Same old story. I sit in the MSP Airport waiting to catch a flight to Cincinnati. I was supposed to fly on United to Chicago at 11:00am (and then Albany), but that flight was cancelled. Now me and the rest of the usual suspects are just sitting around waiting to our 12:45 departure. Most of the others know of my recent travel mishaps. Some have even offered to put me on a different flight then themselves, because they think I am bad luck. And let me tell you, they blamed the cancelled flight this morning on me. I am beginning to think that I have some seriously bad �travel karma��as the snow comes down I really wonder�
After finally getting in the air around 2:00pm we are off to Cinci. It was nice to get out of Minneapolis and leave that storm behind, but I know that this will be a long day. After we get to Cinci we have a two hour layover then a two hour flight to Albany. After that we catch a two hour shuttle up to the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid. New scheduled arrival at Placid: 11:30pm�what a day.
Actually arrival 12:30am
Day 2
Slept in today. After getting in late last night it was nice to not have to get up early. So around 9am I rolled out of bed and strolled down to the cafeteria for some pancakes. After breakfast I put my rifle together and grabbed some skis. Around 10:30 we went out to the course and did a little shooting and skiing. I was surprised when we got on the course it was not in as good of shape as I thought it would be. By looking at how much snow appeared to be on the ground, the trails were still pretty bumpy. But no worries, I hear that snow is in the forecast for Saturday.
Day 3
Today is really my last hard workout before the races. I planned on doing 6 x 2-3 minute intervals with shooting at the end. I decided to use the last hill coming into the range on the 2.5km loop for my interval. It is a decent sized hill (about 150m long) and by using that section I get a pretty good recovery skiing back down to the bottom of it before starting my next interval.
After skiing around for about a half hour to warm up I started the workout. It turned out being probably the best workout that I have ever had shooting. I missed 1 shot out of 30 and it was all done with my heart rate at race pace.
Here are the penalties for the workout:
P S P S P S
0 0 0 1 0 0
Day 4 (December 31, 2000)
It started snowing last night and the forecast was from anywhere between 4-14 inches. Well after we awoke this morning there was at least 8 inches on the ground. It was nice to see all the snow. Like I said before, the trails needed more snow to smooth them out some, and now there is plenty of snow. Actually while we were at the venue this morning it snowed an additional 4 inches in about two hours. It was great to get all this snow, but it really isn�t any fun to ski in it until it firms up. Its no secret that I do not like soft snow (Never have, never will), and I really didn�t like skiing in that stuff today. But I digress.
After the workout me and Gary tested my skis. Gary is my personal wax technician for the trip and it is really nice to not have to worry about my skis. I can relax and just focus on racing well�not worrying about if all my skis are ready, or having to stay up late to make sure they are waxed properly.
That night I am informed that it is New Years Eve and asked what are plans are. To be honest I really didn�t know what day it was so I didn�t have any plans. Me and a couple of the other guys decided to stay in and watch a movie. Me did that but it was over by 9:15 so we decided that we should go out and have some �liquid bread�. So we rounded up all the folks we could and drove downtown. First we went to a brew pub, then we finished up at a place called Roomers. It�s a dance place in the basement of a building in downtown Lake Placid. There we rang in the new year with the U.S. National Womens Hockey Team then promptly headed home. We did have a workout that day!!!
Day 5 (January 1, 2001)
This morning I got a �curve� thrown my way before breakfast. On my way to the caf for some pancakes I hear Bill (one of our coaches) telling someone else that our van is leaving at 8:00. Well it is now 7:40 in the a.m. and I am not even close to being ready to go. I haven�t had my coffee which is the worst part�after a quick breakfast and throwing everything I may possibly need into my backpack I head to the van. After that the day got better.
I had another good workout today, hitting 27 out of 30 shots. I skied the course, did some sprints on some parts, and got together with Gary to test skis. Before I knew it, it was time to head back to the OTC for lunch. After lunch I got in a quick nap then watched the Michigan/Auburn football game. The maize and blue held on to beat those pesky Tigers.
That night we had our team meeting where we went over all the details for tomorrows race. One of the coaches had gone to the coaches meeting and picked up our race bibs and he had other information for us. After the meeting I did some dryfire drills with my rifle and then called it a night.
Day 6 (January 2, 2001)
Finally race day!!! I have been training all year for these races. These are kind of like the playoffs of biathlon. Do well and you get to go race at even bigger races in Europe, do poorly and you get to go home and race local biathlon and citizen cross country races. You tell me which sounds more fun to you?
Todays race is the first of three trial races for the World Cup and World Championship Teams. There will be two 10km Sprint races (one prone shooting, one standing shooting) and one 12.5km Pursuit Format race (prone-prone-standing-standing). Todays race is the first of the two sprint races.
After testing a couple of pair of skis, I picked one for the race wax of the day. Our wax guys (Piotr, Bill Kremer and Gary) have been testing waxes nonstop since we got here. It is very comforting to know that those guys are working so hard so that I will have fast skis.
After dropping off my skis with the fellas, I headed out to warm up. The trails had set up fairly well (better than I had thought they would) so I was happy. After getting properly warmed up, I headed back and picked up my race skis. Then it was on to equipment control to get my skis, poles and rifle checked. Once you go through equipment control, you must stay in the �pen�. Its kind of like cattle, we jog around trying to stay warm until our number is called. I started 33rd so I didn�t need to get there that early, but to be safe I showed up shortly after the first starter.
The race went pretty well for me. At about the 1.5km mark I got a split from one of the Guard coaches that I was in 11th place. I wasn�t really go all that hard so I was pretty happy to be there. The shooting didn�t start out too good, as I missed the first shot. But after that I knocked down the next 4 and went to the penalty lap to do my penance. After that I was back on course and the course was getting a little soft. I skied pretty well on the second lap, but didn�t get any splits so I had no idea what place I was in. For standing shooting I knew that I needed to hit them all and lucky for me I did. It is always nice to shoot a clean stage and get back on course. Shortly out on the loop I saw Piotr and he gave me a split that I was in 8th (I was actually in 10th) 10 seconds out of 7th and 12 seconds out of 6th . I tried as hard as I could but I didn�t make up any places (I made up about 6 seconds on the next closest guy. I saw Gary on the last two hills and even his yelling at me didn�t make me go that much faster. I was thinking the whole time: �how did he get from that other hill, to here in the matter of 2 minutes!!!� In the end I finished 10th (9th American). Hitting 9 out of 10 was pretty good, but my skiing could have been better. And it will be�.
Day 7 (January 3, 2001)
I'll update this after my nap....
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�.now 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 in and 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.