Mourning One of Our Own

At this point, many of you have heard of the tragedy that recently befell the XC Skiing, Biathlon and Maine Winter Sports Communities. Willie Neal, a young, talented skier/biathlete and extraordinary young man, was killed Sunday while rollerskiing in Northern Maine. I will leave out the details, but you can find more information at fasterskier.com, in a blog from the editor and a press release.

This tragedy is a reminder to all of us that sometimes life is terribly short, and suddenly taken away for no reason at all. While there were a few factors that perhaps could have helped the situation, I am prone to believe that this was simply an unfortunate incident of a smart young man being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As you go about your life in the coming days and months, please remember the Neal family as they grieve. Also, as you head out rollerskiing or biking, please remember to be safe: stay on the correct side of the road, wear bright colors, use roads with good shoulders and avoid high traffic areas, and always wear a helmet! One tragedy for our small community is one too many.

RIP Willie. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Women's National Team Camp

The women's team camp is getting underway here in Lake Placid, and day one was a interesting one. The weather here has been nothing if not interesting, so it was no surprise that the light drizzle that started after our morning workout quickly became a downpour that continued all afternoon. That made for a wet afternoon ski, but luckily it has been warm, so no one got too cold or miserable. Hopefully things only calm down from here...

Almost all the women who will be competing for spots on the Vancouver 2010 team are here this week training together. It's a great group, and a fantastic opportunity for us all to catch up. Skiing and shooting together as a big group is a great learning experience, and helps push us all to improve.

The plan is to be in Lake Placid until Sunday and then head up to Fort Kent, Maine for two more weeks of training on their roller loop and range. I've never been to Ft. Kent in summer, so it will be a nice change of scenery. It's going to be a tough few weeks, but as usual, I'm sure it will go by in a flash.

Scat work: dry-firing with a laser so you can get instant feedback.

Shooting at the "new" range by the ski jumps...new as in last August.

Mid-workout firing pin replacement.

Skiing in the rain...we've had a lot of these already this year.

Overdue Update

Hello!

Wow, what a whirl-wind season it's been! It's already May and things are in full swing again for the coming Olympic season. Before we get rolling on that, though, let's get caught up.

Many of you know by now that my World Cup debut was very successful. I had a 38th place in the sprint race with clean shooting-scoring 3 world cup points and posting the second best US women's World Cup result of the entire year. It was a great way to start my World Cup career and has made me very excited about next year when the Olympics will be held on the same courses.

Heading to the finish in Vancouver.

From Vancouver I headed to Fort Kent, Maine for US National Championships. I definitely felt like I was coming off a high, but put together a decent race the first day. I was really looking forward to the pursuit competition on day two, but right before the race, disaster struck. I fell coming into the range for zero on an icy corner and broke my stock. I was still able to pull off an ok race with a borrowed rifle. I finished the series with a 4th place in the Mass Start, which I was happy with considering the circumstances.

Rifle in two pieces; not good.

The next week was Canadian Nationals in Valcartier, Quebec, Canada. It was a tough week for me, as I was both mentally and physically exhausted. The weather was ridiculous, with warm weather making for slushy, slow skiing conditions and three exhausting races in a row. Luckily, they were the last three of the season, and I had a nice vacation trip to look forward to at the end.

After taking a couple weeks off to travel and get some good relaxation in, I'm back at the training center getting ready for the summer. We already had a small camp here with a few of the B team women, and we'll have our first big camp starting the second week in June.

It's hard to believe that May is half over and the Olympics are just about 9 months away. It's going to be a whirlwind, but I'm ready and looking forward to it!

Heading out of the range in Fort Kent.

The men's mass start in Ft. Kent.

News

I recently learned that instead of staying in Lake Placid and training until US Nationals in two weeks in Ft. Kent, Maine, I would be traveling to compete in the World Cup in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I have never raced in a World Cup, and to have my first be at the 2010 Olympic venue makes this opportunity extra special. I am more than ready to race at this level and see what I can do. I feel like this is the perfect time and place to make something happen. I can't wait!

Hopefully my success on the same courses last year transfers to the World Cup.

Back "home"

Out on a ski in the mountains (Alps) above the Antholz venue.

The IBU Cup and World Championship Team trials are over, and though I had some great results in Europe, I just missed making the World Champ Team. I was upset not to make the team, but my results proved that I had made a huge jump since last year, and being so close to making the team made me feel really good about where I am.

After the IBU Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, I was able to go to the Antholz, Italy World Cup as an alternate. I was not able to race, but it was an invaluable experience to see a World Cup live. I got to see how things run and what the stadium is really like on race day, which was fantastic. I feel that now when I get the chance to compete in a World Cup, I will not be as surprised on unprepared as I would have been having never seen one.

The view from our hotel in Antholz.

Looking back into the stadium from out on course in Antholz.

I then headed back "home" to Lake Placid. It was nearly three weeks from when I got back until the next North American Cup race, so it was a good chance to put in some solid training. The snow has been fantastic, so we were able to have some very high quality workouts. We also competed in the Cross Country SuperTour race in Stowe, VT last weekend, which was a fun and different break from biathlon racing. It was definitely interesting going back to a Nordic race, having not done one for over a year, but I enjoyed it, and the biathlon group did well. Susan Dunklee was 7th, I was 9th, Bethann Chamberlain was 10th and Jen Wygant was 17th in a field of 173 skiers.

This weekend was the Lake Placid NorAm Cup race, but things didn't go off as planned. Though we've had great snow until now, the weather picked this week to start being uncooperative. With warm temperatures Sunday through Wednesday, and rain Tuesday night and Wednesday, the race organizers decided to cancel the NorAm as scheduled. Despite the range being completely gone (it was a big puddle on Wednesday that turned into an ice sheet on Friday), they were able to pull off a club race. The courses were a bit modified, but with lots of shoveling by volunteers, the range and course ended up in fairly decent shape.

I had decent races, finishing third both days. In the sprint on Saturday, I felt a little flat skiing, like I hadn't raced in a while. Then in the pursuit format today (Sunday), my skiing came together, but my shooting was off. It was a good weekend to get things back on track and get back into that race mode.

Next weekend it's off to Presque Isle for the NorAm there. It sounds like there's plenty of snow up there, so hopefully the weather cooperates and we can hold the NorAm this week!

A video from the Antholz World Cup sprint race of Andrea Henkel (GER) shooting. She cleans: the crowd loves it!

**Update: This post was supposed to go up a week ago, I'm not sure what happened. Anyway, the Presque Isle races went well, despite the small number of racers. I was 1st in the sprint race on Saturday and 2nd in the mass start on Sunday. I'm now in Fort Kent training for the week and then will be heading back to Lake Placid for another round of training. More details to come, stay tuned! ~Sara

Playing Catch-Up

Hello!

It's been a while since I've written. A lot has happened, so I'll try and do a quick catch-up of the last couple months.

November

After returning to the training center after the October camp, training continued as usual. We didn't have any snow and abundant rain and sand on the roads that made rollerskiing difficult. It was a lot of running and treadmill rollerski interval workouts before we finally left for West Yellowstone after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, West Yellowstone did not have any snow in town either. After successfully driving up to the plateau for a couple days of great skiing, the road was closed by the Forest Service and we were in a tight spot. There was much diliberation amongst the USBA coaches as to what to do. Move the NorAm's? Wait for snow? Try to make it work for a few more days? In the end, the NorAm's were moved, and we were out of there a week early. I love skiing in West, and so was sad to leave, but hiking the 3.5 hour round-trip up the the plateau to ski just wasn't worth it. In the end, it was a good thing we left because they didn't end up getting significant snow until mid-December.

December

Once we arrived in Minnesota for what was now to be two weekends of racing (5 races total), we encountered an entirely different problem-cold. Though we were thankful for the great snow and got some really good training in during the first week we were there, it was freezing! The first race (a 7.5km Sprint race) went off despite a short delay due to temperatures and an ever increasing blizzard, but the second race was cancelled due to forcasted friggid weather. When we awoke that morning, it was -30F, so no one was complaining about not having to go outside. Temperatures warmed a little, but the next three races were still pretty cold. We ended up having one more delay, but things went pretty smoothly consudering the adverse conditions. I had a couple of good races, my best being the third race-a Pursuit style, which I won by a margin of 50 seconds. Zach also had some good results, winning the first Sprint race as well as the final race-a windy and cold Mass Start. Because of our results in Minnesota, both Zach and I qualified for the IBU Cup Team and began to get psyched for racing in Germany and the Czech Republic in January.

A cold late afternoon ski out on a lake in Minnesota. (photo: Zachary Hall)

Carolyn Bramante and I on the podium at the Mt. Itasca Sprint race.

We spent a little over a week in Boise for Christmas. It was nice to have a break from focusing so intensly on biathlon, not to mention how nice it was to finally see double digit temperatures! But it was a short break, and soon we were headed back to Lake Placid for three days and then off to Germany!

Getting ready for our big Christmas Eve Smorgasbord.

My brother and I enjoying the snow in Sun Valley.

January

So here we are in Altenberg, Germany, finally caught up! We just finished the first weekend of racing here, and though I had some ups and some downs, I have been learning a ton from racing here, and really enjoying the whole experience. The level of racing here at the IBU (International Biathlon Union) Cups is so much higher than anything we have in the US. It is really good to see this level in order to get a better idea of just how fast I have to be in order to be competitive. I definitely have some work to do, but it's not impossible.

The stadium in Altenberg-what a crowd! (photo: Zachary Hall)

Heading to the finish in Altenberg. (photo: Gary Colliander)

After the races in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic next weekend, they will name three women and one man to the World Championship Team that will head to World Cup #6 in Antholz, Italy and then on to Pyeong Chang, South Korea. I need to have a couple more good races in order to qualify, so I'll be working on making every second and every shot count. Wish me luck!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Utah Camp Update

Beautiful Heber Valley

Greetings from the Beehive State!

I've been in Midway, Utah for the past couple weeks training with the National A, B and Development Teams. This is our big fall camp, and we also had three trial races for the December World Cup Team. The training has been great, and it's been fun to see everyone and train together. The races were a good way to see how things are shaping up for the season. Overall, I had a good races, and was happy with my performance considering it is still only October. Unfortunately, I ended up fifth in the overall points from the three races, and only the top four are being taken to the World Cups in December. However, my results were very encouraging as I head into the season.

On a bike ride above the Soldier Hollow venue

We have one more week of training here, and then I'll be home for a couple days before heading back to Lake Placid. At the end of November, we'll be off to West Yellowstone, MT and then Grand Rapids, MN for the first North American Cup races (NorAms). The NorAms will be qualification races for Europa Cup races and the World Championship trials in January.

For now, I'm focusing on making the most out of these last couple days of camp and then getting some much needed rest heading into the last period of training before the season really gets started. Think Snow!!

A great hike in the snow! Unfortunately it all melted by that afternoon...

Snow makes all workouts more fun!