Inside the beats

Although 90% of the 6787 songs in my itunes are mellow singer/songwriter guitar songs, the upbeat gems have an important role to play. Battling the fatigue in my body from a 2+ month trip and pushing through it all to perform to my best is helped by a little dance party distraction in my ears.

My race in Slovenija again confirmed that following my big effort for Dusseldorf I'm in a bit of a trough in energy and seriously due for a re-charging trip to beautiful Canmore.

I am so happy to be here for a week before flying back to Europe to start the Tour de Ski (http://www.tour-de-ski.com/)
Although my boyfriend Devon is staying over in Davos, Switzerland with a few of my teammates home is where it's at for me and after skipping Christmas at home a few years ago I'm keeping my pact not to do that again.

"There's no place like home." - Dorothy

-Chandra

Pop stars and athletes alike...

Hi Friends,

Let's start off with the profundities of pop stars:

"Cause you're hot then you're cold,
You're yes then you're no,
You're in then you're out,
You're up then your down."

Katy Perry could have written those words for athletes everywhere about the vicissitudes of performance. I was thrilled with a 12th place in Dusseldorf last weekend but here in Davos, Switzerland where the sprint course is 700 meters longer and the altitude over 1000 meters higher I had a disappointing weekend with my career-worst result in a skate sprint: 57th. OUCH!!

I gave it my all and then some but the race was incredibly tough on a long and grueling course and in the end I was several seconds from reaching my goal of top 30. All in all I can only do my absolute best and I lay myself on the line every weekend in the hopes of fulfilling my potential. This is my life. Truly, the journey itself is incredibly satisfying and I appreciate the highs so much thanks to lows... onward!

I'm going to keep blowing on the flames of my burning desire for international success and hit up my last World Cup before Christmas in Rogla, Slovenija this weekend. After being away from home since October I'm feeling the strong pull of Canmore as I inch closer to a sweet reunion with my happy, healthy town.

Warm wishes from snowy Switzerland,

Chandra

Lucky Headphones and Olympic Qualification!

Hi Friends,

Things are going great over on this side of the pond. In the past four days I have been in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The great news is that I have secured my spot on the 2010 Olympic team by meeting the top-20 criteria set out for me by my national sport organization. Because I'm on the comeback train from injury it was deemed necessary for me to prove my fitness by getting a top 20 result in a World Cup. When there are hoops to be jumped through there's no time to waste so I set my sights on my best chance of all: a skate sprint in Dusseldorf, Germany Dec 5th and geared my training towards it.

This super unique World Cup runs a skate sprint on 828 meters of snow expertly placed along the Rhine in the snowless city of Dusseldorf. With the odors of cheese, beer and smoke wafting onto the course the atmosphere is nothing if not uniquely exciting with many spectators out to cheer. It's great.

I was psyched up and totally stoked that my new headphones: Beats by Dr. Dre (compliments of my good friends at Best Buy) arrived just in time by special delivery from one of our wax staff who came over from Canada just before the race. Wearing these cool Beats I was able to be totally in my own zone for warm up despite the chaos of racing in a city. When I wore them without tunes pumping I was more in touch with my breathing and focused head space. When I wanted to get really psyched I cranked the Lady Gaga, Kanye and Rihanna and felt my energy soar with the music.

I placed 12th in my race and am so proud to be able to send out some Olympic high fives out to my blog readers and turn my laser-beam of focus to the classic sprint at the Olympics Feb 17th.

This weekend I have a skate sprint on Sunday on a long course here in Davos, Switzerland where I'll be highly pumped just to get in the points (top 30). Should be fun.

Thanks for tuning in, and until next time...

Pump some tunes!!

Chandra

Welcome to my Best Buy Blog!

Best Buy has been my top sponsor for 4 years now and I'm thrilled to be representing this awesome company as I travel the World ski racing and empowering young women through sport with my organization Fast and Female (www.fastandfemale.com). I've been grateful for their rock solid support through the highs and lows of injury, training and racing and I hope to entertain you sportsfans a slice of the drama here on this blog.

I'm 26 and was born and raised in Canmore, Alberta, where I still live as the Canadian National Ski Team is based there. I started skiing at the age of 1 at with my parents at the Canmore Nordic Center and have been racing since I was 12. I'm stoked to keep you updated on my Olympic journey as these next few months promise to be extremely exciting for Canadians everywhere as things continue to ramp up for the home Games.

I've been away from home for a month already with stops in Austria, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Finland. I've procured prototype new ski boots, raced some World Cups, fought piranhas and my coach severely broke his hip. Ok, everything except the piranhas... but the way some of these hard-core Euros race my odds might be better against the omnivorous freshwater fish. Just kidding!

This week I'll be training in Livigno, Italy and as I look out the window here at Helsinki airport I'm really looking forward to seeing the sun after 3 weeks in Northern Scandinavia. Italy is one of my favorite places to travel and over the past 10 years of ski racing internationally I've developed good friendships with the Italian racers and even picked up some of their beautiful language. It's going to be a great week of training in Italy and racing in Germany on the weekend in a World Cup sprint along the Rhine river in the city of Dusseldorf. Snow is trucked in from a nearby indoor ski hill and the cheers of fans who line the course 10 deep create quite the atmosphere.

Thanks for tuning in and if you want to catch up on my older news check out www.chandracrawford.ca.

Ciao,

Chandra