June 06, 2011 – It’s on. Ok, I’m behind the ball – it’s been “on” for over a month now and recently I’ve even completed my first training camp of the season – an on-snow camp down in Bend, Oregon a couple days ago.

As a ski racer, every year I am graced with one month of “do what you want – but make sure you come into the training season able to train at a decent level” of structure-free glory to enjoy. The goal is always to begin the season the 1st of May mentally psyched and physically rested to withstand the barrage of training/racing that comes hard and fast for the next 11 months solid.

My specialty is the “mental” rest or break – which most of my springtime is spent hitting up nearby mountains on my backcountry skis. Since I seem to have a hard time sitting still, over the years I’ve come up with a decent strategy to take care both the mental and physical aspects of my recovery. It’s pretty simple. A) I ski my face off. B) Then Chandra and I hit the beach. It’s science (ok, not really).

I describe it this way to friends – I’m like one of those dogs that when presented with 400 square feet of kibble I’d eat until I die or the pile of food is gone (which is an impossible feat for any canine). Only I’m not a dog, and instead of being unable to stop eating dog food, I am unable to stop backcountry skiing. Hence, the travel to a land of beaches, palms and bath-water warm oceans – far from snow/powder clad peaks that beckon to give my body a much needed break to recover and be ready to go early May.

Backcountry Spring
Even though physically I am pretty-well destroyed when I get off the plane from a racing season, I long to rip pow. April is my only month to get after it in the mountains, since I am away racing in spandees’ for the other 5 months of winter. I hit the jackpot this spring too, seeing how it was good in the snow-department.

I tend to ski a lot in the early part of my spring. Here’s an idea of the frequency: during the first 14 days of returning home, I was out BC skiing 10 of them. We had some stellar days of 40+ cms of powder and fairly stable conditions allowing friends and I to ski some objectives we’ve never done before, which is always fun!

Alas, as the big days in the mountains rambled onwards – my body started to cross that threshold of “tired – but look at the snow man! Yeah I’ll get up at 5am and rip all day!” to “time to get my ass out of the Rockies…”

It’s all planned though. I rip it, then sip it – cold drinks on the beach that is. I know I can’t say no and I probably would start digging a pretty big a hole physically if I stayed around Canmore, so after some great ski days it’s off to the beach for the annual “forced chill session.”

St. Lucia
My “rehab facility” this year was down in on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Unlike most Caribbean islands, this small ditty (it’s only 42km long, and 23km wide!) is quite mountainous/volcanic – although none of the volcanoes on the island remain active. It reminds me of Hawai’i actually – albeit way smaller and the Caribbean Sea doesn’t exactly have the same swell/wave activity (it’s flat!)

Chandra and I stayed at a ridiculously nice spot called “Jade Mountain.” Big thanks to Chris and Sherry-Lynn (who run the stunning Mt. Engadine Lodge, where for the past two seasons I’ve done some high altitude training during the winter) for the hook up and recommendation.

It was actually so nice I felt uncomfortable. The views, staff, room, surrounding area – everything – was unbelievable. Check the photos – we had a pool IN OUR ROOM!?! Crazytown – Jade Mountain is a truly remarkable testament of human ingenuity. The architecture is mind-boggling.

Chandra and I explored the island a few different ways. We hiked the two Pitons (mountains) that are famous landmarks of the island, we explored the coastline by kayak- finding deserted sandy beaches along the way, we swam multiple times daily in the Caribbean, explored trails and ruins on mountain bikes, read, lounged around a lot and Chandra even got me to do yoga with her – 5 days in a row. I think my hammies are still recovering.

In the end, the 9 days down there were exactly what we needed to re-charge the batteries and was a wonderful experience all around.

Toronto
The month of April ended with a trip to Canada’s biggest city to give thanks and catch up with a couple of my biggest sponsors. Without their support, there’s no way I could have achieved what I did this past season. Staying at Jamie’s place close to downtown is always a real treat – and both he and Chris are the most amazing folks you could ever meet. I count myself lucky to have them as great friends. Chandra and I did some talks/presentations, shook some hands and met some new, great people. I was able to catch up with a few friends from Sudbury as well living there and I even made it out to a Jays/Yankees baseball game, which was a ton of fun. With that trip, April kind of expired and it was back at it…

 

Back at it… IN TUSCANY!
Yes. You read that correctly. My 2011/12 training season begun under the Tuscan sun. It was time for my 3rd annual ‘Gold Medal Plates” trip – the Canadian Olympic Foundation’s biggest fundraising organization. Like Napa two years ago, and Spain last year – Chandra and I were “athlete hosts” and met remarkable people who do wonders to support the Canadian Olympic Movement and Amateur Sport in Canada across Canada.

We were there for 10 days and did a couple talks/speeches and acted as cycling hosts for the guests that decided to join us in Tuscany – with the profits going to the COF. We lucked out with the weather and I know that all the guests had an amazing time. I know I did! I even got to watch stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia, which rolled through a town not far from where we were staying.

Big thanks to Steven, Karen, Caitlyn, Dave, Lisa and Dennis (the GMP staff!) who are all great people doing amazing work. It was so fun to hang out with/get to know great Canadian musicians (and their families): Barn, Kath, Dustin, Kendall, Jim, Rena, Anne, Devin, and Sam, what a talented and nice group of people!

Last but not least, the other athlete hosts on the trip were Marnie McBean (3 time Olympic Gold Medalist in rowing) and the man of Canadian “PertPlus” commercial fame, Curt Harnett – ok, he did win three Olympic medals over four Olympics as well.

They were fantastic folks and great to hang out with too. The Gold Medal Plates team and organization is pretty amazing – so if you want to do your part to support Canadian Sport – check them out HERE.

Everyone involved was great and the cycling was some of the best I’ve ever done. Stunning vistas around every bend – and there are plenty of those in Tuscany, no road is straight for long there!

I did some great running around the vineyards as well – training, eating, chatting, and taking it all in. Tuscany was my best GMP trip yet!

Bend…
I just returned from Bend, Oregon a few days ago now. Like last season, our National Team decided to conduct our first training camp down south and use the fantastic Nordic trails up on Mt. Bachelor to bang out some quality skiing. The unseasonably cool temperatures that seem to be plaguing the West made for some stellar days of cross country skiing up there, and we probably had fresh snow 5 of the 10 days to ski on up at Mt. Bachelor – which is very unusual for this time of year.

It was great to get back into the real swing of things as well – with regards to catching up with teammates and staff. For the first time in recent memory I have the same coach in May – this being Justin’s second year now. That’s exciting! He knows what I did last season, and we have a great plan moving forward. I’d say that our entire team is ahead of where we were last year at this time – shape-wise and strength-wise. Everyone is keen to push forward and really build on our great results from last season.

Not only are the running trails, roads for rollerskiing/biking, skiing up at Bachelor stellar down in Bend, but to have the opportunity to train alongside the Americans was great as well. We had some good sessions with them, and even got a BBQ in and an evening baseball game under the lights.

While we were busy training twice a day – and that took most of our time, I was also lucky to get out to see “Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes” one evening with Lenny – which was sweet (we saw Band of Horses last year during our camp), and Lenny and I got out fly fishing a couple times as well which was super fun. All in all, Bend’s the place to be in the spring for training I’d say. Love it there.

Onwards…
Next up is the best camp in the entire world – Maui, HI. That’s right. Hawaii. We are doing our first altitude training camp there (using the 10,000ft Mt. Haleakala) – a camp in which Justin agreed to after we met the criteria (5 World Cup podiums and/or a World Championship Gold). Super psyched for that camp! Starts June 15th…

Right now I’m around Canmore for a couple weeks, and I have my dad out here helping me with a few “constructioneering” projects around the house. Some tiling, flooring and painting have been ordered by Ms. Chandra – so we’ll do our best to get it all in!

I’m feeling good and it’s been a great spring so far. I guess summer is just around the corner now… Hard to believe! Time flies when your having fun I guess.