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!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
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?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Telemark Rd,,United States
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Arrived in Wisconsin
We are here in Cable, Wisconsin, for the first leg of the IPC World Cups in the U.S. Team Canada made up of the National World Cup Team, Development Team and the National Group (which I am a part of) arrived at the Telemark Resort last night after a day-long journey from various parts of the country. Caroline and I flew from Ottawa at 11 a.m. and met most of the team in Toronto. We made our connection even though we were late coming in. Our skis weren't as lucky. We think they were offloaded in Toronto because there wasn't enough space on the plane. Thankfully, the USOC volunteers got them to the hotel safely late last night.
Today was an absolutely gorgeous day: sunny and somewhat mild. The trails here at Telemark start right outside our door, which is really awesome. We took the morning to get organized and some people had classification. Since I wasn't one of those people, having been classified twice already, I helped our coaches scrape some skis in the wax room.
After lunch, most of us went out skiing. We skied the 5 km loop that will be used for the 15 km race on Thursday. My guide, Brian, isn't here yet, as there was a bad storm in Thunder Bay and he is somewhere on the way. So I asked Mary,, one of our coaches, to guide me today. The course is nice and mostly rolling, but there are some bigger downhills and longer climbs. The only downhill that might present a problem is somewhere in the middle of the course. It's got lots of turns through which you keep picking up speed. Mary and I went down it not realizing what it was like. I was holding on for dear life until the very last left-hand turn, where I got carried out to the outside and wiped out followed closely by Erica, who had to fall to avoid running over me, and Caroline, who fell to avoid running over Erica's pole. Then there was Mary, who looked back at me to see what happened and almost ran into a bush and wiped out to avoid that collision. So I caused a four-girl pile-up!
It's now evening and Brian has finally arrived. Yay! So tomorrow we'll be skiing at 10 a.m. and also possibly practicing some shooting. And I'm off to bed. Still need more rest after yesterday.
Good night from Cable.
Today was an absolutely gorgeous day: sunny and somewhat mild. The trails here at Telemark start right outside our door, which is really awesome. We took the morning to get organized and some people had classification. Since I wasn't one of those people, having been classified twice already, I helped our coaches scrape some skis in the wax room.
After lunch, most of us went out skiing. We skied the 5 km loop that will be used for the 15 km race on Thursday. My guide, Brian, isn't here yet, as there was a bad storm in Thunder Bay and he is somewhere on the way. So I asked Mary,, one of our coaches, to guide me today. The course is nice and mostly rolling, but there are some bigger downhills and longer climbs. The only downhill that might present a problem is somewhere in the middle of the course. It's got lots of turns through which you keep picking up speed. Mary and I went down it not realizing what it was like. I was holding on for dear life until the very last left-hand turn, where I got carried out to the outside and wiped out followed closely by Erica, who had to fall to avoid running over me, and Caroline, who fell to avoid running over Erica's pole. Then there was Mary, who looked back at me to see what happened and almost ran into a bush and wiped out to avoid that collision. So I caused a four-girl pile-up!
It's now evening and Brian has finally arrived. Yay! So tomorrow we'll be skiing at 10 a.m. and also possibly practicing some shooting. And I'm off to bed. Still need more rest after yesterday.
Good night from Cable.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
O-Cup #1 in review
I've been back from Thunder Bay for almost a week, and finally found some time to write about it.
The weekend's races went really well overall. It was great to have a chance to compete and get the first-race nerves out of the way before the World Cups coming up in a week. The nerves definitely got the better of me in the first race: a 3 km classic. I had skied the course quite a few times the day before and thought I had it down. Out of the three races, I'd say the first one had the most challenging course, both in terms of climbing and in terms of downhills. I was really nervous on the day of the race, it being the first race of the season. It also didn't help that I hadn't thought of arranging a meeting time and place with Brian, my guide. So in between doing our warm-up and testing wax to make sure we had grip, Caroline and I kept looking for Brian in and around the chalet. It later turned out that Brian was also forerunning (pre-skiing) the course every day, so that might have had something to do with why we couldn't find him. Needless to say that by the time my start time rolled around, I was really frazzled. I was almost relieved to start the race. Everything went more or less smoothly until we got to Lena's Leap: I jumped out of the tracks to go down the drop, but didn't quite make the right-hand turn at the bottom and tumbled into the snowbank. When I tried to get up, the tail of my ski kept digging into the snow. It wasn't until I stopped to analyze the situation and realized that I needed to turn onto my side and then put my skis down that I was able to get up and get going. Of course, by that time, I could hear Christine and her guide coming up behind me and thought, "Crap! She started 30 seconds after me, she shouldn't be catching up!" So I started skiing up the hill like mad. It didn't help that I had lost my toque and got snow in my ears when I fell. With about a kilometre to go, they were still close behind us, but we finally got away on the last hilly section of the race. This was a race when I actually found myself thinking "why am I doing this to myself?", as the last kilometre was super tough. It was not a great race, but definitely good practice for mental toughness!
The other two races went much more smoothly. I stopped worrying about finding Brian as we agreed just to meet at the stadium close to start time. I was able to do my warm-up with Caroline and then with Christine and her guide. It was very nice of both of them to let me tag along.
The second day's race was a 1 km classic sprint, which meant that we had to do a qualifier in the morning at around 10 and, as there were only three of us, a final at around 2 p.m. I had a really good warm-up and awesome grip for the qualifier (thank you, Harris). It was a really good race. I caught Christine on the uphill even though she started 30 seconds ahead of me this time. Then, we had quite a few hours to kill so a whole delegation of us went to scout out the next day's 5 km skate racecourse. We were able to ski only part of it though, as the rest was blocked off for the races. Caroline and I then had time to have some lunch and even a little nap on the floor! I was a little worried about the sprint final, as I tend to have trouble with racing more than once in one day, but I was able to warm up well once again and to finish the race without incident and well ahead of my competitors. This gives me confidence for the sprint races in the U.S. as sprints tend to be my worst event.
Sunday's race was a 5 km skate race, as I mentioned, and Robbi Weldon, the fastest female para-nordic racer in Canada, took part in the race. Robbi tried competing in tandem cycling last year and turned out to be amazing at it. So she will be competing in London 2012. But, as Thunder Bay is her hometown, she wanted to race with us. This was very good for us all, as competing against the fastest in your class is always a great way to measure your own performance. The 5 km race was a mass start and Robbi started to pull away right away. But, according to Brian, she was only 10 to 15 seconds ahead of us all through the first downhill and then uphill sections of the race. In the end, she beat me by a little less than a minute, which is really good if you compare it to last year's nationals. She must have gotten away on the last portion of the course, which was very twisty and curvy. Downhill corners are definitely an area I really need to work on. But I had a personal best in this race with a time of 17:03. I do acknowldge that it was a really easy course, but a PB is a PB and another confidence booster.
I stayed in Thunder Bay for another day when the races were done to work on skiing with Brian in preparation for the World Cups. We skied for two hours on Monday, and Brian took me up the two biggest hills at Lappe. He said he couldn't let me go home without going up them. I was completely exhausted by the end of that ski! So, this week, I've been taking it easy and recovering. Though on Wendesday, Patti had me do as many 30-second sprints as I could handle before getting light-headed. I ended up doing 25 of them and I never got light-headed! That was something.
So now there is only one week left before I go to the U.S. for the IPC World Cups. I hope they have wi-fi over there so I can actually post regularly.
For now, good night from Ottawa.
The weekend's races went really well overall. It was great to have a chance to compete and get the first-race nerves out of the way before the World Cups coming up in a week. The nerves definitely got the better of me in the first race: a 3 km classic. I had skied the course quite a few times the day before and thought I had it down. Out of the three races, I'd say the first one had the most challenging course, both in terms of climbing and in terms of downhills. I was really nervous on the day of the race, it being the first race of the season. It also didn't help that I hadn't thought of arranging a meeting time and place with Brian, my guide. So in between doing our warm-up and testing wax to make sure we had grip, Caroline and I kept looking for Brian in and around the chalet. It later turned out that Brian was also forerunning (pre-skiing) the course every day, so that might have had something to do with why we couldn't find him. Needless to say that by the time my start time rolled around, I was really frazzled. I was almost relieved to start the race. Everything went more or less smoothly until we got to Lena's Leap: I jumped out of the tracks to go down the drop, but didn't quite make the right-hand turn at the bottom and tumbled into the snowbank. When I tried to get up, the tail of my ski kept digging into the snow. It wasn't until I stopped to analyze the situation and realized that I needed to turn onto my side and then put my skis down that I was able to get up and get going. Of course, by that time, I could hear Christine and her guide coming up behind me and thought, "Crap! She started 30 seconds after me, she shouldn't be catching up!" So I started skiing up the hill like mad. It didn't help that I had lost my toque and got snow in my ears when I fell. With about a kilometre to go, they were still close behind us, but we finally got away on the last hilly section of the race. This was a race when I actually found myself thinking "why am I doing this to myself?", as the last kilometre was super tough. It was not a great race, but definitely good practice for mental toughness!
The other two races went much more smoothly. I stopped worrying about finding Brian as we agreed just to meet at the stadium close to start time. I was able to do my warm-up with Caroline and then with Christine and her guide. It was very nice of both of them to let me tag along.
The second day's race was a 1 km classic sprint, which meant that we had to do a qualifier in the morning at around 10 and, as there were only three of us, a final at around 2 p.m. I had a really good warm-up and awesome grip for the qualifier (thank you, Harris). It was a really good race. I caught Christine on the uphill even though she started 30 seconds ahead of me this time. Then, we had quite a few hours to kill so a whole delegation of us went to scout out the next day's 5 km skate racecourse. We were able to ski only part of it though, as the rest was blocked off for the races. Caroline and I then had time to have some lunch and even a little nap on the floor! I was a little worried about the sprint final, as I tend to have trouble with racing more than once in one day, but I was able to warm up well once again and to finish the race without incident and well ahead of my competitors. This gives me confidence for the sprint races in the U.S. as sprints tend to be my worst event.
Sunday's race was a 5 km skate race, as I mentioned, and Robbi Weldon, the fastest female para-nordic racer in Canada, took part in the race. Robbi tried competing in tandem cycling last year and turned out to be amazing at it. So she will be competing in London 2012. But, as Thunder Bay is her hometown, she wanted to race with us. This was very good for us all, as competing against the fastest in your class is always a great way to measure your own performance. The 5 km race was a mass start and Robbi started to pull away right away. But, according to Brian, she was only 10 to 15 seconds ahead of us all through the first downhill and then uphill sections of the race. In the end, she beat me by a little less than a minute, which is really good if you compare it to last year's nationals. She must have gotten away on the last portion of the course, which was very twisty and curvy. Downhill corners are definitely an area I really need to work on. But I had a personal best in this race with a time of 17:03. I do acknowldge that it was a really easy course, but a PB is a PB and another confidence booster.
I stayed in Thunder Bay for another day when the races were done to work on skiing with Brian in preparation for the World Cups. We skied for two hours on Monday, and Brian took me up the two biggest hills at Lappe. He said he couldn't let me go home without going up them. I was completely exhausted by the end of that ski! So, this week, I've been taking it easy and recovering. Though on Wendesday, Patti had me do as many 30-second sprints as I could handle before getting light-headed. I ended up doing 25 of them and I never got light-headed! That was something.
So now there is only one week left before I go to the U.S. for the IPC World Cups. I hope they have wi-fi over there so I can actually post regularly.
For now, good night from Ottawa.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Pre-race update
So Brian and I went around tomorrow's course 3 more times, the last time with a bit more speed. We worked on some strategies for taking some of the sharper corners and Lena's Leap, which is similar to Dirk's Dive at Nakkertok. It's a very sharp drop on one of the downhills here. It's so steep that on our first go-round yesterday I actually caught a few inches of air! It was kind of fun and scary. Skiing with Brian is really cool: he says there is no point in him telling me how to take downhill corners, it's whatever I'm comfortable with and his job is just to help me make up as much time on them as possible. So the last time we went around the coourse, we went a little faster and I thought that all the downhills and corners went actually really well. So let's hope things go as well tomorrow. It's a nice fun course, which has only one long climb, so I'm confident that tomorrow will go well. It's funny considering that the last time I skied on this course was in 2006 and I thought these were the scariest steepest hills ever! I've to a few places since then! The only problem tomorrow might be with wax as it's going to be really warm tomorrow. But we'll see if the snow actually warms up. It apparently stays colder here than other places around.
Anyway, that's my update for now. I'm feeling quite positive for tomorrow's race and am looking forward to racing with Brian.
Good afternoon from Lappe!
Anyway, that's my update for now. I'm feeling quite positive for tomorrow's race and am looking forward to racing with Brian.
Good afternoon from Lappe!
In Thunder Bay for O-Cup #1
Happy New Year! I know I'm a bit late, but that's a recurring theme in this blog, so oh well.
I'm in Thunder Bay this weekend for the first Ontario Cup of the year and, incidentally, my first race of this season. I'm excited! We finally got snow in Ottawa on Christmas Day, and it was the best present Santa could have brought us skiers. I had all of last week off work so I skied up in the Gatineaus to my heart's content and we even held a short time trial at Mooney's Bay, which we needed to do in order to qualify for the Ontario ParaSport Games to be held in Huntsville in February.
But back to this O-Cup. Harris and I flew in yesterday, and we are staying at Patti's sister's house. Caroline will also be coming to stay with us today. She was supposed to arrive late last night but missed her connection and was stuck in Toronto overnight. We came out to ski at Lappe Nordic Centre yesterday afternoon, and it was a gorgeous day. They have a bit more snow here than we do and it's surprisingly warmer here than in Ottawa. I skied with Brian Berry, who has agreed to guide me in the World Cups this year. Brian is Robbi Weldon's guide of several years, but Robbi is tandem cycling this year in preparation for the London Paralympics, so I'm borrowing her guide in the meantime. Skiing with Brian was awesome. We skied the 3 km race course a couple of times and he launched into race strategy right away talking about where we can save time on corners and downhills, etc. I think I'll be able to learn a lot from him.
Our races are a 3 km classic prologue on Friday, classic sprints on Saturday and a 5 km skate race on Sunday. I will try to write updates throughout the weekend but Maureen, our host, doesn't have wi-fi, so it might be tough. I'm writing at Lappe right now.
Well, I'd better go and see if I can find Brian and get ready for a ski. Good morning from Lappe!
I'm in Thunder Bay this weekend for the first Ontario Cup of the year and, incidentally, my first race of this season. I'm excited! We finally got snow in Ottawa on Christmas Day, and it was the best present Santa could have brought us skiers. I had all of last week off work so I skied up in the Gatineaus to my heart's content and we even held a short time trial at Mooney's Bay, which we needed to do in order to qualify for the Ontario ParaSport Games to be held in Huntsville in February.
But back to this O-Cup. Harris and I flew in yesterday, and we are staying at Patti's sister's house. Caroline will also be coming to stay with us today. She was supposed to arrive late last night but missed her connection and was stuck in Toronto overnight. We came out to ski at Lappe Nordic Centre yesterday afternoon, and it was a gorgeous day. They have a bit more snow here than we do and it's surprisingly warmer here than in Ottawa. I skied with Brian Berry, who has agreed to guide me in the World Cups this year. Brian is Robbi Weldon's guide of several years, but Robbi is tandem cycling this year in preparation for the London Paralympics, so I'm borrowing her guide in the meantime. Skiing with Brian was awesome. We skied the 3 km race course a couple of times and he launched into race strategy right away talking about where we can save time on corners and downhills, etc. I think I'll be able to learn a lot from him.
Our races are a 3 km classic prologue on Friday, classic sprints on Saturday and a 5 km skate race on Sunday. I will try to write updates throughout the weekend but Maureen, our host, doesn't have wi-fi, so it might be tough. I'm writing at Lappe right now.
Well, I'd better go and see if I can find Brian and get ready for a ski. Good morning from Lappe!
Monday, December 19, 2011
December update
It's so hard to keep up with the blog, but I really really want to! I'll keep just have to keep trying.
So Christmas is just around the corner, and it probably won't be as merry as we'd like this year. For one thing, there's been absolutely no skiable snow since that one day in November, and this is weighing me down horribly. I'm still doing dryland training! It's December 19, and it's raining - it's a skier's nightmare! I have a race in Thunder Bay in 2 weeks and I have hardly been on snow yet! I've taken time off for the Holidays so that I can ski in daylight and...I'll be doing more ski striding, strength training, running and possibly rollerskiing (if it ever stops raining) instead! ARGH!
Second, this year will be the first year that Cliff and I are not going down to visit his parents for Christmas. He just got a new job at the airport and he has to work on both Christmas and Boxing Day. How's that for making merry? Not great, I'll say. We'll just have to make do on our own. Thankfully, my parents (though they are Russian Orthodox and don't celebrate Christmas until January 7) live in Ottawa and will be coming for dinner on Christmas Eve, and we're invited to a friend's house for dinner to celebrate with her family. So it won't be that bad. It's just sad when traditions get laid by the wayside...
Anyway, that's my short and rather bitter update for today. I will write more soon. I still have to tell you about the camp in Mont Ste-Anne and to post pictures. But I will have to save this for another day.
Good night from gross rainy Ottawa.
So Christmas is just around the corner, and it probably won't be as merry as we'd like this year. For one thing, there's been absolutely no skiable snow since that one day in November, and this is weighing me down horribly. I'm still doing dryland training! It's December 19, and it's raining - it's a skier's nightmare! I have a race in Thunder Bay in 2 weeks and I have hardly been on snow yet! I've taken time off for the Holidays so that I can ski in daylight and...I'll be doing more ski striding, strength training, running and possibly rollerskiing (if it ever stops raining) instead! ARGH!
Second, this year will be the first year that Cliff and I are not going down to visit his parents for Christmas. He just got a new job at the airport and he has to work on both Christmas and Boxing Day. How's that for making merry? Not great, I'll say. We'll just have to make do on our own. Thankfully, my parents (though they are Russian Orthodox and don't celebrate Christmas until January 7) live in Ottawa and will be coming for dinner on Christmas Eve, and we're invited to a friend's house for dinner to celebrate with her family. So it won't be that bad. It's just sad when traditions get laid by the wayside...
Anyway, that's my short and rather bitter update for today. I will write more soon. I still have to tell you about the camp in Mont Ste-Anne and to post pictures. But I will have to save this for another day.
Good night from gross rainy Ottawa.
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