So I wrapped up my competitive season this past weekend with some Cross Country races at Sharkfest.  Sharkfest is Alberta XC Provincials hosted by Rocky Mountain Racers with the venue being Mt. Shark in the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.  I was happy when I saw the race schedule as both Saturday and Sunday would be skate races.  We opened the weekend with a 12.5km mass start, I didn’t really know what to expect the last time I raced a cross country race was in Feb 2010 and I missed the finish line going through the lap lane instead.  For me racing cross country is just a nice break from Biathlon, I don’t know the athletes nearly as well and can just enjoy the weekend.  Any Biathletes without FIS or CCC points were seeded at the  back of the Mass Start which included Jr’s and Master Men as well.  I was not sure how it would play out but everyone was pretty awesome and gave people the space they needed even though the trails at Mt. Shark are not up to World Cup standards in terms of width.  The first lap was a comfortable pace even though I didn’t feel that comfortable, I am not sure if I was excited for just a bit rusty from a week and a half of LSD workouts.  As the race progressed I started to feel better.  Part way through the 2nd lap there was a surge at the front and being at the back of the pack I kind of got left behind for a bit.  Anytime I got to a straight stretch I tried to take a peek at the leaders.  On the final portion of the 2nd loop I decided it was time to go and go I did I passed a few competitors made up all the ground putting myself in a great position for the final kilometers.  At this point Kevin Sandau was in the lead and I was on his heels,  it seemed as though we were entirely on our own.  But I forgot I was racing at 1800 meters and that took its toll in the final 2000 meters of the race.  I am not completely sure if I struggled because of the altitude, poor ski selection or just slow conditions but before I knew it I had blown up, Nathan Smith had caught back up and Kevin was pulling away.  I was done and it was all I could do to hang on for 3rd, I don’t think I have had to breath that hard in the last 5 months.    The fun part about a race like this is that there was no expectations and no rifle zeroing and no wax or ski testing. I waxed up two pairs of skis the night before after watching a youtube video on how to apply powders.  And I wasn’t the only one, most athletes in the field took the same approach with ski selection and some were left with much worse skis then I had.  It was just fun and took me back to the time when I only had one training pair of skis and one race pair.  I finished the afternoon with a couple of great tasting smokies and headed back to Canmore for some recovery.

Sunday was Team Sprints, I took the same waxing plan but this time I figured I needed more structure so I grabbed some different boards out of my ski bag and waxed it up hoping it was going to feel a little better then the day before.  Sadly the AWCA was not racing on Sunday so the field was significantly less competitive and just smaller overall.  But being that I have never raced a team sprint and haven’t raced anything shorter then 7.5km in years I am not sure if I needed any additional challenges.  I was starting and my teammate was Nathan Smith, I didn’t really know what to expect so on the first lap I decided to just follow the lead of the others on the narrow track.  Nathan tagged with the lead and on the 2nd lap I decided I needed to try and attack,  the athlete in front was Ian Murray and as soon as I had enough room I went for it scared to look back.  When I tagged off Nathan I was happy to see that I had a bit of a gap and we now had the room to ski our  own races and hopefully maintain the lead. After a total of 6 laps we finished in 1st feeling tired from the usually short effort.

A big thanks goes out to the Rocky Mountain Racers for putting on a great event at the end of a very long ski season.

Prize ceremony

Team Sprint

Mt. Shark Panorama

More to come on Season debrief

SP

So if you have read my last couple posts you know I unfortunately am traveling without a computer. I have borrowed one for blogging but I have now discovered a WordPress app. So I hope this will suffice until I get a new computer. Just testing it out know. Here is a photo from the flight to
Russian, meal plan two hotdogs on pasta Mmmm. Here

And a panorama from the Ruhpolding stadium right before the men’s relay.
Ruhpolding 360

So I have wrapped up this years edition of World Champs,  since my last post I have raced a 20km and the men’s 7.5km relay.  Both were fun and had some good opportunities but there were also some missed opportunities.  In the 20km I started off in decent position, I wasn’t sure if I could sustain my normal 20km pace as I was struggling earlier in the Sprint and Pursuit.  But I started well,  I was shooting consistent.  I shot perfect a perfect 10/10 in prone and had one miss in the previous standing.  I was happy as this point, anytime you can enter the last shooting in a 20km with 1 miss or less you have created a good opportunity, that being said I was not nervous mostly because I felt that I probably was not skiing my best.  The lack of nervousness did not stop me from missing though,  my natural aim was off and I never took the time to fix it.  I feel this definitely cost me some World Cup points.  In the end it was a disappointing to see that I had a good opportunity and missed it, it was a tough day for our team overall.

Next my job was to prepare for the relay,  I would be starting the 3rd leg.  I was confident I would be able to take care of the shooting and tried to speed it up a bit.  We had a bit of a rough start but thanks to a great leg by Jp we were back in the race by the time I started.   I felt off balance throughout the race I don’t know if it was the conditions but struggled a bit to find a rhythm and that followed me right into the prone shooting.  Luckily I was able to recover from the time I lost using spares on my 2nd lap,  I was back on the range and flying through standing.  I was back on the course with Tim Burke right in front of me, I hung on for the first 1/2 of the course but when the course got harder Tim gapped me like I was brought up from the minor leagues.  In the end my overall leg was decent  and I tagged in a 11th, to Nathan Smith who had a solid leg but due to the onset of a cold was unable to hold on for a top 10 in the final lap. And with that my World Championships were over.

Overall I am a bit disappointed with my World Championships,  last year under much tougher shooting conditions I managed a much better shooting percentage.  I was also able to snag some points in a couple races.  I will have to wait until the end of the year to analyze everything and I hope I will be able to find more positives then negative, for now though I will focus on making some more positives in the last World Cup of the season.

Cheers

I have been in Ruhpolding for 8 days before that I was in Canmore for final preparations.  Unfortunately my computer crashed the day I left and I haven’t been able to blog much about the biggest races of my career.

Anyone that has been watching the IBU World Championships can easily see that it has been a challenging week.  The conditions have varied but the slush has been tolerable since we have been able to have some very nice weather, not your typical winter weather but certainly the nicest weather I have experienced in Ruhpolding in the handful of times I have been here.

For me World Championships started with the 10km Sprint,  I was excited to see what type of form I would bring.  I left the World Cup with some good form and it had only been 3 weeks, I felt that my preparation period went decently well.  I started the 10km off exactly how I wanted with a clean prone. I was a little slow at this point but nothing insurmountable with good pacing and a good standing shoot. However I took two penalties in the standing shoot despite feeling in control and confident.  I was back on track and it was time to rev it up only I didn’t really rev anything up.  I struggled to a disappointing 50th place.  I was disappointed but hoped that maybe I just needed to blow things out and it would take a race to do it.  I was excited for the 12.5km, I had my parents in the stands for support and I knew it could be a really fun day.  The race started off ok, nothing significant.  I left the prone shooting with 1 penalty, I hadn’t really made or lost much ground.  But then standing came,  I took two in the first standing and this through me for a mental loop.  I was now losing ground at every possible place, I wasn’t struggling on my skis per say because for whatever reason these last two races I haven’t even been able to get into the red zone of effort.  I was disappointed to see that I was losing some time on downhills which is not something I am accustomed too.  In my final standing shoot I was on lane 20 which meant I was currently in 50th, again I hadn’t really lost or gained anything.  I had no desire to finish 50th again and sort of went for it,  it really didn’t pay off but I didn’t really lose much either,  at this point I was way out of the points anyways.

So that’s been my week in a nutshell, its been really awesome to have my parents in Ruhpolding watching the races.  It has also been a really great atmosphere in Ruhpolding, it seems a little quieter and toned down compared to prior years but that could be that I am just a bit zoned out of all the hoopla.

The next race is the 20km and I feel I should be able to improve on my results from the Sprint, but it will take some good shooting and better form.  I feel that when the racing rolls around the shooting is on the athlete,  its my job to make sure I am there in mind and body on the range and its the training plans job to make sure I am there in the skiing.  Both seem to be missing at this point but the good news is that often when one turns so does the other. So anything is possible, and we will find out soon enough.

SP

This weekend wrapped up the final race before World Championships which will start in 13 days.  Since the New Year I have been on the road a lot and was stacking up some decent results. Forni Avoltri was where I was really able to test everything out and it turned out I was back on track, maybe not where I wanted to be but moving in the right direction.  Nove Mesto provided the first big test of the New Year.  When considering everything WC #5 was ok but  it was hard to see where I was at, the wind in Nove Mesto provided a challenge that could derail even the sharpest shooters plan.  I was able to shoot well enough to show that I was still on track.  By the time Antholz rolled around I was getting a bit tired but was still hanging on, this was a time when sickness was hitting the team left right and center and I would have been happy to just maintain my health but I also managed a PB in the Sprint with a 29th and  we put together a solid relay performance for 7th place.   At this point I felt as though I was close to where I wanted to be and with some little tweaks I could push my performance up another notch.  With the end of Antholz came a decision, continue on to Oslo or return home and prepare for IBU Cups 6 &7 and WCH.  It was not a easy choice,  my brain told me to cash in my chips and head home for some good training it was not like I would miss any racing because the IBU Cups could replace Oslo.  But it wasn’t part of the plan, the coaches wanted us on the World Cup.  Of course my heart wanted to be on the World Cup. The WC is where the action happens, you get to test yourself against the best but it meant I would train in Europe for 8 days for one more race maybe two.  It weighed heavily that I wanted to help my team fight for a top 15 in the overall Nation Cup standing,  this is where it gets decided your start quota for the following year and we are at a great risk of losing a start for the entire 2012/13 season.  My heart won out and also lead me to another PB, a 27th, my result could have been much better.  But with my cold hands I made an error in prone, I double ejected costing me an approximate 15 secs or a certain top 25. But many people struggled with the cold in Oslo, so maybe I got away lucky.  But I didn’t make it home with that luck,  surprisingly there were a lot of sick people in Olso.  I say surprisingly because there was a training break compared to when athletes are normally getting sick at the end of a trimester when the fatigue is at its highest.   Athletes and staff, something was going around and within a day of arriving home I was out with a head cold, actually a man cold.  It was disappointing,  I went all last season with out sickness and felt that if I survived this tour I could certainly stay healthy for the remainder of the season.  Unfortunately that cold cost me a start in IBU Cup #6 and likely some form in IBU Cup #7.  So now I just wrapped my last race before World Champs with my worst skiing and shooting of the 2012, positive stuff if I do say so myself.  So here I find myself with 13 days to go before the most important races of the season, hmm something needs to change or does it?  Will it all work out?  I guess in13 days we will have a pretty good idea.  I turned around my season in 13 days over Christmas so its possible, but impossible to predict seeing that there is still a lot to go on not to mention a flight back to Europe.  And if there is one thing I have learned from my 4 prior visits to WCH, other nations don’t f around.

I realize my post is one run on sentence, my bad hope you didn’t hold your breath.

View from dinning room Antholz.

Another view of the snow in Antholz

Long ski, stop for Beer, Hot Chocolate or Cider and some pasta.

Panorama Platz Weisen

Mittenwald range, home for Magdalena Neuner

Trail map Seefeld, some of the best trails in the World if not the best.

Ski Jump Seefeld

Brenny taking in the sun in Oslo.

Statkraft young start race, televised after IBU WC programming. A glimpse into Nordic culture in Norway.

so that’s what I’ve been up too.

This week in Nova Mesto was a tough one,  we were battered by wind and snow nearly anytime we stepped out of our hotels.  We skied in almost different conditions every race and the course was definitely a step harder then the tracks they had here in past years.

The tracks and the atmosphere are a large part of the reason I really enjoyed Nova Mesto,  I love a hard course with long climbs but it also has to be thought out and this one was,  all of the descents are manageable but it can really make a difference if you work them right.  The crowds were great, very fair and enthusiastic and with a 18 000 person turn out on Sunday it was top notch.

I struggled with my shooting throughout the week but it felt that I mostly struggled with prone,  if you struggle with prone its a tough hole to dig yourself out of.  It was a shame because my prone was strong last week at the IBU Cup, however I have a few days before I race  again and hopefully that will be enough time to figure it out.

The past 9 days have been tough,  racing a 20km and a 10km in Forni and then driving to Czech too race a 20km, 10km and 12.5km.  I think this was good for me,  I just have to keep the right balance the next couple weeks, stay healthy and I think I can see my skiing improve again.  I wasn’t the only one to tough out that schedule with both Russel Currier and Eric Lesser, Germany who raced the same schedule as I.

On the road to Antholz

Family Club

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope that most had a bit of time to enjoy the holidays.  I was very busy over the holidays but not with the normal holiday stuff,  I was buckled down on my training.  After a poor start to the season I felt I needed to push the reset button which can be tricky when you aren’t sure why it didn’t start so well.  But I figured that rarely has being focused on my training led me a stray so I buckled down over the short 13 days at home.  I started the first week on volume, I was able to bag 17 hours of training which was decent for me considering jet lag and general fatigue.  The last week at home the focus was on intensity and getting back in to race mode.  I hoped that even though I focused on training and not recovery I would be able to start off the New Year with some good races.  On Jan 02 we traveled to Forni Avoltri, ITA.  It is a nice quiet venue in Italy but unfortunately a bit of a drive from Munich. After a long day of driving we had a couple days to test skis and prepare for the 20km,  I wasn’t sure how my body would react to the jetlag but hoped for the best.  In many ways my body responded well, I was tired but was able to perform strongly in prone and manage the standing shooting.  I ended the day in 10th.  The next day was the 10km and it was felt and felt really short compared to the previous even though the course proved again to be worthy of a international competition.  I finished that day in 8th.  These performances allowed me to be selected for the next World Cups along with Nathan Smith who impressed many with back to back 6th place finishes.  The next day we were on the road to Nove Mesto, a long road taking 9+ hrs to navigate.

The jet lag and the races left some lasting fatigue and not much time to get over it as we prepared for our next race another 20km.  Most of the field raced their last 20km in November and we would still feel our last in our legs.  Too boot the fatigue caught up and I seemed to catch a case of the sniffles, nothing drastic but it seemed to take a bit of a toll on my energy and recovery from the prior races.

I started the 20km pretty quick, quicker then I normally would and I paid for it in the shooting range with poor shooting and slow shooting times. I finished a disappointing 65th but there was some positive as it seems the 3 races this New Year have better skiing then anything in November and December.  With some luck and a couple good sleeps I am sure I can keep this upswing going.

World Cup #5 allows everyone to preview the course for WCH 2013 and I am not being generous when I say they did a great job on course design.

Next years Madshus skis

After a very drawn out tour I made it home on Dec 19th.  I left for World Cup #1 on Nov 21st 2011.  Normally I would talk about the highlights of the tour but I cant really say that there were were any for me personally.  When I think about the race season throughout the training year I never imagined such a bad start to the year, I have come home for a couple weeks hoping I can reset and have a fresh start for 2012.  I have always really enjoyed the beginning of the year,  it can be the most exciting as you get to see the training you accomplished pay off in the excitement of the first races of the year and you get to watch your performances build leading into Christmas.

When I am training through the Spring, Summer and Fall I am motivated to push myself so that I can take another step closer to the top of the board, if my results were golf scores I would be doing alright but their not and I need to get this ship turned around fast, in two weeks to be exact as I will be leaving for IBU Cup #4 on Jan 2nd. Good thing is that I don’t think I got too far off course and it shouldn’t be like turning around the Queen Mary.   I suspect that I have already made some inroads in the last week to getting myself moving in the right direction and with a little luck I think I can get to where I need to be for 2012.

Overall I would say we got some pretty good conditions for racing this first trimester,  there were some icy days in Ostersund and some snowy days in Hochfilzen but  compared the snow situation in the rest of Europe I think we did pretty good. Unfortunately the IBU had to move WC#3 from Annecy to Hochfilzen, but for me who was already struggling I found this a good opportunity to get some extra rest.

Now just because my personal start to the season was luck luster that doesn’t exactly mean it was boring.  As a team we had a few events that caused a stir of excitement.  The first being the Men’s Relay in WC#2, where in transition from Brendan to Jp, Jp missed Brendan passing through the tag zone forcing them to try to awkwardly get to each other when another athlete skied over both their skis tripping them up into what might be the most embarrassing transition of 2011.  The next being the Women’s team tying their PB with a 9th place in the 4 * 6km Relay.  It does’t stop there with Megan Imrie posting a PB only to follow it up with a PB in the Pursuit the following day and Zina collecting points like its 2007.   And of course the to cap it all off before travelling home the 6th place Mixed Relay performance by Megan, Zina, Brendan and JP.

But the excitement was limited to the World Cup  there were also good things taking place in the IBU Cup staring with a 4th Place in the Mixed Relay at IBU Cup #3.  That performance clearly provided the turn around every athlete looks for when Nathan Smith and Scott Gow placed 3rd and 4th respectively a day or two later.

Oh and I forgot which is bad because its probably the most impressive of all,  the 50/50  Brendan has shot in all 10 shot races.

Oops I hit the Publish button instead of the Preview, hope this post was ready.

Happy Holidays.

So today we kicked off the 2011/12 Canadian Selection Trials. From these trials we are selecting 1 man and 2 women to join the World Cup teams which already include Jean-Philippe Leguellec, Brendan Green, Scott Perras and Megan Imrie. Pre-selected have been selected based off performances from last year.

And there is no *Spoiler* because even though there were cameras out on the course today they are more likely hooked up to Dartfish right now then a television editing computer.

This might just be the first Biathlon race of this season World wide and I was happy that we had a decent loop by the time these races rolled around.

In places the course was difficult and chopped up a mixture of ice and sugar but honestly nothing to complain about many others can’t even ski at the moment.

I didn’t have a great race, I certainly expected more from myself. I put some good training into the bank this season, as the season unfolds I hope it will show I invested everything in the right places but today was not a ideal first withdraw.  I guess since this week I was still loading I might actually be able to equate it to a bank and I have to wait 5 business days to withdraw. Probably with some minor adjustments I can get some major changes in the next coming days and weeks.

See below a photo of the men’s race results, or visit Zone4.ca