Turning Point

I may have had a bit of a slow start to the season once again, but I finished the season stronger than ever. The Christmas break started to breathe some life into my exhausted body, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to give me the energy I needed for World U-23 trials. I had one solid race, a 13th place in the individual start 15km skate, but the other two races weren’t so hot. I arrived home from trials a very tired boy. After a few skis and some catch up on homework, I caught the flu. It hit me hard. I lost about 10 pounds and was out of commission for a week. I guess my body was done giving me warning signals and finally just broke down, forcing me to rest.

Canmore U-23 Trials 15km Skate

13th place Senior Men

As soon as I was healthy our team took a road trip to the States for two Super Tour events. Finally, I started racing well and brought home a little prize money. The Telemark Super Tour was a larger event with more competition including a few U.S. National team members. My results from the trip were:

Mount Itasca Super Tour
Classic 10km Individual Start – 7th
Skate 10km Individual Start – 5th

Telemark Super Tour
Skate Sprints – 13th
Classic 10km Individual Start – 14th
Skate 15km Mass Start – 7th

Following our trip to the States our team put in a month long training block including some good volume and fun local races. I competed in all three races at the Ontario Cup as well as the LSSD Championships. I was happy to be able to perform well in all these races despite being in the middle of a volume training block.

Ontario Cup
Classic Sprints – 2nd
Skate 15km Mass Start – 2nd
Classic 10km Individual Start – 1st

LSSD Championships
Classic 10km Individual Start – 1st

Ontario Cup Skate Mass Start. First time I have ever had the #1 seed in a race!

On the podium. Harry took the sprint finish for gold.

Finishing off the O Cup classic race.

Made it to the top step.

This outlines my lead up to the 2009 Nationals and the turning point in my season.