Wow three months went by fast! Ninety days ago I had just moved to Canmore and was skiing with my head down thinking that working hard was enough, thinking that if I pushed hard enough I could make my goals this year. It took about a week with my new coach to realize that working hard helps, but skiing is a much more complicated puzzle. When I’m skiing with faster skiers, everyone is working their hardest, so I have to learn new tricks and be more focused if I want an edge. I’ve made some small technique changes that have made huge differences and I carry a new mentality about being fast. I am finally realizing that skiing smarter is so much more rewarding than just working hard. Ive been doing Biathlon for 11 years and it’s amazing I can learn so much more every day I train.
In late October, I started skiing on a 1km man-made loop with snow that had been saved over the summer. It was a boring loop and the snow conditions were very poor. I graduated to a man-made snow loop of the same distance which I did several hundred laps and my fair share of hours. It was great to get these hours on snow even if it meant doing 3 hour skis on a three minute loop. With really cold recent temperatures the Canmore Nordic Centre is a 24 hour snow storm with snow guns blowing around the clock to get all the trails open for the season. It feels really good to start the winter and I’m even more excited for the first races!
My pre season looks something like this:
December 4-5 Alberta Cup Canmore Nordic Kickstart (Canmore, AB)
December 11-12 Haywood NorAm & Teck Sprints (Soveirgn Lakes, BC)
December 17-19 Haywood NorAm Teck Sprint Series Multi-stage Tour (Rossland, BC)
