Testing week

Last week was a busy one. Starting on Wednesday we had a five day team testing and orientation. Our tests included a 3000 meter run, (ouch), followed by a 400 meter run, (OUCH!), strength endurance/max testing and a VO2 Max test ski walking on the treadmill at UMPI. The orientation included everything from team protocol to team building, talks on nutrition, (thank you Dr. Glazer), sports psych, (thank you Sarah Kay), team and individual goals, training techniques and even a little relaxation and yoga practice. We through it all into five days. And we even finished off the week with a 5km fun run at the S.W. Collins 5km here in Caribou.
While these days were quite long, I found them to be very productive and really set the tone to something great for this team and the year ahead. All the athlete, biatletes and Nordic, did everything together, which hasn't ever really happened in the past. I am excited to see this cohesion develop further as our season rolls forward through the colder months.
One of the activities I found to be the most rewarding was talking about goals, short term, long term, performance and outcome. We came up with a great list for our entire team and along with everyone workout out their own personal goals as well. Some of us shared a few with the group while other kept more to them self. It is a hard thing to do, sharing a goal with a bunch of your peers. We are all teammates but in our sports we are also competitors. You are putting yourself out there by stating what your aspirations are. The harder the goal the greater the challenge in reaching it, and the tougher it is to state that goal out loud. This is something I have often struggled with in the past. After competing for nearly 15 year in this sport I understand that I need to state my goals out loud and let everyone know what it is I am working towards, at the risk of being judged, laughed at or who knows what else. I have to do this to help myself start believing and knowing I can accomplish these things. And really who is anyone else to make any judgement on what I can or can't accomplish in sport or life. It's all up to me in the end. I am the only person who can get in my own way of reaching those goals that I set out for myself. And I am doing to do my very best to stay out of the way!

World Championship Team 2012, here I come!

cheers, BA

photos from the VO2Max test at Univeristy of Maine in Presque Isle. Thanks to Sue Beaudet for helping out with this. This pictures pretty much sums it up, a very blurry experience...

Training period 2 recap

Keeping up to date with my blog updates hasn't been a strong suit of mine lately. This is not to say I haven't thought about all kinds of different activities and adventures I could post about. Instead of trying to sum up the last couple weeks in words, I'll do my best to do so in pictures.
Things started off pretty chilly. This sight was not a motivating one before a fairly uncomfortable track workout.
Cool, wet weather seemed to be the weather pattern we have been following for the past couple weeks here. We had a wet but productive trail clean up day at NHC a few weeks back.

...with a few nice days mixed in-between rain and thunderstorms

A week of training in Lake Placid proved to be my most productive training week yet. Accompanied by nicer weather and a few extra people to play around with on the range here and there made for a great week. Here's a view from White Face Mountain




A night of Sushi making may have been the highlight!




Back here in Northern Maine training has been going well. This past week was a little lighter on the training to allow our bodies to rest up a bit for the week of testing we have coming up. Our MWSC Elite Team orientation begins on Wednesday. We are kicking it off with a 3000 meter run. I'm looking forward to having everyone together again and really jump start our training group.
One last image from this past week is a shot of my juice making experiment. After acquiring a beautiful, industrial strength juicer I was excited to tested it out I was pleasantly surprised to find rhubarb juice pretty darn good. Who would have thought! Many other concoctions were made as well, some turning out better than others. I think I have a bit of refining yet to do.


cheers, BethAnn

Help support children with diabetes

On July 16th and 17th I will be putting my rollerskis and rifle away for a couple days. My training on these days will all be done on my bike. I am going to ride in the first annual Ride Aroostook event. It is an event to fundraise to help children with diabetes. You can show your support by either 1. donating to my ride at the link above or 2. Join in on the ride! www.ridearoostook.com. The more the merrier so don't hesitate.
Happy riding,
BA

Training camps

Who doesn't enjoy a good training camp? I am here in Lake Placid, New York for my first training camp of the year. It is a short one, only lasting a week, but I am excited to be here and to take full advantage of all that my first camp of the year has to offer.
While all us endurance athletes train a great deal at home though our training season, training camps offer a special time to ramp up our focus and really put all our energy into training. It also offers a great chance to train with a bigger or perhaps different group of athletes, train in a different setting and have more time to work with coaches on the smaller details of our sport.
Here at the Olympic Training Center, (OTC), it is especially nice since we have a full dinning hall where we can eat all our meals and a sports medical office where we can stop by and stretch, jump in the ice bath or get help with any other ache or pain that may come up. Overall it is a nice place to be.
I am most excited about have a week of having to focus on not much more than my training. While I do miss digging around in my garden this time of year it is really great to leave everything behind for a short while and zero in on accomplishing my goals as a biathlete.
So far things have been going great. The weather is starting to listen to my requests for dry, sunny weather. And after only two days I feel my shooting is on a great upswing that I plan extending all the way through the 2011-12 racing season. In addition to the great company of my MWSC teammate and coach it's also a lot of fun to do a little training with the National team and National team coaches as well.
As I said before, who doesn't love a training camp?

Spring time?

While the trees are blooming are flowers are blossoming most place in the Northern Hemisphere this time of year, Northern Maine is still feeling pretty chilly. The last two mornings I woke up to my thermometer reading 38F. Brr, is all I have to say to that.
The cold, wet weather didn't keep fourteen of us from peddling up and down the hills of Northern Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec this past Saturday during Fresh Trails Adventures season kick off F.A.R.M. Ride, (French Acadian Randonee of Maine). Randonee rides are often done throughout central Europe. One day group rides with a mix of paved and well packed dirt roads, Randonnee rides are most often have support vehicles providing food and drink stops and gear support. These rides are meant to be an enjoyable day of riding, often exploring new routes. Fresh Trails choose some beautiful and challenging roads throughout New Brusnwick and Quebec for the bike tour companies the first offered Randonee.

After the initial struggle of getting out of bed, putting on my many layers of bike clothing and heading out the door, things were quite enjoyable throughout the day. We broke up our 80 mile ride with an amazing lunch at the Auberge La Dulce Vite in Nortre Dame du Lac in Quebec. After fulling back up and throwing on a few dry cloths we all jumped back on our bikes to make our way back towards Fort Kent, where we started and finished the ride for the day. In the end we only peddled in the rain for short while in the morning and briefly just after lunch. I was pleasantly warm throughout the entire ride and thanks to our two great support vehicles was never ran out of water or food for the entire ride. Spirits were high throughout the entire day and in the end I believe everyone was quite happy with themselves for crawling out of bed and forcing themselves outside on a dearly Saturday morning. Upon departing for the day we were all looking forward to putting our legs up and putting our new Fresh Trails pint glass, (everyone got one in their goodie bag!) to use. Well deserved on all counts.

Thanks to all of those who joined in on the fun. I am glad you were all there to get me out their in the first place. Wouldn't have wanted to miss out on any of it.
cheers, BA

Run around

7:00 am run Saturday morning. Ran out to the beaver pond a few miles away, checking out what the busy beavers have been up to since my last visit this past fall. The rain is holding off for the time being. Glad to get at least one workout in before it starts to fall again.
First time trying out the new GU Chomps. Testing out the blueberry pomegranate today. They are great to take with on a long workout because it's easy to just eat one or two at a time and not overload your stomach. Did I mention how delicious they are as well? Just like my favorite fruit snacks, only loaded with electrolytes and all that good stuff.

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