Patrick Stewart-Jones: Testing Limits in Whistler

Beautiful Scenery in Whistler

I got back from the Academy’s annual training camp in whistler a few days ago. The camp was about a week and a half long and I can honestly say I don’t think I have ever trained so hard in my life. When I looked at my plan and the camp schedule before hand I did not understand how I was going to be able to complete all the training. As the camp went on however I kept surprising myself with how well my body was coping with the heavy load. I was going into untested waters for me and over all everything went well. This could be attributed to any number of things. Proper rest, proper nutrition, a well designed training plan. In the end I think all of these things played a part, however I think most of all my body is simply capable of handling more than I thought. This then is a classic case of testing ones limits. Before the whistler camp I had preconceived ideas of what my body is capable of handling. These were not specific numbers or a particular amount of intensity but rather general ideas based on how much I had been able to handle previously. As it turns out however these ideas were wrong. My body and mind are capable of handling much more than I had previously thought. Every day for the week and a half we were in whistler I would wake up thinking I was not going to be able to handle the training. This however never happened and although by the end of the camp I was noticeably tired I never had the bad workout I was waiting for. As skiers we are always trying to get the most out of our training. We are trying to push ourselves as hard as we can without going over the edge. It is far too easy to get comfortable in your ways sometimes you need to be pushed to realize exactly what your limits are. This is what the whistler camp was all about for me. I was put out of my comfort zone and realized just how hard I can push my body. Much the same has happened to me in the past with racing. I have gone into races thinking I know how hard I can push myself at the start in order to keep the pace all the way through and achieve my best possible result. Sometimes however I start races going harder than I think I can hold. This has only two possible outcomes. Either you blow up and loose massive amounts of time near the end of the race, or you find that you are able to hold this pace all the way through and you find that you have a new limit. Like in training you can not do this in every race, but from time to time it is important to test ourselves. As competitive athletes we are all on a relentless pursuit of excellence and we are not going get the best out of ourselves with out getting out of our comfort zone from time to time.

On a different note whistler is a great place to train. It has endless trails for biking and running (thanks to Thompson D’Hont for lending me his bike for a few days) and great rollerskiing at Callaghan valley. When we were not training, eating or resting (which of course took up most of our time) there was always an abundance of things to do. We managed to catch a few concerts and spent some time enjoying the whistler life.

Me on the rope swing at Loggers Lake. This was a great way to spend an afternoon. Thanks to the CVTC athletes for showing us this.
Photo Credit: Heidi Widmer http://heidiwidmer.blogspot.com/