• Coach ~ Lorris Williams ~ Lorris's page
• Wax tech ~ Lorris Williams & Patrick Moore

• November 22 ~ Noram Canmore
• December 1st ~ Noram Silverstar
• December 13th ~ Noram Quebec City
• January 3rd ~ Noram Duntroon
• January 22nd ~ World Cup Canmore
• February ~ World Cup Europe
• March 16th ~ Nationals

• Overall Haywood NorAm Champion
• 1st place, 15km classic, Rossland NorAm
• 1st place, 10km classic, Smithers NorAm
• 1st place, 7.5km skate, Smithers NorAm
• 2nd place, 5km skate, Rossland NorAm
• 2nd place, 5km skate, Canadian National Championships
• 3rd place, 10km classic, Canmore NorAm
• 3rd place, skate sprint, Smithers NorAm
• 3rd place, 30km skate, Canadian National Championships

• Represented Canada at the 2006 World U-23 Championships, Medvode, Slovenia
• Placed 4th at the Marcialonga World Loppet, Italy, 2005
• Represented Canada at the 2003 World Junior Championships, Solletea, Sweden
• Represented Canada at the 2002 World Junior Championships, Schonach, Germany
• Represented Canada at the 2001 World Junior Championships, Szklarska Poreba, Poland

Season Update

The National Team nominations came out about a week ago.  Despite my strong season and despite the fact that I am the second ranked female distance skier in the country I am not on the team and I won't be receiving Sport Canada carding for this year.  At first I was a bit angry, but I think with the passing of time I am becoming immune to being upset over confusing political decisions.  I'm not quite sure at what point in the last few years Cross Country Canada decided that I wasn't international elite material, but they seem to be sticking by that decision even after I proved my potential time and again this winter.

At least this all made my life a bit less stressful!  I didn't have to choose between working with Lorris, and a program I love, and having funding, so that is really great.  Also, I have actually really enjoyed my newfound independence over the past 12 months.  Working with Lorris, Patrick and Jack really brought back my love of skiing and showed me a whole wonderful new side to the Canadian ski community.   I was a member of the National Ski team from the time I turned 17 until last year; I matured to adulthood in this exclusive and elite culture.  I didn't notice much of the rest of the ski community in Canada.  When I suddenly found myself on the outside last spring I was really amazed at how wonderfully supportive "outsiders" are of each other, and what a positive and fun sense of community exists among Canadian skiers who really just ski for the pure love of the sport.  I don't mean to say that I didn't have fun on the National Team, or that I didn't enjoy my teammates.  Being on the National Team is a fabulous and privileged existence. I am not comparing the two experiences at all.  I just mean that I suddenly found that I had so many more friends, and people who I barely knew before were excited and truly happy for me when I did well.  I think what made this year so special for me was not so much the successes that I had on the trails but  the discovery of this infectious positivity and enthusiasm in the Canadian ski community.  I think that it was this enthusiasm, to which Lorris and Patrick were major contributors, that ultimately led to great performances.

The new training season starts on Monday.  I have been resting (and doing a lot of homework) for the past month, so I am ready to go!  I am actually starting to slowly get back into running using barefoot running (more on that another time), and I am really excited to implement everything that we learned over the past year.  I am stoked to get started on another year of training towards 2010, and I know that Lorris, Patrick and everyone at Fast Trax are as excited as I am to keep this crazy train rolling!

Nationals Update

Well, my ski season has come to a close.  With the national championships wrapping up last week, most elite athletes are headed for warmer climates to enjoy a break from training and skiing in general.  While a southern vacation isn't in the cards for me this year, I just spent the last five days recharging and enjoying the wonderful city life in Vancouver.  I am fortunate that Coast Hotels and Resorts, one of my main sponsors, operates the Coast Plaza right near Stanley park so I had a place to stay in the heart of this beautiful, multicultural wonder of a city.

Anyway, back to skiing.  The national championships were very disappointing for me. I was tired from the stress of travel and racing this season and was unable to perform.  Given the fact that this is the first year that I have been able to train through the entire summer in almost five years, I just didn't seem to have the base to make it through a long season.  I placed eleventh and tenth  (sixth and fifth Canadian) in the middle distance races, but my best race of the week was actually, oddly enough, the sprints where I placed eighth, and fifth Canadian.  That is one thing I have really noticed this year- that no matter how tired a person is, they can usually pull off a decent sprint. 

Nationals presented a bit of a challenge for me but not because I was angry that I wasn't racing well. I accepted that I was tired early in the week and was grateful that the rest of my season was so good, so I could not begrudge a few off days.  It was a challenge because I had to convince myself that I should just stop racing.  I am used to racing in every race, so deciding to not do the 30km was very hard.  In the end, Lorris actually had to tell me that racing was forbidden before I was able to really take notice that I was in no condition to race.  It was the right decision.  I think that this is something that I need to improve as a racer- sometimes the best thing is to just stop and let the recovery process take over.  This way you avoid digging a hole that takes longer to get out of, and you avoid getting sick.  It may seem weird to care about getting sick at the end of March because I am about to take a month off of training, but that month is crucial to recovery.  If you have to get over sickness before recovering from the racing and training stress of the past year, you have just wasted a week or more out of a very short month.

I am just enjoying relaxing for now.  The season took a greater toll on me then I realized until I stopped and let the fatigue take hold. I am just taking it easy, walking and spinning a bit and I will probably ski a bit too because the snow in Canmore is still quite good. Mainly though, I have shifted my focus to school for the month and I will be working hard to finish  my environmental psychology course in the coming weeks.  There are also the National Ski team nominations that will come out in mid April, so of course I will have to see how that plays out.  This year has been extremely successful for me and I am so grateful to Lorris, Patrick, Fast Trax, The Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel, Melcor, Tim Melton, and Dr. Curtis Shell for making it all possible.  I will be in touch again in the new year (AKA May)!

Stockholm Update

Well, my World Cup tour is over and I am on my way home.  Here is a recap of the last few days.

After racing in Falun we traveled to Stockholm for a sprint race around the Royal Palace.  This venue definitely ranks among the coolest I have ever seen.  Tons and tons of snow were trucked in and made into a track around the Royal Palace on Stockholm's waterfront.  We waxed our skis in the King's parking garage and warmed up jogging on the tiny cobblestone streets that surround the palace.  There were thousands of fans and the atmosphere was electric in this beautiful setting.  I was lucky to start this event, but because sprinting is not my strong suit I really wasn't much of a contender.  None the less, it was one more world cup start and valuable as such.

Overall this trip has been eye opening.  To see just exactly how far I need to go in the next few years to achieve my goals is enormously valuable.  I feel extremely lucky to have had the chance to come to Europe and experience the World Cup as a whole: not just the racing, but the constant travel and the coping strategies that become necessary with the travel.  I learned a lot about how to get as much rest as possible while jet setting around Europe and Scandinavia.  I also learned that there is a lot more to racing well on the World Cup than training and Fitness; one has to gain enough experience to be comfortable with the whole package before the results will come.  I am looking forward to working on the weaknesses that were exposed and to implementing what I have learned.

I am now on my way home to rest up and prepare for nationals which will be held at the new Olympic venue near Whistler from March 16th to 23rd.  Of course I will keep you posted about how these final competitions of my season unfold! 

Falun Update

We have been in Sweden for a week now, and the majority of my racing here is done.  Falun is a beautiful town and we have had the good fortune of a lot of sun this week.  The weather has been warm, but the organizers did an incredible job at keeping the snow hard and clean so that the racing was actually real skiing despite the fact that the temperature reached 10 degrees on Sunday.

I spent the week leading up to the races here getting as much rest as I possibly could while still doing my best to stay sharp with training.  I have been pretty run down for the past month or so and I have actually gotten over two separate colds during that period while traveling and trying to race to the best of my ability on the world cup.  I was finally feeling close to healthy as we arrived here in Sweden but my energy was low, and as a result I was having a tough time coping emotionally with the stresses of World Cup competition.  My strategy was thus to get as much sleep and down time as possible to pull myself out of my dark hole.   After three days of solid sleeps at night and even more solid naps during the day I was really beginning to feel more like myself, and with my energy came my excitement to race again.  I focused on carefully preparing for Saturday's 15km pursuit, making sure that I was prepared for every detail of the race that I had control over. 

Saturday ended up being my best race so far, with a 45th place finish.  The day was grueling and saw five women drop out of the race.  I struggled in the classic portion, but less than I have struggled in the other classic races so far.  I am getting more and more used to skiing on klister as the trip goes on, and Fischer gave me some new skis to try so I was definitely stronger than I had been in Otepaa.  That being said, I was still relieved when the exchange came along.  I was able to gain back four or five positions on the skate leg which involved skiing up the infamous morderbacken (which means killer hill in Swedish) twice.  Morderbacken is basically the entire outrun of a k120 ski jump in one shot, followed by a fast and crazy turny downhill (which is even more fun when you have so much lactic acid in your legs that they will barely bend, let alone move!)  I was happy with my final distance effort of my world cup tour, and it provided even more lessons for me to draw upon in the future. 

Sunday was a 4x5km team relay.  Our team pulled out a very encouraging race to finish tenth.  I skated the third leg, and thanks to strong races by Sara and Chandra I was withing striking distance of a train that included Charlotte Kalla and Claudia Nystad.  I fought hard to catch this group and skied with these two powerhouse women for nearly two kilometers, until Kalla put the hammer down on morderbacken and blew our little train to smithereens!  I kept fighting for the remaining 3km of my race, and was actually gaining time on the swiss team ahead of me when I tagged off to Sarah Daitch for the anchor. 

My experience here in Falun has been very good.  I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to come over here to learn as much as I can about racing on the world cup so that hopefully I can improve my results at the world level considerably in the next year.  Tomorrow we will drive to Stockholm to race around the royal palace in a classic sprint which should be amazing!  then Thursday I fly home to prep for nationals.  I will wave to the Queen for team Fast Trax!

Liberec Update

This has been another interesting week on the World Cup for sure.  We traveled to Liberec, Czech Republic on Monday.  We stayed at an ancient Babylon-themed hotel that had a water park, casino and mall.  While reminiscent of the fantasy land hotel at west-ed, it wasn't quite as glamorous.  I was pleasantly surprised by Liberec though.  The town itself is very beautiful, our hotel was quite nice, and despite the fact that there was no snow at all in town or at the race site, a twenty minute drive up into the hills brought us to snow and, all things considered, pretty good skiing.  The race organizers worked hard all week to prepare a 2km course that we could race on.  By Friday the race track was "ready".  We went out to ski it with rock skis in hand.  the snow was really more gravel with a light sprinkling of sugary ice chunks.  It was so sugary in fact that one of the downhills on the course was so dangerous that the TD threatened to cancel Saturday's race if the conditions were not firmer. 

Saturday was sunny and actually a bit cold in the morning.  I woke up feeling decent, which was encouraging because I had been fighting a cold during the week.  I was determined to race because the 10km skate race was one of only three distance races that I am on the world cup to do, so cold or not, I suited up.  Fortunately for me the race course only added up to 7.6km instead of 10km because of the challenging conditions.  When you're sick it is usually wise to avoid racing if you can, but if you must, the shorter the better for sure.  The course was still a bit sugary but no where near as bad as it had been the day before.  The main downhill was still an exercise in balance more than anything, but other than that it was real skiing.  I felt a lot better than I expected to in my race and ended only 1:54 off the lead, about 40 seconds out of the top 30, which for having a cold was pretty good I thought.  I also scored my best ever FIS points, so it was a pretty good day all around.  Pretty good but not great.  My hunt for the elusive top 30 continues this weekend here in Falun, Sweden.  I will race in a 15km pursuit on Saturday and a relay on Sunday, then a classic sprint around the palace in Stockholm on Wednesday before I fly home Thursday.  I am doing my best to be as rested and snappy as possible for Saturday, so this week will be spent chilling out.  I will let you know how things turn out of course!

World Cup Update

Just a quick update on my first European World Cup experience!  It has been a we weekend here in Otepaa, Estonia, so it was interesting.  We are quickly packing up right now to head to the Czech Republic for the next installment of the World Cup, so my recap must be brief. 

Saturday was a 10km classic, and only my third race in two years on Klister.  I felt a bit flat, and having traveled and recovered from a cold in the past ten days, this was not surprising.  I had trouble finding my top gear and really wasn't happy with my race at all.  I ended up in 47th place, but scored 88 FIS points, which is my third best ever.  Sunday the course was even wetter, and the race was a classic sprint.  I felt a lot better about my technique and I think with a bit more practice, klister skiing will be no problem.  I started the sprint for more experience with world cup starts, and I think it went well, although I ended up in 53rd place. 

Next weekend I race a 10km skate and a classic sprint relay.  I will not be satisfied until I am in the top 30 in distance, so hopefully these races will have shaken out all the cobwebs and I will be firing on all cylinders in Liberec on Saturday! 

What a week! 

I raced in my first World Cups in two years this past week in Canmore.  The week started out cold, but since we were racing on man made snow, the tracks stayed pretty fast.  The first race was a 15km pursuit on Tuesday.  The race didn't start well for me, and my body and skis weren't cooperating.  After struggling through 7.5km of classic, I was pretty cooked.  I headed out onto the skate course and, after 3.75km had recovered enough to really push the last lap of the race to try to reel back some of the time I had lost to the leaders.  I ended up in 37th place which was two places better than my previous best World Cup finish, but not a result I was satisfied with.

I skipped the classic sprint on Wednesday to make sure that I was as rested and ready as possible for the 10km skate on Friday.  Friday was a clear and beautiful day, and I realized as I headed up to the Nordic Centre that I was really ready for this race.  I was confident in my skis, I knew that I could push my body around the course no matter what ( the Nordic Centre World Cup trails are renowned as being some of the most difficult on the circuit), and my frustration from the race on Tuesday gave me that extra bit of motivation that I needed to really push it when the pain of lactic acid in my legs got to be blinding.  I started fast, which can be dangerous on a course as hard as this one, but it was all I could do to hold myself from sprinting right from the start.  I skied strong and smooth for the first 5km lap.  As I rounded through the stadium with the crowds cheering and the announcer (Becky Scott) telling them all that I was leading the race I thought "yeah, I can do that again".  I hit the hill leaving the stadium and felt the lactic acid spike almost immediately.  "hmmm, maybe not" I thought.  But determination can do good things, and so can fast skis.  I nearly maintained my pace, and despite the blinding and nauseating pain of lactic acid buildup in my arms and legs I kept my tempo high.  Lorris and Patrick stationed themselves separately around the course so that one of them would be on every climb.  Their voice-cracking loud cheering, along with the encouragement of my parents, aunt, uncle, cousin and friends along the course kept me pushing harder than I could have without them.  I finished hard and I ended up in 32nd place.  That may not seem exceptional, but in Nordic skiing the top 30 finishers in the world cup are considered to be the elite, the cream of the World Cup racing field.  I was a mere 0.6 of a second out of 29th place. and only 2 seconds out of 28th, so this was a very, very encouraging result. 

On Saturday I sprinted in the skate race, but seeing as I am not a sprinter, this was really more for fun and more experience with starting World Cups.  I actually sprinted very well though, finishing only 11 seconds out of the lead, and only about 5 seconds out of the coveted top 30.  On Saturday I also learned that I have earned the right to continue to race on the World cup in February of this year, and who knows, if all goes well I may get to stay on for March as well!  So I am packing and organizing now to head to Switzerland on Thursday.  We will train there for a week before flying to Estonia for the next installment of the world cup.  After Estonia, we will go to the Czech Republic and Sweden for all told seven World Cup races.  I will keep you all posted on how things go for me out in the big pond with the biggest fish around!

Duntroon Update

Another exciting and eventful race week is over.  Saturday saw the sudden death of Canadian ski legend Heinz Niederhauser while he was skiing on the Highlands Nordic trails.  Having a man like Heinz pass away so suddenly in the company of hundreds of skiers to whom he was a mentor left everyone reeling and really put things in perspective.  We should count ourselves lucky to be able to ski, to do everyday what we love to do.  After that, it hardly seems to matter about the racing but I did have a particularly good race on Thursday, so I will fill you in. 

Thursday was a beautiful day, but a cold one, which is good for me because I have really good skis for cold weather. I was excited for the chance to finally test myself against Sara Renner who hadn't been around for a while.  I started well, and was feeling very comfortable as the race moved around the first of two laps of 2.5km classic.  By the end of the second classic lap Sara Renner and I had a sizable lead over third place as we headed into the transition.  I had a great transition and came out in the lead.  Sara and I traded the lead over the 5km skate course, and in the end it came down to a sprint to the finish for the win.  When we crested the final steep climb Sara moved past me; I fought as hard as I could but she simply had the superior sprint.  Despite losing the sprint I was very excited to have skied and entire 10km with the legendary Sara Renner!

Saturday was the sprint day and, after a mediocre qualifier where I placed ninth, I was looking forward to trying to move up in the heats.  I had an excellent quarter final, moving through to the semis easily.  The semi final was much more challenging, but a crash in my heat that I managed to avoid meant that I was able to squeak into the A-final.  I felt strong again in the final and left everything I had on the course to finish a very strong fourth place, behind Olympic medalists Chandra Crawford and Sara Renner and young sprint phenom Perianne Jones. 

Unfortunately I may have left a bit too much on the course on Saturday because I didn't have much left for the 10km classic on Sunday.  Normally this would be a good race for me, but with the weather warming to nearly 10 degrees and rain falling I just didn't have the skis to contend.  I don't want to blame the skis entirely, my body wasn't great either, and technically I find klister conditions difficult.  The technique required to ski on soft snow with Klister is a long stride with the weight fairly far back.  I tend to ski up on my toes, and I kick very hard so I found that I iced up my wax a fair bit. 

Despite Sunday's dissapointment, I still have Thursday's great success to be grateful for.  I proved that I have the fitness to be a real contender when everything comes together for me, and that is a huge confidence boost going into the World Cups in Canmore  which start on January 22nd.  Also, I maintained my Noram lead, which could potentially earn me a spot for some European world cups in February.  I will of course keep you posted on how the World Cups unfold!.

• Madeleine's Edmonton Journal Article ~ Article
• Madeleine Williams selected to Canada World Cups January 2008 ~ Article

Final Noram's

The final NorAm races of 2007 took place this past weekend at the Valcartier Army base near Quebec City.  While the first half of the week was relatively calm, the trip ended with much excitement and one of the biggest snow storms Eastern Canada has seen in several years!

The first race of the week was a skate sprint on Thursday.  The day was beautiful but cold, and the course had a lot of climbing, which suits me well.  I qualified in a very close sixth position, and was able to move up through the rounds, winning every one of my heats up to the final.  I fought hard in the final, and made some good tactical moves to finish in third place, earning my first sprint podium of the year.

The second race of the week was a 10km pursuit on Saturday.  The race started reasonably well, and at the end of the classic leg I was in the lead pack of four women.  I moved into the lead as we headed out on the challenging skate leg, but the fatigue of racing three weeks in a row and traveling began to catch up with me.  I was the only woman in the field who had raced every race in the series so far, and I was feeling it.  I held on as best I could, but I had to let two girls go.  I finished third on the day, determined to fight hard in the 5km classic the next day.

Sunday's race was a mass start 5km classic, which, at this level, is rare. 5km is simply too short to have time for the field to sort itself out, so races like this one tend to be very intense.  I skied the first 2km with an ever shrinking group of women, and made a break on a section of steep and gradual climbs that made up the middle of the course.  The snowstorm I mentioned began shortly before we started our race, so the tracks were filling up with snow ahead of us.  Being a lone skier on a break is not really a good place to be when the tracks are full of snow.  with this in mind I gave myself a significant lead at the top of the course, with about 1km of mostly downhill to go.  I decided I would be better off to stay out of the tracks and avoid giving the skiers coming behind me any advantage by breaking trail for them.  So, I stepped out of the tracks and double poled like mad for the finish.  I managed to maintain nearly 9 seconds of my advantage to earn my second NorAm victory of the season; a victory which was so much sweeter after my disappointment on Saturday. 

With an intense three weeks behind us, Lorris, Patrick and I headed back to our hotel to rest for a bit before going out for a celebratory dinner.  Getting home was interesting to say the least as the snow was now coming down hard, the wind was gusting to something like 90km and hour and our rental car had crappy all season tires.  Getting back to the hotel was nothing compared to the adventure of getting downtown to go out for dinner though!  I think our half hour spent digging out the car (it had only been parked for a couple of hours!), followed by a very interesting drive down the deserted streets to downtown Quebec pretty well proves that you can do anything if you are determined enough!  I mean, we spent all that time digging out the car, we might as well go somewhere.  We got to our restaurant on the trendy Grande Allee (Quebec's version of White Ave), and found ourselves to be the only diners that evening.  We had our choice of tables and took the mob-boss style private booth!  I think that is the first time I have ever see anyone wear neos to a fancy restaurant.

I am now en route back to Alberta with only moderate weather delays.  So, provided my next flight goes on time, I will soon be back in Edmonton for Christmas.

• CCC Article
• Ski Trax Article

Canmore NorAm

Madeleine on top of the Podium for the NorAm 5km Classic ~ Photo Patrick Moore

Another great week of racing has just finished.  This week I raced the NorAm races at the Canmore Nordic Centre.  Thursday was a pursuit race, followed by a skate sprint Saturday and a 5km classic on Sunday.

The pursuit went reasonably well thanks to a strong skate leg.  Poor ski selection for the classic leg meant that I had to work really hard to kick my skis.  This resulted in a massive waste of energy and a large gap to the leaders.  I started strong and fast on the skate portion and managed to catch up to second place (Dasha Gaiazova) while maintaining my time behind first place (Tasha Betcherman).  I put in a well timed burst of speed on the final climb to drop Dasha and finished the race in a respectable second place.

The sprint day also went well despite frigid temperatures and slow snow.  My awesome wax team hit it again and I sprinted to sixth in the qualifier.  I was able to move up through the rounds using my strong climbing skills to place fourth in the A-final.  Not bad for a distance specialist!

Sunday was the 5km classic and, I decided, my day.  Lorris and Patrick worked very hard to make sure that I selected the best possible pair of skis for climbing the treacherous world cup 5km course.  My skis were awesome and I was pumped up by "crazy Frog" on the loudspeaker just before my start.  My tactic was simple: hammer.  This is the best way to go in a short race like the 5km, I find.  I ran up the hills, keeping my tempo super high through the whole race.  My tempo paid off and I earned my first victory of the season by a healthy margin of 25 seconds! 

Tomorow morning I am flying to Quebec city for another week of Noram Racing.  I will be joined by Lorris on Wednesday and Patrick on Thursday.  The races will be held at Valcartier army base and will consist of a skate sprint, and 10km pursuit and a 5km classic.  Look for an update on Sunday or Monday next week!

Vernon NorAm Cup

This past weekend was the first weekend of racing of my season.  I raced a 10km skate on Saturday and a classic sprint on Sunday at Sovereign Lake nordic centre near Vernon, BC.  With the help of my ever-enthusiastic support crew of Lorris and Patrick, I had a very successful couple of days. 

Saturday dawned cold and dry, and I woke up pretty nervous for my first real test after a summer of training under a drastically different system.  I was confident that I was fit, the nerves came in because I had no idea where I might stack up against the competition.  I tried to stay as relaxed as possible as I tested my skis and warmed up, but I was definitely a bit tense as I headed to the start line.  I started well and was leading the race for the first couple of kilometers.  I was getting good splits off strong girls so I knew I was in the race.  I pushed as hard as I could for the whole race, and on a challenging course like sovereign lake, that kind of race tactic is bound to catch up to you.  I was seeing stars in the last couple of km, but I kept pushing and managed a very strong second place in the first Noram of the season!

Sunday was a classic sprint race.  I am not (or have not been in the past) a terribly strong sprinter, but I wanted to treat this race as another chance to get in a good hard effort and work out the bugs of the pre-race routine with my support crew.  I qualified in a strong seventh place (anything in the top ten is very good for me in a sprint), and was feeling confident going into the quarter finals.  I skied well in the quarter finals as well and moved easily through into the semi-finals.  At this point, my goal became to make it into the A-final (top 6).  I gave it everything in the semi-final, and was moving well.  Helped along by the tag-team cheering of Lorris and Patrick, I placed second in my semi-final and earned a spot in the final!  I should elaborate on tag-team cheering.  Lorris was standing at the bottom of the main climb on the course and he would run beside me cheering (well, screaming) for a few metres, then Patrick would take over and do the same- very motivating!  Once I was in the A-final I tried to put my best foot forward.  I ended up finishing in fifth place, by far my best finish in a sprint in a very long time.  I blame the Awesome high intensity training I have been doing all summer! 

The next races are in Canmore, beginning with a 10km pursuit on Thursday.  I will keep you posted!

Vernon Update

Good news from the first race in Vernon, Madeleine with the help of her support crew of Lorris and Patrick placed second in a very strong field!  Madeleine was very close behind Dasha until the last couple km's, but managed to stay in second. Full report from Madeleine will be posted later today or early Monday.

• Full Results

Early Snow Report ~ Well, the snow has arrived (in some places at least)!  While this seems to be an unusually late snow year in Western Canada, I have managed to find some great snow to train on for the last few weeks before racing begins.  The fall has been so warm in fact that the season opening NorAm races in Canmore have been postponed two weeks until December 6th.  The NorAm races held at Sovereign Lake ski club on Silver Star Mountain will now be the opening races on December 2nd and 3rd.  So, with two weeks remaining until the racing season gets underway my training has become very specific and very intense.

The first on-snow camp of the season was held in Lake Louise over the remembrance day long weekend.  This camp is a bit of a tradition for Alberta ski clubs, and this year did not disappoint.  The parking lot at Moraine Lake Road was overflowing on Saturday and Sunday, and both Edmonton Nordic and Team Fast Trax were well represented.  We had two fabulous days of skiing, camaraderie and fun! 

After Lake Louise, with the snow prospects in Canmore looking grim, I packed up and headed to Silver Star, BC for a week-long training camp.  My Parents rented a condo on Silver Star Mountain, and we have been enjoying good early season snow every day at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre.  Having my parents around for a training camp is fabulous because not only do I have good company to spend my evenings with, but I am enjoying three delicious, hearty, home cooked meals a day!  I have never been better taken care of during training, and the same will be true of racing with my fearless Fast Trax support team of Lorris and Patrick!  

As the week comes to a close and I prepare to head back to Canmore for a few days before returning to Silver Star for the first races, I am feeling fit, rested and well fed.  That is a powerful combination, and I'm excited to test it on the race trails! 

Coach Lorris gets into it!

Fog on top of Silver Star Mountain

Hello Everyone and Happy fall!

My base training for the year has just come to an end, and to quote coach Lorris, "the fun is over".  This means that the really intense training that must be completed to prepare for the race season is about to begin.  In celebration of the changing seasons (and because I miss my boyfriend, Graham, who is living at the Pierre Harvey Training Centre in Quebec city this year) I spent the past week training in, and enjoying the beautiful fall colours of, the Quebec city and Mont Sainte-Anne areas. 

I have always felt that it is very important to change scenery often to avoid boredom and monotony in training. Also, my winters are spent in constant motion, so I don't like to get too settled during the training season because it's hard to get moving again!  The fact that I have been splitting my time between Edmonton and Canmore this year has been very useful to that end, but this well-timed trip to a totally different place was important.  With only four weeks remaining until the first NorAm races of the season, it is time for me to get back into the traveling groove!  Not to mention that the idyllic farm country roads east of Quebec city make for some absolutely gorgeous training this time of year.

During my stay in Quebec I took advantage of the Laval Varsity weight room (quite an experience- the Rouge et Or football players are at least three times my size), the Versant Nord bike path in Ste-Foy, and the gorgeous country roads around Mont Sainte-Anne.  Training with the Pierre Harvey Training Centre guys (they are all guys) made for a highly entertaining change of pace.  Graham even came along to push me through my 90 minute threshold ski between the two gorgeous townships of St. Ferreol Les Neiges and St. Tite des Caps.

All in all I had a very rejuvenating week, and I am back in Edmonton now, batteries charged and ready for whatever Lorris is going to throw at me next! 

A Bientot!

Rollerskiing on the Boulevard du Versant Nord bike path in Ste-Foy, a suburb of Quebec City.

Scoping out rollerski terrain

Migrating Geese at Cap Tourmente

View from the country road near Mont Sainte-Anne.

Spring Update

This spring was a time of major change in my life.  After seven years as a member of the National Ski Team program, I parted ways with my old teammates and coaches in search of greater happiness and faster race times.  Cross Country Canada was faced with major funding cuts this year that resulted in a serious restructuring of the National Team program.  This restructuring meant that the National Team was cut in size and a number of athletes were sent to National Development Teams in Thunder Bay and Quebec City.  After weeks of careful consideration I decided that I would decline my nomination to any development team.  I have long felt that the coaching and training style of the National Team program is not ideal for me, so when I had to choose between leaving my home or staying as an independent athlete, the decision to stay in Alberta seemed natural.  The problem was that there was no support structure for me here, and I didn't  have a coach.

Fortunately, I have a network of caring friends in the Edmonton ski community, and a brother with a knack for coaching!  When I presented my dilemma to my brother (who is the coach of the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club, and a manager at Fast Trax) in April, his response was that the most important thing is that I'm happy and confident with the training I'm doing.  He asked me who I would choose as a  coach if I could have anyone; my reply was that I wanted to work with him.  He was surprised, to say the least, and admitted that the prospect of coaching a "real" elite athlete scared him a bit.  He has more than risen to the challenge, though, and Jack (my former coach) has as well.  Between the two of them they devised a support system for me which rivals the National Development teams and far outstrips them in real, caring, moral support.

With the new Team Fast Trax behind me, I am happier, fitter and more prepared to take on the world than I can remember ever being.  After years of feeling trapped by the National Team coaching staff, I am training free of an enormous burden, and I am finally showing real improvement.  My training program has changed drastically.  I have moved away from traditional ski training which involves large volumes of training with relatively little hard or fast training.  I now train at a very high intensity, and I am feeling the benefits.  I recently competed in a roller-ski time trial in Canmore with the National Ski Team, and I am happy to report that I finished ahead of all my former teammates.

So, while my finances have taken a bit of a hit with my change in situation, the resulting gains in fitness and happiness are well worth it.  Besides, I have always relished a challenge!  I am eagerly looking forward to the start of the race season in late November, and I promise I will keep you posted.