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.

Tour of Stockholm and Training

The past weekend was full of a few of northern Maine's signature summer training events. Starting with the Mars hill uphill running time trial. This workout was a fitness test/sufferfest. The Mars hill run is extremely simple. You run from the bottom of the Mars hill ski run to the top. It takes 12-20 minutes to run hill depending of fitness. I was 4th in our group and made the first page of results on the all time list. It was foggy and rainy during the race, so much so I couldn't see the top of the hill from the start, which made pacing difficult. That afternoon I saw the new Harry Potter Movie which was very entertaining. The following day was the annual Tour of Stockholm. (Stockholm Maine that is) Stockholm was originally settled by Swedes to strengthen the United States claim to the land when it was first being opened up of settlement. It is also the hometown of MWSC athlete and National Team member Russell Currier. The Tour of Stockholm consisted of a 30min Kayak, a 1 hour rollerski, and an EPIC, BUGGY, mountain bike ride. The highlight of the ride was the 45 minutes I spent pushing my bike through a bog while being eaten by Jurassic Park sized horseflies. The last half hour was ridden on logging roads in the pouring rain and hail. This bike was supposed to be 1.5 hours, but turned into 2.5. After our misguided ride the run portion of the tour was canceled. After we has all cleaned up a bit we headed over to Will's house (the local MWSC coach) for a BBQ. This week was a high volume week for me with 19 hours of training. Next week is my last week here before I spend two weeks in Jericho Vermont. This week is a a recovery/prep week before the camp in Vermont. I'll be sending my bike back to Minnesota and other non essential items. I am also currently ordering my race skis for next winter. (Rossignol WSC's if your interested.) Stay tuned for Jericho pics and updates.

The Hill

I live on top of a hill. Every day I go up or down this hill for one reason or another. Buying groceries, doing intervals, going to training... There are two sides of the hill. One is a driveway that is short and steep and requires a really small gear to pedal up while carrying a backpack full of groceries, and the other side is the Lonesome Pines downhill area. This hill can become rather annoying (I can wait another day to go shopping), but in reality it is a really great thing. Being surrounded by quality terrain makes you a better athlete. Like most things you work for the least enjoyable parts make you the best. You have to suffer through the bummer parts to achieve success. For example: Doing 150 chemistry problems; definitely not fun, but getting an A in chemistry; pretty sweet. SO he next time your hauling yourself up a ridiculous hill, or pushing through some nasty intervals or homework remember, you need the hard/boring/seemingly pointless work to achieve success. It's as simple as that.

Maine Team camp and more trainng

This past week was the Maine training group camp here in Fort Kent. The Maine Training group is made up of the best high school age skiers in Maine. They where also joined by a team from Quebec. It was really great having so many great people around to train with. The highlights of the week included a classic sprint race, a 10k skate time trial and a dance party. (hey you can't train all the time) The classic sprint was a lot of fun with every skier getting 4 races. I am not such a great sprinter so it was more of a workout for me. The other skiers where very impressive though. The skate time trial went very well for me. I post the second fastest time. 2 min slower than 3 time World Championships team member and MWSC athlete Dave Chamberlain. This week has a intensity focus and will feature the Mars Hill uphill running test. This is an all-out running effort from the bottom of Mars Hill to the top. It is being billed as full-on sufferfest.. This week is also the Tour of Stockholm (Stockholm Maine that is) A 5 hour combination of rollerskiing, running. biking and paddling. After this week we have a few easier weeks before we go to Jericho Vermont for the Summer rollerski festival. With many National team members present this should be a great couple of races. I have also begun to do some exploring on my mountain bike and I have found seemingly unlimited fast and rolling double track surrounding the area. This double track is part of a vast network of ATV trails that connects most of the area. Watch out for more updates and pictures soon