Funderar på vilket språk jag ska skriva på....I'll take it in english. Now when Frida is back here in Toronto it's easy to fall back into the swedish again. Maybe "fall back" is the wrong expression, but before she came my english was really good and from time to time my swedish accent disappeard. I also had a little trouble expressing myself in swedish cause I barely used it for several months. When my brother came to visit for a few weeks he said that I spoke swedish like a foreigner. Now I speak like a real swede again. It's funny how the brain works and how easy you get used to things. It's all about repeating.
So, a lot has happend since last time. Like I said, Frida is back here again which is completely amazing! Just like the good old days :) Work is going well - still lots of ski sales. The winter here has been great for cross country skiing, except from the extreme cold weather. It feels like Toronto is starting to wake up and realize how great this sport is.
We have been skiing up in Hardwood Hills as often as possible, which is around 3 times a week (Frida, me and Rob). Since it's almost 2 hours one way to get to the trails it has taken a lot of determination to be able to ski at all with a full-time job.
Wake up 4.45
Walk to the store at 5.30
Leave Toronto 6.00
Start ski around 8.15 up in Hardwood
Leave 10.15
Get back to Toronto 12.15
Take a quick shower and start work at the store 13.00.
A busy work day on top of that and you're pretty exhausted.
But if it is something that you really want, you will make the time for it and do it. However, that is not always completely true, but in most cases. In this case I'm very grateful to my boss for taking this time to drive up there, to sacrifice well needed sleep in an already crazy busy time with buying a new business and with all the stress that comes with that, just to go up skiing. And I know that without a car, a canadian driver license and with the fact of being under aged to rent a car, neither me or Frida would be able to get up there and ski.
So all of you back home that have the ski trails next to your backyard - go out there and enjoy them! It's not until now I have started to realize how amazing training possibilities we have back home.
This past weekend the three of us went to Ottawa to compete in Gatineau Loppet. It's Canadas answer to Vasaloppet (but much smaller). In Vasaloppet there is like 15 000 people - in Gatineau Loppet it's a few hundred. There were 3 distances to chose from, 15km, 27km and 51km. The 27 km race felt natural for me to pick since I'm not all about endurance (yet), but 15km felt a little too short.
I've heard a lot about Gatineau Loppet from people coming in to the store, from the previous owners of Velotique and from other people that have done the race. The one thing everyone agreed on is the hard tracks - more than 600m elevation for the 27km race. Phuuu. I tried to not have too high expectations on myself so that I wouldn't get disappointed, cause it was a hard track and I didn't feel in awesome shape. Strangely enough it turned out well. The race was hard, but I managed better than expected and kept a steady pace throughout the race. Unfortunately I had to ski by myself almost the whole race. I had a group of guys ahead of me that went faster than me on the flat parts where they double poled, but on the hillier parts I came closer again and could ski with them for a while, but everytime there was a downhill and some flat parts they disappeard again. It was a bit frustrating to not be able to hang on to them, but at least it gave me a boost to see that I was getting closer on the uphills. Towards the end a few spectators shouted that I was the second lady, so that gave me a little extra energy as well. I crossed the finish line with the time 1h54min, which I'm not stoked about, but since I came second I'm still super happy about it. It was a hard track and I wasn't in great shape so I feel satisfied.
Yesterday morning we went up to Hardwood Hills to ski again. It was -5 and bright sunshine - so perfect. Now it's Thursday morning and I'm up to something I'll tell about later....
E
