I started this blog because I wanted to share with others what it was like to be a full time athlete. I wanted to share the guts and glory, trials and tribulations.

Although any day I can wake up and go to training is a good day there are times when it is tougher. And there were days during this week have been just like that. I ordinarily bike to the shooting range for training. Often with rifle, rollerskis and boots on my back and poles in my hand. It is only a 10 - 15 min trip either way so it is not so bad. The reason I chose to do so is simple, I can same money on gas and I find the light biking in the morning gets my knees nice and loose. However there are many days when I do need my Jeep, either to pick up groceries, travel to alternate training locations, ect ect. My Jeep has been responsible for getting me to so many training sessions and camps that during a long hot summers it would start to smell like sweat and Febreze air freshener. I wish I could say I treated my Jeep as well as it treated me but truth is I beat it up and it just kept on going, never leaving me stranded or stuck.

But this week it made its last trip. I always said I was going to drive that Jeep to the 2010 Olympic games, symbolic because it was a Olympic games at home and because I bought it right around the same time I started training for Biathlon.

Now I am stuck looking for a new vehicle and this is where the adversity hits for a amateur athlete.
For me the question is how much $ do I invest in a new vehicle, how much funding will be available next year and what financial surprises will this year hold? What happens if I get a nice newer car and it breaks down then what? These are the questions that really any person can face but sometimes it seems tougher when funding is inconsistent and not directly related to results taking the control out of your hands.

Either way the search is on or something new and I have to make sure it doesn’t distract from my Biathlon goals.

Here she is in her pride and glory

Yesterday was kind of neat for me not only did I get to support a worthy cause which was Right To Play but to also see my development as a athlete. Not even three years ago I was working for a construction clean up crew on the weekends after working full time construction during the week. The reason I was working so much was so that I could continue my Biathlon career, because I believed if I did so I would soon become one of the few federally funded athletes on the Biathlon National Team.   The construction site I was cleaning up was the future club house of the Silver Tip Golf Resort. And now 3 years later I am invited to play at a fund raising golf tournament as a guest. I played on Team Epcor It was team of 5 and rounding out the team was two time Olympian Jeff Pain I was honored to be a member of this team and enjoyed a chance to get to meet people from different sports and life styles.

Darren, Jeff, John, Me, Mike

Ok so after picking up our Event Golf T-Shirt and Bag of Burton and Adidas swag I was ready to go. Rental Clubs were on the Cart and we were off. I have golfed a few times in my life but never at a World Class Course that is Silver Tip Resort.

4th hole

Anyways the most important thing is the cause which I said early was Right To Play. It is a organization who’s motto is ” Look after yourself, Look after one another ” and they try to improve the quality of life in the underdeveloped countries of the world through the power of sport.

If you are one of the many lucky North Americans who have been positively affected by Sport and Play in your life I recommend you check out their web site Right To Play it you can get a little more information and possibly join the movement.

My golfing attire

Unfortunately was in a rush the morning of the tournament and forgot to take a camera but luckily there was a event photographer that I was able to score some photos from. As you can see I was prepared for the rain in the forecast and was not equipped with customary golf attire I was still able to shoot a good game though helping my team to finish at -6 but still no good enough for the win which was -17.

I hope the fundraiser was a big success and I can not wait to support the tournament next year. It should give me some time to get a hair cut, golf shoes, shorts and a get to the driving range.

Focus, Straight Arms, Keep Eye on Ball, Unload

Hello

So I just spent 4 days in the best weather I have trained in all year.  It was amazing with day time highs of 25-29 c.

This was our first training camp of the season and it was well timed, after training all Spring in Canmore with weekly snow and rain we seriously needed to restore our depleted vitamin D stores.

This camp included rollerski intervals on Mount Revelstoke, a 150 km road ride, 165 km road ride and more rollerskiing.  What I enjoyed most about the camp was being able to see more of our beautiful country.

I have attached pictures of the camp most are of down time because I am sure you have seen a lot of my training and racing photos.

The Team

Enjoying some icecream together

Brendan, Patrick, Jaime, Me

The Girls

Ciao

Howdy,

Since my last post the Men’s Team has had some testing done at the University of Calgary. The day was very busy with Blood Testing, Body Composition Testing, Cardiac Output and a Lactate Incremental.

As well as a 1.5 hr sleep seminar, but more on that later.

The blood testing and body composition tests are pretty self explanatory. They are both used to monitor our overall health. These are pretty important to us because they can give us information that might not be so obvious to us athletes or the coaches and give us early warning signs of over training ect.

And then there are there was the Cardiac Output, this test basically tests the parameters of your heart. How big and how much blood it pumps. This test was executed on a running treadmill and was not very enjoyable because my knee has not been 100% this spring so I have not logged very many running kms.

Brendan Green Cardiac Output

The last was the Incremental, basically with this test the speed goes up every 3 minutes and you have a blood lactate taken. Lactate is basically that burning feeling you get in your muscles when you are lifting heavy objects or exercising hard. This test is used as a tool to determine the speed of future workouts as well as measure the overall fitness. Luckily this test was executed on the roller ski treadmill, much more reasonable for me at this time of year.

Jaime Robb, Rollerski Treadmill

Me, Getting a lactate taken.

I do not have an feedback from these tests yet but was told that the tests were successful in getting solid data to calculate.

Until Next time train hard and stay on your feet!

Hey,

Just back with some more pic’s of the recent skiing at Sunshine.

Snow Gopher

Warming Lake

Matthias Ahrens aka Salomon Man

Tyson Smith Mt. Assiniboine background

Melting Lake from a half way up mountain

How not to Ski

Landscape

Kit Richmond Tyson Smith

Until next time Happy Trails,

Hi Everyone,

The name basically says it all.  This week we have been able to take part in some great ski conditions at Sunshine Village the Downhill Ski Resort 10km outside of Banff Canada. And for our first day we were able to take in some decent sunshine as well.

We started skiing at around 8:30 am and it stayed pretty firm for the whole 3 hour ski.  The first hour we were able to take in some great crust skiing and I hope to get in even more crust on Friday.  The ski loop is approx 5 km and has a good mix of hills and downhills which is nice when you are skiing at 2400 meters.

A big thanks goes out to John Jaques, who was able to put this together for the third year in a row.  I believe there will be skiing at Sunshine everyday for 2 weeks so get out there.

Enjoy the pictures!

Me, Brendan, Matthias

B getting his one skate on and me getting my smile on!

The Landscape

Me being stupid

Just happy I didn't break any equipment

I am a large fan of most all endurance sports and power endurance sports that Cross Country Skiing would most likely fall under.

And I have noticed that weight always seems to be a factor considered among top athletes. Whether they are cyclists, mountain bikers, runner or skiers.

It seems to me that there are training weights and race weights for many athletes but I am concerned about how athletes are getting down to these lower weights for the most important competitions of their season.  It seems to me that calorie restriction is a dangerous game because you are going to need your strongest immunity and recovery at the same time you have been losing weight.

I can fluctuate as much as 10lbs in a fiscal year but it is usually without effort.  It is most likely do to my over eating in the off season or Spring Training cycles.

I am currently at 172 lbs and probably the heaviest I will be for the rest of the year.  And although I would prefer to be lighter I don’t really care enough to do something about it right now.  From my experience I can perform very well anywhere from 170 lbs -160lbs  and my performances have more to do with how well I am recovering, sleeping and the quality of training leading in to performances.  Because on race day if I am in good form I feel like I could carry ten pounds on my back and I wouldn’t even know it.  Oh yeah I have to I am a Biathlete and its called a rifle.

So I would really appreciated some input on this subject.  I understand it can be considered a pretty private subject stay so that anonymous if you prefer.

I am interested in what methods athletes are using to increase weight, decrease weight or even maintain weight throughout the vigorous  training and racing year.

Maybe your weight doesn’t even bother and like me you just eat healthy and you just eat, sleep and train.

Hi Everyone,

I am now officially back training full time.  After a April filled with great skiing at the Canmore Nordic Center I took two weeks off training and went home to Regina, Sask.

I wanted to go home and visit with those people I just don’t get to see enough of anymore. My friends and family.  I had a great time at home and it started on the trip home.  I was able to stop in Moose Jaw, Sask for some rejuvenation at the Temple Garden Mineral Spa’s it is a all natural salt spring.  After floating around in there for a hour with the local Seniors I was back on the road now only 71km away from home out of my 854km drive.

When I arrived at home I was greeted with a great home cooked meal and desert.  The latter is probably what resulted in nearly a 5 lbs gain over the month of April.

While at home I was not very active, my first week at home I wanted to take completely off and I was starting to get my normal energy back after a long and draining year.  Then however I started to stay up later and later and ended catching a cold.  It seemed like everyone was sick in April.  So my second week I was even less active only really doing normal activities around the house.  But after healing from that cold I was back feeling like myself again which was good because I would soon be leaving for Canmore to start with training again.

I arrived back in Canmore on May 07, 16 days off total.  And I was ready to get back too it.  Unfortunately I paid for that bit of motivation.  On my first day back I did double training 90 min Weight Room in the morning and 90 min running in the afternoon.  You would think that after 25 years of life I would have a little more common sense then that, however I spent the next two days stiff and sore and it made my training less then enjoyable, especially when the weather was terrible.

However this week we were lucky enough to get a decent day for our precision shooting test.  The first one is usually pretty damn tough for me.  I usually find my trigger timing and stability is a little off.  I was anxious to try it though because over the spring I had a new rifle stock made. It is heavier then my previous model and I wanted to try out the balance.  I ended up shooting a 495/600 and even though that is not a PB I think it might be for this time of year and considering I have been fiddling with this new stock everyday so that I can get it just right before the start of June.  I am happy with the result.

So even though I had a rough start to my training year I have been sleeping like a baby and in May I think that will be my top concern.

Hi Everyone,

So the season has ended but the skiing has not for many enthusiasts in Canmore, Alberta.  I have not had the opportunity to really ski in Canmore this year.  I was in Silverstar for a early snow camp left for the World Cup from there and only really returned for two weeks at Xmas before leaving again.  So I never got a good chance to get really acquainted with the trails this season, so now that I have the opportunity I am going to use it.

I have decided to put in some good training before taking the final break of the season.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks I will be able to include some downhill and back country skiing to the schedule.

I have posted a few picks to show the great conditions our Biathlete running on skis classic technique.

Jodi Classic Skiing

Jodi, Nathan and Brendan