By Phil Widmer

Things didn't seem to slow down over the holidays and training kept ticking along. I took a couple of rest days when I first got home to get over my jet lag, decorate the tree and chill with my brother and sisters. But right after Christmas I took part in a Bow Corridor Sprint Relay with Sean. This was fun and my first classic race of the year! After that race it was time to get back to some serious prep for the Nor Am sprints in Canmore.

Saturday January 3, 2009.

Canmore Nordic Center hosted the Nor Am Skate Sprint – one of my favorite races and I wanted to do well. It started out as a cold day. The pursuit races scheduled for the previous day had been cancelled, because of the cold snap. The Saturday forecast was for a high at mid day reaching -15. Other than a couple of precious hours around noon, the temps stayed near minus 18 all day and the snow was squeaky and cold. The race was really one that I need to forget. It was probably my worst race in Canada in the last three years. I qualified 8th and finished 6th. I was really disappointed with my results, but felt like I had a handle on what went wrong. I think my Coach and I made some wrong choices and my body didn't respond very well. As always, more lessons have been learned and I am moving on. I had a couple of days to get some energy back and get ready to go again. between the disappointing Skate sprint and the upcoming Classic sprint

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