This past week I was in Quebec City for Canada Cup #1, the first domestic ranking competition used to select the National Development Team. It was quite interesting because of the range in weather conditions that I experienced. Wednesday rained, Thursday and Friday had wet snow and temperatures around freezing, Saturday was wet and sticky, Sunday was cold and windy. The temperature was never too cold but the ice and wind conditions were all over the place. Nevertheless, I raced quite well this weekend.
Friday, 1000m: 1st, 1:14.31
Saturday, 1500m: 2nd, 1:56.65
Sunday, 1000m: 2nd, 1:14.49
All 3 races went quite well, but my 1000's were really good. I skated very well and had some really fast first laps (27.1 and 27.2) for outdoor, refridgerated ice. To put that in perspective, in most low land, indoor ovals, A good first lap in a 1000m would be in the range of 25.8-26.3, and I was within a second of that outside in wind and snow and less than pristine ice conditions. That is a good confidence boost for me, since I've had trouble with my top end speed over the last few months.
This was probably my best competition in Quebec and it is the fastest I've gone on that track despite the less than ideal conditions. This is a good step working towards winter world cup trials which start in just over 1 month. Its a nice change to be racing well, but i've still got lots to work on to get ready.
