Time at home in pictures

This week I don't have that much time to write out a long blog post but I have lots of pictures, if each one is worth a thousand words then this will be my most valuable blog post yet.

My basil plants left in the car to dry before leaving the East

My final flight to Wenatchee, Washington on the small prop plane 

Our sheep at home grazing on pasture

Splitting wood to keep the house warm for the winter

Hauling wood home... only 5 more loads to go

Making dutch baby pancakes, they grow out of the pan

The dutch babies are delicious with fresh nectarines  

 A few days before traveling home my elbow started to have some pain, I had an inflamed bursa. Luckily this happened when it did and I was able to see Pete at Winthrop Physical Therapy and he fixed me up with some ultra sounding and kinesio tape. I was able to keep the stress off my elbow by going on a three day backpack trip as soon as I got home.

I would like to give out a special thanks to Smartwool and Tracy Ross for getting me some awesome new shirts, socks, and wind briefs to get me through the winter.

The rest of the pictures are from the backpack trip that I went on with my mom and friend Remington. We hiked in 15 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail to Goat Lake Basin. Remington and I did some grouse hunting and fishing while hiking, it was super fun!! 

Looking down the west fork of the Pasayten river

Cooking up our fresh grouse 

Remington on top of Holman peak 

On our layover day we did a day hike to lake of the pines it was nice to look at but hard to get to

Upper Goat Lake where we camped both nights

posing with my remington and Remington 

The fish we caught

Testing, Testing, Testing

The last few days have been full of testing, some of it I have already talked about and some of it I haven't even done yet. Since my last blog update we have actually only done two tests a 4km rollerski TT that we did twice and the French shooting test. The rollerski TT went pretty well, I thought I was able to push hard and managed to keep my technique together fairly well.  On both rounds of the TT I started 30 seconds ahead of Lowell and was able to hold him off for about the first 3km of gradual climbing then he caught me on the last 1km of more flat rolling terrain. Even though he caught up to me on both rounds I was able to stick right behind him and did not get dropped. I like this short-mid distance race because it is longer then a sprint but short enough that there isn't much pacing involved, it is basically full gas from the start.

Results from the 4km TT

In the afternoon after the rollerski TT we did the French shooting test again, if you haven't been following me and don't know what the "French Test" is I explain it here. The precision part of the test went very well, I'm pretty sure I shot my best ever precision target. I shot a 94 prone and 83 standing for a total of 177. In the speed portions I struggled a little bit with two misfired shots, and I was just not going that fast. I think the misfires happened because my rifle was very dirty, it has since been cleaned.

French shooting test scores

If you are confused about the score targets there is a picture of one below. The way it works is you get the score of whichever ring the bullet is in. A standing biathlon target would be between the 3 and 4 ring and the prone would be between the 7 and 8 ring. 

In between TT days we have just been doing easy workouts and I have been able to do some good technique sessions. On Saturday I skied on the treadmill working mostly on V2 and V1. The treadmill is very effective for technique because you don't go anywhere and so the coach can always be right in front giving feedback as well as there is a giant mirror in front of you where you can watch yourself. Today I did some technique work as well but this time I was on the road. The development coach Jean has one of the vans set up with a mirror in the back, he then sits in the back of the van with the mirror coaching while another person drives the van I ski along behind. This was my first time doing this and I thought it was effective but a little more sketchy then the treadmill because the van makes it so you can't see if there are any cracks or rocks in the road ahead. 

Below are pictures of the range and roller loop in Lake Placid. The set up is small yet very effective for only a few athletes. The range has four electronic biathlon targets plus two mega link targets. The mega link targets sense where your shot hit the target and then relay that info back to a computer screen at the shooting mat, these are very cool and fun to shoot on. The range is also covered to keep out nasty wether and has sound barriers to prevent noise pollution since the range is very close to town.  

The shooting range in Lake Placid  

Mega link computer screeen

The top of the roller loop in Lake Placid

Tomorrow we are doing an uphill running TT on Whiteface mountain and then I am traveling home to Washington on Thursday.

Some technique video from the second lap of the Bear Cub 4km TT...

Recovering from off days

The post volume week off days have ended and I am back training again. The first two workouts were a bit sluggish feeling and I was worried that I was not fully recovered but after doing an L3 workout I am feeling much better and more energized. I took off two and half days in a row last week, the biggest break I have had all summer and I think that much rest was a bit of a shock to the system so it took a harder effort to pull me out of the recovery phase.  But now I am feeling ready to train again and not so sluggish just in time for what USBA calls a "hit" week or a week with lots of intensity. This particular hit week is happening in conjunction with the fall testing week where we will be doing some physical fitness tests as long as some shooting tests.

During the first few easy days of this week I was able to do a SCATT shooting session with Jonas the mens team coach. In case you don't know what SCATT is it is a laser system that hooks up to the barrel of your rifle and tracks your movement then senses when the shot goes off. This SCATT session was particularly helpful, previously while SCATTing I have had lots of movement in my barrel from my heartbeat. The movement was so substantial that it would move my barrel from a center hit to a prone miss. To try and correct this I moved my left elbow underneath my rifle more and on the SCATT and it seemed to help! Since then I have tried it in some easy combos and a time trial we had today. It seems to be working I have pretty much only been missing one or zero in prone but I need more practice with it before I decide wether it is actually effective.

Todays time trial that I mentioned earlier went pretty well. My legs were a little tired after the L3 intervals yesterday but I thought that I paced well and was able to have a strong last lap, I also had good shooting my misses were 1,0,1,0 with a total range time of 1:52.

Results for todays TT

Fall is on its way in Lake Placid, I had to break out the tights and my long sleeve shirts

Here is a short video clip of how the SCATT shooting system works. The green line is before the shot, the yellow line is 1/2 second before the shot and the red line is after the shot.

Climb to the Castle, speed camp, off days, and more

Climb to the Castle

Saturday I finished my biggest week of training so far this year, I logged 26.5 hours plus a couple of hours of shooting training in six days. The week was finished off with the Climb to the Castle rollerski race on Saturday morning. The climb is 5 mile long race to the top of Whiteface Mountain the road has a consistent 8% uphill grade the entire time, there was only one 200 meter stretch that was a little less steep. The hard terrain and many hours of training earlier in the week made the race quite difficult, the first two miles went well and I was able to ski with a group of people, for the last three miles I hit a bit of a wall and was struggling to push out of L3, but after 46 minutes I was able to make it to the castle at the top.

The paved road does not take you to the actual top of the mountain but there is an elevator that takes you from the roads end up 27 stories to the actual top of the mountain. On top it was very foggy so there was not much of a view but there was a weather observatory station and some interactive informational videos about the Adirondacks, it was totally worth the elevator ride! A paved road and elevator to the top of a mountain may seem odd but there is reasoning behind it.... In 1929 Franklin D. Roosevelt had the road built to the top of the mountain as a monument to World War 1 military veterans but when he went to preview the road after its completion he could not get to the actual top of the mountain because he was in a wheel chair. He then had the elevator installed so that he and any immobile war veterans could get to the actual top.

The castle at the roads end

The elevator operator opening the door for us

The tippy top of Whiteface Mountain

Speed Camp

Speed camp is an event that is put on by the US mens ski team to get young male skiers excited about going fast on skis and having fun while doing it. It was started by Andy Newell because he saw what the US women's ski team was doing with Fast and Female and wanted something similar for boys. On Friday afternoon the US ski team hosted a speed camp right here in Lake Placid so I decided to help out. There were about 15 athletes that showed up, mostly high school aged but a few younger kids as well. We started the camp with some on foot agility and jumping drills then put on rollerskis and did some technique work and an obstacle course. The camp was finished up with a Q & A session where if you asked a question you got a bright green "speed camp" tee-shirt! I thought the camp was pretty fun, there was lots of energy and excitement from all of the participants. Next time I will have to add a shooting component so that we can convert some nordic skiers to biathlon. 

After the Climb to the Castle Maddie and I headed to her house in Old Forge, New York for our upcoming off day. Even though it was only one day it was nice to get totally away from biathlon and come back with a more focused attitude and ready to train. While there we watched the end of the 90 mile canoe race that Maddie's mom participated in. In Old Forge I couldn't help but split a little bit of wood for Maddie's dad, I never thought I would miss doing physical labor work like I get to do at home but I do, just don't tell my parents. For those of you who have been following my blog you have read about my basil plants and how they have been traveling with me throughout the summer all across the east coast. They are currently looking better then ever getting tall and have many large leaves. The problem is that at the OTC I do absolutely no cooking and soon I will be traveling home, as far as I know a potted plant does not count as a personal item on an airplane so I don't know what I am going to do with them. If you live near Lake Placid and would be interested in doing some plant sitting let me know, otherwise stay tuned for the next episode of the traveling basil.

Watching the 90 mile canoe race

An 8 person war canoe in the 90 miler

Splitting wood at the Phaneuf's 

The prosperous basil plants

Volume week

This week is a Volume week and that means I have not had much time to do anything but train. My daily schedule has looked pretty much like this.... eat, train, eat, sleep, eat, train, eat, sleep with about an extra hour after lunch and two hours before bed to do other activities like write this blog post. Weeks like this can be a little bit challenging to get through because like I explained earlier all you do is eat, sleep, train and therefor don't have much of a life but they are pretty rewarding to complete. 

Two notable workouts this week were a hike to the top of saddleback peak that I did with Maddie, and the French shooting test. Saddleback peak is one of the Adirondack 46ers which means that it is one of 46 peaks over 4000' in New York, hiking all of them is a notable accomplishment. So far I have done two, Saddleback and Algonquin peaks. The French shooting test is something new to me that Jean, the new USBA coach, has had us do. The test is out of 600 total points and has three parts the first is a precision part 10 prone and 10 stand shots on paper score targets, score out of 200 points. Then 4x5 shots ppss out of 200 points minus 10 points for each miss and minus 1 point  for each second over 1:20. Then 5x1 shot prone then 5x1 standing as many shots as it takes to hit all 5, minus 10 points for each missed shot and minus 1 for each second over 60s prone and 50s standing. This week was my second time doing this test and I improved my score by over 50 points from the first time I did test. I think this test is valuable because it puts emphasis on both precision and speed while shooting in a competitive atmosphere, all key components of of biathlon training. 

French test shooting results

I have two of training left this week and am on track to get all of my 26.5 hours. On Saturday I am going to finish off the week with the Climb to the Castle rollerski race, this is a 4 mile long race that finishes at the top of whiteface mountain. From what I have heard it is an average of 8% grade up for the entire race and takes around 40 minutes. 

The Adirondack mountains on an afternoon run

Hiking Saddleback peak had a section of 380 stairs to climb

A cool cable suspension bridge on our hike 

The view from the top of Saddleback

Rollerski races, Craftsbury, and the Beginning of Lake Placid

Lots has happened since my last post so ill try not to leave out any details...   First of all there were the August rollerski races in Jericho, Vermont. These were the first two of four races to determine who will fill the last World Cup start spot come November. Unfortunately I don't think that it is going to be me filling the start spot. I struggled in the range both days making it nearly impossible to place well. The first day was a sprint race where my misses were 2,1 prone then standing. The second day was a mass start and was defiantly one of the most fun mass start races I have ever done, at least for the first loop, the entire US and Canadian national teams were racing so there were 25 racers who were all actually good. On the first lap I was right in the middle of the pack being sucked along, this lap was 45 seconds faster then any other lap and I hardly went out of my L3 zone. After this things started to go downhill my shooting misses were 2,3,3,1. Despite sub-par shooting I was pleased with my ski speed, over the summer I have been doing more intensity so that I can ski faster in August for these races, which I have not done in past years, I was able to accomplish that. I think that my lack of shooting performance was due to not enough mental preparation and focus something that I have struggled with in non snow races in the past and something I could improve on as well.  One thing that was really cool about these races was that other then when the occasional World Cup comes this race had the highest and deepest level of competition of any race that will take place in North America. 

Starting the sprint race 

First lap of the mass start race 

After the races in Jericho I traveled to Craftsbury, Vermont for my second national team training camp, which I really enjoyed. At the camp was my fellow B-team member Russell as well as some of the X/development team and some of the top athletes not on the national team. This created a really good group and we were able to do some very productive training.  At the camp we were coached by Jean Paquet who is the new USBA development coach. I really enjoyed working with him, I like his coaching style and I think he has lot of valuable coaching to offer, hopefully USBA allows me to continue to work more with him more in the future. Our main focus fore the camp was on shooting, we did lots of drills, relays, and games creating a competitive shooting environment.  This is one aspect of training I have been lacking in for most of the summer, I was training mostly by myself and its hard to do a one man relays, hopefully I will continue to get more similar opportunities like this. 

Some other highlights of Craftsbury were the Barton County Fair demolition derby the first night we arrived, I tired rowing in a sculling boat for the first time, and both Maddie and I nominated for the ALS ice bucket challenge so we decided to do it together.   

Maddie and I doing the ice bucket challenge

Demo derby at the Barton Fair

More demo derby

The lake at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center

I tired out stand up paddle boarding 

After Craftsbury I traveled to Lake Placid, New York for more training. While here I get to stay the Olympic Training Center which makes training pretty easy. All of your meals are cooked for you and you don't have to wash any dishes. Also we can rollerski to the training venue from the OTC so we don't have to drive to much. Staying here is really convenient when doing a high volume of training and even though it is not the most homey place to be it definitely makes training easy.

View from the top of Algonquin mountain, the second tallest in NY

Hiking along Avalanche Lake 

While in Jericho we went into downtown Burlington one afternoon and found this street performer juggling fire torches while riding on the suicycle