Summer in Pictures

It seems like overnight the weather has turned for the worst, it's cold, I wore a jacket and a hat the other day, and now it's September and I guess summer is officially over.  I took two mini trips this summer; one to the cottage with the famjam and one to visit my parents in BC.

Our family cottage is my happy place, unfortunately during that trip I had a concussion so I couldn't do a lot other than sit on the dock (on the warm days) and read in short bursts.

A month later I travelled to BC to hang out with my parents and luckily I was recovered from the concussion at that point so I was able to go on a fun hike with the mom and the sister; there's nothing like those BC forests.

The Summer ended on a high when me and the roomies roadtripped down to Edmonton to see Taylor Swift in concert!  I won't go into too much detail but it was incredible, I could post a full review if anyone wanted because I have SO MANY THOUGHTS about Taylor Swift.

Why Losing is Hard

When you watch the Olympics on TV and you see an athlete win that elusive gold medal the commentators always say how hard it is, how hard that athlete had to work, what hardships they had to overcome to stand on top of that podium.  When you join an elite sport and go to training camps you hear that talk from coaches, the one where they tell you how hard it is to be the best and that it's not easy, that the best become the best in the world because they put in the work.  What they don't tell you is how hard it is to lose.  What you can't see while the cameras are focused on the winner is the numerous other athletes behind them who on a different day, under different circumstances could have been on the podium or the athlete sitting at home who didn't even make the Olympic team because of one mistake during the Olympic trials.  There are so many athletes who do the same training and work just as hard as the medalists but at the end of the day they don't win, they lose.

I've been training in Calgary for about four years.  After a year and a half I started doing well enough that I got moved from group 2 into group 1; the same group that the National Team athletes train in.  I also went from being one of the fastest in my group to the slowest.  It was a lot easier to be one of the fastest than the slowest both mentally and physically.  Obviously I want to be in the top group and I need to be in that group to improve to where I want to be but some days it's hard to always be at the back of the pack especially when I can see exactly where I want to be.  I've recently realized there are more athletes who don't achieve their ultimate goal than there are who do even if they work their absolute hardest.

Training Camp 2015

A few weeks ago the entire short track oval program road-tripped down to Penticton BC for an off ice (mostly on bike) training camp.  Training camps are usually very difficult but also fun and a good chance for team bonding (or at least growing closer through shared pain).  I was not terribly excited for this camp simply because I am not the biggest fan of cycling (more on that here) but I was doing my best to be optimistic.

One of our first training sessions was a weights session at Beach City Crossfit; a gym that opened right onto the beach to an incredible view.

just dramatically lifting weights at the beach 

We did a lot running, imitations and most of all cycling for ten days and two training sessions a day.  Some of the bikes were good, some weren't but for the most part the experience was a positive one, I got to spend some good time with old and newer teammates, have a bit of fun, and work hard.  There's something very fulfilling and rewarding about finishing a hard training block or camp especially when it feels like it's going to be impossible to complete somewhere in the middle.

a bike that went so well I took a picture, unheard of!

fire by the beach to celebrate completing the camp with the team