Saturday, August 29, 2009
Home Life
I've been at home here in Esko for 8 days now and have been settling into a training and living routine. It's a big adjustment from living on my own. I really enjoy being home and seeing my family and friends, and not having to cook for myself.I have definitely had to make some adjustments though. Some of the adjustments I have had to make are: dealing with siblings and parents, planning workouts, not having a rollerski loop, and others. I am trying to train as much as I can before school starts. The range in Duluth has been totally redone in my absence and training is really great there. I am also training with my cross country running team. We have a lot of fun. I had my first running race this week and I discovered that I definitely have a skier body, not a runner body. For me to run really fast I would need to lose about 10 pounds of muscle. My goal for the fall is to not let that happen and add more ski specific power. Training is going well and I am making a big effort to maintain 3 times a week shooting. This will get harder as the fall progresses, but it is necessary for success in the winter. On the life front I will be a senior this year and I get out of school at 2:17. This is a great thing for both training and mental health.
Monday, August 17, 2009
The Plan
Training requires a lot of planning. The method of training (skiing, rollerskiing, biking, running), the type of training (intervals, distance, strength) and the duration of the training (30min-4hours) are the main factors at play. However, outside of the training itself there are a lot of things that must be done to be successful: napping, ski waxing, rifle and bike cleaning, stretching and general chilling out. Then there are the basic, essential to life tasks that must be completed: Cooking, laundry, showering, socializing ect. With all of these draws on your time it is really helpful to have a training plan and stick to it. A normal day for me in Fork Kent looks like this:
7:30 wake up and breakfast,
8:30 start workout.
11:00 start eating.
12:30 fall asleep
3:25 wake up from nap
3:30 stumble outside and start 2nd workout.
5:30 more eating
9:30 fall asleep.
That has been my training plan this summer. The actual workouts are planned by my coach here in Maine Gary Colliander. Now that I am starting school The Plan will have to change. I envision it looking something like this: (all times approximate and subject to parental approval)
8:15 start school
2:17 leave school (early release)
2:30 leave school for training site (or leave from school to start workout)
2:45 start training
5:30 Start eating
9:30 fall asleep
5:15-7:30 wake up time depending on morning commitments.
The actual training will be planned by me with help form my coach in Minnesota Bill Meyer and my Maine coach Gary Colliander.I am hoping to have very productive and biathlon focused training this fall to set me up for a successful winter.
7:30 wake up and breakfast,
8:30 start workout.
11:00 start eating.
12:30 fall asleep
3:25 wake up from nap
3:30 stumble outside and start 2nd workout.
5:30 more eating
9:30 fall asleep.
That has been my training plan this summer. The actual workouts are planned by my coach here in Maine Gary Colliander. Now that I am starting school The Plan will have to change. I envision it looking something like this: (all times approximate and subject to parental approval)
8:15 start school
2:17 leave school (early release)
2:30 leave school for training site (or leave from school to start workout)
2:45 start training
5:30 Start eating
9:30 fall asleep
5:15-7:30 wake up time depending on morning commitments.
The actual training will be planned by me with help form my coach in Minnesota Bill Meyer and my Maine coach Gary Colliander.I am hoping to have very productive and biathlon focused training this fall to set me up for a successful winter.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Summer Wrap-up
For the past two weeks I have been at the Ethan Allen Firing range in Jericho Vermont for the annual August biathlon camp. The focus of the camp was on rollerski combination training. (Rollerskiing and shooting.)
The Ethan Allen firing range is located on a military base. Living on an army base is one of the more interesting things I get to do over the course of the training year. Waking up at 5 am to Marines practicing takedown drills and singing army songs at full volume is not uncommon. General Dynamics (they make stuff that turns big, heavy, seemingly bullet proof things into little pieces) has a test range in Jericho. During training every 10-30min you here a warning siren followed by what sounds like a giant potato cannon. That sound is hundreds of rounds being shot out of a massive revolving barrel machine gun. Artillery and small arms fire is also a common sound.
We stayed in Army barracks for the entire camp. I'll attach some pictures of the barracks later on, but the consist of a large room with a concrete floor with rows of bunk beds. You sleep on the bottom and all your stuff gets thrown on the top bunk. Some athletes had to double up this year, but I was able to keep an entire bunk for myself for the duration of the camp. Week 1 of the camp was with the Junior National Team coached by Vladimir Chervenka. I had a few strong sessions at the beginning of the week, but when the races rolled around I was very tired and could not ski fast. This was definitely disappointing, but I'm not to worried about August rollerski races.
For those interested here is a list of things to do when not training in Jericho. You'll notice that1-3 all involve going off-base. There are other methods of time killing, but these 6 are the most popular.
1. Go to Burlington
2. Go and get Internet
3. Go to the super sweet country store
4. Go swimming
5. Watch a movie on a laptop
6. NAP
During the second week of the Jericho training camp I was training with MWSC and National B team coach Gary Colliander. It became very very hot this week. (actually it's been hot everywhere in the East) Hot enough that I could see the sweat coming off my body when I rollerskied. The very high humidity didn't help either. Around midpoint of the second week of camp life at the barracks began to get very old.The training in Jericho is excellent, but he lifestyle leaves a lot to be desired. The highlight of the second week in Jericho was our visit to the Simulation Center. The simulation center is a system owned by the National Guard that simulates combat situations. it's like playing a really big video game except you use actual weapons (M16, M9 pistol, full auto squad automatic) that are attached to compressed air so they kick just like the real thing. They also function the same way. You must reload, bolt, switch off the safety turn on automatic settings etc. Needless to say this was a lot of fun. For the record Addie Byrne (US Junior National Team/MN Biathlon) is an excellent machine gunner.
I am now back in Fort Kent in full-on recovery/time killing mode. Jericho is the unofficial end of summer training for me. I head back to Minnesota on the 21st. When I get home I have a few days before I leave again for a volume running camp. It will be great o see my family and friends again. I am planning on continuing to blog about my training and racing for the rest of the year so stay tuned.
The Ethan Allen firing range is located on a military base. Living on an army base is one of the more interesting things I get to do over the course of the training year. Waking up at 5 am to Marines practicing takedown drills and singing army songs at full volume is not uncommon. General Dynamics (they make stuff that turns big, heavy, seemingly bullet proof things into little pieces) has a test range in Jericho. During training every 10-30min you here a warning siren followed by what sounds like a giant potato cannon. That sound is hundreds of rounds being shot out of a massive revolving barrel machine gun. Artillery and small arms fire is also a common sound.
We stayed in Army barracks for the entire camp. I'll attach some pictures of the barracks later on, but the consist of a large room with a concrete floor with rows of bunk beds. You sleep on the bottom and all your stuff gets thrown on the top bunk. Some athletes had to double up this year, but I was able to keep an entire bunk for myself for the duration of the camp. Week 1 of the camp was with the Junior National Team coached by Vladimir Chervenka. I had a few strong sessions at the beginning of the week, but when the races rolled around I was very tired and could not ski fast. This was definitely disappointing, but I'm not to worried about August rollerski races.
For those interested here is a list of things to do when not training in Jericho. You'll notice that1-3 all involve going off-base. There are other methods of time killing, but these 6 are the most popular.
1. Go to Burlington
2. Go and get Internet
3. Go to the super sweet country store
4. Go swimming
5. Watch a movie on a laptop
6. NAP
During the second week of the Jericho training camp I was training with MWSC and National B team coach Gary Colliander. It became very very hot this week. (actually it's been hot everywhere in the East) Hot enough that I could see the sweat coming off my body when I rollerskied. The very high humidity didn't help either. Around midpoint of the second week of camp life at the barracks began to get very old.The training in Jericho is excellent, but he lifestyle leaves a lot to be desired. The highlight of the second week in Jericho was our visit to the Simulation Center. The simulation center is a system owned by the National Guard that simulates combat situations. it's like playing a really big video game except you use actual weapons (M16, M9 pistol, full auto squad automatic) that are attached to compressed air so they kick just like the real thing. They also function the same way. You must reload, bolt, switch off the safety turn on automatic settings etc. Needless to say this was a lot of fun. For the record Addie Byrne (US Junior National Team/MN Biathlon) is an excellent machine gunner.
I am now back in Fort Kent in full-on recovery/time killing mode. Jericho is the unofficial end of summer training for me. I head back to Minnesota on the 21st. When I get home I have a few days before I leave again for a volume running camp. It will be great o see my family and friends again. I am planning on continuing to blog about my training and racing for the rest of the year so stay tuned.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)