.: Ski XCOttawa.ca :: Skiing in Ottawa and Gatineau Park

Training update from London, Ontario
By:  Kyla Vanderzwet   (2016/09/10)

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Hey folks, thanks for checking out the XC Ottawa website! I’m writing from London, Ontario, where I started school this week. I moved back to Bruce County (in Southern Ontario) this summer, but I've still been keeping up with the ski training and will try to join XC Ottawa in the occasional race this coming season...a true ski junkie I guess! I did most of my summer training on my own in and around Port Elgin. It’s pretty flat there, so finding hills required some extra driving. Lake Huron was very nice to be close to, providing a great spot to cool off after workouts. I’m ok with training on my own, but I find that it is challenging to stay focused during workouts without partners to train with. I tried to view workouts as opportunities to practice getting psyched up and staying focused on the task at hand – even if the environment isn’t conducive to those goals. I also got a friend to take video of me rollerskiing occasionally, to keep tabs on my technique.

The shore road in Port Elgin has a good path for roller skiing.

After a summer in Port Elgin I recently moved to London to start a degree at the Schulich school of medicine. I was very pleased to discover that there are a ton of trails and a decent set of bike paths in London. The University Athletics centre is also pretty awesome! Unfortunately there aren't many hills though, so I've decided I'll have to be flexible with the intensity workouts that I've got planned. I will probably do a lot of running workouts, as opposed to roller-skiing intensity on hills, and I've started training with the running team on campus. Obviously this isn't ideal, but some things you cannot control. On the flip side, it's great to enjoy a different sport with some fantastic athletes!

One of the easily accessible bike paths in London - almost looks like Ottawa or Gatineau!

Springbank Park in London has a decent set of trails alongside the Thames River, seen here.
 
The week before last was O-week at Schulich, with a ton of fun events going on. The week finished with Sports Day, which included a jump rope station. This station was surprisingly hard! I challenge skiers to try some skipping training – it's a great agility and coordination exercise!

As you can see from the video, our o-week team has some work to do on our jump rope skills!

As I learn the material at school, I'd like to be able to share some of it with our XC Ottawa readers.  I won't insist that you learn neuroanatomy or memorize lists of drug names, but hopefully some more practical information will come up from time to time!  Stay tuned :)
 
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