A Smoking Gun

Don't miss this great article on FasterSkier about my transition from cross-country skiing into biathlon

“I didn’t switch to biathlon because I was bad at skiing — I switched to biathlon because I was good at skiing and because I like money, European men and the smell of a smoking gun.”

Photo Gordon Vermeer/Flickr

This is what rollerskiing up a hill with a rifle on your back looks like

Testing Week

I just wrapped up a two-week stay at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY, during which my US Biathlon teammates and I completed a series of physical and shooting tests designed to benchmark our training progress. In a departure from the long hours of low-intensity training that we usually do this time of year, for about a week we alternated between racing one day and taking the next day easy or off. The races included a 10k rollerski biathlon, 3k rollerski, and an uphill running time trial with 1300ft of elevation gain. We also did strength circuits and testing, technique work on the OTC's rollerski treadmill, high intensity badminton (that was actually just me), and two shooting tests which were scored for both time and accuracy.

Here is an article from FasterSkier about the uphill running time trial. This was my second time doing it, and I smashed my own course record by over a minute! That was not quite fast enough to beat Susan Dunklee, though, who edged me by one second!

(Photo FasterSkier)

First Day of Fall

Tomorrow we celebrate the autumnal equinox. Fall is not my favorite season (winter is), but this fall I have several things to look forward to:

• US Biathlon Team fall training camp in Heber, Utah 9/27-10/10
• Bowling at Holiday Lanes in Heber
• Residency at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid starting 10/15. (I'll have my own dedicated bedroom there where I can keep stuff. This pleases me mostly because it means I can buy and store laundry detergent.)
• Bowling at Bowl Winkels in Lake Placid
• Rollerski biathlon trials in Jericho, VT 10/25-26
• Bowling at Spare Time in Colchester, VT

Training in Jericho in August. (Photo Jakob Ellingson)