New York Vermont and more...

 This past week I completed my first of training with the National team in Lake Placid, New York. It included several rollerski combos workouts, a running combo workout, strength, and some rollerskiing and running without shooting. Overall it was a very effective week of training. After most training sessions I like to ask myself, "did this workout make me a better biathlete?" If I can answer yes then I feel like I am training well and doing the right thing, I was able to answer yes after almost every workout I did. 

Some highlights from the camp were, being able to train around athletes that are much better then I am and seeing what I have to do to get to their level and getting one on one coaching with the national team coach Jonas. With Jonas I did some SCATT shooting which is where my rifle gets hooked up to a computer system and all of the barrel movements are tracked while dry firing. I also did some ski technique work on a rollerski treadmill. A rollerski treadmill is similar to a running treadmill but the tread is much wider and longer, this was my first time on a rollerski treadmill and a little scary at first but I quickly got the hang of it. Some advantages of the rollerski treadmill are your coach can stand and watch you and give you feedback all the time because your not actually going anywhere. There is also a giant mirror in front of you and a video camera filming from the side with a live feed to a TV in front of you so that you can watch yourself ski. I thought that this instant visual feedback was incredibly beneficial. I feel like I came away with several things to improve on over the summer while in Maine before going to my next National Team camp in August. 

After Lake Placid I traveled to Craftsbury, Vermont where I trained and lived with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project for a few days. This was fun because I got to catch up with a few friends that I have not seen in a while and it gave me a bit of a mental break from focused training while still able to do some training. 

Next I am going to Old Forge, New York to visit my girlfriends house for a few days, then I am going to a Zac Brown Band concert in Connecticut before going back up to Maine for the summer.

Driving into Lake Placid 

Lake Placid Olympic Training Center

BBQ Chicken Pizza, the last meal I cooked in Maine

I brought my basil and spinach plants with me so they wouldn't die while I was away 

On a hike in Lake Placid Maddie found a Toad

A Fire tower on top of Hurricane mountain near Lake Placid

Some of the nicest roller skiing I have ever had, fresh blacktop, blue sky, and green grass

On an off day I visited the Adirondack museum, there were some really cool exhibits including these old canoes 

An old speed boat at the Adirondack museum

A giant Adirondack chair at the Adirondack museum

Crossing Lake Champlain on my way to Craftsbury

A cool view of the ferry

Working on a hydraulic ram pump in Craftsbury trying to get water pumped up to the pigs and cows 

The pump uses water pressure to pump the water up the hill and we were struggling to get water to the top

Finally we got a better stream of water flowing

A cool road I drove on in central VT

An AWESOME snowcat I drove by in the VT mountains

A fire tower on top of Bald Mountain near Old Forge New York

Maddie and I on top of Bald Mountain with the Fulton Chain of Lakes in the background 

Maine... Training Training Training

I have now been in Maine for one full week and it has been full of lots of training, morning and afternoon sessions almost everyday. One of the things that makes Fort Kent such a great place to train is the roller ski loop and shooting range. For those of you that don't know, here in Fort Kent, Maine the ski trails are paved so you can roller ski on them as well as roller ski right up to the shooting range. This set up is ideal for biathlon training.
Since there is the great roller skiing facilities here I have been doing lots of combo training (roller skiing with shooting) this week as well as some running and biking.

It has been a few months since I had been in my room here in Fort Kent and when I arrived I felt like it was exceptionally dirty so I spent the first few days I was here doing lots of sweeping, moping, scrubbing, and washing of my room, the entire downstairs area, and the kitchen. My dad told me it was "practice to make someone a good wife", not exactly what I wanted to hear.

In other non biathlon related news I bought my first jalapeno pepper, I read somewhere that hot peppers are supposed to have something in them that is good for you, wether or not that is true I don't know but wanted to try on regardless even though I am not that into spicy foods. I figured the 3 cent investment would be worth a try. So far I have used about 1/6 of it in a potato stir fry dish and it was not to bad.

Flying out of Boston on my way to Presque Isle. 

Shooting Training at the 10th mountain center in Fort Kent.

Before and after what started out as a pouring rain bike ride, the rain stopped after about 5 minutes

The newest biggest truck at the Fort Kent Chevy dealer