What was that? SNOW in the title? Yessssireee! We got a whopping 25cm of snow at Lappe and it came just in time to replace a scheduled distance rollerski with a classic ski! It was heavy snow however it packed nicely (backcountry style - no grooming) and the temps stayed below zero all day. Looks like we've got ourselves a beautiful early ski season here in Tbay. I'M SO EXCITED!!! I've had a lot to be excited about these last 2 weeks so I'll write about my list in reverse chronological order.
Skiing on Sunday was preceded by our annual NordicFest on Saturday. It actually began snowing on Saturday which set a good mood for our fabulous and very generous ski community in attendance. We had Adam Kates MC-ing the evening which helped mix it up a bit. The silent and live auctions went over well and I think we managed to raise some serious dollars! This is our most important fundraiser of the year and I can't thank everyone enough who attended and extended their wallets to seriously help us out. My Dad also came down for the event and it was great to see him and hangout.
Another debut item we've put out this year with the headway of my Dad, Keith, are stainless steel ornaments/decorations. We had these snowflakes designed and produced in Ontario as a specific and unique fundraiser for our team. They are laser cut and etched with a skier and are %100 unique. I've included pictures so you can see how cool they are! The 3-dimensional snowflake can be put on the tree, hung in a window and enjoyed all throughout the year. Even better...they are only $15. They are delivered flat with instructions for bending. If you are interested (as they make great Christmas gifts) please let me know here: etribexc@gmail.com
Before Folding
An example of its beauty
As I mentioned in my last post we attended a camp at a downhill resort in Lutsen, Minnesota. It was a four day camp with an intensity and volume focus which made for a tough one. I'd call it a good-tough though since we were able to really realize as a team how great of shape we are in. Ski club Big Thunder and the Lakehead Varisty team were there as well which made for a fun time-trial based workout on Saturday. We climbed the hill from the highway to the ski village three times. The first interval was mass start classic, the second a reverse pursuit in skate and the last one a normal pursuit (handicapped starts based on results from the previous interval) also in skate. The course lasted about 10 minutes and had three distinct pitches built-in to the already uphill climb. At the end of the day we stuck it to the pavement and blasted the hill! I don't know how else to describe all the stellar performances from both the guys and gals. It felt like a full race day as I cooled down by going up the hill one more time... much slower of course. I find that level of tiredness has a satisfactory feeling. All I wanted to do was take a nap and eat lunch but my insides were beaming with feelings of the race season and post intensity mash-up. It's getting so close...
....so we did intervals again on the Sunday. We endured 5 x 6min zone 3/zone 4 ski striding up one of the downhill runs to complete a "race-simulation" weekend. A long rollerski on Monday completed the block and we headed home from the Americas. The only pictures I managed to take were of Andrea and I skiing during an afternoon workout. Enjoy!
skiing off into the sunset. There were 8 miles- yes miles- of paved double wide paths along the highway which left us traffic and worry free.
uhh... sorta flexing our muscles haha
I'm off to North Bay this weekend to attend the NOD camp with Chris and Eric. It sounds like a fun line-up of training and I'll be home on Sunday. Hopefully this early snow fall we've had will stick around for when I get back. We skied a beautiful ski at Kamview Nordic Trails yesterday and it seems promising. Cross your fingers for me!
Erin
