Pursuit of Excellence

...the title of a great Sport Psychology book by Canadian, Terry Orlick. But that's not really what this post is about! The line caught my eye when I was reading over a study done by AthletesCan in 2004 of Canada's High Performance Athletes.

The article is an interesting read and makes me reflect on some of the things I've been thinking about lately. Why do sport? Why be an athlete? Why do some people push harder and go further than others? Is it worth it? I won't answer these here, but I have a few different phrases posted around my room that I read every day and one of them happens to be Pursuit of Excellence.

I was perusing the publications over at AthletesCan and came across the really interesting study from 2004 - Status of the High Performance Athlete Survey.

It's long, but looks like it's worth a good read sometime. If you don't read it, here are two interesting questions to ponder:

1. What is your motivation for athletic involvement?
2. What is do you see as your role in society as a high performance athlete?

It's worth thinking about. And when you've answered for yourself, you can see what Canada's athletes say!

When the water falls

Canmore is a rainy place these days...which is weird, because it never rains in Canmore. But it is, so I am working inside and enjoying some training in toque and gloves. No big deal, it could be raining in Hungary! Otherwise, the mountains are amazing and I am enjoying my time here.

On the weekend, Liza and I headed off to Sundre for the 5Peaks race. The drive out was quite spectacular with the foothills in the their glory, but of course the day's highlight was taking a course record on the 10.6km race! I was hoping for a good workout from the race without gutting myself, so it worked out perfectly.

Sunday's event at the Canmore Nordic Centre went well with quite a few new people out to try the new permanent orienteering course. If you are ever in town, be sure to head to Trail Sports to try the course - either by foot or MTB - electronic timing and map for $5.

In other news, last month's Orienteering North America had an interview with me, talking about racing, training, and a few other things. In case you don't subscribe to ONA, you can check it out here!

Junior World Champs

The Junior World Orienteering Championships are taking place in the Dolomites of Italy right now. The Sprint and Long races have been run and only the Middle and Relay are left over the next few days. It is exciting to follow online and to check out the maps when you wake up in the morning!

The guys have shown improvements over last year in every race and today, Emily was an awesome 5th in her qualifying heat! Check out the Women's Map from the middle!

When you wake up to the promise of your dream world coming true...

The days are marching on and my recovery from the Blaze is finally complete. Some time in Van to recharge was much needed before the final countdown to the Worlds. There isn't an hour that goes by without thinking about Hungary now! But it's still many weeks away and just thinking isn't enough - every day counts, lots of hard work to do still!

To Canmore

Early tomorrow, I'm back in the air, this time off to Canmore for nearly two weeks of work in the mountains. On Sunday, I will be doing a talk at the Nordic Centre before the summer opening of the permanent orienteering course. Adrian and the local club undertook this massive project and you can now go to Trailsports, buy a map and run several electronic timed courses, anytime you want! Join us on Sunday at the Nordic Centre! My talk is at 10AM. More info on the Barebones Website.