Being a Tourist!

The Last Few Days

Since the races were all finished by Friday afternoon we took Saturday to explore Brasov - the nearest bigger city (approx. 217 000) and Sunday to explore Bucarest before flying out early Monday morning.

Here are some pictures!

We woke up to winter Saturday morning - where did that come from!

The Palace in Bucharest, the second largest admin building in the world!

Cool little alley in Brasov!

Exploring Brasov with the team!

All in all, it was a successful trip to Junior/U23 World Championships! It would have been nice to have been feeling better for racing, but you have to work with what is given to you at the time! Thank you all for reading about our adventures, and a huge thanks to everyone who has helped us get here!  Coaches, parents, family, friends, and sponsors - we could not do it without you! THANK YOU!

Junior Relays

Day 15

Today was the last day of world champs and to finish it off were team relays! Unfortunately there are only junior relays (4x2.5km for girls and 4x5km for guys), not U23 relays so Kendra didn't race. Her and the other teammates that didn't race rocked the cheering though! We didn't actually have a complete junior girls relay team because two of the girls weren't feeling well but luckily the other girl and I were still given the chance to race our part of the relay. Even though it wasn't ideal not to have anybody to pass off to when I was finishing, I'm glad I didn't pass up the opportunity to race in the event! I will never forget what an inspiring and amazing feeling it is to represent Canada :) 

Natalie ready to race!

The exchange!

Finished!

Cheering on the guys!

In the evening, the Canadian team along with all the teams, attended the final banquet/athlete party. First we had a taste of fresh beef cut off from the huge rotisserie at the entrance, followed by a traditional Romanian dinner and finally a dance!

Overall, a super fun night with the team! 

Biiiig Rotisserie - pretty sure it was beef?

Banquet table!

Skate Races

Day 14

Well it's finally semi-winter in Romania :) For the first time in a while, it was actually below zero and there was a thin dusting of natural snow covering the ground! Kendra and I were so happy that we could ski in temperatures we were more used to and on nice firm snow....maybe a little too close to ice but definitely better than slush! Today the starts were switched up so the juniors were in the morning followed by U-23 in the afternoon. I was glad to race in the morning since later on it got quite a bit foggier. Both Kendra and I weren't feeling 100% leading up to the race today but were happiest with this race of the 3 we've done so far. Kendra's body was feeling better however she found it hard to push her limits. This being the first time I have done 4 laps for a 10km, I wasn't sure how to pace myself and finished feeling like I had a bit more to give but overall was happy with how I skied! Even if we may not have always been super pumped with our results, Kenny and I are really enjoyed racing and learning from the experience. The truth is, as long as we're smiling there's nothing to worry about :)
Today's race was Kendra's last for the trip but she is looking forward to cheering for the junior relays tomorrow!!

Nat over the top of the hill

Kendra climbing the hill

Natalie's free skate

Kendra finishing it off

Rest Day

Day 13

Today was a super relaxing day. We decided not to train today to try to get back to feeling good! We had to fill the hours with something though, so we headed down to Dracula’s castle in Bran a 1/2hr away with a bunch of other teams. The castle was cool, but the highlight was scoping out the Romanian pastries that we will sample this weekend when we head down with the Canadian team. The evening was filled by playing a game of charades with the team, which was actually quite hilarious!

Dracula's Castle!

Cool stone bridgey thing!

Checking out the market in front of the castle

Classic Day

Day 12

Both Natalie and I were pretty excited for this day as generally 5km and 10km classic races are our thing! Unfortunately, it was less than ideal conditions out there and both our bodies were not feeling 100%. The racecourse at 8:30am when the U23 girls started already had puddles in it – so by the time Natalie raced around 1pm the size of the puddles had only increased! This made for a super mentally tough day as we were fighting the conditions as well as our bodies to try to go as hard as possible. Natalie especially had a hard time because with her late starting position she had no one to ski with on her second lap whereas on the 2.5km lap everyone else had someone to ski with! The little bit I skied with the other girls was super fun and interesting to learn how the other girls ski the course. On the bright side though, it was a fantastic day for cheering with blue skies and temperatures between 15-20 degrees! The afternoon was spent cheering on the rest of the team! This race took quite a lot of energy though, so we are happy that it is a rest day tomorrow!

Nat finishing the 5km

Afternoon cheering!

First Race Day

Day 11

Sprint day!! The U23s raced the 1.3km sprints in the morning, followed by the juniors in the afternoon. The setup worked pretty well, as all the juniors could watch the U23s and the U23s could watch all the juniors, which made for a super fun day! It was a beautiful day - but rather hot for racing! The sun came out making for some pretty slushy conditions. The wax techs did a fantastic job on the skis making our first race very enjoyable! Despite the fact that skate sprints are generally not our forte - both Natalie and I felt like our qualifiers were solid preparation for tomorrows race. Also,  due to the crazy forecasted weather (heat and rain!) both the U23 races and the junior races are tomorrow! The organizers are hoping that all the races can be fit in before the snow is gone! (We will know more about the organizers plans in the next few days). Regardless of the weather though, we are ready and excited for the classic races tomorrow!

Stadium setup from above

Some of our awesome wax techs

It was a gorgeous day! Look at those mountains!

The uphill (right) and the downhill (left) on the course

Watching the Heats!

Hannah and Natalie after their race!

Bye Bye Wheels!

Day 9

Today will be (hopefully!!) our last day on rollerskis before the championships start! For training today, we split into 4 groups that each went down to the bottom of the mountain separately to do our race prep, two days out of the first races. For Natalie and I, that meant an easy 1-1:15min rollerski. Although the rollerskiing was still rollerskiing (so not fantastic by definition!) it gave us a chance to get a feel of the surrounding towns. Unfortunately, the road was quite a bit busier than the day before as it seems that the area is quite the tourist destination for Romanians on a Saturday! It wasn't only the tourists that made the road busy, however, as traffic was also slowed by a shepherd herding his sheep and multiple itty bitty lambs down the road. (Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but take my word for it - these were adorable little lambs!!). Also of interest were the locals dragging huge carts up the mountain side filled with dirt (as far as we could tell). No doubt about it, there are some hard working people around here!

The afternoon consisted of walking around where the trucks were laying down snow, to get a feel for the course. It is definitely coming along - although there is definitely some work to be done!

The piles of snow waiting to be flattened

 It was enough to get us pretty excited for the next day, where we will actually get to ski!!!



Day 10

Today's big excitement was getting being back on snow! Man made snow,...but still snow:) As seen in our earlier blogs, training in Romania so far has consisted of running and rollerskiing, so getting back on real skis today was great! In order to preserve what snow we do have now, there was only an hour allotted to all the girls and an hour for the guys.

The madness when everyone was allowed on course

Since the U-23s race tomorrow and again the next day, Kendra had a lot to do in a pretty short time slot considering she had to test classic and Skate skis as well as do her race prep for the sprint. I will have the opportunity to test classic on Tuesday so this meant I could be a little more relaxed today. Despite the fact that we were pretty busy while we were on skis, I couldn't help noticing how cool it was being on the course with so many other athletes! We were constantly weaving in and out of people just to keep moving! The slightly hectic hour, however, was very exciting and got both of us pretty pumped to race this week!! This being my first time racing internationally (not counting Alaska) I am a little nervous for sure but at the same time am really looking forward to this new experience! Even though the atmosphere and location are much different than what were used to, Kendra and I are excited to get out on the trails and race :)

Apres ski excitement!

Cheile Gradistei Fundata Resort

Day 7 and 8

We made it to Rasnov, Romania and to the sport venue!! We are not actually staying in Rasnov, rather, we are staying at the Cheile Gradistei Sport Resort, which is up a long twisty road almost on top of a mountain! All the teams are staying in the multiple hotels on the Resort making it a sort of 'athlete's village' for the championships. The teams also all eat together in a central restaurant on the resort so it's fun to scope out the other teams. While the food is not up to the 4 course meals we had in Austria, it is still tasty!

When we arrived, we checked into our rooms - which are also pretty nice - and then went for a run to check out the ski venue. Also super nice is that the ski trails are about 2 minutes away from our hotel and 1 minute away from the food place. What we discovered on our run though is that the trails have very little to zero snow. Really, like zero - these pictures make it look good!

The trails seen from the restaurant

The far side of the trails seen on our run

The view from the square outside the restaurant

So, due to the lack of snow we are making the best of it running and rollerskiing (rollerskiing in February.... whaaaatttt!!!!) around the venue and down off the mountain on the roads below. Luckily (I guess) you can rent rollerskis at the resort, so we didn't even have to bring our own! We're just taking it day by day though, and today the organizers started laying snow on the course (from somewhere!), so things are looking up!

Natalie on an afternoon run

view on the run

Nat doing some sprints!

Kenny doing some intensity!

So, all in all, the first few days in Romania have been interesting! Apart from the lack of snow, everything is fantastic and we look forward to the days ahead! It is getting more and more exciting as more and more teams show up! :)

Recovery Day

Day 6

Having done intensity yesterday, we did a recovery ski today, which for Kendra and I lasted around an hour and a half. When we started it was pretty socked in and cloudy, but by the end the clouds had lifted and the beautiful mountains were revealed! It is truly gorgeous around Seefeld! :)

Since we did not need to meet somewhere for a specific workout, we took the opportunity to further explore the trails a bit. Along with a few other skiers we climbed for about 40 minutes up to the top of the trails, where we had driven for intensity! Even though it wasn't  particularly sunny, it was still well worth the climb:) Despite almost falling on my face a couple times due to the klister, the ski down was super fun!

Kenny taking a 'long' cut on the way up

Halfway up!

At the bottom, but you can see the mountain!

All done :)

 In the afternoon we took a short walk downtown to be tourists for a bit, checked out a couple stores, our favourite definitely being the truffle shop! ;) We met a man on the street who had noticed our Canada jackets and was very keen to talk to us... Only problem was he spoke only German and we couldn't really understand what he was saying. Slight language barrier... He eventually found someone who could translate so he could ask his question! He really wanted to know what sport we did. All adds to the amazing Austrian experience  :) Later we packed up our skis and duffels, enjoyed our last 4 course dinner at the hotel and hit the road to stay the night in Munich before the flight to Bucharest. Visiting Seefeld, Austria was wonderful and we will definitely miss the incredible skiing! At the same time, I can't help looking forward to Romania and the new adventures it will bring:)

Intensity and gym day!

Day 4

Today was intensity and gym day! This marks the first intensity for the team since arriving in Europe. Unfortunately for me, I have been feeling a bit under the weather (stuffy) since leaving Canada, so held off on the intensity. However, my day was pretty fun regardless! Since the trails that we have skied on the past few days are super busy with tourists and locals out in full force (even during the week) we decided to venture further up the mountain to some of the other ski trails (there are 270kms of trails!!!) The road getting up to the start of these trails was a typical European mountain road - super narrow with crazy switchbacks and tight corners. This made the drive up quite exciting in our rental Tourneo vans with not stellar tires! We made it though and it was well worth the drive!!

The skiing up on top of the mountain was amazing! Unfortunately it was semi-socked in around us, so we couldn't get the whole view of the valley down below, however, the glimpses we got were stellar. As the rest of the team was doing intensity, Amanda and I adventured around the trails, with the goal of skiing for 1.5hrs, doing some sprints and ending up back at the hotel at the end, without jumping in the vans for a ride down. However, due to the vast network of trails, and limited posted maps, we ended up doing some more adventuring! The result was a lovely ski, with perhaps more climbing than we really wanted and due to running out of time, a ride down in the vans. But, this was not a problem at all! Rather, we found some adorable horses in a barn alongside the trails, some pretty cool tree forts and zipline set ups, a dog play park, and multiple cute cabins like the one to the right. The only downside was that we didn't get to ski down the 3km downhill back to the hotel. Oh well!!

One of the many cute cabins on the trails!

The afternoon was filled with a delicious lunch, nap time (finally we are allowed to nap as we have adjusted to the time change!) and a gym session. As Nat and I haven't been doing a ton of gym work this winter we kept the gym session primarily a stretching session, with a teensy bit of core. It is always interesting to see what the other girls are doing for strength as it is a good way to get ideas to spice up our gym sessions.

All in all another good training day in Seefeld!

Seefeld and Innsbruck

Day 3

Natalie's view on the day -

What another amazing day :-)

We woke up this morning to find a beautiful blanket of fresh snow covering the town. I was so excited to get outside and ski. For the morning training session we did classic sprints in small groups. It was really inspiring having the opportunity to ski with so many talented athletes and learn from them! Even though it is Monday, the cross country and downhill trails were still packed with ski tourists, which I loved as it makes for quite the skitown vibe!

In the afternoon we drove about a half hour to a place called Innsbruck. Which is just down in the valley from Seefeld. We explored through old tow walking through beautiful cobblestone alleys full of little shops! Just before we were heading back to the van, we got to watch a cool zumba type dance in the square!

Had a great day and looking forward to many more to come :)

The square in Innsbruck

Kenny with her croissant

Walking along the river in Innsbruck

Travel and Arriving in Seefeld

Day 1 and 2

The first day of our adventures to Junior and U-23 World Championships started with a very long travel day. Natalie and Amanda, coming from Whitehorse, actually took 3 days to get here, staying 1 night in Toronto and spending 1 night on the plane. My trip wasn't so bad as I flew from Ottawa after the Eastern Canadian Championships.

Exploring around the Munich Airport, while waiting
for rental vans to be sorted out

Due to the long travel and time change, the struggle upon arriving in Seefeld, Austria (the site of our pre-competition training camp) was to stay awake until it was a reasonable time to go to sleep. To keep ourselves awake we went for a run around Seefeld and then had a delicious four course dinner at the hotel. Finally time for bed!!

Our hotel! 

The next day brought more excitement as we checked out the ski trails in the morning, and explored the town to find coffee. A run in the afternoon followed by dinner, finished off the day. 

skiing!

The girls relaxing at a cafe

Tomorrow is bound to be filled with more skiing, exploring, and food!