January

“In sport, the bad news for the present champion is that tomorrow is a new day, when the competition starts again from scratch. But that’s the good news for everyone else.” – Bob Rotella

Today we travelled through the mountains from Bavaria to the SudTirol. This week we are racing in Antholz, Italy. Last week we left our homes in Canmore for World Cup action in Ruhpolding, Germany. Despite feeling jetlagged, the week was fairly successful. Megan came very close to making the pursuit, only 5 seconds out. I missed 2 in standing but ended up 35th in the sprint. And then moved up to 24th in the pursuit. JP, Robin and Scott all hit 18/20 in the pursuit and moved up to 23rd, 29th and 44th respectively.

We started the tour by staying in apartments (switch it up from hotel/full pension living). Us girls found it a treat to be able to cook for ourselves and eat exactly what we feel like. And the guys…. Well.. 1) they were hoping that we would cook 2) consequently found the frozen food section of the supermarket and ate pizza and beer all week. (Ok maybe I am exaggerating…)
Now off to Italy… and the food will be awesome.

We had a good time watching Eurosport every evening (and morning replays) this weekend to watch the Cross Country Skiing and Nordic Combined World Cup in Whistler. Yesterday was especially exciting as Alex Harvey had an awesome sprint to the finish for a third place for the skate team sprint with teammate George Grey. The pair had a great day but it was definitely a fight to that last centimeter.

I was asked by a young biathlete recently to answer a few sport psychology questions for his assignment. Sport psychology has definitely become more prominent and important over the years. The combination of physical exertion and mental focus and clarity for shooting makes biathlon a sport where mental strength is crucial to being successful. Having a goal, being positive, determination… are all important aspects in the road to success. But what does it take in a mass start world cup competition to clean your last standing shooting when you are in lane 2 and the leader beside you just finished shooting with 1 miss? If you shoot clean, you are in first position. To listen to that voice would probably cause you to miss at least 1. Focusing on the now, the present, and your process, is key in such a situation. Like many other sports, quality practice is vital to making your movements automatic in competition. Great preparation is critical to gain confidence and having inner faith that you will shoot clean is crucial to a successful performance.

On that note, I am off to go train and aim for perfection to gain that confidence…..

December/Christmas

The last week of Hochfilzen I made it into points... finally! Placing 25th in the sprint with 2 misses. My 15km was still not good. I had 5 misses too many. 

Slowly I am crawling my way closer to the top again.... 

We were unable to compete in the relay this week though because Sandra was not able to race due to illness. Very unfortunate because our next chance to race a relay is World Championships in Pyeong Chang, Korea. 

Now it's time to head home... Christmas in Canmore. Time to kick back, relax.... and of course prepare for the next set of races and World Championships. 

My time at home was awesome. The best part was of course, was spending time with my boyfriend (hopefully I am getting some brownie points for adding this one ;)...). Also was my friend's stagette party... good times ;) ... basically just being able to do things outside of biathlon like sledding, skating, walks with the dog and spending time with friends and family. It wouldn't be a Canadian Christmas without skating, sledding and ... playing hockey! 

TTYL....

December World Cups

(Megan and I on our way to the Christmas market in Ostersund on my birthday.)

There is one more week of competitions left. The first World Cup tour has literally flown by. I feel like I am just starting to get into the groove of racing.

The first two weeks were spent in Ostersund, Sweden. We left Canmore with only a skiff of snow and arrived in a winter wonderland in Ostersund. There was definitely enough snow for the World Cup and…cold enough!

My first competition did not go as planned. I came 77th in the individual with 8 misses. The sprint was better, I missed 2 and came 44th. Unfortunately, a cold flew around the team and I got it right after the Individual competition. So I skipped the pursuit due to still having a sinus cold.

After two weeks of the sun rising at 9 and setting at 3pm, we were all craving sunshine, and good coffee. Austria here we come….
Last week was the Hochfilzen World Cup. Still I struggled in the shooting range and came 52nd in the sprint with 3 misses and 43rd in the pursuit with 6 misses. Sunday was the relay competition. I started and our team ended up 12. Not bad for the first relay of the year but I think we can definitely improve and use less spare rounds!

Despite the disappointment among the women’s team, spirits are still high because the men’s team is rocking house. JP has had a kickass start to his season with a 13th (sprint), 17th (individual) in Ostersund. Another 16th in the sprint last week, he finished it off by pulling into 8th in the pursuit. Finally our team had another award ceremony to celebrate! And it didn’t stop there. Sunday the team came 7th, 3 seconds away from finishing 6th and being part of the team award ceremony. Time for us women to pull it together!

Despite not having the results that I want, I am happy that my health is back and that I am fully recovered from my bout of mononucleosis last year. My ski speed is there, I only need fine tuning in the shooting and the results will take care of themselves.

Due to construction in Pokjluka, Slovenia the World Cup remains in Hochfilzen for another week. Which we are all fine with (we do love Bled but…) it means no packing and unpacking!

Tomorrow is the individual competition, Saturday the sprint and Sunday the relay. My parents have come for the 2 weeks of Hochfilzen World Cup to cheer on our Canadian team. This is their first World Cup experience (besides the ‘06 Olympics) and they are thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere.

Right now I am still very full from lunch hrs ago because we were served kaisershmarren and of course we all ate triple helpings gorging on the Austrian scrambled pancakes. Ahh such trials and tribulations of being on the road….

November

A wandering Moose at Mt. Shark have a lick of salt. 

Currently our mantra is “let it snow, let it snow…” Or at the very least the temperature should drop below zero degrees. Is this the effect of global warming? Very unfortunate. Racing on rollerskis in winter would not be a fun alternative in my opinion. I love the white fluffy cold stuff! I can’t imagine not being able to ski, toboggan, skate, have snowball fights, make snow forts, snowmen and snow angels! So let it snow, I say!

After an excellent camp in France/Austria we have been dry land training waiting for the snow. We also spent a lot of time at the University on the rollerski treadmill. This was excellent intensity training with the advantage of having immediate feedback on technique.

Very recently it snowed in Lake Louise (boo yah!). So we have been doing our ski training there. Obviously word has gotten out how great the conditions are at Moraine Lake road because this weekend was packed with cross country skiers, biathletes, Nordic combined and weekend warriors!

In one week we are off to begin our World Cup tour, beginning in Sweden and finishing in Austria. The first week we are training in Sveg, near Anna Carin’s home turf. The following week is our first World Cup competition in Ostersund, Sweden. Definitely getting excited to race and the gitters are building! After last season, the fire inside of me is burning strong. After Ostersund we travel to Hochfilzen, Austria for 2 weeks of World Cups. Then home for Christmas and preparation for World Cups #5,6 and World Championships.

Other exciting news is the release of our women’s team calendar, Bold Beautiful Biathlon. We have had a busy summer and fall putting this all together and finally now it is on the market! The 5 of us – Sandra Keith, Megan Imrie, Megan Tandy, Rosanna Crawford and myself – put together a black and white tastefully nude 14-month calendar, focusing on promoting the image of a strong athletic body aiming to help fund our Olympic dreams to 2010. If you haven’t checked out our website, please do at www.boldbeautifulbiathlon.com

Fall

Hike up the pass from Bessan, Fra.

Warrior yoga pose on Dachstein Glacier, Aut.





Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each is to succeed.
- Corita Kent



Today is a day for tea and a good book. It has been raining all day here in Ramsau am Dachstein. Fortunately, we have an easy day and I have done just that. Drank tea and chilled. Our shooting session this morning was wet….but survivable! Tomorrow the forecast is for snow at 12000m! We are living at 1100m so I think it will be pretty sloppy out there.

We are currently in the middle of a three-week camp. Last week we were in France – Haute-Maurienne – for the Summer Biathlon Roller ski World Championships. It was a good training experience. I skied well, but had too many mistakes in shooting and didn’t have the results that I was hoping for (finished 13th in the sprint and pursuit). However, it is only September and I know that I am not race ready quite yet. I much prefer winter racing! My teammate Megan Tandy had a great pursuit and finished 3rd in the junior category. Jean Phillip and Marco Bedard had a great sprint finishing 5th and 8th respectively.

After our Pursuit race, we all went on a hike up the valley from the Biathlon site. Was a beautiful area, with a very quaint village of stone houses, and inaccessible to vehicles. The cows grazing in the area decided to stampede down the hill along with boys. Marco got an excellent video footage on his camera. Practically their own running of the bulls…

Now we are on a 2-week camp in Ramsau for glacier skiing on Dachstein (Austria). The ski conditions are excellent this year. Our team here this year consists of 4 women, and 3 men, with coaches Geret Coyne and Jean Paquet. So far highlights include: excessive cheese eating and table wine drinking in France, subsequently interpretive dancing and singing to the Mamma Mia soundtrack in our room, hysterical girl time watching the Sex in the City movie, and overzealous amounts of Milka bars bought once entering the land of chocolate (aka Austria). I suppose skiing this week, could also be thought of as a major highlight, as the last time we were on skis was in Whistler during May. It is awesome to be on skis again!

Next week will be a very busy week on the approximately 8km groomed track on the glacier, as more World Cup teams will be arriving on Sunday. Last year we stayed at a hotel right at the gondola station (1700m), which is great for skiing. However, this year we are staying down by the roller ski track (1100m), which is excellent for afternoon workouts. We get up from our nap and ski 400m to the range! Plus, the owner of our apartment bakes us yummy cakes! Today the occasion was “bad weather” cake!

On the list of activities this week (besides training of course) involve hitting up the forest park which now has a luge looking roller coaster, baking cookies, facebook stalking and playing pranks on the boys. I think it should be a good week ;)

Well Zina from the block is out. Training time….

Summer

at CMH lodge (Rosanna, me, Megan) and my dog Zeak

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." - Ghandi

Fall is in the air! And consuming our minds, as we are now only 3 months away from the start of the season! Not sure what happened to summer. I think we had a few hot days!

Training sessions on the rollerski treadmill at the U of C went very well. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of my lovely self on it. Next time….

We spent the summer training in Canmore, with a 3 day camp to Revelstoke in August. It was gorgeously hot there! I drove out a day early and went sport climbing with my Dad, which was wicked. The climbing in the area is awesome and so much of it is practically right outside downtown. Too bad that town is in the middle of nowhere! Our camp was short but a good blast of fun. We road biked from Revelstoke to CMH. And spent the night at the heli lodge. What a great time we enjoyed there upon arrival… bathing in the sun on the dock (the lake was rather glacier cold), extreme croquet, volleyball, awesome food and an open bar. Oh and an indoor climbing gym. But by the time I got to the climbing, the 5 hrs of biking that day combined with extreme croquet had drained my energy! The next day we roller skied up Mt. Revelstoke. A very, very long climb! The 3rd day we biked from Lake Louise to our respective homes. A dedication goes out to the many enjoyed coffees, cakes, muffins, and sandwiches consumed from the Modern Bakeshop and Café. Delicious!

Early September found us doing the North American Biathlon Roller ski Championships in Canmore. This was also World Cup trials for the 3rd spot for the first World Cup tour. I attended 2 out of 3 of the competitions. I came 1st in the Individual and 2nd in the Pursuit (I started last due to not starting the Sprint the day before). Currently, our World Cup team consists of Sandra Keith, Megan Imrie, and myself (one more women will attend after 2nd IBU competition), and Robin Clegg, Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, Scott Perras (potentially one more man attending).

As the seasons changed, I decided to refresh my living space. A little makeover as I enter a new chapter in my life. I painted my room a deep purple, and love it!
I’m off to drink tea and lounge in the marvelous purple….

The Inukshuk at the 2010 Olympic site in Callaghan

“The secret of success is constancy to purpose.”
-Benjamin Disraeli

Finally the summer heat has come to Canmore! Yeahhh! Training has been going very well for my team and me. Our team is made up of 5 girls this year, which has been fabulous so far mostly because of the copious amount of girl talk that goes on. I think our coach is learning to turn a deaf ear to our conversations and fits of giggles. Or maybe he is secretly preparing himself for the maturing of his two young daughters in the years to come!

Fortunately, my setback of a disc protrusion in my low back hasn’t affected my training, as I have still been able to do lots of roller skiing, biking and strength. And now I am almost 100% recovered. That is the course of being an athlete, various setbacks that one must deal with and overcome! I believe that there are reasons for everything in life. And so which each setback there is an opportunity to learn, and grow and thus be stronger both physically and mentally. So if nothing else, I have worked very diligently on my inner core muscles this spring! The only thing that has made me a bit unhappy is not being able to do regular yoga practice because of all the flexion involved in yoga. I did go to one of our athlete yoga classes this week though and just totally modified it to my own abilities…ie. zero flexion…But it was still enjoyable!

In the beginning of June, we were able to get some more ski days in up in the meadows at Sunshine Village. The downhill resort is closed middle of May but in the meadows there is still a substantial amount of snow during June. After a cool clear night the crust skiing can be amazing. We also had a loop groomed for us through the meadow. We have also spent many hours roller skiing up Highwood Pass in Kananaskis. Almost every day that we have gone there, we have seen a Grizzly bear. Today we saw 2! On one occasion there was a 2yr old Grizzly walking right beside the road. Luckily, some tourists let us sit on the tailgate of their truck so that we could drive past the bear. He was minding his own business but it was probably better not to mind his!

A few days ago we did a time trial up Mt. Norquay. It is a 5.5 km winding uphill road to the downhill ski resort just outside of Banff and makes a great climb for a training race. I successfully destroyed my time from last year! After a few hurdles this past year it is excellent to see that I am right on track for the upcoming season.

Besides the rigor of my training schedule, I have had moments to have some fun outside of biathlon! Last week I had a rest week and spent a couple days in Calgary with friends and then went off to my hometown Red Deer for a wedding. The Stampede started last Friday so Calgary has been totally crazy. For those of you not familiar with the Calgary Stampede….it holds the saying “the greatest outdoor show on Earth!” I haven’t had the opportunity to partake in the Stampede festivities this year. But probably the main highlights include the midway rides, Stampede rodeo action, the Chuckwagon races, outdoor concerts (rock and country), and lots of cowboy hats and boots! Oh and of course pub crawls are a very big part of the Stampede experience!

Now we have another few hard weeks of training before a break. This month we will be spending quite a bit of time in Calgary on the roller ski/speed skating treadmill. Not quite as exciting as seeing our Grizzly bear friends up at Highwood!

Happy summer trails!

Sandra and I skiing at Sunshine meadows