This summer I have made some significant improvements across the board. The quality of training I have and am putting in is better than it has ever been. Training started in late April, logged a solid amount through May, but the real show began in June. June and July were both 70+ hours months respectively, August just shy of 70, base weeks being around 15-17hrs. This was a solid increase from last season, but it wasn't 250+hrs of mindless training. The training over these months (May included) were exceptionally focused, this is were I made some huge technique gains. Coach Ron would give me something to work on, and for however long it was until the next technique session, I'd spend all my roller skis focused on the one or two things. There were sessions where I'd be so focused for the 1.5-2hrs, I'd get home from the ski and need to take 5 minutes, sit down on the garage steps, and just recover from this focus, it was almost like a headache. But I think it is definitely showing with how my technique feels and looks.
Although come late August my mind was indisputably becoming more and more exhausted. Although my body was physically stressed, the mental exhaustion just weighed so much heavier. This made me realize we emphasize on physically overtraining, but I also think we can mentally overtrain. So the past few weeks I did the occasional ski with the boys (BROllerski) and did some more running to allow the mind to relax and recover a little.
As I mentioned briefly in my last post, Hardwood is truly transforming into a high performance centre, in which myself, along with the other seniors had the privilege to coach all the younger athletes on the team. The system Hardwood has now is essentially a cycle of success. We coach the younger athletes (with guidance of Ron) so the coach it athlete ratio is quite good, then Ron can focus his attention the our senior program. And as a huge bonus, I think myself as a coach has learned so much and teaching technique has helped my technique significantly. Then the ultimate benefit is team building, there is no longer a separation between the younger athletes and the seniors. The group we have coming up at Hardwood is going to be next level. I have never seen a group of 12-16yr olds so amped to train day in day out. It creates super motivating environment for everyone on and around the team.
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| Mega Camp 2015 |
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| Team Hardwoods' EPIC canoe trip |
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| Declan tearing up the latest strength contraption |
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| Mt. St Louis Test with Kikkan Randall! |
Other summer highlights… I released my turtle/roomate Doug back into the wild, it was very sad but the guy was outgrowing the tank at a rapid rate. S/O to Doug for being an awesome roommate these past two years.
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| King of the swamp - goodbye Doug |
As I also briefly mentioned in my last post, I was lucky enough to get to go the the Alignment Camp out in Canmore. Was a super awesome experience to be able to train with all the training centres and National/World Cup Team members. It was a surreal experience to be skiing around Alex Harvey, Devon Kershaw, Ivan Babikov etc. I think most of the older athletes were pretty used to it, but I was in total awe to be able to train and do the race with them. And due to my relatively poor CPL sprint points, I was partnered up with Lenny for the team sprint, where we finished 2nd to Alex Harvey and Sam. Hardwood well represented.
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| Team Awesome |
And with the training and small trip here and there, the summer was gone, and I packed up and moved to Ottawa, where I am now. The setup here is quite good, decent roller skiing right from our doorstep, Mt. Mooney for hill intervals, Gatineau Park on the weekends. Awesome. I'm super amped to put the next step into action. Just finished a down week for training to prepare the body for a hard intensity block. Don't think I've ever been this excited to throw down some weeks packed with intensity. Stoked is an understatement. Classes also started, university is pretty neat, a big change … but very cool. Frosh week was also interesting, I think I discovered stuff like that is a little too hype for Rj. Definitely prefer a more relaxed environment.
Well, that's a wrap on blog post #2. Nothing too exciting, hope I didn't bore you. I definitely can say if you've made it this far I am very humbled that you took the time to read up on the life of Rj. Stay tuned, I have some quality posts coming in the future. My next… or next-next blog post is going to be quite good. Have a couple philosophical concepts I've been pondering on, just trying to figure out how to put it into a blog. I really think it will change how people will approach things. So definitely stay tuned for that!
Until next time,
Rj out
Side note - i don't really check grammar on my blogs, and there's very little structure, I just choose something and write about it, let the mind flow. Figure it's realer that way.
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