experience

And just like that… there are only 3 major race events left this season.

I left you off just before Norwegian Nationals in January; lets talk about that. Norwegian Nationals may have been one of the coolest experiences of my life. When you hear about Norwegian ski culture and how they are crazy about this sport, this is what they are talking about. We arrived at the site the night before the first race and the place looked as though they were preparing for a major World Cup event. The first race day was the classic sprint, and even in the prologue the trails were lined with spectators, and as the day went on they really flooded in. After the prologue we went out to pre-ski the distance course for the next day; and there were hundreds of kids sprinting through the forest alongside of the trail cheering us on (as we hobbled along at a pedestrian zone1 pace). It was really surreal to see so many people that were so crazy about skiing. I love it.

The following day was the 15km skate. This was a really strong race for me until the final 3km. I was on track to ski myself to a top 80/90 result, and felt strong, controlled, but I knew I was just riding the edge. In the first two major climbs of my final lap I completely fell apart – I just remember skiing with both of my legs completely locked with lactate and my upper body was like a wet noodle. I managed to lose nearly a minute on the group I was skiing with in the last 3km. I am still quite happy with this performance, I went out at a pace that was too fast for me, and I paid the price. But that is a great learning experience, I now know what that level of pace feels like and I know that I am capable of it. This time I bonked at 12km, maybe the next race I hold the pace until 13km, then 14km, and so on.

I know I have said this 1000 times before, but the variety of levels here in Norway is absolutely priceless. Getting to compare yourself against the best, and against everyone in between you and them. I cannot even begin to explain how helpful this has been when it comes to learning, planning, and executing my plan to improve as a skier.

TV time at Norwegian Nationals

The next day was the 30km skiathlon. Since the beginning of the year I was quite excited for this race. I was seeded 86^th of 130 or so racers; from my position, it looked like I was trying to get home from Toronto during rush hour. The gun went off and I sprinted with everything I had to gain some ‘easy’ positions before the bottleneck. The fun thing about racing in Norway, is that after the initial starting sprint it doesn’t settle to a controlled pace like it does back in Canada. After the start, everyone keeps hammering, everyone if trying to hold on pace with someone that is slightly faster than them. I managed to ski myself into a good position at the end of the classic leg, and it was time for the next 15km of skating. By the 20km mark I felt my muscles starting to go into survival mode, completely locked out and was pushing as hard as I could just to stay with the group I was with. I just have a vivid memory of suffering up one of the last climbs of the lap, my body full of lactate, wheezing, getting a nice strong whiff of beer and cigarette from the spectators as they screamed at us top of their lungs at us. It was awesome.

I ended up 72^nd place on the day, less than 7 minutes of the winner (Sundby). I am proud of this race. Last year in Beitostølen, I was nearly 7 minutes off in a 15km; I was 6:55 off in this 30km. I am getting faster.

The final day of Nationals was the relay – one of the craziest things I have ever seen and experienced. Now you would think since it’s a relay, the mass start would be a little less crazy, right? Wrong. There were nearly 150 teams on the start line. I was the lead classic leg for Asker Team #3. It was a 3x10km relay, 1 leg classic, and two legs skate. I felt absolutely wrecked this race. My muscles burned up right out of the start, I felt like I was having a terrible run. I was purely fighting just to lose the least amount of seconds for my teammates (I actually ended up having a decent result, moving from 83^rd position to tagging off in 44^th, 90s off the lead). My team ended up 28^th place on the day – super cool to be amongst the top 30 in a race like this. Even cooler, Team Asker #4 also moved up the ranks to 61^st   position, Team Asker #2 finished 13^th place, and Team Asker #1 claimed the bronze medal. I remember watching our #1 team on the big screen, seeing our teammates Erland and Harald racing with World Cup athletes. It was so crazy. Maks and I watched Harald barrel down the finishing straight with Emil Iverson and Simen Krueger (who both have won world cups this season, and one is now an Olympic champion), and we nodded and said, “Well, I think we picked the right team”.

Asker Team 3: Sjur, Ola, Me (photo: Coach Ola)

This weekend of racing really ignited my motivation for skiing. Not that I was unmotivated, it just was a really cool realization of how cool this sport is. Just to be a part of something that this country is so passionate about, I really respect and appreciate that. I know I am nowhere near that level right now, and that’s okay. But just to be amongst a huge group of people chasing down that level of excellence with so much passion is a privilege.

Following Nationals I rested hard for a couple days, and decided to try and make a decent push of training until the next Norwegian Cup (3.5 weeks after). Two weeks in I absolutely cracked. The training I had done wasn’t crazy, but it was enough to push me over the edge. After having a few rather poor intensity workouts & local races, I completely took the foot off the gas 9 days out from the Norwegian Cup in Åsen. This was pretty tough mentally for me. I know that if I take the pressure off too much before racing, I get really flat and tend to race rather poorly. But I was in the hole, and my only option was to rest and recover from it.

I was able to pull off some of my best results yet this season. Cracking the top 70 in the 30km classic (interval start) and top 80 in the 15km skate. This is decent progression, but I still know I am capable of more. In the 30km my double pole technique completely collapsed after 10km. I know if I can get to the point where I can hold it together for the entirety of the race I can go minutes faster over the course of 30km, or however long the race is. I skied a full lap with a skier who ended up in the top 30. No, I wasn’t able to hold that pace, but I know what it feels like, I was close, I can get there.

And finally being able to show that my skate skiing is on par with my classic skiing was a big confidence booster as well. I know I can skate ski at a high level, there are just more variables that can ruin skate races for me when it comes to feet, shin and groin pain.

Every race here in Norway I am learning, finding ways to become better. I can’t see myself not racing here in the future. (I will write a more in depth blog post on this at the end of the season).

So that takes us until now, currently writing from Trondheim for a Scandinavian Cup. Should be a fun weekend. Following that I am flying back to Canada next weekend to and will be competing at Canadian Nationals. I am super excited for that. It will be interesting to see how I can stack up against the Senior field back home, I know I have gotten faster, but so has everyone on the Canadian circuit. Of course it’d be nice to go home and be a super star skier that got insanely fast after 1 year in Norway; but I know that isn’t the reality of it. My investment in Norway goes years down the road. My approach to it is that when I am 24, 25, 26, my time and work put in here will show. That is when I expect to see the biggest progression.

But like I say all of the time, my goal is to be my best. Of course I like seeing progression with my times, results and seeing those goals through … but I made a promise to myself years ago that at the core of it is this pursuit of becoming the best me I can be. And so far I am doing that justice, always working on something to become a better skier, and person. So with that said, I look forward to competing this weekend, and to race with my fellow Canucks back home. I look forward to giving it my all.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time,

Rj

Progress

So here we are, 11 races into the season just in the start of the New Year. It feels like I have been in Norway for no time at all, but at the same time, when I think about the rollerski race in Oslo, it feels like a lifetime ago. It’s a really weird sensation. I left you all off last just before the season opener in Beitostølen – and what a start that was.

I was lucky enough to race the same two race weekends last year in Beito and in Gålā, so I had an idea what I was getting into; and even more importantly, I had something to compare to. Last year these two race weekends were such a shock to the system, I had no idea this level of skiing existed asides from World Cup racing. This year I felt I was far more prepared mentally. I understood that these are the best of the best. With just having the fall here in Norway, I have already learned enough to take my skiing to another level. The jump wasn’t insane, but I can confidently say that I have improved a lot since last year.

Last year in the 15km classic in Beitostølen, I tied for 6^th last (135th), 7+ minutes back off the winner. This year, I cracked the top 100 in 97^th position, 5 minutes back off of the winner. I know that 5 minutes is still a lot of time, and the result still isn’t flashy, but I have to remember that this is against the best. I have to look at the time I closed towards the top; in one year this is a huge improvement. I didn’t feel like this race was anything special, it just felt like I went out and applied the technique I have been working on, made sure I focused on finding seconds through transitions, and of course just went as hard as I could. 

Sometimes the gaps seems intimidating, it would make some people think that competing here is discouraging, but I actually have found it the opposite. Although racing back home is great for my confidence, racing here makes the long term goal seem so much more possible. I really believe that one day I can close this gap and compete with the best. Climbing the ladder to the top of cross country skiing is no easy task, and if I'm honest with myself I'm closer to the bottom than I am the top ... but I am on the ladder, that is what's important. One step at a time! 

The classic sprint and skate race this weekend were not the greatest demonstrations of improvement … still lots of room to improve there.

Maks and I at Beito

 

Beito Camp with Team Asker

After Beitostølen it was back to Asker for a few days before heading to Gålå for a Norwegian Cup. Since last year, the course in Gålå really has intimidated me. It consists of one really long gradual uphill, then after is just flat in rolling (at least how I see it). It is not a typical course that I feel confident on; I could use another hill or two… or 20. But I have been working really hard the past few months on reshaping and improving my double pole. While my double pole is still far from perfect, it is by far the strongest it has ever been. This allows me to go into courses like this with much more confidence.

The 15km skate race in Gålå didn’t go as I planned. My shape felt solid, but it was a perfect race to remind me of my weaknesses. I clearly was not working the flats and transitions effectively, and I paid the price. This is one of the best things about being in Norway. If I have solid shape in Canada, I can pretty much always pull off a decent result. Here, if I don’t work thoroughly through the entirety of the course, I lose valuable seconds every lap. So say I lose 10s per lap, that’s 30s by the end of the 15km, which translates to 20-30 positions. Getting a reminder of this on the first race of the weekend was perfect. I now had the chance to correct my mistakes for the 15km classic. To me, this 15km classic was a big step forward for me. I was able to work through the entire course, despite there being so much fast double pole sections. This was the first time ever I felt as though I wasn’t losing time on flat sections. I am super excited about this. I ended up in 94^th position, 3:43 behind the leader. This is another big step up from last season. It’s sort of funny being racing here in Norway, I find I have a new appreciation and perspective on the sport. Racing towards a top 100 result on a good day is a real turn around from going for gold every race back home. It is humbling; I like it. I think it is exactly what I needed for this season. I have found the past couple years I lost the pure essence of racing I used to have, When I was a Junior Boy, I never really thought about results. I mean, of course I wanted to do well, but when it came to race time it was just put the bib on and go ski as fast as I can. Nothing else was going through my mind. My two years as a Junior Man, I started to focus on results as I made my debut as World Juniors and results became more relevant. I have nothing against chasing results, but a part of me just misses the purest form of my style of racing, which is just sending it. That is why being in Norway for my first year senior is year is perfect. I still get shook sometimes over results, but it isn’t super relevant because I am chasing down dozens of people in front of me, and trying to hold off hundreds of people behind me. There isn’t really an external pressure; it is everything I put on myself. I am purely focused on what I need to do to race faster vs. being focused on what other people are doing.

After Gålå we has a few weeks back in Asker to rest and do some training. The next race weekend was a Scandinavian Cup in Vuokatti, Finland. This was a super cool experience to get to race amongst the best domestic Scandinavians. Chasing, catching a ride after being passed, battling; taking the chance to learn from every opportunity I could. If someone caught up to me and passed me, I would latch and try to hold their stride for as long as I could. I’d ask myself, “okay how are they gliding compared to me … how are they transitioning from one skate, to offset, to one skate again … how can I be the most efficient to hang onto their pace”.  I feel like every race here I learn something that I can build off of to become a better skier. That is pretty cool.

Norwegian Christmas in Sjusjøen! Thanks to the Wiik family for adopting me.

Emil in Sjusjøen

To this date in the season I have competed in 11 races (3x3day race weekends + two local races). With this experience under my belt I am feeling pretty confident going into the next set of races. Norwegian Nationals kicks off here in two days, I am super excited for that. A few months ago I had to make the decision whether to return to Canada for World U23 trials, or to stay here and continue racing in Norway. Evidently, I have chosen to stay here, and I just want to address that. When I first came to Norway, my plan was to return home for trials and go for U23s. But after I got here I began to weigh the other option of staying here, and the more I thought about it, the easier it became to decide. If I were to come home, the goal would be to make the World U23 team (which I believe in good form I can make). So if I were successful in obtaining my goal, I would qualify for Worlds, then I would travel to Europe with the Canadian team for a few weeks and then compete at Worlds in late January/early February. This would mean missing over a month of training and racing here in Norway (and not to mention the extra cost). I figured I have invested in this year in Norway; I should be making the most of it. So as much as it pains me to watch the weekend at trials go by, wishing I was there, I feel as though it is best for me to stick with my gut and keep on growing here. I will be back for Canadian Nationals in March though, so everyone back home better be ready to throw down!

So now for me it is focusing on Norwegian Nationals and the Norwegian and Scandinavian Cups to come. I am excited. I think I am ready to go faster, much faster.

Thanks for reading!

Rj

Training season recap & Project Norway

I have done such a good job procrastinating writing a blog post, there is now too much content for one post … but let’s do it anyways.

Following Nationals, I found myself back in Canmore for the first round of meetings as athlete rep. Overall I think the whole Athlete rep thing is going quite well, a lot of good stuff going on behind the scenes (will have a more in depth update on this at the end of the blog).

After getting some bonus on snow time in Canmore to start the season, I decided to pay a visit to BC and join Telemark on their Silverstar on snow camp. Kicking off the training season in the mountains, on snow, was a perfect way to get motivated to get back into the grind.

Although it was around this time I got a call from the hip specialist that I have been working with for about a year, year and a half. He confirmed a date for my surgery, which I have been waiting about a year for.

(For those who don’t know, I have had chronic abdominal and groin pain for the past 4 years. A year ago we discovered that my femoral heads are misshaped, thus putting pressure on an entire network of nerves every time I move my legs. I also have soft tissue damage, which adds a little bonus to the pain).

The date was May 26^th. It was later than I would have liked, since this bilateral hip surgery has a 4-month recovery time. But Coach Ron and I decided the cut off date was mid-late June, so I took it. I was nervous, but mostly excited. The doctor said he was confident this surgery would take away at least 50-60% of the pain. So we started laying out what the plan was for next season, postponing Project Norway until next year, or at least until later in the season, and just really focusing on the second half of the season. Everything was set; I was mentally prepared, and physically prepared to not have to live and train through pain anymore. Until a week before the surgery, I got a call. They messed up the booking for my surgery, only booking 3hrs for a 4hr procedure; the next opportunity for the surgery was in September. I was pretty shook. It may not sound like a huge deal, but I honestly wasn’t sure if I had another season of tolerance in me. I try not to talk about my pain, or use it as an excuse, since it is kind of a part of who I am at this point … but this particular scenario was a big slap in the face. I contemplated whether my best option was just to take the surgery in September and write off the 2017/2018 season. It may sound like I am just being a baby, but it is really tough to stay motivated when every workout hurts, intensity, strength, rollerskiing, cycling, easy recovery jogs, everything. If I do too much core work, I have a lot of trouble sleeping. I spent a lot of time thinking on this, a lot of time out training saying to myself, “come on Ryan, just one more year, one more season, it’s worth it”. And with some back and forth discussion and debate with my coach and family, I decided that I am going to push through one more season. My mentality is that I know I can still throw down good performances with the pain, even if it sucks and I will learn enough this year that it will be worth not giving up a season. So that was that, I refocused on Project Norway, crossed my fingers for surgery next spring, and moved forward with the training season.

So moving forward I refocused on my training, got a job, and started planning logistics to move to Norway.

My summer consisted of a consistent, rise and grind, work all day, train, sleep, and repeat routine. I got a job at the local LCBO/Beer Store. I knew I had to make more money from work than I have in previous summers. So I ended up working 25-40hrs per week (usually cruising at 30-35). To someone who works full time and extra, this may not seem like a crazy amount, but trying to train full time as well was a challenge. A typical day would be starting training at 530-6am, training until 730-8am, work 9am-5pm, train 530-7pm, go home, eat, go to sleep, do it all again. Making sure I still had a couple days of the week off, this routine was still rather draining. I found myself burnt out on a couple occasions through the training season, not necessarily physically from the training, but just ‘life tired’. My mental energy was gutted; training went from being something I enjoyed every day, to something I really did not look forward to. Something I just had to do, set a purpose for the workout, and then execute it. I would then find myself at work stocking shelves in a giant refrigerator with skiing on my mind. Motivating myself through the workday with the vision I had for this season and beyond. Although it was a drag, the summer was still a huge positive in my eyes. I made enough (I hope) to make it through the ski season, and I also learned a lot. I was forced to put major purpose into every workout I did. Realistically, I could only manage moderate training weeks (14-17hrs). I usually would like to be training more, broken into 11-13 workouts. Now if I only had the time to do 7-10 workouts per week, I had to really make sure I had a purpose for each one. Asking myself why I am putting these on my training plan, which ones are going to literally make me faster? This was a very valuable lesson for me.

Training (photo: Rundle Sport)

Chicken little (photo: Jenn)

So with that and a long list of logistics that I won’t get in to, I was set to fly off to Norway on September 15^th. When my dad dropped me off at the airport, the magnitude of what I was doing hit me. I gave my dad one last hug, and as I walked with my bags through the airport I had a surreal “oh shit, we’re doing this” moment. My place touched down at just after 5pm, made it to Asker by 7pm. Reunited with my longtime friend/roommate/rival, Maks Zechel, and then it was off to bed to catch some much needed sleep before the race the next morning…

Reminders on the travel day from the airport ... #closingthegapsequel? 

Mercedes taxi? I'll allow it

And there I was, 15 hours after my plane touched down, I was on the start line for a rollerski race through downtown Oslo (you my be thinking, ‘racing that soon after travel is a pretty stupid idea, Ryan…’ true, but the only dumber thing I could think of was to turn down an opportunity to race against the best through downtown Oslo).

The field had some of the world’s best juniors along with many other phenomenal skiers at the top of their class. I got absolutely destroyed, jetlagged or not, it was clear that there was another level I had to chase here. The club I joined (Team Asker) won the overall for the race, and had many amongst the top group. Seeing this on the first day after my arrival, I knew I was in the right place.

Couple Canucks & coach Ola 

Team Asker victory after the rollerski race in Oslo

Since this day, I have learned so much; I am going to do my best to condense key things into this next section.

The most significant difference I have noticed (asides from how fast people are) is the independence of the athletes and the amount of discussion there is over technique and training. Everyone writes their own training plan, and the coach looks it over and has input, maybe makes some changes. But from what I see, things are athlete driven. From the discussions I have had, a lot of people believe that talent obviously plays a role in how far athletes go in the sport, but what makes the difference between the best and those just below, is that the best know exactly what works for them, exactly what they need to do to be at their best. And there are so many different perspectives on training and technique, I have had multiple discussions with teammates and coaches on double poling, and each one has had something different to say … and they all are aware that what they are saying may not work perfectly for me, so I have taken pieces from what each of them have said and reconstructed my double pole technique. It is still a work in progress, but I hope that it will be really strong this season. 

Running in Norfjiell

Views from the top

The training group at Team Asker is also just incredible. Team Asker has athletes that are some of the best in the world for their age; it is a crazy high-level club. It is super motivating getting to train with this group multiple times a week, every intensity session I learn something, and even easy skis I learn something. Watching how well they transition from flat to hill, hill to flat; how they apply power in their strides, taking note on how efficient they are and then double checking on how relaxed and efficient I feel. This is a short list of what I get to process regularly. And it just so competitive, there is always someone that is feeling good so there is always someone that is going to push the workouts to the next level. Sometimes if I have a good day I can even push the pace a little sometimes … at the same time, if I have a bad day, I get absolutely wrecked. The level is high enough here that if you don’t keep the pressure on, you could very likely be beat by the girls and/or some of the 14/15-year-old kids (I may or may not know this from experience … in my defense, they are really stinkin’ fast). But it is so cool, everyone is part of the process of creating top level athletes, even if a lot of the athletes never see the spotlight; they are a piece of the puzzle to get athletes to the top. I think it is so awesome.

7x10mins z3 up this ... at least the view was nice (Spain camp)

The Zechel Special gliding along the coast of Spain

+25 in October, you'd be smiling too (photo: Johanna Lier)

It has just been such a stellar journey so far; it is hard to believe I have only been here for two months. I am writing this from Beitostølen where the season will kick off for me next weekend … craziness. Sometimes I have to take a moment here and just take it in, I am living in a different country pursuing my passion to the best of my ability … what a privilege. The realer this gets the more it reminds me how passionate I am about this, I am passionate about skiing of course, but also this pursuit of excellence; passionate about the concept of your everyday kid doing big things. This move to Norway started with Maks and I talking about moving overseas 2 years ago when we lived in Ottawa together. We would talk about all of our ideas of finding another level. And now we are here, and all it took was a couple emails and two determined kids with a vision to find their best. I am well aware that it will take more than one year to make the leap we are looking for, but I am also beyond confident that in the long run, this investment we have made will pay off. We will be phenomenal. 

First time back on snow, glad it was in Sjusjøen (photo: Maks)

Ready for it

Thanks for tuning in; this story is just going to get better.

Rj

PS: (Athlete rep update coming soon)