Finally!

Though it doesn’t seem like too long ago that I was making my way to Sweden for the WC opener, I’m pretty happy that the season is now over. There were a lot of things that I’ll be taking away from the last few months, both good and bad. In my opinion, this was my best overall season that I’ve ever had. Though there weren’t any totally amazing results, I had a very consistent season as a whole, and if I look back to where I was a year ago, I have to be pleased!

For now, I’m back home in MN for a few weeks of rest and relaxation! Though its hard to do that completely since there’s still over 2 feet of snow on the ground! So I’ll still be skiing for a few weeks to come hopefully!

This picture is taken from the Olympic village in Sochi, Russia. I’m already motivated and looking forward to a full summer of training ahead! Hopefully I’ll be back there next year, stronger, faster, and more accurate than ever! But for now, there’s a little time to rest still…

So here I am in Siberia. It’s almost 2am local time, and that is 3pm back home in Minnesota. However, as the races this week don’t start till 6pm local time, I’m on on what we refer to as “the late schedule”. Meaning I go to bed about 2am, wake up for breakfast at 10am, then take a short nap and start my day around noon! It doesn’t necessarily make sense, but it works.

But that’s not even the main reason for this rare and unusual post! It’s been roughly 374 days since my last post. My posts are… sporadic, to say the least.

BUT

This is a new post… with a panorama picture. Oh ya, and I did it from my phone!!

So maybe that means I’ll post more than once a year now. Maybe.

The first few races of World Championships have come and gone.  Mixed Relay, Sprint, and Pursuit.  I’ve spent all three of these races in pretty much the same place, crouched in front of the TV cheering on my team mates as they navigate their way through the slushy mess that has been the venue the last few days.

But being the alternate has its benefits too… I’ve learned to be patient, waiting for my turn to race.  I’ve learned that coffee is bad to drink while watching biathlon, something about caffeine mixing with a lot of enthusiasm… not always good.  I also think I’ve learned to be grateful for the races I DO get to do.  Sometimes maybe I took them for granted.  It also hasn’t been the best of seasons.  As of now I’ve been healthy for a whole month though! Maybe thats a sign that things have turned around.  I’ve done a total of 5 races since the beginning of January though, so I’m more than a little anxious to get to the start line!

Who knows when that will be?  Individual race on Tuesday, Mens Relay on Friday.  Its not certain when I will get to race, or even if.  But I will be ready when the time comes.

Tune in to http://eurovision.digotel.com/ibu/index.html to watch the races live…

http://www.biathlonworld.com/en/ for results and other things biathlon…

along with http://biathlon.teamusa.org/  and http://new.fasterskier.com/ for team USA news…

It seems I’ve done quite a bit of this recently.  In the last 6 days alone I’ve traveled through 5 different countries, watching the miles go by in car, train, bus and plane.  So far I haven’t had any mishaps with the travel, although I did manage to get sick again on the way home from Slovakia.  After the U26 Champs in Slovakia, teammate Russel and I drove back to Antholz for four days for a quick training camp with our coach Armin.

I didn’t really get a whole lot of training in Antholz though.  The sickness I incurred on the travel from Slovakia sank from my nose into my chest and lungs, and I was forced to spend a few days on the couch coughing and hacking to my hearts content.  I did however have one thing that helped immensely!  Armin lives just next door to a hotel owned by his aunt, so I spent a few afternoons down in their sauna!!  It was a pretty nice deal, and by the time I had to leave Antholz on Monday I was feeling much better!

After that the day was a piece of cake.  Just a quick wakeup at 4:30am, 3 hour drive to munich, 7 hour sit in munich, 2 hour plane ride to Stockholm, 3 hour train ride to Sundsvall, and 2 hour bus ride to Solleftea!! No problem! I arrived a little after midnight at Per’s house and went to sleep right away.  This morning I woke up to one of the best days of classic skiing I’ve had in a long time, and I look forward to staying in one place and training here for the next 2 weeks!! Hopefully I’ll get out my camera and take a few pictures while I’m here!

Check back in a few days!

Although it didn’t start out great. I was pretty disappointed after the Sprint race on Saturday.  But I guess I wasn’t really expecting too much.  I didn’t even decide I was racing for sure until I woke up on Saturday morning.  But I felt good enough so I decided to go for it!

This range in Osrblie is a very easy range to shoot on.  It has a very long downhill and flat approach that gives you a lot of time to catch your breath before shooting.  I’m still not sure how I managed to rack up 3 penalties during the sprint, but it happened.  I was very disappointed with 45th, but still very determined to come back on Sunday and have a good race.

I managed to do just that, I knew the things I had to do differently, and it payed off.  Shooting was solid and skiing felt even better than Saturday.  Out wax techs worked their magic with our tiny little wax supply so we also had great skis!

Now I’m looking forward to the Individual race which takes place on tuesday afternoon!  I haven’t done an Individual race since the WC opener in Ostersund back in early December, so it should be a fun time! Check back on Wednesday to see how it went!!