Last night I was informed of my qualification to the 2009 Senior World Championship Team. It was a restless two weeks of waiting and nervous racing that I think disrupted my normally settled demeanor on the shooting range. Luckily, in every competition I turned in ski times within the top-20. (more…)
The second race in Altenberg was a 7.5k sprint. By the time we arrived at the venue, the sun was up and temperatures were relatively warm in the stadium but the snow was still cold and fast. My legs were feeling a little tired from the 15km race the day before but a run and some good stretching the night before had facilitated my recovery. Stretching, since my injuries earlier this year, has become one of the essentials of my daily routine. I’ve noticed a huge difference from it too: I have a greater range of motion in my muscles that results in prolonged high performance before the onset of fatigue. Again, I skied a decent race, turning in the 10th fastest course time of the day. The course included a long steep “wall” that I made sure to attack every loop because there was plenty of recovery in between climbs. (more…)
So the Individual race in Altenberg didn’t go as well as hoped for me in some ways, but better than expected in others. The running felt great. Over the past two weeks I’ve reflected on my early season races to try to figure out just what type of preparation allows me to feel great on race day and what leaves me a little fatigued. At an important race like this, months and even years of training and experience are important, but even the details on race day itself contribute to your overall performance, such as what you eat, the extent of your morning jog and stretching, and pre-race dryfiring. Looking back on the December world cups, it was clear to me that I raced best after doing some sort of intervals or a race two days prior to the specified competition and then had a very short recovery workout the next day, usually consisting only of range loops with shooting. So this week I had a few 1.5-1.8hr distance workouts early in the week followed by a short interval workout and then an easy classic session the day before the race. Lo and behold, it left me feeling great on race day. I was able to push on all sections of the course, working harder over the tops of long climbs and transitioning well to maintain momentum on the flats. I don’t think I could have asked for anything better at this point, except, of course, in shooting.
What I have discovered about shooting is that I need to be doing shooting combos consistently throughout the winter in order to maintain a high level of shooting performance. Unfortunately, with the lack of snow in Lake Placid over break, that was impossible and I’m afraid my shooting suffered for it. For the first time this week there was also gusty wind on the range. I took a few clicks on my first stage to compensate but the wind died just as I began to shoot and halfway through I had to take clicks back. Standing was the most challenging, as everyone whom I spoke to after the race agreed.
Today is the 7.5k Sprint race. The important thing is that I know I know how to shoot well and confidently and so I should approach the range with the thought in mind that this is my playing ground. Clear sunny skies and temperatures around -6 are expected again!
We arrived on Monday in Altenberg, Germany. It is a small town south of Dresden just a few kilometers from the Czech border where German biathlon star Michael Roesch got his start. After spending twelve days in western Massachusetts/upstate New York with variable and rather dismal snow conditions we were thrilled to see plenty of snow and clear sunny skies. The temperatures were frigid at the beginning of the week but have warmed up day by day with race-day temperature predicted to be around -6C.
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