December Update

Lots of great stuff going on. This blog entry may not be the most eloquent ever, but a quick update.

-first skimo race was Dec 2 at Canada Olympic Park. Went good for me. Came in 2^nd in the solo division. Hard fought battle, but mostly went hard, maybe not all out, but still race mode. Felt like my transitions were good. I think my de-skinning were around 10 secs. Maybe I pushed the rules a bit as I’d quickly rip the skins and while descending wrestle them into my suit. Was able to lap a tired Andrew (hanging Christmas lights all day) and make about ½ lap on Peter. Didn’t get "chicked" by Mel, but she’ll be strong as usual this year. I won a really nice MEC jacket. Cool. Oh, Reiner lapped me 2x. He’s amazing. Top skier in N. America.

-Immediately after this tough 3 hour race we had a 4 day training camp at the Asulkan glacier at Roger’s pass. A nice 3 hour ski in with pack followed by days of endless powder skiing. Due to the wind and constant snow all the turns were a treed run below the hut. It was a 300m vert run we’d do 5-8 times each day. The second day I cried "uncle" after only 5 laps as I hadn’t really recovered from the race and ski in.

-yesterday (Dec. 16) did a nice time trial up Sunshine ski area. It’s 14km with 1000m vert. I did it in 1:29:22. I would have gone faster, but the upper bowl was really windblown in. For a bit I tried bootpacking, but was just post-holing. I used my race gear as this was a prep for the vert race at worlds. I need to do more of these to prepare, but maybe not as long.

-This weekend doing an xc race at the nordic centre. It’ll be a 3x1 km sprint. I’ll need to get a long one in somehow, probably Sunday. Time’s counting down to Worlds in mid Feb.