Season Highlights From Our Athlete Ambassador – Ariane Lavigne

Wow! Winter as been flying!

Each year, I feel winter goes too fast… I guess it’s because I’m having fun!

Snowboarding is my biggest passion, and most of it comes from traveling and meeting great people with different culture, where we often travel to remote places locations sometimes do not always have the biggest mountains or the most popular resorts. Away from the tourist crowd; we get into the traditional vibe, meet locals, and ride on perfect snow all day long and when we have time, we go to hot spots or the beaches… what a privileged lifestyle I’ve got!

My top spot of the year? I would say Italy for the culture, food and good people in the small towns, close second, New Zealand for the spectacular views and proximity to the ocean, and coming in a close third, Barcelona for the city action and Spanish/Latin vibe!

Train hard to play hard: Adrenaline!

Another aspect of competing I really like is the excitement and challenge of racing with people from all over the world. At every start, adrenaline is cranking! I get to learn a lot when training with the best riders on the planet. World Cup athletes are definitely inspiring and I find they motivate me to always push my limits to the maximum.

When I think of my season, I have great memories: Technically, mentally and physically.

I feel I’m improving and getting closer to the top 16 in World Cup (finals by elimination). I got 18th twice in the last races, which is really close to my goal. I also finished in top 30 for overall World Cup standing, and on the NorAm circuit, things as been going great: 6 podiums and…the overall 2011 NorAm champion title!

So what’s my plan for next year?!

First, this summer I’ll be training a lot in Montreal to start next season in top shape. I also have few projects in nutrition and working as a nutritionist at Nautilus Plus gyms. We also plan summer training camp on snow, probably Chile in august (I cross my finger because it’s my favorite spot…snow conditions are AWSOME!).

And then World Cup circuit starts in October. I will focus more on world cup circuit, hopefully will do the whole tour (I missed 4 event last year). Top 16 and podiums are definitely the next step!

So far so good

I believe dreams can become true if we put positive energy into what we love. We just need inspiration, motivation, and faith in destiny.

Cheers to life! – Ariane Lavigne- Pro Snowboarder –Canadian National Team

This seems to be a good strategy for me. I seem to do best when I don’t put any pressure on myself to achieve a certain time or obtain a certain placing in the event. I suspect it allows me to be very calm and relaxed both before and during the race. One thing I did differently that day that may have played a big influence was that I listened to music during my run. I found it really helped me focus and my thoughts remained very positive.

I have done this race 3 times before with my best time being a 1:27:30. The pace and perceived effort felt no different than any of the other times I have done this event. I only checked my watch once, which was at the 10km marker, where my watch read 39 minutes on the dot. That is a pretty decent time for me considering my best 10km was on a track a few years ago and I ran it in 38:37. However, there was still a lot of race to be ran and I didn’t bother doing the math to figure out what I was on pace for.

This race is never easy. Because the course is flat, you are pretty much guaranteed to be in a world of hurt. My legs were getting pretty sore by the last few kilometres but I just tried to push as hard as I knew I could because soon it would all be over! I honestly thought for sure I was going to be slower than my last time at this race but when I rounded the corner just seconds away from the finish line, the timing clock read 1:25:38. I WAS ECSTATIC! I couldn’t believe I had beaten my last time that much considering I have not been doing a whole lot of specific training. The body truly is an amazing thing and I love it when it surprises me like that.

This year my goal and mentality is all about “KEEPING IT FUN”. As you can see from the above result, this is a strategy that works for me and allows me to be at my best- not just physically but mentally as well as emotionally.

If you find that you are struggling to stay motivated or are constantly beating yourself up about your race results or how you compare to others…STOP. It will not serve you or anyone else around you any good. Take a look at what you love about the sport or activity you do. Ask yourself why you do it and what pleasure you get from it. In the end, if it’s not making you happy, try something new!

Nicola Gildersleeve
Athlete Ambassador

http://www.ngildersleeve.blogspot.com

We just signed on with Canadian Sports Centre Pacific so we will be working closely with hundreds of professional and Olympic caliber athletes to fuel their incredibly arduous training, with the Olympics here in a few months the timing is perfect. We’ve already sold tons of bars to the snowboarders, speedskaters, lugers, ski jumpers etc., Now we just need to share our bars with all the pro sports teams out there, once they try them they’re hooked, so that helps.

We’re offering some guerrilla freebies away so let’s start now: the first 3 people to email me at info@prosnack.com and mention the codephrase “Flumoxed by Calamity” will get a free mix box sent in the mail, no strings…offer good now until Aug 7th 2009….keep on enjoying the ridiculous summer heat.

in GOOD health,
Earl Ellingson
Chief ELEVATE ME! Officer