Ride Aroostook

This past weekend was the first ever Ride Aroostook event out of Presque Isle, Maine. A fundraiser for an adventure camp Children with diabetes, this event consisted of two days of riding around 70 miles a day through the winding, rolling roads of Northern Maine.
We had beautiful weather, amazing support from voluenteers and good food to top it all off. Great weekend event that raised over $16,000 for it's cause! Nice work everyone.
Hope to have many more folks out next year.
This event and many more are posted at the outdoor website for Aroostook County, www.goaroostookoutdoors.com. It's a great resource to find out about all the outdoor events going on in the area.
Cheers, BethAnn

Maine Team Camp

Starting this past Wednesday a group of about thirty high school Nordic athletes made Fort Kent Maine their home as MWSC hosted the Maine Training Camp. Climbing up the hill of Lonesome Pine to reach the 10th Mountain Lodge was part of their daily warm-up routine, which kept all these kids out of a car for their entire stay.
This crew kept busy with some great rollerski technique work o, a little bit of shooting, an intense speed-ball tournament, yoga and a great Nordic sprint race this morning.
I enjoyed helping everyone try out a little biathlon shooting and combo work. I also participated in the speedball tournament, where my competitiveness got the best of me. I apologize to anyone I may have offended in my super aggressive, in your face kind of "play". What can I say, I am competitor.
This morning the camp finished up with a sprint race; qualifier, rounds and all. It was an inspiring scene, watching all these Nordic athletes throw down all morning all in round after round.
Nice work to all of this crew. Hope to see you all again soon.
I have one last workout I have to get in this afternoon before I go into rest mode for the next few days! And man, am I ready for it.
Cheers,
-BethAnn

Keep on truckin'

The Fourth has come and gone. It seems a little hard to believe with the cool, wet weather we had all through June, not to mention the fact that I haven't even gone swimming yet! What a crime. But it's true and things are starting to heat up around here again, both literally and figuratively.
Because I the rollerski biathlon races at Jericho in August are counting as part of our trials for the World Cup trials in Sweden this November, I have to have my game on a little earlier than normal this summer. This has meant a lot more intensity combos earlier in the summer, and a bit more focus on all the other little details, such as rifle adjustments, technique work and shooting speed. I think this will have a positive effect on my racing by the time the snow flies.
So the training continues. I will finish off this week with a time trial in Fort Kent on Sunday and then take a short rest for a day or two, where I hope to spend as much time as possible in the water! Then I gear up for my first big intensity block.

Hoping you all had a wonderfully relaxing Fourth of July. Mine was spent training, watching The Tour and rollerskiing in the Stockholm, Maine parade. It is by far the shortest parade I have ever seen or been a part of but it makes up for it in all the great enthusiasm from all the participants and spectators. Below a are few photos from the event. It is defiantly one to remember.

Training smarter

Working to be faster not just working harder. It would seem like a pretty obvious goal but can be a bit more tricky to execute. This is what I am focusing on right now with all my intensity workouts. I have been training in this sport to know that I can push myself and suffer through just about any workout, but is that suffering adding up to faster skiing. You would hope so. Having some very specific goals and early races to focus on this summer and fall (on rollerskis), I am putting a little more time and energy into ensuring that my hard efforts are really transferring into greater speed and not just a tired athlete.
Today the execution of my workout was perhaps a little off. I pushed it a little harder then intended for a good amount of the workout. While working in a level three zone I am working at training my body to increase it's efficiency. Pushing a bit too hard spikes my lactate levels a little higher than I wanted. I was still happy with the workout and had a great time, especially working on my sprint finishes at the end of each interval.
An easy cool down and lots of cold drinks wrapped things up for the morning. One last stop at the recently opened strawberry farm on my way home ended my morning on a high note.