On Tuesday the clouds and rain moved back in so it’s been a chilly (about 50 degrees F) and wet past three days. I was training on the rollerloop at the venue twice a day until yesterday morning when I accompanied Haley on part of her overdistance run. Within the space of half an hour we passed a large group of elementary school-aged children out walking on the ski trails twice. Both times we were ushered on to a chorus of “hi-ja, hi-ja” and clapping from the children. These kids, in credit to their culture, idolize Nordic skiers and biathletes.

I’ve also been shooting twice a day. Shooting and physical training are very similar in the sense that you can get burnt out of either. It’s not easy to stay focused when you shoot twice a day and dryfire in between. But, the most helpful thing about training here is the number of athletes and coaches on the range. Instead of training by myself as I did all spring and summer, I’ve got two coaches and plenty of athletes to work with. For zeroing on Tuesday morning, our team skied range loops together and shot eight clips on paper without stopping in between. There was a small amount of pressure on each lap to shoot fast but well and stay with the group. Athletes often find that nerves shake their concentration when they train or race in front of a larger group of people than normal, so this is great practice early in the season.

I arrived in Östersund, Sweden yesterday afternoon.  This means that I’ve completed my second summer term at Dartmouth and survived finals.  Now I get to be a full time athlete!

I had the first three days of this week off to recover from the last training period and to spend some much needed time preparing for my final exams, papers and presentations.

I’m still trying to figure out the best way to complete the recovery portion of a week so that I don’t feel stiff and lethargic when I come out of it.  I’ve found that an easy jog or some light spinning is better than doing nothing even when you have a day off.  It’s a good way to flush lactic acid out of your legs and ensure that they don’t become stiff or sore from the previous week’s training. 

I’ve been away from the blog for a while, a little overwhelmed with school, so here’s a recap of my first weekend at the camp in Jericho.  

Just back from another long session. Luckily it wasn’t too hot out because most days I find myself going through a liter of water per hour and that’s more than I can carry on a long bike ride. This week is a volume week, which means 24 hours with one intensity session yesterday and a time trial with my teammate Haley Johnson in Jericho this weekend. There’s a biathlon camp going on so we’ll be joining a large group of biathletes that includes national team, development team, and junior national team athletes. It’s the one camp of the year when everybody has a chance to come together so all the women, juniors and seniors, have the opportunity to gather and discuss anything from training to life beyond sport. In the past few years the senior women have made a point of opening lines of communication with the junior athletes. They started a mentoring program last year that will continue this year, changing only in that it will allow junior women to seek advice from any senior woman, not just their mentor. Last year when I was a junior the mentoring program was immensely valuable to me because I could get advice and encouragement from a senior athlete who has many years of experience under her belt. Now that I’m a senior, I’m hoping I can provide the same to junior women coming through the program.

I’m excited about having this blog on FasterSkier.com. I can finally give you an insight into what biathlon training is all about and how it is split between physical training and shooting. Writing here will also get me to reflect on my training to evaluate how it is progressing.

Sundays are usually when I try to organize my week. Not the training; that’s already done for me. This week midterms coincided with my intensity week. I had to figure out exactly when I was going to finish this paper, do research for that presentation, and study for a physics exam. It’s important that I get this planned ahead of time because I know that once the intensity sessions start I’m going to be both physically and mentally fatigued and I need to squeeze in the schoolwork when my mind is fresh. It’s important not to get overwhelmed by poor planning because stress is by far the biggest antagonist of training.