Chandra's Ski Trax Athlete Blog

March 3rd, 2008

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July 27th, 2008

New Zealand is a fabulous place for a summer training camp. It's winter here at the Snow Farm located in the Pisa mountain range near Wanaka on the South Island. 55kms of really cool trails are groomed every morning and for over half of our days here we've enjoyed big blue skies (on other days the white-outs are necessary to deposit more of the fluffy stuff so I keep smiling while trying not to ski off a cliff).

With less than a week to go my energy is good thanks to a much needed rest day mid-camp and maximum appreciation for this summer skiing opportunity keeps morale high on our Canadian Ski Team. Also here are the American sprint team, New Zealand ski team, and assorted Aussies and tourists.

Training has been steady and good following a Haig glacier camp back in early July. Our new coach Arild Monsen re-dedicates himself to improving our technique and fitness daily and entertaining us with such jokes as slamming on the brakes unexpectedly to make sure we're all wearing seatbelts. Hopefully he doesn't think I'm joking when I tell him it's not very funny.

After mornings spent double polling, doing hard interval workouts and long skis, we often drive the 40 minutes down to Wanaka. This town is absolutely stunning and the climate is much different than up at the Farm. No snow. Beautiful lake. Lots of nice coffee shops. A trip to the Cinema Paradiso completes an outing of coffee at Kai Whaka Pai, jogging along the lake, doing some core at the weight room and taking a sauna. This funky movie theater is an absolute highlight of the trip for me. You can read about the comfy couches, cool movies and delicious cookies baked fresh for the intermission here.

August is fast approaching, and I'll be home on the 2nd. I hope to take in a bit of the Canmore Folk Music Festival along with my recovery and later join the extended Crawford family (10 aunts and uncles, 18 cousins, 6 dogs) for a bit of a vacation on a lake near Cranbrook.
Enjoy the photos: