A few weeks ago I read Devon Kershaw’s blog regarding his feelings towards the uphill time trial in Canmore. It wasn’t until today that some of his points definitely resonated quite clearly!

Most of the AWCA athletes have had this day on our plans for over a month and although I tried to avoid eye contact with it- I inevitably ended up in a stare down with it over the last three days. Its kind of funny because really, its the first week of August and its an uphill skate time trial where a ton of variables can come into play. Frankly, its just an intensity, another opportunity to push yourself and get stronger, fitter and faster. However, due to the fact that every skier in Canmore, if not most in Canada have at some point over their ski carrear got into a start position at the intersection of Three Sisters and Rundle Drive and picked their best line through the first 50m of pebbles that could make you remember their name (we all have the scars from at least one) this test becomes a little more then just an intensity. Every skier is well aware of how fast the other can climb that hill- its a right of passage of sorts in Canmore. And regardless of the fact that its a summer, uphill rollerski test- I still get ridiculously nervous for it!

Fortunately, the only variable on one of the most perfect days in Canmore yet (today) would be roller ski speed. To be honest I’m not even sure what type of roller skis I was on- I think they were the sprint F1’s with a 5 carved in them- observant, I know. We have a test fleet of these skis so they are as close to the same speed as we can get.

I didn’t feel overly good in the warm up, but tried to just focus on technique, and where I wanted to try to push a bit harder and then of course getting my head wrapped around that wonderful smooth paved section 100m from the finish (enter sarcasm here). The paving at that point in the course is everything you don’t want it to be where you don’t want it to be- you know the kind of bumpy pavement that kills any momentum from the roll of your ski so you basically crawl a little deeper into the pain cave then you normally would have liked.

Going into this, the only goal I had was to improve my time from the May testing. I started out a little hard (okay a lot too hard), but it was part of my plan (well it had to become part of my plan as it was happening) because in order to get faster, you have to see where your limits are and then push past them- this time was no different. At about four minutes in I knew I was teetering on blowing up (insert nervous laugh here), but I had already devised a plan for that- go harder (haha). I didn’t know if I was on pace or not for a PB. As I entered the final uphill into the finish with the wonderful smooth pavement, one of the younger girls on my team who I thought I had dropped pulled up beside me. Initially I thought to give up, but decided to see what I had left in the tank to race- so right then and there the time trial went from being a competition against myself to being a fight for the finish- VERY cool and kudos to the speedy little chicky who had the the guts to pull around me! Definetly humbling!

I ended up with a PB of 47 seconds on those rollerskiis. I didn’t really believe it at first because I had dug myself into such a hole within the first kilometer that it felt anything but effortless and “light on my feet”, however as I tried to get rid of the metal taste of lactate in my mouth and the saliva that had attached itself to the pavement and my mouth (so hot right now) I couldn’t help but half smile- its pretty sweet to improve!

Whats even more amazing is that EVERYONE on our team PB’d by atleast 30seconds! Pretty awesome!

This week was a medium week with more of a focus on intensity and then next week I have a medium-hard week. We have two pretty awesome workouts next week- one is rollerskiing in highwood pass in K-Country for an overdistance ski and the other will be a longer rollerski on the 1A from Banff to Lake Louise- these are some of the most amazing places to train hands down! I have a four hour mountain run on Sunday and I think I will be heading out to the Iceline trail in Yoho National Park with a friend, I will make sure I bring a camera to post some photos. We finish off August with a half Glacier camp on the Haig and a four day camp in Highwood pass!

happy training,

Brooke

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 12:57 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.