Team Hardwood

Thank you so much to the 2020-21 season sponsors of Team Hardwood! Your support is greatly appreciated, and is essential in creating an environment of teamwork, competitiveness, and achievement. @mpccomponents @gowhastings @strivesportmed ... @lakesidefamilyoptometry @bell_chiro_and_btf @trekbarrie See more

Thanksgiving intensity weekend!

Another successful volume weekend to finish up one of the last weeks of our summer program! @ Hardwood Ski and Bike

Successful intensity weekend with the team completing a duathalon time trial on Saturday and a hill test on Sunday! Lots of fast times, looking promising for the winter! @ Oro-Medonte

Inspiring to have Team Hardwood alumni Scott Hill join the team for some workouts a couple weeks ago! Thanks for sharing some of your skiing wisdom with the team

Congratulations to everybody who took part in our volume weekend, and a huge thanks to the parents and coaches providing water and support to make this happen!

Great work from everyone who came out for the first day of our volume weekend. We had several groups skiing between 3 and 4 hours, with some of the longer groups hitting 55km and 65km! Cant wait to see everyone out again on day 2! #RestTime #SkiBestAtTheEnd

The boys stopping to fuel up just before half way. Already 30km in!

Looking back at a great season! We had a awesome year with many athletes showing big improvements. Theo and Jess both won the Ontario cup series for their categories, Theo and sully won races at Ontario winter games and Anna Vurma winning her category at the Ontario youth championships! Thank you to all of the parents, coaches and athletes who made this year special! We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy at the moment and we are eagerly awaiting a time when we can train together again @ Hardwood Ski and Bike

We are in search of a new coach for our junior development program. If you are interested in applying please contact the email mentioned above for job requirements or with any questions. @ Hardwood Ski and Bike

Great racing from our group at the gatineau loppet 27km skate race this Sunday! Even got to see coach @jackxcgolf racing! : @austensanity @ Gatineau Loppet

Strong racing by Alec and Jess today in the sprints at world junior trials. Both making the top 15 in U23! @ Mont-Sainte-Anne

Always a wonderful time at the Muskoka Loppet. We love having a big showing of Team Hardwood athletes and parents. @ Arrowhead Provincial Park

With the lack of snow upon us, circumstances change and we were lucky to have some special guests join us this weekend. The additions to the time trial start list were welcomed as exhaustion and cheering erupted from all. Always nice to ski with such high level athletes and we feel very grateful for the opportunity to learn from them. All the best this season and race hard!

May not have everyone in the photo, but everyone is excited for the season! Looking forward to getting on snow and racing with friends.

Annual Forêt on snow training camp has come to an unfortunate end, once again. So thankful that we have this opportunity and excited to see it transfer to the race season! Until next year... @ Forêt Montmorency

Always a wonderful time introducing our sport to others!

Rule 3- the team is everything, protect the team.

Here are some highlights from the Championships that were captured. Thank you to James McLean for being behind the camera.

What a great Nationals for Team Hardwood with four gold medals and one silver medal! The highlight was the Team Sprint win by @lennyvaljas and @thompsonbobxc. It was Lennys last race at the Canadian Championships and Bobs first gold medal. Lenny also won two gold medals and the overall senior mens aggregate award. @sullivan.macdonald also won gold in the midget Invitational race. Everyone who raced had at least one race that was the best race of the year. We are looking forward to an even better year next year! TRFive is coming, are you ready?

They did it! The Team Hardwood dream team of Lenny Valjas and Bob Thompson won the Open Mens Team Sprints at the 2019 Canadian Championships. I haven't been that nervous watching a race in a long time. It is Bobs 1st ever gold medal and it was Lennys last ever race at the Canadian Championships as he is retiring after the World Cup next weekend. These two guys have been loyal to Team Hardwood throughout their whole careers and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. - Jack Sasseville @ Nakkertok Nordic

Gearing up for some awesome racing! Be sure to keep up with our results via zone4.

Girls had a blast racing sprint heats today Lappe Nordic Ski Club for OCup #2. Excited for the rest of the weekend! #nordic #skiing #nordicskiing #teamhardwood #hardwood #thunderbay #lappenordic #skirace #cwg2019 #ontariocup #xcso #racingisfun #sprints #skate @ Lappe Nordic Ski

First race back at Hardwood after the fire was a success. So nice to see others enjoying the beautiful trails. https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/mobile/video?clipId=1569151

Fantastic start to the season at @nakkertokracing for the Candy Cane Cup. #nordic #skiing #nordicskiing #teamhardwood #hardwood #gatineau #nakkertok #skirace #candycanecup #ontariocup #xcso #racingisfun #sprints #distance #classic #skate @ Nakkertok Nordic

What a wonderful weekend for racing! First Ontario Cup is finished and we had an amazing time racing at Nakkertok. The weekend was filled with many laughs, ugly race faces, and pleasant surprises! Congratulations to some incredible racing by all.

We feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to ski on such beautiful snow. First on snow training camp and we cannot be more excited for the upcoming season.

https://vimeopro.com//toronto-skisnowboard/video/240058424 Check out Marco at the Toronto Ski Show - great job Marco!

Shilo is off to World Juniors for Biathlon.. first trip overseas...good luck Shilo

Bella Kicking it at the Twin Cities loppet, finished a convincing 2nd overall

Keep working on skills... learning or mastering a skill feels good Think rather then react to external variables... stuff happens see if you can spin it to work for you Keep your self talk positive... there is always something good to focus on

SOD Summer Endurance Fest Lots of great skiers here to share their knowledge and experience. A ton of roller skiing Group activities... Race A ton of fun Looking forward to seeing you at Hardwood in August

At team Hardwood we constantly ask ourselves how can we make our program more engaging for athletes, here is what we are working on this year. Foster an inclusive, fun, engaging team culture Personalizing skill development.....working with individual strengths and weaknesses and helping them move more efficiently on skis... Recruiting and Training young coaches.... investing in the future of the sport Changing How We View Failure ..... Failure as an Essential Part of Growth Lets see how these guide us through the season

Jacobsen Gives Advice To Young Skiers Norwegian cross-country skier Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen believes that it's good that she was never hyped or pushed by her coaches or parents as a young skier. But she believes that many young skiers today have much more pressure put on them to succeed. Jacobsen recently attended a gathering of female skiers at Storefjell, where she talked about what is really important for girls to have success in skiing. "If I'd only thought of medals, ...I would have not survived in cross country skiing so long" says Jacobsen, reinforcing her position on focusing on skills and experiences instead of results. "I believe that you can thrive more easily in everyday training by focusing on your development and successes... The main thing is you enjoyment, coping and well-being" she emphasizes. "Nobody is perfect". Jacobsen credits her success to her attitude and inner motivation, which has allowed her to succeed in her skiing and med school studies despite injuries and setbacks. On this note, she was impressed with the attitude of the girls she talked to in Storefjell. "They talked about self-esteem and confidence easily, and enjoyed working hard together" she says happily.

Amazing Camping trip last weekend, check out the Video and photos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLTpwZwTIRk https://drive.google.com/folderview

Elite Team Update by Joey Foster Now that I have comfortably settled into the 2016 training season, I had some time to reflect on the past few months of dryland training. This is the inaugural year of the Team Hardwood Elite program and so far our team is looking great. The team dynamics seem to be solid and it is looking like we will have a strong team for this coming winter. We started the training season off on a high note with a two week altitude training camp in Canmore,... Alberta, where we got to do some spring skiing in Sunshine Ski Resort and a lot of hiking in the surrounding mountains. This was the first trip where we got to see how our Elite Team was looking. Now that June has come and gone weve really gotten into our groove for the summer of hard training. Looking back, June was a stellar month for me. I was able to increase my training capacity from last year and handled the increased hours with ease. This is a great sign for the race season. June mostly consisted of lots of long distance training so that we can build a solid base for the rest of the summer. The whole team seems to be doing really well and we had lots of fun training sessions. Most notably would be our 6am intensity sessions which were always a great challenge not only because they are hard but also because everyone has to wake up before 5am. We also had our fill of easier days where we would go out training in the morning and then head to the beach in the afternoon for some fun and relaxation before training again in the evening. Now we are at the start of July and currently the whole team is on a break week where we are all doing training non-related to skiing. What I mean by this is how Coach Ron is at the moment camping with all the younger athletes on the team and their days are filled with canoeing and hiking instead of roller skiing. This week allows us to start the rest of the summer off refreshed while not actually taking a break from training. All in all, the start to the training season has been very successful and I am excited to continue the summer with my awesome team! See more

Remember to reward effort not results As we look back on the last season we should be asking only one thing "did we leave it all out there at every race". Results will follow and it will seem to come easy, but it is on the heels of all the hard work and sacrifice that you have put in.... Looking forward to another incredible season with Team Hardwood

Coaching thought of the day Just like Team Sky who found success in the aggregation of marginal gains and the All Black who prepared themselves physically and mentally for their match with the Haka, I will constantly endeavor to find ways to make us better. I am so juiced for Nationals

We stand on the shoulders of Giants I would like to share something that Justin did for Team Hardwood. Last year I asked Justin if he would come to the first coaching conference that we were putting together. Without hesitation he agreed, ( to understand what that means, remember that he is on the road over 200 days a year) Justin knew the importance of working with club coaches and the necessity of sharing lessons he has learned from being a national team coach. I have had... the privilege of working with many great coaches and the common thread is that they all have the ability to constantly learn and share their knowledge with others. On behalf of Team Hardwood thank you Justin I learned a ton last year that I will be able to share for years to come