Rock and Ice, ya dig?

Oddly enough, this is the best picture I got from Nationals 2009. The BC boys practicing their synchronized swimming between racing. In our ghetto fabulous cabin that had a ginormous pool.


I won’t bore you too much with Nationals deets. Things went well there, every race was average or a bit above average.

Mikey and I weren’t able to defend our silver medal in the Nationals skate team sprint and had to settle for 9th. We clawed our way into the final and from there plodded through the mashed potatoes, fighting to maintain contact with the lead pack, which ultimately led to us getting burned and caught by 2 chasing teams at the end.

The 15km classic race saw us racing in a hurricane on a skating rink. Not ideal conditions for classic. I had a good race, grip holding up 2/3 laps and I was able to maintain a high, somewhat sustainable pace for at least half of the race.

The classic sprint was definitely my best day. I placed 14th, 11th Canadian I believe as my first year as a Senior. I had a great heat, led off the start too easily, used my traditional knowledge and northern instincts to track and hunt 2nd place up to the last hill. Once there I unleashed the Emil Joensson run to be oh so close to moving on until with about 50m to go was passed by American, Mike Sinnott (some call him “Snot-face”). I fought well, but at the end of the day a 15th place qualifier wasn’t high enough for a lucky loser spot especially with the shake-ups that led to 8th and 9th being the lucky losers… A note on skis for that day: I used a pair of my hard-wax skis that require padding to fill out the residual camber. I left my binding one click forward, allowing me to get over the grip zone better, and significantly shortened the grip zone. I had a thick padding of klister that would be perfect for chicken running whenever I slammed the ball of my foot down. The short grip zone ensured good gliding, which actually saved me as I sucked up to Sinnott on the long gradual downhill segment.

I’ve been meaning to announce this for the past 3 weeks – that I am doing the Rock and Ice Ultra 3-day ski event. For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s an ultra marathon race that takes place in Yellowknife in the spring time and is in its 3rd year running. Racers pay exorbitant amounts of money both to get to Yellowknife and then to enter the race. The course takes place over a 135 km loop that is broken into 3-days, approximately 45 km each day. There is also a 6-day event where the athletes are required to pull a pulk containing all of their food and camp supplies. For the 3-day however, a duffle bag is flown around and awaits the racers at each camp that is set up by the organizers.

It is quite well known that the best prepared athlete will win, not necessarily the quickest. Some who know me might be shocked and appalled that I would consider such an event especially when my strength lies over a 2.5 minute course as opposed to three consecutive 5-hour days of plowing (potentially) through deep (potentially) snow. But these people who know me might also know that Yellowknife is my home town and that I have spent thousands of hours on the land perfecting these skills that will be required for Rock and Ice domination. I was somewhat offended today when Pate’s adventure racing crew (Barb and Richard from S. Ontario, team Tree Huggers (is that right Pate?)) were talking me up to one of the check point managers, saying I was on some National team or something and was some hot shot skier who was going to break trail for everyone out there. Buddy CP manager said that meant crap, that being a fast skier often means you know nothing about being mindful and aware that extreme weather conditions can adversely affect your race’s outcome, ie. bailing and freezing to death out on the ice, haha. I’m hoping that I’m some anomaly to this fast skier breed, or at least hope that I’m not even one of these fast skier types. Maybe I'm one of those tortoise types, like in the battle between Phil "the tortoise" Villeneuve and Mike "the rabbit" Argue over the 6 day event.

I’ve been back home in Yellowknife since Wednesday, with the race starting tomorrow, Saturday. My training leading up to this event has included celebratory beer drinking in southern Ontario once the racing season was finished, some dancing in downtown TO, sleeping 1 hour one night, flying across the country, more beer drinking in Whistler, some downhill shredding, some more flying across the country, and finally some cold weather skiing in Yellowknife. Since I've arrived I’ve had the chance to fine tune my race get-up, and believe I have a streamlined system that will minimize stoppage time. I’ve got a high tech set-up fo sho.

Top-5 clutch items on my gear list (other than the normal windbriefs and wind break underwear and neckwarmers):

1. This awesome 1L Thermos (mandatory item) that I purchased at Overlander Sports. It is sleek and sexy and easy to use.

2. Lenny Valjas' side-ways water bottle holder that I stole from our house in Tbay last year (I was the last one out of the house when we moved out and he left it there so I took the liberty of making it my own. …my precious.) This item makes drinking from my awesome 1L Thermos that much easier. It sits below my Camelbak and juts to the side for easy drinking accessibility.

3. This random toque I have that has these giant earflaps with built in headphones. My 15 hour Rock and Ice playlist is primed and ready to go. My iPod shuffle clips on to one of the ear flaps. My playlist includes a broad range for my bi-polar listening enjoyment. I've been loving the "Into the Wild" soundtrack in training. It makes me want to ski off into the horizon and live off the land. A crap-ton of Lil' Wayne, aka Weezy, will keep me pumped with his greasy rhymes and beats. That's right, Sam Lindsey... and Jesse Winter... and Pate Neumann... And much to my surprise, and very much against my nature, a bunch of Country will be head-bobbed to. Taylor Swift = so hot right now.

4. Goggles that I borrowed from Bob Stephen, aka Beep-Bop. Under the condition that I beat Corey. Tomorrow there is a 30km East wind meaning -38 Celsius windchill. We are skiing east. The spot between my sunglasses and toque was getting cold the other day skiing in barely a -20 windchill. Man I’ve grown soft… Would have been nice to have my cool-ass Von Zipper goggles I got for my Bday, too bad I was an idiot and thought it would be warm-ish for the R & I. Am I one of those ignorant fast skiers?

5. Carbo Pro sport drink. No taste, lots of calories, easy on the gut. Period. Mixed with some eLoad, some glutamine and some branch chain amino acids and you’ve got liquid pwnage.


Also, my skis are pretty badass. Zach pimped out a pair of my rock skis by putting them through a flattening grind about 30 times and then through a special Rock and Ice grind for final structure. Add some Magic Potion on top and you’ve got some rockets. Magic Potion is good in the cold and never wears out apparently. Just keep brushing and you will have good speed. Hopefully my boards can handle the aggressive “gravelly ice road” structure that Corey’s got going on on his weathered veteran skis that have traveled the world and skied the likes of the Vasaloppet back in the day when he was 18 years old.

Back to Weasel Town for one day and some shredding with Lenny's fam and Dougie, Twoonie racer slash Whistler ski bum extraordinaire slash future Dopplemayer engineer slash Whitehorse native. Lenny and I giving the peace sign (ng with lobster claws) while riding the Peak to Peak (awesome). Man I spent a lot of time with Lenny towards the end of Nationals... Check out this one flick of our day at Horseshoe downhill area (near the Valjas' cottage), the day after the classic sprint. Good song selection if I may say so myself...

-15 Celsius and sunny with 15 km/h east wind clothing. too bad it won't be like this for the Rock and Ice...

I was mixing sport drink concoctions all day today. All day, baby.

I find this picture quite humourous... This will be me tomorrow, prancing about joyfully on the desolate, wind-swept lakes.

Uncorked!

You have to get up to double pole.

The classic sprint at Western Canadian Championships was the first time this year that the "sprint" was a sprint. A 1km course with light undulations. Again, I went for the double pole tactic. In my goal book for this year I wrote, "improve upper body fitness to be able to double pole a sprint course" with 3 question marks in parantheses and a little arrow pointing to the question, "too early in my development?". I've learned that going with the double pole tactic is somewhat of a mental hurdle. There are many things to consider when you use skate skis. ie. You can't start as fast, you can't stride up hills, and herring bone technique is more difficult (but not impossible). But on the flipside, there is a significant difference in economy at low end double pole speed because of the lack of the dragging kick wax, also noticed - although less of a difference - when tucking on the downhills. Cornering is also improved with the nimble skis that are better designed to pushing off an edge.

The course had one short, steep pitch that was really tough to double pole up, and one longer, less severe climb where you could really unleash the guns before tucking low (Korean torture style) into the finishing stretch. The finish stretch was all about slingshotting and keeping things together.

Quarter-final action. I was planning on striding it to save the double pole for later heats, but I couldn't get the classic boards to work. Luckily a trusty old pair of Fischer skate skis were stupid fast and did all the work for me.

Elbows up! Helps to activate more muscle groups. Lats and pec. minor? Man, are my pec. minors tight these days...



Following Cam in the Semi. He was striding and had a lightning fast start. I proceeded to ski all over his skis up the first climb, somewhat accidentally.

This one made the Yellowknifer Weekender. All photos courtesy of my fasha. Mike Argue and I were in every heat together that day. I followed him to the line every time, including the final.

Now that's something you don't see every day. N-Dub boys on the top two steps. Skeets rounding out the top-3.

Finally a successful day of racing. Qualified 2nd, finished 2nd (!!!). The body was there, allowing me to ski the entire course aggressively. The head to head heats saw an epic battle between striders and double polers, with the double polers finally prevailing on the day in this heated contest. I held up well, conserving energy where I could during early heats, and was able to fight at the end.

Of course I'm satisfied, and of course I would have liked to finally beat Mike in a sprint heat, but having it that way with him standing on the top podium spot made it sort of a double victory, with Yellowknife exerting its domination and showing a sneak peak of potential prowess in the Nationals team sprint.

The shape is good, but I'm not settling. I've learned to crunch my abs while double poling and to breathe at the same time. Something that will take a while to perfect and to strengthen. Perhaps many years. But double pole is a relatively straight forward technique that I can now finally see myself developing into a sharply honed weapon.

Nationals is coming up soon. I will be focusing on the team sprint, the classic distance race, and the classic sprint from March 8th-15th. I will not do the distance skate races since I seem to be developing the all too popular compartment syndrome (maybe...maybe not. I had to pull out of my last skate race cause I couldn't move my legs).

Take it easy, folks.

T

Lest we forget

With the kick-off of the 2009 World Championships in Liberec, Czech, I think it's important to remember Canada's 1970 World Champs team.

Some of you might recognize the legendary Firth sisters, Sharon and Shirley, bottom left and right, from Inuvik, NWT.  The rest of the team was made up of Roseann Allen (NWT), Bert Bullock (NWT), Fred Kelly (NWT), Ernie Lennie (NWT), Martha Benjamin (Yukon), Roger Allen (NWT).

7 NWT skiers, 1 Yukon skier.  Our strong Northern Olympic heritage indeed.  Could it ever happen again?

Watch Pate turn into a Homo heidelbergensis.

Check it out!  (here)

Or my grade 11 self as a Homo erectus.

This may have just made my day.  And might make yours too.

Corey from YK first told me about this...

http://www.popsci.com/node/32024

I want one.

Haha! Flourish. Who do I think I am.

Alrighty, another Twoonie race victory in the bag. Yessss!!! Actually, this one wasn't too hotly contested (with neither Jesse nor Pate entering). Other than me vs. the elements that is. The low-juice-dimness of my 4 LED Petzl wasn't cutting it out there on the race course where headlamps were "mandatory". I couldn't see a thing. The city glow of Whistler made it bright enough to tell the difference between a tree and open fairway, but didn't go as far as making the trail visible. It didn't help that the course was as bumpy as skiing in Yellowknife on the muskeg sections with 3 inches of snow. And it also didn't help that the snow was either sticky and oily in most sections, or ice crystals and wicked fast and soft in other parts (and that Munny had made some jumps and woop-de-do bumps on course). So footing was a little tricky out there. Even more so since my legs were still recovering from the thrashing they received from that Sunday - my first day on the mountain (with new boots) in addition to my first day playing indoor soccer in a few years (with uncomfortable shoes and playing for over 2 hours really hard with a bunch of Brits). So I hobbled around the 700m crit course to the delight of those who had already been pulled. And then afterwards was, yet again, a great Apres function hosted by the Whistler Golf Club. I'm starting to know quite a few people in the ski community out here, so these events are getting more and more fun. Afterwards was another hot tub sesh (seething hot).

And that brings us to today. Another day, another Twoonie race. But of a different kind. A kind that takes me out into uncharted waters, into the land of Biathlon. I had much to improve on, like my 2 for 10 shooting since last time round. This time was also a real biathlon race, instead of an unformal relay, where I would ski 3 x 3.3km and get timed. Fancy, eh. This time was a great race. Hotly contested and I had to dig much deeper than I had planned. I got punished off the start (we had to run around our poles 10 times and then sprint to our skis that were waiting for us at the start line) and was gapped by about 20-30s from the leaders (who were fast, too). It took a while, but I caught buddy from Norway who was putting the hurt on the field. That took a bit out of me. Once in the range I figured I'd show him the meaning of fast-shooting, Bjoerndalen style. I shot my 5 shots in about 10 seconds, but missed 2 targets. Big wup, 2 penalty loops. Big wup indeed... Felix from Norway (who's actually Austrian...) shot clean (!) and put a considerable 30s gap on me. Great. I maybe put about 12 seconds on him the next lap and came into the range when he was mid-shoot. I needed something big. I focused like I've never focused before and...drumroll...cleaned it!!! Excellent, but no, Felix cleaned it as well! This guy must be a biathlete. I was now down by about 10s. My much needed throw-down-of-a-surge wasn't enough. I couldn't make up the stagger and slogged in for 2nd, 6 seconds back. I actually skied really well. And skating at that. I'm starting to like this distance thing. It has a great feel to it.

Anyways, great day at the Salomon Biathlon Twoonie Race (again, put on by Munny). I improved my shooting by 300%. And I skated 10km with decent speed and a moderate amount of hurting so good. Oh, by the way, unfortunately Felix isn't a biathlete...that was his first time ever trying Biathlon. And he shot 10 for 10. I'm starting to guess that they used the big targets.

Why blog-procrastinate any longer

When I am sitting around all morning nursing brutally sore lower legs. First day of downhilling with brand new boots mixed with 2 hours of high quality drop-in indoor soccer with players from all the top soccer nations has left me planted firmly on the couch with a bad case of foot-slash-every muscle in lower leg-slash-every joint from my hips down-slash-quad tenderness. Yikes. Ouch. Live today, fight tomorrow.

Let's rewind to Rossland. Some races that didn't mean anything for me. Knowing this, I tried something new leading up to them. A few weeks before this event I had come to the conclusion that my racing stagnation was due to undertrainededness. So, in leading up to Rossland I decided it was due time to put in some training hours. This didn't exactly mean much. It meant doing lots of long easy skis, topping out at 3:40, and doing lots of double work-out days, which for me aren't a common thing. So far signs have been great - I should have tried this training thing a lot earlier methinks, hah. In the first test event that I had (Whistler Twoonie race) I was able to stick with Jesse for an 8.2km skate race. The lightly undulating course definitely favoured my drafting, but those of you who know Jesse would agree that his bean-pole figure isn't optimal for breaking wind...nonetheless, I was completely pinned trying to stick with him. It was good to put my head down and hammer, though.

My first race in Rossland was very promising. I qualified 7th in the skate sprint and got under 120FIS, so that was a pretty good sign. I felt snappy and was skiing in and out of various aspects of the course really well. In my quarter I jumped to the front easily off the gun and led most of the race, blocking and controlling the course. Werrell played the teammate card at the top of the course and I let my guard down, letting him go by. Now it became a race. Crooks snuck by now that the donkey at the front (me) had been dispatched of. I tucked in behind for the downhill and prepared for the final push. Again I showed some mercy in not running Anthony into the trees when he tried to make a daring pass. But that would have been just plain mean... Still, I'm sure I could learn from some of the sprint greats in how to ski "aggressively". I took the final curve like a complete idiot (unlike Kevin who ended up winning the B-final for a stellar day) and was passed by the entire field. It took everything I had to sneak in for 4th - a non-advancing position. Great.

The classic distance race was very special for me. It was absolutely perfect conditions. Maybe like -7, hard track, sunny, couldn't ask for more. I also went with a pair of skis that has never worked for me before, but with a quick click forward of the binding on the NIS plate by Zach, I felt that the boards held some promise. The race was great in the fact that I felt that someday, some place, sometime, I could put together a good distance race. Not just a good race where I pace it really well (I've actually had those before), but one where not only is my pacing right, but I'm actually skiing fast. That would be something totally insane for me to do in a distance race. Last time I could do that was racing as a Midget against other NDub skiers.

In the end, the 15km classic race wasn't the best result, but I did have a solid first lap. The first lap was followed by me getting riled up with "catching rides" and trying to go "head to head" with some other racers, when really I should have been racing my own race and playing it cool. Whatevs, I had a great weekend with the first positive racing experiences for this year (minus Twoonie race round 1, that woulda been the first).

Look ma! I'm racing distance! Under control for the first lap at least... Great shot by Angus Cockney. I remember skiing up the hill and seeing him standing basically in the track. He lept out of the way and upon realizing it was me, managed to snap my best yet "media" shot for 08/09.

Since Rossland I have been in Whistler intimitely acquainting myself with Lost Lake and the 40km of ski trails that I have 70 steps away from my front door. The trails here are very fun with some thrilling, high speed downhills with sweeping curves and stunning vistas of the Whistler valley. It helps that there are actual pit stops set up around the trail where you can fill up on water (now I can bring a little ziploc with extra sport drink and just remix when I run out). My favourite trail is the downhill coming from Upper Fairways, winding down the golf course, hitting reverse-banked corners where zero Gs are experienced, and trying my hand at high speed tele turns (when catching an edge means being launched off the groomed trail into the pristine, untouched pow that blankets the fairways (except recently that pristine pow has been jagged ice, and now, today it's actually becoming slush)).

Last Thursday we had Twoonie race round #2. 9km, gentle terrain, double-pole-fest. Skate skis were in order for us CVTCers, minus Erik, who planned on employing his 6'8" frame's gargantuan kick to great effect on the gradual climbs. I managed to tuck in behind Jesse and Pate and survive most of the race. I even was able to navigate the obstacle course of rec skiers on the lower Fairway to gain the holeshot and bust away for the victory by a few seconds. I was saying to Zach afterwards that that was the first race I have won in a while, haha. Again, another good indicator of fitness gains. The first lap was really fast, but I was recovering easily from the tough uphill sections and everything felt easy. The 2nd lap I was red-lining, answering all of Jesse's attacks on the climbs, and somehow pulled through. Afterwards there was a great Après at "Opa! Souvlaki" with great free food and beer. Good times. Plus, it wasn't so bad to dip into our landlord's hot tub later that evening.

Well I guess that's about it from my end. Maybe I'll train today. Something in the form of stretching to improve my functional movement, perhaps some double pole, and likely some Spirotiger since I've sort of fallen off that train of late...

In closing, I would like to extend a huge shout out to the U-23 men. They have all had great performances over in France and in my mind have been the class of the field (hotly contested with Kazakhstan and Russia). All 4 men were in the top-10 in the classic sprint. Crazy! Unfortunately the word on the street is that CCC will not be extending an invitation for any of them to race in Liberec since they already have a full team. For some reason we chose our team before some of our best men got to show their potential at U23s. Weird, eh? You live and you learn I suppose.

A flourish of an update should be coming by the weekend about this Thursday's Twoonie crit race at the golf course down our street... According to our Whistler local extraordinaire dude, Munny, who's also grooming, there will be some sweet banked corners and technical aspects on the course. Now that I have a taste of Twoonie race glory, I'm coming back for more.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself.