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Trenings fordeling

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

Once again I’m writing from Lake Placid where training continues to progress. However, every now and then a week of recovery is needed and that’s exactly what this past week gave me. A 50% drop in hours feels like a world of difference! Now that the batteries are recharged for a new training period, I look forward to jumping back into a full training schedule tomorrow.

The big story of this past week was a trip to the Mt. Washington area to visit some long lost friends from Williams College. We accomplished everything from jolly trip to Storyland, hiking up Mt. Washington, clay tennis matches, to even a bit of chainsawing. I want to send out a big thank you to the Kantack family for their great hospitality! Check out some of the photos (courtesy of Keith!)—more are found on the Williams blog.

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Robby Cuthbert, me, and Keith Kantack

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Skyte trening

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

This post is for all those biathletes out there and anyone else interested in what we mysterious biathletes do in order to build our shooting skills. While shooting might not be something that the Norwegians are well known for, it is yet another part of my training that also took a drastic turn during my time abroad.

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Shooting in Torsby

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styrke trening

Monday, August 10th, 2009

After a couple weeks of training in the Internet chasm of Jericho, Vermont, I’m now moved in at the training center in Lake Placid where I’ll be staying for the next month or so. The major event of late took place this past weekend in Jericho were about seventy biathletes from around the US and Canada took part in the North American Summer Biathlon Championships. This was a great turnout that provided some stiff competition. The races for me were a little less than satisfactory simply due to not feeling all that well physically, but my shooting was definitely reasonable.

Also, I received several comments on this blog while I was in Jericho. Thank you! Again, it’s a privilege to write here and if there is something I’m missing or should explain better let me know!

Based on a comment from the last post, intensitets trening, I’ve decided rearrange a bit and talk about “strength training” and what differences I noticed between college/high school skiing and my time in Norway. To do this I’m going to split up strength training into four categories:  general strength, ski specific strength, spensts or plyometrics, and max strength. Again, there are many different opinions out there—even in Norway—so I’m strictly going to stick with what I experienced this past year.

cimg0770Strength training in Torsby, Sweden

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Intensitets trening

Friday, July 24th, 2009

I’m still enjoying some time at home in Minnesota. Training is going well, and I’m settling back into the American way of life—for better or worse! Somehow I seem to have brought a small portion of Norway back with me. That is, the unseasonably cool weather! Despite all the complaining I’ve heard when walking around town, the cooler temperatures are great for training.

So, on to what I experienced this past year in regard to intensity training:  intervals, time-trials, etc. And by far, this was the aspect of training where I noticed the most difference from my experiences in high school and college.

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A quick glance at my heart-rate monitor during bounding intervals…

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Samling Beitostølen

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

The training camp in Beitostølen with Team Statkraft was a snowy adventure. The snow continued to fall almost ninety percent of the time from when we arrived until the time we left a week later—jumping into a pile of snow literally left me buried up to my chest. For me, the training camp started out with some much needed rest, due to coming off a two-week race period. The rest allowed me to focus more on shooting. All in all, the camp turned out great, allowing me to find a balance and settle back into the rhythm of training again. I had some good shooting performances and, despite being tired, I found the energy to put in some quality interval sessions.

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Der hvor skiene er Laget

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Getting new equipment is always a treat, no matter if it’s passed on or bought in a store. This year it was a bit different for me. Last Tuesday I made the 20min drive from Lillehammer to Biri, which is the small town that the ski-company Madshus calls home. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a couple months now, and the opportunity finally came to see “where skis are made.” I want to thank Peter Hale for helping me coordinate my trip to the Madshus factory.

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Samling Torsby

Friday, October 24th, 2008

I’m back in Lillehammer now after spending a week in Torsby, Sweden with Team Statkraft at a training camp (samling). During our time there we took advantage of the ski-tunnel and the great outdoor biathlon facilities. The weather seemed to cooperate too. It was a little cold at times to feel comfortable on rollerskis, but that’s just fine seeing as winter is right around the corner.

During our first morning, we arrived at the ski tunnel about ten minutes before it opened to join the fifty others lining up to get in. As one would imagine, this time of year is a very busy time for the tunnel. An incentive to arriving early is that those first on the tracks would enjoy the best skiing for the day, because after about two hours the snow in the 1.2 km tunnel would get a bit soft.

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Snø, Staking, og Sverige

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

Last Sunday I woke up to a foggy morning, but I couldn’t see any of the snow (snø) that was predicted, only heavy frost. A little disappointed I strapped on the rollerskis and went out for my first ever “staking” (double-pole) interval session. Sure double-poling isn’t anything new, but this interval session wasn’t focused on classic skiing. Rather, we used skate skis and skate poles to isolate the specific muscles used in skating. The Norwegians make a definite distinction between this kind of “staking” I just described and classic double-poling. In my opinion it is a kind of specific upper-body strength training for skate skiing.

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Samling i Vik

Friday, September 12th, 2008

The training camp in Vik was simply amazing. I think this was one of the nicest biathlon venues I’ve ever been to. Unfortunately, I was still a bit under the weather when the camp started so I had to be careful to not exert myself too much right away. It took 5 hours of travel west of Lillehammer to get to Vik. The route took us through some amazing valleys. I’ll let the pictures I posted of the drive speak for themselves. I found it ironic that the Norwegians I was riding with had some road rage at all the tourists who were driving slowly to take in the views. In the meantime, I was a tourist myself taking pictures out the windows.

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Skyting og RvL

Friday, August 15th, 2008

The last few days have been full of competitions. It all started on Tuesday when I raced the first two stages of RvL, a local bike race made up of about 30 local skiers and biathletes, some of which were national and junior national team members. I didn’t have any expectations given that bike racing isn’t exactly what I’m used to, but I thought it was a chance for some good training. Tobias Torgersen, my coach, also recommended that I participate. The first two stages weren’t my greatest, but I did fine. I dropped my chain on the main climb of the second stage and was dropped by the peleton. After that I only got lost twice, but found the finish line eventually.

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