A belated season recap!

I ended off my last post while in Russia at World Champs. I had a frustrating two weeks of racing and for whatever reason was not able to get into a good zone. I struggled to bring the more typical form I had been consistently showing throughout the season on the World Cup both in skiing and in shooting. Our team did have a strong relay however and we finished in 11th in what turned out to be a very tight 30km of racing.

This was my second time in Russia and I'm not a huge fan of spending long periods of time in Siberia! Despite being in one of the more oil rich cities, the food wasn’t great (nobody wants to eat fish soup for breakfast), and the vibe I got from the city was kind of bleak. It was obvious a lot of people in the city had money, and even more obvious that a lot of people didn’t. You would see someone driving a Lexus down the street, but if you ran a couple blocks from the city centre you would see people walking along the streets carrying buckets of water to their homes.

Our accommodation was decent however, as we got to stay in a new and extremely large hotel that apparently was built for the influx of people whom where in Khanty Mansyisk for the 2010 Chess Olympics. Chess in Russia is big!

A view of the stadium

A pretty cool opening ceremonies was put on for the athletes

 

 Some of the food that was being cooked for the spectators outside the stadium entrance.  Don't ask what it is!

Apparently many giant prehistoric animals were excavated in tact from along this river bank.  We checked out the park one afternoon and took a ride on one of giant buffalo's. 

From Russia it was straight to Norway for the last World Cup of the year. I was beyond happy when I sat down for our first meal in our hotel where I was able to eat awesome food until I was completely full. I felt like a King! The conditions in Norway were great.  It's often typical to be racing in slush while in Oslo at this time of year, but this time around the tracks held up throughout the week and we had perfect weather.

View of stadium from top of ski jump.

 

 

At the Holmenkollen venue is an amazing ski museum that everyone should check out while in Oslo.  One of the skis in the picture is dated back to 600AD

 At the viking museum!

  

Unfortunately the fun ended in Oslo and the trip back to Canada was long and full of delays. Scott and I were traveling straight to Canadian Championships together and were planning to arrive in New Brunswick on Monday, with our first race being on Wednesday. After an extremely frustrating and tiring two days of traveling we arrived in Charlo Tuesday evening. After a few hours of sleep we dragged ourselves out of bed and raced 20km the next morning. Needless to say I was bagged and the four races throughout the week turned into a blur.  I couldn’t wait to finish off the last competitions of the season and return home for some much needed rest.

It was a long season on the road (with only 10 days being spent in Canmore from the middle of November to the end of April) but it was a pretty solid year of racing for me. I was able to consistently score points, qualified for my first ever Mass Start race on the World Cup, and had my best ever shooting average at 82% while on the World Cup.

A few highlights from the season:

5 top 30 finished on the World Cup
Season best finish - 14th place in 10km Sprint – WC#4 in Oberhof, GER
Accumulated 112 WC points
81.7% shooting average
Qualified for first Mass Start race in at WC#4 in Oberhof, GER

Vancouver to Russia... Back from the blogging abyss!

Well, it's been over a year since my last post, and in the past year way too much has happened for me to write about now. I wish I was more on the ball with blogging because a lot of exciting things have happened over the last little while and if I tried to write everything, this post would go on forever! Therefore, I've decided to do a quick summary of the past year mainly in the form of pictures. Below are just a few of the bigger highlights to bring you all somewhat up to date on my life during the last little while. Enjoy!





It's official, NWT's first Olympian in 26 years!...

Shortly after my last post about my racing experience in Antholz, Italy, the Olympic team for biathlon was officially announced, and I had qualified for the team!!! I had known I had made the team shortly after Christmas, but I wanted to keep it on the down low until the news was officially released to the media. During the announcement I was at a training camp in a very small and sleepy village in Germany. I didn't have a telephone in my room and the nearest internet was a 5min walk from our hotel. Over the next week every time I logged on to my email my inbox was swamped with new messages. I tried my best to keep up with responses and requests, but in the end it was becoming too stressful and given my limited resources I decided my computer had to take a back seat so I could focus on what lay ahead!







First IBU Cup win in Martell, Italy!...

Instead of heading back to Canada after the World Cup in Atholz, I stayed on in Europe for an extra three weeks with a few other members of my team to prepare for the Olympics. This way I would be able to get in good training away from the hype of Vancouver, and also get the opportunity to race in some higher level competitions as pre Olympic preparation. I was able to keep my form from Antholz and had an amazing two weeks of racing where I picked up a win in my last race series before the Olympics at the IBU Cup #7 in Martell, Italy. I was very pleased with my results as this meant I was in good form heading into Vancouver!

Olympics!!!...

After three weeks of training and racing in Europe, I had 5 days back in Canmore before flying to Vancouver and settling in at the athlete's village in Whistler. A few days later and I was racing in front of a home crowd in my Olympic debut (our relay team finished in 10th). The whole Olympic experience was totally unreal. Seeing so many Canadians united over sport was something special and the vibe in Whistler and Vancouver was incredible. For those of you who don't know, I am the youngest in a large family, and to make my Olympic experience extra memorable, my whole family was able to be in attendance for my race. It meant a lot to have them all in the stands cheering me on, and I am great-full for all of their support throughout my career. The weather was absolutely miserable with heavy wet snow falling from the sky, but they were troopers and hung around for at least an hour after my race, even though they were freezing and soaking wet, so that I could have a short visit with everyone before I had to head back to the village. Getting to compete at a home Olympics is a once in lifetime opportunity and was an experience that I will never forget. Thank you to everyone who helped me in turning this dream into a reality!













Pep Rally & Green Day!...

One of the bonuses of being raised in a small community is that you are able to form a direct relationship with community members, many of whom then become directly tied with your achievements and dreams. Whether it be teachers, neighbors, or old coaches, people want you to succeed and will go to great lengths to help you do so. This is one of the reasons I love Hay River so much. While making final preparations in Europe I was informed over email that the town would be having a pep rally to honor my achievement as well as the cultural delegates and youth ambassadors that would also be in attendance at the Olympics. All of the schools packed the arena full and an entertaining afternoon was had with musical performances, appearances from the ambassadors, and even a special video. A Smart car was also unveiled that was decorated with my picture and driven around town during the Olympics. I was blown away by the support and camaraderie. I wish I could have been there!

I thought the pep rally was an amazing and very kind gesture from the town, but to take things to another level, February 26^th in Hay River was officially declared “Green Day”!!! People took part by wearing green while watching my race! Schools watched the race in gymnasiums and the local movie theatre broadcasted the race on large screen! Even the Inukshuk, the town icon outside Town Hall was dressed in support wearing a green shirt with Olympic rings! It’s tough to describe what it felt like to have such amazing support from my hometown and Territory, but I can say that it was an incredible feeling and I’m sure there were few Canadian athletes, if any, that had the same support I did. I feel fortunate to be from the North and am proud that I could represent Hay River and the North on the World stage! Thanks to all those who took part in these events and showed such amazing support!






Time for some rest & recovery... Almost!

After the closing ceremonies at the Olympics in Vancouver, it was straight back to Canmore to race in the Canadian Championships two days later. I was feeling absolutely exhausted and was fighting a bit of cold but had to race anyway in order to qualify for the next World Cup tour. My season wasn't over yet. The last event of the season for most other sports was the Olympics, but for biathlon we still had three World Cups left before our season would come to an end. I raced well enough to qualify, I think I finished in second and third and less than a week after arriving back in Canmore from Vancouver, I was on a plane again to Europe to finish off the season with World Cups in Finland, Norway, and Russia. Needless to say when I finished the tour I was spent and needed some rest. My girlfriend Rosanna and I decided to take a well deserved vacation and spent a week relaxing in Maui in April after a long season on the road!









A busy Spring...

After returning from a week in Hawaii it was back to Canmore for one night, only to unpack and repack before jumping on a plane again, this time headed for Ottawa and Montreal. Canada's 2010 Olympians were brought together for a series of events to celebrate Canada's success at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Celebrations started with a "Government of Canada Tribute to the Athletes" which included a visit to the House of Commons and a reception on Parliament Hill where athletes had a chance to visit with MP's and meet the Prime Minister. From Ottawa VIA Rail provided transport to Montreal where Athletes took part in an Olympic Parade hosted by the city of Montreal and the Government of Canada in which an estimated 100,000 people took part. The parade was followed in the evening by a Hall of Fame Galla and Red Carpet event which honoured this years inductees into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame. The Olympians took part in the Galla and enjoyed many of Canada's top performing artists during what was an unforgettable evening. The events were a huge success and were a great opportunity to bring Canada's 2010 Olympians back to together to celebrate the achievements of the games.








Finally home!...

During the beginning of June I was able to make it home to Hay River for a quick visit. This was my first time home since the Olympics and it did not disappoint! My visit included taking part in the Territorial Track & Field Championships which are held in Hay River every spring with over 1000 athletes taking part from schools all over the North. I decided to race in the 5000m event and despite not being in the greatest running shape I managed to run the race in a decent time and only 1 second off of the Territorial record! I was guest speaker during the opening ceremonies and also had the honor of carrying the torch into the arena and lighting the cauldron. I knew there would be some hype around me attending the event, but I was absolutely blown away by the reception I got when I carried the torch into the arena. A short video was played with clips from my childhood progressing throughout my career as an athlete to hype the kids up, and then when I stepped into the rink with the torch I was instantly swamped by hundreds of screaming kids all trying to get as close to me as possible! After some help from volunteers clearing a path for me I eventually was able to make my way up to the stage minutes later, without any kids clinging to my arms! The reception was amazing, more than anything I could have expected, and being able to be a role model to these kids, even if it was only for the few days the meet lasted, was a truly awesome feeling! After the Track & Field meet I was able to do short two day training camp over the weekend with the NWT biathlon team where we were able to work on the fundamentals of shooting and roller skiing. I also had the opportunity to quickly visit with a couple of classes during my visit. The week went by way too fast, but it was great to see my family again and eat my Mum's home cooked meals... I experienced quite the homecoming! What can I say... being from the North is awesome! (Pictured above: Outside Wesclean with Brad Mapes, visiting Harry Camsell School, roller skiing with the biathlon team. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures to share from the Track & Field Meet).










Oktoberfest!...

Training over the rest of the Spring and Summer went as planned without too much excitement. I had a few illnesses and a kind of painful and unpleasant shoulder injury, but other than that training was smooth. The pictures above are from a training camp in Europe. Once again this Fall after roller ski trials I made the trip to Austria for a three week training camp on the Dachstein glacier in the town of Ramsau. The ski conditions and altitude are ideal for the type of training we are trying to accomplish at this time of the season. Highlights from this training camp, other than being able to ski long hours in October were experiencing Oktoberfest in Munich (which was nuts!), and having the opportunity to take part in some testing at the University of Salzburg. They were doing a research project at the University using force plate analysis and pressure mapping to see the trends of elite shooters. The set up used was pretty slick and the feedback we received was both interesting and useful.







World Cup Season…

I left Canada on November 20^th to Scandinavia for a short training camp before officially kicking off the World Cup season in Ostersund, Sweden. From there it was off to Austria and then Slovenia for two more World Cups before taking a short break over Christmas. This year the team decided to spend Christmas in Europe to avoid the jetlag of returning to Canada for Christmas only to fly back again two weeks later. Rosanna and I spent three days relaxing and recharging in Venice before returning to meet up with the rest of the team to resume training again. Venice was great, we were able to escape winter and forget about biathlon for a few days. From our training camp in Italy we drove to Oberhof, Germany, for World Cup #4 and then to Ruhpolding, Germany, for World Cup #5. The team skipped World Cup #6 in Italy to instead head back to Canada to rest and train before racing two more World Cups in Maine, USA.

From Maine it was back to Europe to acclimatize and train for a week in Dobbiaco, Italy before flying on a charter to the Siberian city of Khanty Mansyisk for this years World Championships.

So far my season has been going quite well. My shooting percentages have been on the rise, I’ve scored more World Cup points than I ever have, and I’ve turned in some solid performances with the highlight of qualifying for the Mass Start race at World Cup #4 at the biathlon crazy venue in Oberhof.

At the moment I am in Russia making final preparations before my first race on Saturday. Conditions will be challenging but I am optimistic that I will be able to perform well at these Championships and meet my expectations. More to follow on my racing and experiences in Russia soon!

Brendan

I love Anthlolz!

At the moment I’m in Bavaria, staying in a small town near Garmisch, where I’m winding down and resting up after an amazing week of racing on the World Cup!

The tour first started out in Germany, where we raced World Cup #5 in Ruhpolding. Biathlon in Germany is extremely popular and the fan base is enormous. With it being the most popular sport in the country, the German athletes are huge icons. This was my first time racing at a World Cup in Germany and it was quite the experience. All of our competitions took place at night under bright lights, and racing in front of 25 000 intense fans made for a pretty cool vibe and some fun racing. You know it’s going to be an epic day with the fans when you arrive at the venue to the smell of beer and Bratwurst thick in the air. The smell of beer I can deal with, but my lungs definitely did not enjoy the cigar smoke that wafted over parts of the course, causing you to be short of breathe for the few seconds it took to pass through. If you were ever skiing near or shooting at the same time as a German athlete, good luck being able to hear anything. The roar from the fans was so intense that you could feel the sound resonate through your body! As for our performances during this World Cup, most of the team had a bit of a frustrating week finding our form, myself included. I was skiing well, but it doesn’t matter how fast you ski because when the shooting isn’t there, the good results won’t be either.

Racing the Relay in Ruhpolding.

From Germany we drove three hours to Antholz, Italy, where World Cup #6 would be taking place four days later. Situated in a mountain valley, Antholz is home to one of my favorite venues on the World Cup circuit. The stadium is awesome, the trails have nice flow, good snow is always a guarantee, the weather is amazing with sun most days, and the cuisine is stellar with four course meals!

The racing here went extremely well for me and I finally had the results I’ve been waiting for. While training during the week I put a lot of focus into my shooting and was able to sort things out on the range. The other aspects of my training felt pretty good as well and I was looking forward to racing. The competition kicked off last Thursday with a 20km Individual race. The race went awesome. I felt relaxed on my skis and skied at a fast yet comfortable pace that I was able to maintain for the duration of the 20km. In the range I felt focused and confident. The shooting conditions were tricky with inconsistent wind, but I managed to stay assertive while shooting and ended the day in 19th place, my best result ever on the World Cup! Placing in the top 20 was a huge result for me and I proved to myself that I am able to compete and put up a fight with the best athletes when things are going well for me.

Racing in Antholz - Photo courtesy of Michel van Balkum

Saturday’s 10km Sprint race also went quite well. I woke up feeling a little low on energy and tired, but as the day progressed I gradually began to feel more awake. I was skiing well, shot clean in my first prone bout and was having a great race, but two penalties in standing dropped me back to 34th at the finish. All things considered it was a very respectable race for me. I was happy with my result and looking forward to Sunday's Pursuit race.

Leading into Sunday’s race things felt normal. I had a routine Zero and my warm-up for the race felt typical – nothing special, just OK. Because it was a Pursuit race the start is based off of the previous days Sprint race results. The winner from the previous day starts first and all the other athletes’ start according to what their time behind the winner was. I was starting the race in the 34th place, 1:25 behind the lead.

Training in Italy - Photo courtesy of Michel van Balkum

As soon as I left the start gate I found myself in a pack with three or four other guys. The pace was fast but I was feeling awesome, and thanks to our wax techs, my skis were bombing. I cleaned my first two prone bouts and was steadily working my way up the field. When I came in to shoot my first standing I was in 20th place and had 1 miss. My skiing was strong though and I continued to move up in the rankings. When I came into the range for my final bout of shooting I was in 13th place. Normally in a situation like this I would begin to feel very stressed, but today this was not the case. I felt extremely relaxed. I came into the range, stepped onto lane 13 and noticed that almost everyone ahead of me was still in the range. I dropped my poles, took my rifle off my back, and then my mind shut off. I left the range with one more miss standing. I cruised around the penalty loop and then once on course I lay the hammer down. I knew it was a tight race and that there was a pack of guys in hot pursuit of me. I didn’t want to be leading these guys so I did my best to put a bit of a gap early on in the loop and began to push the pace as much as my body would allow. It hurt like hell but I didn’t care. I was too focused on my skiing to think about the pain. For the rest of the loop I was slowly gaining on a pack ahead of me, and with about 400m to go I was caught by a Russian. We sprinted to the finish and just caught up to the back of the pack that was ahead of us as we lunged at the line. I looked up at the scoreboard to see that I had made up 20 places and finished in 14th!!! By far my best race on the World Cup to date! I also posted the second fastest ski time of the day which was an awesome bonus… 3 seconds off of the lead pace!

The Grande stand in Antholz.

It was an amazing race. I felt like a machine while skiing, but felt very focused and relaxed on the range. I’ve trained hard this year while working a lot on all aspects of my training, so to have it pay off with a result like this is an incredible feeling and an experience I will never forget. Antholz was also the last World Cup stop before the Olympics; so to have my three best results at this World Cup is definitely a confidence booster heading into the Games!


Cheers!

Brendan

I'm back! - Life from September to December...

I’m back! One of my New Year’s resolutions is to blog more regularly, so here’s my attempt at keeping that resolution. I suppose I’m a bit late but I haven’t had much down time lately!

Since the end of September I’ve been on the road with only a few short breaks back in Canmore to re-energize in-between training camps or racing tours. Three weeks in the Fall were spent training on the Dachstein glacier in Austria. Here we were able to put in a solid amount of high volume days skiing at altitude while being able to roller ski and do intensity at a lower elevation in the town of Ramsau, where we also stayed.

Skiing on the Dachstein glacier... it was a bad summer for snow but the track held up alright most days.

Ramsau seemed to be the land of miniature animals. A pony chillin' halfway up a mountain that I came across during a run.

The view from a Tea House during a run.

After a big few weeks of laying down some solid training hours it was back to Canmore for a high intensity block. Almost all of these hard sessions took place on the roller ski treadmill at the University of Calgary. We’ve done a similar format of max intervals over the last two years, which seem to produce a positive response from my body, although these workouts are always guaranteed to be some of the most grueling training sessions of the year. Mentally being able to deal with the pain that you know you’re about to endure on the treadmill is half the battle.
Upon our return from Austria we were also able to continue our skiing on snow at the Canmore Nordic Centre. During some abnormally cold weather in October, enough man-made snow was blown to form a small training loop (about 700m if you skied it in a figure 8) in the cross-country stadium.

Grindin' away on the treadmill.

I spent my birthday at the beginning of November packing to leave the following day for what turned out to be an epic training camp in Silver Star, BC. They received some early snow that made for absolutely wicked skiing. While most athletes were training on the mind numbing hamster loop back in Canmore, our team was able to take advantage of over 50km of perfectly groomed trails that we could ski at our leisure just a few steps from our hotel. During our time here our schedule literally consisted of training, eating, and sleeping. The camp quickly became nick named the high-high-high camp, because of the volume of hours, the amount of intensity, and the altitude at which we were training. I was feeling pretty wicked all week with the exception of the last two days where all of a sudden I hit a wall and felt pretty cooked. I backed off on the intensity for the last two days and was able to recover a bit before heading back to Canmore. In the last 7 days we trained 25 hrs and averaged one hard intensity session a day ranging from ski strength, to time trials, to 20km of sub race pace. I left Silver Star feeling pretty bagged but happy with the training I was able to complete and the level of quality and focus in which I was able to accomplish it.

Scott's body starting to let him down after a tough week of training! (The photo was actually staged... as usual Scott trained like an animal during our stay in Silver Star.)

After a short break back in Canmore to unpack, do laundry, and repack, I was on the road again, this time to Sweden were we would kick off our World Cup season. The travel as usual was long, but when we arrived at our final destination in Brusksvallarna, we were greeted with lots of snow and pretty sweet conditions. We trained here for about a week before driving to Ostersund a couple of days before our first race. After three races in Sweden we flew to Munich and then drove to Hochfillzen, Austria for World Cup #2. I got sick with a cold the day after our arrival in Austria which I was pretty bummed out about. I had a couple days to take it easy before our next races and I did my best to recover as much as possible in that given time. We had to race three days in a row, which is punishing on the body, but I managed to do all right despite feeling pretty terrible and low on energy the whole week. On top of racing sick which is never any fun, it didn’t help that conditions were tough and slow with either fresh snow or rain during our races and training. Our last World Cup stop on tour before Christmas was in Pokljuka, Slovenia. It was my first time in Slovenia which was fun and despite feeling tired from all the racing I was finally more or less over my cold which I was stoked about. I was feeling good about the week and had some decent performances in the cold temperatures and strong wind, which made the racing tricky.

The veiv from our hotel room window in Bled, Slovenia.

Boats along the lake.

After 30 days on tour and 9 races in 18 days, I was in big need of some rest and recovery and was soon on a plane back to Canada for Christmas! I was tired, of course from all of the racing, but also in large part I think due to jetlag. In all my years of travel I have never experienced it this bad. In the first ten days of tour I averaged maybe four hours of sleep a night. I felt like a Zombie. I started sleeping a little better after about two weeks but my body never seemed to really adjust throughout the whole duration of the tour. I didn’t have one solid sleep during the entire 30 days and nothing I did seemed to make a difference. I pulled out all the stops… Melatonin, Litebook, sleeping pills, and deep relaxation breathing but nothing really helped. Not seeing the sun most days in Sweden definitely didn’t help the situation, but I was sure that things would improve once we arrived in central Europe where we would see more sun. Guess I was wrong!

Travel home was hectic and stressful as it always is during Christmas but it was nice to get back to Canada and relax, even if I didn’t get my bags until 5 days after I arrived. For the first time I decided to spend Christmas in Canmore away from family. It was a tough decision to make but I think it was the right one with the Olympics not far away. This way I was able to minimize travel and get in some solid training during the short break I had. Christmas turned out to actually be pretty busy and I was not lonely at all thanks to the amazing generosity of friends in Canmore!

In reflecting upon my pre-Christmas tour, I am satisfied with how things went. These were the last three World Cups that would fall within our Olympic qualification time period, so it was obviously a very stressful tour to say the least. The men were fighting hard for one of the four Olympic spots by either trying to maintain and add to previously met criteria, or by trying to finish off partially met criteria. There were some extremely stressful moments but there were also some great results produced from the team. For myself, I didn’t have any really amazing performances, but I was consistent which is a good thing. I started in all nine races, was consistently placing within the top 60 with my top result being 46th, and I qualified for both pursuit races. With Olympic qualification on everyone’s mind, I think I was able to stay focused and raced respectable given the circumstances.

Adjusting my visor during the Sprint in Hochfillzen... It iced up and got pretty hard to see during the race. Photo credit - Christian Manzoni.

Racing World Cup #2 in Hochfillzen. Photo credit - Christian Manzoni.

I am now in Europe again and just finished yesterday racing at the ‘Super Bowl’ of biathlon, World Cup #5 in Ruhpolding, Germany. More to come on that later though because I’m starting to feel carsick… At the moment I am sitting in the back of our van driving over the Brenner Pass on our way to Antholz, Italy, for World Cup #6, which will start on Thursday with a 20km Individual race for the men.

Cheers!

Brendan