BethAnn Chamberlain

Bio: BethAnn Marie Chamberlain - Biathlon
Birthdate: 5/19/82
Hometown: Grand Rapids, MN
Current Residence: Caribou, ME
Work: Biathlete and Licensed Massage Therapist

Sponsors:
Maine Winter Sports Center
Pressure Positive Co.

Product/Service Sponsors:
Zensah
Cary Medical Center
Atomic skis and boots
One Way Poles
Icebreaker
Family Eye Care, Caribou, ME

Additional Links:
BethAnn's Blog

Skiing!
December 5, 2011

Oh how lucky I am feeling these days. Despite the -15 temperature outside right now, everything has been going very well here in West Yellowstone. I have been here for almost two weeks and have been doing my best to take advantage of the great skiing this area has to offer right now. West Yellowstone seems to be one of only a few spots in the country with good skiing right now, leaving me feel very, very lucky!

My first week here was a busy one, getting in as many hours on snow as I could possibly handle, jumping into the Supertour sprint qualifier race along with catching up with the rest of the Nordic world, who all gathered here for the West Yellowstone ski festival. It was rare to find a piece of trail that wasn't at least scattered with skiers. As much as I love an empty trail all to myself, it is fun to see so many people sharing the joy of Nordic skiing.

My first time putting a race bib on was the sprint qualifier last week during the festival here. Not having a USSA licence, I started at the end of the pack, adding an additional challenge of passing lots of folks in a very short race. No matter, it was great to get into race mode again. I finished 15th, which I considered a decent start for the year.

This past Saturday I dueled it out two more times in a both a sprint qualifier and a five kilometer skate races at the Bozeman Supertour. Very little snow coverage and a course full of transitions made the course a challenging one for me. Going into the race a little tired from training, I was happy with how I was able to push myself. The sprint was a little stronger race for me than the five km. Overall great racing experiences.

My big races are just under two weeks away so I will start to back off on training a bit, after pushing things pretty hard for the past two weeks. We have NORAM biathlon races coming up this weekend here in West Yellowstone and then make our way to the Midwest for IBU Cup team trials at Mount Itasca, in my home state of Minnesota.

More to come from the trails of West Yellowstone soon....until then I will keep doing my snow dance for all the winter enthusiasts out there. As my teammate Russell pointed out this morning when we were looking at the -23 F temperature outside, it's better to be -23 and snowy then 45 and raining! Spoken like a true winter athlete!

Think snowy thoughts,

Time flies.....
Fall, 2011

I am not sure if it is because of the less than ideal weather we had most of the summer or because I am just not that observant, but I feel like it is a bit of a shock that the Fall is already here. After the beautiful weather we have had the last few days, I am not complaining. I most often think of this time as my favorite time of year. Who doesn't love having to pull out your sweaters again, or making big batches of soup to eat and drinking hot chocolate? I know I do. I am in the process of finding all my long underwear and racing suits from last winter. I never seem to store them in the same place, not a good idea.

As the temperature drops quickly, so do the days that remain before our rollerski biathon races in Utah this October. These races are part of the trials procedure for the National Team's November Sweden trip. I may have mentioned this before. I am gearing up to race well in Utah and secure one of the two spots open for this trip. It feels a little crazy to be gearing up for racing so early in the year but I think I will be ready.

For the remaining days before heading West, I will be busy continuing to work on much of the basic training I have been all year, in addition to a little more speed and power work and a lot more shooting with intensity. Everything becomes a bit more focused with the colder weather approaching.

Lots to look forward to in the weeks and months ahead! Hope you too can get outside and enjoy all that this great season has to offer.
cheers, BethAnn

Summer Fun
August 14, 2011

Oh how time flies. It has been nearly a month since my last update and so much has happened I am having a hard time knowing where to start. Following my wonderful "off" week in mid-July I jumped back into some more mid-volume and a bit more intensity. I had a great few more days of cycling with a Fresh Trails bike tour with two wonderful women from New York City and Bermuda coming all the way to "The County" to give cycling a try, (www.makefreshtrails.com).

This weekend was in combination with a family visit from both the Chamberlain and Ellingson families. We spent a few days enjoying the summer weather up at Cross Lake with our families. It was great to have all of them up to The County. They were all so very understanding of both David and my crazy schedules, sending us all over creation on a daily basis.

Our families visit was quickly followed by my annual trip to Jericho, VT for a couple biathlon rollerski races. I had been gearing up quite a bit for these races, as they are part of the November Sweden trip trials. Unfortunately all my efforts didn't leave me with the results that I was hoping for. Since then I have done a bit of post-race analysis and feel confident that I can improve on those areas I wasn't happy with. The positive side to having races in early August, is they give you a clear picture of where you are at. This can then help direct you to those areas you need the most work in. They also act as a good motivator for me to get going and do the work I now know I need to do.

This nearly brings us up to the present moment. Following Jericho I had a few busy days back North in Aroostook County, where I enjoyed putting some time in on both the shooting ranges in Fort Kent and Presque Isle. This didn't last long and before I knew it my bags were packed again and I headed down to Southern Maine this past Saturday to enjoy all of the following: a lovely team dinner in Yarmouth, an evening of camping out around Wolf's Neck in Freeport, coffee at Isabella's Sticky Buns, also in Freeport on Sunday morning, and last but not least long sea kayak with the entire MWSC elite team with Lincoln Kayak Tours.

All these fun events were just warming me up for our nearly ten day training camp at Sugarloaf starting tomorrow! It's going to be a great week of training on a little more rugged terrain. Big hours are on my plan for the next couple weeks so I plan on making the most of my stay here.

More to come from our camp later on in the week, so check back again soon.

Cheers, BethAnn

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