A Day Off

Today is a day off for the nordic events and the forerunners. I have taken advantage of this to see my sister in Vancouver, although a day of skiing was tempting. The recreational trails, and the competition trails, are wonderful. They are postcard beautiful, the grooming is impeccable, and the climbs and downhills offer a challenge that we do not see that much of in the Ottawa area. At the higher elevations the vistas are magnificent and it is interesting to ski over short sections of ... More

Competition Day #2

Today (Sunday) includes the 15 km men's sit-ski in the morning, and the women's 10 km sit-ski in the afternoon.  The women will do 3 x 3.3 km loops and the men 4 x 3.75 km loops. Effectively sit-skiers have lost mobility of their lower body, however, because each skier may have a different disability there is a classification that is used to adjust times to "handicap" the skiers with more lower body strength for example. A sit-ski generally consists of an aluminum frame with a low seat; ... More

The first day of competition

With opening ceremonies out of the way (the forerunners did not attend) we are all set for the first day of competitions which includes an 800 metre sit ski biathalon course, and a 1000 metre standing biathalon course. Both courses have some challenging climbing. All sit-skiers do three laps with shooting occuring after the first two laps, and the standing athletes do the same thing on the 1000 metre course. For the Paralympics the biathalon range has been moved to the main nordic stadium.... More

Life in Whistler Village

The Athlete Village for the Olympics is located 4 or 5 kilometres from the Town of Whistler and the ski resort. The number of athletes in the Paralympics is less than the Olympics, therefore the village now houses many of the workforce volunteers, including the forerunners, and the athletes. The athletes are in a centre compound surrounded by a steel mesh fence. The athlete workforce is in a series of townhomes and trailers, located inside an outer perimeter fence but outside the fence ... More

What is a forerunner?

Until I applied for the position, I really had no idea what a forerunner (a.k.a. foreskier) was. After I applied, I had some more idea but only once we had our orientation at the Whistler Olympic Park (WOP) was there a good understanding. In a typical loppet or local race the trails are groomed the night before, and the skiers ski on them the next day with no additional preparation unless the conditions change dramatically i.e. ice or significant snowfall. Particularly with an interval ... More

Alexei and Margarita at the Paralympics

Alexei Novikov and Margarita Gorbournova are adult paranordic skiers who train with Kanata Nordic. Both secured a spot on the national Paralympic team and are competing in the games at Whistler. Listen to Alexei's interview on CBC Radio: http://www.cbc.ca/ottawamorning/ (scroll down to "Para-nordic skier who lives in Kanata"). You can follow Margarita's blog here: http://paranordicskier.blogspot.com/ More

Getting there and settling in

Despite many uncertainties and unknowns in the plans I am off for a 7:00 a.m. flight to Vancouver and then on to Whistler, and the Whistler Olympic Park to act as a forerunner for the cross country and biathalon events for the Paralympics. On a whim, and after the deadline, I had applied to be a forerunner back in July 2009 only after coming across an old announcement on the CCC website. Sometime in September I was advised unofficially that I was accepted. This was really cool, and definitely a ... More

Kanata Nordic shines at the Gatineau Loppet

Wow; what an excellent weekend for the Club at the Gloppet. Dev: Please pass on my congrats to the Track Attackers. Despite some very tough waxing conditions on Saturday and a very tough ski up the Pink's Lake hill on Sunday there were some remarkable results. To put Sunday's ski into perspective, when I first started to skate ski, I decided about 6 years ago that I was reasonably fit an knew what I was doing enough to enter the Keskinada 29 km skate. The course started with the same ... More

Silver Spoon Race Results

The results for the Silver Spoon Classic Race in Perth on Feb 7, 2010 are now available: http://bright-ideas-software.com/silverspoon/2010_results.pdf More

February 09

Congratulations to all that participated in the Silver Spoon and at the Kanata Sprints.  We had some great results and some of you knocked significant time off previous bests at similar distances. L2T and T2T will be at Riverfront on Tuesday.  Start time is 6:30, technique will be skate. This coming weekend will be the Tay Valley Loppet on Sunday (rescheduled), if snow conditions permits, and the CSM.  Training time and location for Saturday will be confirmed. More

Offset skate technique — tips for JR4s

The offset is perhaps the trickiest of all skate techniques to get right. Here's a video that demonstrates good technique plus a few drills that you may see at an upcoming lesson! Note that in the US the offset is referred to as the V1. Marlene. More