Pre Nationals

A short update before Nationals starts here in Quebec.

The last few days in Turkey were amazing, spending the whole last day in Istanbul was really cool, unfortunaly it was raining and quite cold so we spend most of our time inside. We checked out the Grand bizzard and the spice market. so many people and stalls and everyone wants to get you to come into their store and they hate you if you leave without buying anything.

The travel home was long, it was about 30hrs from door to door with 5 and a half hrs in London and 2 in Toronto.

When I got home I took a few days for some R and R. The next week I bumped my hours really high because of how high I was living in Turkey.
Right now I'm not so sure about those hours, body is still feeling a little bedraggled but only 4 races left and I get a month off to kick back and relax.

Friday

well... today like all the others started the same, ate breaky 4hrs before my race, so I just stuffed myself with pancakes and cereal and fruit and yogs. Skied the classic, portion a little back from planned, in 45th(ish) but didn't have to push too had and kill myself so stay there but made up 13 positions in the exchange with a 2nd fastest exchange time of the day, .1 second off fastest. The skate leg is pretty much climb out of the stadium, small downhill/flat and then crazy climb to the top of the course and then feed at the top and straight back into the stadium.
2nd/part of the third lap I was felling pretty heavy in the legs but as the last lap came around started to feel good and pushed it hard up the climb to pass 6 or 8 people and catch up with the next pack, dropped in behind and lapped one guy and another fell right in front in the short up before the stadium. entered and could hear a guy closing in behind, turning into the last 100m felt like I was going a little cross-eyed/tunnel vision. Very nearly caught the next guy in the final sprint. Came in with the 14th fastest skate leg
http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2012/CC/3234/2012CC3234RL.pdf (results)

Went into the city again but went without attache but brought Knute. Went for quite a good lunch of Erzurum specialty Kebabs where the only person who sorta spoke english was the door man.
From there went to an old school house that they'd turned into a museum, some very cool artifacts and history

really short doors leading off a main hall into classrooms designed so you had to bow to the teacher.
Walked on to get some Baklava, apparently the best in town. just dripping with honey :D
Got back into the car and braved the crazy and quite icy roads to check out three mausoleums and the Citadel which was really cool, got to climb up the minaret and get a 360 view of the city... well as much as you can see through a nasty haze of smog.
Finished up the day with a good old sauna with the coaches and a little rolling in the snow with some Russians.

Day 10 - pursuit prep

So Thursday, rest day for the Juniors, of course slept in and had some good gaming time. Like last rest day they didn't send us enough buses to get to the race site but we only had to wait 15m and we ended up getting there before the first bus, even with a few minor delays.
Practiced a few exchanges once we'd had our skis moved twice because they couldn't make up their minds where they wanted the boxes. Feeling quite confident about the change over and hoping to get a good position leaving the exchange zone.
After talking with Graham we've decided on some tactics, there are 85 starters and I'm going out row 6 pretty much right in the middle so not great. Plan is to ski with the pack, around 35th, then when the skate portion comes around basically the course is just short climb out of the stadium, little flat and then long hill to the top of the course and then straight back into the stadium... 4 times... so each time up the climb just go like hell and float up, pass a few each time and tuck in behind for the long downhill.
Time for me to hit the hay now. Its gonna be good tomorrow!!!

Day 9 - classic 10k

Yet another beautiful day, -30 when the wax techs got to the race site, everyone on our bus to the race wondered where exciting we we're going on the way, apparently he had to choose the most out of the way gas station to fill up.Ski race was really good, went out really relaxed and had stellar grip and skied long and relaxed.
Spent some time in the city this afternoon with my parents, went to a place called Erzurum House, it's all original houses from the 1700's and you sit around low tables on pillows.

By recommendation from Ahmet, our team attache, we had the "special" which was everything on their menu all on one plate, amazing food. We also had a drink of sorts that turned out to be watered down yogurt and cucumber.. quite odd tasting. Of course we topped it all off with some Turkish tea. We then wandered down to a cool indoor jewelry market that was nothing but jewelry displays with little 1 meter wide shops behind the displays. nice easy evening, relaxed, ate yet more tasty food and had the nightly team meeting.

Day 7/8 (late)

I realise this is a little late but the internet here is so bad I just haven't felt like dealing with is, just loading a google search can take 10mins after refreshing it a million times... Monday was the first race of worlds, we left here at 730 which surprisingly didn't feel early. It was really cold and a little foggy when we got there but it warmed up a little for race time. I skied what i thought was quite a good race but after seeing the top skiers one skate everything like it was flat I just didn't have the strength to compare. I ended up 52nd.
Came home and ate lunch, relaxed. Knute and I hit the sauna for a bit, where a couple of Japanese skiers, one wearing tights, who came in and proceeded to pour loads of water on the hot rocks which made things a touch on the hot side.
Opening ceremonies were interesting, all the busses of athletes from up here on the hill got a police escort to the arena. Raph got to carry the Canadian flag. It was quite interesting to see all the traditional turkish dances and drumming.

Tuesday. rest day for us so we all slept in and had a nice leasurely breakfast. relaxed and watched some TV, ate lunch and then went out to catch our bus to the trails at 1. turns out they didn't realise how many of us would be going at that time so our whole team got shafted into waiting for them to send us a new one. half an hr later a little short bus shows up and takes us down, half way to the city he pulls over to ask us where we want to go. Aparently if you just keep saying the place name over and over they understand... then as we passed the lower hotels we picked up two random girls and dropped them in town. All of us were a little nervous with this driver and actually put on our seat belts. We made it to the race site in record time. Almost half an hr shorter! Skied the course and saw a short eared owl I think its called.
Parents arrived just after we got back and after a little confusion, got them to their room.

Day 6

today was a beautiful day, fresh snow and blue sky. Started out with the regular drive, ski, drive home, on the way back however the ski hill here was so busy that the roads were absolutely horrendous and after a 10-15m of waiting not going anywhere and the roads just completely locked up we all jumped out of the bus and hopped on the gondola that was right beside us and thanks to a very nice lifty we bypassed all the line ups and with our accreditation we rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain and downloaded a small chairlift right to our hotel.

Day 4

Well not a whole lot of interest happened today, woke up to a nice sunny day skiing but turned out to be quite a snowy morning at the race site. The team's decided to take up loon calls. Pretty sure the bus driver wanted to shot everyone by the time we got home from the trails. Chill afternoon, hit up the sauna. Here's a few photo from the last few days
Or at least I would if the internet here wasn't quite so bad! Photo's to come soon.