June 11, 2010
It's June already! Warm weather, sunshine, fun workouts with the team, and spending more time with friends and family who are in Maine for the summer. When I looked at the calendar and counted the months until the winter season back in early April, mid June seemed so far away. Spring was busy at times but mostly it was a relaxing new beginning for me. Really I look at May 1st as the start of a new year for me...a little odd I know, but it just fits with everything in my life. When January 1st comes around, I'm in the middle of the racing season and just focused on that and not too much else. At the time it doesn't really seem like a new year to me. So when May comes around with all of it's melting snow, mud, changing temperatures, and for me, change of focus, it seems like the whole world is changing it's seasons and having a new beginning right along with me. It's a wonderful feeling. Having a new beginning was so important for me this year. Last year was the hardest year of my entire life so far in so many ways. I know that I probably will have a few years in the future that will be just as hard or harder, but right now that's a little unbelieveable to me. So I am just really looking forward to having a fantastic 2010, right from May till next April. And so far, it has been better already, which is a really great sign.
In April I spent some time de-stressing and getting things organized, and then in May I started some easy training. I also went to the National Team camp in Lake Placid for two weeks which was a new experience for me. It was really fun and challenging, and I learned so much there. It was great to train with lots of different people and coaches. I was a little nervous before the camp, especially since I had only skate rollerskied once at home and there was quite a bit of rollerskiing on the schedule, but I gained my rollerski legs pretty quickly. No more epic crashes for me! However I definitely got my body worked over, especially during a 3hr bike ride in 90 degree heat where Andrea Henkel (Multiple Olympic and World Championship Medal winner) strung the girls out behind her. It was supposed to be an easy bike ride, but my heart rate went much higher than it should have during that ride! We also did a lot of shooting at the camp-shooting drills, shooting tests, dryfire sessions, and scat. Since I got a new rifle stock this spring I've spent some time getting used to it and shooting has been feeling good. After the camp I went to Vermont for a few days with my mom to spend some time with my aunt and uncle. My aunt and I made Rhubarb pie, my mom biked, and we spent some time just chilling.
Now I'm spending the majority of my time this summer in Fort Kent training with my lodge roomies Kat, Corrine, and Andrea. It's also been fun since we have been joining in with the xc athletes during some of our training sessions. Last week consisted of ripping up our new athlete house that Phyllis Jalbert (Thank you Phyllis!!) has generously bought for us to use, a few rest days before a hard intensity week, and finishing up with a bike to Eureka Hall. The athlete house is going to take a lot of work before we can move into it in the fall, but it is amazing to think that we will be able to have a whole house just for athletes to live in while we are training. It's almost unbelieveable to me when I look at the house and think about how amazing it is going to be!
February 17, 2010
Since my last blog post was written there have been many interesting moments and adventures to experience. One could suppose that Anything might have happened...and as the old saying goes, "No news is good news." So now the silence is ended, and I will keep you updated more often!
In my last post I said that I was looking forward to my first 15km Individual at the IBU Cup. It turned out to be a good race for me. I tied my best shooting ever during a race (hitting 19 for 20 shots) and I felt good skiing despite the longer distance. Ending up in 29th place and being the 2nd American in the race was great.
After training in the Czech Republic for a few more days I traveled with Leif and Addie to Torsby, Sweden to meet the rest of our teammates for Junior World Championships. It was my 3rd World Juniors, and the biggest Championships to date, with 33 nations competing. So it was very thrilling to be there training and racing, and to just experience the differences amongst the cultures and people. We were all there with the same objectives and purpose in mind (to succeed) but so many people had different approaches and methods that they used to be successful.
Sadly, this year in Sweden I did not achieve the performances that I had hoped for. So many things went wrong. The easy part is looking back and seeing what I can do to improve, what I can learn from those experiences.occured. The hard part was feeling lost, and not having any idea of what wasn't right, and not feeling able to do the best that I am capable of. To top it all off I passed out after my pursuit race and had to go to a Swedish hospital. A firsthand lesson in socialized healthcare, when my emergency room bill and ambulance ride was unbelievably only $140 US dollars. The day after that I also caught a strange 24hr flu right before the junior relay, so the US did not have a team. It wasn't the best of experiences, but there were many positive aspects also which outweighed the negatives. My mom and brother came to Torsby to cheer me on, I made some new friends, and learned so many new things.
Now after going to the Lake Placid Nor-Am races and enjoying the fun in Stockholm at the Karen Sprague Valentine's race, I am home in Fort Kent for a while training. I'll see you out on the trails!
January 12, 2010
Olympic Team: First of all, Congratulations to the 2010 US Biathlon Team that will compete in Vancouver! Watching everyone compete in Minnesota and at Olympic Trials, knowing how hard everyone has worked, seeing everyone's disappointments and also their dreams come true...it's been beyond description.
The Travel: Getting to Altenberg(then Geising) was harder than everyone previously thought. It was supposed to be a 4hr drive from the airport, with most of the drive on the Autobahn. Well it turned out to be quite an expedition across Germany. Wynn and Leif picked me up from the airport around 1pm and with the help of "Karen", our GPS system in the van, we headed for Altenberg, near Dresden. The Autobahn was pretty speedy with the exeption of a few accidents. However Karen soon put us in the direction of Frankfurt, which is the opposite of where we were supposed to be headed. So out came the trusty map, after Wynn and I insisted that Karen was wrong, while Leif thought she was right. Then we all decided she was just a little confused =) After a few route changes we continued on while the sun set. Finally we made it to Altenberg-a pretty town with lots of amazing architechture. Very relieved to almost be there, we asked some locals to direct us to Geising. No Luck. Finally we went to a gas station, where we recharged with a chocolate brick and some pastries, and found the correct way to Altenberg. As it turns out, there are around 6 Altenbergs in Germany! We finally made it to the correct one around 11pm...
Germany: The last time that I was here was my first trip to Europe, when I traveled to my first Youth World Championships in Ruhpolding. This time I traveled to Altenberg to compete in my first IBU Cup(the level of racing below the world cup). So being in Germany again was very relaxing. Sure, I was thrilled to race in the US Olympic Trial races here, and also the IBU Cup, but I felt unusually calm, probably because I didn't have any pressure on me to qualify for the Olympic Team. I was just there for experience, and what a great experience it was. The best part was racing in my first IBU Cup Sprint, and actually making the pursuit, finishing 51st! Finishing 51st might not seem like a great finish, but it made me remember my first big international sprint in Ruhpolding against all the best 17 -18 yr old girls in the world, when I finished 55th. Going from that to 51st in an IBU cup with World Cup winners in the race gave me a boost of confidence that I desperately needed. So even thought the pursuit the next day was cancelled due to intense fog, I know there will be many more pursuits in the future for me.
Czeska Republica: Where I am now training for the week and then racing at another IBU Cup in Nove Mesto with everyone who didn't qualify for the Olympic Team. On the way here we stopped in Prague and did some sightseeing, which was really fun. We also tried some authentic Czech food: beef soup, pork, sauerkraut, bread and potato dumplings, and a strange but very good dessert. So far the past week has been really great. I've learned a lot, and I'm really looking forward to my first 15km individual this weekend. I'll keep you all posted on how everything goes.
Demolition Day with pink gloves
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Group biking
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Covered Bridge
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Fast and Female Group
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