Turkey Week

This past week was a busy one with the addition of three more teammates and our coach here in Canmore. Here's the week (or the most exciting parts of it) in photos:

A collage of photos from last weekend and the first NorAm races of the season. 

If you enlarge this picture (by clicking on it) you can see Raleigh and Casey skiing on a trail that went along the top of the field I was in. They started making cat noises when they spotted me skiing down below them. Look just below the tree line about 1/3 of the way in from the right...

Happy to be in Canmore...

Perfect classic tracks here almost every day (as long as it doesn't blizzard like it is right now). 

More perfect tracks into the cross country stadium. 

Cool snow crystals on a morning distance classic ski. 

Love my SkinTecs for these workouts…perfect wax (almost) every time. 

Maddie and Mikaela cop a smile for the camera during our classic exploration. 

Thanksgiving dinner at the biathlon house with friends from the Methow Valley. 

Not sure why Raleigh and Russ are being so creepy here... 

The whole gang! Notice our lovely coloring work hanging on the wall in the background...

Mikaela, Maddie and I showing some end-of-the-month love for Movember during our pre-race workout on Friday. Why any biathlete (or cross country ski racer) would have a mustache is beyond me…it morphs into a really disgusting snot catcher pretty quickly! 

Team shot…minus Russ who missed the memo somehow. 

Me shooting standing during Saturday's Individual race. I shot (0,2,1,1) adding four minutes of shooting penalty time to my final ski time (in the Individual you don't ski penalty loops but garner one minute penalties for each missed shot). 

This past weekend we all raced in NorAm #2: an individual on Saturday followed by a sprint on Sunday. Individual races are rare in North America so this was good practice for our group. My race wasn't what I'd hoped for due to some really tired legs but decent shooting still earned me the final spot on the podium. 

Group shot while waiting for the results and awards ceremony. 

Podium from the Individual on Saturday…Emma, Emma and me! 

Podium from Sunday's sprint…

I had my best race yet, actually out-skiing my two podium mates for the win after shooting (0,2) and leaving the range behind both of them. Emma Lodge (second place on the left of me) started right in front of me and shot (0,1) and Emma Lunder (on the right in 3rd) started two places ahead of me but shot (2,1) so it was a duel on course when we left the stadium very close together after the standing stage. I only ended up ahead by 5 seconds so it was an exciting way to end the weekend of racing. 

Our MWSC teammates were all over the place during the holiday week for camps and racing. This collage features a little of everyone. Enlarge it to get a better glimpse. 

Race summary from the past week. Click to enlarge. 

My MWSC teammate Annelies is racing on the World Cup right now. Our group here in Canmore has really enjoyed the start of the World Cup season for both cross-country and biathlon….lots of results to peruse and video footage to watch during down time between workouts. 

We have five more days here before we head to Minnesota for IBU Cup trials. Not to leave us deceived about it's true winter nature, Canmore is going to get cold for our last few days.