PART I:
Ah, the much-anticipated latest instalment of the The Way I See It – and I mean that personally. I’ve been meaning to write something for about a month or two but had other things on my mind. But now I have some time freed up and so many eager blog readers dying to hear about my current experiences. So like any great story we’ll start at the end: Where I currently am and what I’m currently doing. Originally I promised from a narrative standpoint that I wouldn’t add this but what the hell. I’m sitting on my bed after floating home from dinner with a belly full of food from dinner and a head full of beer from the sauna. We, the CNEPH training center, are in Ramsau, Austria banging out a hard training block. Luckily for the sake of my body we’re resting for a couple days. I’m feeling pretty tired but rightfully so. Training with Louis is great but challenging. It’s kind of like sticking your finger in a flame: You can only go in short bouts and just before you burn, you pull it out and spend three days playing golf.
But before I get into too much detail concerning the fall, we should discuss the summer. It was a great summer but equally busy. During the month of August I drove over 5000km and trained about 80 solo hours in three provinces. The best part about all this is that I never felt any stress of travel. I just sort of rolled with it and enjoyed the lifestyle. Looking further back on the summer I can’t really recall much that happened in July. I know that I was training a great deal but mostly around the bow valley. I find when you spend too long doing the same thing in one place it all kind of moulds into a singular experience. The moment that defines July for me would be running on the power lines adjacent to Highway 1 across from my apartment at Dead Man’s Flats. I only ran there once but it seems that July was spent logging zone 1 training from my apartment.
When running on that power line came to an end, I begin organizing the next three months. I had my comrades flying to New Zealand at the beginning of August and I wouldn’t really see anyone until the second week of September. During this time I had to train, coach at a summer biathlon camp in Camrose, watch a Kings of Leon concert in Edmonton and run a training camp in North Bay. With all this on my plate I was still very adamant about driving across Canada. A few things contributed to that idea but mainly I was reading material that glorified long drives. And why not? Once I had my car in Quebec my options are limitless. I could have limitless groceries for a change and limitlessly drive due south into Maine and over to Boston to watch the Sox. This has been a dream of mine. I want to pick a fight with a Harvard student in one of their campus bars. How do you like them apples?
When the time came to coach the Camrose camp, I threw my roller skis and backpack into Nicky’s car, took over the wheel and drove north up on the Queen Elizabeth. The kids were painful to work with because they didn’t give a shit but the trip was pretty fun. I had memorable workouts on a quiet prairie road on the outer skirts of the town there. This road ran 9km down to a spot on a muddy river referred to as a beach. No wonder the road was quiet. I had lots of time to think on these workouts and I rather enjoyed it. It gave me a break from the delinquents I was working with and allow me to drift away with music, setting the metronome to a moderate but expressive tempo for the 2/3 hours.
The first day we arrived in Camrose, we only had a couple hours to settle before getting in the car again and driving into Edmonton to watch a Kings of Leon show. Great show. I was blow away by the number of fans they’ve collected since their last album. They packed the Rexal Center to the rafters where we were seated. Nicky got tickets at the last minute because of the camp schedule so we were put in the highest row on the far right side. This didn’t wither my spirits though but perhaps Nicky’s, as harsh head-cold symptoms took her down almost immediately after sitting down. Poor girl. I was rocking out solo by the end with one fist in the air while her head were in her hands. All in all it was a great evening, though. Well for me at least and I think Nicky, too. You have to ask her.
Before the show we arrived late to a BBQ at David Leoni’s and chowed down some ribs and corn on the cob before taking the train to Rexal with Natalie and Adam. Natalie was as excited to watch the show as Nicky and I and Adam was just going along with it. Natalie would tell him, “Adam, you’ll like it. You will probably even recognize a couple of their songs from the radio.” Adam was sceptical but he knew he would have the classic Rexal crack beer in his hands in no time.
Our time in Camrose came to an end which came as a relief. I was getting sick of logging long days on that pancake-flat road. Once again I got into the driver’s seat of the Ford Taurus and made our way home. I was fairly antsy to train because the quality of my training seemed half-assed for some reason and I knew that I only had 10 days before the long drive. I decided with accordance to Louis’ training program that I would attempt 40 hours in ten days. This of course is pretty ridiculous but I thought I would give it a try. I fell a few hours short toward the end because I had to get myself organized. It was trippy to think that I wouldn’t be home until November. The end of August and the beginning of November seem like years apart in my head. So I rushed around tying up loose ends and on August 26th at around 4pm Nicky and I merged onto Highway 1 out of Canmore and set the car on cruise control. Reclining my seat I turned to Nicky and said, “Well, here we go – the only time we’ll be getting off this road for the next 2000k is for gas and sleep. Settle in.”
