Devon Kershaw

The wind is full-on grinding me down. It seems as though New Zealand spring, traveling across the Southern Pacific, is locked in battle with our snow bound plateau high in the Southern Alps and for the past four days the wind gusts have been upwards of 85km/hr. Spring is losing, as it remains winter-like up here, but not for lack of effort. With about 5 days of substantial winds bombarding us, I'm starting to worry that if this keeps up my clothes are going to begin to resemble a tattered main sail of an 18th century Spanish Galion nearing retirement; in tatters, stained (in my case from sport drink that blows out of my drink belt in the short span between unscrewing the lid, and lifting it to my lips), weathered and derelict.

As per the norm at most training camps I attend throughout a season, my life has begun to morph into it's simplified one-dimensional world (which I adore, haha). As I cruise into the second week of this on-snow training camp up high on a barren high plateau –30 of my closest Canadian ski racing buddies and I are enjoying another stellar summer of skiing up here at the Snow Farm.

Although my life at times may seem glamorous, the above cities (excluding one) mentioned were just thrown in to get your attention. As random as that sounds – and the reality is that I've only ever stepped foot in two of them.

I won't bore you with too many details of how the yo-yo camp ended – instead I'll just start by saying that even though I've just completed the toughest camp of the season (and perhaps my life), I am shocked I'm not completely shattered and beat. I'm by no means frisky, but I still have a smidgen of energy remaining and I'm extremely happy with how the camp turned out

2) MOST IMPORTANT: I am leading and organizing a group ride in Sudbury in partnership with the organization "Share the Road." Based in Southern Ontario, Eleanor McMahon has done some amazing things to aid in keeping us all safe as we utilize the roads for recreating, commuting, human-powered transportation, etc…

It's groundhog week for the National Ski Team here in Canmore, as we've just completed the second big week of training in our three week camp today. Why groundhog day? Because Each of the 3 weeks is virtually identical - some small changes with respect to disciplines done, but the framework, wake-up times, travel/training locations, etc... all remain the same. It was another great week of training for us, and aside from the weather and space limitations on the glacier earlier this past week (made for some quick plan-changing), all went off without a hitch and I am still feeling cautiously optimistic for next week's final big week of this 3 week - tough yo-yo camp.

While lying in bed recovering from my first week of fairly big training-camp atmosphere/training, I suddenly became rather curious.

As planned, the body was feeling the effects of the bigger hours I'd punished my body with in early/mid June, and as such, the planned two week re-coup period came at a perfect time. I was able to slow things down gradually, regain some energy, and now I am feeling ready to tackle our next training camp. It's so paramount to get that quality rest seeing how it will be much needed to survive this next extensive block of harder training which begins tomorrow and ends in three and a half weeks. On top of the training stress, let's not forget the grand finale - the fabled, much talked about and much anticipated, Canmore Olympic Distance Triathlon

It's been a big two weeks of training now, and as I come to the end of it I can surely feel the 48 hrs completed to my core. That was always the plan though, and because of that June has been slightly tougher than in previous years. Tougher hour-wise, and although we've started with intensity as well, it's predominantly been level 3 type efforts with the odd level 4 or race effort to keep us honest.

This post is all about the photos. I'm going to try my best to take shots and upload them more frequently in between my lengthy literary updates to satifsy the fans (which only really amounts to Jamie Coatsworth, my mom and my dad).

The first camp of the year came and went - and since my last post, everything remained amazing. It was just so great to have everyone together again, stoked and training together. Nothing beats the training camp vibe. It's just so great to get everyone together laughing, and hanging out again after an April spent recharging the batteries and it is also the truest reminder that we are indeed right back into full-swing with regards to our Olympic prep. Sure, the Games are still 10 months away, but after spending a little over a week training twice a day with my teammates, there's no denying that those 5 simple intertwined rings are on all our minds as we begin to put in yet another season of serious kilometers.

Who would have guessed that one could top a Sayulita/Mexican wedding – with less than a week's notice no less. Swine-flu really threw a giant wrench in the cogs of the Hull/Wuikchik wedding, but Team Wuikchik/Hull pulled one of the most efficient and almost supernatural switheroos' ever performed to move the whole wedding from Mexcio's West Coast to Canada's rugged and beautiful West Coast in about as much time as it takes me to respond to an email.

I toyed with idea of just leaving the title and calling it good, but I can't resist the temptation to bore you with the trials and tribulations of, well, me. It's been a busy spring. Busy – legendary nonetheless