fall training

Fall has really started to affect my training mentality. During the summer everything was pretty casual (or as casual as things can get) but now psychologically things are really starting to change. For a while the training hours have were not that high and we did not do particularly that many hard workouts and it kind of seemed like we were in limbo waiting to leave for Utah before anything real happened. (We leave for Utah for a training camp on October 10^th and will be there till the 24^th) Stagnation is the hardest thing to deal with as a full time athlete for me because I am not doing anything else so if I don’t feel like I am getting any better than I just feel like I am wasting my time when I could be doing other things that would be more productive.

While I was feeling down, I actually was getting better. Even though everything felt normal all my work was really paying off. We did to Time Trials as a team and both my shooting and my skiing felt a lot better. Shooting wise, I came in to the first shooting stage and cleaned (hit all my targets) in 34 seconds. My range times were my Achilles heel at the races in VT over the summer where I shot around 55 seconds so I was happy with the improvement there. My standing shooting was not great but it also did not take me the rest of my life to shoot so I was happy about that but also knew what I needed to work on. With three misses in the standing stage I ended up shooting 70% which I am ok with right now but it will need to be closer to 80-90% come Jr Worlds if I want to crack the top 30. I was also a lot faster skiing which made me feel good. The combination of the technique work and the right amount of intensity to volume training really made me feel strong and use that strength and turning it into speed with as little waste of energy as possible. I skied well in both the 3km and the 6km time trial even though I went out a little too hard in the second one and thought that I was going to die pretty hard I did not and I held the shooting together to shoot 70% again. The second TT was a little more interesting because I started 15 second behind Raleigh and we played a cat and mouse game the whole 6 K where I would chase him then he would chase me. It was fun and range times made so much more of a difference because a couple of seconds could mean the difference between gapping Raleigh or being in a pack where it would be harder to put any distance between me and him because he would be able to react to all my increases in pace more easily. I ended up pulling away from Raleigh and out shot him to win.

Right after the TT where over I got to look at the two stocks which MWSC just bought off of Olympian Tim Burke. I was able to pick the one that I liked and have started shooting with it. In the past three days I have shot 800 rounds so that I get used to the way it feels and the new procedure I have to go through because the clips or magazines are held in a different place from my old one and time is everything in Biathlon. In those 800 rounds of shooting I was able to get my range times back down to where they were before set a new record on the so called “American Test” which is a speed and accuracy test where the goal is to shoot 4 clips but if you miss more than 2 shots total then you have to stop. Finishing the test is sometimes hard but I not only finished it a good number of times I also crushed my old record. I also did a 30/30 shot test or a 60 shot test which is solely an accuracy test where you take 60 shots on a paper target with the best shot being a 10 and the further you get from the middle being lower and lower scores. The top possible score is 600 points and the top guys (or girls) in the country score around 510 to 515. My previous best was 430 but the first time with the new stock I shot a 452 which is a sizable increase. My prone shooting was slightly lower than I have done in the past but my standing shooting really made up for it. All in all, I like the new stock as it is lighter is better made and I shoot better with it, what more could I ask for.

This last 3 week training block had a lot of ups and downs but now we have a low week to recover both physically and mentally to get ready for Utah and beyond.

This is the best standing paper I have done on a 60 shot test. We put 15 shots on two targets each. So the highest possible score on one paper is 150. this targets score is 112 out of 150.

This is the best prone that i have done. I did not shoot this this week but i kept it as my personal best. We on shoot 10 rounds on prone targets because it gets hard to tell separate shots apart when there are too many. On this target I scored 94 out of a possible 100.

Just fyi a prone hit is in between the 7 ring and the 8 ring.

Some Pictures

The Start


Willow Koerber on her way to third



Here is "young Jack" on his way to 45th place

Here pictured is the statue of the Mass 54th which i went and visited while in Boston. The Mass 54th holds significant to me as I wrote a research paper on the importance of the Mass 54th on the social and political changes of African Americans in the late 1800's.

We really know that it is fall up here in The County. The weather has taken a drastic turn for the cold and rainy side. Last week we were complaining about the 90 degree heat and the scorching sun, this week we did not even see the sun as it rained on us almost all week with highs around low 50’s to high 40’s with lows around mid 30’s.
Before the training really got serious this week (which it did) we traveled up to watch Mountain Bike World Champs in Quebec. I got to watch a majority of the cross country races, including the men’s U-23 race which my friend which I raced against in high school was competing. It was fun to see him race even though he got pulled from the race with a lap to go. I also saw the Women’s elite race which included a very exciting finish from Willow Koerber of the United States. Willow battled it out with a Russian and a Canadian for 2nd. The Russian ended up getting away but she held out for 3rd which was a hugely exciting result.
While there, Raleigh and I volunteered to help out at the 4 cross race where we clipped off the transponders for the electronic timing. It was cool to get a close up of the action and see the athletes right after they were finished. I feel confident in saying that I was the first to congratulate the women’s World Champion. All in all, it was a great event.
For now it’s all about the training in the County. I will shortly post any results of time trials or anything else that is interesting.