Sugarloaf Camp

For the past week I have been training in Sugarloaf, Maine with the MWSC cross country team. The focus for this camp is intensity and volume. We are staying at the Carrabassett Valley Academy, one of the premier ski/snowboard schools in the east. CVA boasts alums like may time Olympic Medalist Bode Miller, and Olympic Gold Medalist snowboarder Seth Wescott. Training in the Carrabassett Valley always involves a lot of vertical gain. Here are some of the more daunting workouts the team and I completed this week: Race pace bounding intervals up Sugarloaf Mountain, uphill rollerski intervals, a 5 hour mountain run/hike, and uphill double pole intervals. We have two more days of camp left and we are all looking to finish up strong.

Jericho Video

Jericho Pictures

Thanks to Sean Halligan for these great shots.

Jericho

Another training period has flown by. This period was my longest and hardest of the year and incuded out first training camp of the year in Jericho Vermont. Jericho camp has been a constant in my training since I started to train seriously for biathlon. It was great to see all my friends and teammates from across the country and have the opportunity to race with the best in the country. I trained during the week and was able to solidify the technique gains I made in the early summer. Historically I have raced amazingly poorly in Jericho and that trend continued for the first race. Conditions for Saturday’s Sprint Race where brutal with 80 degree heat coupled with 80% humidity, this made skiing very uncomfortable and shooting tough due to the increased physical load brought on by the heat. I skied poorly and shot worse even worse. Sunday’s race was held in cool wet conditions making the rollerski tracks very slick. Back racing in normal conditions my skiing and shooting turned around and I raced well up until the last standing stage where I took 4 penalties, mostly due to trying to push my shooting speed. My performance was good enough for first place in the Junior Category, and my first ever win in Jericho. Right now I am recovering from Jericho and looking forward our next training camp in Sugarloaf Maine with the cross country team.