December 9, 2008 (Canmore, AB) – George Grey is a member of the Senior World Cup Team and is en route to his 1st World Cup competition of the year in Davos, Switzerland after a successful weekend of racing at a Haywood NorAM in Vernon, BC.

Well it is better than 30! At the age of 29 I am starting to figure out this game that some call life and some call racing. I sure don’t have it nailed down though. This year has been an interesting, exciting and busy one. Let’s rewind to May and take you through my year so far.

May
Ski Camp in Whistler…tired and out of shape. Running felt like the first steps must feel like for a baby, if we could remember…awkward. The first camp is two fold: I like the wake-up call and boot camp feeling but my shape is so off that I wonder if I am in the right sport some days. Maybe I should compete in curling!!!

June
I trained an average of 18hrs per week but I only had five days to work with. That is because it was my month to get tortured by my friends for being a departing bachelor. So two days out of the week were spent traveling and partying.

Week one: Four days of bachelor partying at Okanagan Lake. I am glad that the next bachelor party I go to I will not be the target.

Week two: Bachelor party number two…who would have thought? We spent a day pain (I mean paint) balling (if that’s what you call me being assaulted at close range) followed by more partying.

Week three: A weekend in Vancouver to celebrate Bob Disbrow’s birthday.

Week four: Meeting my wife, Lesley, at the alter on June 21st to exchange vows. Honeymoon in San Francisco where the male population seemed offended that I had married a WOMAN. Or that was my perception on day one anyway. Thank God June is over…in a good way!!

July
Our team went New Zealand for a ski camp. It was killer training, great accommodation and a beautiful country. I put in about one hundred hours for the month. We started ramping up the intensity this month as well. I am looking forward to this camp again already…it was perfect!

August
This month was about all I had for summer this year. So out came the motorbike…one wheel and hair back…the only way to ride.

September
Team camp in Mammoth Lakes, California. This was ten days of focused training at high altitude. Mammoth is a solid training location and offers a variety of new terrain. Not to mention some thin air! This month I did a lot of intensity combined with medium/high volume.

October
This is the month of every year that I fear the most. It seems to be the month when I get tired from the intensity combined with volume. I also start to get those nagging little injuries from the cumulative time spent on the pavement and running trails. It might also be a part of approaching thirty years of life. Nonetheless it is a month to be cautious and respectful of. I put myself in a training hole and needed ten days to claw my way back out. Four of those days I spent hunting up north. Hunting gets me away from the training mind set and gives me some life perspective. I came back hungry for training and feeling recharged.

November
I am glad that October is behind me and finally with some on-snow time my injured shoulder and knee have settled down. So I can ramp up the strength work on snow to get ready for racing. But where will we race if there is no snow? Right now we are driving to Lake Louise each day for skiing. This weekend the Golden Nordic Ski Club might get more than they asked for by holding a local race. It seems that there will be nothing short of a Continental Cup field there this weekend due to the fact that snow is a rare find right now in Canada.

Time to go and chase the rest of the winter!