April Adventures

It is already mid May, and I am getting ready for yet another training season. For those who, like me, have visited the CCC website many times in the last month waiting for the training center and national team nomination list to come up, you are probably aware of my plan for next year. For those who are not, the big news is that I will be moving to Thunder Bay to join the National Development Center! Even though the decision was somewhat difficult, I am confident that it is the best place for me to be at this stage in my skiing career. Other good news is that I have been nominated to the Senior National Development Team!

During the last month and a half I have been keeping myself busy with things other than skiing. For me, the month of April, which skiers refer to as “off month” is the time to switch my focus off of competing and training and have fun doing things I would normally not do. After nationals, I gave my body a well needed rest and focused on the large pile of school work that had accumulated over the past month. Although this does not exactly qualify as “fun”, it felt good to switch my focus onto something else. I also took advantage of the amazing spring skiing in the Gatineau Park. I even went skiing with my dad on April 12^th and the conditions were great.

With my dad on April 12th

A couple of days later, the skiing was not so good

Other than that, Emilie and I went on weekend hiking trip in Lake Placid, New York a couple of weeks ago. We had already been hiking in the Adirondacks region about 16 times and climbed most of the peaks but we had never been backpacking. So, to change things up, we planned a route where we could camp overnight in the middle. We were both seeking a true adventure, and we were not disappointed. As any adventure goes, some things did not work out as we planned. This partially had to do with our lack of said planning- which was done at the very last minute.

That being said, we were already a little behind schedule when we departed on Friday afternoon in our Sienna mini-van. About 100m before we arrived at the border to the US, we had to turn around due to sign that said: bridge to the US closed. We had to do a 2 hour detour to get to the next border crossing and arrived at the campground a little past 10. To make things even more interesting, the next morning, as we were making breakfast, we realized that the stove was not working. In my defense, I had tested it out before leaving and it had worked.  After eating breakfast which consisted of a cliff bar and an apple, we packed up our bags with all the food that did not need to be cooked and our camping gear and set out to the trail head. On the first day of hiking, we ran into snow near the top of the mountain which slowed us down. In some places, we would even sink down to our hips. To make it a little more challenging, our 40 pound backpacks were making it quite difficult to balance.

The rest of the weekend went rather smoothly. I enjoyed the perfect sunny weather, the good company, and the beautiful views. I even enjoyed my cold dinner of canned tomatoes, coconut milk and chick peas!

Walking down steep rock faces with a 40 pound backpack is difficult

Cold curry dinner

A nice day for a dip in a freezing cold waterfall

As I am writing this, I am on the plane heading to my new home, Thunder Bay. The last week has been pretty hectic with packing up all my belongings and writing my 2 last CEGEP exams. Thankfully, two of my new teammates happened to be in Ottawa and offered to drive some of my gear to Thunder Bay, thanks Andy and Alannah! That is all for now, I will make sure to give an update on my upcoming training camps.

Until next time,

Katherine

Ski season review

The last three months have gone by in a blur. It is now the end of another great season . As a cross-country skier, April is the month to reflect on your season and it is also the month of decisions. But before I make any of those, here is a summary of my season.

World Junior Championships

As it was my third time jumping on a plane to represent Canada at World Junior Championships I had a good idea of what to expect. I knew that adjusting to the time change and recovering from jet lag were keys to having good races overseas. However, nothing I had experienced in the past would be comparable to the 11 hour time change and 24 hours of travel time I experienced in travelling to Kazakhstan. Thankfully, we arrived more than a week before the first race.

The race venue was situated at the top of a large pile of sand in the middle of the city of Almaty. All of the courses swerved around the top of the hill and were sandwiched between the city and the mountains. If we got to the race site early, there was a beautiful view, but as it got warmer, the smog would rise and we would be skiing in a cloud. In Almaty there was virtually no snow. So, when we arrived at the race site they were busy unloading snow from trucks and running the snow guns. Parts of the distance courses were ready to ski on but the sprint course was yet to be created. That being said, I was not surprised when the sprint race was delayed by one day.

 In Kazakhstan, most people do not speak English. We needed the help of a English speaking volunteer in order to get around. One day, we headed over to the Bazaar in Almaty to get a taste of the culture of Kazakhstan. The bazaar was full of alleys of tightly squeezed booths selling everything from socks to carpets. When I tried bargaining down the price of wool socks, I had to grab a calculator and enter in the price so that the salesperson would understand. We also visited the food bazaar where I was a little shocked to see pig heads hanging as a decoration at the booths to show the kind of meat that was being sold.

With teammates Maya (centre) and Annah (right) above smoggy Almaty 

With Sophie at a ski venue an hour away from Almaty

All in all, results wise, World Juniors were a success. Here are some of the highlights:

We started the week off well, with 3 junior women finishing in the top 25 in the classic sprint which fired all of us up for the rest of the races. 

The quarterfinal with Maya (far left). I am bib 19.   Photo:Lisa Patterson

Three days later, I achieved my biggest goal of the season which was to finish top 15 in a distance race. Crossing the finish line in 14^th in the skiathlon was an absolutely amazing feeling.

Photo: Raphael Couturier

The day after, I was able to watch fellow U23 Canadian Olivia finish 12^th in the skiathlon and bust out some of her moves with a celebratory dance at the finish line!

Finally, the 4X3.5km relay was, as usual, my favourite race of the week. This can be explained by the fact that it is an opportunity to race not only for yourself, but for your team. It is also the perfect excuse to put matching Canadian flag tattoos on our cheeks and red sparkly ribbons in our hair. This year, I was scramble leg. I had one goal in mind and it was to stick with the front pack for as long as I possibly could. After about 2km, I was in 4^th. Unfortunately a skier clipped my ski and I ended up going flying and losing my binding. One of the Canadian coaches was quick to give me a new ski but by that time I had lost the front pack. I spent a good amount of time after the race thinking about what I could have done to avoid the fall but I came to the conclusion that there is no point in wasting time on something you cannot control. Even though things did not go as planned, I was happy with how I skied and I had a great time cheering on my teammates.

Team relay       Photo: Camille Cheskey 

Canada Winter Games

After World Juniors, I was invited to travel to Europe with other Canadians to race a series of Scandinavian cups. For several reasons, I decided to turn down the offer and head to Canada Winter Games in Prince George BC instead. I had a little more than a week at home to catch up with my 3 Cegep courses and to get over the unavoidable overseas cold before it was time to pack my suitcase again.

Canada Winter games are organized to look like mini-Olympics. There is an athlete’s village that is situated close to all the hotels. The village includes a huge cafeteria where we all eat, an athlete’s lounge with various activities and a big stage.

The races were held at Otway Nordic Centre. The conditions, the courses and the weather made for an absolutely amazing week of racing!

Marie and I after finishing 3rd and2nd in the sprint. Photo: Raphael Couturier

The Quebec team

The 10km skate podium

. 

The Highlight of the week: wining gold in the relay with these girls

While I was in Prince George, I also had the opportunity to help out at a fast and female event.

Photo:Pacific Sport Northern BC

Photo: Pacific sport Northern BC

Nationals

The season ended as usual with National Championships. This year they were held in Thunder Bay at Lappe Nordic Centre. The volunteers and organisers made it an absolutely flawless event , thank you! 

The week started off with the club team sprint. I had been looking forward to this race ever since I had received an e-mail in January from two time Olympian Perianne Jones asking if I would like to be her teammate. Peri has been an inspiration to me for the longest time so it was an honour to race with her. 

The A final with Maya, Annah, Ember, me, Sophie and Jenn (from left to right) Photo: Bernard Pigeon

Nationals is probably the toughest competition of the year. Everyone has had a different season and so everyone has a different goal in mind. As for me, I was in survival mode. I had just been through the longest season of my life and it was time to give everything I had left in the tank. I knew it was my last races as a junior so I decided to enjoy every moment of it.

Th traditional hug after nationals sprint final Photo: Bernard Pigeon

In the 20km skate race. ( I am bib number 312) Photo: Benoit Theroux

Photo: Benoit Theroux

Now it is back to reality. I want to thank everyone who made this season such a great one. 

Thanks Kieran Jones ( my coach) , for going out of your way to help me; for the times you have driven to Chelsea to have a meeting, for all the long e-mails you have answered from the other side of the world and for supporting me every step of the way!

My family, for being the absolute best. Thanks Emilie for taking notes for me in class while I was away.

My teammates: thanks to all of the Nakkertok crew and the rest of my teammates from around Canada for making workouts and competitions a million times better!

All the volunteers and wax technicians who took time off work to come to races and help us race our fastest.

Wayne Johannsen, thanks for helping me out with my skis this year. 

Finally, thanks to the Chelsea Masters for organising the Master to Juniors event that helped pay for my trip to worlds.

Until next time!

Katherine 

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!!

Lake placid adventures

                Lately, when I scroll down my facebook newsfeed, I have come upon many blog posts about training camps from skiers all across the country.  When you are bombarded with pictures of fellow teammates and competitors skiing on a glacier in Europe or reading about others who are training with world cup level athletes, it is hard to avoid even the slightest feeling of jealousy.  In the meantime, I was preparing for my first training camp of the season in Lake Placid, New York. It would be logical to think that these blog posts and the fact that I have visited the host town of the 1980 winter Olympics approximately 14 times, would make my upcoming training camp seem much less thrilling.  But the thing is it is honestly one of the best places I have ever been for training. The great rollerskiing roads, the endless hiking (I have still not climbed all 46 high peaks) and the beautiful places for post-workout swims make it a one of a kind training destination.

On our  7 hour hike up Marcy and Algonquin (photo credit to Jesse Wiliams)

Training camps = living with others. As my coach pointed out, at a training camp you may be spending around 20 hours of the week training but the rest of the 316 hours are spent with your team. Now here is the problem, athletes love their food and if you take anyone’s food, accidentally or not, it may start a brawl.  During the first week we were lucky to have two houses and more than enough beds for the amount of athletes. We switched houses for the last 3 days, with limited bed space, which created quite a ruckus.  The point is, learning to live with others and making compromises is not the easiest thing but it is important to realise that without your team mates the training camp would be extremely boring.

During the 9 days we did various workouts. I definitely think one of the highlights was the track workout. I was a bit skeptical at first, when my coach told us his crazy idea of putting skiers on a track and making them do 400m running repeats. The goal was to run 8 times 400m at 90% of your maximum pace.  After the first one, I could already feel my legs and even my arms fill up with lactate acid but I surprised myself by keeping the same pace every rep. It was as hard as I anticipated but also a lot of fun!

As you can tell, we worked hard ( note the ski jumps in the background)

Before climbing mount Hurricane, we made a trip to the local thrift shop and picked out some impressive costumes.  The result was this wild summit photo. 

After one of our long rollerski workouts we went cliff jumping. I have been cliff jumping many times but had never seen a cliff quite like this one. Even though the height was not extreme, the waterfall to the right of it made it seem much scarier.

 

The cliff is on the right of me, it is not where the people are standing (photo credit to Kieran Jones )

Seeing as it was a volume week, races were non-existent.  So to satisfy our competitive athlete spirits we decide to go mini-putting. Our whole team headed over to the pirate themed mini-put in downtown lake placid. To increase the excitement (which was not really necessary), the winner was to win ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s. A few celebrations later, Prince Philip ( Phil Marshall ) was crowned winner of the mini-putting cup.

All in all, it was a great week of training spent with a great team.

Until next time!

Katherine

World juniors, the inside scoop

Yup, I have been back for two weeks. I don’t have a good enough excuse that can justify such a late post... but given that I have had so much time to work on it I promise it will be good. Enjoy!

Our ski team left Ramsau and headed to Liberec where the world junior’s competitions was going to take place. What was set out to be a 7 hour drive turned into a 14 hour adventure. Most people would call this a nightmare, but our van crew and I actually had quite a good time.  I would like to blame the extra duration of our journey entirely on the wild snow storm and the bad sign system in Czech Republic, but we definitely played a part in it too.  Our 14 hour escapade boils down to breaking one of  our vans  wind shield wipers, waiting 45 min in a gas station, getting stuck in extreme traffic, getting lost in Prague because of, let’s just say,  misleading Google map explanations and an appetizing stop at McDonalds for supper.  All of this complete with nonstop entertainment: the continuous replay of 20 hit radio songs!

On our midnight run on the train tracks when we arrived in Liberec

We finally arrived at our home for the next 10 days, the ridiculous hotel Babylon. Why would I describe Hotel Babylon as ridiculous? Because it features a casino, Water Park, bumper cars, bowling, mini-put and the list goes on.  What makes it so ironic is that the rest of the city is completely run-down.  I still haven’t figured out weather the hotel is a place for people to stay during travel or if it is an actual destination, Czech Republic’s Disneyland perhaps?

Some of the decorations in our Hotel

I’m sure you are all reading this to find out about the racing. So here is the scoop.

The first race was a classic sprint, definitely one of my favorites. The race course was to my advantage, 3 perfect striding hills.  You may think that the fact that I was way out of my country racing against the best of the world would make me overly nervous, but for some reason I wasn’t. Maybe it was because I the whole thing hadn’t sunk in yet. In any case, it probably helped me achieve what ended up being my best result of the trip.

 

At the race site in Liberec

 

Monday January 21

So there I was, at the start line, wearing bib number 25 and a red and white racing suit. The bib and the suit gave me confidence; they were proof that I belonged there at the starting line, among the best juniors in the world. Ten seconds to start... 5 seconds, 3-2-1 and I was off. As I fell over the finish line, about 3 minutes later, I had an amazing feeling. If you are a skier you probably know what I am talking about, if you are not, then you should definitely start racing! I’m talking about the feeling you get when you believe you attacked every single part of the course, putting all your effort in every push so that when you cross the finish line you have nothing left to give. I got up and stared at the big screen listing the results. My name was in 24^th and to qualify for the heats you have to be top 30. I stood there for a good ten minutes as I watched my name descend to 25^th, 26^th, and finally to watch it hang on to 30^th. The suspense was huge! I started observing the rest of the skiers coming in and tried to guess whether they were going faster than me or not. Eventually it was confirmed, I had qualified! I had achieved my goal and was on to the next: improve my result. I attained that goal in the quarter-final, finishing 5^th right behind an American which placed me 25^th overall.

During my ten day stay in Czech Republic I did a crazy amount of things.  So here are the really awesome things and the not so awesome things about the trip.

Not-so-awesome things

The food at Hotel Babylon:  I have always liked potatoes, rice and pasta because they are great for carbo-loading and usually pretty tasty. But when you eat it with brown sauce (or what I am guessing is gravy) and have it for lunch & dinner ten days straight, It can get a little boring and hard to swallow.

The smoke: people smoke everywhere, even in the hotel lobby. It felt like my lungs were blackening by the second.

5^km skate race: I felt like I just didn’t race my best and was pretty disappointed with how I finished, but hey, life goes on! I am at world juniors after all.

Super awesome things

The shopping: There is a mall about ten minutes (walk) from our hotel. Also most of the stores are ones we don’t have in Canada, and everything is super cheap, bonus!

The fireworks at the opening ceremony: I was expecting there to be only be a couple but it lasted quite a while. They were shot up right behind and over the big church in the town square, pretty impressive.

 

The church where the fireworks went off

The pursuit: The start was hectic, girls were tripping and falling everywhere and I was one of them. Yes, I fell a few times and broke a pole, but it was a great learning experience. I also had a lot of fun skiing with my fellow Canadian team-mate, Cendrine Browne during the skate portion of the race.

The pizzeria in Liberec:  We went out for dinner the last 3 nights to a pizzeria in Liberec because we were so sick of the food at our hotel. I am not sure what it was called but the pizza was amazing and cost around 8$ for a huge pizza! I kept the leftovers for lunch the next day.

The mountain:  One day we went skiing on what we call the mountain. It is about a 15 minute drive from Liberec and it was an absolutely beautiful day. I think it was the only blue sky we saw during our entire stay in Liberec. Unfortunately, we were not the only ones who wanted to take advantage of the nice day, so the trails were literally crowded! We spent most of the ski trying to dodge the millions of tourist.

On the mountain

 

 

Prague: We had the chance to spend one night and half a day in Prague. It wasn’t as long as I would have hoped but it was a lot fun!

On the famous Charles Bridge in Prague

Can you see me?

 

Now that I am home, I have to face reality: School. Next up in terms of racing are Orford and Far hills, two Quebec cups and then Nationals in Whistler! It will keep me busy, but don’t worry, I’ll find time to keep writing, so please keep reading!

Katherine