February 9- March 1, 2026

My coaching heart is SO happy and grateful for you all for such a great weekend of pure heart and soul racing!! I am so proud of you all (athletes and coaches) for such a positive and fun weekend! You all raced so well and it was great to see those tights being put to good use and look so fast! Well done Wapiti's!

Please note that this is a 3 week blog now. As I'm away for the next while, the coaches have everything planned and organized for you guys. So keep checking back here for daily details as there's lots to keep track of for you guys! 

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February 9-15: GO ZONE 8!!! YOU'RE GREAT!

Tuesday: CLASSIC: AbWG team: Classic practice 45 min then clean and wax classic skis, the rest of the team will distance ski for the rest of practice.

Thursday: SKATE: AbWG team skate race prep for 45min then wax skate skis and the rest of the team will ski with Coach Theresa for a workout. Team supper at 7:15pm for everyone. Please register and check here for what you're bringing. 

Friday: All Zone 8 athletes must bring a bagged nut free lunch for the bus ride and a filled water bottle. Please pack your own special race snacks for Saturday and Sunday if you have special pre- race foods that you prefer that cannot be picked up at the food center.

BUSING INFORMATION: AbWG team meet at the bus stop at 6:30am: you are on Bus #802 which is meeting at Keyera Place (9401 Park Rd- where we got our gear & tags last time for AbWG), Grande Prairie, AB T8V 7A5; You will be returning on bus #802 (parents you need to know this to be able to pick your athlete up) around 9:30pm at Keyera Place. 

Saturday: for those athletes not going to the Alberta Winter Games, Coach Theresa will be leading you on one of her epic workouts. Also Happy Valentine's Day! 💖

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February 16-22: 

Tuesday: Technique will be sent out by the coaches via teamsnap. The workout is a good one and one of your favourites. Have a great workout! Bring water for this one.

Thursday: Technique will be sent out by the coaches via teamsnap. This workout is a doozey and an awesome building workout. Bring headlamps for this workout please and waterbottles can be left in 1 spot. Have fun, I'm sad I'm missing this one! 

Saturday: athletes will work with the jackrabbits for 45 minutes, then you have a ski at tempo ski (you pick the technique that you want to do this workout in). Track your km's and the athlete who skis closest to Coach Claire's secret number get's a special prize from her when she's back. REmember this please!

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February 23- March 1: 

Tuesday: Technique will be sent out by the coaches via teamsnap. This is one of our last interval workouts for the season! It's gone by so quickly! As you are all getting faster each week, this will be a fun workout to be able to look back and see how far you've come and changed in the past 2 1/2 months (yes, that's all we've had snow for). Bring water!

Thursday: SKATE- everyone will do the practice, then 1/2 will go ski and the other 1/2 - Arctic Winter Games crew, will be packing up this evening in preparation for the training camp that starts Friday evening. Bring water and headlamps. No supper this evening, just packing quickly. 

Friday: Arctic Winter Games athletes: Please plan to meet at Pine Valley Resort in Tawatinaw for 6pm (or any time earlier!). Coach Chris will be there around 2pm and has plans for any athletes who can go early. Coaches Claire and Theresa will be arriving around 6pm. Coaches cannot drive athletes unfortunately, but there are parents willing to pick up or drop off- please organize this among yourselves (there are 11 athletes) and Coach Claire can bring equipment and fill her car with athlete luggage if need be! Parents, please keep your receipts, I'm hoping to be able to reimburse gas through the grant that we received. Also, athletes will be receiving their XC uniform at this camp which is $100/athlete as discussed at the first meeting. Please e-transfer clairerichter@me.com for your uniform. 

Saturday: for those athletes not going to the Arctic Winter Games camp, you will be helping out with Jackrabbits and then coaches will lead you with 1 jackrabbit group on a ski. This may be a skate practice/introduction to skate skiing for the jackrabbits, which is a great opportunity for you to show off how great you all can ski!!