Our Olympic season is now well underway. We’ve been on ice for three weeks already. This is the earliest that I have ever started skating. It was actually kind of nice to start skating again after only three weeks. Too long off the ice and it takes a while to get your feeling back. Obviously it would have been nice to be on off-season for a bit longer, but being able to get back on the ice with some feeling for our skates still left over from last year will help get us up to speed and working on what we need to excel next year in less time.
I spent most of my off season travelling. First, I was in Toronto to visit Jess. We also made time to rent a car and head down to visit my grandparents in St-Marys.
Luckily my time in Ontario also coincided with my Grandmothers 91st birthday. It was fun to get out for dinner with her and my cousins to celebrate.
Following Ontario, I headed north. I planned a 24 hour stopover in Calgary on my way to Yellowknife to visit some friends and my sister quickly. It was a beautiful day so Jill suggested a short hike. We did a quick walk up Prairie mountain and took in some Alberta scenery and sun. I don’t get out to the mountains enough living in Quebec now, so I really enjoyed that.
Once I made it up to Yellowknife, it was time to relax! I spent a lot of time out at our cabin, resting, eating and enjoying spring-ish weather. I couldn’t get out and do as much as I wanted to while I was there since I was nursing a bit of a groin injury from the end of the season, but it was still awesome to be out of the city for a while. As I mentioned in my last post I met with SSI Micro to finalize a sponsorship and later that day I visited the CJCD radio station for a quick interview.
I also got invited by the Yellowknife Speed skating club to come out and hang out with the club skaters. Their season had just wrapped up, so we rented the fieldhouse and played some games and ran around a bit. The kids had tons of energy and I had a lot of fun!
Michael Gilday 