Sunday February 19, 2012
Orford NorAM
The 10km individual start race in Orford, Quebec on February 11th was a one lap race. This is a format I haven't done since racing in North Bay over 4 years ago. It changes how you approach the race with your strategy. Instead of planning for how you would ski each of several laps, you need to break the entire race down and be able to recognize where you are on the course and how hard you should be going. With most of the climbs starting 3km into the race and ending around 6km with mostly downhill and flat terrain afterwards, you need to have pushed yourself close to your limit on the hills and then just hold on until the finish. I had a decent race and felt I was closing in time on the guys in front of me until the flatter stretch at the end where I wasn't able to keep my speed up enough and lost some valuable time. Still, it was one of my better races of the year. I finished in 14th place.
February 12th
The 20km mass on Sunday was the race I was most looking forward to. A rather quiet start occurred with only half the field realizing the lady waving a small red flag had started the race. Like any other mass start race, just after the start is the most congested part of the race and I planted my pole in just the wrong place and had it explode loud enough that most people ahead of me thought it was their own pole. I was able to get a replacement within the next 25 meters, but the damage was done. I was now on the wrong side of a sizable pack chasing down the leaders. By the end of the second lap I managed to work my way through to the front of this group but didn't have enough to risk going for it and bridging the 45 seconds to the next group. Then, on the last lap I got in behind someone I thought was going to go for it early, only to have him die utterly, leaving me in the lead much earlier than I wanted. I lost several places when an attack was made after having led more than I should have. It is much easier to follow than to lead and as my old coach Jack Sasseville told me, “don’t lead until you know you can hold it to the finish.” This needs to be part of your race strategy. I finished in 22 place and felt I had a great race, breaking a pole is just part of racing.
There are plenty of things I took away from these races that will improve my senior racing in the future. I am feeling good about my racing now, I am confident about the rest of the season.
With these last North American Cup races in the books, we have a bit of a dry period coming up with only the Lake Louise Loppet before Nationals at Monte St. Anne, Quebec.
More updates later and photos if I can find some
Thursday February 9, 2012
Eastern Canadian Championships
After a full weekend of races at Nakkertock, I have finally come away happy with the overall result. Starting with the skate sprint race in which I qualified 14th I made it into the semi-finals for the first time as a senior. While I didn't have enough in the semi and ended up in the b-final for 7th through 12th place, I was stoked to be there and improve my tactical thinking for senior racing. I ended up 11th so improving on my qualification position was amazing and earned me a few more bonus seconds to add to my overall time for the weekend.
The next day was a individual 15km skate, this is one of my better races and I was confident I would have another good day. I had a great race, able to push myself continuously has been a challenge thus far in the season and having my teammate Kevin Sandau start his first lap as I was starting my second gave my great boost that really improved my time. I finished in the top 15 of the senior category one of my best results all year.
The last race was a 30km pursuit start. This means that our times from the first two races are added up a start list is made based on those times. I started just 2 mins back of the first starter and had some difficulty getting into a group until my 3rd of 6 laps. I was then able to follow that group and regain some lost energy for a much stronger finish than I had in the same race a year ago. While I lost a few spots I am very happy with the result and am looking forward to racing in Orford, Quebec for the first time this weekend.
Thanks for reading
Sunday January 29, 2012
U23 Trials Trials
I've had some time to reflect on my first World Under 23 Trials races and while I know I still have a lot to improve on, both tactically and mentally I am not disappointed in my result.
The 30 km pursuit was one of my best mental races of the year. I was able to focus on skiing my own pace for the first few laps of the classic and skied with competitors I have struggled to stay with all year. This left me right where I wanted to be going into the skate. Unfortunately on the first downhill I was unable to step around the first corner and ended up falling, causing me to lose contact with my group and leading to a relatively solo struggle through the next 15km. While it wasn't the amazing result I was hoping for I was proud that I was able to keep pushing through the whole race.
The sprint was my best of the season, qualifying 18th overall. I was then ranked 4th in the quarterfinal heat against 4 other Academy athletes. I ended up 6th in quarter having not been able to handle the pace set by my teammates but for the first senior heats I've qualified for this year I was happy.
The 15km Individual classic race did not go as well as I had hoped. After the first lap I lost all my grip and really struggled on the bigger climbs of the tough Callaghan Valley course.
In the quarter final of the skate sprint
Out for a ski at Silverstar after the races, from front - Patrick, Graeme, Gerard, Joey, Zach. 45 min to the top then down the downhill runs in 5
Wednesday December 14, 2011
Sovereign Lake NorAM
The first North American Cup race is in the books. Unfortunately for me this was not my greatest start to the race season I've ever had. The races were a classic sprint on Saturday and a 15km individual classic on Sunday. To start, we had the sprint qualifier where I needed to place in the top 30 to qualify for the heats later in the day. I did not have a very good qualifier finishing up 37th senior 2 seconds off 30th, so my day was done.
I was confident moving onto the distance race. This was the first classic distance I have done in the 5 years I have come to Sovereign so I didn't fully now how a classic race would go. Again this was also not my best race, as I finished significantly behind the winner and several minutes behind my competitors I had expected to finish close to.
So all in all, not the best weekend. We are now in Rossland for the second set of NorAM races, this time around the are skate sprints and 15km mass start, both essentially my favourite races.
I will update after the weekend before I head home for Christmas.
Till then.
Out for a ski at Silverstar after the races, from front - Patrick, Graeme, Gerard, Joey, Zach. 45 min to the top then down the downhill runs in 5
Wednesday December 7, 2011
Race Time!
The race season has begun! We have been fortunate enough to have had decent snow to ski on for the past 2 months allowing us to hold a sprint and 15km time trial to get us ready. This past weekend was the first Alberta Cup race where I raced the 1.1km skate sprint. I qualified 10th and moved into a quarterfinal heat with my teammate Phil Widmer. The heat went well, I got in behind Phil after the start and was able to react to any surges he made. Unfortunately I was passed on the last downhill and was unable to make up the distance before the finish. I did not advance to the semifinal as the heats were timed, meaning only the 2 fastest third place finishers would advance and I was the third.
Our next races are the North American Cup races at Sovereign Lakes Nordic in Vernon, BC. So update to follow those races and heres bunch of pictures from the past few months.
The stored snow being set out for the Frozen Thunder Loop
Frozen Thunder ready to go Oct 16th
Phil skiing on perfect snow at Moraine Lake road
The guys hanging out on a man made snow pile
Myself bib 113 in time trail sprint heat with Jess, Pate and Joey
Phil and I (bib 171) in our quarter final
Wednesday October 5, 201l
Whistler Camp
So I had some trouble with my site but everything is back up and running so here are some pictures of our 10 day camp in Whistler. The weather was amazing and for the first time I was able to bring my mountain bike and experience the amazing trails Whistler had to offer.
The majority of our workouts were done rollerskiing up the rode to the Callaghan Valley Nordic Centre and then skiing on the paved trails on the cross-country and biathlon trails. We had our usual skate sprint race with a new course as well as an hour long intensity session up Duffy Lake road with grades around 10%, and we didn't even make it to the top after the hour of near race pace.
Time for some pictures.
The guys skiing up the Callaghan road
Crossing a bridge on our long run on the Comfortably Numb trail
Jess feeling good on our long run
Drew heading up to the platform on his 30th
Starting on the Singing Pass trail
Matt enjoying the trail
Nice meadow halfway up Singing Pass
We found some snow at the top
Matt with Black Tusk in the background
I found this sign informative when we got to the top
You must be at least this tall to ride the chair lift
Wednesday August 3, 201l
Haig Glacier Camp
Our major camp of July consisted of 4 days up on the glacier, then back to Canmore for 3 days then back for another 4 days. This is called a yo-yo camp, and lets you put in some hard hours at altitude and on snow then come back down to recover.
The plan to start the camp was to run into the glacier then ski, but with questionable weather for flying out gear in we rollerskied in Kananaskis before the run to get a solid 5 hours in.
Approaching a questionable downhill in K-Country
The lead group of guys on the run in, base camp just visible to the right.
The race is on for first bunk choice
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From base camp it is a 45 minute hike up to the start of the groomed loop.
The tent where our skis are stored and the start of the loop.
I am sitting on top of the groomer to take this
Monday July 4, 201l
Kaslo Camp and Canada Day
It's been nearly two weeks now since our second camp of the year in Kaslo British Columbia. This camp consisted of an epic 216km bike ride and some rollerskiing. With my injury preventing me from running I missed out on the run on which teammates got lost for the second year in a row.
Not a lot of photos from the Kaslo camp but here are a few curtesy of
Kevin Sandau.
80km in, I am just visible at the back where I tried to stay as much as possible
After Kaslo we had Canada Day in Canmore, the 8km "fun run" and rollerskiing in the parade to look forward to. I had the uphill double pole test to look forward to that morning but go to watch as my teammates ran by my house at about the 2.5km mark.
Pate Nuemann in red
Representing in the parade, the entire parade route had that my people watching
Discussing how our show sprint would play out
Finishing a sprint, I was taken away by the moment and raised my arms, to quote Gladiator, "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!!!"
Up next is the Haig Glacier Camp, we will go up for 4 days then come down 3, then up 4 again.
Can't wait.
Saturday June 11, 201l
As Promised
As promised here is the video of the BBQ raid.
Enjoy!
Thursday May 26, 201l
Silverstar Camp
Our on-snow camp in Silverstar was a solid week of skiing on the remaining 7 feet of snow still on the mountain. I was suffering from an inflamed achilles at the time and double poled the majority of the workouts to allow my tendon to heal. As upsetting as an injury at the start of the season is, I focused on the positives, I would be able to improve my double pole strength. This being a classic year and my most disappointing races from this past year being mostly classic I tried to see this as an opportunity.
Near the end of the camp a small group of us went off the beaten (groomed) path and up to the top of the mountain. It was a great day and we got to enjoy the great views Silverstar Mountain had to offer.
Unfortunately we did this ski on Friday the 13th and not all equipment survived the descent. In total Grahams pole was crushed by Graeme, Gerard snapped his ski then Zach cracked his.
What better way to forget about a day rife with broken equipment than some intense gaming with your friends.
Also around this time the girls decided to make the first move in a prank war that obviously the guys would win. The details you need to know are they started it by stealing our spoons and we finished it by climbing their balcony and stole their dinner. I'll let you know when the video is posted.
Thanks for reading.
Tuesday May 2, 201l
Spring Series
I don't really have much to talk about from spring series. It was a really fun trip, but I got sick shortly after arriving and wasn't able to have the races I was hoping for. My best finish was a 6th place in the skate prologue on the first day of racing. After that I was racing really flat with not a whole lot in the tank to really go.
It wasn't the closeout to the season I wanted but I'm moving on to next year and to my first year of U23 racing.
Wednesday April 13, 201l
Nationals
After my last update I was in Ottawa for the Eastern Canadian Championships. The first day of racing was a skate prologue, a 3km skate race, on Friday where I managed a third place. After that was the skate sprints, which I went into with confidence and had a great qualifier. In the heats I won my quarterfinal easily. In the semi-final I had a slower start and skied most of the heat in fourth, only managing to pass into third position in the finishing lanes. The third place got me into the final, but I was the slowest out of the start and ended up in fifth after a Quebec skier had his ski break when he got tangled up with another skier.
Now the classic 30km on Sunday was in its own category of bad race. I have never hit the wall so hard in a race before. Essentially, at 20km I lost all my energy and starting skiing at a fraction of my former pace. I probably lost five minutes on the group I had been skiing with.
Moving on to happier days, it was finally time for Nationals in Canmore and up first was a skate team sprint. With Team Hardwood member Len Valjas off at the World Cups I joined Harry Seaton to make a team in the Open category. We had a great qualifier, leading every lap conservatively and moved on as the top seed in the final. We then fought a tough final staying with the front group right until my last lap where I was unable to match the pace and we ended up finishing fifth.
The next day was the 10km skate, I had medal hopes for this race and knew I would need to go hard for all three of 3.3km laps. After the first lap I knew I was right up there but then started to fade on the second lap. Knowing I had a bad lap I really tried to push through the fatigue on the last lap only to end up fourth just 1.5 seconds behind third.
The 15km and sprint classic races were a bit of a wash. With warm temperatures rolling in the wax was very tricky and I made mistakes both days regarding which skis I chose to race on. Both days my skis were not the best and I did not have the performances I was hoping for.
The last race of the week was the 30km mass start skate race. This also happened to be the only other mass start race of the year with the last one resulting in my binding separating from my ski. My plan for the race was to be at the front of the pack off the start to stay out of trouble and then hang out there ready to respond to any moves or make my own on the last lap. Thankfully everyone stayed chill at the start and for the majority of the race, with a large lead pack staying together for most of the race. For the whole race I was feeling great and decided on the last lap while we started the long climb before getting back to the stadium that I was going to make the move we had all been waiting for. Only fellow Ontarian Andy Shields stayed with me and was able to counter attack on the last steep hill. After pushing the pace to this point I was hard pressed to match him and lost a few seconds, which he held to the line. A silver medal is my best ever Nationals placing and I'm incredibly happy about it.
Thursday February 10, 201l
Post Trials Update
So it's been a while since my last update. After my races at World Junior Trials, none of which went my way, to be honest I was a bit depressed. I crashed and broke a ski in the first race, had a ski jump out of the track and cause me to crash in my quarter final on the sprint day and then run out of steam on the last lap of the 15 km. This all added up to not making the Canadian World Junior Team and I did not get to go to Estonia.
All that aside I went back to Canmore to recover and to get in a few solid weeks of training to be ready to go again at Western Canadian Championships, Eastern Canadian Championships and of course Nationals.
First up was Western's at the Telemark ski club. The first day was a skate sprint, I qualified 21st, not great then with only 35 athletes in Open Men I would now be racing my first Senior men heats. I was in the first heat with the fastest qualifier, teammate Drew Goldsack, and George Grey, both of whom are Olympians. I managed to get in behind them right off the line and then wasn't able to match the kind of speed they had into the finish.
Next was a classic prologue a 3.5km race that is just to far to sprint but you can't take it easy. I won by just under 2 seconds and was only 30 seconds behind the top senior. It was a short race but you really felt it after you finished.
credit Lucas Jungman - www.jungmann-photography.com
The last race was a 15 km skate with a pursuit start based on your overall time from the other 2 races. I started 3rd junior just 6 seconds back and quickly made up the time and lead a small group for the first lap. I then Followed Geoffrey Richards on the second lap during which we dropped all other juniors. Starting the 3rd lap I wasn't able to stay with the pace and skied with Matt Wylie losing the sprint to the finish which I didn't know had $50 on the line as the 3rd under 23 skier.
I'm now in Ottawa for Eastern Canadians and I'm very excited to do my first 30 km race on Sunday.
Friday January 7, 201l
World Junior Trials: The Pursuit
The first race at trials here in Thunder Bay was a 20 km pursuit. I was really looking to make the most of it, being the first race and our first mass start of the year. I had the third seed and was looking to just go with the pack for the first bit of the race then look to attack closer to the skate. Then less than 30 seconds in some overexcited Juniors sprinting to get to the front caused a crash that took out around half the field. I mean absolute carnage, even after an entire lap all the broken poles still hadn't been cleaned up.
As for me, I was just behind the crash when it happened and nearly escaped but wasn't able to lift my right foot over the incident causing me to crash. I was able to quickly stand up but then noticed it was because I had left my ski on the bottom of the pile up, I then noticed the front of my binding was no longer attached to my ski.
My first thought was to look around for a coach with a ski, not seeing any I grabbed my ski and binding possibly hoping it wasn't as bad as I thought. When that clearly wasn't the case I made the decision to scooter on one ski back the 20 m to the trail to the wax room run over to the racks and grab one of my warm up skis. By the time I got going again I was well over a minute behind the leaders, who weren't affected by the crash at all. Knowing when my binding broke that my chances of winning had just gone to zero, I was now on a mission to go from dead last to pass as many guys as I could.
I did just that having to make another ski exchange for a race waxed ski at the end of the first classic loop then coming into the exchange with a bib 30 spots behind mine. At the same time seeing the leaders go by at least 1 and a half minutes ahead. I had planned to hammer the skate and drop anyone Who was with me, seeing Andy go by I saw thats what he did. All I could do was go as hard as I could and for the first lap I just flew by anyone I saw. The start of the last lap I was able to see that after the next guy I paced I would have over 500 m to make up before I would see anyone else. I managed to close the gap on the last two hard climbs and pass one more in the finishing stretch to end up 11th.
Remember 65th to 11th while getting a ski from the wax room, changing it on course again and passing 54 people.
Monday December 20, 2010
Rossland Mini Tour
It's been a hard 3 days of racing! We started with a 1.6km skate sprint race on the Friday. I had been looking forward to the sprint and placed 5th in qualification. With only 22 Juniors racing we had heats of 5 going down to finals of 4. I made it into the semi's but then finished third in a tight finish against my rivals from Thunder Bay. So I found myself in another b-final and made it a goal to lead the entire race and win. I did manage to lead the majority of the sprint but was passed on the final corner and finished 6th overall.
Next up was a 10km skate individual start. I knew I had a good chance to win and had one of my best races. I tend to take a bit longer to get going in a race, but right off the start I was only a second slower than the fastest starter and just over 1km in I got a split of 3 seconds in the lead. With all but one of my competitors starting ahead of me, it was a great boost to know I was winning. Starting the second lap I caught up to my teammate Joey Burton and was also caught by Drew Goldsack as he started his race. Having both these guys to keep pace with really helped me push the pace on the second lap. I ended up wining by over 10 seconds, my second win of the year.
Our last race was a 15km handicap start. Our times from the sprint and 10km were combined and then based on that time a start list was made. I was the first junior out by 22 seconds and only 26 seconds ahead of the mass start. It wasn't my best race, I just couldn't seem to get into that higher gear to stay with anybody who caught me. I managed to hold off the leaders of the mass start until the last few kilometres of the race and finished 5th Junior across the line. In the overall standings after the last race I was 2nd less than a second behind Jordan.
All in all not a bad weekend.
Wednesday December 15, 2010
Sovereign Lake NorAM
Our second races of the year were held at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre near Vernon, B.C. We stayed on the other side of the mountain in the Silverstar Mountain Resort village. This was my fourth year coming out for these races and it is still my favourite place to stay and race.
Our first race was a classic sprint, at a distance of 1.5km it was the longest sprint I've ever done. I qualified 11th, setting myself up nicely for the heats. The quarter final didn't go as smoothly as I hoped. I was out-lunged to finish third, but luckily made it through as a "Lucky Loser". This gave me the last spot in the second semi final where I would need to finish in the top three to move on to the final. I ended up fading at the end of the semi and finished 5th, moving on to the B-final where I finished 3rd for an overall placing of 9th.
The next day was a 15km skate individual start –one of my favourite race formats The only race I prefer more is a skate mass start, so I was hopeful for a strong result.
With nearly a foot of fresh snow the course was very soft and one of my toughest competitors is a lot smaller and lighter than I am; giving him a bit of an advantage on the steep climbs. I know I ski well in soft snow so I was ready for the conditions. After a tough three laps I was only 34 seconds off the winner, Andy Shields, and just one second ahead of Geoffrey Richards in third.
All in all it was a good weekend and I am really looking forward to the races in Rossland this weekend.
Monday December 6, 2010
First Races
The Fist Alberta Cup was held here in Canmore. Our first races of the year, a skate sprint and 9km classic individual start. The qualifier for the sprints went very well. I finished with the 2nd fastest Qualifying time, setting myself up nicely for the heats. Given that there were only 10 Juniors racing we only had a semi final and A final. I managed to get off to a great start in the semi, leading until the very end but then finished 2nd.
Several local Juniors, raced up as Senior men as this was one of the Alberta Qualifiers for the Canada Winter Games which will be at the end of February in Nova Scotia.
The final went great, I had an amazing start and was skiing right beside first when he fell down on the first uphill. This caused a bit of a break between the rest of the field and myself. I was able to hold onto the lead and win my first gold medal of the year.
The distance race on Sunday didn't go nearly as well as I hoped it would. I ended up 8th over a minute behind the leader, fairly disappointing but looking forward to next weekend's races at Sovereign Lake.
Thursday November 25, 2010
Time Trial Time!
With our first races just a week away, we are having several "Tune Up" time trials to get ourselves mentally and physically prepared. Tomorrow will be a prologue, and will be around 3.75km the majority of which is uphill. Then on Saturday we have a 10km skate time trial with 4 laps of 2.5km. This will make for a fun few days and is getting me very excited to race!
To give you an idea of our snow situation. The stadium has since been pushed out and groomed but none of the upper trails have been finished yet. We're still hopeful seeing as the snow guns have been running 24/7 for the past week.
Thursday November 11, 2010
Canmore is Finally Getting Cold
After our extended camp in Jasper and Lake Louise from Sept 27th to Oct 5th the team had a brief break along with some final testing before the race season starts. I had my fourth VO2 max test since moving West which was my best result yet; a VO2 of 62. For those who don't know this was a test of our body's maximum capacity to transport and use oxygen during exercise. So for me that's 62 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram per minute.
Just this past weekend, Oct 30th we had our 7.5km uphill running time trial where I managed to improve my time from Sept 12th by almost a minute, from 34:59 to 34:07. This is a good sign that things are shaping up well for the ski season. What isn't shaping up quite as well is the lack of snow in Canmore. At this point last year we had been skiing on a small loop for a month. The snow making team did pull out the stored snow and made a loop several weeks ago but with some consistent warm weather "Frozen Thunder" soon became "Rocky Thunder".
Conditions in Lake Louise are looking promising. We may actually be able to ski there this week. Hopefully there will be snow for our camp from the November 13th to the 18th; where we will be doing a lot of time trials as part of our pre-race block of training.
Thanks for reading
Wednesday September 29, 2010
Jasper Camp
After a long September in Canmore with less than ideal fall weather, heading to Jasper for a short camp was a welcome change. We left Monday morning, myself and Jordan Cascagnette riding with Coach Mike, for Lake Louise. However, given how unhappy he was with how little we were talking we may not be his first choice for driving company in the future.
We started the camp off with a five hour rollerski, my longest yet, from the beginning of the Icefields Parkway, finishing 88km later near the bridge over the Saskatchewan river. We then jumped back in the vans for the hour left to Jasper. It was my first time going there and I was looking forward to seeing the town described to me as a less commercial Banff.
Our second day involved a tempo run on some of the great trails Jasper had to offer. We managed to start our run in the wrong direction causing our run to be a bit longer than intended. It did allow for more team bonding time (see picture below, credit Kevin Sandau).
Our afternoon consisted of an easy classic ski on the brand new pavement up to Mt. Edith Cavell. We then left Jasper the next morning for another 5 hour rollerski, this time classic, on great roads where half an hour sometimes went by before a car drove by us. Very different compared to the Ontario roads I used to ski on.
We still have a 8km cross country running race in Calgary this Saturday and a night in Lake Louise next Monday so lots of training to look forward to.
