Home for Christmas

After the trials in Minnesota I headed home for a week to celebrate Christmas with my family. The few days before I came home it rained a bunch melting about half of the snow that was on the valley floor but luckily there was still enough snow for excellent skiing! Up in the mountains all of the precipitation came in form of snow which made for amazing snowmobiling. There was at least two feet of fresh powder on top of about four feet of solid base snow, if you were riding in untracked snow and came to a stop you would get stuck just because of snow much fresh snow. After a couple of days of snowmobiling when I first got home I got back to training. I did a couple of combo workouts on the range in Mazama and one really long ski on the trails on the rendezvous. On Christmas day I went for a really nice ski with my mom starting from the town trailhead. 

While I was at home I talked with the Methow Trail association (formerly MVSTA), the organization that maintains and grooms the beautiful trails in the Methow, and came up with an agreement where they will give me a ski pass to use the trails if I help to promote them. I am really excited about this and think that it will be a good deal for both of us. 

After being at home I traveled to Old Forge, New York where I spent few days with Maddie and her family. There was not enough snow there to ski but I still had a fun time. I am now in Lake Placid, New York at the Olympic Training Center training before leaving to Poland for the IBU Cup. There is snow making on the biathlon trails here in Lake Placid so the skiing is perfect. 

A new Madshus backpack that I got for Christmas, it is AWESOME!!

Some icicles on hanging on rocks I found while snowmobiling 

More snowmobiling 

Stuck in a wind drift while snowmobiling 

It was hard to keep the powder snow off of the snowmobile hood because there was so much 

Getting our Charlie Brown tree with my mom

Training at home on the range in Mazama

Crossing a bridge on a ski in Mazama

While at home we had to deworm our two steers as well as our sheep

Family Christmas card picture out with the sheep

An amazing sunrise one morning outside my front door

While out skiing with my mom I found some Methow Valley Biathlon teammates 

IBU cup trials

I have been putting off blogging for a couple of weeks. There was quite a bit that happened but I am going to keep it short. I finished up my trip in Canmore with with three Noram races. They were all pretty solid, the skiing was strong and I hit all my targets in the first race. 

After Canmore I traveled to Grand Rapids, Minnesota for the IBU cup trials. These races went well, my skiing was on and my shooting was solid but more importantly I was very consistent throughout all four races. I was second place in 3 races and and 3rd place in one race. It is not official yet but because of my good results I will be traveling to the IBU cups in Europe after New Years.

Racing in Canmore

First shooting of the Mass Start race in Canmore

Start of the Mass Start in Canmore

We had some cold weather in Canmore leaving frosties on the beard

One day there was avalanche control work going on near the nordic venue, it was pretty fun to watch  

Maddie and I in Canmore

Mass start podium in Canmore

Flying out of Calgary a man at the gate next to ours was arrested because he threatened to bomb the plane

Flying out of Calgary I was upgraded to first class, keeping track of air miles is finally paying off

On the flight from Denver to Minnesota we had to turn back and make an emergency landing in Denver because there was  burning smell in the cabin of the airplane, we were greeted but about 5 or these guys

Canmore

The last two weeks in Canmore have been filled with lots of training, I have gotten in a very good block of on snow distance training and am ready for the race season to start. The first race of the year was supposed to be yesterday but it was to cold to race. There is a rule that it is illegal to race below      -20c (-4f). Right now I as I am writing this I waiting to hear if we will race today its currently -28c       (-18f), so its not looking good for racing today.


When we first arrived in Canmore we had lots of work to do on our skis to get them ready for the season, each pair of freshly stone ground or new skis must go through a complex waxing process to get them race ready. Each ski must be waxed a total of ten times and skied on in between each waxing. I had five pair of skis that went through this process and there is four MWSC athletes here all with new skis. I will let you do the math on how many coats of wax that is. It took about a week but eventually everyones skis were ready to go.

Overall training conditions have been ideal, fresh grooming, until this weekend not terribly cold, and lots of biathletes from all over Canada to train around.

Coach Seth working away in the wax room

All of our skis on the wall

Getting ready to go do so ski testing

My clothes line in our room, a good place to dry clothes is essential when doing lots of training.

Friday, the official training day for the races the massive Canadian flag was  full flap. 

Some ice build up on the beard

On Saturday we woke up to about a foot of fresh snow, since it was to cold to race I decided to shovel our driveway then I shoveled our neighbors driveway and put all the snow in one giant pile. 

Since we couldn't race on Saturday I went for an easy ski with my mom.  

The road to Canmore

Before leaving Maine last week I had a couple of really fun opportunities. First off it snowed in the county, in Fort Kent we only got a couple of inches it was enough to ski in our front yard but that was about it. Further south in Caribou they got about 8 inches and so one of the cross country athletes fired up his snowmobile and groomed a 2km loop in the field behind his house. Considering that there wasnt that much snow and he was grooming by dragging a pallet behind his snowmobile the skiing was quite good. A couple days later it snow more in Fort Kent, this time it was enough to put on some rock skis and slog around the trails. It was not nearly as good as the skiing was in Caribou but we still had skis on our feet and were sliding around on white stuff. 

The skiing in Caribou

My new Madshus ski bag all packed and ready to go

The skiing in Fort Kent

Last weekend before flying west the entire MWSC post highschool team got together in Portland, Maine for a fundraising gala. The event took place at the Portland art gallery, we mingled with the people donating and a couple of the athletes talked about what the MWSC program has done for them. The art in the gallery was very interesting I am not really an art expert but I think it would have been considered "modern" art. I couldn't imagine paying for any of the art that was in the gallery like the piece in the picture below, I thought it looked like it was drawn by a third grader, it could be yours for only $2,500.

A $2,500 piece of art

The next day after the fundraiser the MWSC crew joined the bates, bowdoin, and colby college ski teams aboard the North Haven Island ferry to compete in the Maine state college rollerski championship. I had never done this race before but it was super cool because it started with an hour long ferry ride out to the island then the 15km race made one loop around the entire island. I had an okay race I placed 5th overall. Just being on the island and seeing everything was awesome!

A lighthouse as were leaving the mainland on the ferry

Maddie on one of the island docks

Maddie with the all of the island docks in the background

Riding the ferry home we had a super cool sunset

 After rollerski race I flew home to Washington and then drove to Canmore. I did this rather then flying straight to Canmore because I wanted to race the Canadian IBU cup trials that were taking place before the rest of the MWSC crew arrived. It was an uneventful but long trip. I arrived to Canmore just in time because up until two days before I arrive it had been very warm and the nordic center has been unable to make snow and the frozen thunder snow that people have been skiing on was getting very thin. Luckly it got cold and the snowmaking process was in full swing, right now there is about 2.5km of snow but there is going to be lots more very soon. Like I mentioned earlier I did the Canadian IBU cup trials races on the 2nd and 3rd day that I was here. The first day I shot 2,2 (4 misses) and my skiing felt very wobbly but that was expected since I havent been on snow very much this year. The second race felt much better I shot 1,1 and I felt like I could actually ski and not just flail around on skis.

Flying out of Seattle to Wenatchee

The snowmaking cloud that sits over the Nordic Center

Waxing up new Madshus skis

Racing the Canadian IBU cup trials

Another racing picture

The final week

This last week was a major turning point, the training season has basically ended and the race season is about to start. The thing about this week is that even though I have been looking forward to it for a while I have also been intimidated by it because I knew it was going to be very hard. Luckily, I just traveled to Maine I didn't have very much time to think about it before it actually started. The week really started last weekend in Jericho with the rollerski races then I came home and did four more days of intervals two days of level 3 and two days of level 4. The L3 workouts were 2 x 20mins with shooting and 4x12 min skiing on the road with no shooting. The two L4 workouts were 8 x 3min running on a very hilly course chasing my teammate Russell with shooting, this was the hardest workout of the week, and then the last workout was a 6km time trial with shooting. Overall I did 6 intensity workouts in 8 days and it left me pretty tired but it also need to be done so that I will be skiing fast in about a month. Now I get to take a couple of days of chill time and recover from all the hard work. 

One of the highlights of the week was Sunday afternoon when it started snowing, we only got a couple of inches but Monday morning we pushed all the snow from the yard into one pile and made a jump to go off. It was pretty fun to be back on real skis again!

I came home from Jericho to a big box of new Madshus gear

My Madshus box included a new giant ski bag that could double as a body bag

The pumpkins our house carved on Halloween

Going off the jump in our front yard

Some more going off jumps

On the move

It has been a while since my last blog post, luckily for you blog readers out there it was not because I had nothing to blog about but the fact that I was doing so much I had no time to blog. I am now back in Fort Kent and have some time to catch up.  My last post I was finishing up a big training block in Utah that went very well and I think will help me a lot this winter. 

After Utah I traveled home to Washington for four days where I did some training and did as much normal person living as I could before Winter sets in and I just live the athlete life. Now that I mentioned it I am not exactly sure what most peoples normal people living is, but for me it usually involves lots of work around the house and with the sheep. Every time I go home I am enjoying working with the sheep more and more so all of that "work" is a good thing. Some of the sheep work we did was trim the rams feet, kind of like trimming your toe nails, so that they are in good shape for breading season which is coming up soon. This task became a lot easier a couple years ago when we purchased a sheep hoof trimming table. The hoof trimming table is basically a big cage that the sheep walks into and then pivots so that they are mostly upside down. This way the feet are accessible and when the sheep is on its back it becomes more docile. Before we had the table we would basically just wrestle the sheep onto their back and then have to bend over and hold their feet up, I don't think words can really explain how much easier the trimming table makes this job. Another sheep related job I helped with was shipping the wool that we had shorn off the sheep in the Spring. We stuff the wool into these bigs burlap sacks then bundle two sacks together which weigh about about 50 pounds then take it to the post office where we ship it to the a woolen mill. In a few months the mill will send us back blankets that we will sell. 

While at home I also helped get, split, and stack more firewood as well as I got a load of hay and stacked it in the barn. Another fun thing that I did at home was go hunting with my friend Remington, we didn't get anything but it was pretty fun hiking around in the woods. 

Maddie striking a pose over the Heber valley on the last day in Utah

Trimming the rams feet, if you look close you can see the sheeps feet through the blue grate, its head is over by my dad and near the ground

A pickup load of wood with trailer of hay behind

The river near our house, I thought it looked nice so I had to take a picture

Clare Egan and I finishing ski walking intervals in the pouring rain

Taking wool to the post office

The post master labeling the wool for shipping 

Remington and I hunting

More hunting 

The view from the top of the hill that we got to while hunting

After my time at home I traveled to Winter Park, Colorado where I coached a masters biathlon clinic with my friend and teammate Raleigh Goessling. I flew from Seattle to Denver, and was pretty proud of how I got from my Grandpa's house in Seattle to the airport. Keep in mind I had my backpack, ski bag, and rifle case for all of this. So I started at the house walked to the end of the block where I got on the city bus. I rode the city bus downtown where I got off and walked about a block to the light rail station, I then took the light rail to the airport. I then had to walk about a quarter mile from the airport light rail station to the airline checkin desk, I was envious of all the other travelers with their small roller bags wheeling along while I was struggling but I considered hauling my stuff around my strength workout for the day.

The camp in Colorado went really well. There were a lot of beginners and new rifles but we got everyone started on the right foot and excited to learn more about biathlon. It seemed like everyone went home with more shooting skills as well as Raleigh and I made some money which is why we hosted the camp in the first place. After the camp I put together a blog page for the campers that has a lot of information about biathlon and training for biathlon. Even though I made it so that people at our camp could have all the info we talked about I want anyone interested in learning more about biathlon to be able to use it as a resource. The blog address is  biathlonresourceusa.blogspot.com

Driving over the Cascade mountains to Seattle

Riding the bus with all my stuff going to the airport 

The biathlon range in Colorado

Most of the campers in Colorado, a few had to go home early

After Colorado I traveled back east for the second set of rollerski trials races in Jericho, Vermont. These were the final two races to determine who will go to the first three World Cup races for the US. Because of the way the selection process works the only people that still had a chance to qualify after the August races were Russell Currier, Sean Doughty, and Annelise Cook. There was one spot for the guys and two for the girls, Russell struggled with his shooting over the weekend so it looks like Sean will be the fourth guy for the US and they will not fill both spots on the womens side and only take Annelise. I struggled with my shooting a bit in these races, I think that I need to do some more practice shooting during intensity sessions. My skiing was pretty solid both days, not great but not terrible either.

Results day 1 10km sprint

Results day 2 10km sprint

My new boots awaited my arrival to Fort Kent, THANKS MADSHUS!!!!!