Growing up in a Northern Community I have seen snow on my front lawn in June, July and August so when November rolls around I expect to be skiing. Right now there is a funny feeling inside me that knows something isn’t right, like “where is the snow?” This year has been harsh in terms of getting snow early in most of Eastern Canada including Quebec and even home in Labrador. I knew that living in Ottawa I may have to wait a little longer for snow than I am usually use to and well this year I cannot really complain too much either because the Fall Weather has been nothing short of awesome. I can hardly remember any cold rainy miserable workouts this fall. That being said I am growing very anxious for winter and permanent skiing for 5 months hopefully. Last week I started to come up with some ideas of dealing with the anticipation and also making sure I am prepared for the race season that will be kicking off rather soon.
First thing that came to mind was that I could be doing Dry-land activities for a few more weeks yet so I need to stay focused with them. I thought that maybe mixing it up a little and diverging from the plan for a workout was a good idea to keep the body and mind interested. So last week I thought it be fun to do some indoor rock-climbing & bouldering for a strength workout. I joined teammates/ housemates Colin and Lee for a pretty sweet session, we went hard and I was left pretty sore in the arms and core for two days.
Going for it! (Photo by Lee-John)
Another
thing I thought was a good idea was to get in the last real long distance
workout of the Fall. This past Sunday most of the XC Ottawa team set out for
something epic. The workout ended up being a over 2hr skate rollerski with some
speed/sprints work early in the workout then a loop of the park followed by a
sweet trail run/ ski walk on some of the backcountry ski trails in the Gatineau
Park. The workout clocked in at over 4 hours of continuous training. For me the
run/ski walk was the best part, it’s always fun to explore and venture out onto
trails you have not seen before.
Fueling up on the rollerski. Lee and Matthias here, liking their sweet new drink-belts from FreshAir. It was also great to see Lee back out there, he recently spent some time at War with the Swine Flu...
This was action shot I took half way through the run. The dense fog made for a prefect setting for an epic workout.
I have also been thinking a lot more about technique to be prepared for the transition from roller skiing to actual skiing. Technique is really important right now because it’s the last chance to dust off those bad habits before the race season starts. After receiving some video feedback last week I realize that there are still some things I should continue to focus on. I also spent some time analyzing technique, which has been a bit of learning curve for me as well.
Last but not least it is time to break all those race skis out of storage and start getting them prepped and tested. I have spent some time this fall figuring out my ski collection, what ones are good for what condition and what ones to get rid of. A big thanks to coach John Surronen and Wayne Johanssen for helping me test all my skis. Wayne has an amazing ski testing and grinding setup at his place in Chelsea and I learned a lot from him about ski testing and selection in just short amount of time. I’m pretty sure he did awesome job on the whole XC Ottawa team’s skis this year!
My housemates’ and I have been working on a setup of our own in the basement of the house we are sharing. It’s coming along quite nicely, check out some pic’s below.
Vauhti Ski-form attached to a nice big antique table. Being able to do your waxing in your own house can't be beaten!
The Ski Wall! Oddly enough this probably only half of our skis between the four of us.
Every good skier house has a rollerboard.
Well the ground was solidly frozen this morning during our hard interval Penguin workout, so I am thinking Winter is on the way and hopefully arrives sometime soon. In the mean time the World Cup Action starts up this weekend and I will be looking forward to watching some coverage from that. So fill out your SkiTrax Fantasy World Cup Draft and get ready for an exciting season!
"Engine Coolant for Your Body!"