Racing at home!

Well today was the first race of IBU cup 6, and it was amazing to be racing on my home course. It was a typical blue bird Canmore day, zero wind and a fast hard track. Leading into these races I had been sick for 3 weeks and had no idea where I would land among our Canadian contingent! Since the races were in Canada we get 5 extra starts, meaning 9 racers! It's been great having more than 3 or 4 women in the wax room and always someone to ski with! Today was the first of two sprint races. During my warm up my legs weren't feeling great and I knew to have a decent result it would all come down to the shooting. My first loop was better than I thought it was going to be and I came into my prone and cleaned my targets nice and quick. Back out on course trying to stay with the Germans around me. Into standing and again 5/5, ah just what I was hoping for! As I was leaving the range Yolaine and Claude were leaving the penalty loop, yes someone to ski with! Unfortunately I just didn't have enough gas in the tank to stick with Yolaine. That girl can ski!! In the end I was 8th, tying my best ever result on the IBU and best Canadian. Sure there are less people here racing but the best still made the jump over the pond to compete! 

Tomorrow is another sprint, start at 10am for women, so my plan is to shoot the same and ski faster! Hopefully today got some of the cobwebs out from not racing for 3 weeks. After tomorrow's race they will name the last two spots on the World Champs team. This year World Champs are in Ruhpolding, the mecca of biathlon! 

Nathan Smith had a fantastic race today hitting 9/10 and winning the race! It's always motivating to see your teammates do well!! 

On a sadder note my boyfriend Brendan Green has injured his back pretty bad. After coming off of his best weekend of racing ever in Oslo, with two top 10's and a 13th, it looks like he will have to sit out the rest of the season. He herniated a disk and can barley stand or walk, let alone ski. It is sad but also better to have it happen two years away from the Olympics rather than in an Olympic year. 

If you are in or around Canmore be sure to come out and watch and cheer on the Canadian team!

10am start - women

1:30pm start - men 

Cheers

Rosanna

my dad took some great photos that I will post after tomorrow's race 

Home for the Holidays

It was great to be in Canmore this year for Christmas. Last year the team stayed in Europe and Brendan and I took mini 3 day vacay to Venice, Italy. This year I got to hang out with the family and enjoy some great skiing at the Canmore Nordic centre. But a quick recap of racing after Sweden;

We ended up spending two weeks in Hochfilzen, Austria because there was no snow in France where World Cup 3 was supposed to be. The first weekend was sprint, pursuit, relay. I missed 3 in the sprint and didn't make the pursuit. For Sunday's relay Megan Heinicke (Tandy) came from the IBU to round out our team, it was a exciting race and I manage to hit 10/10 without any spares and tagged off in 8th just behind 6th and 7th, in the end we were 9th tying the teams best ever result. On Monday because we didn't have to travel to France we took the day to explore Salzburg and go see the Christmas market. 

The next weekend was sprint, pursuit and mixed relay (2 women and 2 men) In the sprint things went bad again, I missed 3 prone and cleaned my standing but still didn't make the pursuit. This year so far has been disappointing, my skiing is faster and more consistent than last year but I've lost my shooting touch! I am sure it will be back for the rest of the year though! 

The mixed relay team was Megan Imrie, Zina, Brendan and JP, they had an amazing day placing 6th! Brendan had a great start of the year making all the pursuit and not missing a single target in any of the sprints or relays! 

On January 2nd I head back to Europe. Things are kinda up in the air for where I will be racing! 

Possibility 1: IBU race in Forni Avoltri, Italy, Individual Sprint, 2 women head to Nove Mesto, Czech for WC5 then Anholtz, Italy WC6 there is a relay there and then one women will head back to Canada and one will continue on to WC7 in Oslo. 

2: after Forni continue on to Haute Maurine, France for the next IBU races and head home on January 16th. 

Megan Imrie and Zina will be going to those 3 World Cups as will Brendan and JP. 

Brendan at the start of the Pursuit 

Megan, Zina, JP, Brendan getting ready for the flower ceremony.

scary statue in Salzburg 

Saw my first yarn bombing in Salzburg!

 

out enjoying the snow with Moki!

Happy Holidays!!

Rosanna

Sweden, Jah!

When we first arrived in Ostersund there was hardly any snow and the tracks were more like a skating rink than ski trails. Luckily it snowed and it was much nicer skiing and a lot less like a death trap! But the range had constant winds and made shooting extremely difficult. One minute it would be blowing one way and the next another. Wednesday was the first World Cup race of the season, with the men's 20km individual. JP had a great day hitting 18/20 and coming in 14th, the other guys had a bit more trouble on the range. 

Thursday was the women's 15km individual and the winds had not let up. Skiing felt pretty good and I skied much better than I did last year here, but I had 7 misses and ended up 70th. Friday was the men's sprint race where Brendan placed an amazing 14th with clean shooting, he was the only one to qualify for the pursuit. Our sprint race was Saturday, as I came into my prone shooting and right around my 2nd shot the announcer was telling the crowd how Chandra had come 4th in today's cross country sprint race in Dusseldorf, needless to say I focused a bit to much on him and missed my 2nd and 3rd shot but pulled my self together for the 4th and 5th. I hit 8/10 and came 56th, just making the pursuit. Zina had a good day placing 15th and Megan was 33rd. 

Sunday the men and women both raced. As soon as the men finished racing the clouds moved in and it started dumping snow! By the time start rolled around it had snowed probably 4 - 5 inches. This made for really slow skiing. I wasn't feeling as good as in the individual but hit 17/20 and moved up to 51st. 

It's great to finally be racing again and getting the first race nerves out of the way! I am happy that I qualified for the first pursuit of the season, but still have a ways to go to get to where I want to be this season. 

Yesterday was a long travel day to get from Sweden to Austria and we are now in Hochfilzen for World Cup #2. They have moved WC3 to Hochfilzen as well, due to lack of snow in Le Grande Bornand, France. The men and women race Friday - Sunday with sprint, pursuit and relay. It started snowing this afternoon and looks like conditions could be good for these races. 

cheers

Rosanna

out for a jog along the lake 

ski testing with Tom

On the road again!

Well it has been a while since my last blog post, I will try to get you up to date. Currently I am sitting in the lounge at the Calgary airport waiting for my flight to Ostersund, Sweden for the first World Cup races of the season. But let's back up a bit! At the end of September we headed back to Europe to Ruhpolding and to ski on the Dachstein glacier in Ramsau. We got to spend five days in Ruhpolding where World Champs will be  held this year, the roller ski loop is very similar to the one in the winter and the targets are the same. The skiing on the glacier was pretty rough, but we got a bit of prolonged summer training on some great roads!

shooting range in Ruhpolding

Biathlon range in Ruhpolding

skiing on the glacier 

Scott P taking a tumble in the snow/slush!

Megan skiing on the "snow"

Brendan skiing on the glacier

Matthias aka Yodel on the climbing wall in Ramsau

Jacqueline came along as assistant coach! These photos are curtesy of her! 

Jean showing us his war face!

We went for a really cool hike one day, but had to climb down this super scary ladder!

this was also on the hike, kinda looks like the moon! 

of our 3 weeks spent in Europe only 2 were rainy! 

After getting home from Europe they pushed out frozen thunder (the snow saved from last winter) and we were skiing on some good, clean snow! At the beginning of November we had our World Cup and IBU cup selection races in Canmore on snow, the first time they have been on snow in a really long time. Megan Imrie was pre qualified for the WC team, meaning there was 2 spots left open. On Monday we had a sprint race and things were not perfect, my legs were not feeling super and shooting was ok. I hit 8/10 and came 5th. Tuesday was the mass start format race (meaning individual starts but mass start distance 12.5km) and things went much better! Legs were feeling good and I hit 20/20!!! I have never before hit 20/20 targets in a race, it was pretty exciting. That day I placed 2nd and snagged one of the WC start spots, Zina took the other. The mens team will be Brendan, Scott P, JP and Scott Gow (also know as golden Gow or Thor). 

My first race is an Individual next Thursday. The training is all done and it is now time to start racing! I will be keeping you updated here, so be sure to check back often! 

Cheers

Rosanna

Summer time!

It's been a while since I wrote a blog post and seeing as it is now September, there is snow on the mountains and race season is just around the corner, I thought an update is due! Since the beginning of June our team has been training hard in Canmore. Things have been going really well and I am feeling strong. Since we have been in Canmore training I don't have too many stories to share with you! The past couple weeks we have been training at High Wood pass, for some long skis at altitude, doing lots of intensity work outs and enjoying the playground that is the rocky mountains! 

My last recovery week lined up perfectly with our Crawford family reunion out at Windermere. Every year we rent a cabin and spend a week enjoying the lake, playing music, eating great food and going out on my cousin's sweet boat! This year both Chandra and I got to spend the full week there, doing our annual Panorama roller ski! 

Today we did a 10km Pursuit time trial. The race went ok, but there is defiantly some room for improvement! Next week we have a couple of races up Norquay and some Biathlon races on the weekend.  Then it's a recovery week before we leave for a training camp in Germany. We'll spend three weeks, training on the Dachstein glacier and in Ruhpolding. 

Here are some pics from the past couple months! 

Cheers

Rosanna

Some pics from todays time trial. Coming into shoot.

skiing up the hill to the range 

Chandra taking a dip after roller skiing Panorama road.

Megan met up with me on my way home from Windermere and we went for a great hike/run through the burnt forrest and up to Bole pass. 

 

We found some snow at the top, Moki was very excited! 

Super Moki, jumping off the dock in Windermere. 

Brendan also made it out to Windermere for a couple days. He got to meet the whole Crawf clan! 

My dad and his siblings, this was the first time in a while that all 6 of them were there! 

Some of the cousins! 

Canmore Crawford's at their best!