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Welcome to PAULMURRAY.CC, the official homepage of Paul Murray. Here you can follow my training and racing for XC skiing on the road to Vancouver 2010. See you on the tracks! Pic -Chris Hocking.

NEWS

Recent video updates- NEW Silverstar training camp- CLICK HERE.

8/2/10-Canmore pics.

Simbo giving it to last weeks U23 World Champion. A solid 46th.

Hammer and Retch enjoying the sunshine and the view.

Duane and I at the 15k skate.

Darlo, Simbo, Sammi and Retch at the Banff hot spring baths.

I'm sitting in snowy, foggy Calgary airport waiting to board a flight to Vancouver with Simbo this morning. Yesterday we had a very cruizy day with an easy ski in the morning then we headed to Banff to check out the hot springs. Sooooo nice.

When we get to Vancouver we'll go straight to the uniform pickup to get our new wardrobe of green and gold. Next update will be from the Olympics.

Check out the Australian Olympic Team webpage at www.olympics.com.au There are plenty of profiles, videos and updates on that from the whole Olympic team.

6/2/10-Canmore World cup.

Today's classic sprint World cup was the last hit out before the Olympics start in a week. We have had perfect skiing conditions all week with rock hard tracks and easy testing. Our support crew plus a few others-thanks Raymsey and Darlo, did an awesome job and we all had great skis today.

I am really happy with today's result. I ended up 46th, and 5 and a bit seconds from the top 30 on what I reckon is the toughest sprint track I have raced on. I felt good in the warm up, skied the first half of the race conservatively which was our race plan and was able to ski well the last half. Today's result is a massive step up from how I have been skiing all winter and my best result on World Cup since Stockholm last year.

I feel very relieved to be feeling good and each day I am feeling better and better. Yesterday I came off the antibiotics and hopefully that also helps. I really feel like with another 10 days and 2 more hard hit outs on the Olympic track next week I can find that extra gear that will put me on the bubble of the top 30.

Simbo and Es skied great today. Es is starting to get sick with a sore throat and nearly didn't race today so hopefully she shakes that soon. Simbo was 1 second behind me in 50th and there is a chance he will race the sprint at the Olympics.

Tomorrow Tim Retchford leaves us. He has been our team physio the last two and a half weeks and has done an amazing job of looking after us. We all feel very lucky to have had him here. Duane and Finn left late this arvo with all the team gear and are driving to Whistler. Someone said it's a 10 hr drive, so hopefully they have some good music.

We are in Canmore for another day. Tomorrow morning we will have an easy distance ski then hopefully head to the Banff hot springs for a soak. Monday morning early we fly out to Vancouver for the uniform pick up before driving up to Whistler.

A big thanks to my uncle and aunty Paul and Louise who gave me a very generous donation over the weekend. Thanks guys!

Pics from the weekend soon.

4/2/10-Canmore.

We arrived in Canmore a few days ago and the skiing is perfect! Minus 3 and sunshine to boot! We have picked up an extra waxer here. Duane Butcher, so now we have an amazing support team. The boys are doing a great job keeping our bodies in good shape and our skis fast. Simbo, Darlo and Aamie are all set for tomorrow's distance skate race, while Es and I are waiting until Saturday morning to get our race face on again. It's our last chance to tune up before the games, so it should be a lot of fun. The team vibe is high and we are all looking forward to the races this week and getting to the Olympics.

The pics below are from today.

Simbo, Es and Tim wait for the bus to the ski tracks.

Plenty of talk in the wax room before ski testing.

Tim and Simbo wait for the bus after training in perfect sunshine and a sweet Rocky Mountain view.

1/2/10-New Video update.

I've uploaded a new video update which has stuff from Dec through to our pre Olympic camp here in Silverstar. Click HERE to see it.

We all had one last day on the tracks in Silverstar today with perfect sunshine and tracks. Tomorrow morning early we drive to Canmore in Alberta, about 5hrs from here. We'll pick up some extra support staff there including Duane Butcher- ex Aussie team member, which will be great. I'm feeling good again which is a massive relief.

11 days to go!

31/1/10-Some lactate testing.

This morning we did some lactate testing on snow which gave me the opportunity to ski fast. Ohhh how nice it was to ski fast again. It's been over 2 weeks since I have done anything hard , so with a short loop between 3.30mins to 5.30mins depending on how fast I was skiing, I got to clear the lungs and huff and puff a bit. My lactates were pretty good for the Lev 1, Lev 3 and Lev 4 test laps, and I actually got my HR higher than I have seen it in a very long time. So that's the good thing, I am very rested, no surprises there. Now we just need to get things rolling in the form department.

I'll start my new course of antibiotics tomorrow and train easy for the next few days. Then on Wednesday or Thursday I will do some short Lev 3 intervals on the Canmore sprint course. Then Saturday I'll get to race for the first time in 7 weeks!

To say I am eager is an understatement.

30/01/10-Killing time.

Geoff our waxer for the games had a bit of fun today on his computer. Check out Finn and Simbo's dance moves on this video link.

Click HERE to see the video.

Today is my third very easy day with only 30mins walking on skis every day and no real change in how I'm feeling. We will decide tomorrow morning what the next move is.

28/01/10-Testing my patience.

I've been sick for 8 days now and things still haven't really improved. I felt like I was getting better a few days ago but then things went back to crappy. I'm on antibiotics now and have resited the temptation to start pulling my hair out. (I figure I might need it next week in Canmore as it's cold there....)

There is still just under 3 weeks until the sprint at the games but as the days tick by, missing planned sessions becomes harder and harder, especially when you see your team mates heading out for intervals every few days. Thankfully the rest of the mob is healthy. Each day I wake up hoping that things will be better than the day before. now is not the time to drop the ball after a tough few months. If anything now is the time to dig my heels in harder and not let it get to me. We have changed the plan a bit now and I will have the next 3 days with only 30 mins very easy skiing each day on flat tracks to try and help clear the crap in my sinuses and hopefully get this thing out of my system.

The sun continues to shine here in Silverstar and the conditions are the same as they have been here the whole time. Perfect.

The whole Olympic team has pretty much been named, and it's pretty cool reading all the other athletes updates as they prepare for the games. I'm just hoping I can get things rolling again before next weekend where we have our last World Cup in Canmore a week before the games start.

24/01/10- On the mend.

Simbo leading the mob this morning. Blue sky, minus 4 and good times!

My head cold seems to be clearing up pretty fast which is a relief. I walked on skis yesterday for an hour and will have another very easy ski today. It's such nice conditions here that it kind of sucks not to be able to train the way I wanted to this week. Hopefully in 2-3 days I am back to normal training so that I can make the most of this camp. Some pics from this week.

22/01/10-Bad timing.

I seemed to have picked up a head cold which sucks. Hopefully I should be fine in a few days, so there's nothing to do but take it easy, enjoy the sunshine and rest up.

Tim our team physio arrived yesterday so we have a great group here now.

19/01/10-It doesn't get much better than this for a XC skier!

240kg of luggage between the 4 of us which all arrived safe and sound (Finn, Es, Simbo and I), and to our delight no charge for excess luggage. Sometimes you can get lucky with baggage. We got SERIOUSLY lucky. Thanks to Juz our travel agent who hooked us up with that by putting the hard word on her airline connections.

Anyway so the four of us are are here in Silverstar which is east of Vancouver. We are all healthy, and the skiing is perfect. Minus 3 today and sensational tracks. We are staying with the George family who have very generously put our team up for this camp in their home. Martin and Lisa who are Aussies originally from Sydney, have been supporters of the team before helping us out in 2005 when we had a World Cup here. To say the least we are super grateful and enjoying being in such a great house.

I skied very easy twice today. I am certainly feeling the altitude and am keeping the skiing slow. Es and Simbo have both been at a reasonable altitude the last few weeks so after being at 200 meters above sea level in Borlange I was huffing and puffing a bit more than them today.

A big congrats to Chapo and Jules who had little Oliver just after Xmas. Awesome news guys!

More updates to come soon.

18/01/10-Heading for Canada.

I'm sitting here at Arlanda airport in Sweden waiting to check my bags in. I am finally on my way to Canada for our pre Olympic camp in Silverstar. The rest of the team will fly out from Germany as well today. I will meet them at Vernon airport sometime late Monday night, hopefully..... It feels like the 3 weeks here has gone by so quickly. I actually remember looking ahead in my diary thinking about this day, mainly because I was a bit worried about the amount of luggage I would have.... and also that it meant there was just over 4 weeks left until the Olympic sprint day.

I am pumped to be in the final month before the games start. But mostly I am happy to be hungry to race again. It was tough watching the World Cup in Estonia today knowing that I won't get a chance to race until the 6th of Feb. I am hungry to race now so I should be chomping at the bit by the time that day rolls around.

Even though this 3 week block was up and down at the start I feel like I have achieved what I set out to do here. Train as consistently as possible, get some good volume in, start feeling good again and then try and get some form with some harder interval sessions. I was happy with yesterday's intervals but it will be over a week now until I do something hard as we have planned a very easy first week in Silverstar due to the big travel time and the altitude. I feel like my form has improved a heap in the last 3 weeks and I am looking forward to getting some more speed in the next 4 weeks.

I've had people ask me why we are leaving so early. Many teams won't fly out for another 10 days or so, but we figured it is such a massive travel time, and I know form previous experience it takes me 10 days to start feeling good in Canada and be over the jet lag. Plus we wanted to have a full 2 weeks at altitude with skiing right form the door, and some good training before the Canmore World Cup on the 5th and 6th.

I'm pumped about meeting up with my team mates and about being part of my second Olympic team. It's kind of weird how long four years takes to come around and then the last 3 months before the games fly by so fast. I'll have some pics form Silverstar later in the week.

14/01/10-Things are looking up.

Sometimes it's easy to forget how quickly things can turn around in sport. As Finn said to me last night, little steps, little steps. But I am very happy to be feeling good again this week. Things have kept improving quickly the last 7 days and I have punched out 3 good interval sessions. Yesterday with a group of local boys we did a classic sprint simulation. 4 times 4 minutes. Oh it's nice to be able to ski fast and feel like I have some power back when I want it, especially in the 4th interval. I am a little sore from yesterdays hit out but that was exactly what I needed. A tough huff and puff session with other skiers rather than solo intervals.

I have one more hard session before I leave Borlange on Sunday. The weather has been incredible here. 3 weeks of cold and clear with hard fast tracks for classic skiing. To be honest I will be happy if it is a little warmer in Canada than -15degrees.

I'm busy packing skis, clothes and sorting through all the stuff I am taking to Canada today on my rest day. I'm actually taking a lot of stuff, so hopefully the folks on the checkin counter on Monday morning are happy and in a good mood....

A big thanks to Fredda and Emelia who have been so generous this past few weeks. I've been crashing at their place, training with Fredda and just generally having a great time. I'll miss the gourmet oven cooking when I am in Canada!

10/1/10- -27 is just a little too cold.

This past two and a half weeks have been cold. I mean really cold, -20 most days. I think it must be the longest prolonged period of cold weather I have ever had here in Borlange. It has meant that we are training with a lot of clothes on, a mask to make sure we breath in warm air and some days we even have tape on our faces.

One good thing is that I have been able to use all my super cold glide wax, which I have not used in years, so at least my skis have been good for each session. I took two rest days in the middle of the week. It was -24 on Wednesday and a public holiday so we skipped skiing and the gym was shut. Thursday was a planned rest day so I took that too. I seem to have bounced back ok and I am feeling good again. This mornings intervals were actually fun and it felt so good to actually feel good when doing intervals. It has been a while since I have had that feeling.

One week till I fly to Canada. Fingers crossed I make it through this week feeling good and that the weather warms up abit......

5/1/10-1 step forward two steps back.

After a few days of feeling great I am now back to where I was a few weeks ago with a very high morning heart rate and feeling pretty damn tired. It's frustrating to be in this situation as the days tick by, but there's only one thing to do. Keep a cool head, go back to very easy distance training once a day and wait until I start feeling good again.

I feel pretty lucky to have a group of 4 guys that are helping me at this time. Finn, Retch, Paul and Rikard, just keeping things in check. On the positive side I'm still healthy. My house Mate Fredrik Ostberg has been sick for 2.5 weeks and is still struggling to train, so at this stage I can't complain that much.

Minus 20 here today and clear blue skies. So far watching the tour de ski has been exiting. With the Tour taking a rest day today we will have to find something else to watch this afternoon.

1/1/10- 6 weeks to go until Vancouver 2010.

Today marks 6 weeks exactly until the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It feels like the days and weeks are flying by and that every single moment counts now more than ever.

Today for the first time in a few weeks I felt good skiing. Even in my 4th hour of skiing this afternoon I still felt good. It is nice to have that feeling back. Tomorrow I will do my first intervals since the Rogla World Cup, so I am looking forward to seeing how they shape up. The weather has warmed up a touch and it is now a balmy -9. Perfect for classic skiing. I've added some pics from Malaga in the gallery.