Wintertime’s a’Comin

After completing our training camp last week, I was sure of one thing; summertime is definitely over. The whole week we woke up to temperatures hovering around zero. No more shorts and tank tops, we wore spandex and long sleeves almost everyday. For skiers this is an exciting time of year. We start to realize that all the roller skiing and running workouts start to come to an end, and we know that winter time is just around the corner. Suddenly the thought of racing jumps into everyone’s head, and you get that little bit of extra energy for training.

The first half of the week, we put in some good hard days up in the Highwood Pass area. Lots of roller skiing, which included one day of roller ski sprint races with the Foothills Nordic Ski Club. We had qualifiers, heats and everything. It was a little sketchy racing full speed on pavement rather then on snow, but luckily there were no big falls throughout the day.

The second half of the week we headed up to winter wonderland at the Haig Glacier. Yup, you guessed it, there was a TON of snow. The run in was a little miserable as it was POURING rain, and the temperature only got colder the further we climbed. But once we were all-warm and dry up in the huts, things started to look up. The next day greeted us with two feet of fresh powder! Skiing conditions were perfect. We were using hard wax and everything!

It was yet another week of great training. We have one more hard training camp in October and then its smooth sailing from then on into the racing season.

I can’t wait!

Me, completing my qualifier for the roller ski sprints

The Mens final

The daily hike up to the Haig Glacier

Kate Brennan about to start her ski.

Boo-Ya!

Wow! I don’t know how else to describe it. A week ago I completed both the uphill time trail for skate and double polling. In the skate time trial I improved by 45sec, and almost 2min in the double pole time trial!!! This is huge! Clearly all the hard work has shown a big improvement in my training and fitness level. I can’t wait to see what I feel like in another couple months!

After completing the tests, I took off to Ontario for a week to spend some quality R and R time. I spent a few days at the Summerfolk music festival in Owen Sound and then spent the rest of the week doing nothing but lying around in the sun. I was amazing!! I finally got to experience what a real summer vacation felt like.

The last couple weeks have also been quite an exciting time to be involved sport. When I am not lifting weights in the gym, sprinting up hills, or roller skiing for 3 hours straight, my face has been glued to the TV watching the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. I just can’t seem to get enough! Watching the best athletes from around the world, come together to give it thier all and compete for the gold medal gives me the tingles. It makes my dream of one day going to the Olympics grow stronger and stronger.

So far, the high lites for me have been:
#3- Jason Burnett winning the sliver in Trampoline- I love it when an underdog comes out and gives the world a shocking surprise.

#2 – Usain Bolt beating the 100m AND 200m world records- he just shows that there is no limit to human potential. Anything is possible.

#1- Simon Whitfield’s sprint to the silver medal- He showed how powerful the human mind can be. The last 2km was ALL mental, and he was able to push his body to the max!


I am only starting to realize how much of sport relies on the power of the human mind. Sport Psychology is one area of training I have been working on over the past month. I can’t even begin to explain how important the mental aspect is in competing to the best of your abilities. It takes years to master, and without it, there is no way you will be able to reach the top.

Tomorrow I am heading into another week of hard training. The first half of the week will be dry-land training at Highwood Pass in the Kananaskis, and then I will be heading up to the Haig Glacier for the last half of the week for some on snow skiing. I feel great and am ready to tackle anything that comes my way.

“Live the Dream!”