We now have less than 100 days until the start of the Games in Vancouver and under a month to the start of the World Cup!  It’s crazy how fast time has flown by.

The last few weeks have been super busy for me.  I was out in Utah at our fall training camp for three weeks.  After that, I was home for a day and then down to NYC for two days and finally I am back home now for another week.

My camp in Utah went really well and I was able to stay healthy and injury free for the entire three weeks, which is something I did not do the past three seasons.  I ended up putting in a lot of quality hours there and I am feeling on track for the start of the season.  As in the past, Utah was a great place to spend October with really warm weather and lots of sun.  While most other skiers were getting rained or snowed on, we were training in shorts!

After Utah I was home for one day and then I went to NYC for the 100 Days to Vancouver Celebration at Rockefeller Center.  This was a great event that brought together a lot of athletes, US Olympic Committee staff and media.  It was fun to catch up with other athletes and to feel everyone’s excitement about the Games.  While I was there I had the opportunity to go on the Today Show to sport some of the Ralph Lauren Olympic gear.  This was a really fun experience and it was definitely a lot different than my normal day-to-day routine.  Mixing it up once in awhile and doing something different is really important for me and helps me have a better focus when I’m back training.  You can check out the video here and also see another interview and some more Olympic gear here under “meet the athletes”.

Now that I am home, I am back to my normal training routine.  I will be here for another week before heading to Sweden for the start of the World Cup.  I am taking this opportunity to catch up with my family and friends because once I leave next week I won’t be back until after the Games in February.  This is definitely one of the disadvantages of being an American athlete competing in a European sport.   Hopefully in the future the US can attract more international competitions so I can spend a little more time at home!

I’m out in Utah right now at our last dry-land training camp of the year.  Training has been going really well but I have also been super busy.  Olympic years are always a little different in that we have a lot more responsibilities to the media and the Olympic Committee.  This is actually just a big a excuse for why I have not been updating more frequently…

While most other Nordic training sites have been reporting snow over the last few weeks, we have been getting sun and 70-degree weather. This is exactly why we are here in October.  Besides the sun, the venue here is also a great place for us to make our final preparation for the winter.  The high altitude combined with the tough tracks definitely makes for some intense workouts.

In other exciting news, I have also ordered a new camera!  Hopefully I can hang onto this one for more than a year… I hope to have some Utah training pics up soon!  Thanks for checking in.

I arrived home from Germany last night after a brutal travel day of 26 hours.  Despite taking over a day to travel home, none of my bags made it.  Nevertheless, it feels great to be back home after seven weeks on the road!

I spent the last two weeks of our Europe camp in Oberhof, Germany.  The training facilities in Oberhof are absolutely top-notch; they have nearly 10 kilometers of paved ski trails, a brand new indoor skiing facility and multiple shooting ranges.  It’s no wonder this area produces top winter athletes year after year.

Our focus during the first week in Oberhof was on the Summer World Biathlon Championships.   The men’s field had over 70 competitors and included some, but definitely not all, of the top biathletes in the World.  I was very pleased to finish 4^th in the sprint race and 5^th in the pursuit.  Although I was happy with these results, I was a little disappointed to finish just off of the podium both days.  Oh well, hopefully that result will come in the winter when it really counts.  More important than the results, these races were a great opportunity for me to see what I need to work in the next eight weeks leading up to the first World Cup.  I have definitely made some big improvements this year, but I still need to make some small changes before the start of the season in order to reach my goals.

After the races, we spent most of the last week of our camp in the new DKB Ski Hall.  This is the latest indoor skiing facility where it’s possible to ski on snow all year.  It felt really nice to get back on snow and to start testing skis for this season.  I tested through quite a few skis and was really happy with the results.

Unfortunately, I only have one week at home before I take off for our next camp in Utah.  After seven weeks on the road I definitely wish that I had more than a week at home but that’s the way it goes as an athlete.  At least I have a really low week of training so I will have some more time to catch up with family and friends.

Here are some pictures from my recovery week in Ruhpolding.

Enjoying a picnic in the mountains

On Tuesday I did a short hike in the mountains right outside of Ruhpolding.

I spent one afternoon relaxing at a mountain lake outside of Ruhpolding.

I also spent some time working on my cooking skills.

Of course my recovery week had some training sessions as well, although I trained less then half of what I train in a normal week.  Yesterday we also participated in a relay race at German Championships.  This was hands down the worst relay that I have ever been a part of.  It seems that all three of us were still sleeping from the recovery week… Not much I can do about yesterday’s race other than laugh and move on.  This year I really want to work on my ability to “let go” of poor performances and now I am getting some good practice before the season even starts!

Tomorrow we will have the full team back together for three more weeks of training.

After three weeks of intense training, I am enjoying an easy week of training on my own before the team meets up again Ruhpolding, Germany next week.   Our training camps normally last 3 weeks, but this year we decided on a 7 week Europe camp in order to maximize one on one coaching time and to take full advantage of the World class venues over here. Knowing that 7 weeks together would be pretty tough for the team, our coaches decided to break things up a bit and allow us to train on our own for a week.  I decided to stay right here in Ruhpolding, Germany in order to minimize travel time and maximize recovery time.

Before arriving in Germany, I spent two weeks training in Ostersund, Sweden.  Everything went smoothly there and it was nice to be back working with my coaches Per and Armin.  Once again, these guys brought a ton of energy to the camp and we got a ton of work done in 2 weeks.

On my second to last day in Sweden Per, Lowell and I drove two hours west to the Sweden/Norway border to go for a long run in the Swedish mountains.  What was planned to be a 3-hour run turned into a 5.5-hour epic training session.   After running 10 miles (16K) across the tundra to the base of Sweden’s second highest peak, we decided we had come too far to not make a summit attempt. In the end we had to turn around just before reaching the summit because we were out of time and we were completely unprepared with gear.  Nevertheless, it was a really cool experience and I got to see a part of Sweden that I have never seen before.  What I was most impressed with during our mountain run was that Per stuck with Lowell and I for the entire day.  We estimated that we ran around 26 miles (42k) in really tough terrain and Per hung with us. I really thought that we would be carrying Per after 20 miles but he toughed it out.  Never again will I doubt his fitness level!  For a funny video of the run check out my teammates site at www.lowellbailey.com.

From Sweden we flew down to Ruhpolding, Germany for our third week of camp.  Training here has been great.  The competition trails here are really nice, with over 5k of paved trails for roller skiing and the nearby mountains offer endless opportunities for running and biking.  It also feels really nice to be back in more summer conditions.  Although we had quite a few sunny days in Sweden, it definitely felt like late fall there rather than September.

This Friday I will meet back up with the team for another week of training here in Ruhpolding.  After that, we head up to Oberhof, Germany for a few more weeks of training before returning back to Lake Placid on October, 4^th.  Training in Oberhof should be especially exciting because we will be taking part in biathlon summer World Championships.  Although we won’t be specifically preparing for these races, it will be fun to race against a full international field.  The organizers of the race have announced that 30 nations will be participating, so these races will surely have a strong field.  This will be a great opportunity for me to put my summer and fall training to the test.  In Oberhof, we will also take a week to utilize the new indoor “ski hall”.  This is the latest indoor skiing venue and it is suppose to be a step up from all of the others with a longer track and better snow conditions.

Thanks for checking in!

I just finished up my first real summer races of the season here in Ostersund, Sweden.  We competed in a 12k cross race on Friday, sprint race on Saturday and a pursuit on Sunday.  Overall I was pretty pleased with my performances here.  I was able to work on some of the new techniques that I have been training both on the ski course and in the range.  I would like to have shot a little better, but this was still better shooting than I have had here in the past.

These races were very helpful in evaluating what I need to work on over the next few months in the lead up to the season.  My only real complaint about the events is that the “matched” skis were not even close to the same speed.  It was like playing the lottery at the start of each race when they handed out skis.  During the cross-country race I actually had a ski fall off on one of the downhills.  Luckily, I was able to stay upright before going back to fetch my ski.  For the sprint race I had great skis, probably better than most.  And for the pursuit my skis were an absolute joke; I could not even stay in the draft of some of the others on the big downhill.  I think if the IBU wants to continue with this summer racing series, then they at least need to make a test with the skis, which was not done here.

I will be in Sweden for one more week of training before heading down to Germany on September 1^st.   Thanks for checking in!

I’m packing up my bags today and am taking off for a seven week Europe camp tomorrow.  I will spend the first two weeks of the camp training in Ostersund, Sweden and the next five weeks training in Germany.

My last block of training went pretty well in Lake Placid, minus one sizeable mistake at the end of the training cycle.  Everything had been going extremely well for the first 2.5 weeks of the training block; I was feeling great in all of my intensity sessions, setting many PR’s, and I was able to put quite a bit of volume in as well.  Along with feeling good, we finally were receiving the summer weather that I had eluded us all summer.

Ironically, it was the heat that I had been asking for all summer that ended up giving me problems.  I went out for a 4.5 bike ride and seriously miscalculated my fluid intake.  By the time I realized what was going on, it was too late.  I ended up losing 7.5 pounds (3.4kilo) in 4.5 hours.  I had never experienced such crazy dehydration before, and I surely hope to avoid it in the future.  After my ride I completely lost my appetite and I was freezing cold, even though it was over 80 degrees outside.  I spent the rest of the day in my bed under every blanket that I could find.  My body was so shocked that I was pretty messed up for a few days and I really had to cut back on the training.  I had planned on competing in two summer races in Jericho, Vermont but I decided to play it safe and recover back to 100% before trying any hard efforts again.  I would say that it took me about 4 to 5 days before I stopped getting headaches everyday and feeling sluggish.  The worst part about this experience is that it was totally my fault!  It was definitely a rookie mistake that I should have avoided.

Anyway, things have come around and I am back to feeling 100%.  I am really excited for our camp and I look forward to being back with the rest of the team and the coaching staff.  I will also get a chance next week to compete in 3 different summer races in Sweden.  The first will be a 15k skate race and the next two will be a sprint and pursuit biathlon races.  These races normally have a strong international field so it will be a great opportunity for me to see where I stack up.

Check back soon for updates from Sweden!

I just finished up my first week of a training of my three-week training block.  I was back to Jericho for a few days in the beginning of the week to get a little more time training on the loop over there. When I’m in Jericho, my training is really ski-specific so that I can take advantage of the awesome roller loop.  I lucked out and had really nice weather over there and had a great few days of training.  I also want to give a big thanks to Sarah Lehto and Travis Voyer for helping me out in Jericho.  These guys helped me out with everything from scoping shots to taking lactates, which made for some high quality training sessions.

After two weeks of training in Lake Placid, Armin, Lowell, Jeremy and I moved over to Jericho, Vermont for our last week of camp.  Jericho is home to the Ethan Allen firing range and possibly the best roller loop in the country.

Despite the daily rains, training has been going well.  Along with our normal training routines, we have been putting a big focus on shooting.  Working with Armin has been awesome and he has definitely opened my eyes as to what is possible on the shooting range.  I now have a huge list of skills that I need to work on before we meet again in August.  No detail gets overlooked when working with Armin.  Sometimes when we look at shooting video, he makes me feel like a complete rookie…

I will be in Jericho until the end of the week and then I will head back to Lake Placid for a much needed recovery week.  After three weeks of camp, my body is craving some down time.

My teammate, Jeremy “Sherpa” Teela, now has a blog and he has been bothering me about linking to him everyday at practice… So here it is!  Check it out for an interesting read!  www.jeremyteela.com

For those of you who are interested why Jeremy is called the “Sherpa”, he earned the name for his ability to hill climb really fast, despite sometimes carrying a little extra weight!  Sorry Jeremy, but that’s the price you pay for the link…