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!!

I’m not exactly sure how long its been since I wrote a post last.  I always said to myself “I’ll write when I have something good to write about.”  But then if you go by that thinking, it helps to have something good to write about…

So far this season really hasn’t been much to talk about.  In fact, I’d say its been a pretty big disappointment.  Maybe not to some, but I like to think that I am my harshest critic so I’m sure that’s why it seems so bad.  No, I’m not giving up, there is still plenty of racing to go, but I’m thinking it’s about time things turn around.

I’m now sick, again.  This has been the third time since December that I’ve been sick.  I have no idea what the problem is, its starting to get on my nerves just a little.  I had a lot of travel before I was sick the two times before.  I was just starting to get back into the swing of things, I’d had a good two-week training block in Antholz and Nove Mesto, and now it seems I’m back somewhere in the vicinity of square one.  But no time for training, I get to jump right into racing!

After a somewhat disappointing relay on Sunday in Antholz, we had an off day monday, and then into the car Tuesday morning for a long drive (15hours) to Slovakia.  I’m now in a little town called Brezno preparing for the U26 european championships that start Saturday with a sprint.  Although I’m still on the fence about whether I will race or not, I’m feeling optimistic and looking forward to the possibility!

So, wish me luck, and maybe if things go well I will actually have more to write about in the future.  And maybe I’ll even take a picture or two!! But don’t hold your breath.

…The racing season that is.  Only four weeks from today!

As for now, I’m back in Lake Placid!  We’ve only got two more weeks of dryland training left this year (although there’s no snow in Sweden just yet).  Which is pretty exciting if you ask me!

The last few days in Utah were excellent.  Though the temperature was starting to turn a little colder, the training was just about perfect.  The weather was clear, my ankle was improving too, which enabled me to do more activites!  I also drove up to Park City for a VO2 max test at the USSA Center of Excellence.  That was a great experience, and also my first VO2 max test on rollerskis!  Although it was an ok test, I wasn’t very happy with the results, so I went back the next day for an encore!  But that happened to be the day that I decided to plant my pole between my legs and fly off the back of the treadmill… Turned out my first test was the better one anyway!

Below are a few pictures of the last few days in Utah!  Hopefully I’ll post a couple of the last week of training in Placid in the coming days!

Thanks for checking in!

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