World Junior trials

I arrived in Canmore about two weeks ago for world junior trials. Even though I had already made the team from the NorAm races in December, trials have the exact same events as world juniors so they are good practice races for Val di Fiemme.

 My team and I stayed at the Rocky mountain lodge. The lodge itself is pretty nice but we had to fit 6 people into a 3 bedroom house with a tiny kitchen... it made things interesting. 

Photo creds to Graham Perry

We spent the first few days in Canmore enjoying the mountains, the warm weather and adjusting to the altitude (1400m).

With the girls

And the races began. I know that trials should of been a stress-free competition for me, but no matter what the circumstances are, I always seem to find a reason to be nervous. All week people would tell me that I had no reason to be stressed out, and I knew they were right. Why was I nervous?   I thought it through, and realised that I felt the need to prove that I had deserved the spot on the team. I had put pressure on myself to beat others. I am not saying this is a bad thing. I am a competitive person, it runs in the family! But before focusing on the outcome of a race, it is important to rethink about your goals. My goals for the 3 races had nothing to do with how I finished. These races were a perfect learning opportunity because I could work on things without having to worry about the outcome. I was happy with my results from the 3 races, taking home silver in the 5km, 1st in the sprint and 3rd in the pursuit. It was only after the first two races that I was able to settle down and focus on skiing well instead of just skiing fast. So what did I take away from trials? It is okay to be nervous, as long as you are able to put your focus at the right place.

Pushing hard

Sprint podium

While my team headed home, I stayed in canmore for an extra 3 days with the rest of the U23/Junior team to train before leaving to Europe.

After the wind storm is Canmore

To finish off, I would like to say good job to my sister Emilie who raced two very solid races after not racing for almost two years. If you have not already done so, go take a look at her blog: http://estewart-jones.blogspot.ca/.

I'm now in Seefeld Austria skiing and taking a lot of pictures, so expect an update soon!

Katherine