Emily Nishikawa. Read about Whitehorse dominating the trials at http://www.cccski.com/Media/Haywood-Race-Report/Haywood-RACE-Report--NorAm-Live-Timing.aspx 

I leave to Canmore for Westerns tomorrow. More updates to follow

Christmas Break

After a couple weeks of hard racing it sure felt great to be home and take a break from hotels and airports... because I don't breaks from training! We still have plenty of training hours: intervals, and strength workouts to do over the holidays.

Christmas is my favourite time of year, especially Christmas morning. Having my mom, dad, and 3 sisters in one place at one time is a rare occurrence these days and something that feels pretty special... and also the presents of course.

Following Christmas We did a skate sprint qualifier time-trial in which I managed to edge out Colin by one second.

Knute 2:55
Colin  2:56
Lee     3:01
David 3:03
Jeff     3:07

That same day I took part in (and regretted taking part in) a soccer tournament. Skiing is so low impact, sliding and gliding. Soccer on the other hand is stop, go, turn, sprint, trip, fall. I was completely wrecked for 2 or 3 days afterwards. despite putting in my best effort, our team lost the tournament. It was 5 years since I played soccer and after the tournament I think i'll wait at least 5 more before I play again.

Christmas holidays is always a time for hockey. I didn't get any hockey pictures (because i was too busy playing) but i did take this video of the awesome outdoor hockey hockey rink at Mt Lorne.

And what would the holidays be If I didn't go ski-dooing at minus 25. My skidoo is the one without the windshield.

What could be more extreme? An overnight dog mushing trip, you say. Thanks to Nansen I can also check that off my list. Here we are in the dog yard.

And heres a video of the trail. At 24sec you can see Duke eat a dog bootie off the trail

This was camp. We tied off the dogs for the night

Wouldn't you know it I forgot a chair. And a man needs a chair. I fixed one up in a jiffy with a couple scraggly pine trees and an axe. no rope, nails or glue. Sturdy as a rock

And comfortable too

After a cozy sleep in a wall-tent it was time to head'r home

I snapped this beauty coming back across Mconnell Lake, Mt Lorne in the back ground.

We got back to Nansen's and played some Crokinol. We're alright.

Blogger makes my HD video look like crap but I won't let that ruin the last 6 days I have here at home. I'm glad to be healthy and looking forward to tearing up the Whistler trails for my first time.

Happy New Year!

Nonstop NorAm

My three-week race excursion started out in Canmore, Alberta. One week was to be spent getting back into the groove of skiing on snow before the first race, the Alberta Cup: a skate sprint on Saturday, and a classic distance on Sunday. From there we would shift ourselves West into the beautiful British Columbia to compete at two NorAm (North American) Cups; first in Sovereign Lake, and then in Rossland.

I left Whitehorse on November 26^th at 5am. A few Tim Horton’s sandwiches, a couple hours in YVR, a short flight to Calgary, and a long wait in YYC, I finally met up with the rest of the team whose flight was delayed. We did the “oh too familiar” drive from Calgary’s prairie in to the towering Rocky Mountains of Canmore. I rolled into Canmore around 8pm after spending 3 hours on an airplane, one and a half hours in a car, and eleven hours in an airport!

A week before the first race and I was feeling great. Unlike so may of my teammates, I had already been on snow for a couple weeks! I felt great in my intervals and was ready and eager to start racing. But 6 days rotting in a dry hotel might not have done me well. I got a cold a couple days before the race. Luckily the sneezing and sniffling subsided just in time.

The race was about 9 km. Three 3 km loops. It was an individual start meaning skiers start at separate times, in this case 30 seconds apart from one another. I was testing out some new calming breathing techniques given to me by my sport psychologist. While everyone was running around getting pumped up I stood there calm as can be, relaxed and focused. I burst out of the gate and found myself right behind Jesse Cockney who had just come around to finish his first lap. I tucked in behind him and found it surprisingly easy to stay with him. I thought of taking the lead early on but knowing the trails in Canmore, and knowing what they can do to a man, what they’ve done to me, I decided to take it slow. I could see I was gaining on Zach Holland who started 30 seconds in front of me. I finally managed to close the gap just as Cockney finished his race. With one lap to go the Canmore trails were starting to punish me. Zach managed to stay right behind me on the last hill and we finished together. Losing some time on the last lap I finished 18 seconds behind my teammate Raphael but still over 30 seconds up on 3^rd place finisher Zach Holland. I was thrilled with my second place finish, especially considering I was just getting over a cold.

The next day we drove from mountains back to prairie. We flew to Kelowna, a short flight from Calgary and to make things even easier, we were not burdened with our ski bags. I had almost forgot what it was like to walk around an airport without a 60lb bag of skis. They were driven to Sovereign Lake courtesy of Nakkertok ski club.

We drove the winding road from the warm Okanogan Valley, up the mountain to Silver Star. This would be our home for the next week. It’s always a pleasure to stay in Silver Star. There are hot tubs, leather couches and flat-screens in almost every place. And it’s a nice change from Canmore to see some natural snow! The skiing was great despite lower than usual snowfall.

The first race of the weekend was the classic sprint. In a sprint you can race up to four times. First there is a qualifier in which skiers race individually around the course. Their time is clocked and the top 30 skiers are placed into heats of 6 people, based on their times. The top two racers in a quarter-final move on to a semi-final and the top 3 racers in the semi-final move on to the final.

I was feeling completely healthy again and was just hoping I could pull off another good race like I did in Canmore.  I had had one of my few good races here last year on the same course so I was looking to repeat. I was worried that my qualifier was not going well because my grip wax was slipping on the hills. I just came up with my arms and hammered down on my poles, hard as I could. I was surprised to see I had already made up a lot of time on the skier ahead of me. When I came to the finish I had closed the 15-second gap of the skier ahead of me. Once again I finished second junior, right behind my teammate Raphael. We had a considerable lead on the third qualified junior: 8 seconds. Things were looking good. I cruised through both my quarter and semi-final finishing in first place both heats. In the final I knew my main competition was Raphael. We both double poled so hard out of the start that 100 meters into the race it was just the 2 of us alone. I looked back on a corner thinking there must have been a crash behind us. In the end I could not overtake Raphael and I settled for another second place.

The next day was 15km classic race. It was a hard course, lots of climb and little opportunity to rest on downhills. My skies were slippery in warm-up so I got the coaches to add more wax. It made them slower but with a course like this, a guy needs to be able to stride up those hills slipping as little as possible. I focused on skiing with good technique. I was getting splits during the race and on the last lap I heard I was 12 second ahead of Raphael. I was hurting on the last couple kilometers but I fought hard right to the end. I finished thinking I had finally won. When the results were posted I ended up 13 seconds behind Raphael. Another great race for me but I was getting a little tired of winning silver medals. Once again Raphael and I destroyed the field finishing 40 seconds up from the third place finisher Zach Holland.

We celebrated another great race weekend by playing a big hockey game on the pond in Silver Star. The next morning we packed the Yukon XL s and started the long journey to Rossland listening to the girls Billboard’s top ten music play list the whole way. We stayed in another luxurious house in Rossland. Aidan and I had the loft. The loft is great apart from being hottest and noisiest part of the house.

Last weekend there was 2 classic races; this weekend it was 2 skate races. When I was home in the Yukon It was between minus 20 and 40 every day. For this reason I hadn’t skate skied near as much as I had classic skied in the past month. On top of this, I have never qualified for a skate sprint. I didn’t really know what to expect. I qualified seventh open and over 11 seconds up from the next junior, a huge margin for a sprint. It couldn’t have gone better for me. I comfortably won all my heats. Maybe next time I will race in the open category along with Raphael.

The last race: a 15km mass start. It is always fun to race mass starts. It often involves race tactics and strategy whereas individual starts are usually “who can suffer the most”. The trails in Rossland are narrow. With over 70 skiers on the start line it was bound to be mayhem. There was some talk about changing the race to an individual start for just that reason. I’m glad it stayed a mass start. I was seeded 28 so I was started a few rows back. I had a surprisingly clean start and kept all my skis and poles intact. Before long I was part of a long train of skiers spread out along the trail single or double file. The problem is when your single file, one person gets “gapped” while cresting a hill and then all of a sudden there’s a breakaway up ahead. You always have to be alert and ready to make a move to close the gap when needed. I guess I was zoned-out and all of a sudden found myself a couple meters back from the pack. I jumped in with fellow Yukoner John Parry and we tried to close the gap. We skied together for a lap, not losing but not gaining time on the pack. I decided to drop back to be absorbed by the group behind me so I had energy to sprint at the end. Skiing is similar to cycling in the way skiing with a group is much easier than skiing on your own. The pleasure of a mass start race is knowing exactly where you place during your race. I was the first junior for most of the race with Raphael not far behind. With one Kilometer to go I was passed by David Palmer who was having the race of his life. I was able to stick with him on the down-hill and draft him in to the finish where I won the sprint to the line.

What an end to the early season. I am happy to be home now for the Holidays and taking some much needed rest before the World Junior Trials in Whistler this January.

Merry Christmas 

Wildlife Skiing

Dave and I spotted several grouse, a coyote, and two marten on todays ski. Here is a video of the little marten, frolicking in the snow.

my favourite part is 35 seconds in when he wags his tale against the tree

a ski for the books

Minus 30. I asked Colin, "Col, are we idiots?" who skis at minus 30? Colin and I, obviously. This wasn't one of those piddly little skis to Harvey's Hut and back either. In fact, Colin and I agreed it was one of the top ten "epic skis" we've done. This time however, it was pleasant, unlike some of those other epic, but miserable skis.

We started out skiing with Dave and John along. Not far into the ski we spotted a grouse. It exploded upwards and landed in a tree, not 15 yards away. Colin took advantage of the opportunity.

A grouse (field dressed, wings attached) fits perfectly into the upper portion or your drink belt. We carried on down the trail to where we saw our second grouse. It was on a cut-bank. The grouse like cut-banks because it provides them with easy access to the fine gravel they need to digest their food. Coming down a hill with speed i saw the grouse up ahead. I made a spur of the moment decision to try to decapitate it with my pole. Close enough! the grouse was left flopping around in the snow and I made quick work of it. Col and I were now 2 for 2 with the grouse. I still cannot believe it. It could very well be the first grouse killed by a Swix CT1... only in Yukon! Too bad i didn't get it on camera.

Soon after, Col and I parted ways with Dave and John. For some reason they didn't want to ski the accent trail at -30... wimps. Here is a picture of colin climbing Mt Mac.

Half way up and theres already quite the view

We finally made it to the Fraser Loop. 

And just so you see how much snow is up there....

and then Colin started to show off

...and regretted showing off

too bad all I had with me was my dinky little phone camera!

At this point i was beginning to "bonk". The only thing keeping me going was the windchill. On the Descent we were flying down the mountain at 50km an hour. Add that to the -30 air temperature and you have a windchill of minus 50! I told Colin, "Col, we are idiots."

When we finally reached the Gravel Pits we found our selves on freshly groomed trails once again (Thanks Rudy Sudrich). Tired, cold and hungry, Colin and I hammered back to the chalet from the Gravel Pits in only 27 minutes to finish off our 3 hour trek. Here we are at the finish.

We jumped straight into the sauna afterwards and enjoyed a meal of spruce grouse late in the afternoon.

The rest of my day was spent chopping wood with fellow wood-chopper Fabian Brook. 2 cords in 2 hours. not bad for a couple of light weight cross-country skiers.