Set

It has been awhile since my last post and a lot has happened. In late March I raced at US Biathlon Nationals and took home a 1st place in the Pursuit and a 3rd place in the Mass Start. After nationals I was totally exhausted and settled in for the NCAA basketball tourney, which is really the only major sports event I follow other than skiing. During the numerous commercial breaks I had a lot of time to reflect on the season and think about next year. After a lot of thought I decided to commit to a full year of Biathlon training with the Maine Winter Sports Center. I am totally psyched to begin my year in Maine. After watching Butler lose in the championship (bummer) I pulled myself off the couch and back to training. After a few weeks of re-acquainting myself with biking and running the training year started for real on April 20th. Now I am nearly back to full on training and I am wrapping up high school. I graduate from Esko High School on June 4th and I head back out to Maine on June 10th. Look for regular and interesting (I hope) posts soon.

State and Local

Following a disappointing relay which featured me crossfiring in standing and shooting poorly in prone I was quite frustrated and ready to go home. On the plane back I decided that I still have a long way to go in biathlon, but I have made good progress in the last year and quality performances are attainable. After a delayed flight in Oslo I didn’t return home until 1:30 am; the morning of the regional meet. I managed roughly 5 hours of sleep after a solid 24+ hours of travel. I had a very good regional meet, winning by roughly 40 seconds in the 10k pursuit race. It was great to race with my friends again. The following week I had another great race at the Minnesota State High School Championships (States if you’re from the East). After a good skate race that saw me 3 seconds up on the field I had a great classic and skied to a 25 second win. State was great; it featured excellent competition, a great venue, awesome weather, and a positive atmosphere. I was really pumped with my state result and the congratulations I received. After State I competed in many local Biathlon and XC races. The most interesting of these races was the Mass Start race at Elk River. I had some serious competition at this race in the form of Garrott Kuzzy (www.garrottkuzzy.com//?p=780) and Matt Leibsch (www.mattliebsch.com/2010/03/still-looking-for-that-job-and-trying-biathlon/). I was able to hold these two off with some good fast shooting and good skiing. Racing with an Olympian and Birkie champ was a real treat. Now I am watching it pour rain here in Esko. I head back to Fort Kent for US Biathlon Nations on Tuesday. This will be a great set of races, now if only I could get out and ski before I go!

Since Fall

Right now I'm in Torsby Sweden for the Junior World Championships, with marginal results to show for my efforts. The fall and early winter preparation for these races went well. I trained hard through the fall, despite not getting on snow until December. November is one of the hardest months or training because it is the biggest volume training month, its dark, and the dryland training methods are very worn out. After finally getting on snow I was felling strong. The first two races of the year took place at Mt.Itasca in Grand Rapids Minnesota. These races took place a week before Junior World Team Trials. I was not completely happy with my results, but these races where largely preparation for Trials. Trials went well. I had a major breakthrough in the Pursuit race shooting 18/20 and posting the fastest ski time. I was 4th 1st and 3rd in the Trials races. With good skiing and shooting I was optimistic about World Juniors. After 24 plus hours of travel I arrived in Torsby Sweden in good form. The first race was an individual format. An individual race is 12.5k long with four shooting stages, in the individual one minute is added on to your time for every miss so shooting is crucial. I shot 70 percent. This was good enough for 45th place of the 90 competitors. I wasn’t happy with this race mostly because I had a great race going, but blew any shot at a good result in the first standing stage. My shooting misses where 1,4,0,1. I was looking to improve in the Sprint, but I ran into some food poisoning. I was puking and very fatigued during my race. With 60 percent shooting I did not qualify for the pursuit. I was 69th, with 60th being the last qualifying spot. I was very frustrated after this race. My final race here will be the relay race. My goal for the relay is to have a race on par with my potential. After the relay I fly back to Minnesota, and the next morning I race the high school regional championship race. One week after the region meet I should qualify for the State meet, and then I have a break until the next set of big races which will be US Nationals in Fort Kent. Thanks for checking in and I apologize for my blogging hiatus.

CRUNCHHHHH

That’s the massive time crunch faced by all student- athletes in the fall. Between training, school, sleeping and eating there is little time for anything else. The current training period is winding down, so next week will be my recovery week. After this month both the volume and intensity of my training will increase. I am really looking forward to getting on snow this November. T-minus 2 months till race time!

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.

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.

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.