Light at the end of the tunnel
What a great week that was last week. No, I'm not being ironic, it was a good week of training, That said, I basically spent a whole week in a large indoor fridge getting used to being back on snow again before the winter race season starts in just over 3 weeks time.
I'm just back from Torsby in Sweden where they have, one of only a handful in Europe, an indoor cross country ski facility which is best described as a snow tunnel. It's simply an indoor loop of about 1km which has small snow covered rises and falls in it to simulate a ski race track and its ideal for pre-season training and for testing of skis.
There was a British Nordic team of 7 of us out there plus a coach and we're all aiming for our own targets out of this coming season.
For me, my goal is to gain qualification for the European Youth Olympics in Erzurum, Turkey in February as part of the selected TeamGB squad. This means, still quite a bit of work to do between now and the close of qualification at the end of December.
In order to qualify for selection, I have to be at no more than 20% behind the overall winner of the race. This seems quite doable on the face of it, but in my race category are older athletes and depending on where their birthday's land, I can be in some races against basically 19 year olds. So it can be tough, but I'm encouraged by my results last year and know that I've worked hard over the summer to boost my fitness levels and improve my techniques.
My up ond coming programme for the 2016/17 season is as follows:
October - Torsby, Sweden - DONE
November - Idre, Sweden - Race Camp
December - Goms, Switzerland - Race Camp
January - Planica, Slovenia - Race Camp
February - Ramsau, Austrai - Altitude Training Camp
February - Erzurum, Turkey - Youth Olympics
April - Bruksvallarna, Sweden - Race Camp
So, quite a busy and expensive time for me and my co-athletes, I also have to fit in school work and exams and earn some money to support my goals, which takes me nicely onto my other news.
Over the last 10 years, I've relied heavily on bank of mum and dad to support my skiing career. But we sat down at the weekend and worked out that the total cost for this year was going to be around £7,000 for the season. Therefore, it's important for me to be able to raise some of that myself and not put my parents penniless out on the street.
I've therefore started a crowdfunder appeal to raise some of the money to support my pathway to podium and qualify for the games in Turkey. I'm hoping to raise £1,500 from the crowdfunder, but if I can raise more then it would take quite a bit of pressure off and allow me to focus on racing and not worry about how I'll fund the race camps.
If you are able to support me, in what ever way you can, then even a £10 donation will make a big difference. For details, please go to https://www.pledgesports.org/projects/brodie-murray-youth-olympic-dream-2/ and check out my appeal.
I'll keep you posted on my progress and let you know how I get on.
