March 2015 Post Winter Season

Posted on August 6, 2015 Written by Olivier

In March, as the last cross country skiing days were upon us, we did one last ski-in dinner in one of the refuge in the Gatineau Park. This is truly an amazing experience I recommend to all of you living in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. The evening usually looks like this: we park a few kilometers from the refuge and then ski or snowshoe (with or without headlights) to the refuge with our backpacks containing our dinner. Upon arrival, we find a table to sit and then proceed to warm up our food by the fireplace while chatting and enjoying a drink with good company. I strongly suggest this unique evening activity as something to put on your to-do list for next winter.

A few weeks later, I was invited to play for Canada in the first ever World Cup Arena Soccer taking place in 5 cities in the U.S. The rules are essentially the same as indoor soccer with the exception that you can use the boards at all times. It was great to play at a higher level again and against professional arena soccer players. This type of soccer is high paced just like hockey (high intensity short shifts) and so to get ready for the tournament I had to modify my workouts. On the contrary to longer endurance event I did a lot of explosive resistance band work, agility drills, stop-and-go intervals and specific ball work to be able to beat the opponent 1 versus 1.

Here are 5 moves that helped me score against Brazil: