Fresh start

May has arrived and a new training season has officially begun. I feel more refreshed and excited for this new start having just come off of an amazing vacation to St. Croix for eight days. I found the warm waters of the Caribbean to be more therapeutic then I imagined, not to mention inspiring and a bit scary at time! (We had a brief close encounter with a eight foot long bull shark while snorkeling one day). While it was hard to leave the beautiful beaches and palm trees, it feels good to be back to the fresh, crisp air of Maine.
Being home again and looking at the year ahead, I am feeling good about my perspective on training and my overall biathlon career. The closing of this past season brought on a great deal of reflection and left me with a more concrete idea of my goals are, why I am want to continue racing and how I will proceed in reaching these goals.
Here is my best attempt at summarizing the answers to these questions as best I can: World Cups races, World Championship and a National title are all on my list of things I wish to accomplish in the year ahead. While these are challenging goals, they are ones I know I can accomplish. They represent a good part of my result orientated goals for the year. Competing as an athlete full time has helped me to learn so much about myself, given me life experience I can’t imagine I would have had otherwise. It has allowed me to spend much of my time doing things I love. This career has also put me in a unique position to help others learn and experience some of the many benefits Nordic skiing and other great physical activities provides. All these reasons contribute to my dedication to continuing my biathlon career.

Having competed as an athlete for many years with many of the same goals, I want to approach this year and the rest of my career in a way that I know I am moving forward and avoid the feeling of beating my head against the wall by making the same mistakes year after year or race after race. Having a solid idea of what my goals are and having a training plan set out to help me reach them is the first step in moving forward. Keeping in touch with the joy of sport and having fun in what I do is another important piece that will help me succeed in what I am doing. Balancing these two tasks and with the rest of my life is a great challenge but one that will allow me to achieve all that I set my mind to. After taking a great deal of time and energy working these thoughts and ideas out, I am ready to start acting on them. Great success, impact and happiness starts now.
Cheers,
BethAnn