When Brittany Webster’s name appeared atop a list of results this past weekend, it wasn’t for Canmore’s Frozen Thunder. Instead, Webster replaced snow with sand and finished as the first amateur female in the 2014 XTerra Off-Road World Championships on the north shores of Maui, Hawaii Oct. 26.
The 5 Peaks Trail Running Series came to Canmore for the second installment of central Alberta's race series last weekend. Consistent with the usual 5 Peaks format, this event consisted of an “enduro” distance and a “sport” distance, 12 k and 8 k respectively. But unlike your average 5 Peaks race, this event featured Olympians.
In an interview on Friday, Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth discussed how he will work with Tor Arne Hetland in the coming year for Canmore-based World Cup athletes - "I’ve already had fun talking training with him" - and the other part of his new job, getting the national training centers aligned with the World Cup team to improve the development pipeline.
This week's workout comes from Ezekiel Williams, FasterSkier's newest intern and an athlete at the Alberta World Cup Academy. This time last season, Williams said he really enjoyed doing what his team called, the Agility Sprint Track Workout. "Combine the agility work and lactate threshold building into the short 1:30 hour workout time and it makes for a solid early training-season session," he says.
Following up on the Canadian Olympic team naming last week, FasterSkier caught up with four rookies who recently posted top results to earn their first trips to the Games from Feb. 7-23: Graeme Killick, Emily Nishikawa, Jesse Cockney, and Heidi Widmer.
Registration is Open for The Masters XC Ski Camps December 19-22, 2013 at the Canmore Nordic Centre REGISTER REGISTER REGISTER Optimize your technique and learn from the best at the Canmore Masters XC Ski Camp. This Masters Camp is for all levels and ages of skiers – catering to novice, intermediate and advanced cross-country skiers. three Masters XC Ski Camps at the Canmore Nordic Centre – December 19-22, 2013. Coaching ratio is eight skiers per...
With almost the same number of athletes as last year, the AWCA in Canmore, Alberta, has fewer women this season, but coach Chris Jeffries is pleased with the team's training quality despite some injuries. "The group is very focused this year and more mature," he says.
At 22, Heidi Widmer's suffered three concussions in the last four years, with her most recent resulting from a rollerski crash this fall. "I’m super lucky,” the Canadian NST member says. “There’s no internal bleeding, I’m functioning, I’m fine, but I just have to be able to take care of this and come out of it with some lessons learned for sure.”
Since nordic skiing is a lactate-tolerable sport, it's important to know how to get that stuff out of your system and deal with it on race day. That's why AWCA assistant coach Stefan Kuhn loves this lactate clearance workout: "It's super simple to do, but it really makes you have to dig deep," he says.
The Alberta World Cup Academy is inviting participants to its third-annual Spray Drag running race up Spray Lakes Road on Oct. 12 in Canmore, Alberta. Winners take 50 percent of the proceeds, and a Lactate Challenge is also on the table.
Heidi Widmer, 22, isn't one for hanging around. Recently promoted to the Canadian Senior Team, Widmer ended the season with a backcountry trip then flew to El Salvador and New Orleans before training in Switzerland, where she'll spend a month with World Cup and national team skiers.
Sovereign Lake Nordic Center’s annual Summer Ski camp from May 10-19 attracted the usual collection of hard-core skiers, a mixture of teams and day trippers who need a last fix of snow before the inevitable arrival of summer. With the city of Vernon already in full-summer mode in the valley below, Sovereign’s weeklong camp is the last chance for set tracks in the region.
Alysson Marshall overcame the gut-wrenching and familiar feeling of being sick for her first NorAm win of the season, and Phil Widmer continued his classic-sprint winning ways on Day 1 of the Eastern Canadian Championships in Cantley, Quebec.
Brittany Webster tallied an important win at her home course and race favourite Graham Nishikawa skied away from the field at the Highlands Nordic NorAm on Sunday, which concluded the Canadian World Championships trials.
After the Canmore World Cup, Alana Thomas decided to give up her spot on the Alberta World Cup Academy and resume training independently. Still living in Canmore, Thomas explains how she made the tough decision and what she's gearing up for now.
Ever wonder what it's like inside the Bill Warren Training Centre, Canada's premiere indoor facility for national and development skiers? FasterSkier took a tour and some photos while in Canmore, Alberta.
Jesse Cockney of the Alberta World Cup Academy pulled off the greatest race of his career, finishing second in Saturday's skate sprint qualifier then finishing ninth overall at the World Cup in Canmore. Lenny Valjas notched seventh for his best result of the season, and Phil Widmer made the heats for 15th overall.
2ND ANNUAL SPRAY DRAG RUNNING RACE October 20th, 2012 Alberta World Cup Academy in a running race up the Spray Lakes road! All proceeds go to helping support the team for their upcoming season… According to AWCA coach and race organizer Stefan Kuhn, “It’s basically all up hill … Starts on the river and we run all the way up then past the nordic center and up to the Spray dam, which looks over Canmore.” ...
Welcome the land of fried chicken. That’s what Alberta World Cup Academy and Canadian development team skier Kevin Sandau saw on his drive down to Whitefish, Mont., when he tweeted a photo of a license plate: Montana. Treasure State. FRDCHKN. The entire World Cup Academy (AWCA), with two weeks in Sweden, where she trained with the U.S. and Swedish national women’s teams in Sälen and Torsby. She’s taking a little breather in Canada first. In...
This is the third preview in a quick-and-dirty series about Canadian national-training centres. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order. Team: Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) Coaches: Chris Jeffries (head coach/women’s coach), Mike Cavaliere (racing director/men’s coach), George Grey (women’s assistant coach), Stefan Kuhn (universal coach/men’s assistant), Jeremy Hecker (summer intern), Rob Soffer (strength...