10th - Today I am heading to Heber City, Utah to train on the Olympic venue of Soldier Hollow. My flight is at 9:15am, but if anyone has ever read one of my journal entries, they know that I didn�t leave at 9:15. Due to some heater problem in the plane we had to wait for maintainence to fix the problem. Since I didn�t feel like freezing for 3 hours, I was happy to sip on my cup of Caribou coffee and wait it out. After an hour delay we took off for SLC. Since it was �10 in Minneapolis and it was supposed to be about 35 degrees in Salt Lake we were happy to leave.
After arriving in Heber City we checked into our apartment, changed clothes, and then headed to the venue. I have trained here 3 different times, but never been able to ski here on the actual biathlon trails. When I was here last February, we could only ski on one of the cross-country trails. There wasn�t enough snow to use the biathlon trails. But today we have plenty of snow and it REALLY FAST SNOW! The snow here is all man-made so it is basically chopped up ice which makes for some easy skiing on the flats and some, shall we say �challenging� skiing on the downhills. There is one downhill that has a 180-degree turn (that is banked) at the bottom. The first time down that one I was a little apprehensive, but after sliding through it (and screaming) without falling I felt much better. So after skiing for two hours we headed back to the apartment to make some dinner.
11th � Yesterday while we skied with Chad Salmela, he told us that it was supposed to snow that night. I really wish that he was wrong! After we got up to the venue it became painfully obvious that the trails we skied yesterday were not the trails we were skiing today. Trails that we easily glided down yesterday were painfully slow today. The uphills that were icy yesterday, were now soft and sticky. Good times!!!
We came back to the venue in the afternoon to do some combination (skiing & shooting) training. Since we had already trained for about an hour and a half in the morning we only trained for about an hour in the afternoon.
12th � We have been here for 3 days and today the program calls for some intervals. After skiing yesterday I decided the intervals should be on a section of the 3km loop. In the middle of the 3km loop is series of three hills and it is this section that I thought I should do the workout on. After getting in a good warm up and then video taping Ben during his first 2 intervals that I started my workout. I had hoped to get in 6 intervals, but after doing 4, I came to the conclusion
In the afternoon I went back up to the venue and skied easy for about half an hour just to get the kinks out from the morning intervals.
Today is the day off between the first two races and the final race on Friday. It was nice to be able to sleep in and enjoy a relaxed breakfast. Nothing really exciting happened today so�.
Day 9
Todays race doubled as a World Championship Trial race and as the National Championship for the 10km Sprint. And more importantly, the snow was finally going to be firm! I haven�t been all that pleased with the quality of grooming this week but today it appears that if the snow holds off (yep its supposed to snow more!) than I will have my favorite conditions to ski on. Hard packed snow!!!
But I�m getting a little bit ahead of myself. The routine today was much the same as the previous two races. Starts with a pre-breakfast run, then breakfast, then off to the venue. After we arrive at the venue, its time to test skies and drop off the fastest pair with the wax guys (they make em faster) then head to zero. After zero its back to pick up my race skis, get warmed up and then head to equipment control.
The Race:
I got one of the better start numbers of the day: #32. (Rob Rosser got a better one, #33, 30 seconds behind me) All the top guys, save Rob, started in front of me, which allowed me to get splits off them. Since the snow was expected to hold up today, starting later than everyone else was beneficial because I could get splits off the best guys. But I would need to ski fast and shoot zen or my start position would be worthless.
I had decided last night that since I needed big points to have a chance of making the Worlds team that I would need to race aggressively. So I started out skiing at a pace that was definitely faster than I had skied during the first two races. Much to my enjoyment, I felt good today. Maybe it was the firm snow, maybe my skis were faster than normal, or maybe it was because I needed to ski fast, but whatever the reason I was comfortable skiing at a faster pace. Midway through the loop I got a split from one of the Guard coaches that I was in 10th.
Coming into the range I didn�t really back off the pace much (I needed every second I could get) and found my favorite lane: #5. I got into position and noticed that the wind was coming in harder than during zero so I decided to shade some of the shots. I shaded left the first two shots, then noticed the wind subsiding, so move back to the center of the target for the last three. I don�t know if it was my superior shooting skills or some combination of that and luck, but either way I shot clean and got back on course. So nice not to have go into the penalty loop. Back on course I got a split that I was in 5th place�.no we�re talkin. I skied even better on the second loop and coming into standing I knew that if I were to have a chance at the big points I would need another clean stage. With the wind the way it was I came picked a lane on the far right side of the range (there are some trees there that provide a little wind block) and set up shop. I had a good rhythm going for the first 4 but I was a little slow with the 5th shot. As I came across the target I couldn�t get the trigger pulled at the right time and ended up missing it.
I was a little mad at missing the last shot, but I knew that I was doing well so there was no time to reflect on it. I saw Danny and Curtis Schreiner leaving the range when I was entering it and thought that maybe I could catch them if they had a couple of penalties. As I went into the penalty loop who did I see? Yep Curtis and Danny both there. I skied my penalty loop and got back on course. They both had one more to do and Danny was the first to catch back up to me. Danny had been skiing really fast all week and I thought that if I could stick with him, that he would drag me to a fast last loop. Well he went around me on the hill that Piotr was giving splits and I couldn�t match his tempo. Its not that I was skiing slow, its just that he was really moving. He got a gap of about 20 meters on me and then it just stayed there. I was thinking if I could have only stayed with him that I would have someone to ski with.
Coming around the last loop I got a couple of splits. Chuck Lyda had me in 3rd. Piotr had the same split, but 4th place was Rob Rosser. As you will recall he started 30 seconds back and I couldn�t get splits off him, but he got plenty of splits off me. In the end I skied as hard as I could but it wasn�t quite enough to hold off Rob, who finished 1.6 seconds up on me.
That afternoon in the cafeteria Randy Hill, one of the National Team coaches, came up to me and showed me just how much time 1.6 seconds was with his stopwatch. Actually he showed me several times and then he said: � you know if it was me, that would be killing me!!!� Yeah thanks Randy�
Later that night we all went out for a couple of drinks (some people had too many) at the local micro brewery. Before we knew it was time to go home. After we got back to the OTC I realized that we had a shuttle to catch in about 4 hours�.not fun.
5:30am�yep it wasn�t fun. A lovely 2 hour ride to the airport and man am I thirsty. Fun thing is that I shouldn�t be. I mean I drank all night long and when I woke I was thirsty. I can�t figure it out.