News from Oberhof

             Hello again! Yes I know it has been awhile. You see, about 5 minutes ago, as I was lying down in my bed in my hotel room in Oberhof, Germany, complaining about the fact that I had nothing to do, one of my teammates politely suggested that I write a blog post. Blog post? Oh right, I have a blog.  So here I am. And now that I think about it, I probably should not have been complaining about having nothing to do in the first place. I arrived here in Oberhof last Thursday for a training camp with the Quebec team. The main reason for this particular destination is that it is home to a giant fridge: a 1.3 km tunnel of manmade groomed snow. Although it may not be the kind of giant fridge most North Americans would dream of, it is one that us cross country skiers enjoy. With a population of around 1700 people, Oberhof is a little winter sports town. Other than the ski tunnel, it has a bunch of ski trails in the winter ( it also is host of a world cup), a biathlon shooting range, a ski jump, a bobsleigh run and a downhill ski hill. I even discovered that in the downtown, outside the sports store, there are hand prints with the names of German winter sports stars.

The world cup stadium

Axel Teichmann's hand print

Other than the obvious skiing opportunity this trip provides, it is also great practice for future oversea races that we will have to travel to. Travelling is something you can practice and learn from. Now that it’s my 3^rd time travelling to Europe, I am better at sleeping on the plane, I am better at keeping my bag organized ( no lost passport or wallet), I am better at overall recovery (frequent stretching, drinking water).... but I still have a lot to learn and to improve on! During the first few days, we did short workouts as we were recovering from travel, and focused mostly on our technique. We also took advantage of the rollerskiing, which consists of approximately 10km of paths reserved for biathletes and skiers. The paths are quite technical with many long hills and sharp corners so I was surprised that most of the Germans were not wearing helmets! Yesterday, we were lucky to run into the legendary Norwegian skier Peter Northug as he was going to ski in the tunnel. We even asked to take a picture with him. As you can see in the picture below, he was not quite as excited as we were.

During our free time, when we are not napping or relaxing, we have gone to tour around the little village. Emilie and I visited the sports store and were overwhelmed by the rollerski selection ( junior rollerskis??) and the overpriced shoes and clothing. We also visited a local bakery and tried some very yummy German desserts.

On Thursday we all had an off day, so we headed off to visit two historic cities, Bamberg and Nuremberg that were about an hour and a half drive away. Of course, due to our lack of knowledge in the German language, we struggled with street names and parking signs and it took a little longer than planned. The drive was definitely worth it. Bamberg is a city that goes all the way back to 902, and is one of the cities that stayed almost intact during the Second World War so the buildings were pretty cool. In Nuremberg, we visited the market, some very old beautiful cathedrals and the Nuremberg castle. We bought various different desserts and some raspberries in the market. The castle was definitely a highlight. 

We are heading home tomorrow, with a short stop in Paris. And then school starts again!

Nuremberg castle

Until next time!

Katherine

Rebonjour! Oui je sais que ca fais longtemps. Tu vois, il y a cinq minutes, alors que j’étais couchée dans mon lit d’hôtel à Oberhof en Allemagne, je me plaignais de n’avoir rien à faire, une de mes coéquipières m’a poliment suggéré d’écrire dans mon blog. Mon blog? Ah oui, j’ai un blog. Alors me voici. Et maintenant que j’y pense, je n’aurais pas du me plaindre en premier lieu. Je suis arrivée ici à Oberhof jeudi passé pour un camp d’entrainement avec l’équipe du Québec. La raison principale pour ce choix de destination est qu’il y a un tunnel réfrigéré avec 1.3km de pistes de ski. Avec une population d’environ 1700 habitants, Oberhof est une petite ville de sport d’hiver. Autre que le tunnel, Oberhof comprend un vaste réseau de piste de ski de fond en hiver, un champ de tir de biathlon, une piste de ski alpin, une piste de bobsleigh ainsi qu’un saut à ski. J’ai même découvert par terre, en dehors du magasin de sport dans le village, des empreintes de mains des stars de sports d’hiver allemands ainsi que leurs noms.

L'empreint de main de Axel Teichmann

Autre que l’opportunité de skier, ce voyage nous procure une excellente façon de nous pratiquer pour des futurs voyages outre-mer que nous aurons à faire. En voyageant plus souvent, on apprend des  trucs pour s’ajuster et récupérer plus efficacement. Comme c’est ma troisième fois en Europe, je réussi à dormir plus longtemps dans l`avion, je suis mieux organisée (pas de porte-feuille ni de passeport perdu) et j’ai de meilleures techniques de récupération (étirements fréquents, boire beaucoup d’eau)…. Mais il me reste encore beaucoup de choses à apprendre! Durant les premiers jours, comme on devait récupérer du voyage, nous avons fais des entrainements courts en se concentrant sur notre technique. Nous avons aussi profité du ski à roulettes, qui consiste approximativement à 10 km de pistes réservées uniquement pour les skieurs et biathlètes. Les pistes sont assez techniques avec plusieurs longues montées ainsi que des tournants serrés. J’étais donc très étonnée de voir que les allemands ne portaient pas de casque. Hier. nous avons meme eu la chance de voir le fameux skieur de la Norvège, Peter Northug.

Avec le fameux Peter Northug 

Durant notre temps libre, quand on n’est pas en train de relaxer ou dormir, nous sommes allés visiter le petit village. Émilie et moi avons été voir le magasin de sport et avons été énormément surprises par la large variété de ski a roulettes et les prix très élevés du linge et des souliers. Il y avait même des skis à roulettes juniors! Nous avons aussi visité la pâtisserie du village où nous avons gouté à plusieurs desserts allemands.

Jeudi, nous avons eu une journée de repos, alors nous en avons profité pour aller visiter deux villes historiques, Bamberg et Nuremberg, qui se situent à une heure et demie de l’hôtel. Évidemment, puisque nos connaissances dans la langue allemande sont assez limitées, nous avons eu de la misère à comprendre les panneaux de route et ceux de stationnement. Ca l’a donc pris plus de temps que prévu pour arriver à la destination, mais ca l’a valu la peine! Bamberg est une ville qui date de 902, et est une des villes qui a restée quasiment intacte durant la deuxième guerre mondiale. Alors, les bâtiments étaient assez intéressants. À Nuremberg, nous avons visité le marché, quelques vieilles cathédrales ainsi que le château de Nuremberg. 

The Nuremberg castle

On part demain vers la maison avec un arret rapide à Paris! Et ensuite, c'est le retour à l'école.
À la prochaine!
Katherine

World Junior trials

I arrived in Canmore about two weeks ago for world junior trials. Even though I had already made the team from the NorAm races in December, trials have the exact same events as world juniors so they are good practice races for Val di Fiemme.

 My team and I stayed at the Rocky mountain lodge. The lodge itself is pretty nice but we had to fit 6 people into a 3 bedroom house with a tiny kitchen... it made things interesting. 

Photo creds to Graham Perry

We spent the first few days in Canmore enjoying the mountains, the warm weather and adjusting to the altitude (1400m).

With the girls

And the races began. I know that trials should of been a stress-free competition for me, but no matter what the circumstances are, I always seem to find a reason to be nervous. All week people would tell me that I had no reason to be stressed out, and I knew they were right. Why was I nervous?   I thought it through, and realised that I felt the need to prove that I had deserved the spot on the team. I had put pressure on myself to beat others. I am not saying this is a bad thing. I am a competitive person, it runs in the family! But before focusing on the outcome of a race, it is important to rethink about your goals. My goals for the 3 races had nothing to do with how I finished. These races were a perfect learning opportunity because I could work on things without having to worry about the outcome. I was happy with my results from the 3 races, taking home silver in the 5km, 1st in the sprint and 3rd in the pursuit. It was only after the first two races that I was able to settle down and focus on skiing well instead of just skiing fast. So what did I take away from trials? It is okay to be nervous, as long as you are able to put your focus at the right place.

Pushing hard

Sprint podium

While my team headed home, I stayed in canmore for an extra 3 days with the rest of the U23/Junior team to train before leaving to Europe.

After the wind storm is Canmore

To finish off, I would like to say good job to my sister Emilie who raced two very solid races after not racing for almost two years. If you have not already done so, go take a look at her blog: http://estewart-jones.blogspot.ca/.

I'm now in Seefeld Austria skiing and taking a lot of pictures, so expect an update soon!

Katherine

October-December recap

October

In October, I flew out to Canmore, host of the earliest on snow skiing of the season in all of North America. Piles of snow are saved every year after the ski season and are then rolled out into a 2km loop called Frozen thunder. I was there for a training camp with the rest of the junior national team and the senior national development team. Thanks to the woman’s comity, we stayed in the beautiful Paintbox lodge (owned by Olympian Sara Renner and her husband) in downtown Canmore. The week was filled with many activities including cooking with the cook that will be going with the Canadian team to Sochi, a talk with the national team’s sport psychologist, a rollerski treadmill test with a physiologist and not to mention a very inspirational talk with one of my idols Clara Hughes.

Group picture of the woman's camp. (I am on the bottom left)

December

At the top top of silver star mountain with the team

First stop was Silver Star in British Columbia. This year was my 4^th consecutive year going out to Silver Star. Before leaving, the snow conditions at home were decent, but we had only been skiing for about 5 days so we decided to take advantage of the on-snow skiing and focus on training instead of the races.  The only downside of this trip was the extreme cold. It was about -20 every day. The race on Saturday almost got cancelled but after being delayed a couple of hours, the race was on. I was really satisfied with my first weekend of racing with two podium finishes, first in the 10km skate and 3^rd in the classic sprint.

Podium for the classic sprint

After Silver Star I was off to Rossland while the rest of my team headed home. I stayed with the Alberta world cup academy for the week. In Rossland it was warm, humid and very hilly, a combination that makes it difficult for wax technicians.  We raced on a mix of klister and hard wax which resulted in many face plants.  Although I managed to stay on my feet, I was a bit disappointed with my result (5th Junior) but was glad to take away gold in the skate sprint.

Good news! After those two weekends of racing out west I earned the pre-qualifying spot for world juniors in Italy!!