The Whistler Playlist

Hello World!

I am currently in my favourite place (Whistler) competing at Canadian Nationals in my favourite sport (ya'll know what it is)!!!
Lately I've been reminded of the importance of getting focused--getting in "the zone"--before a big competition. Now, everybody is different (thankfully), which means that in competitive sport, and in life, not everyone reacts in the same way to certain stimuli. I've found that listening to music helps me get to that place I need to be before a big competition, and, while this might not work for all of my loyal blog followers hopefully some of you will find this tip helpful.

In honor of having some sweet beats to chill to before you throw down on the ski trails, or anywhere else, I put together a good pump-up song playlist today while hangin' out in the condo at Whistler. So, even if music isn't the key to getting yourself in the zone before your big event, at the very least these are twenty-some songs worthy of your iPod.

Follow the Youtube link below and enjoy (and don't feel obliged to watch all the music videos. Music videos can be just plain weird sometimes).

Twenty-Some Pump Up Songs

Ottawa Morning

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, Kieran (my awesome coach) and I got a bit of tv air time yesterday on CTV Ottawa Morning! They have this segment that they do called "Jeff vs", which is basically the CTV Ottawa weather man going up against local athletes and such. It was pretty fun filming the whole thing and I hope that it provided a bit of publicity for nordic skiing in the area!!

As Always, Dream big, people!!

World Juniors: A Saga

It has been over a week in coming, but now it is finally here. The account of Nordic World Juniors as seen through the eyes of Yours Truly has finally been put to paper (or computer?)!!! So grab some Nutella, sit back and enjoy!

First off, I’d like to sincerely thank XCChelseaMasters, who, for no reason other than their immense kindness and their equally immense support of our sport, went to the trouble of putting on a fundraiser to help me pay for the trip! Thank you so much guys!! Thanks also to Fresh Air Experience, Greg Christie’s Ski and Cycle Works, and Shelley Harrison/Studio Dove Heart who helped sponsor the fundraiser.

I’d like to thank Ski de Fond Quebec too, for their continued support of me and many other quebec skiers.

Last but not least, thanks to the McClures and the Pollexes for their support of my skiing endeavor!

World Champs 2013

I got out of bed on the morning of Sunday the 27th feeling horrible. Missed sleep from my travels in and out of Austria and the accumulative fatigue of my first three international races (as well as the fact that we’d all been breathing cigarette smoke in the halls of the beautiful Hotel Babylon for the past 10 days) was finally taking its toll on me. As I ate breakfast in the hotel Caf, there was a battle of reason accompanying the pounding in my head. “Today is the only chance I’ll have in my life to compete in the World Junior team relay!!” “That’s right! It’s a TEAM relay!! If I’m not feeling up to it I should back out and ask Scott (NDC Thunder Bay/Team Hardwood) to race! Gotta do what’s best for the team!” And so the voices in my head switched back and forth.

At the race site I didn’t feel any better, and, after going for a quick 5 min jog to test the waters, I was still undecided. Thankfully, Godefroy (CNEPH and Canadian Junior Team Coach) came over to talk to me. “Zeke, it’s almost the end of the competition! Everyone is tired. Go out there and race like you always do!”

And so, after my 30 minute warm up on the little 400m long warm up loop they’d set up for us skiers behind the wax huts, I found myself back amongst the crowd of foreign race suits, waiting to get tagged off by Alexis (CNEPH/Skinouk) and start my leg of the relay!

Backtrack 7 days to the individual sprint:

Having warmed up from the “training camp feel” of Austria to the “racing atmosphere of Liberec” (mentioned in my blog post Goodbye Austria), on Monday the 21st I felt like I was ready to race! . . .and then I didn’t qualify for the sprint heats. At the time I was really discouraged, but as it would turn out, my 46th place finish in the sprint qualifier would be my best of the week.

Monday evening was the opening ceremony, and Team Canada came out in all their highlighter yellow glory to participate! I must say, the opening ceremony was more impressive than I had expected--from the fullbody-silver-suit Cheerleaders at the start, to the parade of countries and the review of the Czech Ski association’s history. The only part that got a bit old was when a line of FIS/Czech Governing officials decided go beyond the call of duty and do a multi-lingual speech for an extended period of time. But that was all forgotten when the organizers put on what must’ve been close to a 15 min fireworks display behind the majestic Liberec Town hall! I like fireworks.

After the opening ceremony we had a rest day while the U23s raced and we prepared for a 10km skate individual start on Wednesday. I was really excited for the skate 10k, as I’ve had solid results in this form of race in the past.

Turns out that excitement wouldn’t cut it though, ‘cause I posted an even worse result than the classic sprint.

Another rest day with another U23 race followed the skate 10k before we moved On To The Next One: the 20km pursuit. Fatigue was starting to play into things at this point and I had another decent, but less than perfect race. Thing is, decent does not cut it at Worlds.

As I mentioned in my blog post Europe Part 3, this point in the week was kinda a low for me. Thankfully, I managed to step back a bit and put things in perspective. I may not have had personal bests in the individual races at Worlds, but, as my friend Greg (athlete rep at CCC) said: “you are in Liberec!” And being in Liberec entails quite a few cool things. Things that included, but were not limited to:

1. 1) Amazing Pizzerias!  We went out to the same place on two different nights, after we realized it was possible to order a large, wood-oven-baked pizza and a super-nice desert for the equivalent of about 12$ Canadian. Wow. Considering that they were serving us cardboard carbs at the Hotel Babylon, this was definitely enough incentive for more than one trip out.
2. 2) Although the Hotel Babylon allowed smoking pretty much everywhere, and although they seemed very enamored with serving us the same stuff in the cafeteria E V E R Y S I N G L E DAY  (potatoes, rice, and plain pasta do actually get boring when eaten at each meal), the hotel was still quite an experience! We made sure to ride the indoor bumper cars and check out the bowling ally, but we stayed away from the “casino” (read, slot machines), the disco and the “aqua park”.
3. 3) Cool architecture  (this was downtown, and NOT featured in the Hotel Babylon. The hotel opted for the more avant-garde use of confusing corridors and gaudy statues).
4. 4) Senior World Champs Nordic Site:  Yep!! They hosted the ’09 senior world champs at the same place where we raced!
5. 5) Shoe stores:  There were lots of them.

But all good things must come to an end (or as I like to think of it, the ending of good things is required for the beginning of better things)!! On Saturday the 26th, in the evening, I packed my gear, took a shower, and went to bed. Only to wake up on Sunday the 27th feeling horrible. . .

About 2 hrs later I stood in the stadium watching Alexis (CNEPH) finish his second of two 2.5km laps for the first leg of the relay. Unfortunately he had crashed on his first time down the big hill on the course, and team Canada was in second last place! With nowhere to go but up, I started my part of the relay. In stark contrast to my feelings of exhaustion in the morning, I actually felt pretty solid during the relay! I managed to fall into the smooth flow of classic striding on the uphills (the first two relay legs were classic and the second two skate), and happily, I caught up to the Romanian, Austrian, Polish and Czech Teams! Exciting! After my best performance of the week, I tagged off to Dave (BC Ski Team/BlackJack) and ran back out on course to watch him and Raph (CNEPH) throw down on their respective skate legs.

In the end we didn’t pull off a Canadian best result in the relay, but, ultimately I think it was a fun experience for everyone and it was nice to end the competition on a high note!

After the races we packed up, drove to Prague (or Praha to those in the know), and stayed there a night. I got a bunch of pictures in Praha, so I’ll let those do the talking for that part of the trip!

The next day we experienced the awesomeness that is the autobahn on our drive to Munich (or München), stayed a night there and then flew home after acquiring way too much chocolate at the Munich airport duty free.

17 days after we had left we were back in O-town’s familiar airport. Although we brought plenty of sweet memories and a stupid amount of fatigue back with us, we thankfully didn’t have to declare either at customs in Toronto.

Now just over a week later, and after racing my way through Eastern Canadian Champs last weekend with a tad more fatigue than usual, the whole experience seems like a life time ago. Just as I went into it not believing the whole thing was real, so I’ve come out of it in the same state of mind.

Until next time: Dream Big, People!!

P.S.  I've included a bunch of the pictures that I took on the trip below! I'm sorry about the quality of most of them--I only have a phone to take pictures with! 

You can check out the event website for other pictures and the results!

Thanks for Reading!

View of Liberec from Vesec (the race site)

View of the Stadium from the top of the first hill on the race course

A ridiculous, huge, wall mural that they had in reception at the Hotel Babylon (apologies about the bad lighting)

Gaudy statues in the Hotel

The beautiful Liberec town Square. The set up a big stage in front of the church-looking building (the town hall) for the opening ceremony (apologies about the picture quality)

A statue in the town square

The pizzeria! If you're ever in Liberec, hit this place up

I only realized I should take a picture of my desert, at the pizzeria, when I was almost done

Patty S-J chasing down a swedish racer in the U23 skiathlon

The two Russians who dominated the U23 skiathlon

Cool interior decor in the place we ate super in Prague. There was an accordion player who serenaded us the entire meal!! To cool.

Fred Vézina chillin' on some stairs

More Prague!

The Team on the move in Prague

Most of the statues you'll see here were on this really cool bridge. We checked it out in the day, and the night so I got some similar shots with different lighting

There were a whole bunch of swans under the bridge!

The bridge in the day.

Raph feeling contemplative

I had empty seats beside me both on the way to Europe and back! Made good use of it!

Land ho!! Labrador looks so inviting from the air

Haiku

My dearest blog followers,

I am in a frantic rush to catch up on lost school and, simultaneously, recover from this past weekend's Eastern Canadian Champs (held at my home club!!). Unfortunately, being frantic doesn't leave me with all that much time to update my blog! Nevertheless, I promise you that I will post up a full review (with pictures!!) of my amazing, if humbling, trip to Europe! I'll try to make good on this promise later this week. Until then, enjoy this Haiku that I wrote in an attempt to invigorate my spirit.

Bluest of skies

Light, streaking my face with tears

Reflects off the snow

Inspiration

Dream Big, People!

Europe part 3

After a 1.3km classic sprint, 10km skate interval start and a 20km skiathlon, the individual races in the Czech Republic are now over. And what a humbling experience it has been.

As far as ski racing goes, I consider myself to be competent; in Canadian races it is rare for me to be off the podium. Coming to Europe, and for World Champs no less, I knew the competition was gonna be tough. I expected to not be on the podium at all. But I also expected to be relatively competitive. Now, after three races of finishing in the 40’s and 50’s competitive is not really a word I would use to describe my performances.

In the 10km skate especially I expected to be in the top 20 or 30, so, when I finished in 53rd position I was devastated. Wednesday after the race was definitely an all-time-low for me. It was, unfortunately, one of those days that makes me question why I ski. This has got me thinking quite a bit these last couple days, and finally, I have decided that my skiing career is now over.

Psych!!!!

I am definitely not finished with skiing!! But it’s true that I’ve been thinking (wow I didn’t know that he does that!), and so, I will try to define my train of thought here before it derails.  Grab your trusty bottle of voda and bare with me. . .

A bottle of "Voda"

So, why do I ski? Well, I like a lot of things about competitive skiing--in fact, I like most everything about the sport. I like training for skiing, I really like the people involved in skiing (seriously, skiers tend to be awesome people!), I like the places that skiing takes me and, generally, I especially like racing.

Why do I like racing? Firstly, I like to go fast! I love the variety of ski racing (this week I did three completely different distances of races using 2 different techniques on 3 different race courses!. Cool.). I like the feel of classic striding or one skating on and on up a big climb and I like the feeling of attacking the steeps with all the energy you got.  I like the feeling when you clip into your bindings only to feel the skis almost slip out from under you--they’re THAT fast--and I like the feeling of hammering that last hundred meters to the finish line when you think you can’t push anymore but actually you can!  I like the feeling of feeling of being absolutely exhausted after a race and, on good days, I even enjoy “the hurt” that I experience out on the trail. 

I like to chase the ever elusive “perfect performance” and I really enjoy the feeling of accomplishment you get after some solid results.

If I was asked to describe my personality in a few words, “competitive” would most certainly be one of them. For ski racing--for any kind of racing--this is an important character trait. But it can also be one’s undoing too.

When you have a lot of success in a sport it’s easy to start to focus on the rush that winning gives you. From there, you start to forget the other reasons you like your sport and you start defining each performance based on how you did relative to other people. Now please do not misunderstand!!! “The will to succeed” is what drives a person to the highest levels of his/her sport--if you don’t have it then you are probably not a competitive athlete! But it is certainly not everything.

After much success in Canada this year, (and for many years) I have started defining my performances relative to those of others. I have motivated myself during races with the thought of the podium. It is clear that, in international races, this won’t work. I can’t lose sight of my competitive spirt, but I must start coming up with reasonable goals. To use a nice cliché, I’ve got to “take baby steps” to make my way up the international ranks--and with my most recent results, up is the only way to go!!

Now you’re probably saying “wow, Zeke is such an idiot! Isn’t the ‘baby steps’ cliché drilled into athletes from the start?” “has it taken him 19 years to realize the obvious truth that you can’t climb Mount Everest in a day?” Apparently I learn best from experience (meh).

So what’s next? I’ve gotta start using a trait that does not make it into the short list of words to describe myself: patience.  I’ve gotta start evaluating races in a different way.  I’ve gotta start doing what I’ve been telling myself to do for awhile and treat each new race as a learning experience and as a rung in the proverbial ladder.  I’ve gotta start bridging the performance gap between domestic and international racing and I’ve gotta realize that it won’t happen over night.

And my thirst for success on the results list? It’ll have to go into hiding for awhile. But believe me: I have every intention of climbing that World Cup podium some day, and, even if it takes me years to get there, I will--as always--give it my damnedest to achieve my goals.

Ski fast, push hard (be patient) and Dream Big, People!!!!

Phew, Zeke is done with his crazy rant (and apparently speaking in third person). Zeke does not have that many cool pictures this time around (apologies), but, he does have a couple!  

Also enjoy the theme song for this trip (I swear every radio station in Austria and the Czech Republic plays this song, like, every 2 minutes.

Stoked to be rep'n team Canada!

The awesome Tinker Bell shoe mat in our wax room

This grammatically amazing sign directs people to the second buffet table in the Hotel Babylon! I resisted the urge to add a question mark after the first word.

Goodbye Austria

Yikes!  It seems ages ago that I got off the plane in Munich while in reality it was only 5 days ago!  Where did those 5 days go?

Well, day number one was mostly a write off, apart from a nice an’ easy recovery ski in the PM.  

Monday’s highlight of the day was probably seeing a couple in a Grocery store in Ramsau buying their groceries while wearing ski boots!!  The sheer number of people out XC skiing on a Monday morning is very impressive.  Wish Canada was like this...

On Tuesday we explored Schladming (coolest name ever, right?) in the afternoon and it looked exactly like I expected a tiny European town to look--so I was psyched.

Wednesday was the most exciting day yet.  The plan?  A short distance skate time trial on the 1999 Nordic World Championship course in Ramsau.  Since Monday I had been having trouble with a sore neck and general fatigue and these problems had not been resolved by the time my 10:15 start time rolled around.  I debated even starting the time trial.  Luckily I decided to push through it and I came out feeling even better than before!!  Yay!

Thursday morning we said goodbye to Austria, at 9am, and embarked on what would become an epic journey.  Through snowstorms, under mountains, through Austrian restaurants and Czech gas stations we traveled.  We braved the peril of having to sit in a Czech gas station for over an hour while a windshield-wiper was fixed, and we braved a Mcdonalds, (seriously, these places are scary) in Praha (the real name for Prague, which might actually beat Schladming on my cool names list) in the hopes of getting directions out of Praha.  The drive took much longer than expected. 

Finally, over 12hrs later, we made it to the Hotel Babylon in Liberec which will be our home for the next over-a-week.

The first thing that hit me on arrival was how ridiculous the hotel Babylon is.  I’m gonna try to post up some sweet shots on twitter or facebook later, but, suffice it to say that it’s flamboyant in a gratuitous manner.  It has a Casino, a “4D theater”, a spa AND an aqua-park built in--so that illustrates things a bit.

We got into the crazy hotel around 10pm last night and got to bed around 11:30 after the epic journey.  Which finally brings me to today!

As much as I really liked being in Austria, I felt like there was something missing; I discovered what that was when we went out to ski on the race course today.  The few days that we spent in Austria had much more of a training camp feel to me.  Now--don’t get me wrong--I love training camps, but I am here to race.  And for me, at this point in the year, nothing beats the “racing atmosphere” whose air you start to breath that first day you show up to ski at the race site.

Although they don’t have all that much snow at the race site here and although they have very few trails open, the excitement of skiing on a World Cup course, with World Champs just a few days around the corner, is palpable.

So, to finish things up I will list my top 5 stokes and my top 5 annoyances of the past week (or so).

Here’s that bad first:

Neck pain: I had a super-sore neck for the first part of the trip in Austria and it was giving me symptoms similar to my big injury last year.  Stressful.

Eurosport: So far Eurosport has only played snooker and tennis.  Huge letdown.

No Soap: We had no soap in our bathroom in Austria!  Ahhhh!!!!!

Traffic: Turns out they have traffic in Europe too.  And we encountered it on our drive.

Annoying weather:  We drove through a very legit snow storm on our way here but all the land North of Prague, including Liberec and the race site, has very little snow.  So far the race course is a less-than-2.5km loop (but they do have the snowmaking machines running!).

And the Top 5 cool things:

European Yogurt drinks: ‘Nuff said.

National Team clothing: I am still soooo stoked about this gear.  Makes me feel way more pro than I actually am.

Wax support: We get our skis waxed every day!!  The support team is awesome.

Names of European hamburgers:  “Royal with Cheese!!!!”  If you don’t get the reference, watch Pulp Fiction right now!!

Race site: The course is really fun even though they only have a less-than-2.5km loop and it’s so cool to be skiing at a World Cup/World Champs site (they held World Champs in 2009 I think).

Only a few more days to go till the first race day!

Dream big, people--and check out the sweet picture below!!

Schladming

The Dachstein Glacier is up there somewhere

More Schladming

Yogurt Drinks!!

Cool woodwork on our balcony in Austria

Inside of the main room in our lodgings in Austria

A "Royal with cheese!!!!"

These last three pictures are taken from the hill above the stadium at the race site in Liberec

Now in Europe!

For the last week, starting with the announcement of my appointment to the Canadian World Junior Champs Team at Trials in ThunderBay, I have been pretty busy.  I have not had too much time to breath between preparing for my departure to Europe, starting the new school semester and even fitting in a shift at Fresh Air!  While there has been much to do, there has really only been one thing on my mind: World Champs.  I’m still finding it hard to believe that I’ve actually made it--even while I sit here writing this in the common area of the Canadian U23/Junior Team’s lodgings in Ramsau am Dachstein Austria!!

To get to where I am now has been exciting per se.  Soon after leaving my house on the 12th I hopped on a plane bound for Toronto.  After that it was time for the 8hr flight over to the other side of the pond--a trip that I’ve never taken before!  The flight was pretty uneventful and, for my part, it was spent mostly in a state somewhere between sleeping and waking.  At the end of the flight we (me and the rest of the team) found ourselves in Munich Germany, where we enjoyed some fine European Cuisine from a little bakery at the airport.  Shortly after, we hooked up with Lisa Patterson (the Team Canada trip co-ordinator) and drove the 2hr drive into Austria.

So far we’ve been skiing twice on the beautiful trail system that we can access straight from our front door.  We will stay and continue to train on these trails until Thursday, when we’ll drive over to the competition site in Liberec Czech Republic.  One of the cool things about the place where we’re at now is that it’s a go to training site for many top level skiers; there are signed pic’s from Kikkan Randall, Alex Harvey and a bunch of other World Cup skiers on display in the main restaurant area!!

Currently, I have about an hour to kill until we make a snack run to Schladming.  So, what’ll it be?  Nap time?  Or sledding?  Being a ski racer isn't all work and no play!

Check out my new Twitter account for updates over the next couple weeks--I’ll try to post up some pictures of the beautiful scenery around here on it, so as to illustrate things a bit.

Dream big, people!!