December 2, 2008 (Bruksvallarna, Sweden) – A week ago my ski season began with a long flight to Ostersund, Sweden, then after a two and a half hour drive north, we arrived at night at a place called Bruksvallarna. Seeing the snow that evening I was as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve. I knew that the next morning I was about to get out on the snow. That next day, I was amazed to see the number of skiers, young and old who were already out enjoying the snow. It felt great to be on snow and have my skis under foot again.

It is a completely different atmosphere here, various ski academies from all over Sweden send groups of students ranging from ages 12-16, up to train here for a week. I would have loved to have been able to miss school for training. The other night we met an incredible fellow who has completed the Vasaloppet 38 times. I would love to be able to match that record some day. The facilities are excellent with food and accommodation located only 30 meters from the ski stadium. It’s easy to see how the Swedish team has become such a dominant force on the World Cup circuit. There are skiers from all over that are training here including the Swiss, Australian, French, Norwegian, Czech, and of course the Canadian team. The skiing is high-quality with a good amount of man-made snow, in addition to the foot of natural snow. We have two wax technicians at our disposal so we are happy to be doing some valuable ski testing.

The races this past weekend were quite impressive to watch not only because of the quality of the field but also for the number of racers present the whole day, from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon. The senior men’s field had an incredible 250 competitors taking part. It was difficult sitting on the sidelines watching, but with my arrival being so close to the races, I needed to restrain myself and get over the jet lag.

I have been taking advantage of the snow and training a lot, doing some long distance ski workouts and getting my legs, body and mind into optimum ski shape. On Sunday I trained my first short intensity workout in Europe, and then on Monday a 15 kilometre time trial has put me one step closer to being ready for the World Cup races. For the next week I will concentrate on distance training, with a few short intensity workouts to prepare myself for Kuusamo, Finland. Hope you are finding some trails to ski and liking the mild weather back home, enjoy it as we know all too well, it never stays mild for long.

November 19, 2008 (Bruksvallarna, Sweden) – A week ago my ski season began with a long flight to Ostersund, Sweden, followed by a two and a half hour drive north to arrive at night at a place called Bruksvallarna. Seeing the snow that evening, I was as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve – I knew that the next morning I’d be able to get out and ski. That next morning I was amazed to see the number of skiers, young and old who were already out enjoying the snow. It felt great to have my skis under foot again.

It is a completely different atmosphere with various ski academies from all over Sweden sending groups of students ranging from ages 12-16 and up to train here for a week. It must be nice to be able to miss school for training! The other night we met an incredible fellow who has completed the Vasaloppet 38 times. I would love to be able to match that record some day. The facilities are excellent with food and accommodation located only 30 meters from the ski stadium.

It’s easy to see how the Swedish team has become such a dominant force on the World Cup circuit. There are skiers from all over that are training here including the Swiss, Australian, French, Norwegian, Czech, and of course the Canadian team. The skiing is high-quality with a good amount of man-made snow, in addition to the foot of natural snow. We have two wax technicians at our disposal so we are happy to be doing some valuable ski testing.

The races this past weekend were quite impressive to watch not only because of the quality of the field but also for the number of racers present the whole day, from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon. The senior men’s field had an incredible 250 competitors taking part. It was difficult sitting on the sidelines watching, but with my arrival being so close to the races, I needed to restrain myself and get over the jet lag.

I have been taking advantage of the snow and training a lot, doing some long distance ski workouts and getting my legs, body and mind into optimum ski shape. On Sunday, I did my first short intensity workout in Europe, and then on Monday a 15km time trial put me one step closer to being ready for the World Cup races.

For the next week I will concentrate on distance training, with a few short intensity workouts to prepare myself for Kuusamo, Finland. Hope you are finding some trails to ski and liking the mild weather back home – enjoy it as we know all too well, it never stays mild for long.