Monday, February 6, 2012

World Junior Championships Prep



Throughout the racing season different periods of time are designated as “training blocks” Training blocks are a period of time where the total amount (volume) of training is increased. Training blocks are timed with less important races, or an off weekend. I am just finishing off a 2 week training block, in which I focused on shooting skills, volume training (long easy workouts), technique, and I even threw in some racing for good measure. My training block started after the Fort Kent NorAm, with volume and shooting training. Feeling recovered from the previous weeks racing, I headed to Valcartier, Quebec for the next stop or the North American Cup. This race series was also Canadian junior world championships trials. It was great to see friends from Canada, and take advantage of the tough competition. Conditions where soft and slow all weekend, making the races much more arduous than the races on fast tracks last week in Fort Kent. I raced well in the sprint shooting 80% and skiing well. I learned a lot about pacing on a tough course, and those lessons with be valuable on the challenging courses in Finland. In the pursuit I shot very well in prone (100 %!), but fell apart in standing ending the day with 70% shooting. I also received my first ever disqualification in the pursuit for skiing the wrong course. It is the athletes responsibility to ski the correct course, however it would have been nice to have a few more signs. I was glad to have the opportunity to race at Valcartier, as it will be the venue for Canadian Nationals, which I will be attending in the spring, since it’s only a few hours drive from Fort Kent. I was quite spent after two hard days of racing so when I returned home I focused once again on easy distance training. I ended my training block yesterday with a time trial. I took a lot of positives out of the workout, in addition to a few things I need to nail down before World Juniors. T-minus 8 days to Finland!

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