End of Season Update & Thank You!
Spring training means celebrating the sunshine and doing Hawaiian shirt Time Trials
What?? It’s Mid April Already!!
The middle of April means the season is over and spring recovery with a dash of adventure has started. Two weeks ago the last races of the season were largely regional “Biathlon Nationals” in West Yellowstone, MT. It was the largest domestic biathlon races of the year and a very competitive series of races to end my second season of elite competition. I’m very excited to say I won 2 of the 3 races and skied to a podium finish for the 3rd race. A full recap of races since the last email is below.
One of the things I spend time doing after the season taking time to reflect on what went well, what I can do better next season and breaking down the season into digestible parts: # of races, types of races, financials of racing, hours/types of training, and more. I'll be be putting summarizing those breakdowns for everyone in later posts this spring, but most importantly, I focus on taking time to thank everyone involved in making the season and my ski career possible. It is impossible to thank everyone or ever feel I have been grateful enough for the support and energy of others. It takes an army to make the season happen and I have leaned heavily on not just coaches, family and donors, but also teammates, race volunteers, ski sponsors and equipment suppliers, friends, and others. So thank you to everyone, truly thank you for helping me become the skier I am today.
This past ski season showed I am not only capable of being a competitive skier on the national stage at my age and having come out of retirement, but also showed I still have the potential for major gains each year. This upcoming training cycle and race season I am setting my highest goals yet and more excited to be competing than ever before. (After a brief rest period of course.)
One of the 1st Place finishes at Biathlon Finals, end of March
A prone shooting stage in the 2nd race of Biathlon Finals
5:45am at the start of the Power of Four SkiMo race with Brandon
Starting the third race at Biathlon Finals in 52F, sun and slush
End of season summary
The last email saw me headed to the American Birkie with a goal of qualifying to race the last World Cup of the season. Unfortunately the race turned into another opportunity to learn how my race prep, and in particular how my body's reaction to low altitude competition with only 36 hours of adjustment before race day, can make or break a ski race. Being an older, high altitude body, it takes a much longer time frame to adapt the fast twitch, ultra responsive muscle movement when jumping down to much higher oxygen levels. This showed when our lead pack of the race went for a sprint preme 22km into the 45km Birkie and I lost contact and therefore lost the draft and raced the following 22km completely alone. Racing alone is brutal: it tests your mental stamina and leaves you totally exhausted having no rest and working harder than with a pack, and is emotionally draining seeing the lead pack disappearing while knowing you would normally be in the mix.
None-the-less, it was only the end of February and my next goal became competing in the the Power of Four SkiMo race at home in Aspen, CO the following weekend. What a race! My teammate Brandon Cooper asked to be partners 4 months before and it was an incredible experience chasing him up and down all four of the resort ski mountains in Aspen and Snowmass as one connected race. 25.5 miles long with 10,650' vertical climb and some of the steepest downhill terrain offered on the mountains with an average altitude of 10,000'. It took us 5.5 hours and was a real adventure. In retrospect, I think we could have shaved some good time off if I hadn't jumped up from nearly sea level, had maybe used the equipment at least once before race day and put in a bit more uphill training leading up to the race. So all things considered, jumping in went pretty well. Thanks Brandon! Check out the race edit I made below!
The Birkie<>Power of Four back-to-back weekends late in the season left me exhausted with the need for a solid rest in order to end the season strong. So I made the decision to not race the USSS/FIS season finals in Sun Valley the third weekend in March and took the opportunity to focus all my energy on the US Biathlon season finals in West Yellowstone the last weekend of March. The much needed range time and uninterrupted training paid off (and the spring Hawaiian shirt time trials played an integral role too). The three races in West Yellowstone proved I am competitive against and can be faster than those biathletes racing the IBU cup this past year. It also showed I need much more range and shooting practice in order to truly be a strong biathlete and spend a winter in Europe. Which is my goal next season.
To answer the inevitable question: Yes, I am going to be focusing on Biathlon this upcoming training cycle and race season. FIS racing is still a huge part of my ambition, but I truly believe adding shooting to the training regimen does not mean becoming any less of a skier. My goal of being the best possible skier I can be is still a pillar of my ski career and shooting has proved to be an incredible addition to the amazing sport of Nordic skiing. More on this later.
After ending the season with the 50th race of my elite skiing career over the last two years, I am so excited to step back for a few weeks and take April for re-grouping and having some non-nordic fun.