Hewitticious

I now present to you Hewitticious. Video and lyrics created by Keara McGuire and Kaylin Irvine. Jess Hewitt asked me to post this because she wants to see how many views it can get on youtube. She has been shamelessly self-promoting this video for a while, but it has only hit youtube recently. It is pretty sweet though, so if you haven't seen it, check it out.

Things that are REALLY awesome day

I thought we had a well sponsored team. Well the truth is we are. But this is a little over the top. And awesome.

From Fasterskier:

Flying Start for the Swedish National Team

The Swedish National Team is aiming high this winter and they are reaching the sky with the help of their own airplane - Swedish Ski Force 1. “This is literally a lift for us. With our own chartered plane we’ll save both time and energy when traveling,” says Olympic hopeful Emil Jönsson, 24.

Last season the Swedish team presented their unique wax truck. The impressive, easy to spot Scania truck gave the team many advantages on the World Cup and at the World Championships in Liberec. It is a great advantage to be able to travel from race to race with your own mobile workspace with room for 600 pairs of skis, poles and waxes. Now, get ready for the sequel: an airplane - Swedish Ski Force 1. The plane is painted in the Swedish National Team colors, just like the Scania truck.

A few days ago the athletes were told about the plane, their newest weapon when battling the other skiers on the World Cup, and they gave it two thumbs up! “It’s a nice, cool and very comfortable plane. We will feel like kings traveling to and from the World Cups like this,” says sprinters Emil Jönsson and Robin Bryntesson. Both Emil and Robin were onboard for the first flight, a domestic flight between Bromma and the Östersund/Åre Airport.

It is the very progressive airline NextJet that will be sponsoring the national team with specially chartered flights, carrying Sweden’s fastest skiers to their destinations. “This sponsorship agreement means that we can, on very short notice, fly skiers to and from races all over Scandinavia and Europe. We will save a lot of time. We don’t have to deal with the difficulty of buying tickets or the long layovers in airports. In addition, we’ll minimize the risk of exposure to sick travelers,” says Johan Sares, head of marketing for the national team.

“We are happy if we in any way can add to the team’s success and victories, says Magnus Ivarsson the CEO of NextJets. He adds, “I’m also exited over the fact that 13 out of the 15 national team skiers live in my native Jämtland (region in Sweden).

Nouvelle Blogue - Laurie Marceau

Pour les francophones qui lisent cette blogue, et je pense qu'il y en a, car il y a un link sur le site du CNCP, je vous presente la blogue de Laurie Marceau, patineuse de l'equipe nationale. Comme vous le savez peut-etre deja, Laurie est dans sa premiere annee sur l'equipe nationale Canadienne.

Vous pourez trouver sa blogue ici.

Je m'excuse si il y a des defauts dans cette petite paragraphe, mais ca fait longtemps que j'ai ecris en francais.

Old Age

This morning I read a story about Japan populations. Apparently, Japan now has more than 40 000 people that are aged 100 years or more.

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/09/11/japan-centenarians-record.html

It got me thinking about a conversation I had the other day with Jeroen, the coach of the European mixed country team that trains with us. Basically the debate was this. I figured that because I am an athlete, and therefore eat very well, don't smoke, don't drink excessively, get alot of sleep, exercise daily etc, I would be a likely candidate to live to 100. Makes sense right? Jeroen didn't think so, and I think his point is valid too. He figures that the exercise that I have to do to get to and stay at an elite level is actual harmful to my health. Each day an elite athlete breaks down there body in training. Doing this repeatedley over many years can't be good he argued. Of course we take time to recover, but all that training has to be hard on the body. Probably true. Will I live to 100? It's probably all genetics anyways...

Food for thought I guess.

Olympic Trials recap

Its now been a week since the last day of racing at Olympic Trials that had any meaning. With the team mathematically decided after Monday's racing, Tuesday was an opportunity to have some fun. I ended up finishing fourth that day. My legs were still strong, but unfortunately, I managed to somehow lose my whole left edge and fell on my own two laps into the race. Not a great finish, but after the emotional low of the day before, I wasn't really worried about the outcome. It would have been nice to go out and beat guys that had made the team over me one more time for pride, but it wasn't to be I guess.

Since then I have been dealing with the fallout of not qualifying for something that I had spent everyday of the last four years working towards. For the first couple nights, I had alot of trouble sleeping as thoughts swirled through my mind about this and that. I had expected a let down after trials no matter the outcome, good or bad, just because there is such a build-up to a competition that is as important as Olympic Trials. What I didn't expect though, was that I would feel so free at moments and then so crushed in others only minutes after. Its basically been like a big rollercoaster with plans of doing stuff that I have been putting off because it conflicts with training occupying the highpoints and then having something like a news story, that triggers a memory of a close call at trials bringing everything crashing down. Its tough to say the least, but there are many people in worse situations that me, so life goes on.

Coming back to Yellowknife has been good for me too. I haven't been home for a year and a half, and to be back in a familiar situation is very comforting. Everyone here has been so supportive and really seem to understand the sacrifices I have made to get to this point. The support I have gotten from this town has been truly amazing.

So whats next for me? Well I am still on vacation until Friday when I head back to Calgary. After that I am not exactly sure. I plan to get back into training slowly as I feel ready. There are no competitions for non-Olympic skaters that have any serious meaning until December, so there is no need to train at a super intense level right away. My coach Jon mentioned to me that I shouldn't just jump back in with my brain set on the next Olympic right away, lest I risk completely burning myself out. After failures at major competitions, I often tend to become hyper motivated. This time, I would like to take a couple months of easing back in and making sure that I have good variation in my training and life so that I can be 100% sure that I want to commit myself again at the level that is needed to be one of the top skaters in the world. I will be back in school after a year and a half hiatus this fall, something that will be tough, but is necessary too.

This next season will be tough because there will be so much attention put on the an Olympic Games that I wanted so badly to be at, but I can still make it a good year. Look for new posts that will move away slightly from the norm that you see on this blog coming up in the future.

So close...

I brought it all today. Two second places. I raced the best I could in the 1500 and was inches from pulling it off. It came down to a mano a mano race between myself and one other and I just lost out in the last lap and a half. As it looks now, I won't be on the Olympic team. More to come in the next few days probably, I just can't bring myself to write anything now. Thanks to everyone for your support, I know it gave me the legs I had today. 

No regrets.

2 more days

"Men or Women don’t decide of their future, they decide about their habits… and their habits dictate their future."

My first coach at the Oval, Yvon Deblois, sent out this quote. I think it makes alot of sense and goes along well with my personal philosophy to training.