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Athlete Diary: Winter has FINALLY arrived!
By:  Sheila Kealey   (2007/01/19)

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Sheila at SilverStar Mountain

Every skier loves the snow, but the last two months have really made me appreciate how precious every snowflake is. It sure seemed like November forever and did challenge my generally optimistic outlook. But alas, it seems like winter has finally arrived!

I got this question many times: "What are you doing for training without snow?"

Well, I skied whenever it was at all possible . . . and this is probably more often than most people think! When I couldn't ski, I did our typical dryland training workouts, and to stay motivated, kept reminding myself that I've had great races in November with this kind of training and limited skiing.

My training generally has to be pretty flexible to accommodate work and family - but I took that flexibility to the extreme in the last little while, since the lack of snow made it pretty hard to plan! One good thing, is that I think I'll achieve my goal of running a bit more this winter: the last few years I've dropped running and find it really hard to start up again in the spring.

I've got some fun racing lined up this year . . .

I'll race the Nakkertok Invitational this Sunday, which will be a good preparation for World Championship selection races in Canmore next weekend (10km free; 15km pursuit). This will be a short weekend trip with Megan and Brian, and we'll meet up with Karl and coach John, who are already in Canmore for the sprint selection races this weekend.  I'm looking forward to this great opportunity to race with the fastest women in the country on a tough course like the one in Canmore.

I'm really excited about February, when I get to race some competitive events in the Gatineau Park: the Haywood/NorAm Eastern Canadian Championships and the Keskinada 50k skate race. The big event in March will be the Canadian National Championships in Mont Ste Anne, Quebec. Depending on time and how I'm feeling, I may race in a couple of loppets of the Salomon Marathon Cup Series.

On the work front, I've produced a book  that is a guide to "healing foods" that shows you how to incorporate these foods into daily meals: it also features some great tasting recipes. This was a challenging project, but it's quite rewarding to see all that work in print!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the snow!

Sheila

 
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