Pate Neumann

I Am Happier With That

2012-01-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

Today's 10km classic was the race I was looking for. I went into this race hoping my body would be able to handle the tough 3.3km course, and it seemed to do just that. I was still a little further down the results list then I would have liked, but 14th is a lot better then last weekends 28th. The plan will be to keep splitting the results in half. Today was a good kicker to get the body back in race mode. I felt like I was actually racing out there and not just out for an incredibly painful shuffle on classic skis!

I am excited for tomorrows skate sprint, looking to move past the quarter final. Stay tuned to Zone 4 for start lists, heat times and final results!

Pate

Photo: Angus Cockney

Hanging on to Brent up the final climb of the day.

Photo: Angus Cockney

Striding it out early on in the race.

Photo: Angus Cockney

Here is a great picture of the 15km skate back in Rossland from Angus Cockney

How Much Can The Body Take?

2012-01-13T18:34:00.001-07:00

This is what I had to ask myself on Wednesday night when I was contemplating starting the 30km pursuit yesterday. If you look at the results from the race you will see that I started, skied 3.75km, and then pulled out. It was pretty clear that my body wasn't ready to race yet, but I had to give it a shot. I had to hope for a miracle that would leave me fighting in the lead group.

To back up a few weeks, I returned home to Canmore from a great Christmas in Ontario and immediately got sick. I spent 5 day with a bad cold (stuffy nose, sore throat, chest congestion and cough... the works). It was clear my body was run down and needed some time to heal. I spent those five days sleeping, stretching and being as quiet as I could. Eventually things came back together and I rejoined the team and started training again. I slowly built into it, and did my first intensity session since Rossland four days after being deemed healthy. It went well, and I recommitted to my original training program. Unfortunately, that only last two days.

This past Monday our team did a time trail in Canmore. 9km of classic double poling on rocket fast tracks. Again, things went well and I was finally feeling some confidence heading into Whistler.
I left the workout pumped, I went home and ate, slept, and had a massage. After my massage my stomach started gurgling. I walked home and just as I got to my house it all came out. When I say "it" I mean all the food I had eaten that day, strewn across my driveway in a disgusting mess. I made it in side, cleaned myself up and immediately got in bed. My stomach settled down, and the hot/cold flashes hit me. My awesome girlfriend came to my rescue and went out to buy the usual flu remedies; chicken noodle soup, ginger ale, Gravol and some bread. She urged me to eat, so I did. Little bits at a time but it wasn't much use because a short while later I saw all that food again, this time in my bathroom.

Sorry to give you the complete play by play but I figured it would give you a better idea of what actually happened! And don't worry, that was the last time I puked.

So there I was, a sick mess huddled up at home, not being able to digest any food since before the mornings time trial, on the night before our team was scheduled to fly to Whistler for trials. Great.

I woke up the next morning feeling quite a bit better, but needless to say I wasn't on my way to Whistler. I stayed home, sipping Pedialite and chicken noodle soup. After talking with Mike and our team doctor it was decided I had caught a bad 24hr flu that has been making its way through Canmore. The plan was to try and eat as much as I could tolerate that day, and try and fly to whistler the next day (Wednesday). Wednesday rolled around and I was up early and heading to the Calgary airport. I was feeling much better, and eating my first real meals in two days, but a long way from 100%. It was a busy day, lots of waiting and shuttles, but by 4pm I was skiing at the Whistler Olympic Park, trying to decide if I should race.

I decided I had nothing to lose. I may as well start the race and see what happens. My body felt fine off the start, but by the time we got to the high point of the course, it was clear it wasn't meant to be. My heart was beating at 2,000,000 beats per minute and I felt a bonk coming on... at the 3km mark. Only 27km to go!

That was the end of my day. Frustrating for sure. 30km pursuits are my favorite races, and they usually only happen once a year... at the U23/WJ trial races. For me, the 30km and Sundays 15km classic race are qualifiers for the OPA tour trip. Having already not finished 50% of the qualifying races I need to produce something incredible on my classic skis.

The plan from here on out is to continue to eat and rehydrate myself as much as possible. My body is obviously still in the recovery stages, and yesterday was a good reminder of how much recovery I still need. I am going to take it race by race, hoping to see improvements along the way. I will start tomorrow's skate sprint, and reevaluate after the qualifier. I have decided to throw the pressure and the expectations out the window, and just focus on getting healthy. Next weekend we have the Western Canadian Champs in Canmore and I want to be ready to go for that. Selection, team trips and race starts will be decided, but I don't need to waste valuable energy mulling over what could be. I just need to go out and race.

This year I have been plagued with sickness more then any other year. Underneath it all there is a fit skier just waiting to break free. It will happen soon, I know it. It will just take a little time.

Thanks for all your support. I will keep you posted on what unfolds this weekend!

Pate

Christmas then a whole lot of sick!

2012-01-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

This will be a recap of my Christmas mostly through pictures!

Sunrise in Vernon!

Our coaches are incredibly efficient waxers. Imagine having to race wax this many skis?!

The travel gnome at Valleyview Cabin in Rossland. It has been signed by many skiers over the years!

Mens 15km Skate podium in Rossland. Kev, Brent, Graeme, Pate

Woman's 10km Skate podium in Rossland. Alysson Marshall 2nd, Kate Brennan 5th

Ski touring above Rossland.

Peter Moffet teaching me the basics.

Moving on to Wheeler Hut in Rogers pass with Emma, Phil and Kate

Emma about to head out.

Wheeler Hut with our big crew of 24 Canmorons.

Lots of snow

Breaking trail as we head up.

Andrew, Annika and Phil climbing steady

Macx and Andrew

Greg Thompson, our fearless leader.

Some of the crew.

The drying room at Wheeler Hut. Packed.

Moving onto Christmas Eve back home in Ontario!

My mom, the Neumann kids and my cousin Mads dressed to impress on Christmas morning.

My brother Sam and his latest musical instrument from Santa.

Christmas at Dads!

Out for a humid and snowy ski at home!

Palgrave on a beautiful morning!

So that wraps up my Christmas post! Now onto the "whole lot of sick" part of the title. I bet you are all wondering how I am doing in Whistler? Well, I am surviving but I am going to nap first and then bring everyone up to speed on my health. So go back and enjoy the pictures, and I will have another update ready in a few hours! Promise!

Thanks for checking in!

Pate

Silverstar

2011-12-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

Today I am sitting out the 15km classic. It was tough decision, but after last weekends 10km classic in Canmore, I was pretty run down. I woke up Monday morning with a tickle in my throat, (every skiers worst nightmare upon waking up!) but after some easy days and lots of sleep, I was able to catch it before it turned into anything major. I brought my energy levels back up enough to do an intensity workout on Thursday. I felt decent, and decided it was safe to start the classic sprint yesterday. It was test number two, and it didn't go so well. I felt fine skiing easy, but during the qualifier it didn't take long to realize things weren't quite back to normal.

I decided to play it safe and rest up for next weekend. I didn't want to have two mediocre NorAm weekends in a row. I will rest up, and hope to get things back on track for next weekends skate sprint and 15km mass start skate race.

Disappointing for sure, and as hard as it is to watch my teammates hit the start line without me, I want to be 100% ready to go in Rossland.

Before heading to Silverstar, I went to Lake Louise to watch Tess Davies race in her first World Cup Downhill. Annika, Kendra and I made up her personal cheering squad. It was an great day and super fun to watch Tess race!

The cheering squad, Kendra and Annika.

All smiles after finishing

Leah was there in spirit.

Signing autographs

Sunrise in Silverstar.

Only 3 Mo' Days! + 10km Classic + A Wild Drive!

2011-11-28T11:51:00.002-07:00

Only 3 mo' days to donate to the Acade'mos!

Please head to our team mo' space and make a contribution to fighting prostate cancer!!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK US OUT AND DONATE!

A big thanks to those of you who have donated already!

Things wrapped up pretty nicely in West Yellowstone on Saturday. The 10km classic race was one of my better classic races to date. I was still 53 seconds off of teammate Graeme Killick's winning time, but things felt good. My body felt way better then in Fridays 15km skate (I think I needed a good hard effort to blow the crap out of my legs). It felt strong technically, and I stuck to my race plan. Now I just need to figure out how to find those 53 seconds!

Overall I am very happy with our trip to West Yellowstone. It was nice to get the first races of the year under my belt. The first race weekend of the season is always a shock to the system, and the fact that these races were at over 2000m in elevation made it a serious shock. I have a good idea of where my fitness stands, and I have a solid plan moving forwards towards Silverstar and Rossland. Spending a week at altitude is also going to help out when we hit the start line in Silverstar!

Yesterday we finished our long drive home to Canmore. The last 4 hours of the drive were pretty exciting. Check out these pictures and the article from CBC below...

This pretty much sums up the drive "gusts reaching 144 km/h in Claresholm, equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane." We drove through Lethbridge, Fort McLeod, Claresholm and into the south of Calgary. Pretty much right through the entire wind tunnel.

Flipped truck #1.

Flipped truck #2

Flipped truck #3

Flipped truck #4

Here is the link to the CBC ARTICLE. We eventually passed 5 flipped transport trucks. The academy van and trailer were rock solid, thanks to the over packing by myself and some of my teammates. Better safe then sorry!

This week is going to be a medium training week with some rest at the beginning to recover from Yellowstone and some racing at the end of the week. We have the Alberta Cup skate sprint Saturday and a Classic 10km Sunday. Should be a good time!

Over and out.

Pate

Some Photos

2011-11-26T09:05:00.001-07:00

Check out these pictures of yesterdays 15km Skate from Fasterskier.com. Some of the pictures give you a pretty good idea of how stormy it go in the middle of the race.

Check out the full article HERE

Photo: Fasterskier.com

The First Race of the Year is in the Books!

2011-11-25T21:06:00.001-07:00

It was a very challenging 15km skate today. The course was full of false flats and working downhills. My race plan was to go out at a comfortable pace, find my rhythm, and try and build to the finish. I went out at a comfortable pace, and it turned into an uncomfortable pace by the end of the first lap. Altitude is a silent killer! I was able to keep it together enough for a 10th place finish, respectable in my opinion for the end of November. It was for sure one of the toughest races I have done. The sensation is hard to describe; you feel as if you are skiing at a medium/slow race pace, but at the same time it feels like you couldn't go any harder if you tried. Your heart rate is pinned, and with any increase in speed (especially on the climbs) you end up full to the brim with lactate. Another surprise factor of the day was the freak snow squall that blew in right in the middle of the men's race. It coated the slick trails with that deadly powdery fluff that is detrimental to your glide. It affected the speed of the skis, but more noticeably it turned the rest on the course into work.

Todays race was an excellent wake up call to the body. Race season is upon us and it hurts like hell! Tomorrow's 10km classic is going to be fun. We are using the same 5km loop as today, and the steady grade will mean lots of kick double pole and long, smooth striding. It is time to get my BIG on and ski like the 6ft beast I pretend to be.

For full results on the day and a start list for tomorrows 10km classic click HERE

I would also like to send out a huge congrats to my friend Lenny Valjas on his 5th place finish today in the classic sprint World Cup in Kuusamo! Lenny stormed through the heats with his fierce looking mustache and was the top Canadian of the day. Also congrats to AWCA teammates Alysson, Drew, Kevin and Nish for representing the team on the World Cup. Today was the first race of a three race mini tour for the crew. Full results from today's race along with results for the rest of the weekend found HERE

Time for bed. Another tough day of racing tomorrow!

Pate

It's Race Time!

2011-11-24T21:50:00.001-07:00

West Yellowstone, it's a pretty cool place. Lots of snow, sunshine and some really fun ski trails. West Yellowstone is the Silver Star of Canada. Not in the colorful elvish village sort of way, but in the "it's the first time everyone gets together for some great on snow skiing to kick off the race season" sort of way. There are tons of teams here, from young junior racers to factory teams to collegiate teams. The town has been rundown with skiers and its awesome. Unfortunately I have limited pictures, but I will attempt to take some over the next few days. Fortunatley, I have some sweet teammates like Jess who took pictures and then let me poach them and post them on my blog (Thanks Jess!).

Photo: Jess Cockney

The finishing climb on the sprint course with some mountains in the background

Photo: Jess Cockney

Ski testing with coach Cavaliere.

Photo: Jess Cockney

Tomorrow is my first official race of 2011! 15km skate. Start lists can be found HERE

I will be sure to post a race report after things are all said and done. There will be four Academy racers starting tomorrow, Jess Cockney, Graeme Killick, Annika Hicks and myself. Saturday is a 10km classic.

Lets get this season goin!

Here are some pictures of fun times in Canmore over the last few weeks!

Emma checking out the fish on the other side of the ice at Carrot Creek

Ice treasures! Elk antler frozen in the ice.

Skating on crystal clear ice is amazing, but kind of nerve wracking at times.

Emma and I hiking up above Lake Minnewanka on the C Level Cirque.

The magnificent Bow Valley

Lake Minnewanka

The first pond hockey game of the year!

Fall in Canmore

2011-11-03T13:24:00.001-06:00

November has arrived! We have been on snow for over two weeks, but we have had very little natural snow. Frozen Thunder has held up surprisingly well. Despite being a little icy in sections, the coverage is still good. The snow guns are out at the Nordic Centre, but they have only had a chance to blow a few hours here and there, so there isn't much to speak of.

Sunrise in Canmore last week

A little bit of the natural stuff.

It is amazing how just a little dusting of snow can really freshen things up!

Halloween!! This is the pumpkin Emma and I carved. I got to do the mini gourd being eaten by Emma's big pumpkin.

Emma and I dressed up as Danny and Sandy from Grease. We looked pretty damn good.

Russell Kennedy- The newly appointed DJ at the Bill Warren Training Centre. Russell put on a sweet show for all the skiers in town last Sunday night. Lasers, strobe lights, fog machines... he went all out.

This past Tuesday we flew the groomer out of the Haig Glacier for the winter. It was the first time the cat had been out since it was flown up in pieces in the 90's. Needless to say it was high time for a tune up! We had a special Kamov Ka-32 helicopter come in and lift the 10,000lbs beast off the Haig. Unfortunately, I was relegated to man the office at the BWTC, and wasn't able to go partake in the fun. I was able to get a bunch of pictures from Mick for your viewing pleasure though!

Alpine Helicopters smaller Bell 407 was used to fly in the ground crew and load master

The much bigger Kamov 32K dual rotor lifting machine

Preparing for lift off.

After numerous failed attempts to lift the cat, they had to come back and drop some fuel and extra non-necessity items like the engineer, the passenger seats and the rubber floor mats to try and boost the lift capacity of the helicopter.

Success!

The tricky part, landing the cat on the flat bed.

Final adjustments.

The cat's hydraulic reservoir was frozen solid so the truck took it to Exshaw where it spent the night in a garage to thaw out. It was driven into Calgary yesterday to begin its overhaul. Next spring we will be flying it back in for another long, frozen decade on the Haig glacier.

The past two nights I have headed into Banff for the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Tuesday night was Radical Reels, there were some great adventure films, unfortunately I couldn't find any trailers for my favorites (Reel Rock: Ice Revolution, Reel Rock: Race for the Nose and Sketchy Andy) but the trailer below for the Reel Rock Festival shows clips from each. If you have an opportunity to watch any of the films, please do. They will blow you mind!!

Last night was the Snow Show at the Film Rest. It was a full evening of ski movies that left everyone in the audience amped for the season to begin!

Below is the trailer for All. I. Can., definitely one of the best ski movies I have ever seen! If you ever get a chance to watch it, the Trail BC segment with JP Auclair is phenomenal and has an important underlying tone. The whole video is packed with wicked skiing, incredible slow motion and time lapse shots as well as some unique opinions on how our world is changing.

The Freedom Chair, another favorite for the night is a must see. One of the most inspiring ski video's I have seen for sure.

The Freedom Chair - Official Trailer from Switchback Entertainment on Vimeo.

With Halloween, flying groomers and the Film Fest, life has been pretty exciting in Canmore. I have done a few hundred loops of Frozen Thunder now, and am starting to pray for cold weather so they can make some snow and open up our training options a bit. The AWCA has decided to send a small group of athletes down to West Yellowstone for the last week in November to race the USSA Super Tour races. I will head down and race the two distance races before coming back to Canmore for the Alberta Cup the first weekend in December. Drew, Nish, Kevin and Alysson will head to Scandinavia later this week as part of the convergence group to get an early start to the racing season, and hopefully pull of some stellar results in some World Cups! (More Info Here)

That's all for now! Hope you enjoying the pics and trailers!

Pate

Spray Drag Race + Frozen Thunder!

2011-10-16T12:07:00.003-06:00

Well 31:32 was my time from last year, and 30:30 was my goal for this year. I stopped the clock at 30:30.8. That's pretty neat! I knew it was going to be a challenge to knock over a minute off my previous time, but looking at the results and seeing 30:30 was a good feeling! I guess I had a pretty good gauge of where my fitness was at!

Yesterdays race went very smoothly. We started out at a medium pace, and brought the speed up as we climbed closer and closer to the top of the gap. Devon put in a surge when we hit the gravel and Ivan followed. Nish, Kev and I formed our own little group until Nish put in another surge and dropped Kev and I. Kev and I used our distance power to "sprint" to the finish. Overall an awesome morning! Stef did a wicked job organizing the event. Thanks to all those non Academy athletes for coming out and joining in the fun!

Full Results Here

Check out more pictures from the CNSC website!

Kev and I battling it out to the finish

Photo: Matt Wylie

As the day went on it got even better. Instead of strapping on my rollerskis for a recovery workout, I headed up to the Nordic Centre and explored the ~2km of amazing skiing that is Frozen Thunder! The Canmore Nordic Centre has really outdone themselves this year!

Frozen Thunder!

Photo: Marlis Kromm

Marlis and Jess

And what is a blog post without a video?!? Here is a poorly edited, very shaky video filmed with my phone of my first ski of the season at the Nordic Centre. That's right... October 15th baby! Warning: it might make you jealous if you don't live in Canmore. Or it might just make you dizzy and pass out from the shakiness... but hey, I warned you :)

Frozen Thunder!

2011-10-14T20:55:00.002-06:00

Here are a few pics of the Canmore Nordic Centre pushing out Frozen Thunder over the last few days. Pretty exciting stuff! The CNC pushed a whole bunch of snow into a hole last spring and covered it with sawdust. And when I say a whole bunch, I mean a gigantic amount of snow! The pile of snow dubbed "Frozen Thunder" has been waiting out the summer and was uncovered earlier this week. The CNC has been working like crazy to get the snow out onto the trails. Tomorrow is the grand opening, with a loop around 2km in length (three meters wide with a 50cm base!!). For October 15th, that's amazing! For most people, skiing is still two months away, but for the lucky residents of the Bow Valley, it is mere minutes away!

The dump trucks are incredibly efficient.

One truck waits while the other one dumps

Just another one of the reasons Canmore is one of the best places on earth to live if you love to ski!

Despite being the grand opening of Frozen Thunder, the Academy will be at a different event, trying to keep the course record for the HTFU run within the team. The HTFU run... (HTFU being the acronym for Harden The F*ck Up) is a 7km uphill running time trial from the base of the bow valley up to the Spray gap. A mere 7km with close to 400m of elevation change between the start and the finish line. We have been using this run as a measurement of our fitness over the last few years, but this year the Academy has opened the entry up anyone to loves a good romp around in the pain cave. Yes, for only $23 you too can enter a world of hurt you never new existed! FUN!

But seriously, it is going to be a great event with over 70 runners making the journey up the gap. With names on the start list like Devon Kershaw, Ivan Babikov, Perianne Jones, Beckie Scott and Sara Renner, you know it is a high caliber event! Graham Nishikawa currently holds the men's record at 29:23, while Madeleine Williams hold the woman's 5km course record at 25:41. My goal is to run sub 30:30, my previous time being 31:32. Yes, a minute to shave off, but my fitness is feeling pretty good right now so I think it will be within my reach.

I will post some pictures and an update of tomorrows festivities (uphill run in the AM followed by a ski at the CNC in the pm!) soon.

Right now it is off to bed to rest my racing legs and get the mind ready to rock!

Pate

Thanksgiving!

2011-10-11T16:03:00.003-06:00

This past weekend was quite enjoyable. Some easy training and hiking, lots of food, and some family time made up a great Thanksgiving weekend. My aunt Catrin and her mom came down to Canmore from Edmonton (and Wales) for a quick stay in Canmore. It was great to have a chance to catch up over lunch, and give them a bit of a tour of downtown. Canmore saw lots of rain leading up to the weekend, which translated to lots of snow in the alpine. The sun came out for the weekend though and lit up the snow covered mountains. It really did put on a show for all the mad tourists in town.

Sunday morning Emma, Annika, Bronwyn and I headed out to Kananaskis Country to hike Wind Tower. The fresh snow and decent weather made for an awesome hike.

Looking down the Wind Valley with Wind tower on the right.

Wind Ridge and Valley with Exshaw in the distance.

Spray Lakes

The girls hiking high above Spray

Emma, Bronwyn and Annika

Emma attempting to fly in the crazy intense wind!

Cornices starting to form on the leeward side of Wind Tower

The wind was nutso. Being up high and totally exposed to it was cool, but only for so long...

Heading home

Sunday night we had a great dinner with the Lodges. Lots of turkey, smashed potatoes and pies. I spent Monday morning recovering from my food coma, then headed to Jess Cockney's house for an AWCA Misfits Thanksgiving dinner for all those skiers in town with no family. Thanks to Jess and Marlis for putting on a great night with delicious food! Shout out to Russell Kennedy for his amazing maple bacon potatoes!

They are pushing out Frozen Thunder as I write this and we should be skiing by the end of the week! Pretty excited to get back on snow and get the season underway!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Pictures of Frozen Thunder to come!

Lake O'Hara!

2011-10-10T09:39:00.004-06:00

Two weeks ago (okay... three now) Emma and I headed up to Lake O'Hara with her parents and some good family friends. Lake O'Hara is one of my favorite running spots, there is endless terrain, incredible mountain views and it is easily accessible. Emma's parents and friends stayed at the Warden Cabin on the lake (thanks to Sue Hairsine and her hook ups!) while Emma and I camped at the camp ground. It was an incredible weekend with some great hiking/running, food, friends and family!

Below are some pictures of the fun.

Lake O'Hara

Heading out on day one up towards Lake McArthur.

The Larch trees were just entering their prime.

A Pika mowin' down!

Lake McArthur... It is a gorgeous lake and appears to have been filled with blue Powerade instead of water. Fantastic color.

We even had our first taste of snow (not so cool for those of us camping...)

On day two we headed out and completed the alpine circuit.

And of course took the token 'Lake O'Hara' picture that everyone needs!

Looking towards Lake Oesa from Wiwaxy Gap.

Looking down on Lake O'Hara

A crystal clear mountain pond below Oesa.

Amazing colors!

One of the small ponds below Opabin Lake with Wiwaxy gap in the distance.

Happy Campers!

Lake O'Hara

Amazing weekend overall! Thanks to Paula, Jeff, Sue and the Jenkins for an awesome weekend!

Ontario! (Plus a little...)

2011-09-24T12:44:00.001-06:00

This post has been a long time coming! After our return from Ontario, things got a little hectic around Canmore with big training weeks, camping adventures (next post!) and shutting down the Haig for the season. Now that all that is done, I have found a second to update everyone on the last month.

If we go all the way back to mid August, the AWCA was in Whistler for a two week training camp. Whistler was amazing, it was great to get back to some of my favourite training spots and even explore some new hidden gems!

So now you would probably expect me to go into detail about the wicked trip back to Ontario Emma and I had at the beginning of September. You see, the funny thing is I just spent the last hour and a half doing that and when I hit "publish post" I didn't realize my computer had lost its internet connection and I was brought to "the blank page of extreme frustration."

So now this update is going to be a photo montage of the last month. I will let the pictures do the talking with some captions underneath to string things together!

Emma Lodge, mountain biker extraordinaire.

Emma Lodge, motorcycle extraordinaire.

Subway to downtown Toronto! Emma's first time in the front car. COOL!

CN Tower!

Glass floor!

WALL-E came!

Tour of Caledon on the mountain bike in the bright sunshine! Belfountain conservation area!

The badlands!

Fishing and Kayaking in the Credit River

Hiding from the rain under a huge willow tree.

Camping in the old Westy at Cyprus Lake in the Bruce Peninsula National Park

Running the Bruce Trail from Tobermory south

Some incredible water, rocky beaches and rock formation.

Looking out over Georgian Bay.

Cave exploring!

The "Grotto"

Inside the Grotto!

Finally returning to the van after a long day of running and biking.

Sunset on the beach!

Snorkeling!

Rowing with my grandmother and my moms new dog "Pebble" back home in Caledon.

Heading back to Calgary after a supper fun trip!

Flying a snowmobile out of the back of the truck and into the Haig.

Blue Rodeo in Banff with the Lodges!

Check it Out!

2011-08-26T17:38:00.002-06:00

Team "Random Guys" made the paper!

A few weeks ago I joined Mike Norton (my boss at the BWTC) in his super sweet 30lbs custom Clipper canoe for the 27km paddling leg of the Norman Watson Classic on the Bow River from Lake Louise to Castle Junction. I did the race two years ago, except I did the running leg then. The paddling was quite a bit more fun, with lots of moving water and some big standing waves to play in. Our team was finalized at 9:00pm the night before and consisted of Mike and myself in the boat, Stu Lodge tackling the 8km run, and Darren Freeman, a monster on the bike, doing both the mountain and road bike stages of the race.

For a last minute entry, we ended up doing pretty well! We crossed the line first, about 8 minutes ahead of 2nd place. Mike and I got onto the water 2nd after the mtb leg and the run, and were able to catch the 1st place guys pretty quickly. I have been out in the boat a few time with Mike this summer, but he comes from a marathon/sprint racing background and I come from a "spend all day on the water with a loaded boat paddling from point A to B and do it again, for the next 10 days in a row" type of paddling background. So needless to say, the first time I got in the boat with him and started paddling at my seemingly lazy rate, he kindly asked me what I was doing... Since then, I have completely changed my paddling technique, to something 10 times faster (and more powerful) and haven't done a J stroke since.

Photo Credit: Jesse Winter!

Check out the articles here!

http://www.rmoutlook.com/article/20110811/RMO1101/308119991/-1/rmo1101/norman-watson-classic-returns-to-lake-louise

http://www.banffcragandcanyon.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3252751

I am currently in Whistler, winding down day 10 of our 11 day training camp. It has been great to be back here, and I quickly remembered why I moved here to train for a year. I have been able to go back and train at all my favorite spots, and do it with a 31 person team! (Yes... the Academy has grown this camp with the addition of the Alberta Ski Team!)

More pictures and a better update to come on Whistler!

Rest Week!

2011-08-01T12:50:00.001-06:00

After our big three week block of training with two stints on the Haig Glacier, most AWCA athletes were in need of some well deserved rest! This past week was a much anticipated rest week, I however spent most of it inside my tiny house, sleeping, and trying to recover from a cold I picked up last Monday. After pushing the body so hard for so long, my immune system was pretty weak. Sometimes things like this can be a blessing in disguise however. Instead of taking off on the motorcycle and camping for the week, I was sleeping in Canmore (definitely the better recovery choice of the two, although not nearly as much fun!). One of my biggest weaknesses is saying yes too much, and cramming way too much into a short period of time. I have been guilty of this over the past month. After house/dog sitting, watering plants and cutting grass for neighbors, going through a transition into my new job, and still trying to stay on top of my training load, my body had had enough. It shut down at the perfect time though, and as of today, the start of our next training block, I am back into the regular swing of training. For this next training block however, my number one priority is recovery. We have three big weeks ahead, plus a 10 day camp in Whistler, and if things on my end are anything like last month, I won't make it to the second week!

This isn't so much a blog update, but a written promise to myself, and all my faithful readers (mom, dad, grandparents etc) can hold me to it! Starting this week I begin my Monday, Wednesday PM and Friday PM work weeks, I have no secondary responsibilities besides training, recovering and working and I am going to keep it that way! I want to hit the end of August and be able to say I showed up to all my training sessions prepared, well rested from the previous day and with some specific goals in mind. If I can do that, I will be a very happy camper!

This week wasn't all sleep, I was able to still get out to the Canmore Folk Festival for an afternoon, and spent yesterday doing a short and easy hike with Emma. We headed up to the Old Goat Glacier, near spray lakes campground. The hike is one of the best "bang for your buck" type hikes around Canmore. From the trail head it is only 20 minutes before you are up above the tree line, there is an old glacier waiting for you at the top of the hike and the whole thing is only about 9km round trip, with 640m of elevation gain.

We started roughly a centimeter before the green arrow and headed up!

The first part of the hike is nice and soft moss, with a few crystal clear streams coming down from up above.

Emma about half way up.

Looking back down the valley we came up, towards Spray Lakes.

Frolicking in the snow!

What is left of the Old Goat Glacier.

Looking down the valley you can see the moraines left in the glaciers wake as it recedes. Apparently this glacier was a quick way to get some summer skiing in for Canmore skiers 15 years ago. You would be hard pressed to ski on the glacier now as it has receded to the very back of the bowl, leaving very little flat sections. It would be neat to find pictures of the Old Goat from 20, 10 and 5 years ago to show the rate at which the glacier is receding.

Overall a wicked hike and highly recommended for those visiting Canmore, or if you are looking for a short (2.5hr) hike.

Would you look at that?! Two updates in less than a week! I hope I didn't just jinx it...

Pate

Salutations!

2011-07-27T14:16:00.002-06:00

I have not disappeared, fallen off the face of the earth or been hiding under a rock... Nope! I have been training hard, working my butt off and enjoying a wicked Canmore summer in the Rockies! Since my last update, we have had 3 training camps, a testing week and some easy weeks. The first training camp since I updated everyone was a 4 day trip to Kaslo. I took the opportunity to get a little time in on the motorcycle and road by bike from Canmore, meeting the team and all the gear in Kaslo. The camp was focused around a 216km road ride known as the Silver Triangle. The ride began in Kaslo, and headed up over a pass to New Denver, then south to Nelson, and then back up to Kaslo.

(Counter clockwise starting from the upper right hand side of the map below)

It was a pretty amazing ride, taking just under 7 hrs to complete. The rest of the camp was spent roller skiing, (heading from Kaslo up over the pass to New Denver is one of the best double pole roads I have ever skied!) eating and sleeping. This camp was also the first time the whole team had been together this year, so we celebrated by having one of our by-annual AWCA baseball games. Overall it was a great camp; good training, fun atmosphere, neat town.

The next few weeks were filled with regular training around Canmore. I was lucky enough again this year to house sit for the Lavoie - Jones family. That also meant taking care of their amazing dog Skoki. Skoki became my training partner for the month, accompanying me on long runs, hikes and the odd mountain bike. Below are some pictures of a hike Emma and I did the Skoki and Max (Emma's dog) in Canmore. We headed up Ha Ling peak, and once we reached the saddle, went right and went to the top of Miners Peak. As you can see by the pictures below, it was another sweet day in Canmore!

On the saddle before heading up to Miners (right)

Max and Skoki waiting for the slow humans.

Looking down on the Bow Valley from Miners.

Emma and Max

Miners Gully. You could still ski it on rock skis!

Skoki enjoying herself.

The next team training camp was our trip up to the Haig Glacier. The AWCA team split up our camp over two weeks, spending 4 days up at altitude on the glacier, coming down for 4 days, back up for 4 and then down for 4. (This has been referred to as a yo-yo camp)

The guys getting ready to leave the trail-head for the run in.

This is what the run into the camp looks like on Google Earth. We start at the perking lot between Upper and Lower Kananaskis Lakes, and end 18km later at the green bubble dot which is the base camp. From the green bubble dot up is the hike we do to the glacier every morning.

This is what the loop we ski on the glacier look like!

Another aerial view, just because I think this program is super cool!! Thanks to Barb Campbell who is still "loaning" me her Garmin Forerunner 305. I record everything on that and then upload it into Garmin Training Centre and then export everything into Google Earth.

This is a photo from the run in. There was still quite a bit of snow down low.

Kate, Janelle and Marlis hiking up to the Haig from base camp on a sunny morning.

Academy girls

Evan Bruce, one of the Haig Glacier attendants working hard digging a hole.

Skiing above the clouds in sunshine at 2700m (8850ft)

During both glacier camps we had a mixed bag of weather. Sunshine one day, snow, rain, hail and sleet the next. The skiing remained good throughout the two weeks, and we all accomplished a lot physically and technically. Big thanks goes out to Stef, Chris and Eric (our AWCA coaches for the camp) for putting on such a good show and keeping us athletes happy!

Another big highlight of the past month was the 2 week visit from my dad! He was able to take some time off work and come out and help me house sit. We had two full weeks to hang out, do some exploring and relax! I am pretty sure the highlight of his trip was his first full day in Canmore. I am moving up (slowly) in the work world and I am now the Coordinator for the Haig Glacier. That means I organize the camp schedule, get waivers signed and the best part of all, get to play with helicopters every Monday!! I take all the food and bags and load them into nets to be flown into the glacier. Anyway, back on track, my dads first day in town also happened to be my first training day and he was allowed to come along for the ride! Below is a video I quickly put together of the trip. (Warning, there is no dialogue, and for those that have been up to the Glacier, it will be 5:00 of shaky video footage of the Glacier and surrounding areas, BUT, for all those who haven't had a chance to go up there, it should give you a pretty good idea of how amazing it is!) ENJOY!

Father in flight.

Two pumped dudes!

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Spring Time! - Picture Update!

2011-05-28T11:26:00.002-06:00

This is going to be one of those picture updates with a few words mixed in. Once again, I have left the blog go untouched for much too long! Now that we are back to regular training, hopefully I can get some pictures and words up here more often (that seems like a statement that reapears on this blog again and again!)

So most of these pictures are from a spring trip Emma and I went on in April. April is the month of rest most skiers look forward to; it is a time to relax, take skiing off the mind and do some of the things you don't normally get to do during the regular training year.

This year, my april included two weeks of full time work, and two weeks of full time play. Emma and I headed on a road trip west, to go find some snow to play in, and an ocean to paddle on!

Our first stop was White Swan hot springs, just south of Invermere (about 2.5hrs from Canmore). They are natural hot springs, that have been build up to pool the water. The hot springs are right next to a glacier fed river, so it is a great spot for some natural hot cold hydrotherapy!

The next stop was Rossland. Rossland is one of my favorite places to go and play. Even in mid April, cars are still buried in snow banks and the skiing is incredible.

Driving up to the Nancy Greene Summit to snowshoe to Sun Spot Cabin for lunch.

The start of the legendary 7 Summits trail is littered with cabins. You have to literally run right into them to find them as they are buried in meters of snow!

Lunch with a warm fire to dry out your clothes is nice treat on a long workout!

Coming back down to the car, still dumping snow! Visibility was pretty poor, so our attempt to get up on top of the ridge for a good view of the valley was pointless!

You can just make out the trail sign peaking out of the snow in the centre of the picture.

Returning to Valley View cabin after any type of physical activity is a real treat. The place was built to cater to the Apres Ski lifestyle.

The day Emma and I decide to head out of town is crystal clear bluebird sky's...

We packed up in Rossland and drove to Horseshoe Bay Ferry terminal just north of Vancouver to catch a ferry to Langdale. Our final destination was a house in Pender Harbour, halfway up the Sunshine Coast.

Killing time in Vancouver before heading to the Ferry terminal. Ice cream on the beach makes the transition from winter to summer official. We did it in a day!

Arriving in Pender Harbour that evening.

The next few days were spend exploring the inlet and islands by kayak.

We also did a few small hikes up Pender Hill and Mt. Gordon for some spectacular views on the harbour.

Unfortunately the clouds rolled in on Mt. Gordon, so you get a picture of us instead!

After a very relaxing few days in Pender Harbour, we got back on the ferry and headed to Victoria to go and visit with Emma's grandmother. It was awesome to spend some time in Victoria. We had perfect weather as well, so we spent quite a bit of time running on the beach, exploring the harbours and looking at massive yachts.

Next is was off to Mt. Washington for the Snow to Surf relay race.

Once again we went from sun to snow. These were the snow banks on the sides of the road at the top of the mountain. It was cray how much snow there was!

One of the warming huts on the mountain.

The base of the ski hill. Notice the size of the van compared to the snowbanks!

Houses under construction that were destroyed by the snow.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the race. But it was one of the coolest races I have done in a while. It is a relay race, with 9 people doing 8 legs. The race startes at the top of Mt. Washington and ends on the ocean in Comox Harbour. The first leg of the race is a downhill skier, who then tags off to a cross country skier (me), who then tags off to a runner, who tags off to another runner, who tags off to a mountain biker, then a kayaker, then a road biker and finally to a pair in a canoe who paddle to the finish line.

Our team ended up 2nd overall, less than a minute out. We had a solid race with no mechanical's or delays so I think everyone was happy with the way things went.

That marked the end of Emma's and my vacation and we headed back to Canmore immediately after the race. Emma went in for shoulder surgery the next morning and has been in a sling (recovering well!) since. Our return also marked the start of the new training year. After a week in Canmore to get things sorted out, the AWCA headed to Silver Star for our first on snow camp of the year. We spent seven days in Silver Star skiing in the sunshine and running in the heat down in Vernon. It was a great way to kick off the training year and bring the new team together!

We just finished up our baseline testing week in Canmore, measuring our current fitness levels carried over from last season and to set a standard for improvement over the course of the summer. I think everyone is happy with the early results. I know it has given me some good areas to focus on heading into the summer.

Our next training camp is in Kaslo, June 20-23. It will be a road bike oriented camp with one long 220km ride. We will be riding the "Silver Triangle" from Kaslo to New Denver, down to Nelson and back up to Kaslo. Last year I had just returned from planting before heading out on the camp. Lets just say trying to conquer 220km on your first ride of the season is not an easy feat. I am hoping that this goes a little smoother!

Pate

More Fun in the Sun...

2011-04-14T20:34:00.001-06:00

Sunshine with Russell and Phillip. Amazing day skiing. Blue skies, fresh snow and warm weather. Perfect spring skiing!

Russell hiking around the top of the Dive

The view towards Mt. Assinaboine

Looking back into the Dive after 1 of 2 runs

The next adventure was to Chester Lake with Emma. It was overcast but we were lucky enough for the sun to join us for lunch!

Emma working on her proper 'X-Skier' technique

Approaching Chester Lake

There were two guys climbing the widest shoot starting bottom right heading up to the left. They started climbing with their snowboards on their backs when we arrived, and two hours later were about half way up and still climbing. An epic climb for an epic line. The scary part is this was the only shoot that hadn't slid yet. Every face around had slid, and 3 years ago when Chris Butler and I were up at Chester, we watched that exact shoot slide. Pretty scary!

Our lunch spot for the day

Lots of snow! This is a 5ft high sign totally buried in the snow.

After quite a few sprint adventures in Canmore, it was off to Ontario for a short 5 day trip for Sam's 16th birthday! I arrived home yesterday and have been enjoying the incredible sunshine!

Pools not open yet...

CosiCakes! (www.cosicakes.com) for Sammy's 16!

Getting the boats out! 2 canoes, 2 kayaks, 1 sailboat and 1 tin boat. Quite the load of toys!

Its back to Canmore on Monday and on Tuesday Emma and I leave for our 10 day road trip out to Vancouver Island. We are hoping to spend a few nights in Rossland, Victoria, Pender Harbor, Mt. Washington, maybe Tofino?? Should be a good trip. It has been an awesome spring so far!

My Volvo

2011-04-06T12:57:00.000-06:00

To all those that have had the pleasure of riding in "The Legend" watch this video...

So good, couldn't have said it better my self.
For those that don't 'get it' you'll need to find yourself a classic pre 90's Volvo 240 to really understand the song.

My favorite part: "Tank on empty..." The Legends gas gauge has been broken for years, so I'm always "tank on empty rippin in my Volvo..."

Sunshine

2011-04-05T18:41:00.000-06:00

Wake up to this...

Put on the ski gear...

And watch Russell do this...

And this...

Fun day at Sunshine!!

Spring Fun!

2011-04-02T10:33:00.001-06:00

This week has been a fun mix of work and play in Canmore. I forgot to mention in my last post that I am now working at the Bill Warren Training Centre in Canmore. I am basically a glorified janitor/secretary, keeping the gym and building clean and working the front desk. It is a fun job, and easy on the body so I will be able to work right through the spring and training season! That also means that I will not be tree planting this spring. I will miss my yearly pilgrimage into the bush, but staying in Canmore means I wont miss a month and a half of training!

This week Butler, Amanda and I skied up the Red Earth Creek trail to Shadow Lake Lodge (a ski in/ski out back country lodge). Its about a 15km ski up to the Lake/Lodge and you can go further if you want. We arrived just in time for afternoon tea at the lodge, which consisted of gourmet cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, cookies, cake, and of course coffee and tea (for $15). So of course we stopped at the lodge and ate to our hearts content before continuing on to explore the lake.

Butler and Amanda

Amanda and I on the ski in

There was quite a bit of snow up at the lodge

The guest cabins up at the Lodge

Shadow Lake

It was a great little day trip. Spring in the Canadian Rockies is amazing! The next adventure was a solo trip to Mt. Norquay for an afternoon of downhill skiing. I haven't been able to get out on the downhill skies as much as I would have liked this year, but this afternoon at Norqauy sure made up for it. Norquay is known as the baby mountain of the Rockies. It is smaller than Sunshine or Lake Louise, but for a southern Ontario boy, it is still quite the mountain. With the majority of their runs being steep, fall line groomers, it is a grown up version of southern Ontario hills (with a view that is in a completely different league!).

Bluebird day, soft snow, no body in sight!!

The view from the top. Looking down on the Banff town site, the Bow Valley (left) and Mt. Rundle

A day like that can't help but bring a smile to your face!

I even had a chance to take the old board out for a few turns!

The next adventure on tap was another day trip, this time into Boom Lake with Emma. Boom Lake is located past Banff, on HWY 93 south just past Storm Mtn Lodge. Our original plan was to head up into Kananaskis and ski into Chester Lake, but Spray Lakes road up to the gap was closed for avalanche removal. So we were turned around, and looking for a new spot.

Boom Lake didn't disappoint! It is an easy 5km ski up to the lake, and once you get there you can continue exploring. It seems like a great alpine touring spot with quick access to back country powder. I really need to get some touring skis...

Just a little bit of snow out here still... you ski on top of that bridge, and try not to get too close to the edge.

Boom Lake

We stopped for lunch when we got up to the lake. Those are Emma's poles stuck straight into the ground. Lots-o-snow.

Skiing across the lake.

This weekend could be an interesting one! There is a snowfall warning in effect for Canmore, with a potential 20cm today and more tomorrow. Hopefully Emma and I can get out on the downhill skies tomorrow. I have to work away the afternoon today, so no adventure in the fresh snow.

Today is also the last race of the season for many in North America! The Academy has been down in Sun Valley, Idaho for the USSA Spring Series races. Today is the final stage of the mini tour with a 6km hill climb! Results from the week can be found HERE.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!!

-Pate

Nationals Wrap Up

2011-03-27T11:45:00.001-06:00

It has been just over a week since the final 50km race at Nationals in Canmore. It has given me lots of time to digest things, and make decisions regarding the rest of the season. In short, just over half the Academy athletes woke up this morning at the crack of dawn and headed south to Sun Valley for the USSA Spring Series races. I decided to stay in Canmore and start my spring R&R a week early. Before getting into the details of that though, lets back up a week or two and discuss Nationals!

10km SKATE - 9th

I had high hopes for this race. It was my first race of Nationals as I decided to sit out the team sprint to be better rested. Gorgeous day, tough course, tough result. Legs didn't feel fresh, and I knew from the top of the first hill it was going to be a fight to stay in the top ten. I ended up ninth after leaving everything out on the course. I can easily say that was the hardest race I have ever done.

After crossing the line in the 10km Skate. First time I have fully collapsed after a race and needed help getting my skis off.

Photo: Paula Hanson

Still down... congratulating David Greer on his race. It was a while before I got up and headed back to the wax room!

Photo: Paula Hanson

15km Classic - 23rd

This race was one to finish and forget. The 15km individual start classic race was held on the biathlon trails which are much more rolling than the World Cup trails. It was a warm day, slightly overcast with tricky snow that all wax techs fear. Our team was prepared though, with both a klister ski and a hard wax ski ready for each athlete. The big question was which ski to go with? Our start was right around the transition point. Half the team went with hard wax skis and half went with klister. I was one of the ones who chose klister, hoping that the sun would continue beating down on the trails and glaze the tracks. Unfortunately after the call was made and I had started the race, the sun disappeared and the snow stopped changing. I was left with good grip, but very draggy skis. This just hindered my already poor performance. This race hurt a lot less than the 10km skate, but that was probably because the mind wasn't pushing the body as hard. It was a more consistent race in terms of lap times, but the common theme of SLOW remained throughout the race.

After the 15km classic I took a day completely off to think about why it had gone so poorly. I had been training consistently well for the last three weeks, but the body always felt the same no matter what. Whether I had raced or rested the day before, I always woke up kind of tired and never fresh. During intensity and the previous three races, the feelings out on the course were also similar: no snap, speed or pop. All consistently mediocre. I decided I needed a change of pace, as the rest/intensity/race program clearly wasn't working. So the next day I headed out for a nice long, slow, 3 hour classic ski. I know my body responds well to volume, and I was hoping this long ski would give me the kick in the pants I needed, even though it was only 2 days out from the 50km...

50km - 5th!

I put some pressure on myself for the 50km. I was having a dismal Nationals, and was far from reaching my podium goal, let alone the back up "Top 5" goal. Today was going to be the day and I had five 10km loops to make it happen! An 8:30am start meant an early morning, but it also meant fast frozen snow for much of the race. My plan was to stick with the lead pack, try to conserve as much energy as I could and ski relaxed. The race started and I did just that, shifting between the top 5 for the entire race.

A picture of me leading the charge

Full article: http://skihere.ca/2011/03/19/george-grey-goes-out-in-style/

Nothing exciting happened from km 0 to km 45. The pace stayed very consistent with people shifting in and out of the lead doing their fair share of the donkey work. There were no breakaways or surges, those that couldn't handle the pace simply fell off the back. At 45km George picked up the pace and Brent and Kev hung on. Glenn Randal was next in line, then Somppi and me strung out behind him. During the last few km I pulled up my knickers and tried to close the gap back down to the leaders. Somppi held on and we passed Glenn but weren't closing any ground on George. It came down to a sprint finish between Somppi and I and he took it. I was spent after the last big push, but was very satisfied with 5th!

Michael Somppi and I hammering up the last climb after 49km....

Photo Credit: James Cunningham

The Men's 50km podium

George, Brent, Kevin, Sompii, Me, Glenn

The 50km was definitely the highlight of Nationals for me. I got my top 5 and was fairly close to the podium (26 seconds off Kev... over 50km) The cheering and support during the race was incredible. Thanks to all those that came out and cheered!! My mom and brother came out for the 50km, and hearing those familiar voices over and over again throughout the race definitely gave me some more drive.

So Spring Series??

NOPE! I am in Canmore as I write this, with my feet up and thoughts of going out for some downhill turns in the sunshine this afternoon. After much thought I decided it wasn't worth it to go down and bury myself in another 4 races. Sure, it would be good for development, but I have struggled to find energy over the last three weeks and the thought of expending what little I had left over another week wasn't to appealing. To stay in Canmore, rest, enjoy the mountains of snow and make sure I am rarin' to go come May 1st seems to be more along the lines of what I need.

Stay tuned for pictures of upcoming Canmore adventures! There will be lots, and hopefully I get a chance to put the camera to use.

Emma gets home from biathlon Nationals tomorrow! She has had a very strong Nationals with a 3rd in the individual, a 3rd in the sprint, a 2nd in the pursuit and a 1st in the team relay today!

Post 50km... Emma holding me up.

WOW

2011-03-26T08:14:00.002-06:00

Check out this amazing video by the guys at Nordic Explained!

Team Canada: The Future Is Now from Adam Doogan-Smith on Vimeo.

What an incredible year. Very inspiring!

Nationals update to come later this weekend.

Pate

Gorgeous Hurt

2011-03-13T16:11:00.001-06:00

The stadium today. A balmy +5, beautiful sunshine, amazing snow... Canmore sure is putting on one incredible show!

Today's race hurt. It hurt real bad. 10km skate, three laps of a relentless 3.3km loop. Out the stadium, UP, little bit of down, UP some more, UP again, back to the bottom and repeat twice more. Normally I would love this course, it is a climbers dream! But today the legs had different ideas.

If you look at the lap splits, you might think "Pate, you silly little man, you just went out way to hard!" I will argue however, that I went out with the podium in mind. It is a fine line between blowing up and keeping it together for the win. I was not close to that line today however. After the first lap I was already in survival mode. Trying to climb smooth, and conserve as much energy as possible to get through another two laps.

My legs were pretty toast. They felt like they did last weekend (heavy), even with a week of easy training and very focused recovery, they still hadn't come around. The mind was rip rarin' to go, and in a very good spot. I have spend quite a lot of time thinking about this race and mentally preparing. I think that without this prep and focus, I would have been a lot further down the results page. It was a big mental game to push across the finish line. At which point I immediately collapsed, and spent the next 30 min trying to bring my heart rate back down, get my breathing under control, and make it back to the wax room to get some fluids in me. It was not a pretty sight. I was white as a ghost, and not really "there."

I came around after a gel and some very strong sport drink. Enough to go out for a cool down, spend 15 minutes in the ice bath, and head home. I have spend the afternoon horizontal, eating and drinking plenty.

Overall I am disappointed, I was looking for a podium, and ended up 9th, over a minute back. Respectable, but not where I wanted to be. I know I am in good shape, and have the capacity to reach my goals this week, I just need to get the legs back under me. We have a rest day tomorrow, then Tuesday is the 15km classic, individual start. I am quite looking forward to this race as I feel my classic skiing has come a long way over the last little while.

FULL RESULTS HERE

In other news, there are groomers on Mainstreet!!

This restored Tucker Sno Cat, mounted with speakers-a-blarin' is parked on Mainstreet, which also happens to be covered in snow! They have brought down snow from the Nordic Centre, and covered Main street Canmore, from one end of town to the other. There is skiing for all, booths set up, parades and awards presented from each days race on the snow. It was one cool sight, and one of the many reasons I love this little ski town!!

Amanda Ammar, coming out of retirement to team up with Annika Hicks, to create Canmore 1 in the open womans team sprint yesterday!

Canmore 1 (Stef Kuhn and Phil Widmer) leading Canmore 2 (Phil Wood and Russell Kennedy) in the open mens team sprint yesterday!

Russell Kennedy chasing the main pack. Canmore 2 had some bad luck getting tripped up twice and loosing contact with the leaders. They put up a good fight to regain contact, but were never able to do it.

Yesterday was a good day for Canmore Nordic in the team relays. Canmore 1 came second in the open men, and Annika and Amanda skied to an impressive 2nd place finish as well. Congrats to Annika on a great 5km today as well, coming 4th overall and 1st in the junior woman's category. Very impressive skiing!

Until next time! - Pate

Skate Sprint and Classic Prologue

2011-02-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

Quick recap over the last two days:

Travel from Canmore to West Kelowna was good. Clear roads and an uneventful drive. Lots of snow up at Telemark Ski Club and some surprisingly fun race trails. I am a little shocked that this is the first time I have raced here. The facilities are great, and the race trails have some good variety, lots of climbing and some fun downhills. That being said, the sprint course needs to be revamped. It is quite flat, which makes it hard because there is zero rest, but it is always nice to have some hills and downhill corners to break things up a bit.

Friday was the skate sprint. In qualifying I was lacking in the speed and "pop" department. It felt technically good, but my legs were slow to get going. I got into the heats, and things started to come around in the afternoon. I did more intensity in my warm up for the heats, and was feeling pretty good. Nish, Butler and myself were all in the same quarter final heat. Nish took the lead halfway through the heat and I moved into second. Heading into the finish Nish was still up front, and myself and another skier were battling it out for the second spot. After a super tight finish, I was told the other skier got me by millimeters. I thought all was not lost, as maybe I would get a lucky loser spot. No such luck as bib 112 took it (and I was 113). So after qualifying 13, loosing the sprint finish, the missing out on the lucky loser spot I ended the day right where I started, in lucky number 13!! But that's how it goes, if I had the little bit of extra speed in my finishing kick, I might have been able to move on. Next time.

Today was was the 3.5km classic prologue. One of my favorite events next to classic sprinting! Today actually went pretty well. The course was constantly transitioning between ups, downs and corners. There was plenty of time to gain or lose based on how smooth you could transition from one technique to the other. I started out with my usual bullet 10km pace, and tried to ski consistent and smooth through to the finish. I ended up doing just that, starting well off the pace of the leads but bringing back in some more time towards the finish. I ended the day in 8th, 27 seconds back. That's still a HUGE time margin for 3.5km, but it felt better then last weekends classic prologue, so I think things are moving in the right direction.

Tomorrow is the pursuit start 15km skate. It is a 3x5km loop that has some decent climbing and fun downhills. While I have lost time to the leaders in the skate sprint and classic prologue, I hope to reel back in some of that time tomorrow. I will be starting somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes behind the leaders (Drew, then Stef, then Nish). I only have 15km to bring in that time, but with a fairly hilly course, it is well suited to me.

I will be sure to do a recap after tomorrows race. We head back to Canmore tomorrow night, then we are off to Ottawa on Wednesday with the full Academy team!

Now we are off to a team bowling showdown in Kelowna followed by dinner.
Chat ya later!

Pate

ORFORD!

2011-01-31T11:37:00.001-07:00

Yesterday's 2nd place in the 20km skate. Academy podium sweep!

Last Wednesday, Graham, Drew, Jeffries and I jumped on a plane and headed to Montreal for what would be the first of our three week NorAm mini-tour race series. Travel went very smoothly and we arrived at Hotel Cheribourg in Orford with relative ease.

The first of the races was a 4km classic prologue. My classic skiing is coming along, and so is my sprinting, but it was apparent after being 7th and 30 seconds back over 4km that there is still lots of work to be done! The course was very flat, and some of the guys were flirting with the idea of double poling it. Everyone ended up using classic skis, but it was a real back burner. My arms and back have never seized up so much in a 10 minute period!

The following day we raced a 10km classic. It was a single 10km loop, which is pretty uncommon now days. Usually it would be multiple loops of a smaller distance. I quite enjoy the single loop format though, I find there is more variety in the course and it doesn't get repetitive. The starts were 15 second intervals, which made for some big advantages the further back you started. Because it was only 15 seconds, you could see the guy ahead of you the whole time, and reeling them in was easier then say, 30 second intervals (out of sight, out of mind). It was pretty apparent in the last 5 starters, it went me first, then Dave Greer, Stef, Drew and Nish. The Nish caught Drew, they caught Stef and Stef caught Dave and they all closed in on me in the finishing straight. So we finished in reverse order, all 15 seconds apart. I think for these types of races, they should stick to the 30 second intervals. Overall I was happy with the day. I felt strong and like I was skiing technically well. It didn't take a lot out of me, and after the two classic races I had managed to still be within 2 minutes of the lead. (Still a sizable gap, but I could work with it)

The last race was a 20km (4x5km) skate pursuit start. This meant that your times from the two previous days were added together (plus any time bonuses from the prologue) and the overall leader went out first, and everyone else started based on their total time back from him over the last two days. It means that the first one across the finish like is the overall winner for the weekend. It is one of my favorite formats, because so much can change. You know exactly how much time you need to make up, and exactly where you finish when you cross the line. I ended up starting seventh (1:58 back of Nish, the leader). I had lots of people to catch, and some serious time to make up. I started hard and caught the two guys in front of me fairly quick. Then settled into pace and tried to eat up as many seconds as I could. I got to within 10m of Stef on the third lap, and once he saw me closing in he put on the jets and I was never able to finish the job of reeling him in. The good news is I moved from 7th to 4th, and had the second fastest time of the day behind Nish! This was my first NorAm podium of the year, and one of my better races. It was a great way to end the weekend, and gave me some good experience to put to use over the next two mini-tours.

I am back in Canmore after a long travel day yesterday. After the race we headed to Montreal to catch our flight, and eventually made it back to Canmore at 2:00am. It was an unpleasant shock to wake up to -35 C this morning...

I will head out for a ski eventually, and keep it pretty relaxed over the next two days. We head to Kelowna on Wednesday for the next mini-tour.

Thanks for checking in!

Pate

PS- Congrats to Alex on his big win today at U23's!! Pretty pumped to see all those solid U23 and Junior results over the past week!

Check This One Out:

2011-01-26T20:51:00.001-07:00

http://www.kellymcbroom.com/2011/01/success.html

The latest and greatest video from Kelly McBroom! Sends shivers down your spine... and puts this second injury into its own tragic perspective.

Arrived in Orford, Quebec late this evening! Good travel day (one of many to come) and if they all go that smooth we should come out on top! Heading to bed, do some ski testing and pre skiing tomorrow. First race is on Friday, a classic prologue.

Pate

Video Technique

2011-01-24T17:53:00.001-07:00

Here is some video from Saturdays 4 x 6min Zone 3 Skate workout. Wicked day in Canmore. Nice and warm and rock solid snow!

Schedule For the Next Month!

2011-01-22T19:29:00.001-07:00

JAN-FEB

2011

RACE/TRAVEL SCHEDULE

Mid Season NorAm Tour

-Lots of Travel!

-Lots of Racing!

-Lots of Chances to get on the podium!

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
						22

23	24	25	26	27	28	29
			Travel to Montreal (Orford)	Pre Ski	Classic Prologue (4km)	Classic 10km
30	31	1	2	3	4	5
20km Pursuit Start Skate Travel back to Canmore	Canmore	Canmore	Travel to Kelowna (Telemark)	Pre Ski	Skate Sprint	Classic Prologue (3.75km)
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
15km Pursuit Start Skate Travel back to Canmore	Canmore	Canmore	Travel to Ottawa (Nakkertok)	Pre Ski	Skate Prologue (3km)	Skate Sprint
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
30km Classic Individual Start Travel to Caledon	Caledon REST!	Caledon REST!	Caledon REST!	Travel to Canmore!!
20	21	22	23	24	25	26

You are probably wondering the same thing as the rest of the xc community... why put three NorAms in a row, and have them as far away as possible from each other?!?! Does it not make more sense to have the two in the east on back to back weekends? Not slot a NorAm in Kelowna right smack dab in the middle? You would think.... but apparently the organizing gods at CCC had other things in mind. Seems like CCC is a new sponsor of Westjet.

Volume!

2011-01-17T21:24:00.001-07:00

This is what today's 4hrs and 56km of classic skiing looked like at the Canmore Nordic Centre! Not bad for a distance ski. The fresh snow from last week has left the trails in amazing shape. This map shows most of the recreational trails. I didn't have enough time to ski the World Cup courses. It's so cool you can head out for a ski that long and barely ski on the same trail twice! There are some pretty incredible trails here. (The thick red lines are where I had to double back...)

This is a screen shot of the chart from my Garmin. There are a few pretty serious hills out there!

I have another 4hr day tomorrow. The weather has been doing some crazy stuff here. It was -18 C when I got up this morning and +4 C and spitting by mid afternoon. The inversion in the valley is really cool too. From the high points of the trail looking down you could see the ice crystals hanging in the valley floor. My glasses would instantly fog up as I hit a warm muggy patch of air tucked away in a gully, then hit ice cold pockets in the next. You would be sweating buckets one minute and the next you would be chilled to the bone!

Time for bed... legs are pretty shot!

Pate

Friends Around The World!

2011-01-16T13:49:00.003-07:00

Some of you from back home will remember my friend Vanessa Foster from Mayfield. She is living in Grenoble, France for the next few months on exchange. She started a BLOG to keep everyone up to date on her travels and adventures! I linked it to my blog list on the left side of this page for easy access! She should have some pretty good updates to read! (No pressure Vanessa...)

In other news, it was -23 C yesterday morning in Canmore and it got up to +2 C by yesterday afternoon. It feels balmy compared to the frigid wind chilled - 34 C of earlier this week! Walking around downtown today in a light jacket and no gloves was a much welcomed treat! Weirdly enough it is still -20 C in Calgary! Gotta love the weather in the Canadian Rockies!

Also, I am not sure if you have been reading Kelly McBroom's blog, but you should check it out. Kelly had another heart wrenching crashed just after New Years and broke her leg (just months after getting back to racing after a two year recovery period for blowing her knee...). Kelly has been posting some very motivating updates, and some gruesome pictures of her latest war wound on her blog and Twitter account. Feel free to comment and offer words of encouragement. Kelly is one tough cookie and has been put through the ringers the last few years. She returns to Canmore sometime tomorrow or Tuesday. I know 'Team Kelly' back here in Canmore is looking forward to her arrival home to help start the healing process.

The World Juniors and U23 teams left for Europe early this morning! Check out these blogs for updates from Academy teammates!

Jesse Cockney: http://jesscockney.blogspot.com/

Kevin Sandau: http://www.sandau.ca/

Alysson Marshall: http://alyssonmarshall.blogspot.com/

Sara Hewitt: http://awca-sarahewitt.blogspot.com/

Jordan Cascagnette: http://jordancascagnette.blogspot.com/

That's it for today!

Pate

YES!

2011-01-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

This is AWESOME. And so true.

Check It Out!

2011-01-11T09:54:00.002-07:00

Here is a highlight video put together by Glen Crawford on Devon's skate sprint win at the Tour De Ski!

Great Video!

I am back in Canmore after a long travel day from Thunder Bay yesterday. It is good to be home! A few easy days ahead to get my energy back then its full steam ahead!

Pate

A Surprise? Or Dissapointment?

2011-01-09T17:23:00.001-07:00

I woke up this morning after a good sleep with decent energy, but my head was still foggy. I had a good morning run and headed to the race site feeling positive. I wanted to ski a more intense warm up, so I gave myself plenty of time before my race. I skied 15 minutes easy, I did 10min of zone 3, followed by 3 x 2min building to an all out effort. Then some short sprints, and headed to the start. I felt decent in my warm up, but as the the workload increased, my head started pounding and the legs got shaky. I brushed it off as "bugs" and headed to the start still positive.

Things started off slow, but technically strong. I felt good, but like I wasn't covering a lot of ground. In my "on" races this year, it has felt like I am pinned right from the start, and I am feathering that line of exploding very carefully throughout the whole race. It is a good feeling where you are in control, and moving well. These last two races have felt more restricted by something and I am not sure what yet. I can't get into that extra gear and the races have been sort of a grind. You don't feel in control or confidant in your recovery or speed.

Jess Cockney and Dave Greer caught me from 30 and 15 seconds out. They moved through me and it was all I could do to hang on for the next two laps. Dave took off at the end and Jess used his impressive finishing kick to put some more time into me on the finishing stretch.

While following those two, I had my head down, just focusing on their skis, trying to stay with them. My head was pounding, and my legs felt like they were going to give out momentarily. It was not a good hurt. In racing there is the good hurt and the bad hurt. The good hurt is what I describe when I talk about my 15k at Nationals last winter. Every muscle is in pain, but deep down you know you can keep going. You still have that sense of control. The bad hurt (like today) is uncontrollable and shows up when it shouldn't, its a head pounding pain.

I crossed the line disappointed. I felt I had so much more to get out of that race than I did. I know I can ski faster, and also know that there was just something that wasn't right. Something inhibiting speed, something pulling me back.

So what was it? The most probable explanation is this sickness I am trying to fend off. But I also have to ask myself about this new preparation? Warm up? Race plan?

Then of course I saw the result. 9th. I was shocked. The sensations I was getting while racing felt more like a bottom half finish. Whats going on? Lots of questions. Mike and I have all day tomorrow as we fly back to Canmore to talk about it.

Top ten is cool. But at the risk of sounding arrogant, or cocky, on this course, with these climbs and the disciplines, I wanted the podium. I know I should have been there too.

Live and Learn.

Sickness can be caught. Recovery, rest, stress, all that stuff comes into play and I am thinking lots of travel before and during Christmas wasn't the best prep.

Tomorrow I will be back home in Canmore. I am super pumped to get back there. I am not sure what the plan is from here on out, but it will come together over the next few days. Thanks to all those who have supported me up to this point! It makes a huge difference, and putting this slight disappointment aside, I feel there are much bigger and better things heading my way!

And on a final note, huge congratulations go out to my teammates (past and present) heading to U23's and World Juniors next week!

Kev, Jess, Sara, Alyson, Mike Somppi and Lenny heading to U23's
Jordan, Heidi, Janelle, and Annika and RUSSELL KENNEDY of the Canmore Nordic Ski Club heading to World Juniors!!!

The full teams will be announced on CCC later this week.

We have an exciting 3 months of racing ahead of us!

Thanks for checking in!

Pate

Results from today can be found HERE.

Sick?

2011-01-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

I woke up yesterday after a terrible sleep, and felt like I had a close encounter with a train. I opted to stay back at the hotel instead of heading to the race site for training. I slept, went out for an easy run and tried to figure out what was going on. Things got better throughout the day, but at the team meeting last night, I made the call to sit out on today's classic sprint. So my opportunity to take on the elusive 'classic sprint' has been postponed yet again... one day we will meet and I hope to exceed my previous reputation as a classic sprinter!

I had a killer sleep last night, and a decent ski this morning. Hopefully things are 100% ready to go by tomorrow morning! This could also help explain why things felt "off" during Thursday's pursuit. I think I have been fighting numerous sicknesses off over the Christmas break, and they finally wore me down enough to break the armor.

Today's qualifier results can be found HERE.

30k Recap

2010-12-22T17:01:00.073-07:00

Photo: Jesse Winter

To get straight to the point, I was disappointed with today. I felt sluggish and like my body was working in overdrive to try and keep up in the classic. Things felt labored, and like I couldn't break into that extra gear. In short, it felt like a 20km warm up with a 10km skate race.

That being said, the last 10km felt great. I started to real people back in, and made up a bunch of spots (but not enough to be satisfied with!) I skied the end of the race like I wanted to ski the first 20k. I know I could have been up with the leaders, but not finding my grove in the classic leg let a gap form, and I was never able to close it. I also lost a pole while taking a feed in the skate, which undid a bunch of my catch up work.

So overall not my day. I am frustrated that it took 20k to get into the race, but I now know I have some more work to do in reading signs from my body. Maybe a harder warmup? Longer, tougher intensity leading up to the race? I have Sundays 15km skate to make some changes and try and better prepare myself. Live and learn!

Saturday is a classic sprint, which consists of a long downhill off the start, and a tough climb back up and into the stadium. It is a strider's course for sure, the best climber will win!

Stay tuned for more updates!

Results from today can be found HERE.

Its been chilly in Thunder Bay!!

Nipika

2010-11-23T19:43:00.001-07:00

Emma and I just returned from a wicked 2 night trip out to Nipika Resort! Nipika is a very cool 'environmentally friendly eco lodge' located 14km off hwy 93 south (just over the BC border). It is totally 'off the grid' and relies on solar, hydro electric, and propane power to bring energy to the cabins. The cabins were built on the property using logs harvested and milled from the surrounding bush, and were logged by horse. The area is pretty incredible, and the combination of ski trails, sauna, hot tub, warm cabins and peace and quiet make it the perfect preseason get away!

Why do we need a pre season get away?!? Well, after a long summer of training, and a fairly intense fall, it is nice to just get out and clear your head and think about the season to come. It is amazing how restful a 3 hr ski can be when there is nothing to distract you from recovery. Delicious food, a fire, a couch, a good book and no worries seem to be the perfect balance to a long workout.

The only worries you come across out here, look like this!

Fortunately for us, we never saw our friend the grizz, but he was definitely close by, with fresh snow falling just a few hours before our ski.

This is where the bear came out of the bush from. It was pretty cool looking into the bush and seeing all the snow knocked off the surrounding branches. It gave you a good idea of how big this creature actually was. Note the giant 'post holes' in the snow.

There was no shortage of wildlife out and about at Nipika. This guy turned and gave us the cold shoulder just as the camera came out.

Talk about spectacular scenery!

Steep canyon walls cut out by the river below

Nothing like a little hot chocolate and a fire to warm up the body halfway through the ski

Getting the wood fired hot tub going for the night.

It was a pretty great trip. I am back in Canmore with 11 days to go before the first race of the year! The next two weeks will consist of time trials, some longer skis, and some good intensity sessions. Energy is good, body feels ready to go and the mind is just itching to race! Keep eyes and ears open for the first USSA Super Tour races of the season happening this week. Chris Butler, Drew Goldsack and Graham Nishikawa are representing the Academy down in West Yellowstone. Results should eventually be posted here.

Excellence in Sport

2010-11-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

This is incredible.

Thanks to Thomsen for passing this on.

Academy Article

2010-11-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Check it

You can also check out some of the athlete profiles here.

Sweet ski in Canmore this morning. The loop is up to 5 minutes in length! Feels like spring skiing though, +7 C right now!

Pate

Video Technique

2010-11-06T17:44:00.004-06:00

Here is some video from this mornings classic 4 x 8 minutes of zone 3 up Silvertip. Pretty strong group of guys right here: we have Drew, Jess, Butler, Kevin, Jordan, Nish and myself in neon/blue. You're going to have to figure out who is who...

Note the sweet background music.

Here is video from some 10x10 second skate sprint on "Frozen Thunder" from last week. Pretty sweet to be doing this stuff on snow. The last two days have killed the loop though. It is pretty much unskiable as of this afternoon.

In this we have Butler, Jess, me (in red), Bob, Jordan and Zach

Out and About

2010-11-03T21:38:00.001-06:00

Last Friday Butler, Joel, Phil, Blitz and I took the General Load (Phil's new car...) up to Rummel Lake for a little game of early season hockey. The weather has been spectacular in Canmore. Not the greatest for snow, but it has made the final weeks of dry land training quite enjoyable. (Its been nice... but it is time for snow now!) With temps much above zero, there isn't much ice to be found around town. A few weeks ago Butler and Phil hiked up to Rummel Lake do some fishing, and were rudely rejected when they were met by a few cm of ice. Rummel Lake is up in Kananaskis Country, and is tucked away behind the surrounding mountains, thus never really getting much direct sun. When looking for a fun easy workout, we decided it was worth while hiking up with our skates and sticks, and trying our luck on the ice, which we hoped, would be a lot thicker...

After chopping a hole through the ice, and deciding it was a good 12cm thick, we deemed it save to go!!

Phil aka 'Captain Canada' supervating

Joel clearing the rink

Quite a bit of snow up high...

Creating my non existent minor league days

Phil, me and Joel.

My dad's 1970's vintage padded downhill sweater makes the perfect hockey sweater...

Phil showing us all how its done.

It was a pretty rad day all round! Great workout, sweet game of hockey! Aside for hockey games, pumpkin carving and Halloween festivities, our team has been deep in the heart of a testing week. It was been great, but I am too pooped to go into any detail now. A more in depth update will come on that soon.

Some pumpkin carving... Team Zachlicia far left, mine centre and Emma's on the right

This shot is courtesy of Chris Butler, taken today on our 3:45hr roller ski around Canmore/Banff

This is Awesome

2010-10-28T16:38:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Jess for showing me this yesterday. Figured I would pass it on. People can do some pretty crazy things!!!

Check It...

2010-10-26T08:47:00.001-06:00

Check out this sweet video Kelly put together from footage from New Zealand. Pretty sweet. Also one of the more motivating / inspiring things I have seen lately!! Kelly has been on the side lines for two years after shredding her knee apart in a race. As you can tell from the video, shes back! GO KELLY GO.

http://www.kellymcbroom.com/2010/10/sweet-disposition.html

P

What my brother does when he's at school...

2010-10-21T08:33:00.000-06:00

This is what really happened in Fernie... The 'Wolfpack' is now on the run.

This was from earlier in the summer when dad and Sam came out to visit. Sam was on fire the whole trip... literally.

Haig!!

2010-10-20T18:03:00.001-06:00

I am in the middle of a glorious rest week right now! It is awesome having 3 out of the last 4 days off, but it has also been incredibly busy with stuff that has been pushed to the side over the last few months. The Legend sounds like a race car (or a 20 year old car with a muffler that just rusted off...), it needs it's out of province inspection, which means all the warning lights on the dash need to magically disappear. The motorbike needs to be put away for the winter, but it also needs some love. There is a failure somewhere between the starting magneto and the ignition, so the only way to start it is with a push. Not a problem, you just always have to park on a hill.

I moved into my new house at the beginning of October and have been sorting through odds and ends, trying to downsize, which is harder than I thought. Things are coming together nicely and it is feeling very much like home now.

Amongst all this moving and sorting, we had three fairly tough weeks of training ("tough" is now a relative word... The Academy has really upped my idea of a "tough" week of training!) We were suppose to have two back to back mini Haig camps, but the groomer had some problems and it wasn't fixed until last week. So instead, we had two large weeks of dryland and a short 4 day camp on the Haig last week. It worked out quite well, as the training in Canmore has been out of this world for the month of October. Sun, sun and more sun!

On Thanksgiving weekend, Phil, Beau and I went on a little bike trip south over Highwood Pass, west to Fernie where we spent the night, and back up north through Radium and east to Canmore. All in less than 24 hours. It was a sweet, relaxing trip of about 750km. Nice to get out on the bike for one last long ride before the snow comes!

On the move.

Stopped for a gas break, good thing I brought along a jerry can of extra gas. My bike has the smallest tank of the bunch.

Camp in Fernie. It drizzled pretty much all night. That tent was tight with three dudes and all our gear.

McDonald's breakfast. A little wet on our way out of Fernie the next morning.

I hurried home on Thanksgiving Sunday to help cook a turkey in my new house. The Lodges hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for all the family-less skiers in town. It was a wicked evening. All 18 of us went home stuffed to the brim!

The next Tuesday we headed up to the Haig for our mini camp. We ran in early Tuesday morning, had lunch and a quick nap, then hiked up to the glacier for a two hr ski. A long 5 hr day, but the skiing was wicked!

The run into the Haig. No more colors, just frozen ponds.

Classic day 1

Not bad eh?

I have decided that fall is my favorite time to ski up at the Haig. Sure, its a little bit colder, but you are more likely to get conditions like this! We used Swix Blue Extra every day, no klister to deal with!

Then we woke up to this... Its the other end of the deal. Crazy high winds, whiteout conditions and a chance that you might not be able to ski because of the poor visibility.

Jody, heading out in the Cat for our last ski. He didn't want to let the tent out of his sight, so as you can imagine, the loop wasn't very big.

The guys arriving on the glacier.

This was the fun part... running down the glacier, ice on ice covered in light powdery snow is a recipe for disaster! We had some good slips, but thankfully no one got hurt.

Looking back at the base camp (just right of centre) on our run out, as it gets buried beneath a blanket of snow for the winter. We were the last athletes up there for the season.

Nish and Kev on the run out.

Because I don't have my stuff together...

2010-09-30T21:25:00.000-06:00

I will direct you to my good friend and teammate Kevin Sandau's website: Sandau.ca to read a short update (with great pictures) about our quick 3 day trip to Jasper for a high volume camp!

197km of roller skiing over three days for this guy! 3500m of elevation gain, and 11.5 hours of pavement pounding glory! (Plus a wee 2 hr tempo run squeezed in there for good measure!)

I have some pictures, but my life possessions are split between three residences right now, soon to be four (long excuse for I lost my camera cord). I move into my own real home this weekend! Woot Woot! It is Pate sized (aka small, but perfect just the same). Can't wait to finally have my own spot. It seems like all I have been doing over the past year is packing up and unpacking just to pack up again.

More to come? Maybe... maybe not. I can't promise anything. My blogging is really hit and miss these days.

You'll have to pay for that too...

2010-09-21T10:57:00.001-06:00

Thanks to Barb for passing this on to me! Check it out, pretty funny.

Snow!!

2010-09-18T22:22:00.006-06:00

Going through some major climate shock right now.

I went from this...

And this...

To this...

Photo Update!

2010-08-08T22:59:00.000-06:00

It seems I have done it again... good intentions gone sour when it comes to blogging! So without procrastinating anymore, here is a short photo update of the last three weeks.

I will start with the Alberta World Cup Academy Haig Glacier camp two weeks ago.

This is the view on the hike back down from the glacier to the base camp.

Another bluebird day on the Haig

Heidi, Marlis and Sara on the hike back down, the glacier in the background.

Yup. That's me.

This is the only picture I have where you can kind of make out the ski trails. If you tilt your computer screen away from you, you can see the darker squiggly line that is the ski trail. The little specks on the right are people skiing!

The infamous AWCA Disk gold tournament held a major presence at this years Haig camp.

Here, Chris Butler (the 2x reining champ) drives his disk to towards the helipad.

Coach Eric Groeneveld impresses the "crowd" with one of his forehand drives.

Bob Thompson launches his disk

The champ (Drew Goldsack)

Looking down the valley away from the glacier (you can see the helipad, the windsock and a human in the distance...)

Jess Cockney, Chief of Competition, Chief of Course, TD, Event Organizer, Media Relations, and all round good guy, sitting in front of the AWCA Disc Golf trophy.

The final standings, Drew Goldsack 1st, Eric Groeneveld 2nd and Birdy Bob Thompson 3rd

Fast forward to this past week, a much needed (and deserved) rest week.

I loaded up my trusty steed (the 2 wheeled version) and heading to Jasper to meet Phil for a night of camping, cliff jumping and good times. We spent the night up there, then drove home the next day. A short but sweet sprint on the bikes.

The next rest week adventure was a fishing excursion to Spray Lakes with Chris Butler. A great couple of hours peddling around the lake in the Hobie, followed by a scary couple of hours trying to outrun a thunder storm.

We were eventually forced off the lake when the thunder started to shake our soul's. We took cover on the side of a lake in the brush while the storm passed.

And lastly, today's excursion up to the Goat Glacier with Butler, Amanda and Skoki. As you can see, it was a little overcast...

Butler and Amanda

Skoki, getting her "scree surf" on. This dog is the best climber/descender I have ever seen. She will go up, and down anything we can. This pitch is super steep, and she came barreling down and surfed out the bottom slope. I swear she has more fun in the mountains then anyone I have ever met.

Rain, clouds and mud. The perfect ingredients for an adventure.

So after a hard three week training block and a rest week, we are ramping up to do it all again! Tomorrow we get back into regular training, and next weekend we head to Whistler for a 10 day training camp!

Thanks for checking in!

(And sorry for the lack of material up here...)

Neumann Fam!

2010-07-13T19:55:00.002-06:00

Last week was somewhat of a blur. It started out with with me going into Calgary to pick up Dad and Sam from the airport. Then the next thing I knew I was dropping them off again. It was a wicked trip, but much too short.
Things got started bright and early on day one of their trip. We headed up Ha Ling peak for a great view of the Bow Valley. I may have been a little ambitious, setting a pace off the start that wasn't quite fair to those coming from lower altitudes, and who haven't done much hiking. Either way, dad and Sam pulled through and we made it to the ridge overlooking town.

Dad, Sam and my new friend Skoki, a 2 yr old Bernese Mountain Dog that is more comfortable on a cliff face than on flat ground. She is incredible to hike with and super well trained. I get to take care of her for the rest of the summer.

Skoki, Dad and Sam on the ridge

After our hike up Ha Ling, we went to Harvest for lunch, and hit up the consignment store next door. Both "must does" when you're in town. After a day for the boys to recover, we ventured onto Johnson Canyon. It is a little more touristy, and was packed with people of all ages walking up the paved path to see the waterfalls. It was fun, but I must say I prefer when you have the hike all to yourself! That being said, being in and around Banff on a gorgeous weekend, dodging tourists and elk on the 1A is an experience in itself, and one I am glad dad and Sam got to see.

Its a pretty cool spot...

Next up was Sunshine Meadows. Probably one of the most beautiful areas in the Rockies. Incredible views of Mt. Assinaboine, wildflowers, fun hiking trails and on a hot day, the left over snow to frolic about in is key!

Skoki in the Meadows

Dad, enjoying his moment in the snow

Skoki trying to make friends with "Larry the land beaver" (or a ground squirrel) who was not cooperating with her.

Not bad eh?

That pretty much covers all the hikes we did. The rest of the trip was spent enjoying sunny Canmore, touring about town and hanging out on the deck. Sam and Dad planned their trip perfectly. After dropping them off in Calgary, it immediately started to rain. Yesterday the temperature started to drop, and this morning we woke to fresh snow on the mountain peaks. Wind, rain and 9 degrees on July 13... it seems Canmore only does summer for one week.

It was a nice treat to have those guys come out here for a week! The trip was short, but at east they got a taste of Canmore life. I think they will be back soon...

Sam, Emma and I

Academy Life

2010-07-05T12:00:00.001-06:00

This is going to be speedy! It will be more of a time line summery of the past three weeks, and at a later date I will try and get into some detail!

Hokay, so... After returning from planting, moving into the McBrooms, getting back into training and starting work at the Ice Cream Bus, I got sick. Quelle suiprise! It turns out I am not super human, and my body was the first to remind me. Luckily it was a quick bout of the 'I'm too worn down bug' and I got over it in 3-4 days. Just in time for Max VO2 testing in Calgary! You can guess how well that went after about a week of training, and 4 days of sick! It actually wasn't that bad. I thought it would have been much worse. It is all baseline testing though, so I am not looking for any crazy numbers at this point.

After testing we had a few days recovery, then we loaded up the (2) 15 passenger vans, plus the trailers loaded with 22 bikes, 88 rollerskis, 110 poles, and the rest of our gear and headed to New Denver, B.C. for a training camp. I must say how impressed I was with the Academy coaches in organizing and preparing for the camp. Traveling with 19 athletes, all their gear, plus three coaches isn't an easy feat. Accommodation, van support during workouts, pick up times, video and coach athlete meetings are all huge tasks when dealing with a big team. There were very few hiccups in the camp, and those that did come up, were pretty much unavoidable when taking care of a team this size.

Highlight of the camp was the epic Silver Triangle road ride we attempted. 220km, in however long you had on your plan. I made it about 180km in 5.5 hrs. Kudos to Keven and Graham who were the only two to pound out the full 220 in 7 hrs. Wow.

Our trusty coach Mike leading the pain train at about an hour in.

Slocan Lake

Exploring the ruins of an old mill in New Denver.

We were attempting to ski walk to the top of Idaho Peak, and found some pretty cool thinks along the way.

This was a neat river crossing on a tram

Sara Hewitt on her way up Idaho Peak.

After 2 hrs on steep switch backs in the bush, we emerged onto this cut block road to see the van crawling its was to the top. A pretty weird sight when you think you are deep in the middle of no where, approaching the top of a mountain. It makes for a great workout when you can ski walk up and get a ride down though!!

The view from our turn around spot. Looking down into the small town of Sandon.

Part of the crew on the ferry leaving Nakusp on our way back to Canmore

We arrived back in Canmore later on Wednesday night, got a good night sleep then ended off the training block with the Canada Day 8km run in Canmore. I was pretty impressed with the speed of my teammates. The Academy had a strong presence in the top ten. I was happy with my race, considering the past three weeks and how crazy they have been.

Photo: Dan Roycroft

After the Canada Day run, we skied in the Canada Day parade down Main street in Canmore. Then it was off to work at the bus for a few hours, and finally the day ended with fireworks and a skier type celebration of Canada Day. Pretty sweet way to end off the first serious training block of the season, and celebrate our countries birthday!!

I am about to head into Calgary to pick up my little brother and dad who are coming out for the week! I have a rest week, Sam is done school and Dad has a week off, so the Neumann men decided to have a little powwow, western style. Should be a good ol' time! I will try and keep the pictures coming.

WOW.

2010-06-19T20:04:00.000-06:00

Where do I get one of these bikes??

Remember that post about unreal tobogganing in Davos this past winter?? I think this takes the cake.

Back in Buisness!

2010-06-17T20:04:00.002-06:00

After a definite lull in updates, my feet are back under me enough that I have time to bring all you lovely people up to speed. Now comes the tricky part... where do I begin? We will go in chronological order I guess. Lets start with April. Phil and I went home to Ontario for the month, to see family and friends, and get a taste of Ontario spring (cause god knows Canmore is STILL deep in the heart of the June monsoon). It was awesome to be back home for a bit, and the weather made the trip feel like an instant jump from winter to summer. I was able to do a few adventure races with friends, I got out for some good mountain bike rides and spent the rest of the time cutting wood and thinning out the bush for my grandfather.

One of the highlights of April was hearing that I was named to the Alberta World Cup Academy for this coming season. (I will get more into that later...)

Jump forward to the last week of April, and you would have found me back in Canmore, madly scrambling to clean up and move out of our house. At this point I didn't really have a plan on where I was going to live when I came back from planting, so all my stuff was put into storage. After 4 crazy days in town, Phil, Blitz and I loaded our gear into the Legend, and headed to Prince George. We were greeted by the rest of the Venture North gang at the trusty "Camelot Motel" and headed into Dunkley TFL #53 the next day.

The good, the bad, the ugly and the classy... I will let you decide which is which!

The Captain as of two weeks ago. He is becoming a man.

And that was that. The next thing I knew we were getting dressed up for suit night (the legendary Venture North end of season party). The planting season was short and sweet (for me anyway, Phil and Blitz continued onto Grande Cache for another month of planting). Once again we had spectacular weather, with a few days of snow right off the bat, and a day or two of rain scattered throughout, but the majority of our days were spent pounding away in glorious sunshine. The bugs weren't too bad either because of the cold nights. The contract went so well in fact, we finished almost 7 days ahead of schedule.

We were a classy group!

Then it was back to Canmore. It was nice to be back a little earlier than expected as it gave me more time to get back in shape before our testing week (next week!). Just like last year, I jumped right back into training. I must say, it was a little different this year as the Academy boys are all already in good shape. I found myself huffing and puffing away at the back of the group on most workouts, trying to keep my composure.

First real training run / river bed adventure of the year with Mr. Joel Pacas

It has been a week and a half since returning from planting and things are going well. The transition to the Academy has been pretty seamless. I am rejoining long lost teammates such as Chris Butler, Kate Brennan, Sara Hewitt and Brittany Webster. It is nice to be training with a giant team, and Mike Cavaliere, Chris Jeffries and Eric Groeneveld are incredibly organized coaches, running a pretty dynamite show.

Two days after getting back from PG, I found this:

She's a 1982 Honda CB450T Hawk dubbed the "Silver Bullet." It may have been an incredibly irresponsible, impulsive and silly purchase, but I love it! It's old, its cheap and it doesn't go fast enough to get me into too much trouble. And its a blast to ride! Plus it will give the Legend a chance to rest its weary bones this summer.

I have also started working at the Ice Cream Bus again. Last weekend was insanely hectic. The only three days of sunshine Canmore has seen this month and I happen to be working all three of them. I shouldn't be complaining though, I would do pretty much anything to have the sun return. The rain is starting to get to me.

I am going to wrap this thing up by saying I am pumped to be home, training is going well, and summer is coming soon (I can feel it...). So with that being said, I will try and get some pics up of the next great adventure: A three day camp in New Denver B.C. that includes A 220km road ride. Better get the butt back into riding shape!

Shift Two

2010-05-12T15:06:00.000-06:00

Went by way quicker than the first! Good land, good tree prices, awesome weather! Still chilly at night, but getting prettty hot during the day.

The Captain (with his high vis safety vest on) Guarding the cache.

His motivation to come plant with us has disappeared, he now just sits in at the cache and sleeps all day while we plant.

Jared Bodner, planter extraordinaire

The Champ bagging up

Our block

Cook tent on the left, eating tent on the right. This is home.

First Shift Down!!

2010-05-07T15:37:00.000-06:00

Look nice? This is what we woke up to on day #1.

This is also the Legends and my home for the next month.

Let the fun begin!

Yup... Planting rocks.

This was day two...

Planting trees in snow is tricky. Slippery, frozen ground is not easy on the wrist.

And finally, we were graced with the usual planting weather on day 3 and 4.

First shift down, first 10,000 trees in the ground. Back in the routine. Eat, plant, sleep.

Heading out for shift number two. More pictures of the wildness to come.

Speedy Spring

2010-05-02T11:26:00.001-06:00

Well the last month involved a ton of running around. I went back to Ontario for three and a half weeks to see my family and have some time to hang out with friends. I was lucky, and was able to get my “tropical vacation” and family duties done in the same trip. We had spectacular weather back home, which made it pretty easy to get out on the bike, or go for a run. My time was spent between my grandparents, my cottage, my moms and my dads. I did two adventure type races when I was home. The first was the Salomon Don’t Get Lost Giants Rib Raid; a fun (roughly) 40km adventure run on teams of three with plenty of navigation work. The second race was the Wild BOAR, (Bolton, Organic, Adventure, Race) put on by Angus Doughty for his birthday. We were on teams of two for this race, and were awarded points for best costume and best team wavier (we had to write our own). The race had a 4:30hr time limit, and for each set of minutes you came in after that, your team was deducted points. This race involved running, biking, paddling and for each discipline, the course was determined by map and compass. It was a great way to celebrate Angus’s birthday, and one of the most enjoyable races I have ever done!

Click here for Pictures from the BOAR

This is going to be a short update, because I am sitting in the parking lot of the Camelot Hotel, waiting for the rest of our tree planting crew to get their stuff organized so we can head into camp. I will be up here for 6 weeks, then will be returning to Canmore to begin training with the Alberta World Cup Academy! I am pretty pumped about that one. I am already looking forward to getting out of here so I can go back and start training!

More updates from the bush to come! Hopefully I can get into a little more detail about my amazing spring on the next one!

Logan

Ontario Spring!

2010-04-11T17:52:00.001-06:00

When you only have 100m of vertical, you need to find something exciting to do. This was last weekend at the club. It was awesome.

Tropical Vacation?

2010-04-09T07:19:00.002-06:00

Who needs to go to Hawaii, Mexico or California when it is warmer in Southern Ontario? Phil, Blitz and I just spent the last 3 days driving from Canmore to Caledon. We left Canmore in a snow storm, and when we stopped in Kenora, Ont. at the end of the first day, it felt like summer. We camped by a lake in Kenora the first night, and it felt more like August camping then the end of March.

Blitz and Phil

Day one was huge. 1700km, 16hrs, 2 tanks of gas. The Red Dragon (Car version) is a road trip machine. We were averaging just over 900km / 50L of diesel. It makes a road trip fly by when you are only stopping twice a day for gas. We had Blitz with us, so we were stopping more often, but it meant when we did stop, we could stop at a park, a field, or a camp ground to run around, instead of a gas station.

An old Bombardier B12 in the park we camped at in Kenora, Ont. These were one of the first versions of the snowmobile.

Camp site for day 2. Old Woman Bay, Lake Superior. Sweet.

3506 km like this...

When we arrived in Southern Ontario it was warm... like hot warm. On the last day we stopped for ice cream, and were wishing Phil's car had air conditioning. The amazing weather continued through Easter weekend. Friday I spent the day at our ski club with my family, getting in the second last ski of the year (in shorts and tee shirts!) and enjoying some vitamin D on the deck.

The Neumann boys

Cosi, Mom, Sam and myself!

The club dug out a hole at the bottom of the hill and filled it with water so you could work on your water skiing... you just have to remember to lean back, or you end up like this.

Not enough speed + forward lean = Soaker

Easter weekend was full of sun, skiing, Easter egg hunts and delicious dinners. It is great to be back home for a bit!

Next Up:

- Don't Get Lost, Giants Rib Raid (Adventure running race)

- Some cottage action, mountain biking, and spring clean up around the house!

50km!!!

2010-03-22T22:32:00.000-06:00

Well, I am back in Canmore now after a pretty incredible week in Whitehorse. Nationals went about as well as I could have hoped, and now I am looking forward to some rest and spring time fun in Canmore!

We wrapped things up yesterday with the mass start distance races. The last race is always an exciting one; people are tired from the week, and the long distances seem to really thin out the field. Yesterday was no exception. The 50km was the first race to go out. We showed up at the race site and it was -18 C. Yep, it was a cold one. Even wearing a buff and a hat, I still managed to freeze my left earlobe. I am now dealing with puss, blistering and oozing... not cool.

Anyway, things got off to a good start. We had great skis thanks to Kathy, Christine, Roddy and Alain. After two laps, a lead group formed and started to pull away. I hung on for a bit, then decided to play it safe and keep my pace steady, staying away from the danger zone (pain cave...). I ended up skiing two laps by myself, which was a little lonely, but I was soon joined by Karl Saidla and Gerard Garnier. The three of us pushed it to the finish, taking turns doing the grunt work. I ended up fading a little on the last lap, and couldn't keep them within reach. I ended up 11th after everything was said and done. I am pretty happy with that; it was only my second classic 50km, and the first one I ever did was a nightmare.

It is amazing what 2:30hrs of racing does to your body. When you cross the finish line, you're so relieved to be done you don't notice the pain. Within the next 30min it hits you like a Mack truck. The post race headache, the clenched and seized muscles, the stomach ache, blurred vision, blood shot eyes... oh the joys of 50 kilometers.

It was nice being the first race to get going as we were able to head out on course afterwords and cheer on the rest of the CNSC racers. A pretty good day all round:

CNSC Results

Pate- 11th
Phil- 17th
Beau- 39th
Macx- 25th (7th)
Lucas- 33rd (13th)
Andrew- 52nd (18th)
Chandra- 3rd
Cyd- 28th
Annika- 4th (2nd)
Bronwyn- 18th (6th)
Emma- 46th (17th)
Sam- 40th (3rd)
Colin- 44th (20th)
Nelson- 67th (9th)
Mate- 81st (35th)
Natasha- 28th (9th)
Kendra- 29th (17th)

Cyd Fraser about to take a feed from Andrew in the 30km

Annika battling it out to the finish with Dahria in the 15km

Bronwyn coming into the finish, coach Roddy in the back ground

Emma about to take a feed from Roddy

Bron post race

Emma and Kendra

Nelson- the birthday boy, waxing up his warm ups

Overall, amazing week!!! Huge thanks to Alain, Roddy, Kathy and Christine for putting in so much hard work over the 10 days. The town of Whitehorse did a great job of welcoming all the skiers. The races ran smoothly, on time and pretty much all of them went off without a hitch. I am sure if you ask any of the CNSC crew, they will tell you what a blast we had. Hopefully next year we can get more younger ones out and try and move up in the Overall Club Aggregate standings. I am not sure what our final standing was, but I am sure it was top 10. Another huge thanks to Cyd Fraser for organizing all our transportation and being our #1 fan. She really took care of us up there.

So whats next? Well, an easy week around Canmore trying to figure out my life, Sharkfest on the weekend, and then off to Ontario for April. Should be a fun week.

Pate

Sprints + Fifty Prep.

2010-03-20T15:07:00.001-06:00

Yesterday CNSC had a fairly strong showing in the skate sprints. Chandra dominated the woman's A-Final, and crossed the finish line with a very comfortable lead. Stef Kuhn was the top CNSC finisher on the men's side, finishing 5th. I continued with my streak of sprint luck, and grabbed the last qualifying spot for the rounds (30th... after all the juniors were taken out). I did what I needed to do though, and out of everyone who qualified, I conserved the most energy while still getting into the heats. What can I say, I like live life on the edge...

My heat was textbook "Pate Neumann" sprinting. I got off to a good start, sitting in second for the first lap and most of the second lap. Then started running out of steam and lost it in the finishing stretch, ending up 4th in my heat, 25th overall. That is pretty much how every sprint 1/4 final has gone for me this year. I am thinking I need to change my approach to sprinting...

CCC has taken a new approach to "Junior Development" this year, combining categories and changing race distances. Overall, it is a pretty big disappointment. It was most noticeable yesterday in the sprints. They have combined the Junior Men/Women and Junior Boys/Girls categories, and by doing this, created a massive category that makes it almost impossible for the Junior Boys/Girls to qualify because they are racing against people up to 4 yrs. older then them (16-19), and at that age, size makes a huge difference (trust me...). Winning is fun, losing stinks, so now there is a bunch of young racers getting frustrated and losing motivation to keep skiing, because it is going to take them four years to "grow" to the top of their category. SO, to try and fix this problem, CCC created "development heats." 1-30 qualify for the regular heats, and 31-60 qualify for the "development heats." So essentially, everyone gets to race the heats, but instead of racing for 1st, you are racing for 31st in the development heats. The overall consensus was, if you made it into the regular heats, AWESOME. But if you were relegated to race for 31st-60th, you were disappointed, and had to go out again and race for 31st (which is great for heat experience, but honestly, "winning" 31st isn't that motivating). So long story short, the old categories catered better to age groups and size differences between athletes, AND let 60 racers race the heats, but all 60 were gunning for that top spot on the podium. They have done the same thing with the Juvenile boys/girls categories, but they don't get development heats... why not you ask? I have no idea...

Regardless, Canmore dominated the "development heats!" Emma Lodge took the win, and Bronwyn Allan finished 5th. Macx Daives took 2nd and Andrew Chisholm 16th.

Phil Wood skipped yesterdays sprint to save some energy and focus on the 50km.

Annika Hicks finished 21st, and Lucas Jungmann 23rd. Kendra Hicks finished 20th, and Natasha Harvey 21st in the juvenile girls category. Sam McConnery, Colin Elliott, Mate Mackenzie and Nelson Allan finished 40th, 54th, 77th and 87th respectively in the juvenile boys.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures from the sprints yesterday. Phil took some awesome shots, but a mix up in the camera - computer transfer phase left us with nothing....

Kendra, Bronwyn and Emma

The team at the Beringia Centre, posing in front of a Woolly Mammoth skeleton.

Thanks to Cyd for setting up the afternoon!

Now it is time to get ready for the big show... the 50km mass start classic tomorrow morning. "Getting ready" consists of eating a metric ton, hydrating, sleeping a lot, and stretching. It is going to be a fun afternoon.

Thanks to all those who sent congrats emails after the 15km skate! I am planning on replying to them all, I just need to find some more time...

Pate