ERIN TRIBE: Wowwweeee

Agh! It's been way too long since I've written an update. Sorry about that one! A lot has been happening so I'll give you a run through... with photos!

Here is a video of an intensity workout we did at the end of a hard week. This was one of our last rollerski workouts before we got a HUGE dump of snow that carried us right through to December 1st when we headed to Vernon B.C.,(Silver Star) for our first set of races at Sovergien Lakes.

We stayed in a beauty condo and had perfect weather. They got even more snow on the night before the the 10km skate race. It just kept snowing, but the groomers did a great job of packing it down the best they could, and it turned out to be okay conditions.

Out on a ski, Andrea's fancy camera work.

SO much snow at the top of the mountain! Made for a beautiful ski!

I got to have a wonderful visit in Silver Star with family friends (...kind of like my second set of parents) Brad and Barb. We met in the village for hot chocolate on the brightest day of the week. It was really nice to see someone so familiar so far from home.

Leif Turned the big 2-0! We improvised on a cake with ingredients we found at the little store in the village: cake mix, jam, whipping cream from the carton, and orange zest... and Harry's lettering skills....MMMMM!

Having to duct tape my ski boots came in handy when i needed a serious wrap job for the secret santa we did as a team. Yarn, vector box, duct tape. Done. There were some pretty interesting gifts that popped up.

Pre-Christmas we raced a total of 5 races. Two in Silver Star and three in Rossland B.C., at Black Jack Nordic. As a whole the first set went pretty well. It felt great to be racing and the new sprint course at Sovergien Lakes was much better for classic. I was bumped out in the Quarters but had a lot of fun racing against the large contingent of American skiers who came for the race. On Sunday I had one of the best distance races I've had in Silver Star and I felt my body was really liking the hard course. I finished in the top 20 overall and felt happy with everything at this point in the season.

What a good-looking team we have here...squinty eyes and all!

We drove to Rossland B.C. right after the races and stayed at Red Mountain Resort. The race site was literally less than a km away from our accommodations which made everything easier on us and our coaches who rise before the sun to wax our skis.

Rossland held a "mini-tour," a set of three races back-to-back....-to-back and your starting position on the last day is a result of the first two days. The first day were skate sprints.... my FAV! All in all I really enjoy skate sprinting and the course was fun, twisty and fast! The course finished with a 180 degree left, followed by an immediate right. We skied into it FAST after coming down a long downhill. In previewing the course I managed to do a large face plant in trying to find the best line, and I found which one not to take! Luckily that was the last fall I had and at the end of the day both myself and Andrea made it to the B-final. Yayyy NDC girls!

Day #2- 5km skate. WOW what a fast day. The snow, our skis, and well, the athletes were all systems go for this race. The leaders were posting times of sub-13 minutes and the results posted milliseconds between finishers. It was all-out for the short 5km and I came in at 24th overall, top 5 Under 23.

Day #3- pursuit start 10km classic. This was a tough race. Over the first two days of racing I found myself in 18th starting the 3rd race. Everyone goes out in handicaps behind the leader ad how you cross the finish line is how you place. It started out to be slower than I'd hoped for and had to fight pretty hard on the second lap to gain back a few spots. At the end I came in 20th.

I only managed to get one picture in Rossland... Here's Harry on his 2nd lap in the classic pursuit.

Then I went home for Christmas! What a lovely Christmas it was. A few highlights: skied with my club, Team Hardwood and coach JAck Sasseville, got my FIRST pair of hockey skates (jr. size 3.5 ha!), saw my amazing friends, and hung out with a ton of family. Also.... my brother Matt came skiing! He did so well! He skied when we were kids but the guys got some great cardio!