538 days until Vancouver 2010

This morning I had the opportunity to watch the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and what a spectacular show it was. With the extinguishing of the Flame came the realization that I have less than 538 days left to prepare for the upcoming Games and, as such, I must be focused on training to my fullest potential each day. As an athlete I've been inspired by the incredible performances of the past sixteen days and I hope that one day I'll also be in a position to inspire those who will come after me. Just as these Olympics have provided new energy to fire my goals, I find it remarkable that they have also given rise to new discussions regarding the future of our planet. I am amazed at the ability of the Olympic movement to transcend conflicts by displaying an image of global unity to which we as individuals and nations can aspire.

Much has happened in the past three weeks. At the conclusion of my last post I mentioned that we were headed to Jericho, VT to train on the roller loop there and to get in some racing. The weather, typically extreme, was actually fairly mild and allowed us to train in relative comfort. My training sessions were focused and I was able to get in valuable technique training with my two coaches. The two biathlon races, a sprint and pursuit, went well given the time of year. I was third the first day, missing only two shots. My shooting wasn't great during the pursuit, but I was very happy with my ski times. At the conclusion of the week and a half camp in Jericho I got to be part of a New England Nordic Ski Assoc. x-c race. I was tired from the prior two weeks of training, but managed to finish in 2nd place. Check out the video and picture below from the races.

From Jericho the team traveled to Jackson, N.H. to do a distance training camp in the White Mountains. Jackson is a special place for me because it is where I first competed in the Junior Olympics and where my dream of one day competing in the Olympics actually began to take shape. Jackson was also the site of the 2007 NCAA National Championships that Dartmouth won so the quaint little mountain village will always rank high on my list of great sites for training and racing.

Welcome to Jackson!

A friend of my coach set us up with a great place to stay and we spent the week biking and running. There were several epic adventures that week including a 105 mile bike ride that took us into Maine and over the shoulder of Mt. Washington. We also hiked Mt. Washington one morning and got to see the famed Tuckerman's Ravine where an unofficial skiing competition happens each year featuring the Dartmouth and Harvard alpine skiers and anyone else brave enough to hike the head wall and then point their tips straight down.

A huge upgrade from military barracks.

Bear Notch after a long ski.

At the conclusion of our distance camp in Jackson, I was more than ready for a little recovery time. Sara and I made the short trip to her aunt and uncle's home in Maine to spend a few days with them and had a very relaxing few days. The weather, which has been unpredictable at best this summer, continued to surprise us with huge thunder storms and one cloudburst that dropped quarter-sized hail for nearly half an hour. We did luck out with one beautiful day that coincided with a sea kayaking day trip. Sara's aunt and uncle took us out off the coast where we spent the afternoon paddling between granite islands and searching for shells on the beaches.

We made it back to Lake Placid in the middle of this past week in time to get back into the swing of things with training and some work on the golf course. The US Olympic Committee and the Olympic Regional Development Assoc. recently completed a new roller ski loop and four-point range here in Lake Placid at the Olympic Complex so we will be spending lots of time in the near future training at the new venue. We've lacked the ability in the past to do high intensity skiing and shooting and that has now been remedied.

The coming weeks are will be full of training. I have two weeks remaining here in Lake Placid and then I'll make a long overdue trip home to Alaska. I'll spend the month of September in Alaska training and spending time with my family and then will go directly to Utah to meet up with the teem for our last camp before the season gets underway. There is still much training to be done between now and then.

Quick update

Hello everybody. I haven't had time to download my pictures from the last week and a half so unfortunately I don't have any visual updates for you. Training and shooting has been going very well the last two weeks. I had an easier week of training last week and spent much of my down time in the shop at the Training Center making some much needed modifications to my rifle stock. It's still getting its final coats of paint so I don't have finished pictures of that yet, but I'll get some before and after shots up as soon as the last coat of paint sets up.

This past week was pretty tough. I had five days of intensity training, including two time trials and a couple of very hard interval workouts. I felt great throughout the week, but was most definitely ready for an off day today. I traveled to Jericho, VT on Wednesday after training for a week and a half long training camp. Nearly 40 athletes are here from all over the country to train on the rollerskiing trails built on the Ethan Allen Military Base. It's a great opportunity for coaches and athletes alike to work together and share ideas. We also have two biathlon races planned for the coming week and a rollerski race so there will be ample opportunity to see how our training is progressing and figure out what needs further tweaking in preparation for the coming race season. Jericho is always a grab bag for hot and wet weather and so far we've seen lots of both. We're hoping for somewhat normal days for racing, but it's not good to count on that happening here. I guess we'll see...

July Fun & Training

Greetings from a very hot and humid Lake Placid. The last couple of weeks have been very busy so I'll try to provide the highlight real. Over the 4th of July weekend Sara and I drove down to the Massachusetts coast to spend a couple of days with her family and relatives. We had car trouble on the way down so the 5ish hour drive turned into 10+. Not the quickest trip, but everything worked out in the end. That week of training was pretty big so we were getting out the door quite a bit to train. We were in an area very similar to Cape Cod, but it lacked the traffic and crowds. We had a blast exploring the area on bike and foot during training sessions. Below is a picture of me with my new bike. My family, and specifically my brother Jamin, helped me get the bike this spring and it has been a fantastic training tool so far this season. It allows me to do 4-5 hour distance workouts without stressing my joints the way a run of that magnitude does.Last week was my biggest week of training ever. I logged 27 hours of biking, running, skiing, and strength plus several hours more of shooting. During such weeks there is hardly time to do anything except training, eating, and sleeping. Sometimes huge training blocks can start to feel a little monotonous, but the coaches have done a great job of keeping lots of variety in the training. I was EXHAUSTED at the end of the week. All I could think about towards the end of the week was making it to Saturday afternoon and the start of my rest day. Even though I was dragging at the end of the week, I was really pleased at how well I handled the huge volume. Despite the physical load, I couldn't be happier because I know that when the training is toughest, I'm expanding my mental and physical capacity. Check out the video below. It was shot during an uphill interval set.

At the end of last week a group of kids from the New York Ski Education Foundation (NYSEF) were here at the Training Center for a junior camp and I had the opportunity to give a presentation to them on nutrition. I really enjoyed having the chance to pass on some of the information that I've amassed during my racing career. It's great to talk with young athletes who are genuinely interested in not only improving in their sport, but also in making healthy lifestyle choices. At a time when one in four Americans is obese and much of the population is suffering from maladies preventable with proper exercise and nutrition I think that it's critical to educate the younger generations so we can turn some of the negative trends around.

This week was a solid chunk of training, but it felt like a cake walk compared to last week. I scored some personal bests in shooting workouts so I was stoked to see improvement in that aspect of my training. I've got to do some major work on my rifle stock this coming week to make it fit better and I'm hoping that will be a key to making more improvement in the coming weeks. I've also been working very hard on some new ski technique ideas with my coaches, which are starting to pay off. We've done a lot of video analysis in recent weeks and the work I've been putting in is paying dividends.

I have an easy week coming up and I'm going to kick it off by watching the Lake Placid Iron Man Triathlon. Over 2,000 entrants have converged on the town for the annual suffer fest. I'll get some pictures up next week.