About Me

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Boulder, CO, United States
From Minnesota to Maine to the sunny land of Boulder, CO, I have been competing as an athlete all my life and been working as massage therapist for six years now. Helping athletes with greater recovery, bounce back from injury faster, and helping one's body perform at it's best is what I aim to do. My love for sport, training and helping a body feel good and perform at it's best has driven me into a career in massage therapy. I strive for nothing less than the best...let me help you reach greater heights.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

A good day


End of October and into November can often bring less then ideal weather for biathlon training.  Mid thirties and rain is what I often anticipate.  And if you haven't ever done it yourself, take my word for it, lying down on a cold, soaking wet mat to shoot is not the most enjoyable activity.  But it comes with the territory of being a biathlete.  The fewer days like that the better, in my book.


Today was not one of those days.  Today was beautiful, mid-thirties, sunny day.  Oh what a difference a little sun can do.  We had a short time trial up in Fort Kent and I was ever so happy to remember what it feels like to ski hard while at sea level.  It's so easy, or at least it feels that way right now.  Tie all that in with one of my best days on the shooting range and you have yourself a great day!  Even with a little tricky wind, I was in and out of the range fairly quickly and had four good shooting stages.
Things are looking up.  Snow is in the forecast and targets are falling down.

Here's to the many more good days ahead of us.
-cheers, BethAnn

Here are a few additional photos of the range at Nordic Heritage.  Someone did an amazing job repaving the firing line at the range and even taking out a sketchy bump on the rollerloop.  Many thanks to whoever you are!


Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Never a dull moment

And I am back, in the East again .  After a great time in the mid-west with my family followed by an awesome training camp in Utah, I finally made it back to Maine.  Unfortunately I left my husband out West, but more on that later.
Upon my arrival  back to Caribou I was happy to find my house still standing, while most of my garden looked to be good and dead, with the exception of my kale and carrots.  You've got to love those hardy veggies.
So I am back in Caribou after a long trip. The last week of the camp had two time trials built into it.  I will be honest, rollerski time trials are not my favorite, especially when they are trials races, but I did my best to make the best of it.  Soldier Hollow is always sure to make you hurt, and these races were no exceptions to that.  I was feeling a little sore and sluggish the first day but happily worked most of that out and felt looser and more free on the second race day.  My shooting was about middle of the road during both days.  I put a little extra time in the range on a stage or two, determined to hit my last shot every time.  While it took me a while, I did it.  So after a little evaluating I feel fairly happy about a few things I had set out to work on: skiing relaxed, racing my own race and keeping focused in the range.  My ski speed wasn't quite what I wanted, nor was my shooting time.  It was a good checking point and has left me with a very clear focus for the up coming weeks.
I can finally say I am reaching the home stretch of rollerskiing for the year!  I don't mean to imply that I hate rollerskiing, but honestly, it's just not skiing!  And most of the time you do it on a road, have to wear a helmet and it hurts a whole lot more when you fall, not to mention rocks, cracks that need to be avoided  and POLE TIPS SLIPPING!  Glad to get that out of my system. :)
The good news is snow is on the way!  Or I at least know I will be going to seek it out myself!  After watching the weather right today, I can honestly say I wish I were in Boulder, CO with my husband right now.  I am pretty sure he is out skiing somewhere, which is why I haven't heard from him all afternoon and evening.
I will be toughening it out here with a few more weeks of dry land training here before heading to West Yellowstone and start skiing!  I also heard some unexpected good news the other day.  It sounds like MWSC and Big Rock are going to be making at least a 1km loop of snow to ski on as soon as the weather gets cold enough.  So there is a chance I will be on skis before West.  Here is too hoping.
Until then I'm going to hammer out a good intensity block over the next week and a half or so, taking advantage of all those extra red blood cells my body worked so hard to make while living at 7200 feet in Park City over the past three weeks.  Tomorrow it begins with a "bounding in the bog" workout with the X-C crew.  Leave it to Will to think that bog bounding in 35F degree weather to be a fun time.  At least I won't be the only one.
I'll post a full report tomorrow, along with an update of the new pavement at NHC!

cheers, BethAnn

Monday, October 10, 2011

Fast and Female

One of the many cool things that I have been able to do while at our Utah training camp is participate in a Fast and Female events at the USST's Center of Excellence here in Park City. Fast and Female is an organization started by 2006 Gold medalist, Chandra Crawford. It is aimed at empowering girls through sport, using world-class athletes as ambassadors and role models to inspire girls from the age of 9-19 to challenge themselves through sport, life and healthy living.
This past Saturday afternoon I had a blast running around the gym with a bunch of girls psyched about sport. We had athletes from Nordic, biathlon, aerials, moguls, speed skating, snowboard cross, half pipe and alpine. In a nut shell it was awesome.
Here are a few photos from the event!
cheers, BA






Sunday, October 2, 2011

altitude


So far so good. Utah has been treating us well for the last few days. We are about four days into our training camp here in Park City Utah. We are actually staying up in Deer Valley, which is beautiful and also pretty high in elevation, at least by my standards. But I seem to be acclimating fairly well. We are doing a good amount of morning tests to monitor how our bodies are handling the additional stress of living and training between 7200 and 10,000 feet, (our hike two days ago followed a ridge line that was just about 10,000 ft.). Morning heart rate, lactate, glucose, and O2 saturation levels all measured before breakfast keeps us on top of training well for where our bodies are at.
After our first few days of mostly volume training and a little strength, we are taking it easy today before jumping into more intensity in the days to follow. Our shooting has been on hold due to a Civil War reenactment going on at Soldier Hollow the last few days. I wonder what biathlon would be like using some of rifles from there era?

I am off to lunch with two great friends and then putting in some time in the kitchen baking some bread and making my first attempt at cooking up some pork chili verde, all while watching a little football. I do enjoy off days while at training camps . :)


Cheers, BA



A quick trip to Ogden and the Atomic factory to pick up my new skis for the year. A few changes to the ski and some fancy new graphics have left me more excited than ever to get on snow and try them out!

One of the many gourgous views on our hike from the Canyon to Guardsman pass on day two.


Hello!

Taking advantage of the free public transit in Park City. Fun urban classic ski starting around the Canyons and working our way back up to Deer Valley.


A close moose encounter while on my morning jog just outside of our condo.