Camping? No one said we were Camping!?

Sunday was a long awaited day off training. The coaches organized for us to go to Yosemite. I knew it was famous, but famous for what, I wasn’t sure. Wildlife and nature, that was an obvious, and when places are famous, they also tend to be touristy. I’d heard rumour of little shops and stuff from some of the people who’d been there before, so I set out for the drive that morning in a pair of cute little flats, some Capri pants with a stylish belt, and a dressy fall jacket. I brought some warm clothes because we were going to be sleeping in a place the boys called “tent city”. They said it was a village with- word for word- “luxury tents”. When asked if they could describe a little more they said they were heated, with wood floors, a couple beds, and a night table with a light. Sounded sweet to me!
I was a little shocked to step out of the van to find out we were in a National Park where everything was outdoors. A meeting with the check in lady clarified everything when she said, “no food, no toiletries, no smelly perfume. All that goes in the bearproof storage lockers.” Tent city, or Curry Village, was hundreds of small canvas tents with plastic beds and no outlets. I felt stupid in my outfit and leather purse. Don’t get me wrong, I can camp, I can live rustic… I love that stuff! But when you think you’re going to a small little town to drink some coffee and have a nice afternoon shopping, well that is a different story.
The afternoon was lovely. We walked along some of the park paths (I had to take my shoes off because they were giving me blisters) and sunned ourselves on rocks. It was a lovely afternoon until the sun went down. Supper at the food court was sub-par, and then it was time for sleeping. Even with three blankets I was freezing. 11pm came, then 12, the 2, then 3:15 (by this time I was almost in tears). I finally lulled off at 4am only to wake up at 6:20. I’ve never looked forward to my alarm going off so much in my life.
I felt like crap, but we had an exciting hike ahead of us, so I decided to put my runners on and prep for a 5hr training day. We went up half-dome, a famous hike in the area.
My brain wasn’t functioning so well by the end, and I ended up twisting my ankle on a rock. Luckily I was close to the end, and was able to make it back to the van. I have a day off today to rest it. I think it should be ok by tomorrow. I feel pretty crappy today anyway from the horrible previous night. Plus, it’snowing like the diddy outside again!

“Le Pine”

Yesterday we did some sweet training out of Big Pine- or “Le Pine” as Renner calls it. We stayed there for a couple nights in a trailer so we could be at lower altitude. It’s a typical low income small American town. One small grocery store, clean and cheap motels, one bar. We went to the Chevron gas station for a Mexican supper one night. It was pretty good food! The one skate workout in the morning was hot and sunny. We were in shorts and bras, and sweating lots! We smugly checked the Canmore web cam to check out how much pointless snow they’d received that day. We shouldn’t have been so quick to point fingers though because our welcome home present today was 3 inches of snow in Mammoth. It’s cold… we’ve had the wood fireplace burning all day and the heat cranked.

A Girls Video!

So, the girls were a litle lazy and thought we’d never be able to get a video together. But luckily we had our Physio/ Awesome Movie maker help us out. It’s now on youtube and skifaster. The guys have another one too. Copy and Paste these into your browser:
www.skifaster.net (this is both the girls and guys videos, awesome and well worth it)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NeRHGzeWng (just the girls)

Mammoth Video

Video posted on www.skifaster.net if you want to check out our Mammoth excursion so far. It was made by the boys… and it’s a little obvious. The girls have decided we’re going to make a video too, just to show that yes, we exist, and yes, we have fun too.

Here’s the link to the youtube site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaY8m4QNWZw

A Brittany Moment

Apologize for lack of photo, … coming soon

My poor attempt at making coffee. I put my percolator on the largest burner. When I noticed my coffee spewing everywhere, I grabbed the handle with my sweatshirt and what do you know, I just started a new fashion trend….
Yes, I melted the handle, and yes it got stuck to me. We got it off with some prying and cold water. One burnt- tasting coffee down the hatch and I’m off for the 4 hour workout. Looking forward to today, 2 hr run and 2 hr road bike! Peter Larsons, one of the best sprinters in the world, is apparently going to join me on this workout. He flew from Sweden to train with our team and we’re so ahppy to have him. Perhaps he’s unaware of how slow the Distaff (the girls team) runs, and how slow I’m planning on biking afterward. I’m sure he’ll be great company, but he better not complain!

Mammoth Day 1

No more backpack!

I give Mammoth Lakes a two thumbs up so far. Awesome views, great altitude training, and almost always perfect weather. The coaches picked us up in Reno with the team van. My teammates warned me about the drive to Mammoth. It’s a 3 hour, stinkin hot drive with athletes crammed in every available seat. The plus was that this time we had air conditioning!
Day number one proved bad luck for me though. A bear got into my backpack at night and chewed it. I think the pack may have done more damage to him though- all he was able to eat was some hot chocolate powder and some garam masala before he got rollerskis thrown at him!
I started freaking out in the afternoon cause I couldn’t find my wallet anywhere. I was sure I left it back at the place we ate supper at the night before. I called them twice, but they reported that nothing was found. I was planning on calling Visa right after my rollerski when Ivan smugly turned to me during the workout and said “hey Brittany, are you missing a wallet?”. Apparently I left it in the van!
The best US marathon runners in the country all train in Mammoth. We were able to catch a few quick glimpses of them as they flew by in the park. They looked amazing! I don’t think I’d be able to stay with them for two minutes, but Devon is keen to try. Perhaps we’ll get the guts to ask them if they want to do a wrrokout with us. We can do a trade- we’ll run with them one day and they can rollerski the next! Boy would that be a site.
We’re staying at the Meadow Ridge condos. I don’t think it’s been updated since the 70’s. It’s decorated with a few trinkets and lots and lots of carpet. There’s even carpet in the bathroom- bad news. The allergies are starting to kick in! We’re totally spoiled though. The coaches are awesome- they’ve even convinced Mary Waddell to volunteer as our cook- so I have absolutely no right complaining.

New Zealand Training Camp

The Snow Farm Lodging- it’s dorm style

A post- awards ceremony photo op.

Getting ready for some wine tasting on our rest day

Paradisimo

Compliments of Jodi who took the photo, this is a perfect description of my awesome teammate!

the boy’s surf day

Classic 10k race

I like the photo cause it has all three of us! 1st- Perri, 2nd Shayla, 3rd me

Rental bikes- the best part of the day in Wanaka

Photo taken by Jodi Hawley

Photo by Jodi Hawley

Photo by Jodi Hawley

=”file” columns=”6″]The Canadian Team pretty much ambushed the Snow Farm with the 30plus athletes that arrived on a foggy afternoon two weeks ago. The trek up the mountain was done in 3 very full and completely powerless vans. The entire ascent was done in first gear with black smoke blowing out of the exhaust pipes…it was a great day for the environment! There were certainly times when I questioned whether we would even make it to the top.

The Snow Far is set at the top of a mountain in the Pisa range, and even though it is isolated, it is certainly hopping! When we first arrived, the Canadian Paranordic Team and some athletes from the Australian, New Zealand, Swiss, and Japanese Skit teams were all there. There were lots of hungry mouths to feed! I’m amazed at the work ethic of the employees. Their shifts often exceed 12 hours, and it seems some of them never go home. During the Winter Games, a few of them slept on cots in the gym because there were no rooms for them!

We’ve been training hard, focusing on lots of hours and a medium intensity load. The excitement began when the races came. 3 races in 3 days- a classic 10k, a skate sprint, and a skate 5k. We WERE the New Zealand Games. The turnout would have been pretty weak if we weren’t there, but nonetheless, there were some great athletes from the other countries competing.

The day of the classic race was beautiful weather- clear, sunny, hard tracks. It was tough waxing though because the temp hovered around zero and the wind was making the track powdery. I was a bundle of nerves in the morning. It’s funny how, by the end of the race season, your racing routine is totally engrained in your head. You know exactly what time you need to wake up, what you need to wear, how long and how much intensity to do in your warm up. Funny that after 5 months off racing, this internal routine is quickly forgotten. I was a bundle of nerves. How much time would I need? What do you do in a warm up again? Too much kick? Too little kick? Time passed only too quickly with my fretting. I was at the start line with 1min to go. It was only at the 10s beep that I realized I didn’t get my skis marked. That’s a common mistake for me, and if I was in Canada, I would have probably been disqualified at the finish line. Thank god for the laid back kiwi attitude though. They never even said anything!

Racing in the summer season was fun but tough. I opened up too hard in every race I entered and died by the end in them all. You’d think I would learn, but what I think it came down to was that I’m just not in race shape right now. We all did it, and we all paid in the end.  I opened up at a speed that I thought was fast, powerful, and manageable. It probably would have been had it been in the middle of the race season, but I always got a reality check part way through- even in the sprint!

The medal presentations were sweet. We were given necklaces made from a precious jade that can only be given as gifts, and the anthem of the winning country was played on the loud speaker. News has it that the race results were in the Globe and Mail and on the CBC news… wow, we got more coverage for these races than we ever have in a NORAM.

Incredibly, I was able to sleep during the night both before and after the races. Whoo hoo! Huge progress! My performance was fairly solid, a silver and two bronze. I would have liked to be a bit closer to that speedster Renner… all I saw was a blur of skis go by me in the classic race! Oh well, it’s just summer, but I am absolutely thrilled to be able to spend time with and try to chase such a phenomenal woman. For now, I’m just happy to seek her advice, learn, and train with her as much as I can. If I am able to ski amongst her during races in the winter, I’ll be even more thrilled because I know that will mean I’ll be skiing with the best in the World.

I’d have to say the best part about the entire trip was the rest day. There were three groups- one went to Queenstown to do some shopping and possible (although they were too chicken to go) bungee jumping, one to go surfing in Duneden (horrid 4 hour drive but well worth it- apparently some wicked waves), and the Girls tour (6 of us girls) in Wanaka. Yes, we got made fun of a bit because we visit Wanaka a few times a week to go to the gym and have coffees in town. It wasn‘t anything erratic, but in my opinion it was the best group.  We got some sweet rental bikes to cruise around the town’s special little hideaways we never get to see on our “gym outings”. We did a little wine tasting, a little shopping, many coffee breaks, lots of biking, a little pampering at the Oakridge spa, a little dancing, and lots and lots of laughing.

We got 4 full days of stormy weather when we returned. It wasn’t the greatest for training, but we needed the snow. The last two days of skiing were spectacular because of it! We treated ourselves to a little ski touring one morning. Trudging through the powder has to be one of my favorite things to do on skis. Now on to the epic travel back!

Triathlon

My thought was that the triathlon would be an awesome way to finish off our big three week training block- go into it really tired, and then put that tri in there just to bury you in the ground and finish you off before the much anticipated rest week. Thank god I wasn’t actually all that tired going into the race, because if I had been there would be no way I’d get through the surprise training that followed it. We had a day off on Sunday, but it didn’t prove to be all that helpful due to the awesome 70’s party at the Crawford-Kershaw household. Actually, come Sunday morning I kind of felt like I had completed a 24 hour race.  The day off was followed by a 4 hour training day at elevation, and max intensity on Tuesday. The end of the week also included an uphill time trial which put me on the ground in the gravel for a good 30s. The last month has been hard, there’s no doubt about that, but the team and the different places we see every day made it seem easy.

The highlights were:

First Couple Days on the Haig- totally awesome skiing and food. Glad to be training hard after an easy week.

Running in Larch Valley, Lake Louise- Amazing views of the 10 peaks, breathtaking scenery. Apparently the Larch needles turn at a specific time in Autumn and it gives off the impression of a golden forest. I didn’t take this photo but here’s what it looks like:

Beautiful Morraine Lake

Alberta Triathlon Champs- Hard to know where to start with this. Hmm, well, maybe I’ll put emphasis on what a big deal it was made out to be. There were announcements about how the team had decided to compete in the paper, in the tri-updates from the race organizer, on the CCC website, and at the official start meeting. Many of the boys had been practicing open water quarry swims weekly. I, however, avoided this as long as I could. Four days before the tri on a rainy 12 degrees day Brent, Steph, and I went in to test out the concept of open water swimming. The cold water was bone chilling, I hyperventilated whenever I put my head under water, I questioned whether I’d make it to the end and back, and it was thoroughly unenjoyable. Two things stuck out in my mind that day: I gained a great respect for triathletes, and that was to be my first and second last open water swim, oh… and I needed a new wetsuit- one with arms.

It seemed as though I made swimming in the quarry out to be a bigger deal than it really was. Once I got a warmer wetsuit and the weather moved from 10 to 30 degrees, swimming in there was altogether a different story.

5:45 am on Tri day came fast… and early. A little too early for Brent. He slept through his alarm and appeared a dishevelled and panicked mess at 7:30 in the morning- 30 minutes before race start. His breakfast was 3 granola bars, which actually proved to work better than whatever Steph had that morning cause he had to go into the bush halfway through his 10k run. With the mishaps of our team, Coach Eric DeNys was ahead of 2 athletes (3 if you count Jeffries who pulled out at the 1 lap marker of the swim) on the run. A highlight for him was seeing Steph run out of the bushes in the middle of the race. Luckily they both caught him or else they’d never have heard the end of it!

Devon, Alex, and Ivan all pulled off commendable swims considering their lack of swimming background. Ivan was the last one of the three guys out of the water, but he killed on the bike and was the first one off in the run transition. You’ve got to see this guy bike! His butt never leaves the saddle and he never shifted out of his biggest gear for the whole race. I’m surprised his chain didn’t break. Also slightly surprised he could still run afterwards. Devon was almost 5 minutes off the pace by the end of the bike, but he laid down an impressive 33 minuter in the run to pass both Ivan and Alex and come in 4^th overall. Alex finished 5^th and Ivan was 6^th. Pretty good for tired first timers!

I must say Brent’s swim was pretty fun to watch. I think he wins the “Persistance Award” for front-crawling the whole thing even though I’m sure breast stroke would have been faster for him. He’s a skier, not a swimmer, he made that very clear. Brady and Brent battled it out in the water, but Brady’s technique had a few more… inconsistencies to it. There was some breast stroke, some front crawl, some running around the bouys, some doggy paddle, and some back stroke (not crawl, it was some kind of odd stroking motion). Brady emerged about 15s ahead of Brent out of the water.

Comparatively, my race was far more tame. I did the sprint, and I’m glad too, because seeing Jeffries pull out in the first 500m and say “that was the hardest and most miserable thing I’ve ever done” was not exactly easing to the mind. I planned to stay at the back of the field and wait until everyone was in the water to go, but my competitiveness walked me right up to the front of the swimmers. I don’t know if that was the smartest move, I still got passed by more than half the field in the first 150m. I was about 50^th out of the water (men and women), but once I took off my wetsuit I told myself the hardest part was over and now all I had to do was hammer. That’s what I did. I must have passed at least 30 people on the bike. I think I came into the run transition as the 3^rd woman. I chased them down on the run to finish 1^st, 3 minutes up on 2^nd! It was pretty fun! I was dead beat by the end of the day, but it was totally worth it!

Well, that’s probably enough chit chat for now. Over and out!

A Big Thanks to my Sponsors

I wanted to take the chance to thank everyone for their endless help and support these past years and especially this Olympic year!

A big shout out first and foremost to Teck (since 2007), Molson (new this year!) and Jamie Coatsworth (2008) for their financial support. I recently attended an Olympic Day BBQ in Vancouver for Molson. They have a great blog site where you can see photos and personal videos of the athletes they have sponsored. the link is http://blog.molson.com/community/2009/07/06/employee-bbqs-spark-olympic-spirit-across-molson/ if anyone is interested.

Next to family and friends, my highschool coaches Sian and Angus Doughty, and Chris Huet, and my club coach Kateri Mills. Also the special people I’ve met along the way: Shelley and David Peterson, Don and Eunice Lenardin, Jamie Coatsworth, Cal Botterill, the Brothers, Steve Hill and Kings Cross Physiotherapy and of course the Browns!

Last but certainly not least, my coaches and teammates.

A big thanks is long time due! 

Please ignore the repeated photos in the previous post. I’m still figuring out how to use the media stuff.

The Haig Glacier

A beautiful Day crust skiing

Brent at the end of his classic ski

Perri, Sara, Chandra, and Shayla enjoying a run and photo op at the Haig!

It’s the start of a new training block- three weeks long, lots of hours, strength and intensity. Oh… and the “finally” is the great and pretentious “CANMORE TRIATHLON”. You’ve got to understand the depth of this event in the eyes of our National team. In May Devon mentioned we should all register. Without much thought, we all flocked to the registration website and put our names down. As the date nears, more and more of us are starting to freak out. None of us really know how to swim (except maybe Ivan), especially in open water. None of us have the tri gear (although apparently Devon is making a fine inventory for himself), and none of us have raced a triathlon (oh- except that it slipped out one night at supper that Devon has done a few over the years). Our coach, Eric DeNys, has officially signed up for the event under peer pressure from his athletes. Eric adamantly sent an email to the race organizers pleading to get in (even though it was full) so he could prove to his athletes that he could beat some of them…. we’ll see when the time comes Eric. Then there’s the under the table bets about me possibly beating Brent. This conversation started to take place once they saw him swim.  To put it simply, Brent better find some flippers and a wetsuit quick. I put an end to this when I switched to the sprint distance instead of the Olympic distance. Racing for 2.5 hours is just not appealing to me. I figured it would be better to go out and hammer for an hour and a half. Are you getting the idea yet? In short, a day is not fulfilled if the subject of the triathlon doesn’t come up at least once.

Brent at the end of his classic ski

So back to the ski training… the first week took place on the Haig glacier with a focus on long slow volume and technique work. I came in one week ago feeling fresh and exuberant- well rested from my 2 week rest period. After piling in some 20 plus hours, I will now officially say I’m satisfyingly tired. One more 4 hour day (a hike, ski, and 2 hour run down) and the week will be done. One rest day, and then you put this little summary on repeat mode for another 2 weeks.

The Haig is an awesome place to do lots of training. The isolation makes it pretty easy to train hard. You wake up and start your hike at 7:45 and finish your workout around noon. Then you’ve got lunch (pre-made by the awesome glacier staff) and a killer nap followed by 2 or 3 hours of absolutely nothing (this is when the Monopoly board or the scrabble comes out). By the time you’re ready for your 2^nd workout you’re just itching to run around.

We’ve been pretty lucky with the weather. It froze almost every morning and we were even able to cruise around the crust for the first few days. Here’s a little blurb from me, and some pics to summarize our awesome training camp that’s now come to a close.