Snow was here...for a second

We finally had our first snowfall this week! Sadly, after messing with traffic and flipping a bus, it all melted away in two days. But Harris, Lindsey and I got a good ski in on Wednesday night before it all disappeared. There were a good 5 cm on the ground at Mooney's Bay and a few people had already skied before us, so we were able to follow their tracks all around the park. We even ventured over to Vincent Massey Park for a spell. All in all, we got a good hour and 15 minutes of solid (well, not that solid actually, it being the first ski) skiing in.





But now the snow is all gone, so we're busting out the rollerskis and hiking poles again. Today, Kanata Nordic racers had a training session in the Gatineau Park. We all hiked from the Old Chelsea Picnic Ground, up Penguin hill and then my parents and I continued on Trail 1, while the racers did Skyline Trail, which is very rocky and ragged, so not so great for the vision impaired. It was an overcast and gloomy sort of day, but not much beats being in the forest, smelling the fall smells and breathing the fresh air while going up and down windy forest trails. It's one of my favourite types of training. There were lots of people out on the trails today, some walking with dogs, some nordic walking with big backpacks, lots running with ski hiking poles like ourselves. My parents and I did about 2.5 hours of ski hiking, consisting of ski striding with our poles up the hills (as I'm doing in the photo), jogging down the hills and jogging or ski walking on flats. 

After training, we stopped off at Fresh Air Experience to pick out some skis for me. I've decided that it's time for me to act like a real racer and acquire more than just two pairs of good racing skis. I brought my two pairs of skis (classic and skate) with me to the store, and Duncan tested them for me to figure out what kind of conditions they are best for, so that I can buy two more pairs that will be good for different conditions. It turns out my two pairs are best for powder or hard-packed conditions, which I apparently knew without realizing it, because when Duncan asked me what I found the skis were good for I told him that the skate skis were horrible in that crazy 15 km race in Vancouver with the wet soppy snow. Duncan said his testing confirmed that those skis would be better for powder or hard-packed snow. So my new pair of skate skis is going to be better for wet conditions. For my classic skis, I said that they are really good for everything, but then amended that maybe they were not so good for Klister skiing (Klister is a horribly sticky grip wax that is used for hard-packed icy conditions in classic skiing). I was pleased to find out that I was right - based on the testing Duncan did with Fresh Air's very cool ski testing machine, my classic skis had no Klister pocket, so they would be no good on Klister days. So I will be getting a new pair of Klister skis. Unfortunately, they didn't have these two types of skis for my height and weight, so I've been put on the list of racers waiting for new skis and they will keep an eye on their new arrivals for skis that will fit what I'm looking for. I was super impressed with the way I was treated at Fresh Air today. I've always been treated super nice by Chris and everyone else there, but I've never had such special racer treatment before. If ever, anyone is looking for cross country ski equipment or bicycles in the Ottawa area and beyond, I highly recommend Fresh Air Experience. They have the best prices, very knowledgeable staff, and you can shop online. And as you can see, they really get to know their customers. And that's my positive rant for the day.

We were supposed to have a development training camp for the Eastern half of the country next weekend, but as there is no snow in Mont Ste-Anne, QC, it probably won't happen. The coaches are making the call on Monday. Either option is fine by me, since going to this camp meant that I couldn't attend my friend's wedding. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. 

I'm going rollerskiing in the Gatineau Park tomorrow morning, and I really hope it doesn't rain as much as they're calling for! If anyone is readying this, please think of snow for me. I'd like to try out my new skis when I get them and to actually get off the pavement before races start!

And that's the end of this lengthy update. Good night from Ottawa! 

France: Day something or other: Day off

This is the morning before our long biathlon race. This is what I wrote last night but was unable to publish.

It’s a snowy evening in Bessans. The snow has been falling softly all day. This should make for very different conditions for our long biathlon race tomorrow. The snow should be faster because it’s most likely warmer than what’s on the ground, but, if there is an abundance of it on the trail tomorrow, it might actually slow things down further.



Today was a day off or a training day. We did some shooting in the morning and just a bit of skiing. Tomorrow’s race is a shooter’s race, so I’m hoping to do alright as long as I can keep my shooting good like in the last biathlon race. The blind categories start late tomorrow – my start time is 1:00:30, which is going to pose a bit of a problem with eating. It’s a long race, so we need to make sure we don’t get hungry in the middle of it, but having this late start means we have to figure out when to have breakfast and when to have some snacks and WHAT to have as snacks, as we won’t be able to eat lunch until after the race.


Well, the internet is not working here today for some reason, so I guess I can’t post this tonight. I will try again in the morning since I will have so much time to waste.

So the internet is working now. I slept for like 9 hours last night, but am still feeling tired for some reason. Regardless, I'll just go out and ski as hard as I can. After all, that's all I can really do.

Yesterday, a group of us wanted to go on a little road trip to Turin, Italy, but we found out that it's too far of a drive from here in the winter to do in an afternoon. So we just went exploring in this region of France. We drove over to the bigger town of Modane and got a "sablé" (kind of like a butter cookie). Then we went to what seems to be the only attraction in the area, a place called "la maison penchée" (the leaning house). Apparently it was some guardhouse that got thrown a few dozen metres from where it stood during WWII. It didn't look like much from the outside, and we were totally unimpressed, but it turned out to be a lot of fun once we went inside. It totally threw your balance and made you all dizzy.

Then, on our way back to our little village, we stopped to look at an awesome castle or fortress thing. They seem to have one of those on every hill around here. We weren't able to go inside, but it was really cool just to see it anyway since I'd never seen one in real life before. It had a moat and a drawbridge and the whole bit. They also had some crazy rope courses and ziplines going across the canyon. Looked pretty scary.

Well, it's just after 10:30, so I'd better go get ready for my race. Hopefully, I'll post again tonight, but no promises. Good morning from snowy Bessans.