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The last two weeks of training have been pretty intense, but starting tomorrow I’m back at the races to qualify myself a spot to compete at World All-rounds at the end of March. The Regional Qualifiers, aka Continentals, is a competition between the countries from North America and Oceania to qualify individual spots for the World All-round Championships. This year, the men have 7 spots to fight for.

The way it works is that each country can send 6 men and 6 women to compete for spots at these Regional Qualifiers. Typically, it’s a competition between Canada and the US, but this year a skater from New Zealand is in the mix as well. Despite the number of countries or skaters competing, each country can only qualify a maximum of 4 skaters. So, since the men have 7 spots to fight for, Canada will be shooting to qualify all of our 4 possible spots.

I guess before I keep going, I should probably mention what “World All-rounds” actually is. The easiest way to describe it is that it’s a competition where you race the 500m, 1500m, 5000m, and 10000m (women race the 500, 1500, 3000, 5000). The fastest combined time (which is broken down into a “samalog” point system...which I won't get into) over the 4 distances wins you the overall title. Pretty simple.

Anyway, tomorrow I’ll be racing the 500m and 5000m, then the 1500m and 10 000m on Sunday. Like I mentioned, it’s been a tough two weeks of training leading up to this competition so I’m not looking to knock each of these races out of the park. As important as it will be to qualify my spot at this competition, getting my legs back into racing shape for the Olympics will be my main focus. Should be a good weekend!