Trials Recap (from early September)

After a very tense four days of racing and a stressful few weeks leading up to trials, I am happy to report that I’ve qualified as one of four men who will represent Canada on the first World Cup tour! As I mentioned in my previous post, I knew I had done all the hard work necessary to perform well, it was now just a matter of executing under pressure. I’m not the biggest fan of having trial races on roller skis in September (for a number of reasons I won’t get into) but it’s been the norm for the last few years now and I’m learning to accept and deal with it.

Three races were held over four days and a percent ranking of the best two races were counted towards team selection. Thursday’s 10km Sprint race was the start to the week I had been hoping for and I finished up the day in third. I had a solid performance on the shooting range hitting 9/10 targets and I felt decent on my skis. I didn’t have a stellar day on the skis but I felt fairly strong and conservative, and figured that I had enough energy left in the tank to be able to increase my ski speed as the week went on.

Shortly after starting the Pursuit race

Friday’s 12.5 km pursuit race was a little tougher on the range for most of the athletes in the lead pack. I had a mediocre shooting day with 6 misses, but I skied well posting one of the faster ski times to tie for a fourth place finish. Percents were tight with three spots on the team still up for grabs, and it was now obvious that the final race on Sunday would be the deciding factor.

Cresting the last climb before entering the range

I took Saturday chill and did some easy training while trying to relax as much as possible. I knew that I needed a strong result on Sunday but I tried not to stress or think about it too much. Sunday’s 15km mass start format turned out to be a fun and very tight race. Three of us skied almost the entire race together, which was exciting, but in turn added quite a bit of pressure on the range. I took my time shooting standing, as I knew I had to focus on hitting the last ten targets if I wanted stay in the race and have a chance at the win. I definitely sacrificed some time in the range in the final two shooting bouts, but I think it was necessary and I crossed the line finishing second behind Robin Clegg, who had an extremely fast and clean last shooting bout, allowing him to cruise to victory.

Final shooting bout in the Pursuit - All photos courtesy of Tom Zidek

It was a feeling of relief when I crossed the finish line in that final race, as I knew I had qualified for the World Cup, and could now decompress and relax a bit before switching my focus to preparing for this Winter.

Brendan

Skiing the Haig

Last week the team spent a few days at altitude skiing on the Haig glacier in Kananaskis. I was a little skeptical of heading to altitude a week before our first World Cup trial races, but looking back I think it was alright. We were there mainly for altitude exposure, and being able to log some hours on skis in early September was a bonus. Conditions were marginal and the snow was going fast, but we still managed to get in some good days of training.

If anything, it was just nice to get away from Canmore for a few days to have a change of pace. Tension among athletes on the range has been growing steadily the last couple weeks with Trials just around the corner, so I think a mental break was good and what my coach had in mind. We had lots of time to relax between workouts, and were able to take our mind off the stress of Trials while chillin' on the lunar landscape that is the Haig camp.

Training at altitude can have negative effects on the body if done wrong, so I was very careful and diligent to not overdo any workouts and took it pretty easy. Since returning back to Canmore I’ve been fine tuning for this week's competitions, which begin tomorrow. I’m ready to race – I’ve trained hard over the Spring and Summer and I am confident I have done all the work necessary to perform well this week. Let the Trials begin! I’ll try and post regularly over the next few days to let everyone know how things are going.

Brendan

The Haig camp.

Hiking up to the glacier for some early morning skiing with Robin, Tom, and Joel.

The 'tongue' of the glacier.


Post ski on a sunny morning.


Finished training and getting ready for the hike back to camp.


Trekking across the glacier while trying not to slip on the ice. In addition to the ice, some fairly big crevasses started opening up on day two that required some caution while crossing.


Post training hike back to camp.

Up Here

An interview from Up Here magazine that appeared in their June edition. (If you click to make the image larger it should be possible to read!)

- Brendan

Day of rest...

It's Sunday, my day of rest. I've got a fresh pot of licorice tea brewing, Bob Marley is keeping things chill on iTunes, and I've decided I'm overdue for a blog post. I just finished watching Usain Bolt crush his previous world record and run 9.58 seconds at the World Athletic Championships in Berlin. It blows me away how someone can be so confident and relaxed, at such a major championship so early in their career. The contrast between Bolt and Tyson Gay was interesting to watch on the start line. The tension and stress in Gay was obvious next to the relaxed and entertaining Bolt, who was confident in his ability to dominate while having fun in the process. If you haven’t already seen the race, be sure to check it out. It’s inspiring.

Out of curiosity I was looking through my training diaries earlier today to look at how much intensity we've been doing. Intensity has been the name of the game this Summer, so I decided to tally it up, and so far I've logged 20 hrs of Z3 intensity and 5.5 hrs of Z4, with plenty more to come! It’s been good though and training has been going as planned during the last month and a half.

Shortly after my last post we started up a testing week. These field tests are done twice every year, once early on in the Summer and once in the Fall, to give us an idea of where our fitness is at. The week consisted of two shooting tests combined with an uphill run up Sulphur Mountain, an uphill roller ski up Mt. Norquay, and an uphill double pole test. These tests and races went well and I am pretty happy were my fitness is at the moment. A more detailed description of the tests as well as results can be found on the following link to Scott Perra's blog.
http://blogs.fasterskier.com/scottperras/2009/07/13/rocky-mountain-testival/

Nothing too exciting has been going on lately... The hard intensity continues, and my body seems to have its ups and downs (along with the weather!) as to how its been handling these training loads. I’ve been feeling pretty good for the most part, although these last few weeks have been fairly tough and at the moment I’m feeling pretty tired! We’ve upped the amount of Zone 3 and 4 intensity training over the last couple weeks which has been challenging, but I’m looking forward to my upcoming week of training which will be more volume oriented. We’ve also done a couple of time trials now (15km Mass start and 10km Sprint) which have been useful in getting me dialed for our upcoming Trial races in September, which are fast approaching.

I’ll leave you all with a couple of pictures. Unfortunately, I left my camera behind on a lot of our more scenic roller skis as well as a pretty fun 5 hr mountain bike ride up Skogan and Jewel pass. I’ll have to remember to bring it along more often.

-Brendan

Nearing the end of the 8km Canada Day Race - I was lucky enough to win this race for the second year in a row! Photo - Scott Perras

During a few days off at the end of July a few of us hiked in to Fortress Lake for some camping. We got rained on pretty hard and had a close encounter with lightning, but the great fishing more than made up for any bad weather.


The team doing interval training on Mt. Norquay. Photos - Tom Zidek

May & eary June - Transition into training...

This entry should have been posted about a month ago as it has been sitting on my desktop for a while now. I finally got around to finishing it today.

Since the beginning of May I’ve been back in training mode and have been logging quite a few hours. I spent the first few days of my training in quite a lot of pain as my body transitioned from skiing on snow to the dry land training we will be doing over the coming months. I could barely walk for two days after my first session of lifting weights, and suffered for another day or two after transitioning into other dry land activities such as long runs, and the first few hrs on the road bike saddle. Over the next week or two my body slowly adapted and my muscles are no longer in a constant state of stiffness, but are now ready to face this summer’s training full on!

In addition, we’ve also recently started up our first high intensity block and have been pounding out intervals on what seems like a daily basis! I knew I was in for tough couple weeks when I received my latest training plan and opened it up only to be greeted with an abundance of daily workouts printed in red font. To my teammates and I, this red print only means one thing - intensity! I knew what I was in for however, and have been feeling pretty good during the intensity sessions over the last two weeks.

Highlights from the last little while of training included some of the following….


Skiing in Sunshine

Late May provided some of the best skiing I’ve had all year. The snow was long gone in Canmore, but at 2000+ meters there was still a ton of it. The alpine meadows on top of Sunshine had the best crust skiing I have ever experienced and provided endless hours of it. On one of our last 3 hr workouts up at Sunshine we were able to ski all the way into Assiniboine Provincial Park, and turned around only when the trees limited us from going any further. It was fun to ease into training again by having the opportunity to ski on snow and we were also able to take in the benefits of training at altitude.

Scott Perras on our ski into Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park

A picture of the scenery with a couple skiers in the distance - Photo from Scott Perras blog http://blogs.fasterskier.com/scottperras/

Sport North Awards Banquet

Towards the end of May I had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Yellowknife during the annual Sport North Awards Banquet. This year I had the honor of accepting the Male Athlete of the Year award along with cross country skier Mike Argue. It was fun to get a chance to chat with other athletes and acquaintances who were at the banquet, as well as visit with my parents who drove from Hay River for the occasion.

Myself and Mike Argue

Testing @ UofC

During the first week of June we spent a day with sports physiologists at the University of Calgary doing field tests. The morning started out with blood testing followed by body composition testing. These tests are done to monitor change in the body. I have records of these tests dating back to four or five years, and variances from my normal numbers provide insight into how my body is responding to my training load. They can also provide early warning signs of sickness or over training.

After getting some time to eat and digest I was back in the lab and on a running treadmill to perform a cardiac output test. This test measures the stroke volume of the heart, which is the amount of blood pumped from the heart per contraction. The more blood you can pump per contraction the better, as it will help all systems in your body be more efficient when under the stress of racing. This was my first time doing this particular test and it will be used as a baseline for comparison in testing later on.

In the afternoon I was in the Olympic Oval, which is home to the roller ski treadmill. Here the team was doing Incremental testing, which determines roughly what our individual target heart rates are for training in each particular zone. It was a long day in Calgary with a couple hard intensity sessions, but it was worthwhile as the information gained from these tests is quite useful.

Mid-way through the cardiac output test - Not the most comfortable test to do with all the equipment that your hooked up to. The tubes are used to measure gas exchange as well as input gas at different points throughout the test. Photo courtesy of Scott Perras.

On the treadmill.

Riding it up in the Kootenay’s

During the second week of June we kicked off our first training camp of the year in Revelstoke. Mt. Revelstoke once again provided an awesome opportunity for roller skiing, as the 25km climb with 1200m of elevation gain is tough to beat when a long and punishing workout is on the plan. From Revelstoke we road biked through the Kootenay’s towards Nelson and then headed back to Revelstoke for another session on the mountain before heading back to Canmore.

Our short four day camp consisted of the following –

Day 1 – AM - Drive to Revelstoke
PM - Roller ski up Mt. Revelstoke w/t 30 min of high end Zone 3

Day 2 – 152km ride from Nakusp to Nelson along the Slocan Valley – Just over 5hrs of riding.

Day 3 – 168km ride from Nelson to Nakusp via Caslo and New Denver – 5hr 40 min of riding. An awesome ride that I would highly recommend.

Day 4 – AM – Ski striding up Mt. Revelstoke w/t 40 min of continuous Zone 3
PM - Road ride from Radium along highway 40 / drive back to Canmore

Mid-way through our ride in Caslo.
Waiting for the ferry on our way back to Revelstoke.

Spring & Rest

I drove 16hrs home the last week in April to spend some time with family, who I don’t get to see that often anymore, especially during race season. In addition to relaxing and eating home cooked meals, I was able to get in some great skiing on Great Slave Lake as well as some nice running and even a roller ski. I returned home two weeks later to resume training here in Canmore. I normally stay a bit longer in Hay River but my coach wanted to start May off with fairly big hours of training. So, I decided it would be better to return to Canmore and begin to focus on next season.

Anyways, here are some pictures from my time off in April.

Brendan

I spent Easter visiting my sister and her family in Saskatoon. One of my nephews Dominic showed great patience while painting eggs all morning!

Enjoying some powder skiing during the rest month with team mate Nathan Smith


Alexandra Falls before breakup


Fly fishing on the Kakisa River with my Dad during the Arctic Grayling run


One of my favorite things to do while up North during the spring. This year had some of the best conditions for skiing on Great Slave Lake during May.


It was my niece Anna's 5th birthday while I was home. She wasted no time in getting a taste of the icing on her birthday cake!

Where I stand in terms of Olympic qualification...

Now, to shed some light on a question that I’ve been getting asked a lot recently. The 2010 Olympics! The situation is complicated, and what happens now is out of my hands. I wish I could give a concrete answer at the moment, but the fact of the matter is I cannot. All I can say is that it will still be a little while before the Olympic team is decided for biathlon. In order to qualify for the Olympics we have to meet international criteria while competing at the highest level of competition - the World Cup. While on this circuit, we have to meet performance benchmarks, which comprise the Olympic criteria, at three different times throughout the season. I am pleased to say that this season has been a break through year for me. I spent the winter racing for Canada on the World Cup circuit as a rookie, and in addition was selected to race at this year’s World Championships in Korea. At World Cup #7 in Whistler I met the third and final part of my Olympic criteria and have now qualified to be nominated for the 2010 Olympic team.

This year the men’s team had their best ever season with many outstanding performances which included 17 Pursuit starts, 3 top ten finishes including a historic 7th place finish in the relay at WC#3, and one team member consistently ranked within the top 30 overall. As a team we ranked 14th out of 40 countries in the World Cup standings (despite missing a World Cup), which is a break through for us. We have shown that we are competitive on the World stage.

As of right now however, Canada may not be able to send a full team to the Olympics although this is pending. At the moment I am the third ranked Olympic qualified male, and would hold a strong position in the event that we are allowed a full team. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll hear good news soon and will hopefully be able to provide a better update regarding the Olympics soon.

Cheers,
Brendan

Training on Great Slave Lake three weeks ago!