Have You Ever Had a Dream?

Gaahhh, this is what goal setting is all about. Getting it out! Sometimes it's the toughest part of a sport to communicate with the people around you. It's not a matter of whether the listener actually cares what they are or not, or if they are achievable... it's the fact that you want them enough and believe in them enough as the person who is labeled to achieve them, to share them with someone.



I've been asked this question flat out more times this year than I can remember in a short period of time. "So, Erin, What are your goals for this year?"  It's usually in friendly conversation by family members, coaches from around the province, people in the sport from all different angles and each time, in my head I'm a little stunned. To everyone else outside of your head it's a very normal question. Ask an athlete and they clam up like the end of the world could be induced by answering it. It can be a weird attitude (and don't pretend you're not territorial about it in some way), that you don't wish were actually the case in feeling. That onus that there is no turning back once you spit, stutter or state it out is the part where most people trip up. Everyone will almost always answer, and I always do because I've learned its an integral part of the process, but I still catch myself thinking, should I tell them all of it? I keep it short and sweet. The statement piece of the goal is all they really need to hear at the moment. WHY is a whole other story. And that's a whole other question. It's really the most important part. So thank you to each person who has asked me, I think you should know how much you're helping me.

As one moves up the categories there are natural goals that come along. You are a Junior so that means your goal should be to make World Juniors. Well guess what, it most definitely was my goal but would I have really been ready to go there and compete? Probably not. And that's okay that I didn't know that until after. That's just my personal path but at the end of the day there has to be substance behind your goals. I'm not telling you NOT to dream. Dream big and dream frequently, but know why and where the goal is coming from. It will turn out to be much more powerful. Those scary goals can be the hardest ones to set, and those are the ones that when they come up, I pay the most attention to. Why is this such a big monster to me? What am I afraid of? Time to find some answers!

So I encourage you to set all the goals you want. But in the end, learn how to talk about them. I promise the world won't end.

...YOU WILL FEEL LIKE THIS, FLAMES AND AALLLLLL

http://photobucket.com/images/superwoman+cartoon/

Later!

Erin.

Olympic Games

This video popped up on facebook and of all the ways to share it there wasn't a blogger option. So I leave you with this link and I ask you to watch the video. It's about 4 minutes long (sooo long, I know) but please listen closely to Brian Williams of CTV as he states his respectable perspective to us:

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/videos/index.html

The video is called "A Final Goodbye." Tomorrow it may not be the first video on the roster but I hope you find it.

Mr. Williams states, "We do live in a real world...", "but in their best, purest form, the Olympics should be about the enthusiasm and the dreams of youth. They are about hard work and setting goals. They are about representing your country in the best possible way you can, but most of all ladies and gentleman, they are about the athletes."

I could watch the Olympics everyday for a whole year. What is so special about the Olympic period for me is that the world is exposed to the secret life of sport. I say secret because in order to reach this event or anything close to its caliber, these athletes have to work themselves not only during the competition, but every day. Every single day has a moment, or most likely period, dedicated to self improvement. The wonders of these sports will continue on beyond, as they did before as well, the 2 week period that most people choose to pay the most attention to. I often get the question after explaining that I'm a cross-country ski racer, "So do you want to go to the Olympics?" Yes, of course! But it's not about a single event for me. Athletics, for me, is about personal excellence. It boils down to it every time. Strip away any possible fame, money, endorsement, pride, lifestyle and you will see that it's about being better than you were yesterday. To me that sounds selfish. But what is beautifully crafted from sport is the ability to push oneself beyond limits unknown. The ability to recognize and understand an element of the human body and mind that is so unique to each human being. No single human being is the same.  So, therefore, no athlete is the same. And finally, you won't know what exists for you unless you explore it.

Brian Williams nails it on the head beautifully. The Olympics is an opportunity for the world to see how the odd life of an athlete works.  The montage of emotional video that follows Mr. William's goodbye, matched with the perfect "believe in yourself"-type song, demonstrates athletes who have embodied sport to its in-the-moment capacity through years of hard work. What I find interesting about the images is the amount of tears. A lot of the clips, if taken out of context, could be taken for happy or sad moments. And sometimes it's hard to tell. What I think is happening is the disbelief, or coming of belief that, "that just happened." When I see someone achieving excellence in something they are good at, it's one of the best feelings. It sounds funny and kind of dramatic, but it's something that always pops out as if I'm experiencing what they are. That is how I know I'm doing the right things with this period of my life.

This post is an attempt to sum up the side of the Olympics that isn't about the cameras and the flashy suits. There is so much that can be said about Canada's amazing, bright and talented athletes but for whatever reason I've been compelled to tell you about my perspective of sport. It's a little more expressive than I usually care to write for but I guess this is about the hope that I have for everyone. That they find something in their life, whether it be sport, music, education, travel, a career or even basket-weaving that they care enough about to pour themselves into in order to learn something about themselves. It's a timeless and invaluable experience that I am truly thankful and privileged to be experiencing at a young age. It just so happened to be on a pair of skis.

"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

Erin

Here's What's Up in June

Despite the amount of rain Thunder Bay has had in the past few weeks training has been a hoot. We've only actually had to train in the rain a few times and other than that the cats and dogs seem to come down in the evening. Rain means two things: flooding, and bugs. Thunder Bay had an unfortunate flooding happen in the East end and the city's been working to clean it up. It messed up the roads, people's homes and their possessions. Our house was lucky enough to dodge any water in the basement  but I've felt so bad for the people who are having to deal with this mess.  Our guys came up to a giant hole in the road on a ride one day:

Photo Credit: Chronicle Journal

We've been pulling out some nice long hours and I'm surprised sometimes at how well my body handles multiple long days and how well I've been able to recover so far. One of the most difficult things about big volume is not the actual doing of the work, but making sure my body is recovering from day to day and that I'm getting enough sleep. Thank goodness I work in the evenings so I can nap most days! I'm not so oblivious to the sweet life I've been leading haha, I'm like a 3 year old... Up in the morning, nap in the afternoon. 

 Classic watch shot haha. I've also been unintentionally getting bad tan lines under this massive wrist piece. I tend to wear a lot of bracelets on my left arm now.

We've been taking advantage of the Quitmet Canyon 3km uphill. A big workout calls for a big sandwich.

Here is a short clip of a double pole start skate sprint. I'm in the white on the inside and Alannah is in blue. If you haven't seen rollerskiing before this is what we use to train as specifically as possible without snow.  But we don't always hammer haha

We have a few more days in this training block and then come Tuesday we have a bunch of rest days to soak in all the training. After that we will take part in the LSSD Ontario divisional camp here in Thunder Bay.

All for now!
Erin

Bend Oregon Recap and Beyooooond!

 I’m on my way back to Toronto for one final visit with the fam, on my way through to Thunder Bay, which conveniently falls on my Mom’s Birthday! My wonderfully, awesome brother is picking me up from the airport at midnight in the middle of his exam period…. You’re the best! Right now I just can’t wait to go to bed. It’s been a full on day of sitting and people watching as there isn’t much else to do in airports. You should check out my friend Jennie Bender’s blog post about traveling in airports, it’s pretty hilarious and yet so true!HERE

By the time I reached Atlanta, Georgia (this means I basically flew across the Americas), everything became rather humorous. I noticed, from my middle seat, on the decent into Atlanta,  the amount of trees still standing. It looked like a giant field of broccoli the whole way down, even amongst the residential areas. I thought it would be much more urban but it turns out Atlanta likes it’s trees. Good on you Atlanta.  Once we landed and the seatbelt sign was turned off I noticed I had about 15 minutes to catch my connection. This was just as the flight attendant starts explaining how huge the airport is and to view the screens to find your concourse as they just opened up a new wing of the airport. Yippeeeee. Luckily, there was a tram to take me across the airport to catch the flight. I was that antsy person skipping stairs on the escalator with multiple “excuse me’s” and speed walking the moving sidewalks. As I finished rushing over to the gate and working up a good case of the travel sweats (eww) I realized boarding was an hour before take off. Que the Smoothie King. I went to get a smoothie from a place that looked like Booster Juice, but instead landed myself at “The Smoothie King” and turns out in Atlanta the large looks a lot like this:

I never get a large, in anything, what was I thinking? Note to self, read fine print to realize how big 20oz of orange juice, bananas and mangos really are. It’s bigger than my head. I drank the whole thing.  It was delicious.

But enough about my travels, Bend was great. Really, a sweet camp with a great group, quality training and a lot of laughs. I promise to just load up on pictures now....

It was great to see my good friend and Team Hardwood Alumni Alana, now a member of the AWCA.

One day Michael had REALLY slow skis and I had REALLY REALLY fast skis so we were able to catch a ski together on a very nice day. Michael here soaking up the greatness. Thank you Fischer for making uber fast zeros.

Skiers in the morning, Sluggers by the afternoon. Here’s Emily Nishikawa killing it at bat. “That’s a nice slice” or something like that. I realized this was my first ever baseball game. I think I did okay… I made contact with the ball! But also stopped a ball with my shin. Ouch!

One day it snowed forever! A one-armed Kate managed to make a snowman to “guard” the boys' ride home.

Snow snow snow. It snowed aaallll day.

Oh, and day one, we broke a window. We had good intentions when we got locked out but it didn't turn out so well. Quick fix.

My first SUN DOG! I have never seen or heard of it before but was quickly educated after I called it and upside-down rainbow. A pretty cool site.

 View from one of our houses.

Coffee at Thump, a local coffee shop. MMMMM.Wishes are written and hung throughout Thump.

We finished off the camp with a Beck concert at the downtown Amphitheater. Annika got a prime view.

Enjoying Beck!

Thanks to the Alberta World Cup Academy for taking me on this last week! Now to get back to Thunder Bay and put in a few solid weeks of training with the new 2012/2013 NDC team. Can’t wait to see everyone! Next we will take part in the LSSD training camp held in Thunder Bay.  Hopefully I’ll have some adventure before then. Like redecorating me room…..? What?

Erin.

A Jumbalia Of Sorts

This post will be a bit random with the topics and photos. There are a few things to catch up on since the new training season has begun. First off, I want to say thanks to the great team we had last year up here in Thunder Bay. As a whole it was one of our most successful seasons. We will see many changes for the 2012/2013 season but before I jump into that take a look at these pretty faces:

Team NDC 2011/2012

First change: Coach Eric Bailey has retired from coaching after being with NDC for 8 years. He was my coach for the duration of my stay thus far in Thunder Bay (3 years) and I've learned many, many lessons from him as an athlete. We are sad to see him go but I truly wish him the best in his future. Taking his place as the new head coach is Mark Doble. It's always an adjustment working with and getting to know a new coach but I have a lot of confidence in working with Mark. He's ready to take on this team and it sounds like it'll be an exciting year.

click-clack in Moreno, Italy.

Our new team has been named and we will continue on with 11 athletes: 9 returners and 2 newbies.  All three girls are back and I'm stoked to continue on with our pack of speedy ladies. *Que beyonce, "All the speedy ladies"*

Other speedy ladies in TBay:

A bunch of us after the Lakehead University Athletic Banquet this spring where we got all dressed up and watched the LU xc ski team clean the crap out of the awards ceremony. I was there as date and support of Harry since I'm not actually on the team, but it was a perfect excuse to get all fancied up. Congrats LU!

AND NOW.... I'M IN BEND, OREGON.

This picture really doesn't do the ski site justice (yes this is a downhill photo but the xc is behind me).
I joined on with the Alberta World Cup Academy for their on snow camp for 12 days of wonderful skiing. We are skiing in the mornings and continuing with dryland in the afternoons.

This afternoon's run in an Oregon National Forest. The weather changes so fast from mountain to town and morning to afternoon.

Bend is a really cool town with a pretty awesome vibe. A lot of local shops, eateries and plenty gorgeous properties to feast my eyes on. We are only 2 hours or so from the coast and 20min from Mount Bachelor where we are skiing. Another cool part about this camp is the number of not only people, but women who have congregated here to train all in the same week. We took part in a sprint workout this morning and once everyone clusters together there were easily 30 women taking to the trail head to head. Americans and Canadians all together, it's so great.

We've also been creating very extensive meals in our house as we have the kitchen equipped to do so. And I took pictures. This is from a seemingly famous cook book in Canmore called Whitewater. I don't even remember what it was called but it has ten layers.

The device.

 Each layer has a base of goat cheese, pesto and mozzarella.

 Layered roasted veggies...sweet potatoes.

 Zucchinis. 

 Eggplants.

 Peppers...above the threshold. (and many more layers of delicious surprises not pictured)

 Mmmmm just baked.

The spring-form pan the house conveniently had worked perfectly. We plated the dish with homemade tomato sauce, and lemon/basil aioli. 

More cool stuff to come in the next few days. 

Later!

A Trip Through Time

Prelude: I wrote this about 2 weeks ago but didn't finish it and therefore didn't post it. My next post will be current! Keep reading... there are PICTURES! click on them to see biggy size :)

It's funny how something you haven't done, gets done by avoiding something else. This morning I'm prolonging a long run since it's raining. I decided to take an extra hour to let it warm up and drink my coffee. Yesterday was so warm. Oh well, that's the thing about this athlete thing... literally rain or shine... or hail, or thunder, or blizzard or tornado, you go out there because it's what we do. I would like to say I'm gung-ho about training everyday, but when bad weather hits, I'm glad I have teammates to go with. Today I may be on my own, but that won't be for long as team training will resume in a few weeks.  Until then we are going on a trip through time..

NATIONALS

We finished the season in Mont. St. Anne, Quebec. How do I sum up this week? ...(huge sigh)... FINALLY! I finally had a week of racing that I'm truly proud of this season. It hadn't been the most stellar year for me but things went much better and I skied to a few good races. This event hosts 5 races in 7 days, beginning with the Club Sprint which was one of the most fun of the week. I raced with team mate Mary Thompson as we represented our club roots at Team Hardwood. Before I go any further you have to know this week was the warmest I've ever seen at a National Champs. +10 easily each day, and sunny. Am I complaining? Not really... but it melts snow. And then it's all everyone talks about when it gets uber mushy and the track doesn't hold up. It's one extra thing to think about but I really don't mind skiing in this weather because A) I get a suntan,  B) Our wax team did a superb job everyday, C) I kind of secretly like skiing on klister for some reason I've yet to understand, and D) everyone has to ski in the same conditions.

Here's a rundown of the races:

5km Classic- Biggest surprise of the week. I hadn't gotten any splits out there to let me in on where I stood throughout the race but was pleasantly surprised when the results posted an 8th place,  4th Canadian. This turned out to be my best distance result as a Senior Women to date. I'll take it.

Photo Credit: Event Site

Photo Credit: Event Site

10km Skate- This day was a messy one. It was the warmest race I've seen and people were literally racing in their skivvies. My coach said to me right before the race, pace it like a 15km to start. The snow was so soft that poles punched through very easily and you had to ski light... or die. Dramatic, yes, but the probability of over heating/bonking/falling on the downhills in the mush were rather high.  At the end of the day I pulled out a 23rd. Nothing to get upset over, but it could have been better. I just tried my best to keep everything moving on this "special day." That's the thing, no matter the conditions, it's still a race.

Skate Sprint- The event staff injected fertilizer into the snow to help it firm up over night. And firm up it did! It was a brand new course by the time we began qualifications and I had some fast skis. Yessir I did. I came out in my best qualify position, 8th and 8.29 sec behind the leader and Olympic gold medalist Chandra Crawford. Exciting? Yep. Terrifying? Surprisingly so. I felt great and was pumped by the result but then I got a dose of the nerves before the heats and I skied a little too spastically to automatically move on to the semi-finals. I lunged for the line and got 3rd in my quarterfinal heat, but our heat was too slow overall to move on, and I was out. A mixed bag on the day, I'm racing fast but was surprised by my reaction to the success. Que something to address with my sport psych.

Sprint Qualifier. Photo Credit: Martin Kaiser

Quarter Final Heat. Photo Credit: Event Site

30km Classic- My 3rd 30km to date and wowweee what a race. Teammate Andrea and I worked together with Alysson Marshall to pull out a solid race. I came in at 9th, 7th Canadian, with Andrea right there in 10th. The course was 5x5km and by the end there were no tracks left. Even if there were it was faster to ski outside the track. For the last race of the year it was not too shabby.

A little shake for a job well done. Photo credit: event site

The efforts of the week put me in 3rd Aggregate for the Under 23 category. Part of me was sad the season was over because I felt like I was finally racing fast. At least it left me motivated for the new training season. But I took April to relax and work a bunch in Thunder Bay.

Team Hardwood girlies together again! L: Mary Thompson, me, Anna G-W, Alana Thomas

More to come on my current adventures in the next few days.....
E.

Canadian Westerns - C-c-c-cold Canmore, Alberta

Holy Guacamoly. I thought Thunder Bay was the only place on Earth that got so cold you can't ski. Well, not literally but it has a reputation for being mighty cold. Apparently there was a cold snap in the West and our week leading up to Canmore was a consistent cold of -30, -33, -37. Yep, we basically didn't leave the house except to squeeze in a few little hours at the "high" of the day, which was still usually -27.

Layer count: 3 on lower body plus warm up pants; warmest wool icebreaker I own plus NorthFace Parka; 2 buffs; 1 fleece hat; 1 pair of Rudy Project Sunglasses that I couldn't wear because my breathing ventilation fogged them; 1 pair of mits; a lot of Dermatone and determination. My eye lashes defrosted by the time I took this picture. At least the sun was shining.

We traveled right from Whistler to Canmore for Canadian Westerns, the first of two mini-tours on the Canadian circuit. I had a much better weekend and felt a lot more like myself. I don't have any pictures of myself but here are a few videos of the sprints and 10km skate. They are on the SkiTrax YouTube Channel but I think they were shot by Hardwood/SOTC staffer Graham Longford because you can hear him cheering my name. Thanks!

I'm in the B-Final and on the outside. In the start I got caught up and pushed to the back, but made up a few spots into 3rd by the first downhill. All was going well until a fluke crash with another skier on the final downhill and I came in 5th, 11th overall.



The last race of a mini-tour (3 races total in a row) is a handicap start based on the results from the previous two days. I started in 13th, 1:55 from the leader and :36 seconds from 10th. I felt great and skied well but couldn't catch a pack of about 6 skiers that formed 30 seconds ahead of myself. They kept getting away on the downhills with their mass force and I could see them at the top of everyhill. Regardless it was a great race and I completed the tour in 12th overall. In this video I'm in a white jacket and pink sunglasses in the first shot. Bib number 13 in the race.


Our team had a superb day as a whole with notes of Andrea finishing 6th, Alannah 7th Junior, Michael 6th, Jack with one of the fastest Junior times and everyone moved up a bunch of spots on the overall standings. I love when we finish and intense block on a good note.  My fast teammates:

 Alannah's 1st medal of the season. 

There was a crazy cool photo of her finishing lunge that got her Silver over Bronze. Long legs will do that. 

Andrea gettin' the monies!

We are back in Thunder Bay now for a week and then head to Ottawa and Mt. Orford for more races.

Keep scrolling down because I've put up a lot of new stuff in the past week.

Enjoy!

Erin

Aren't I the Luckiest?

So after Christmas the team headed to the Whistler Olympic Park (Callaghan Valley) for the Under 23 and Junior World Championship Trials. This event is where they select team Canada to go over to Turkey at the end of February. The bottom line wasn't what I hoped it would be as it wasn't a great week of racing for me. I'll have to take last year as my last U23 World Champs experience. It was dissapointing but I have to say having my family and friends out in Whistler made it easier to move on to the rest of the season...

Brad and Barb Watts came out with my parents for a mini vacation and to cheer on the team. What's great is that no matter how hard I bonked (and I bonked hard in that skiathalon...) they were always positive and looking forward to the next race. Thanks to my cousins Sara and Michael for the foam finger haha

My Uncle Jamey came out to watch the final race on Sunday. I finally had a better race for him and his friend Jeff from PNR to watch. The sun was shining and I could hear them cheering the whole way around the course. 

Mom and Dad. Momma and Poppa Tribe. They have managed to come to so many races since my move to TBay and their support for myself and the team has been the best. My Dad even spends his "vacation" to Whistler in the wax room. Love you both!

My Aunt Sue. One of the most inspirational women in my life. She also came up from Vancouver for most of the week to cheer!

It was also great to see my Cousins Katie and Vince who just moved to Vancouver. This venue seemed to make for a convenient meeting point for everyone. I felt pretty lucky to have so many people supporting me through the good and bad races. Thank you to everyone who came out to watch!

Here are some race photos too!

Classic 10km. This was a much better race for me and at the end of the week it's what I needed. 

 SO MUCH SNOW. Sprint morning we got a massive amount of fresh snow which made for a soft day. 

Fighting for position in the quarter final.

NDC ladies! 

Andrea and I with Heidi Widmer on the first hill in the skiathalon. And then I crashed and burned. All I could do after this race was move on. It happens.

Thanks for the pics Mom!

Eeeerin