Hockey game adventure

So there's been a slight change of plans, and by slight, I mean big. We're now doing the relay tomorrow and it will consist of Sebastien, Robbi and me (provided I'm feeling ok enough to race). I will mostly likely race it unless I'm really feeling worse tomorrow. 

Today I woke up feeling even worse than yesterday, so, other than our short ski this morning to check out tomorrow's relay course, I've been lying low all day, just chilling, mostly reading Facebook and Skyping with a couple of people. I hope this boring day will help me kick this cold once and for all so my last two races can be awesome!

Yesterday, we finally got to get off this mountain for a bit to take in some sledge hockey action. Canada played the U.S. in the semi, and unfortunately lost 3-0. But we still had a fun evening.

this was taken on the gondola ride down the mountain. We were all dressed in our Canada red to cheer on Team Canada. Apparently, these toques are a real hot commodity among the volunteers here. They have all been asking us to trade for one non-stop. Of course, because they want them so bad, we now really really like them and don't want to part with them. :)

Yes, these are palm trees which we saw plenty of on our way down to the Coastal Cluster. We ended up taking the really scenic route as we got lost, then got really lost, then got really really lost and had to use me as an interpreter to get us to our desitantion. These must illustrate the "Hot." component of the "Hot. Cool. Yours." slogan.

We found this Olympic ring as we finally got on the right route.

This is the McDonald's at the coastal village.We don't have one up here, so you can bet we got coffee and had dinner there. Don't worry, all I had was a wrap and a salad, nothing too unhealthy!

This, of course, is the hockey game. When we were leaving the game and all through the evening, people kept approaching us to take pictures with us or to trade our toques for volunteer gear. In fact, every time we would let someone take a photo with us, a line would form! It was unreal. As Mike said, this must be what it's like to be a rockstar!

And a photo of the Paralympic Flame as we were leaving the Shaiba Arena. I actually got a whole bunch of them, but it started raining, and my camera lens must have gotten wet, because they all have raindrops on them. 

So that was our night last night. Disappointing but memorable. 

Now I better head to bed for a good rest before tomorrow's relay. Our start time is 10 a.m.!

Good night from Sochi!

Sprint races and more

Yesterday I competed in the sprints in the middle of a snowstorm. Yes, apparently, "Laura" can actually look like winter. 

My category was very small as usual at these Games: only 7 girls competed. The kicker was that 6 would advance to the semis and one would be eliminated in qualification. I won't say much about the race other than that Andrea and I gave it all we had and skied the best race we could have skied, but, unfortunately, we ended up being that 7th team that got eliminated. We were pretty disappointed of course, but we did do our very best and that was all we could have done. We've both been sick with a head cold for pretty much the entire Games, so that didn't help either. I was actually feeling pretty rough this morning, and so am glad of a few days recovery time before my next and final race: the 5 km skate.

The 5 km skate tends to be my best race, so I am glad I can rest and get ready for it properly. Tomorrow there is a long biathlon race, which 2 of my teammates will compete in, and the day after that are team relays. Canada will field a team for the open relay. We also had the possibility of fielding one for the lower-percentage mixed relay, but the numbers don't work out well and, if we did field a team, either Brittany or I would have to ski two legs of the relay, which neither one of us is keen on doing the day before the 5 km race. So I think we will just watch our other team and be spectators for the day. So all this means that I have 3 days before my next race, which is on the last day of the Games.

Tonight we are planning to go down to the coast to take in the Canada-US semi-final hockey game. We are all pretty excited about it. Some of us are also hoping to check out the other venues and do some shopping while we're down there. It will be so nice just to get off the mountain for a bit and to see and do something different. We've basically been up here training and racing since the Opening Ceremonies. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good photos I can post on here. I know I've been kind of bad at posting photos, but I haven't really had time to take any. 

Well, that's all from me for now. Good afternoon from the Endurance Village once again.

15 km classic: toughing it out

Yesterday I competed in one of the toughest races of my life. It was a 15 km classic race, which in itself is fine, but add to that the fact that it was +15 degrees at the start and rising and the tracks were gettiing slower and slower with every lap and that I have a bit of a sinus cold, and you have a very tough slog of a race indeed. 

There were only 4 competitors in my race yesterday, a fact that in itself tells you something about the difficulty of this race. I was really hoping to somehow get third, but the other three women started out quite fast and passed me on the first lap of 5. I tried to stick with them, but I also knew that on a day like yesterday, pacing was very important, so it became my own race to ski and finish. I took a feed of diluted Powerade on the third lap, which turned out to be a mistake, because I think that was the reason I had a pretty bad asthma attack at the top of the final hill of the third lap. It was so bad, I had to completely stop for a bit before getting going again. I've had my asthma pretty well under control all season long, but these very warm, humid conditions coupled with the sugar in the Powerade were a recipe for disaster. 

So imagine having a bad asthma attack with over 6 km still to go in the race, and you will know how hard it was for me to come back from it and keep going. But keep going I did as soon as I could breathe again, with my only goal at that point being to finish the race. (By the way, I am not saying this to throw myself a pity party, I'm saying this to give you an idea of how freaking hard the race was.)

I took a feed of only water on the fourth lap, which was good, and slogged on as well as I could until the last lap. At the end of the fourth lap, with the roar of the crowd blowing wind into my sails, I rallied to finish as stong as I could. By that point, the snow was as slow as molasses and the skis were getting suctioned to it like nobody's business. I pushed on ahead, my only thought was "This is the last time up this hill, the last time double-poling hard on this flat, etc.". Andrea was encouraging me as much as she could also, telling me to listen to that crowd cheering and reminding me to think about technique and power. We finally got around the entire lap, and double-poled to the finish to the thunderous roar of the crowd. I have to say the crowd support here has been amazing. The stands are full every day and people are taking pictures of us and cheering us on even when we're just warming up! I have never seen anything like it! So a huge thank-you to the Sochi spectators! 

I must also say that our wax technicians outdid themselves yesterday. My skis had awesome grip on the uphills and were super fast on the downs. In fact, I kept running over Andrea on the downhills, so had to tell her to get out of the way a few times. Thanks so much for the awesome wax, guys!

To finish off the post, here is a photo of us finishing the race yesterday:

Photo credit: Scott Grant/Canadian Paralympic Committee

I would also like to add that I am glad I did this race even though it was so hard and, although I was 4th out of 4, it is still a 4th place finish at the Paralympic Game, and I am happy with that.

Next up, the sprints tomorrow. That should be fun!

Good afternoon from Sochi!

First days of the Games

Today is Day 2 of competition here in Sochi. For Nordic skiing this means the long-distance sit-ski race. The men have already gone and the women will be starting very shortly.

For me today is a training day and prep for tomorrow's VI/Standing long-distance classic race. I'm about to head out for a ski. 

The last couple of days have been very busy and exciting. Two days ago we attended the Opening Ceremonies, which were nothing short of amazing. From the full stands at Fisht Stadium to the amazing performances and the giant icebreaker sailing through the stadium, it was quite a spectacle. Granted, the march in fell far short of the excitement of Vanouver for us, (considering we're no longer the home crowd), but the rest of the ceremonies was unbelievable. I'm really glad I went even though I had a race the next day. 

Yesterday was my very first race of the Sochi 2014 Paralympics. It was a 6 km biathlon sprint. It went as first races usually do - with a few hiccups along the way. We had a bit of a lane mix-up in the range on my first shooting round with the marshal being unclear which lane I was supposed to use. That threw my focus a bit and got me flustered so I missed two shots and had to do two penalty loops. On the second round I shot clean, but since I wasn't aware I had qualified for biathlon at all for these Games untill just a couple of weeks ago, I was pretty slow at shooting. On the last lap, for some reason, my legs started to feel really heavy - as if they were full of lead. I felt like I could barely move. It might have been because I had stood around quite a bit the night before at the Ceremonies or because of jet lag/altitude. There's no way to really know, but the fact was that I was dying a slow and painful death around that last lap. Because my legs were so heavy I got bogged down in the deep sugary snow on the last downhill and went down. I got up really quickly only to realize that my Leki pole had unclipped itself and flown off somewhere. I got a little confused and looked around for it for a second or two. Then Andrea called over to me and gave me her pole. Our head coach Robin popped out of nowhere suddenly and gave Andrea a spare pole. I wasn't able to put Andrea's pole grip on as it was a complicated kind, so there we were finishing the race with two different poles each and mine not even around my wrist. But we made it without broken equipment or injuries, though it was disappointing to come in last again. I may have been able to challenge for 6th place if I hadn't fallen. Someone later found my pole and brought it to me. 

But tomorrow is a new day, and we race a 15 km classic race. We are going 5 times around a 3 km loop. We are the last category out again so the conditions will be pretty tricky once again. I really hope I can keep my legs fresh enough to get down that hill without falling 5 times tomorrow. The key will definitely be pacing and keep good technique throughout. 

Andrea and I practised the course today a few times and my classic technique felt awesome. I feel pretty confident about tomorrow's race. But I have to go to bed now if I want to feel fresh tomorrow. 

So good night from Sochi once again.

Some photos from Sochi

We've now been here in Sochi for a few days, settling in to the Endurance Village, getting used to the courses and getting over jetlag. Most of us are still waking up at 4 a.m..com, but we hope this will stop soon. 

Yesterday was the Team Canada Welcome Ceremony at the Mountain Village. It's a pretty long trek out there, but it was a fun trip. We got to see the other village, meet some of our teammates from other sports, hear a Siberian choir, meet some local children and volunteers and, most importanly, see our flag raised in Sochi! Here are a few photos from the event:

Robbi, Brittany and I all decked out in our Canada gear for the Welcome Ceremony.

Louis introducing a new style

At the Ceremony

The Paralympic mascots: Snowflake and Ray of Light

Today was a gorgeous day at "Laura." We enjoyed dazzling sunshine and hard-packed snow conditions this morning. It actually froze overnight and the conditions were perfect! We took the opportunity to snap some photos. My philosophy is always to bring my camera if it's sunny out because you never know if there will be another sunny day! It really worked for me last year (see blog header photo).

Brittany, Andrea and I out on the course

The back of the Paralympic symbol from the top of the course

Andrea and I with the stadium in the background

So today we did some training with a few short sprints and I did some shooting. All of the biathlon rifles are new this year, and they seem to be so much better than the old ones. They are a lot more consistent in the way they sound. I am looking forward to the biathlon race in 2 days' time.

Tomorrow are the Opening Ceremonies, which will definitely be exciting, and my first race is the day after that. The Games are finally about to begin! 

That's all from me for now. Good night from the Endurance Village.

First couple of days in Sochi

We arrived in Sochi yesterday morning super tired, hungry and sleep deprived. I managed to stay up all of yesterday before finally crashing just before 9 p.m. In the time between our arrival and going to bed, we managed to try on all of our CPC clothing, go for a short ski, have a team meeting to recieve yet more clothing and do a few other logistical things. 

The accommodations here are pretty spectacular! Apparently, the "Endurance Village" is destined to become a 5-star resort after the Games are over. I will post some photos later when I have time to take some. Here's one of our room upon arrival though:

This is all the stuff that was waiting for us in our room. Pretty nice, eh?\

Today was another busy day. Andrea and I skied twice. This morning was pretty good, and I was actually able to ski wearing a warm-up jacket and not boil. The courses seem to be exactly the same as last year, so I definitely feel better prepared because I have seen them before. It had rained all of last night, so the snow was pretty well compacted in the morning. By the time we skied our third lap though, it was pretty soft and mushy especially on the uphills. When we tried classic this afternoon, it was so soft and wet, we were falling though it in the tracks. I wore a t-shirt to ski and was still sweating. It is crazy warm here. I really hope it cools off some before the races!

Well, tomorrow is going to be a very busy day with skiing, a team orientation, welcome ceremony, etc. so I had better head to bed to try to fight jetlag some more. 

Good night from Sochi!

Off to Sochi 2014!!

Caroline and I are sitting here at the Maple Leaf Lounge in the Frankfurt Airport waiting for the rest of our teammates to arrive. Our next flight is not for another 8 hours and it is to Istanbul from where we will be heading to Sochi tonight. 

All this can only mean one thing: I am going to the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games! The moment is finally here!

The team was named on February 11. In the last two weeks I have had more media interviews than I have ever had in my life! It's been truly awesome to see all of this interest in the Paralympics this year. 

I know this post is somewhat disjointed, but given the fact that it is currently 4 a.m. in Ottawa and I didn't really get any sleep on the flight here and the fact that, since my last post was in the summer, I am not quite sure where to start, I hope you will forgive me.

So we will be getting to Sochi early tomorrow morning and heading to the Welcome Centre to sort out accrediations and other formalities. By that time we will have been in transit for over 24 hours and will probably be completely incoherent. Then we'll be off to our own accommodations up on the mountain near the "Laura" biathlon and cross-country centre and will be able to get some rest. 

I've been meaning to write a post about my seasons so far, but it hasn't really worked out what with all the interviews and last minute preparations. I will say that I have had a good ski season with some personal best results but also have had some very difficult times as a very close and dear member of my family passed away last December. My sister-in-law and best friend Tanya Martin lost her battle with cancer on December 4, 2013, and the world lost a most amazing and caring person. We are all still grieving her loss, but skiing has helped me cope by providing a focus and an outlet. 

This is a picture of Tanya, Cliff and I at our wedding. She was my Maid of Honour, and she was the best Maid of Honour a bride could have had. 

So here I am on my way to the Games with Tanya watching over me and cheering me on from above and with family and friends back home poised to watch and cheer from Canada. 

Good morning from Frankfurt and watch for my next update from Sochi in the coming days.

My first ever canoe trip

I've decided to re-enter the blogging scene to talk about a canoe trip I went on last weekend. I've never been on one before so didn't quite know what to expect. Well, I had a blast! It was so much fun and so nice to be out in the wilderness of Algonquin Park.

I went with my husband Cliff and our friend Ron and his sister and niece. All of them had been on a canoe trip before. I was the only newbie. I thought I was going to have a hard time learning the ropes, but they were all so nice and helpful and relaxed about things, that it was super easy for me to stop worrying and start enjoying myself.

We took Parkbus from Ottawa on its inaugural run from the Nation's Capital. What an amazing service these guys provide; it's a wonder no one has ever thought of it before! Parkbus has been taking people to Algonquin Park and a few other parks from Toronto for the last three years and they have finally decided to expand to another city - and Ottawa happens to be that lucky city.

We took the bus to Canoe Lake and rented our canoes from The Portage Store, where we saw this awesome canoe planter:

 After a quick lunch and loading our supplies and equipment, we pushed off at Canoe Lake, which was a smooth as glass, though I was told that it's usually pretty rough and that I should enjoy it while it lasts.

On our first day, we did three fairly short portages. But even with them being short, I was not used to carrying a big pack, and it got pretty heavy towards the end of each one. Here is me unloading my awesome Cross Country Ontario daypack (I got it from the Ontario team at last Ski Nationals) at our first portage:

The portages also had pretty bad mosquitoes, which I was expecting, so they didn't bother me too much. The mosquitoes were practically non-existent on the water though, and it was so nice to be paddling on these calm deserted lakes with the beautiful Algonquin landscape all around us and the wonderful forest smells in the air.

 After the first two portages, we came across a mama moose with her baby, and that was quite a sight to see. We got close enough that even I could see them!

We got to our first campsite around 6:30 p.m. and, after unloading the gear and setting up camp, we had a wonderful dinner that took a little while to cook on the fire. But we had quite a bit of wine with us to keep us entertained while it was cooking. We stayed up late making s'mores, drinking wine, telling stories and laughing - just the way camping in the woods should be. :)

The next morning was pretty rainy so it took us a while to get out of bed and get going. But after breakfast, consisting mostly of delicious bacon, we finally got going again. We were originially going to have a really hard day with 8 portages and a lot of paddling, but because Cliff had hurt his ankle the week before, we actually ended up doing only 2 portages, but a longer paddle. That was really nice, because I think if I had to do 8 portages, I may not have enjoyed my trip half as much. The weather was a tad drizzly that day, but it was nice and refreshing and major rain stayed away.

We camped on Tom Thompson Lake our second and last night of the trip. We found an awesome campsite on a point overlooking the lake. It had the coolest firepit surrounded by a semi-circle of rock. We had a heck of a time finding the kybo though, it was hidden way back in the woods! Here's a pic of the firepit. Some nice person even left us a bunch of wood, which was in short supply on this site because all the trees were pine.

And here is a picture of Cliff and I at our rockin' site.

Our second night was pretty much a repeat of the first - lots of fun and laughter - except Ron's niece Amanda decided to go to bed early as she was tired.

The next day, we had to get up early to make it back to the Parkbus for 1:45 p.m. It was a gorgeous sunny warm day, but it was also more windy so we had to work pretty hard paddling back across Canoe Lake, which did get rough that day, which I was told was more normal for it.

When we finally made it back to The Portage Store, I was definitely wiped and ended up sleeping on the bus all the way to Renfrew.

So all in all, I really really loved our trip, and we're already planning another one in August. Hopefully, the bugs won't be quite as bad at that time!

Good night from Ottawa!

Last day in Sochi

So today is our last day here and we finally get to go home...well, not quite. We get to go to Vancouver and then on to Whistler for Ski Nationals. I get to stay with Team Ontario near Squamish. I'm excited to see my teammates and to race in Whistler again.

But first, I must talk about yesterday's race I guess. It was interesting again. I thought I skied it pretty well: kept the asthma in check and maintained a good pace. The shooting was a different story, however. I got to the range on the first lap, and I think I must have been breathing too hard as I missed all 5 shots, so I had to do 5 penalty loops, which was not fun. But I kept it together and didn't let it get to me. My second time in the range went much better: I missed only 1 shot, the very first one, and then fired off 4 more cleanly in rapid succession. I can't really tell you why it didn't work the first time or why it did the second time, but I can say that I need a lot more training in biathlon and with a coach, not by myself. Anyway, I finished the last lap as quickly as I could. It would have been a good race if not for the first round of shooting. Needless to say, I got no World Cup points as everybody else shot very well and skied way faster than I as always.

So today, we went up to "Laura" for the last time this year. Phil and I went for a 2-hour recovery ski. The conditions were super slow and it was very hot. But I made it through the 2 hours and here's hoping that it will be good prep for my first race at Nationals on Sunday.

Now all of our stuff is packed up and we go for a team dinner at some pizza place in about half an hour. Then we get ready for an epic day of travel. We leave this place at 1:20 a.m. tonight and fly out of Sochi at 5:20 a.m. Our first stop is Istanbul, then London Heathrow, then Vancouver. We get to YVR at 5:20 p.m. tomorrow with an 11-hour time difference. Andrea is picking me up from there and taking me to Squamish, and then we have 1 day to rest and get ready for 3 more races next week. I think those will be a lot more fun though.

See you on the other side of the globe!

Good evening from Sochi.

P.S. Robin just brought Colette and I a beer. This day is picking up! haha

Sochi: day 7 - recovery after 15 km classic

We are taking it easy here this morning to soon head up to "Laura" for some recovery skiing and biathlon training.

Yesterday's race was no picnic for me again. It was tough going all the way. To begin with, since it was a classic day, it of course had to be around 0 degrees and snowing - the trickiest waxing conditions. So there was a big scramble with figuring out which skis to use. Phil and I had hardly any time to warm-up what with ski and wax testing. Our rub skis did not work well and we ended uo going with a hard wax. This resulted in our skis icing up for the first lap, but thankfully they got better after that. The real problem for me was the asthma. Since it was super humid again with the snow coming down, I had trouble breathing right from the start. In the middle of the third lap, I got a major asthma attack and couldn't really breathe at all. I was trying to keep going anyway, but Phil told me to stop and get my breathing under control. We kept going once I was able to breathe again. When we were passing the coaches on the fourth lap, Phil asked me if I wanted him to get them to bring my inhaler over to the side of the course so I could take it for the last lap. I'm quite thankful for his presence of mind because it was a great idea and it did help a little bit to ger around the last lap. It took them a little while to find it, but Shane handed me the inhaler just as we were heading for our fifth lap. And to top off the adventure, I took a nice tumble off the course somewhere in the mddle of it all. There was a spot on the course where the tracks were set too close to the edge of the trail and somehow a hole had formed that, when I somehow stumbled into it, made me completely lose my balance and fall into a ditch! Apparently, it looked pretty funny; I wish someone got a picture or video. Also apparently I wasn't the only VI skier who fell there.

So, needless to say, I was pretty tired today. We went up to ski in the later afternoon. The skiing went quite well with Phil showing me a few technique adjustments and a better position to get around corners. The shooting really didn't go well so tomorrow's race might be interesting again. But since I haven't had too much coaching in shooting lately, I was told to regard tomorrow's race as more of a practice so I will not stress out about it and just take everything in stride. Something's got to go right for me here and tomorrow is my last race and therefore my last chance!

We are racing the short biathlon tomorrow so I had better go to bed and get some sleep.

Good night from Sochi.

Sochi: day 5 - Sprint races

Today was a very foggy and soggy day up at the "Laura" cross-country ski venue. The fog was so thick that you couldn't see too much in front of you. When I mentioned to someone that I never got a picture of the foggy conditions for my blog they said "Just take a picture of a white wall; it will look about the same." So that gives you an idea. The snow was very wet and rutted so you were either catching a rut or sinking through. In other words, far from my ideal race conditions.

Phil and I practised our course quite a few times. I was having trouble with the big downhill, which had given me no trouble earlier in the week. Finally, I managed to ski it to our satisfaction. Once the course was closed so the races could begin, there was nowhere left to ski to warm-up so we had to jog on the mushy snow along the snowmobile track where gas fumes were really bad.

Finally, we managed to do some sort of warm-up, triggering a bit of an asthma attack in the process what with the snowmobile fumes and the extremely high humidity, and it was time for the qualifying race.

I started the race relatively well and did the long uphill the way we had planned. The downhill was much more rutted from all the racers that had gone down it befoer me. So I caught a rut and bailed about where it started to come back up a slight hill through which you would normally carry a lot of speed. I got completely turned around in my fall and lost a bit of time getting up. I got up fairly quickly though and continued up the hill. By then I had of course lost all of my speed and therefore didn't make it into the semi-final.

Overall, it was not a great day for me today, but, as I've said before, the first race often doesn't go well for me. So here's hoping for better weather and better racing tomorrow. We're racing the 15 km tomorrow and the forecast is again for snow overnight (which did not materialize last night) and cooler temps of about -3 to -5. So I'm looking forward to seeing what it will be like up there tomorrow!

For now, good night from Sochi.

Quick update

And the sprint races are a go tomorrow! They must have managed to get power restored up there and the races begin at noon tomorrow with my category starting at 1 p.m. It's apparently still raining up at the top and it might not snow at all tonight, but I guess we will find out for sure tomorrow. Anyway, yay for racing tomorrow!

Good night from Rosa Khutor!

Sochi: Day 4 - rain and wind, wind and rain

Today brought an interesting turn of events...

I had my alarm set for 8:30 as my race was not till after 1 o'clock. After the alarm went off I was just lying there and dosing for a bit. Suddenly the door opens and in comes Colette, who is supposed to be up at the venue by now. She says, "Well, you might as well stay in bed. The races are cancelled." I sit up in shock, all possible reasons for this running through my mind. "A tower blew down and the gondola is not running," she continues. I say "Oh my God!" and jump out of bed.

We don't actually know if a tower really blew down but it's apparently extremely windy up at "Laura," the cross-country venue, and the gondola is not running for safety reasons. Apparently, there are also some trees down at the site and a lot of the tents have blown away. The official press release is on the IPC website. It is currently raining here and up at the site and they're calling for snow overnight - 50 cm of it! They are hoping to run the sprints tomorrow afternoon as planned. I really hope they can!

In the meantime, there isn't much for us to do here. We are supposed to stay at Rosa Khutor (our little hotel strip) and the poor guys staying up top have to stay in their cabins or the restaurant. At least, Colette and I were able to go for a good 50-minute jog outside before the rain began. A decision on tomorrow will be made by 8 o'clock tonight so all we can do now is rest up and wait.

This is the view from our balcony right now:

I will post another update when I know more.

Good afternoon from rainy Sochi.

Sochi: Day 3 - Skiing in the sub-tropics

On the agenda for today was race prep for tomorrow's 15 km classic race. It wasn't as sunny today but more muggy up at the ski site (there's a sentence you don't hear every day!). We don't think it dropped below zero overnight so the snow was very sugary and mushy. It flew everywhere as you went down the hills. So of course we had to use Klister (everyone's favourite glue-like grip wax), but at least it worked.

Tomorrow's race promises to be challenging but it will be that way for everyone. My guide Phil and I went around the course a few times testing wax and doing a few pick-ups and sprints in order to wake up our muscles. Mine felt a little sluggish from the long travel and the jetlag starting to kick in. We met Brian McKeever on one of the hills and I asked him for some advice for tomorrow's race. He gladly gave us a little lesson on how to take uphills conservatively on the first few laps in order to save some energy for the big push at the end, which was much appreciated.

This afternoon Phil and I went over our race plan in fine detail so we will be as ready for tomorrow as we can be. Our start time is at 1:22 p.m. and our category is pretty small unfortunately. But we will totally give it our best and stick to our race plan.

I just got back from a nice evening stroll with Joanne, the team massage therapist, and Colette, my roommate (and a para-nordic ski legend, might I add). It was 15 degrees out there! We cannot believe how nice it is, except for, well, it makes for some wonky ski conditions. On our return from our walk, we watched two guys trying to walk a really drunk guy back to his room (it is Friday night in Russia after all). It was hillarious. At one point, the guy keeled right over taking one of the support guys with him, who fell right on top of him. We really wished we had gotten it on video!

Anyway. here are a couple of pictures before I go to bed. Better make sure I'm well rested for my race tomorrow!

This was taken on the edge of the IPC stadium yesterday or, as Phil put it, "on the edge of paradise." Pretty amazing, eh?

And this is one of the buildings on the little strip that we are staying on. I've still got the touch with photos, don't I? :) 

Good night from Sochi.

Sochi: first impressions

So my last few posts were over a year ago again, but the last ski season wasn't really that exciting to write about anyway.

This year we've got excitement though! I'm currently in Sochi, Russia, getting ready for IPC World Cup races at the Paralympic Test Event.

We got to Sochi yesterday after a very tiring journey that lasted over 24 hours for me, 10 of which were spent at the Istanbul Airport - a very loud and busy place. After arriving here in the morning and catcing a few hours of sleep, we set out to explore our surroundings a bit. The hotel we're stying at is super modern and practically brand new I think. It's very nice. The area we are in is all just hotels on two sides of a pretty fast-flowing river.

Today we went up the mountain to check out the ski courses and conditions, and I have to say both are much better than I had expected. The courses are pretty mamageable I think with no crazy downhills or really steep climbs and the conditions today, although soft and sugary, were still nowhere near as bad as the last race in Minneapolis last year (which I neglected to write about). It was pretty warm down here and up top, but it was nice to enjoy the sun!

I will have to write more about my impressions tomorrow as I had better go to bed.

Good night from Sochi. 

Sprint races

As I mentioned in my previous post, today's races were sprints. the standing skiers' distance was 1 km. The way the sprints work is there is a qualifier in the morning: everyone races the course once individually with 30-second intervals. Then, depending on how many skiers are in the category, a certain number of skiers advances to quarter- or semi-finals. For example, the sitski men had 25 participants today, so the first 16 advanced to the quarter-finals. In my category, which tends to be quite small and is even more so here, we had only 7 participants so all 7 got to advance to semi-finals as long as we got World Cup points (within 130 per cent of the winner's time). I know this sounds a bit complicated but, hopefully, this gives you somewhat of an idea of how the sprints work.

I was last out in my category today and Laurent did his magic on the skis again, they were fast and had awesome grip, even though we had to use Klister (a really sticky liquid grip wax for icy conditions). The course itself was not too complicated, having only one big downhill with a corkscrew turn. I stumbled a bit on he second turn of the corkscrew but stayed up. So I got World Cup points and advanced to the semis.

My semi was at 1 p.m. and I had to warm up for it by running as there was absolutely nowhere to go skiing. I had one of the fastest and the slowest Russian girls in my semi and a German B1, who has become quite fast also. The B1 girl got a 29-second head start and the Russian B2 got a 4-second head start on me and the fast Russian. When it was finally my turn to start, I skied as fast as I could but I could not catch those girls. The weirdest thing happened during that race though. Just as we started the race, this crazy siren went off somewhere. It was super loud and it sounded like an air-raid siren from the old Russian war movies. it scared the heck out of me! I thought we were going to get bombed! It turns out it was a tornado warning siren. I guess it was some kind of test. But talk about ironic timing - it just had to be during the blind race!

Anyway, sprints are really not my thing, and I'm glad they're over. I got World Cup points, and that's good enough.

Tomorrow's race was supposed to be a 15 km but they had mercy on us and reduced it to 12 km for the women standing. They did this because the course is quite difficult: there's nowhere to catch your breath. It only goes up and down and really mostly just up. So it's a kind of course you really have to pace yourself on. In addition, when Brian and I skied it this afternoon, it was like skiing on brown sugar: the snow is sugary and really dirty! My start time tomorrow is 1:04, so it's going to be pretty horrible, and, if it's sunny, also hot. Good thing I just bought a new pair of skis for wet conditions. They're going to come in handy!

Well, that's it for today. One more race and we're home free!

Good night from Minneapolis.



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First day in Minneapolis

Today it became quite apparent how much we've been spoiled over the last week in Cable. For one thing, the food here is not nearly as varied or as plentiful as it was in Telemark. Much more importantly though, there is no snow at all in the town, and the race course looks like they usually do in Europe. The snow is brown in places and there's barely enough to cover the golf course we are skiing on. When we got to the race site this morning, tomorrow's course wasn't even marked. And by the time we left they were still trying to figure out whether we were going to be racing clockwise or counter-clockwise! But Brian and I skied the race course quite a few times, dodging sitskiers, who were skiing the other way, and tripping over Klister all the while. Good thing tomorrow's races are sprints and we're skating on Thursday!

So I start at 10:21 tomorrow for my qualifying race. There are only 7 girls in my category and we're not sure how many will advance. It will be either all of us and we will have semi-finals or only the first 4 and we'll just have finals. I'm inclined to think it will be all of us and I will get to do at least two races. We will see tomorrow though.

All right, I will now go to bed and dream fast dreams before tomorrow's fast race.

Good night from unseasonably warm Minnesota.

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Last two races in Wisconsin

So my last attempt at a blog post failed miserably due to some problem with the app I've been using to post to my blog. I hope the problem has been resolved and this post will go off without a hitch.

We are now in Minneapolis. We're staying at a pretty fancy Hilton hotel. We got here around supper time today and were disappointed right away by the lack of dessert in our supper menu. Apparently, the organizers had to make some budget cuts and dessert had to go. So a few of us took a little walk to the nearest Target store and picked up some cookies. You gotta have dessert after all those races! Other than the lack of dessert though, the food was very good and the hotel is super nice.

My race this morning was a 5 km skate, and I skied it with all my might. I thought it was a very good race overall: we went out appropriately fast on the first lap and kicked it into as high a gear as I could on the second. I had a bit of asthma on the last climb, but got it under control on the downhill and then raced to the finish as fast as I could. This was the first race that I couldn't stay standing at the finish - I fell to my knees after the finish line because I was so exhausted! I was still 6th, passing only one Russian, but I got World Cup points and feel that that was a solid race.

Yesterday I raced the 10 km biathlon, which did not go as well. My shooting started out well (I shot clean on the first lap) and then went downhill from there. I missed 2 on the second lap, 3 on the third and 4 on the fourth. Despite this horrible shooting, i felt that I skied the race well. Brian paced me properly over the 5 laps and there were no asthma attacks in sight. However, with all those penalty loops I had to do, there were no World Cup points either. I believe I wasn't able to shoot well anymore because my supporting arm and shoulder were getting really tired. I need to practise with a rifle in order to shoot consistently well. I found out that the rifles we were using belong to VANOC and will try to see about borrowing or renting one from them to practise with. After all, the short biathlon was by far my best race here so it might be a good idea to get more consistent at shooting.

We don't have a race tomorrow morning (thank God, I really need a break). So we will just be going out to look at the race venue and the courses for our two races here.

I had better go to bed. Good night from Minneapolis!

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Location:14th Ave S,Minneapolis,United States

Second race - 6 km biathlon

Yesterday was the first biathlon race of this competition. The women's vision impaired distance was 6 km: 3 2 km loops with 2 shooting.

I haven't done any biathlon or any shooting practice since the Paralympics in 2010, but I have been shooting really well since I have been here. I had decided to take back control for yesterday's race and so I went back to what I had learned about racing when I first started. I wrote up a race plan, I visualized the race course, i found keywords that would help me focus and feel positive. In other words, I was ready to race.

I did my warm-up and practised some shooting in the time allotted for VI skiers. I got to the start line feeling pumped. I went out on the course and felt so strong that I was pushing Brian on the first lap. We got to the shooting range and I shot clean. On the second lap there were some people passing us and I tried to keep up with them, which triggered a bit of asthma, but I got it back under control and kept going. On the downhill towards the shooting range I caught the track or some separating branches that were left on the course after the sitski race. And I went flying with my legs up in the air. I didn't get tangled up though, so I got up really quickly and kept going. I missed my first shot that time, but was able to refocus and hit the rest. We did one penalt loop and went out for our last lap. I was trying to stay with the German girl who passed me when I fell. It turned out to be a bad idea, as it was not a girl but a guy (which I couldn't see) and therefore much faster than me. This attempt to catch him triggered a full-on asthma attack and for a while I almost couldn't move at all. I couldn't breathe! Once we finally got to some downhill, the asthma let go a bit and I was able to finish the race more or less quickly.

But even with these adventures, I still did well in the race, even beating one Russian girl. So keeping yesterday's race in mind and making appropriate changes (longer warm-up, slower on the first lap), I am racing the 10 km biathlon today.

Well, gotta go get ready! Good morning from Cable!


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First race - 15 km classic

Yesterday was our first race. It was a long one and quite tough. We did 3 laps of 5 km each. In my category, there were only 5 people: 4 Russians and me. I wasn't feeling focused before the race, and so just basically went out and skied as apposed to really racing. My skis were also much slower than Brian's, so that didn't help on the downhills. Brian and I decided to take the first lap really easy in order to save up energy for the last two. The second lap was the hardest for me. By the third lap, I finally started racing as I could hear the last Russian girl coming up behind me the whole way and was trying to get away. Even though I did get away from her, she still beat me by something like 6 minutes, being a B1 (totally blind) and having a big time recalculation as a result. My final race time was 1:07, a whole 12 minutes behind first. I was really upset after the race, as I'm still not any closer to the Russians even though I feel that I'm in much better shape overall. I realize now that it was likely because my head wasn't in the game, and I wasn't ready mentally. So today I'm putting that race behind me and focusing on the races to come. After all, I tend to not do well in the first race anyway.

Today, we're practising shooting and skating tomorrow's race course. Tomorrow is the first biathlon race. It will be a short one: 6 km. I practised a little shooting yesterday afternoon, and it went reasonably well. I shot a lot of 4 out of 5's and even a few 5 out of 5's. Today we'll practise with a higher heart rate, which always makes staying on target more difficult, as you tend to move the rifle when your chest moves with heavy breathing.

Well, I'd better go get ready for my ski. Good morning from Wisconsin. It looks sunny and beautiful out. Who could stay in a bad mood on a day like today?


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Location:Telemark Rd,,United States