I arrived at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) on June 21 after a whirlwind of graduation, meeting President Bush for NCAA Champions Day (Dartmouth Skiing won NCAAs this year, and I was lucky enough to not only have raced but to have been the women's nordic captain!), and a family vacation. Since then, we have been working in 4 week cycles: 3 hard weeks followed by an easy week. By hard week, I mean lots of hours; easy weeks thus being much less hours. It's been more training than I have ever done before, but I'm confident that my body can handle it. Without school or a job or anything to get in the way of recovery and focus, this is the best situation for me to excel in the sport of biathlon.
I recently spent a couple weeks at home in Idaho visiting my family and training in the time between camps (there's a camp with all Development Team members about once a month for 2-3 weeks. The next one starts tomorrow). My boyfriend, Zach, and I hung out with my family in Boise for a bit, and we all went backpacking in the beautiful (if a bit smoky) Sawtooth Mountains. We also spent some time at a friend's cabin in McCall, Idaho, on Payette Lake. It was a much needed and very fun break from the constant thoughts of training here in Lake Placid.
But now we are back, and into the full swing of training again. Camp starts tomorrow, but I feel like it has never really stopped. Training to get to the level I want to be at (World Cup and Olympic) is a full time job. You never stop going. You're always thinking about training and your goals. So, understandably, we all look forward to our one off day a week when we can sleep in, and lounge all day. Usually, however, it turns into the day you get all the errands and things done you didn't have time to do during the week.
This week, that errand was returning to Dartmouth for Zach and my last load of ski stuff. It was great to see the few people who are around for summer term and kick around Hanover for the evening. We drove over yesterday after an intense uphill bounding workout and did our afternoon classic ski in Hanover. After a fun, but uneventful evening (we were exhausted!) we saw the Dartmouth Ski Team off to Moosilauke for the famed Moosilauke Time Trial and packed up our ski stuff and headed back to Lake Placid. Along the way, we could not resist stopping for a while to pick berries at a pick-your-own farm in Rochester, Vermont. The berries were absolutely huge, and we almost made ourselves sick for eating so many! Well worth the stop.
So, now I'm more or less caught up. As the camp begins, there should be more training adventures to report. Stay tuned!!
