Happy Earth Day

Hope you have all had a warm and sunny day wherever you may be while reading this. We have had a surprisingly nice day here in Aroostook county, which included a nice and brief afternoon spring shower.
In my effort to do my part for the earth on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day I want to share some of my daily efforts of living green.
Recycling is an easy task that everyone can do with the smallest amount of effort. In addition to the recycling of your basic household items I working on bringing the left over brass from the two biathlon ranges in to be recycled. There are also a great number of recycling programs for running shoes. Nike has one of the best. They have a number of drop off locations around the world. Unfortunately there aren't any up in the County but they do have one near my in-laws, so when making the trip South I try to get a collection to bring down and drop off. Check out the Nike program at: http://www.nikereuseashoe.com/. It's very cool and inspiring.



Another great program working hard at keeping our earth green is Greenlaces.org. It is a very cool organization bringing greater awareness to saving the planet one promise and two shoe laces at a time. If you haven't already heard about them, check them out at www.greenlaces.org. Make your promise to the planet today and get your green on.
The last and most enjoyable green effort I'd like to mention today starts right in your backyard. Eating vegetables and herbs you grew yourself not only cuts down on your grocery bill but plays a big part in keeping the earth green by keeping things local. You can get any more local than your back yard! If you are missed out on green thumb gene check out the local farmers markets in your neighborhood. Not only will you be doing your part by eating local and supporting the farmers of your community, your stomach will thank you for fresh, nutrient rich, flavorful food. Localharvest.org is a great website for helping you find farmers markets and other fresh produce, meats, dairy products in your area.

Fresh Start with a new training tool!

It has offically begun, training season 2010/11. Today was the first offical day for me. My break over the past few weeks has been a good one and a much needed one.
I am now craving more sunshine and time outdoors. Hopfully I will have more of both in the weeks ahead.
One of my goals in the upcoming year is to keep things in better balance, both in training, recovery and life. And thanks to my friends and supporters at Pressure Positive Co., I have a new tool to help me out with this. It is called the Tiger Tail Muscle Massager. It is a great tool I use to help flush out my leg, hips, arms and even feet after training, helping me recover faster and feel better faster. I defiantly needed after my run today. Running is always a little harder on my body then other activities. Adequate recovery, including stretching, food, drink and activities such as massage and using great products like the Tiger Tail and stretching strap are important to stay in touch with throughout all parts of the season. These activies are crutial to staying healthy, happy and injury free through the hours of training that lie ahead.
Check out the Tiger Tail and all of Pressure Postitives other great products at their website: http://pressurepositive.com/index.aspx.

Lots more udates to come as the training begins,
Think sun!

-BethAnn

Refresh button

I'm finally back with a long overdue update. It has been a long, tough couple of weeks. Nationals came and went. It felt like a week of suffering for me, which happens. I had a couple of ruff races and was challenged in new ways every race. My not so stellar performances has forced me to take a good, hard look at my training, racing, race approach and life over the past few weeks. What is good, what isn't,
what to change, what to keep the same, what needs the most attention and what am I working towards? A lot of tough questions to ask yourself but important one's to0. a For this reason, I will say my races at National weren't a total loss.
X-C Nationals followed the week of biathlon Nationals. I had planned and was excited to race in all of these also. My body had a different plan. I came down with a chest cold and all kinds of nasty sickness after the closing of biathlon Nationals. So I was stuck in bed for the week instead of racing. Another downer but what are you going to do?
On a side note from Nationals, I was very excited to see many faces from the Southern Maine Biathlon Club during the events. Not only did this crew race but they were some of the best cheerers I have encountered all year. Three tough races for me left me digging deep to keep on pushing. All the voices from SMBC really help pull me through some low spots. Thanks to all these folks. You are an inspiring group who I love being around!
After taking nearly two weeks to recover from my sickness, I am finally feeling back to normal. I am currently staying busy thinking through my past season and working out a plan for the year ahead. I am also spending as much time as I can in my own personal therapy, of the garden variety. It is most relaxing and therapeutic activity I can do this time of year. It's amazing what a little sun, dirt and greenery can do for you.

Happy spring to you all!

-BethAnn

The March Madness continues...

The last couple weeks back at home in Caribou have been busy ones. The Junior Olympics were a great success last week. Unseasonably warm and sunny weather made for great spring skiing. There was a little worry about the snow holding but in the end there was no need.
JO's has lead us right into U.S. Biathlon Nationals. We started yesterday with the sprint race. Unfortunately we had our first night of above freezing temperatures going, which kept the trails from setting. This made for a slow and slushy race. I didn't perform how I would have liked yesterday. I let some mental obstacles get in the way of performing to my best ability. The skiing conditions were challenging and defiantly not my favorite. I know we have a lot more of it to come in the next week, so I am currently working on a new and better strategy for plowing through the slush.
Right now I am focused on the pursuit race tomorrow and mass start on Sunday. Thank heavens for second and third chances....

Aroostook's Youth

I have been home now for just short of a week, and I have been staying busy. In addition to getting out on skis myself I have been able to help many youth throughout Aroostook County get out and enjoy sliding across the snow on skis as well.
This past Saturday the Northern Skier Club hosted the Aroostook Youth Ski Festival at the high school trails here in Caribou. There had to have been well over 75 skiers from the ages of five to sixteen. We spent the morning hitting up one of the five different ski stations, doing everything from barrel chases to biathlon bean bag tosses to flying down the radar run and flipping tricks on the terrain park.
We finished off the morning with one enormous game of sharks and minnows. I let my competitive side get the best of me and caused two collisions in attempt to "swim" from the sharks closing in on me.
Many thanks out to everyone who helped put this event together. This is my third year attending. Each year I see more new faces having fun being active and playing around on skis! That is something I will never get tired of seeing.
Thanks again,
BethAnn

Post-Birkie

I made it! I finished my first ever 52km race and even walked away from the finish line all on my own! I was pretty excited about that. My first ever Birkie experience was a good one. I think I lucked out with beautiful sunny weather, fast skiing and great snow. I work hard to follow the only instructions I was given for the race; eat and drink early and often and ski in a pack!
I worked pretty hard the first few kilometers to stay with the front pack. After about six kilometers of that I started to get nervous that I was expending too much energy too early and would end up bonking. I really did not want to bonk. So I backed off a bit and ended up skiing with four other women who did the same as me. I felt pretty strong most of the race. I had a moment with about 18km to go where I thought I was going to hit a wall, but I worked through it and finished pretty strong. I maybe could have even picked it up a bit more towards the end, but again I was nervous I would start my surge to early and end up loosing time in the end.
I defiantly learned a lot throughout the race and feel that my second time around I can ski it even better. I'm happy with my eleventh place for now.
Cheers,
BethAnn

Birke Fever

2.26.2010

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for me, fifty-two kilometers of racing in beautiful central Wisconsin. It will be my first time racing in the American Birkebeiner. Things seem to be lining up quite nicely going into tomorrow’s race. It’s going to be cold tonight but get up to the upper twenties by tomorrow sometime. The snow is great and the sun will be shining.
It sounds like there is going to be over 8,000 racers tomorrow. There will be a lot of eating and waxing of skis tonight.
We arrived here on Wednesday night and I have been enjoying taking in all the excitement of the events over the past few days. Yesterday afternoon David and I took part in the Elite sprints in downtown Hayward. Head to head sprints down main street with single elimination, made for a fun, spectator friendly event.
My afternoon schedule includes picking up my bib, wax some skis, stretch, eat and probably watch a little Olympics. The race starts bright and early at 8:30.
More to come after the race….
-BethAnn