Welcome to my Web Page! 

This is the first posting on this site, so I want to take the opportunity to thank Fast Trax, Jack and my brother Lorris for helping me get through a very challenging time in my life. 

Their support and unwavering belief in me helped me to stay on my feet and keep striving for my Olympic dream. I hope you enjoy following my training and racing and I hope to see you on the trails.

Madeleine Williams Web Site

• Coach ~ Lorris Williams
• Wax tech ~ 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

Fall Update - Run

Here it is, the promised update on my latest running race adventures!  Over the last few weeks since my last update I have run two 5km races.  The first was in Canmore on September 13th, the Cause Canada run.  This race was truly enjoyable because I actually won overall, including all the men.  It was really fun to be in that positin, just me and the pace bike!  After that run I had a very busy week in and out of Calgary for a wide variety of things, followed by a four day camp in Silver Star to visualize on the Olympic trials course.  I felt strong right up until the final workout of this camp, then the fatigue hit for about 24 hours.  I bounced back on Wednesday to hammer my first lactic acid tolerance workout of the fall.  I love these short, hard workouts so it felt great to head down that road again.  Last night I ran my third 5km road race on my newly rehabbed knees.  This one, like the others, went well.  I was the first woman, but honestly it just feels so good to be running again that that doesn’t matter (well, not AS much anyway!)  I could go on and on about how great the rhythm of running at my max feels, how cool it is that all I have to do is relax and my stride gets longer and I go faster without expending more energy………but I won’t bore you with that! In more exciting news, it's snowing in Canmore!  We actually have a heavy snowfall warning in effect.  Unfortunately the ground isn’t frozen so it won’t stick, but it is still very exciting.  The season is really just around the corner!

Fall Update

The last few weeks have been busy!  Since my last update I spent two weeks at a training camp in Whistler, familiarizing myself with the Olympic venue and just enjoying the fun that is Whistler in the summer.  Ten days after coming home I ran my first running race in at least 5 years (yay!) and it went well, very well actually.  then I had a rest week, which is just coming to an end now, during which I went down to my family's cabin in Montana for four days to relax.

The Whistler camp was something that I had been looking forward to all summer.  The day before we left I skied a 40-second personal best on the uphill rollerski test (13:35), my energy was good and I was excited to train hard at a lower altitude than Canmore, not to mention somewhere new and interesting.  We spent a few days training at the Olympic venue which was great in anticipation of the coming season.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are actually a lot of really good training areas and opportunities around Whistler.  There was lots of terrain to be found for rollerskiing, running, ski striding, road biking and even an afternoon swim race (which was hilarious- we are definitely skiers not swimmers, but no one drowned).  Driving home through the Shuswap I was sure that we were driving away from Summer and into Fall but I was wrong- we have had a gorgeous couple of weeks since then in Canmore.

At the end of the training block that began in Whistler,I ran a 5km road race in Calgary.  I chose this flat, fast race because my knees are still very sensitive to downhill's.  I had forgotten how different running races are from ski races, and how much I love them!  For the last 3.5 km of the race I was running within about 5 beats of my maximum heart rate, but my muscles didn't fatigue.  That is the beauty of running.  It isn't particularly muscular or technical so I can push myself harder than I can in more muscular ski races.  This makes these events not only fun but fantastic cardiovascular training.  I was very happy with my time of 18:36, and my third place in the Calgary Women's run.  Considering where I am coming from over the last several years in the running department I think that this is a great start.

The morning after the race I hopped in my car for a quick trip down to my cabin.  The cabin is on a lake in northwestern Montana and it was hot and glorious!  I sent two whole days (minus a bit of training) packing in as much relaxation and possible.  It rocked.  I am home now and getting ready to start to really train hard over the next few weeks.  I have another 5km run on the books for Sunday, I will let you all know how it goes!

Summer Update

Despite a bit of a rocky start to training this spring, I am definitely feeling like my old self again. Through June, I battled some extreme fatigue that seems to have come from the buildup of a number of different stressors.  I took some easy training time and focused on bringing the joy back into my life and training.  By Canada day I was really starting to feel alive again, and training has been getting better and better since then.

I spent the last week on the Haig glacier (my first visit there in four years) with a focus on finishing the week with good energy.  The camp went really well, I think some good technique gains were made and my energy was and is definitely still on the high end of normal, which is great.  My knees did start to bug me after about the 4th day of the camp (there is a 45 minute hike on rock up to and down from the glacier each day), but after some IMS and physio on Tuesday things are feeling good again.  Good enough, in fact that I was able to do a really good, hard interval session running on Wednesday morning- another thing I haven't done in over four years!

It is very exciting for me to be able to include running in my training program again, it has been such a long road back from my knee injury four years ago.  Running is really my first love, going way back to age 12, and I missed it so much!

Training is full steam ahead now, with a ten-day camp in Whistler coming up in about two weeks.  I am ready to really crank it with my teammates, and I don't think I have ever felt this motivated and excited about the opportunities that the upcoming season holds.

Interesting Spring

It has been an interesting spring.  I started April off by spending two weeks with Graham's family in Beautiful Whitehorse, keeping "resort hours" (Graham's Mom's words), and enjoying the fantastic spring skiing skiing conditions.  Upon my return to Canmore I spent a week studying hard for the final final of my Bachelor of Arts Psychology degree.  I wrote my final on April 20th, and the breathed a big sigh of relief! 

After seeing Graham's sister and our new roommate, Emily, through compartment syndrome surgery on the 21st, I came home to Edmonton for a few days to help out with the launch of spring training for the club kids and attend the ENSC AGM.  While I was in Edmonton I met with Lorris and Patrick to discuss what went well and what didn't go so well this past year.  The discussion was productive and we to acknowledged that what we did in 2007-08 seemed to have been more effective than what happened this year, but this year resulted in some very good points none the less.  With Lorris headed back to school in the fall, I had some very big decisions to make about where I was going to go for support for the coming season.

In the end, after several very positive conversations with Mike Cavaliere, the head coach of the Alberta World Cup Academy, I decided to join the AWCA.  Lorris will still be involved in a coaching role, and Patrick will still be my #1 wax man.  The big differences will be that I now have a team of 20 fellow athletes around me to train with, and a large group of dedicated support staff who can help bring me up to the next level.  I am very excited about these changes, I think it will do me good to have more eyes on me and more people to push me in training.  The way I see it, the Fast Trax Pro Team now has a whole lot more muscle behind it!

My first training camp took place last week in snowy Silver Star.  Unfortunately I got a cold two days in, so my early season is off to a bit of a rocky start.  If anything I usually get in shape too fast in the summer, so I am not too worried.  I am just pulling out of my cold, and getting ready to dive in head first to hard, quality training.  I'll keep you posted as things progress.

Another season of racing is now officially over. 

After getting my second cold in two weeks after nationals I canceled my plans to go to Fairbanks, Alaska for the US distance nationals and decided instead to go ski the Buckwheat Classic near Whitehorse a week later.  This race is hosted by Buckwheat himself, a friendly frontiersman from Skagway, Alaska.  The 50km race is actually held in Canada, but all the post race festivities happen in beautiful Skagway.  This race is a fun way to end the season because it is really a big excuse to party for the Whitehorse and Skagway ski communities.  The course involves two loops of 25km that are never exactly the same from year to year.  This year there was some fresh snow and really strong winds that made one point on the course more like backcountry skiing with foot-deep powder over the tracks.  I raced hard and really enjoyed myself, although I did abstain from the hard liquor being served at the last feed station.  I won the race by just over 25 minutes ahead of the next woman, and I actually placed third overall having skied nearly half the race with the men's leaders. 

The race was followed by a banquet, awards and dance party in Skagway (if this sounds like an ad for the race, it kind of is- I highly recommend it).  At the awards ceremony Buckwheat was in fine form.  In fact, he even rapped part of the Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service, which was one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time!  Unfortunately someone let him know that it happened to be my birthday, so before he gave me my award he had everyone there, probably 150 people, sing happy birthday while I stood uncomfortably up on the stage.  After all the festivities I drove back to Whitehorse to spend a couple of weeks relaxing and enjoying the spring.

This past season has been my most consistent, and I did improve over last year.  I am still Canada's second ranked female distance skier behind Olympic medallist Sara Renner, so I have to be happy about that.  Also, I won the Noram Cup World Cup berth for November and December next year.  Stay tuned for updates on my plans for the upcoming Olympic season.  Thanks so much for your support!

Back from nationals

I arrived back in Canmore yesterday after nearly six weeks on the road.  the trip culminated in the Canadian National Championships, held this year in Duntroon, Ontario, just outside of Collingwood.

I came down with a mild cold during my last week in Europe, which was aggravated by traveling back to North America.  I had about five days to recover before the first race at nationals.  fortunately, I woke up on the day of the first race just barely symptom free. The weather went completely haywire during the days leading up to the first race, and actually throughout the whole week it was pretty crazy. The day of the first race felt a little bit like winter, which was nice.  It had snowed the night before and it was pretty cold.  This race, the 5km skate, was my best of the week.  I won the silver medal on a very flat course.  I was happy with this effort because I am more of a climber.  This race showed that all my hard work on flat skiing is paying off.

The next race, the 10km classic, took place on a warm, sloppy and icy day.  The winds were gusting to nearly 80km an hour by the time I finished, which led the organizers to actually cancel the races for the younger skiers.  I really struggled with my skis in this race, finding them both slippy and slow.  I gave everything I had and still managed to finish in fourth place. 

The sprints were classic this year, and actually my second best race of the week, even though I ended up in fifth place. I am a distance skier but on this day I was able to hold my own with the best sprinters in the country, and I felt like I got stronger as the day went on.  This, I thought, meant good things for the final race of the week, a 30km skate.

The 30km went out much faster than usual, and much faster than most of the skiers were prepared for.  The field was already broken apart in the first 5km, which is very unusual in a race of this distance.  I felt smooth and strong through 24km, but then my body had just had enough.  My entire lower body seized and it was all I could do to ski it in for another 4th place.

This was one of my best nationals in recent history, and I was very happy to win second place aggregate champion for the week.  I have struggled in the past to finish the season strong, but I am making ground.  This season has been by far my most consistent, and I am skiing at a higher level than I ever have.  At the moment I am the second ranked distance skier in Canada behind Sara Renner.  I am deciding whether I will continue my season at the US distance nationals in Fairbanks, Alaska or if I will stop racing now and do a fun loppet or two before taking some rest.  Either way, I will let you know how things go!
 

Off to nationals

My final race in Europe for this year is now over, and I am packing up to head back to Toronto for the national championships.  The race site here in Switzerland is exceptionally beautiful, and the race course was a very fun roller-coaster.  At the end of the day my race was decent but not good; not as good as last weekend.  All week I have been battling fatigue that finally caught up with me after the last three weeks of travel.  The weather this morning was warm, and on snow that was dry and cold yesterday that makes for very tricky waxing. I had some of the fastest skis in the field, but despite the best efforts of our volunteer wax tech, Jonathan Kerr, I ended up with slippy skis in the rapidly warming conditions.  The race was pretty intense with a large field of strong women battling over a very short race.  There were two wicked wipeouts that I was able to sneak around unharmed and many other fun incidents of race rage.  I fought hard over the 5km classic mass start to end up in 6th position, half a second out of fifth. 

            Tomorrow morning we head back out on the road, first to Munich to visit some family friends and then on to Toronto to rest up and prepare for nationals which begin on March 8th.  Thanks so much for your support, and I will keep you posted about nationals!

Italian Update

I just spent the past week in beautiful Schilpario, Italy, which is located high up in the mountains just North East of Milan.  The training early in the week was fantastic with sun every day.  I was over jet lag after Germany, and I really enjoyed feeling normal again.  There were three races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The races were run in pursuit format, with a Classic sprint on Friday which dictated the start order for the 5km classic on Saturday.  The start order for Sunday's 10km skate was based on the finish order and times after Saturday's race.

Friday's sprint was less than spectacular, I just didn't feel like I had speed.  I ended up in 13th place, which gave me a start time of 38 seconds behind the first starter for Saturday.  The 5km classic was a good race for me, I had amazing skis and the weather was absolutely spectacular.  I pulled back 5 positions to finish the day in 8th place, but I had the fifth fastest time on the day and scored the best points of my career. 

Sunday was another amazing day ( I love Italy, it always seems to be sunny!).  I started the 10km skate in 8th place, and pulled back three positions of finish the weekend in 5th place overall.  I had a really solid race and again scored my best ever points to finish in 5th place in time on the day as well. I was really excited to be in the top six overall because that is a podium finish which is a significant achievement in this type of event at races of this caliber.  The winners of these races can contend for top-20 finishes on the world cup so the fact that I am in the mix is a very good sign. 

After the race on Sunday we packed up and hit the road, headed for Switzerland.  We have an amazing apartment here in Olivone with lots of space and Internet, thank goodness!  We are racing on Saturday before heading back to Munich to fly to Toronto for Nationals next week, so look for and update on the weekend! 

Ciao

Madeleine

OPA Cup Update

After an unusually smooth travel day I arrived in Europe with my small team on Thursday.  Stefan Kuhn, Graham Nishikawa and I are traveling around racing European cups for the next three weeks.  We will collect our coach and wax tech, Jonathan Kerr, in Munich on Monday. 

We are in the Bayerischer Wald in Eastern Germany right now.  This weekend I raced a 10km classic and a skate sprint.  The racing went reasonably well given that I am smack in the middle of jet lag and running on very little sleep because of it.

Saturday was the 10km classic individual start.  I slept only three hours the night before and so I was feeling a little rough to say the least. My plan was to start conservatively, and focus on skiing relaxed while improving as the race went on.  I stuck well to this plan and my last lap was by far the best, moving me from 10th to 5th place behind German world cup star Steffi Boehler.  This finish earned me a spot on the Podium and a trophy made of local glass!

Sunday was a skate sprint.  This race went quite well given that it was a true sprinter's course (only 900 metre's long with one short climb).  After a much more satisfactory night of sleep, I was feeling pretty spry and I had amazing skis.  It felt good to move quickly and I think the effort from today will be enormously helpful for next weekend.  After Qualifying in 14th in a field stacked with World Cup top-ten skiers I finished the day in 9th place.  Not bad for a distance specialist!.

Tomorrow morning we are headed to Munich to collect Jon, then on to Italy to prepare for next week's races. 

Ciao for now,

Madeleine

Whistler World Cup Update

This past week of World Cup racing at the new Olympic venue near Whistler had its ups and downs for me.  I had the great pleasure of meeting one of my Olympic heroes, Marnie McBean, at a post-race dinner and I will use her analogy to frame how these races played out for me.  Marnie made the analogy that life is often like a jammed cat.  Let me explain: when you drop a cat, it always lands on its feet but when you drop toast with jam it always lands jam side down.  In theory if you spread jam on a cat it would just spin and spin, unable to decide if it would land upright or upside down.  The trick is to find the feet in every situation.

The series of three races started out pretty well with the classic sprint.  I placed 42nd, with an average time behind the leader, but I felt strong.  my legs were quick, and in Lorris' words, I "skied beautifully, but like a distance skier".  I took a lot of positives out of this races and was really looking forward to the 15km pursuit on Saturday.

I was understandably nervous for the pursuit, but nothing severe.  I did my pre-race routine well, did all the little things just how I wanted to do them. In the end I just didn't have the strength to go with the top skiers.  I placed 22nd, well within the elite top 30 in the race which is a first and a big step for me, that was the feet.  Unfortunately I was 5th canadian in the race so that was the jam; I likely won't be part of the Canadian team at the World Championships this winter.   I have my theories about what went wrong, but at the end of the day I just have to move on.

Sunday I was placed on a team for the sprint relay race.  This race, despite it's title, is really more like a 5km distance race, with each member of each team racing three laps of the 1.3km course.  With my middle-distance history, this event has real potential to be a strong one for me.  I felt very good about my race, and for a short time my teammate Brooke Gosling and I thought we had made the final, which means the top 10.  The announcer said we were in tenth, and never announced otherwise.  An hour later, after my warm up, I was on my way to the start line, excited at the opportunity ahead of me.  just as I collected my skis I saw the coaches poring over the result list from the semi-finals.  It turns out Brooke and I were 11th.  This was disappointing to say the least, but I found the feet on this day too.  We were the top Canadian team despite coming in ranked third, and my times put me as the second strongest Canadian on the day, second only to Olympic medallist in this event Sara Renner.

The ups and downs of racing are what makes sport so good for the development of the human spirit.  I will take the lessons from this weekend forward to the rest of the races this season, and to the Olympic trials next fall

After all the emotional ups and downs of this past weekend I am now in Canmore for a few days before heading to Rossland, BC for a Noram race.

Canmore Update

What started out as a very cold weekend ended today with a pleasant, warm winter day.  My weekend of World Cup and World Championship trials racing was supposed to begin on Friday but cold weather forced to organizers to move the 15km pursuit race to Monday.  My first race was thus the 10km skate on Sunday, January 4th. 

The weather was still not exactly warm, but it was warm enough.  The game plan for this race was to go out conservatively for the first two of three laps and then turn on the power if I had to to secure a Noram win.  While this race was a Noram, counting towards a potential World Cup berth at the end of the season, it was not a World Championship or World Cup qualifying race so many athletes chose not to start.  My race went to plan and I won by a significant margin over Olympian and fellow Edmontonian Amanda Ammar.  My coach was happy with the effort, although I think I put more into the race than he would have liked, potentially using up too much of my reserves for the all-important 15km pursuit the next day.

My coach may have been right.  I felt OK warming up for the pursuit, and my skis felt good.  I was relaxed and confident on the start line, it seemed like it was all systems go.  Then the gun went off.  This race felt like I was dragging a weight behind me the entire time.  The classic leg of the race, which is the first half, felt awful.  I just didn't have the easy running feeling that I normally have in classic.  I was very tired and breathing much harder than I would have liked when I came through to the transition zone with the lead pack.  My transition was not good, it was slow and unsteady mostly because I was very tired and shaky.  At this point I lost contact with the four leaders.  It took me one lap (of two) on the skate course to recover a bit and reel back two of skiers who had gotten away.  I took charge as best I could on the final skate lap, putting in a surge on the second to last climb to drop one skier and then covering a fast break attempt on the final climb by my Edmonton Nordic teammate Amanda.  I cut for the inside line on the final downhill and then charged hard for the finish, just managing to outstretch Amanda by a toe to take third place in the race.  While third place is not where I hoped to be in this race it does set me up reasonably well to be in the hunt for a spot on the World Championships team, which will be selected following the World Cups in Whistler January 16-18. 

I will be here in Canmore for one more week, then head out to Whistler for the World Cups.  From there I go to Rossland for some more Noram's, but the details of all this have yet to be finalized.  Look for more updates from Whistler!

Early Season Update

First of all I want to apologize profusely for the lack of updates this fall.  I don't really have an excuse. between working on the last course for my psychology degree, racing and traveling it seems like there just was never any extra time.

This fall racing started off on shaky ground.  I came down with a cold the week before the first race at Sovereign Lake, so needless to say I was more than a little flat coming into that first race, a skate sprint.  The race did not go well. I had some speed in the quarterfinals, just not quite enough to edge my way into the semis.  The next day was a 10km skate which I have to say ranks up there with my worst races of all time.  I ended up twelfth in a very strong field containing most of Canada and America's top skiers.  This is not a strong result for me and my body really felt the hurt all the way through the race.  The plan for this year was to avoid being in my best shape in December, like I was last year, in the hope that I will race at my peak in the Whistler World Cups mid-January.  This plan means that I was not supposed to be skiing fast the first week of December but my results were definitely still a hard pill to swallow.  Lorris gave me a good coach talking to and I set out to prepare for the following week's races, also to be held at sovereign Lake due to a lack of snow at Whistler Olympic Park.

We raced a 15km skate mass start on Thursday, December 11th.  This race went much better.  I carefully stuck to my own race plan of skiing comfortably until the final 3km of the race.  I ignored what was going on around me and skied my race.  This was what I needed to do to teach myself how to race correctly again.  I was still off the pace, but in a much more manageable 6th place.  The following day was a classic sprint which did not go well, but I am not a sprinter so I moved on.

On Saturday evening we raced a 10km classic under the lights.  I always feel at home racing in the dark after all my years of training under the lights at Goldbar Park in Edmonton, and I really enjoyed this race.  Again I set out a very detailed race plan for myself and stuck to it carefully.  I skied smooth and strong for the first 7km then really hit the gas.  I ended up second to Sweden's Kristina Strandberg, and first Canadian by 10 seconds.  Things were coming together.

Sunday morning I dropped Lorris and Patrick at the Kelowna Airport and drove back to Canmore for a quick two day rest and laundry stop before heading out east to race in Duntroon, near Collingwood, Ontario. Duntroon was great fun, with crazy amounts of snow falling almost all weekend.  Fortunately the sun broke out for the sprints on Saturday to warm us up a little.  The sprints were really fun because the course in Duntroon really suits distance skiers.  There is a long gradual climb out of the stadium followed by a short, steep leg burner, then a gradual working downhill and two more short steep climbs back to the stadium.  I worked on skiing every section  of the course well through the rounds and ended up in a very close second place- my best sprint result in years. 

Sunday was a 15km skate mass start which I have to say was also really fun.  The course is rolly and allows for the maintenance of a nice high pace on the climbs, which really suits my skiing style.  Brittany Webster and I worked together for the whole race, trading the lead and trading bursts of speed until the second to last climb where I gave it all and was able to put a small gap on her.  I worked my way down the gradual descents back to the stadium and sprinted up the final steep climb to take my first win of the season by about 5 seconds over one of Canada's strongest skaters.  Like I said, fun!

I am back in Canmore now for a restful Christmas break.  We race again here in less than two weeks which means that coming home for Christmas would involve too much travel right before the very important world championships and world cup trials here on January 2nd. 
I will try to do my very best to keep these update coming more regularly now.  Merry Christmas!

Early Season Update

The winter in finally upon us... in some places anyway!  I have been fortunate enough over the last couple weeks that a couple of these select places are near my Canmore residence.  Leading into the racing season it is especially important for me to get on snow as early as possible because I do not have the summer skiing opportunities that my competitors have.  This is the case for many reasons, the main reason being that my knee injury prevents me from going in to the Haig Glacier near canmore, which is the most economical summer skiing option.

I was very lucky this fall to have the privilege of going to a fly-in backcountry lodge near Golden, BC for four days at the very beginning of November with the Alberta World Cup academy.  This was a real treat and just what I needed to get out of the fall funk.  Sentry Lodge is located just West of Golden at the gateway to the spectacular Secret Valley.  We had skidoo-groomed trails near the lodge and were even treated to a day of really fun crust skiing.

After four great days I returned to a dry and warm Canmore to rollerski for a few days until I got word that there was skiing on Moraine Lake Road in Lake Louise.  This road is the perfect early season locale, with lots of shade, a flat surface and good early snowfall.  This year the snow came later than usual, but still I was able to do a mini-camp on the remembrance day long weekend with Patrick and Mary-ann.  As for now, I intended to be on my way to Silver Star to begin preparations for the fast-approaching race season.  The snow situation there is going downhill however, with rain and warm temperatures decimating what had been very good early snow.   In the end, I may very well be skiing at Lake Louise for another week.

Training has been ramping up, with more fast intensity in order to prepare for the onset of the racing season.  I am feeling very fit, and I am now working mostly on the details of my mental game, nutritional planning and the like to fine tune.  These steps will help to make my good physical form into truly race-ready fitness.  The first race is less than three weeks away.  It's time for the big show!

Training Update - With a Trip to Saskatchewan

This will be a shorter update than usual because there just isn't as much to talk about in the summer as there is in the winter.  I am on a rest week right now, recovering from the hardest three week block of training I have ever done.  I did 13 intensity sessions in 15 days.  Many of those days had intensity in the morning and the afternoon.  I handled the training really well, improving right up to the last workout when Lorris decided that I had had enough (and I was happy to agree!)

At the end of this training block, which I was very glad to spend rollerskiing in the beautiful fall colours of Edmonton's river valley, Lorris and I were invited to attend Cross Country Saskatchewan's fall training camp in Waskesiu, just North of Prince Albert. 

We arrived to find a gorgeous little town on a large lake with very quiet roads perfect for rollerskiing.  I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Saskatchewan for two key reasons.  One was the incredible hospitality and generosity of everyone we met, and the other was the fantastic attitude towards sport of every single one of the young athletes at the camp.  It was so refreshing to see so many keen young athletes soaking up every bit of knowledge thrown their way.  It was also great to see that not one of these athletes and parents seemed to take sport too seriously. They were all there having a great time while they worked hard and that, my friends, is truly what its all about. 

Summer Update

It has been a while since my last posting!  Here is my excuse:

Right after I got home from my late snow training camp at Callaghan Valley, things took a turn for the worse.  A few days after driving back to Alberta I was diagnosed with acute appendicitis and had to undergo abdominal surgery to remove my appendix.  Luckily, I was in good hands and received top-notch care at the Canmore Hospital.  I was able to start some easy training two weeks after the operation, but I only returned to full training intensity about two weeks ago. That means that I recovered completely from invasive surgery in only six weeks, which is fast to say the least.

Lorris is spending the summer in Portland, so I headed down there to train hard with him for my first week back at it.  The Portland, Eugene and Oregon Coast areas proved to be perfect training grounds, with ample perfect pavement, rolling hills and quiet country roads for rollerskiing.  I arrived back home a few days ago and I am doing very well.  My energy is high, my spirits are high, and I am finally feeling fit again, ready for a hard summer of training.

First Training Cycle

It's hard to believe, but the first training cycle of the 2008-09 season is already over.  As is usual for me, I dove in headfirst and started training hard right off the bat.  Hard but smart of course. 

This year I had the great luck of skiing on real snow at the Canmore Nordic Centre for the first week of May.  The skiing was actually unbelievable until May 4th.  Then I brought out my rollerski's but I got to put them away again when Canmore got a freak metre (not even exaggerating) of snow on May 8th that some kind soul groomed at the Nordic Centre.  On The 11th Graham and I headed west for the first training camp of the year.

We spent a fantastic week skiing on pretty unbelievable snow from the 12th to the 19th at the new Olympic venue near Whistler.  I had planned to do as much classic as possible because the technique benefits of classic rollerskiing are not great.  I wanted to get in as much real classic as possible, not to mention as much practice on warm, slushy snow conditions as possible (we ski on perfect snow too much in Canada, this is actually a bad thing when preparing to race in Europe!) The conditions worked in my favor and I had a week of practice skiing on hairies (just roughed up bases- they are fantastic in the right conditions).  The weather was incredible, with highs in Squamish, where we were staying, reaching 30 three days in a row, while the snow was freezing up hard overnight at the ski venue AMAZING!  While in Squamish I also took the opportunity to have Zach Caldwell analyze my fleet of skis.  Zach is somewhat of a Guru when it comes to skis, so I was thrilled to hear that almost all my skis were very good, and with a little of his magic over the summer they will be ready to dominate!

This training period has been focused on threshold base building and getting back into some general strength.  I am finishing up the first four weeks of training with very good energy, and a definite feeling that my shape if coming back strong.  I am excited for the coming season, and I know that Patrick and Lorris are too.  I will do my best to keep you posted!

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 within 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 downhill's 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 medallists 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 disappointment, 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! 

Tomorrow 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 metre's, 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 colour's 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.