Back Track

Once again I've neglected to actually post the blogs I've been writing so here is a condensed version with lots of pictures and fun to keep you interested!

NorAm Opener: Sovereign Lakes: It happened! The first races of the season are raced and out of the way. I say out of the way because you never know how they'll go or how you will feel and you just have to go out and race.  I don't disregard these races or put any less emphasis on preparing for them and racing my hardest, but come March, these aren't usually the races that stick out in my mind as any measure of the season. But alas, it was a solid weekend. I didn't feel shiny and overly fast but I'm really happy with the way I'm beginning to ski in classical style and the courses here at Sovereign have become second nature as we've raced the exact ones so many time. 

Day 1- 1200m Classic Sprints - I started out feeling strong and skied relaxed and smooth up the first climb out of the stadium. My skis were feeling fast and took me around the course at what felt like a decent speed. I had a small slip up on the final climb which probably ate up a few seconds and I came to the finish line at 15th. Starting the heats I knew I would most likely have to finish in the top two to advance since the Lucky Loser spot (top 2 3rd place finishers from the quarterfinal heats) was determined by bib number and my bib was a little on the low side for easy advancement as a LL. I  had a good start and a good lane around the course. One or two people went down, I'm not exactly sure how many, but I lost a little bit of momentum avoiding the crash. By the last 100m I kind of ran out of juice and didn't advance to the semis. For a classic sprint it wasn't too bad of a start.

Qualifier for 1200m sprint- Thanks to Jesse Winter for the great race photos. He took a bunch from the day. Go here to check them out: www.jessewinterphotography.com

Quarter-final heat, I'm to short one in the middle.

My Uncle Bob andAuntie Bev drove up from Salmon Arm to watch the races!

10km Classic- This race was hard and great all at the same time. I started out at a good pace and worked to keep everything in order. Keeping my technique in check was a main focus for me for this race. I went though periods of feeling really great and really crappy but it turned out to be a decent race. Overall nothing special but it felt like a good start.  

On to Rossland, B.C. we go...

Although the mountain was closed we had plenty of snow to run our xc races. I'm a fan of the trails at Blackjack Nordic with the layout of the courses and flowing trails. 

Skate Sprint: My legs felt a bit heavy all day. I skied through the heats and felt like I was holding on but managed to ski to the B-final. Time for some serious recovery action for the afternoon...

10km Skate: YAYYYY! FINALLY! I found something I was looking for and new was in there somewhere but had trouble spitting out.  I had a really really great race. I felt great from the moment I put on my warm up skis.  It was a mass start and my seeding in distance put me in the 3rd row to start so I had a lot of racers to ski through to get to the front. The nature of the course (50m, uphill,downhill,uphill) made for a crammed start and luckily everyone stayed calm for the first few kms. Mass starts can get strung out fairly quickly on a course like this. I started in 16th and finished in 11th. Regardless of the placing I had a great race and felt a lot of quality training and technique coming through. Excellent. 

Rossland was a good weekend for the whole team as well with a bunch of top 10s and top 5s. We're starting to improve every weekend. Then It was home for Christmas...

 Santa Showed up in the backyard.....

 We had NO snow at home so when we finally got a dusting we headed to the golf course. I had to ski in my Mom's old boots on a pair of old fischers with only one bumper but hey, we were skiing! I've never golfed on the course but finally saw all 18 holes!

 And then we got dumped on. It was a treat to be able to ski at Hardwood before we left. 

Our annual Christmas party was held at my house this year. Having all of my friends from home in one room is rare so we always opt for the family photo. Great people right here and always supportive!

I'll end the update here and continue (yes I ACTUALLY will) in a new one this afternoon. Right now we are in Canmore for Canadian Westerns but it's been so cold, -37 C right now, that we had to delay leaving the house.  So hopefully we get out today. 

Later!

Erin

So it Begins....

We've arrived! ... Last Wednesday. As usual Silver Star, B.C. has been very good to us. The sky is blue and the temp has been sitting around a very bearable -5ish. We left snowless Thunder Bay to begin an altitude camp at this ski paradise and resort. I have new skis to test and no exams to worry about so I've been looking forward to this trip for a while. I was able to write both of my final exams before leaving which took a nice little weight off my shoulders. It all begins now, 4 weeks until I'm back in Thunder Bay and only a bit shy of 3 weeks until I'm home for Christmas. 

 A beautiful sunset at about 4:30pm. Not being aware of the early sunset left Alannah, myself and an afternoon workout out in the dark. Luckily we know the trails pretty well and made it back A-O-KAY. It's like this every night! It makes me want to move to the mountains sometimes.

We skied to the summit of Silver Star Mountain and whooooooo-weeee, what a view. It doesn't get old. Ever. The great part too is that you get to ski down the same way you came up and work on those downhill skills. It gets a bit chilly but it's so much fun!

We substituted the Alberta Cup races happening last weekend for a time trial here at Sovereign Lake where we were able to ski the exact course we will be racing this coming weekend. It has been quite a few years since a classic distance race had been on the calendar at Sovereign and that makes for an all-classic race weekend. Classic sprints Saturday and 10km Classic individual start on Sunday. I'm actually looking forward to the classic distance because the course skis really well and is a ton of fun. I've had a bit more success in skate distance races but I'm working like heck on that classic so I have to start somewhere! I'm also looking forward to having my Auntie Bev and Uncle Bob come up to watch the races on Saturday. It's great when family from other parts of the country have to opportunity to come watch me race. It feels a bit more like home.

We spent yesterday at lower altitude in Vernon which provided a nice break and an opportunity for everyone to shop for their annual Secret Santa gift. Last year my teammates got pretty inventive so I'm curious to see what $10 and a Liquidation World will get us this year. Update on that to follow later this week!

So now we prepare. Prepare for the first races of the season. The TT helped get the cobwebs out but you never know how the first race with a real bib on will go. It's fast approaching and I'm getting excited! Results can be found on www.zone4.ca this weekend.

Hopefully I'll have more photos up soon.

Nap time,

Erin

And We Worry About Getting OLD

This is going to be random and short but what the heck, here you go. Jay Leno had a 100 year old woman, Dorothy, on the Tonight Show. Watch this:

"Think positive and exercise every day" - Dorothy.

I have to say, I saw this video and immediately thought of  both of my Grandmothers. I've picked up a lot of insight over the years from their light-heartedness and positivity about life and have absolutely admired their sense of humour since I was young (by this standard I still am hehe). Watching this reminded me that we have a long time to live our lives and to enjoy what you're doing now. So that's what I'm working on. Oh, and don't abuse your credit card!

Later
Erin

"We Are Always Running for the Thrill of It"

To cap off the Europe glacier camp I've made a video of the three weeks all squashed into 5 minutes. I composed most of it on the flight back but ended up being a little slow on the finishing touches. If you didn't see the video from the Haig Glacier camp you can find that too on my YouTube page (eetribe). Check it out:




Today, I'm taking a break after returning from a 5 day camp just over the boarder in Lutsen, MN. A lot of intensity, rollerskiing, trail running and delicious dinner creations made for a successful camp.

We have an important event coming up this Friday called Nordic Fest. It's our biggest fund-raiser of the year and we have some great auction items lined up! I wanted to take this opportunity to say a great big thank-you(!!!) to Judi Fenton for donating a one-of-a-kind, hand-made quilt. It's a beautiful creation and sure to be a success.

I'm training in Thunder Bay until the end of November and then we head out west to Silver Star, BC to begin racing. I'll try to take some pictures over the next little while and hopefully they will include early skiing in Thunder Bay. We were skiing as of November 13th last year, so I'm holding my breath slightly, in hopes of an early snowfall.

Off to conquer "the list" ... of things to do today. Gotta love rest days for that!

Later!
E.

Helloooo Stelvio

So from the last post I left you in Val Senales when we headed to Stelvio. Let me tell you about Stelvio:

The road to get there is insane. There are 60 switch backs that take a car with a lot of guts and a driver with a lot of skill. Luckily, we had the latter... and a fully loaded car. We made it up the pass but it was quite the experience. I've never been on a road like this before. It is the highest paved road in the Eastern Alps at 2757m. We couldn't help but cheer a little bit when we made it to the top. The views were unreal...

We managed to see close to 10 days straight of sun between Val Senales and Stelvio. I think I've almost got my summer tan back, on my face, with a bit of the reverse raccoon happening. The skiing and layout of the loop might have been one of the best I've ever experienced. Somehow the track stayed balmer hard and the skating still firm late into the morning. Usually we see it all breakdown and become really mushy but it held up. It was a trek to get to the "real" xc and I was seriously skeptical of the t-bar we had to take (after 2 gondolas to reach the glacier). I think I insisted multiple times that we ask someone if we were to just ski on the two small loops at the base of the chairlift (turns out one was being used for an ice/snow driving course of some sort- yes there were cars driving up there at 3300m), but Eric insisted back that we take the t-bar to the top of the downhill runs. I managed to get a hold of a bar behind a few athletes from the Spanish team and followed their lead since they had been here already. Turns out I'm a natural! haha! We also got to ski down to the gondola at the end of each day. Our skis aren't made for the speed of a straight downhill run and the lack of edges made it tricky but it was so much fun. Here are a few pictures up top the glacier:

It's hard not to be happy up here

Waiting to take gondola one, I looked out the hole in the side of a building and thought it looked like it could be a picture on a wall...syke! It's the real deal.

Working on that infamous classical technique

Well looky here, look at us go.

A few shots from the day trip to Moreno:

Wasting time as the group reassembled to head to Stelvio. Look at that vetical!

My attempt to fit in in Italia land

More to come on Stelvio in the next days!

E.

Val Senales, Italy

Okay so I know I promised pictures about a week ago however they take forever to load so it wasn't as lickity-split to post them as usual. Past the excuses, here is the trip so far... in pictures!

Classic airplane wing shot on the long haul from Pearson to Munich. I love flying into the sun for only on reason, it's so pretty! I'm not a fan of the fact that it means we got jipped on a nights sleep and now have to stay awake for another 12 hours. I managed to stay healthy on the way over...something I've had trouble with in the past.

Arriving in Val Senales was great. We stayed at a great little hotel called Hotel Piccolo and we were spoiled with the food and facilities. Italian Mama took care of us with great cappuccinos, espressos and home made pasta. The gondola was 30 feet from our door step and mountains all around us made for great afternoon workouts. This scene got me, like this gate it really going to keep us out. Maybe in the winter with snow...

Making friends! They paint the goat's back here for whatever reason and they were so friendly haha

The guys getting in some extra upper-body on a warm up run before a strength workout

The ski site at Val Senales. We had to hike down to the 3km long trail, and then take the chair lift up. We stood out like soar thumbs with our "skinny skis" and backpacks on the way up. Not to mention the days when we had two pairs of skis... no one would ride the chair with us! For the most part we had the xc track to ourselves that week.

A lovely view from my balcony in Val Senales

Team shot! Showing off our Rudy Project helmets and glasses. We went down the hill a bit to Plaus for a little rollerski altitude break one afternoon and got in some sprints.

This might be my favourite shot of the whole trip so far... Goooooo Jimmy! Please click to enlarge.

Getting buff.

Well, That pretty much sums up Val Senales. Next we took a rest day and stopped in Moreno on our was to Passe del Stelvio. I have documented the day and drive and will update you on that soon. I've decided to break down the posts since there are days here in Stelvio that deserve a post all on their own... ooo the anticipation...

That's it for now!

Eeeeeeee.

...And by Austria I meant Italy

So here's the good news: I'm in Italy! A last minute change of plans found us in Val Senales, Italy, on the very northern border of Italy.  We were scheduled to go to the Dachstien Glacier in Austria however their lack of snow brought us to Italy for 3 weeks instead. The internet isn't great so I'm making this short and I'll try for a picture tomorrow... right now I'm in our hotel bar (where I'm paying 12euro for 3 hours of internet- crazy, I know- and making it last 7 days) and it is slowly filling with Italians as they watch the big screen that just dropped down for the soccer game. It's all very loud as they shout at the screens. Exciting! The food is insanely amazing and the sky has been blue from day one. It is very downhill oriented up on the glacier and we take the chairlift back up to the gondola which takes us down to the hotel. We get many bazar stares... which is weird since xc skiing is very popular on this side of the world. Anyways, I'll update again soon! We are moving to a different glacier on Monday for a week and then back here for the last week. Details to follow!

Cio! or Cia? or...? haha

Erin

Try-a-tri

...And that's not just me being clever with the title, it was the actual name of the event I raced in Parry Sound at the very end of August. My brother and I both competed in the Bobby Ore Parry Sound Triathlon, however Matt stepped up to do the FULL triathlon for the second time this summer. Me?..well I just wanted a little sample of the distances seeing as I'm not the floating type which means I'm not the swimming type. A little 350m swim was perfect for me! I'm still not a fan of the goggle-swimcap look on myself and avoided putting them on as long as possible seeing as my Mom is always everywhere with the camera. We had the best cheering squad out there, my Mom, Dad, Grandma, Aunt Sue, and Danielle came out to cheer us on! Check out this video Matt made of the event....

Note: Don't try to put on your shirt AFTER you put on your helmet. It won't work out.


The Tribe's go a Tri-ing!! from Matt Tribe on Vimeo.

It was a wonderful weekend stop at my Aunt Sue's cottage just outside Parry Sound before heading to the Barrie, ON area for the Southern Ontario Training Camp that we participated in. The weather was glorious and Matt and I took advantage of it and had some fun "dock diving." It wouldn't have worked out so well if it weren't for Matt's girlfriend, Danielle, being an ace with the camera! Thanks!

Tandem backwards jumping. It took me a little while to be convinced that it wouldn't hurt when I hit the water. Hence the face!

A few years of diving lessons when I was younger are now coming in handy! I Be Super Woman.

I love summer!

It's always fun to compete in different sports other than skiing to see how my athletic abilities can be tested and transferred. I don't think I'll be switching sports anytime soon but I can see myself trying a triathlon again.

Later!

Erin

Wowwweeee….. a whole summer has flown by and all of a sudden it’s September. I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but as soon as September 1^st hits Thunder Bay it seems to think summer is over and I wake up feeling like the heat needs to be turned on in my house. Luckily our friend, Mr. Sun, is still warm when he’s around but I've already experienced that first rollerski in the rain and cold. I compromised with ¾ length tights since I’m not ready to commit to full-length tights and a jacket for training… not yet.

It’s been a wonderful summer. Not just the weather, but the training, travel and opportunity to catch up with friends and family along the way. We completed a number of training camps, all with different focuses and training benefits. I feel that this summer had a bit of a different flavor to it. It’s hard to pin-point exactly what that means, but I think it’s because I got the chance to see my family (in and out of town) a lot more. I also worked on average 4 days a week this summer, which kept me busy and I still found time to gather some sort of tan on my Grandparent’s dock at Trout Lake on afternoons and rest days. Maybe, just maybe, my more favorable time management skills are coming back from the days I was in school full time – yes Mom, your dreams can come true! Either way, heading into my 3^rd season with NDC I think Thunder Bay is feeling like home as it did once upon a time 10 years ago. That’s not to say I can’t wait to visit home in October, even if it’s only going to be for 2 days.

Since it really has been 4 months since I’ve said hello (- er, yah I still procrastinate sometimes haha) I thought I’d throw in a TON of pictures to help explain my fab summer. We hung out in Thunder Bay, what felt like more than usual, but I think that can be contributed to the timing of our Canmore, AB and Southern Ontario training camps that made this home base actually feel like home this summer. We literally squeezed the summer calendar to August 31^st with travel and then ran this last training block through to Sunday, Sept 4^th. And now our schedules begin to change a bit… school… YES SCHOOL!... continuing to work, and then I’m off on a plane again. More on that later. Now to the good stuff…

The real reason I’ve been putting off updating my blog is because … DUN-DU-DUHHHHH…. A VIDEO. I purchased a small, handheld, pocket-size, no fuss 3-button Flip HD video camera in an attempt to give everyone a better insight to our training camps. And I’ve been really impressed with the picture quality and simplicity of it. Works for me! And although there isn’t any actual skiing in the video, which I still find weird, it’s a good look at one of our biggest training weeks of the year and where we spend it. On a rock. Literally. So here is the big debut… (I’m still getting the hang of this editing thing but a HUGE thanks to my Brother Bear and his patience in teaching me what imovie has to offer).

More Pictures for yer' there liking:

I went in a mountain bike race at my home club Hardwood Ski and Bike in the spring when I was home. I hadn't raced on a bike in well over a year but it went pretty well! Other than this picture of me taking a detour back to the course when I made a wrong turn. Oops!

My brother also raced, killed it, of course. Here we are in his element... he's the big time rider in the fam. Oh, did I mention he's going to be a chiropractor? That's my big bro!

My Mom and I out the day before I decided to do the race. This was the first ride of the year... the race was the second.

In July my parents came to Thunder Bay for a visit and my Mom and I went to Centennial Park for some exercise. The tractors at Centennial are from the company my Grandpa used to run in town a long time ago. I didn't actually know this until this trip with my Mom.

Mixed in here: Our recent trip to the Haig Glacier where we had CSC physiologist Rob Rupf come up with us to do all of our monitoring throughout the week. He ran a bunch of tests throughout the week in the mornings, extended blood analysis, lactates while skiing, and the list goes on! It was great to have him as part of our team.

SunRISE... yes rise... the joys of early morning washroom breaks on the Haig Glacier.

Back to boot camp: Staying bright and alive.

LSSD camp held by Ontario and Big Thunder Nordic. Our team did an outreach week at this camp and trained along side 60 or so enthused athletes from across Ontario. Here the girls are getting a skate rollerski technique session.

The full team at boot camp!

That's all for now! I've got more coming in the next few days so check back!

Erin

It's Rest Time!

The season is finito. Alll done. We spend 11 months of the year working towards our yearly goals, racing, traveling and then it feels like everything just stops. When the infamous, "last race" of the season is complete there is as sense of okay.... now what? Rest. Spring rest is different from a normal rest day. It's the first time in many, many months that there will be more than 1 or 2 rest days in a row. Try 2 weeks, at least. There might be a little spring skiing in there, or an attempt to get the running legs back, but for the most part we sleep in, try not to stay up too late (sometimes it hard with this different type of 'freedom'- knowing you don't have to get up in the AM and put in a solid workout), eat the occasional fast food, catch up with friends and getting out of town. So that's where I am, sitting at my parent's kitchen table watching the fresh snow melt. Spring tricks us often with these snow teasers, and part of me feels bad that I'm not excited that it's accumulating. I think aweee crap, snow, leave us alone! These thoughts tells me I'm in need of this rest period. For the first time ever, I will be following the trend of going somewhere warm in the spring. It seems to be the thing to do for winter athletes. I'll be heading to Florida with two of my girlfriends and I just want to lay on the beach. I'm so pumped to start the summer with a tan that doesn't turn white half way up my legs and arms. I'll save the shorts and tee-shirts tans for later...

I guess I'm about two sets of races behind. The last two of the season were Nationals in Canmore, Alberta and SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. We headed off to Nationals and things didn't go exactly as planned. After a small medical blunder I ended up only racing the sprints and the 30km. I was bummed I missed out on the 5km skate, but I was happy to be racing by the end of the week. The classic sprints were O-kay. Not having done a whole lot during the week left me a little stale, so it took me half of the qualifier to get into it. However, when the race is only 3 minutes long, there isn't any time to waste. I qualified 18th. Blahhh. But anything can happen right!? Well, it did. I got slightly tangled up in my quarter final and came around 3rd in the heat. My bib wasn't high enough to qualify me for a lucky loser spot, so I was the "unlucky" loser that day. Oh well. Teammate Andrea made it to the B-final and some of the guys were up there as well. That's the thing I like about being on a wicked team. Even if I have a bad day, my sorrow don't last too long since usually there is somebody else's result to get excited about!

The 30km skate was my first ever. I've done a classic 30 but not a skate. I was pumped it was skate since I felt I had a better chance to stay with the lead pack longer than in classic. Everyone went out at a good pace and things were looking good. We got to the first long flat section of the course at about 5 km and everyone slowly spread out. I skied the whole race with one other girl and we pulled eachother along. We were slowly catching the group of 3 ahead of us but could only get one girl in the end. On the last 3km I began to die. It was a different die-hard than the normal "my legs are burning so bad. " In a 30km it's like an internal death. haha this sounds so horrible. It's really not, it's just racing. My energy stores are being depleted to a different extent compared to a 10km or even 15km race. My body had one pace and I could only work with that. Overall it was a great race. I didn't mess up my feeds and learned a few things about pacing and skiing relaxed and steady. You have to be brave too. It's one of those times where if you go out too hard, you will pay for it later. But at the same time, if you go the pace you like and get detached... you may never see them again until the finish line.

Andrea Dupont and I in the 30km

Nordic Centre in Canmore, Alberta

Taking a feed in the 30km

My Aunt Sue came out to cheer me on!

My parents came out for the week and helped a big bundle with waxing and race support for our team. It was great having them there. My Mom and I went for a few slow skis when I wasn't racing and that helped keep my mind off the DNS (Did Not Start-I get this on the results page instead of a time and place) that would follow. My Dad slaved in the wax room with Eric, Timo and Lisa to give us, as always, fast skis. Good thing he's a morning person! My Dad has always been one for getting up super early to wax skis for which ever team I'm on. No complaints. Thanks Dad!

Half the team hung out in Canmore for a week before heading to SuperTour Finals from there. It was along 15 hour drive, but nothing a little book-on-tape and good tunes and company can't fix. Sun Valley was cool place, higher in altitude as well. We did 4 races in the mini-tour, including a hill climb on the final day. My first ever. By hill climb I mean, go to a downhill resort and race UP a ski run. Finish at the top of the lift, fall over, done... Here are some picture of beautiful Sun Valley:

Sunny Day for a drive.

A view from the top Dollar Mountain after the hill climb.

A view of the run we went up. It's hard to capture just how steep it was. We got to ski back down after the race!

YAYYY we did it!!

Emily, myself and Alysson after the sprints. It was sooo warm, complete with sunburns.

The ski area was wide open with virtually no trees. All courses under 3.5km were visible.

That's all for now, the new team will named shortly and then we will be back into training on May 1st.

Later!