Canada Winter Games, Halifax 2011

The blog is back, this time to share the excitement and spirit of the Canada Winter Games. The Winter Games are held once every four years, and they are a chance for each province to bring forward their best and brightest athletes. This is week two of the games, the time block allotted to cross country skiing as well as many other sports including boxing, female hockey, gymnastics, archery, snowboarding, sycro, badminton, alpine skiing, curling and figure skating.

The Quebec team was flying out of Montreal, so our trip began with a bus ride from Ottawa to the Airport hotel. There we met up with the other athletes coming from all over Quebec. The next morning was an early one, with our organizers insisting on arriving 3 hours early for the plane. Granted, all our skis and wax boxes made it here, so I suppose its always better to be safe than sorry. The plane was a charter, and so was 100% full of athletes. Thats a lot of hockey equipment, skates and skis to fit onto one plane! I was lucky enough to be bumped up to first class, which was quite a treat! I dont think that I have ever wished that my flight was just a bit longer so that I didn't have to get up out of my seat...

Upon arrival we were shown around the athlete's village. Its a pretty cool setup! Instead of building all new facilities somewhere in the middle of nowhere, they put all of the athletes in three downtown hotels, connected to each other and the cafeteria by tunnels.

Last night was a lot of fun, Great Big Sea was playing, opened by Jeremy Fischer. The crowd was huge! Lots of energy, and the atmosphere was great. Granted, the masses of people meant that we we essentially watching a jumbotron on tiptoe. Oh well...

I am rooming with Anne-Marie, a girl from Quebec City, and Christine, a paranordic skier. I am really enjoying the chance to chat with her about how the para-sports world works, it something that I haven't ever really been exposed to. She is the para-kayaking world champion, and has some really neat ways of overcoming the obstacles presented to her.

This morning we woke up super early to hit the ski trails. The ski center is about an hour from downtown Halifax, and they have done quite a good job! I was talking to one of the head officials responsible for the event, and he said that a year and a half ago there were no trails at all, that he and some guy with a GPS were driving around on a skidoo trying to decide what would make the racecourse fun and exciting. They did a great job, the course is fast and rolling, wide enough to avoid tangle-ups but with enough corners to keep things interesting. Tomorrow should be fun!!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I've been a bit more than lazy about carrying my camera around.



Martock Race Trails

Austria Days 4-6

Hallo wieder!!

The past two days have been a blur of early mornings, glacier skis and chilly afternoon runs.

The weekend brought a ton of glacier snow with it... along with a ton of wind and a whole lot of rain down here at sea level. Skiing was crazy, we were pretty much skiing in a complete whiteout. It was even hard to see the person skiing beside you or the corner coming up. Pretty cool, but the combination of super strong winds and blowing snow, required some determination and warm clothing. The gondola stopped on the way down yesterday, right in the middle of a cloud. Pretty scary :/

Today, on the other hand, was another bright day, at least on the glacier. We were skiing above the clouds, so we avoided the overcast conditions down below. This afternoon had a core session on tap, we worked on getting mad six packs in a soccer field by the ski jumps. We rounded off the training day with a game of soccer, always fun :) As for our evenings, I just got destroyed at poker, me losing my chips so fast is what gave me time to write this, its a good thing I suck ;)

I'm looking forward to the three afternoons off that we have coming up, it will be nice to see some of the cities around here and break out of the eat, sleep, train routine we have going everyday. My one teeny complaint about the trip so far is how little of the whole country we have seen, I feel like Europe is about more than just training and hotels. But I'm sure those afternoons will help fill that craving!

Gute Nacht!

Michelle :)



Our little cabin on the glacier



Rollerski advice







Core



One of our hotel's bunnies



Trying to learn poker...

Austria Days 1-3

So. Seeing as Austria isn't quite as groundbreaking as the Olympics, but since people seem to care anyways, and I love sharing my adventures, I have decided to try and start this whole blogging business up again, but am gonna keep it to one every few days.

I found out a few months ago that I was invited to participate in a training camp in Ramsau, Austria, a small town near Salzburg. We are here to take advantage of the Dachstein glacier, an awesome ski facility located at 3000 feet on, you guessed it, an glacier. Pretty cool eh?

So here's my account of my Austrian adventure :)

We left Ottawa at night, and transferred in Toronto. We had an 8 hour flight ahead of us, so I figured I'd knock myself out with sleeping pills. Obviously, I went a little too far, because for the next 10-12 hours I found it hard to stay awake for more than 15 minutes. My incredible amount of sleep did at least start the week out well, and I would take too much sleep over too little any day.



We looove the toronto airport!...


... and granola, apparently.

Getting things together took quite a while when we finally landed in Zurich, Switzerland. Our wax box hadn't made it, which reaallyy sucked, and we don't exactly travel light...





We hit up the Mc Donalds on the way through Germany, which was fun. Their specialty seemed to be three massive sausages on a big mac bun. They also seem to feel that in order to truly be part of the franchise, they need to stick Mc in front of everything.



The drive to Ramsau was long... 6+ hours, but soooo pretty. The fact that it went by so fast had me a little concerned, I'm not sure that the ability to turn off one's brain for long periods of time is necessarily a good thing. There was lots to look at though... Austria seems to almost completely consist of super high mountains, green valleys and tiny little villages nestled in between. The houses are all so cute, I just want to hug them.










We finally got here and enjoyed an awesome meal at a near by hotel where we will be eating lunch and dinner. We eat breakfast in our house, which is run by a super nice couple, who try they're best to understand our ridiculous looking hand gestures. They raise bees and we are treated to their honey every morning.





Our second day we hit up the rollerski track. You know you've hit a skier's haven when there is a whole network of trails designed specially for a training method that 90% of Canadians have never even heard of. Despite the sketchy downhills, which I will definitely have to work on, we put in a solid workout.



In the afternoon we ran to the base of a ski jump (one of austria's main sports, apparently) and did core.

Today we finally got to the glacier. It is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

You drive 20ish minutes straight up, then jump on a gondola and go even straighter up. The result is tons of altitude, and way less oxygen than I'm used to. We skied for a couple hours around the 10k loop, which is pretty much entirely switchbacks, and then came down for a shower and lunch. On tap for this afternoon is an hour or so easy run, we've had lots of warnings about going too hard during the first few days. Here are some glacier pictures, as well as some randoms I felt I should throw in.













View from our balcony

Lebewohl!! :)

Men's Pursuit. Last day, BYE Vancouver!!

Coming into the exchange pit...


SWITCH...


And heading back out, all in about 5 seconds. Crazyness.



So. Today was my last day up at the World Olympic Park, and what a day it was. Janelle and I started it off with a ski in 12 degree weather... tank tops were the only thing that made the heat bearable. Since we were skiing reasonably early in the morning, we got the heat without the slushy, deep, heavy snow, which was a definite plus. My nose got a sunburn though. Once our lovely ski was done, we took the klister off our skis, a task that we had been postponing all week. After a quick lunch, the race finally started. Today was the 30k pursuit, a 15k leg of both classic and skate. I’m sure most of you saw it, so I won’t go into too much detail, but to sum it up, it was awesome. The Canadians did so well, and that was reflected in the stadium’s energy. People were SO LOUD. There were two giant cowbells in the Swiss cheering squad, a trumpet somewhere near the Norwegians, whistles in the Canada section and loud cheers filling the rest of the stadium. And of course, energy spreads, and so soon everyone around you is shifting from foot to foot, completely absorbed in the atmosphere around them. I really liked how the race was a longer distance than the previous ones, you don’t miss the race just by blinking and you had time to really get into it. And again, we did so well, it was hard to not be super high-strung the whole time. Forerunning is still fun, although I’m getting a little worn out, as is the rest of the group, I think. It shows in our postrunning... we started out the week skiing 7.5k loops, now we cut off at about 400 meters. Not that I mind terribly, I’ve been getting in plenty of good training. I’m just not a huge fan of skiing, stopping, skiing, stopping and skiing again. You build up some crazy acid in the legs doing that.

So this was my last forerunning race, and what a race it was. I’ll be leaving here with another life changing experience courtesy by skiing under my belt, hopefully with many more to follow. I am so grateful that I was chosen to take part in these incredible events; I will remember them for a long time. The motivation provided is incredible. Being an Olympic athlete seems so much more attainable when you spend 2 weeks around them constantly. But you also see what kind of a commitment it is. You see their constant focus, on and off the trails, their determination to get everything just so, so that they can go out and have the best race of their lives. I have been immersed in so much race preparation, it is unbelievable. I have watched the same people test skis for DAYS, I have seen skiers out skiing the course, completely 100% zoned out to the world around them, preparing to race. I even skied past some Swiss guy in the middle of the woods doing tai-chi followed by a short sprint and then repeating this, over and over and over. The Olympics are like some super intricate watch, ticking away for 18 days with the whole world watching. TV viewers, spectators and most volunteers only get to see the pretty numbers on the front, or perhaps help wind it up just a bit, doing their part. I feel like I was given the chance to dance around the inner gears, trying not to jam anything up, while trying to stick my nose in as many places as possible and see everything I could and how it all worked and fit together. I don’t know who gave us the privilege to do this, to eat with the athletes, walk in the waxing zone, or watch from a place that was off limits to even the national team coaches, but whoever it was, thank you so, so, so much.

People always asked if I was going to win a gold medal when they heard I was going to the Olympics. And then I would have to explain, ever so patiently, that no, I wasn’t even racing, that I was forerunning, which then leads to me trying to explain exactly what a forerunner is, etc. Basically, no matter how the conversation meanders, it always seemed to end with the other person throwing me a wry smile and a “Well, if not this time, maybe the next, or the next.” I usually write this off with a laugh, but really, it would be the coolest thing ever, and there is always a tiny bit of me going “YES, YES, YES” . All of these athletes winning medals were once 17 and watching the games from their couches. It’s all about motivation, it got them here, and although there is always a chance it will run out, or be directed elsewhere, as long as momentum carries through, there is really no reason to believe that it can’t be done eventually. If my eyes can tear up watching opening ceremonies on TV where the torch doesn’t rise and a hockey player carries a sputtering flame through the rain in a pickup truck, then I can’t even imagine how great it must feel for the athletes taking part, or even winning medals. This is the kind of legacy the Olympics leave behind, this inspiration to overcome bumps in the road, to strive for excellence and bathe in the glory that is sport and the games, and I am sure that every other aspiring athlete feels the same.

My bag is packed, my skis are travel waxed, my seats are booked and I’m going home. Bye Vancouver 2010, I’ll miss you.

Michelle


Janelle pulling her very best Canadian tourist look






Back of the stands


Some of the countries' wax cabins


Our home away from home away from home for the past two weeks... this and the wax trailer











Ice Inukshuks by the finish line