Casey Smith Biathlete: 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.