Hi Everyone,

Finally the season is over it has been a very long season as you can tell from my post before and it has left me drained.  I mustered up all the energy I could for Canadian Championships and was able to finish off the season on a high note.  After being very tired the morning of the 10km Sprint so tired that I didn’t do much warm up I was surprised by some solid skiing and a Gold Medal only to wake up tired again for the Mixed Relay but a little more motivated because of my performance the previous day.

Unlike XC Nationals, Biathlon Nationals are very provincial based and you must race for a province and receive support from them or personally seek private support.  Those of us on the National Team can not even receive wax support because it may cause an unfair advantage.  In the mixed relay we entered our number one team of Mat Stachura, Jodi Etcheverry and myself.  Mat just returning from North American Cup #10 and before that European Championships was beginning to feel the exhaustion from being on the road for so long.  Jodi Etcheverry although not tired from racing was tired from supporting us through waxing and ski testing all week.  And myself well I was just plain tired.

Mat started the race and even though he did not have any penalty loops he had to use all of his spares and at an average of 10 sec a spare he was looking at at least a minute of time added on top of if he would have otherwise been clean.  Mat tagged Jodi in 5th or 6th and from there Jodi started only her second race of the year ( now a full time student)  she skied well and shot better then either of us only using two spares on the day.  Jodi tagged me in 4th and behind Quebec, Alberta and NWT.  I skied as hard as I could on the first lap and considering it was only 2km I didn’t find it too crazy. I came into the range in control and hit my first 4 targets very quickly and just as I had imagined.  But on the 5th the wind did a 180 and blew my bullets off course.  It took me two spares to realize what had happened after correctly 6 clicks or roughly 1.5 inches I hit the last target and I was on coures.  I was tired but was still able to put in a decent effort on the short loop.  However my effort may have been too much.  When I came to the shooting mat for standing I was standing beside Jaime Robb of Alberta and over heard he had used all his spares and was looking at a penalty loop.  I figured if I cleaned my targets quickly we could have a good battle over the last 2km, unfortunately the situation got the better of me and I now had 3 penalties my worst shooting ever in a relay.  Even though after looking at results and seeing that battling for 2nd with Jaime for 2nd would have been a very difficult challenge I still wish I had had the chance.

After a quick and final for the season last lap I came into the finish over a minute behind 2nd but luckily still in 3rd.

So in the end I left Nationals satisfied and ready for some R & R after 4 months I was able to team up again with the crew at Biathlonschool.com to prove that a North American Rollerski Biathlon Champion can in fact in the same year become a North American Champion on snow something that makes me very proud!

This year has been very long and I think I may have traveled more this season then ever before even though last year would come very close, I guess I will have to take a close look at my aeroplan miles to see which one takes the cake. After World Cup #7 in Whistler, Canada we jumped in the team van still tired and unshowered from the relay to jump on a plane to Trondheim, Norway 27 hours later we would arrive at our destination and 2 days later World Cup #8 would begin. I finished a disappointing 80 or 90 something not qualifying for the pursuit and flew directly to Quebec, Canada and even though it is nice to be back in Canada staying a week in a dorm eating cafeteria food is not what I call being home.

Our first race in Quebec was a 20km Individual and the conditions were quite good, slow in places but good for end of March skiing in Quebec. I started off the in poor fashion having a penalty in my first visit to the range and it did not really improve from there. I incurred a total of 5 minutes in penalties.

At the end of the race I was kind of blah I did not feel overly disappointed I was exhausted from travel and from the length of the season that is was hard to muster up any type of emotion. However when I found out that the results were wrong and there was nothing the OC was going to do about it I was very pissed. From what I was told the timing eye at the finish line was knocked off at some point and then the results were skewed it sounded like there was someone taking the old pen and paper results but they were off too. From the splits I was receiving as well what I saw on the course and results my coach had calculated I think I would have been around 4^th or 5^th?  But who knows.

It was frustrating although I was not on the podium that day I wanted some credit for the improvement in my skiing. However because there was no video evidence there was no way to correct the results and since the podium was decided it seemed it did not get much additional attention. My focus was now to move on and hope that because of this error there would be special attention paid to the timing for the next race the 10km Sprint.

Going into the sprint I was getting even more tired and jet lagged. I was at the limit of what I could handle for exhaustion and it was hard for me to find some energy for focus on the ski trails and shooting range. But at this time of the year everyone is at the same breaking point and we are all tired.   Somehow I was able to put together the top performance. I incurred 3 penalty loops total and I was sure it was too much for a podium result but thanks to the 3 person Saskatchewan Support Team also known as Biathlonschool.com I had decent skis and proper splits being given to me on the ski trails this along with great cheering I was able to stay on my feet until the finish.

A big thank you to my coaches, sponsors and fans without you I would have never been able to train and rest well enough to develop into a Canadian Champion.

As you can see in this picture the weather is great in Quebec and although I always have a tan I have definitely darkened a few shades this week.

Jaime Robb, Scott Perras, Marc Andre Bedard

Hi Everyone,

The reason I starting blogging this year was so that I could bring the experiences of a Canadian National Team Biathlete to the Nordic public.  When it comes down to it I think I could have done a better job of blogging and even the racing too but when fatigue gets the best if you it take a toll on everything.

This year I left for Europe on Nov 14 and raced World Cup 1, 2, & 3  then I came home for a short two week           x mas break.  We returned for World Cup 5 & 6 before continuing our season in Korea at the 2009 WCH.

Somewhere between WC 6 and WCH is where my slump settled in.  It could be for many reasons,  I used too much steam early on in the season.  The pre worlds training was really not for me.  A change in coaching ideals.  Or a Minor illness.  These are all things I had to contend with and although I will I could say it made me a stronger person and better athlete I highly doubt it.  So some where in there I lost a fifth gear and my trigger finger.  And have been trying to get it back but still have many unanswered questions.

After World Championships we returned to Canada for World Cup #7  the World Cup I highlighted on the schedule when it was decided I would go.  I was going to have real fans not that the 20 000 fans at the German WC’s is not enough but when the fans are family and friends it makes the whole experience that much better.  At World Cup #7 I felt as though my skiing was turning around.  It felt better and seemed as though I was closing the gap that was previously mentioned.  But I was still struggling on the range.  And unless I am skiing at my top forml I could not afford some many bloody shooting penalties.

Then I had the option go to Norway for World Cup #8 or stay home and rest up and prepare for Nationals.  I did not have much time to make the decision.  I went for my cool down ski after the last race and thought about it really hard,  it was not a easy decision I could take the rest and prepare for Nationals and allow someone else the opportunity to race the World Cup.  I thought about it very intensely even making some phone calls to aid my decision.  Then I went to look at the analytical results to see where my skiing was in the race I had just finished.  What I saw was that my course time was much closer to my team mates then previous weeks so I decided to fly to Norway to get on more shot and making additional Olympic Criteria.

Well even though my intentions were good I struggled in Norway too, for reasons unknown to me I had two penalties in prone, they were my first two shots and even though I pushed it was tough to recover from this mentally.  I knew that I could not afford these 2 penalties and ended up collecting a total of 5 on the day making it my worst shooting of the year.  When I perform like this I do not sulk and feel sorry for myself but more for my coaches and wax techs who are out there all day trying to make sure we have everything we will need.  This is probably the toughest part of racing for me.

My personal belief is that this was good year for the Canadian Men’s Biathlon Team.  Of course it was a roller coaster but we had some good results from all the athletes as well as a historic best 7th place Men’s relay result.  We normally have only 3 atheltes on tour and this year we often had 4 through rotating athletes off the IBU cup we had a total of 7 men race WC for us this year and that is an improvement from previous years.

Tomorrow I will take my 7th and last ( long haul) transatlantic flight of the year back to Quebec for Canadian Nationals.  It will be very chanllenging consider we will land and race two days later and I only left Vancouver Airport 5 days ago.  Not to mention we will be returning to compete against athletes who have been at home for weeks or even longer while we will show up dreary and jet lagged but that is what the life of a World Cup athlete is like and is why we have a glorious rest block after wards.

Howdy Guys and Gals,

I am back in action in the Callaghan Valley and living at the Holiday in, in Whistler BC.  I am part of a 4 man 4 women team representing Canada in the 1st Biathlon World Cup in Canada since 1994.  I always hoped I would someday get the chance to race a World Cup in Canada and now it here and only 4 days away.

It will be really nice to have the entire Biathlon World come to our home to see where we compete and train as well as how we live as Canadian and the beautiful playground we have called the Canadian Rockies.  When the European’s land they will arrive in Vancouver International Airport and it is buy far one of the nicest airports in the World and  from there will continue their drive on the incredibly scenic Sea – Sky highway to Whistler BC.

They are not the only ones who will be staying in Whistler for the first time before yesterday I had never seen the legendary town that is Whistler and it lived up the hype with tons of snow and beautful views in every direction.

The Biathlon site was still being set up today for the White Circus that is the TV crews and press, because of this we were not able to shoot however in the near by Cross Country Stadium we were able to watch a Para Nordic World Cup, this was a first for me and I left very impressed.  I was most impressed by the blind skiers,  soon after witnessing a blind skier ski around the trails my team mate Brendan Green ( B MAN)  and I tried to ski with our eyes closed with the other person guiding from behind with voice directions.  It was not long before we were in a hairy situation with B MAN almost getting in a head to head collision with a rec skier on one of the many highways that are rec loops here in Whistler.

With our eyes now open we are ready,

Me standing infront of Ski Jumps

Me skiing in Whistler

Para Nordic World Cup Course

Able bodied person about to try sit skiing

Biathlon Range being set up for World Cup

Brendan Green skiing on competition course