Rockin' with my socks on!

Early this winter I had the honor of testing out some compression wear products from the company Zensah. Zensah makes a variety of compression sportswear along with recovery wear. After wearing the recovery socks and 3/4 length tights during workouts, after workouts, while traveling and during the many hours I am standing while working, I am totally sold.
It is one of those things that you might have to experience to believe. After doing a hard workout in the morning, taking a short break and heading over to work where I stand for a few hours at a time massaging, I couldn't believe how much lighter and better my legs felt when I was wearing my Zensah compression wear.
And whether you are an athlete or not, if you travel, especially if you are flying, you need to buy a pair of these socks. They make all the difference in the world. I continuly wear my Dankso clogs when I travel and constantly have trouble squeezing my swollen foot back into my shoe after a long flight, (yes I take my shoes off while flying. I may be sitting in small quarters but I still like to be comfortable). Zensah's socks will keep your blood moving and help lymph from pooling and your feel feeling light and far less fat during and after you flight. Take my word for it. But remember, compression socks or not, it is always good to get up and move your muscle a little bit during any long flight.

I am excited to be working with such a great company and feel honored to do so. My praise to their products comes honestly, as I really have been amazed by how much their compression wear helps me recover, feel better and more ready for the next task on my daily to-do list.
Check out their website for more information about the company and view all their many great products. http://www.zensah.com
Here's to no more swollen flight feet! :)
BethAnn

A tough day on the Birkie trail

It's been over a week since I had hoped to have my Birkie report but but am just now getting into it. A little over a week ago I jumped into my second ever American Birkiebeiner. My first was last year and I was pleasantly surprised with how it all went. I finished last year in 11th place, and less than a minute out of the top eight. This was all news to me when I finished, since I was clueless on where I was at through most of the race.
Going into this years race I had high expectations for myself. Going into the race I was feeling pretty good and felt recovered from my fight with the flu. (By the time the race ended I am not so sure I would have agreed with that statement however.)
The Birkie is an intense scene. I believe every Nordic skier, especially North Americans that enjoy skiing longer distances, should at some point make their way over to Hayward, WI and join in the festivities. There were over 11,000 entries in the weekends events. In addition to the skate and classic 50km races this is a 23km Kortielopet and another Prince Haakon 12km race. The excitement the day before, morning of and of course hours afterwards is pretty spectacular.
My 2011 Birkie started off well. I was surprised at how easy it was to stay with the lead pack of women for the first 20km of the race. This was a change from last year, when I was a bit intimidated by the pace right out of the start.
Somewhere around the 20km mark I was caught off guard by a cramping pain in my legs towards the top of an easy hill. Knowing that I had quite a few kilometers left to go, I decided I should back off a bit and keep my legs from becoming very angry at me while still having over 25k's to go.
My race continued on like this for sometime, feeling good and then getting cramps that would last a kilometer or two, just long enough for me to fear that I wouldn't be able to finish. In the end I did of course finish but it was a bit of a crawl the last few kilometers. Skiing across the lake and onto the main street in Hayward for the finish, was the hardest thing I have ever done. I can honestly say that I left NOTHING out on the course, having put every last ounce of energy into my race. I had to be happy with that. I ended up 15th in the women, not a bad result but not quite where I had hoped.
After blacking out at the finish I recieved an IV of fluids for the second time that week, my first was during my battle with the flu earlier in the week. I can now honestly stay I have experienced bonking in a race and hope that I never have to go to that very bad place again. Something tells me that odds of that happening are not very likely. For now I will try to forget the pain and just remember the good stuff. That is why we all keep racing right, because of our amazing ability to forget about the bad and keep feeding off the good. Sounds about right to me.
Can't say for sure if I will make it out to Hayward for next year's Bikrie Fest but I know at some point I will. Hope to see you all there when that day arrives!
cheers,
BethAnn

A few departing shots from Deutschland

Here are a few last shots taken from my wohnwagen adventure in Deutschland.....

There and back again

The Wohnwagen adventure contiuned down the road from Garmish on to Rupholing. I was excited to have the chance to race in Rupholding for a couple reasons. It is also a huge hub of biathlon. Biathlon seems to be the heart of the town. And it will also be home to the 2012 World Championships. They have changed the race course and are continuing to build MORE buildings around the venue in perperation for this big event next year.
We had a couple of beautiful days of training early on in the week, with cold nights and sunny warm days, making the snow nice and fast in the morning while softening up by the afternoon. Come race day things weren't looking so nice. Our sprint race on Saturday can only be described as wet. It was pretty much pouring rain all night, (which was great to listen to pounding on the roof as we tried to sleep in our little portable home). Things did not get any more dry as the morning went on, so we all just acepted the idea that we were going to stay wet for the next few hours and continued to do our normal prerpartions for the race.
For some unknown reason the officals wanted to spice up our normal sprint race by adding relay rounds into the mix. Relay rounds are three extra rounds most often placed in an extra round holder on the side of each competitors stock. During relays you have to single load each of these rounds to hit any remaining targets left after shooting your normal five shots. It enables you to have a total of eight rounds to hit five targets, so in most cases it is a safe bet that you can stay out of the penalty loop during relays. Our race was an individual sprint race with the addition of these three extra "relay" rounds for each of our two shooting stages. I was happy to have hit nine of my ten shots without any relays. Unfortunatlly I had to use all three of my extra rounds in prone to hit my one missed taret. The rain got to me and very wet hands froze so I struggled a bit with the loading. I wasn't happy with the time loss I took for this, but was very happy to have avoided the penalty loop for the race.
The race field in Rupholding was more on the international side with Great Britan, Norway, Canada and of course the U.S. all having great representation. The twins and I were excited to join up with some of our fellow American's during our time in Rupholding, as part of the U.S. U-26 team was there racing as well. It was great to have a little more company and some additional help on the range and with our skis.
My race on Sunday started off well. It was exciting to jump into a mass start race with so much compeition. We don't have many racing opporutnities like this in our regular season. My skiing continued to go well and stayed right up with everyone until my last stage when I may have had approached the range a bit too hard and found myself shaky and a little on the light headed side while trying to shoot. This is something I don't recomend for anyone! It is not a recipe for good shooting, as I am sure you can imagine.
Over all, the races went very well during my trip and Lanny, Tracy and I faired quite well living and traveling in our little RV for the three or so weeks. Despite one or two cold nights, it was a pretty smooth trip. We never even had to pull the tire chains out! Getting the chance to race internationally like this in biathlon is a priceless oportunity. I feel very lucky to have been able to go on this trip and want to thank everyone who helped support me to help make this trip happen.
Now home again, I am catching with all that I missed while gone. I am excited to move forward with my training and start putting in the work necessary to get myself back to Rupholding next March for World Championships! Can't wait.
cheers,
BethAnn

On the move again

We made it. The past week we have been traveling a bit in our little RV. And it has been treating us well.
This past weekend we didn't have any biathlon races to do so we decided to mix things up a bit and jump into Germany's biggest Nordic race of the year. It is a marathon race called the Konig Ludwig Lauf. There was a 21km option that we all chose. After looking at my training and racing schedule for the weeks ahead I decided I would save some of my energy and try touring for a day. So that is what I did. And while I felt my competitive side twitch a time or two and defiantly picked things up towards the end, I enjoyed my "easy" ski with a few thousand Germans around me.
Our afternoon recovery workout for that day consisted of a little different kind of training. We hiked up a long winding road to the Neuschwanstein castle. It was my first castle tour and I was pretty impressed by it.
Since then we have moved on to settle down in Rupholding, where we will race again this coming weekend. The weather has held out for us so far with more sunny days and pretty warm temperatures. It's been great to check out the changes in the trails they have done here in preparation for World Championships to be held here next winter. They actually have a sign in downtown counting down the days to their start next March.
The next few days will consist of normal prerace training, which keeps the days busy. Looking forward to putting that race bib on again at the end of the week.
More to come soon.....
BethAnn

World Cups in Maine

While I might not be there to enjoy all the excitement going on in Northern Maine right now, that doesn't mean all of you can't! Tomorrow the first World Cup race will kick off a two week stint in Northern Maine for all of the athletes racing on the World Cup. These athletes are the best in the world and they don't make it to North American very often. I hope you all get a chance to travel to the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle or to the 10th Mountain Lodge in Fort Kent to be a part of these awesome events! And don't forget your cowbells!
Check out the link below to view a short new clip on what the kids of Aroostook County think about this event!
http://www.wagmtv.com/newssource8/story/2011-01-28-biathlon-fever-calls-for-more-cowbell
-BethAnn

On to the next...

We have had four days of beautiful sunny, blue skies here in Oberhof. From what I am told, that is a rare occurrence. This morning we woke up to the fog again and new that it was time to move on to our next location, Garmish. We were actually planning to do so anyways after morning practice.
So that is just what we are doing. I am unsure of what our internet availability will be like there so I want to write a quick hello before leaving.
It's been great to get a few more days of training in here. Yesterday was perhaps my favorite day yet having done two great classics skis. The trails public trails around here seem to go in every direction and are endless. We came across many folks enjoying the winter weather by going for a ski tour and often stopping at one of the many ski huts to enjoy a drink or picnic lunch. For those that didn't pack a lunch for the day, there are many great food stands selling German bratwurst on real buns and coffee, beer or Fanta to wash it all down with. Not a bad meal for three Euro.
I'm now off to drive back into the sunshine. Updates from Garmish soon to come...stay tuned,
BethAnn