September 15, 2009 – Over the past three years the Para-Nordic Ski Team (PNST) has made the Snow Farm in New Zealand, its mid-summer’s refuge. Few places can beat the near perfect skiing conditions that we had come to expect at the Snow Farm. For the past two years the order of the day would be clear blue skies with the temperature hovering around -5, skiing in solid tracks. You could not dream for better trails. The sunrises and sunsets from the Snow Farm lodge are always Kodak moments! I’m sure I have the same sunset a dozen times but I would never get tired of snapping that breath-taking shot. With relatively small number of skiers making the trip to the Farm, we sometimes feel like we have all the trails to ourselves.

This year was a little different. We had a few days where the PNST were the only ones out on the trails but I could count those days on my one hand. We had a number of beautiful days that I mentioned before but there were also days where the weather conditions were less than ideal. Hey, it is a winter sport last time I checked. But to get through those days you simply remember you are skiing, in August, in New Zealand and most negative thoughts slip away. We were joined at the midway point of our camp by a large contingent of Canadian skiers that had come down to train but also to race at the NZ Winter Games.

The focus for the camp was on high volume, technique and the occasional intensity. I achieved the high volume with the largest three week block I have ever had. I feel that my technique is progressing in the right direction, there are always those little things you can work on but it’s great that there are only ‘little’ issues left and no more ‘larger’ ones. If feeling like you couldn’t move another inch is a good thing after intensity, well then the intensities were awesome!

With our training goals met it was race time (in August). The Winter Games had three races; a 15km classic, a free Sprint and a 10km free to wrap things up. The course was made up of a 5km trail that was a tough and challenging trail but also a little fun. For me, the races went exceptionally well with two seconds and my very first international win in the 10km.

This year’s camp proved again to be a huge benefit for me personally, and I’m very sure the rest of the team would agree. This camp has given the team one of the biggest boosts in performance in the past years, hopefully that will continue this year and help us reach the top step of the podium in Vancouver this March.