Three Seasons in Two Weeks

A lot has happened since I last wrote: I visited my brother at Yale, had my 23rd birthday, and flew to Utah to begin our October camp outside Park City. It has been jam packed for the past two weeks, and while it has flown by, Yale and my birthday seem worlds away.



October 7, my birthday, was spent hanging out with my parents, boyfriend Zach and my brother Luke in New Haven, CT. It was a perfect summer day…in October. We had breakfast on the beach, and could have ventured into the water had we wanted since the temperature was already near 80F. After leaving my brother to get back to work, we drove to my aunt and uncle’s house in Rhode Island for birthday dinner and pumpkin pie (which was actually squash pie, but just as delicious).



The next day, Zach and I left for Utah to join the rest of the US Biathlon Development Team and the National Team for our October camp. We arrived to perfect western fall weather: cool mornings and warm afternoons with lots of sun all day. There was snow in the mountains surrounding the Heber Valley, which made for inspiring views from our rental house each morning. We have all been adjusting well to altitude training and taking advantage of the great rollerski trails and shooting range at the 2002 Olympic venue, Soldier Hollow.



We moved houses on Sunday, trading majestic mountain views for pastures, deer, and one curious, apple-core-loving horse. Yesterday, some weather rolled in, and we awoke this morning to an inch and a half of wet SNOW. Despite the white stuff, we were still able to pull off a time trial with some juniors who are also here training. I shot amazingly until my forth and final stage, when I missed 3 of my standing targets. Until then, I had only missed one shot. I still ended up forth, hitting 16 of 20 shots. It was a great experience for me, as is every race at this stage in my training. I skied hard and, for the most part, shot well, so I was very happy with my result.



We have another time trail with the national team on Saturday, and finish the camp with one more week of training. So far this has been a very productive camp and great preparation for our early races, which are also at altitude in Canmore, Alberta, Canada, and West Yellowstone, Montana. The recent snow has done nothing but make me look forward to when there’s actually enough for us to ditch the rollerskis and grab the real things. Think Snow!!

Enjoying it All

This past week has been another rest week for us, and being that fall is certainly in full swing here in Lake Placid, we took full advantage of the time off.



Zach and I started the week off by going apple picking, because what good upstate New York resident lets the fall pass without picking apples?? Since we went on a Monday, we had the orchard all to ourselves, which was fabulous. It couldn't have been a better day: sunny skies and pleasantly cool temperatures made for a beautiful drive over and a great time in the orchard. We picked two baskets full of Cortland, Macintosh, Golden Delicious, Gala and Honeycrisp varieties. Currently, the enormous pile is sitting in my room and quickly disappearing. Most people would be amazed at how Zach and I are able to go through apples! The best part, though, was sampling all the different apples. If you've never eaten an apple right off the tree, you are REALLY missing out. Supermarket apples just can't compare. My favorites? It's hard to choose since I like them all, but the best would probably be the Cortlands and Honeycrisps. We'll be back in the orchard before fall is over for sure.


On Wednesday afternoon, Zach and I hiked into a shelter on Copperas Pond, about 15minutes from Lake Placid and an easy 1.3 mile hike (or 0.5 miles if you take the short way that we didn't know about). It was absolutely beautiful in the mountains. The shelter is right on the pond, so waking to the first light hitting the pond in the morning was amazing. Perfect weather, of course, and a great one-night trip.


Then it was time to begin some easy training again. Today we took a run up a hill overlooking Lake Placid and Mirror Lake (the lake around which the town of Lake Placid is situated). It was beautiful (this is getting to be a welcome theme here...) and we had a great time exploring new trails and taking in the views. We had to stop and get our bearings as we looked over the town, I guess we're not quite locals yet!

Tomorrow we have some tough bounding intervals up Whiteface Mountain (the alpine ski area here), which marks the end of our easy week. There is really nothing that can compare to a Northeastern Autumn, and each day I am reminded but the beautiful foliage how lucky I am to be living my dream. September is more than half way over, which means snow and racing are quickly approaching. I can't wait!

September?!

It's been a little while since I've written, and all the sudden fall seems to have crept up. I can hardly believe that it's September already, but the wildly variant weather proves that another New England autumn is here.

Let's catch up on things. The end of my off week was spent taking my brother to his freshman orientation trip at Yale. Being a Dartmouth girl through and through, I spent much of the time deciding why Yale was clearly inferior to my alma mater. However, I must admit, it was pretty nice there and my brother seems to like it, so that's all that really matters.


Next, I headed off to Alaska to meet up with my boyfriend, Zach. We spent a great week training and helping his family get ready for his brother's wedding. The wedding was outside, with the beautiful Matanuska Valley and surrounding mountains making for a perfect backdrop. It was a great time for all, and well worth my short trip to Alaska.

I then flew back to Maine to spend a couple days with my parents and aunt and uncle before my parents headed back to Idaho. After a slight hiccup of car trouble on the way back to Lake Placid (luckily it happened in Hanover, with lots of friends to help and beds to crash in around), I finally arrived back at the OTC, only to leave the next morning with the rest of the Development Team for a weekend in Jericho, VT for training on the rollerski loops there. When we arrived on Friday, it was incredibly hot and humid. We had a tough couple of workouts on Friday due to the heat and humidity, and were so exhausted after the morning workout that the four of took naps on the hard picnic tables in the building near the range. The weather was no different on Saturday which made for tough conditions for the NENSA rollerski race. Thanks to great organizers, though, the race went off great and I think everyone had a good time.


Sunday was an off day, so we returned to Lake Placid to lounge. We were back in Jericho yesterday to significantly cooler temperatures. After an easier day Monday, this morning was spent with some level 3 rollerski interval combos (meaning after each interval we stop to shoot, making it more like an actual biathlon race). The temperatures have been cooperating nicely, but we'll be lucky if we can hold off the rain this afternoon for one last workout before heading back to Lake Placid.

Next week is an easy/off week and then we'll have a 10 day block of training then more rest before heading to Utah for our October camp with the National Team. Things are really moving in high gear here as we all get ready for winter, which like fall, will no doubt close in fast!

August Camp

So, the August camp is over, and while training was incredibly productive, I have to admit I'm glad to have a rest week! The first week of the camp was my largest volume week all year. We were all pretty tired by the end, which was a good feeling. Last week, the Development Team headed over to Jericho, Vermont to take advantage of their range with rollerski loops. It was great training, especially for those of us who are newer to the sport. We got to practice range procedure and shoot a lot. Of course, sleeping in the Army barracks at the Ethan Allen training site was an experience, but definitely worth it considering the training.

Two races with the large group of junior biathletes from Minnesota, Maine and Alaska that were also training in Jericho toped off the training week. The races were another great opportunity for practice at high intensity, something we don't often get a lot of since we don't have rollerski loops at the range in Lake Placid. Overall, I was happy with my results, but I know there are still a lot of things to work on before we get on snow...which hopefully won't be too long from now!

Like I said, I'm now in the rest week phase of our cycle, and heading over to Maine to meet up with my parents and take my little brother down to college. Then I’m off to Maine for Zach's brother's wedding. And of course, after that we'll be full speed into the next camp in September here in Lake Placid. Stay tuned....


Checking my natural point of aim during practice in Jericho.


Lots of rifles...


First shooting stage. I'm the one furthest to the left.

Catching Up

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!!

Welcome!

Hello!
I hope this blog will keep my family, friends and sponsors up to date on my new life as a member of the US Biathlon Development Team. Thanks for visting, and keep checking back!