Getting ready for Trials

Junior World Team trials are less than a week away now and i am starting to get very excited. I am back in Minneapolis for Christmas after some races in Northern Minnesota this past weekend. The trials races are the 28th-30th in Anchorage Alaska with the team being named after the final race. Wish me Luck!

Skiing

I have finally attained skiing. It might be a little late this year but skiing is skiing.

Right around Thanksgiving Big Rock (a downhill area south of Presque Isle) blew snow and we were able to ski on the 1 k loop. A lot of the local juniors were there and a few kids from southern Maine. After a lot of time getting in some distance and doing an interval session we all got together and played a big game (or couple of games).

After two days decent skiing at Big Rock I started my travel toward West Yellowstone. This is my 5th time at West Yellowstone but my first time here not during the ski festival. The festival is great because there is always something to do with so many people here and all of the activities to do not on the ski trail. The only down side of the festival is that all the trails are often very crowded and it is hard to get in interval sessions.

So this year it might be a little lonely compared to the other times i have been here but at least i can get my quality sessions in without worry of running someone over.

The famous archway to the Rendezvous Trails right in the town of West Yellowstone.

November Training at its Finest

November is not normally the most exciting time except for the part when we get on snow for the first time. I have not yet gotten on snow this year, which is a little late, so i have nothing of really excitement to post. I have just continued to work hard on the dry land and am really excited about the improvements off the snow that i have been making. I improved both my Mars Hill time by 55 seconds from our September run and my VO2 Max test resulted in many aerobic improvements. I have put in some good work and know i know that i am ready to get on snow and rip it up.

videos

Austin was kind enough to put together two vidoes from the Utah camp that i though I would share with you.

Utah Camp

Here is a brief summary of our October dry land Utah Camp. I wanted to do a few shorter posts throughout the camp (as it was three and a half weeks long) but I had no internet so that one was my bad.

This year there were Sr Trials races at the end of our stay for those that were looking to make the Sweden trip and finally the World Cup but my focus is on Jr World Champs this year and they aren’t until late February so instead of wasting my time there prepping for races that mean little to me I decided that it would be better to get some high quality training in. The area where we were staying is truly beautiful and I am glad I put in those high hour weeks so that I could maximize my time outside enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Mt Timpinogous

When we started climbing early in the morning around 6,000 ft it was not crazy cold and I thought that I had over packed but by the time we got over 10,000 ft and it was snowing hard with a strong wind I knew I was happy that I brought all the clothing that I did.

Here is some snow that has been around since last year (or longer, last year when we were here there was snow in this exact same spot and it never fully melts) and I was the first one on the team to touch snow this year (not too bad for only being October 5^th).

The races were fun but I was a little worn down from all the training that I had done so I was not focusing on going fast but using them as training races and trying to shoot more accurately faster. I did end up shooting decently accurately at 70% both days, which is good for domestic juniors but not very good for international competition so I was semi pleased but still know that there is still more work to be done.

Fall

As the fall is among us i will be starting to get back into the swing of posting cool updates with pictures about training, traveling and racing! Tune in soon to read about the awesome Utah camp that we just completed.

June just flew by and now July seems to be doing just the same. While I am following a similar plan as last year there is still so much that has changed and I am still getting used to the business of it all. There are so many new faces, a new house we live in and new training plans being implemented. This year there just seems like so much more to do. Last year all we seemed to do was train and recover but this year there is so much more to do outside of the realm of training. I understand that responsibilities grow as we grow so I am ready to face those challenges but sometimes I can’t help but look back at how simple and easy life was last summer.

Most of the time though, I don’t have time to look back because I am too busy looking forward. I am doing so much right now and making such great improvements that it only makes sense to look toward the future. One of the easiest improvements to calculate that I have made is the 1:40 improvement that I have made in the 10^th Mtn 11K Skate TT that all the Biathletes and Nordic skiers do. I am happy to see some hard work paying off and hope to continue that trend.