Getting Dirty in Mt. Itasca

Nope, it doesn’t mean what you think it does. In biathlon, when you hit all 5 shots in a row, it’s called “cleaning”. Along the same logic, if you miss all 5 shots, well, that’s called dirtying.

I have only just recently started shooting and trying out biathlon, but up until now I had never “dirtied” a stage (that’s 5 shots) in a race before. Well, it turns out that if you add a measure of race nerves to a newbie biathlete, it’s pretty easy to do!

Let’s back up a bit. Last week after the Bozeman SuperTours I traveled to Mt. Itasca, Minnesota to compete in IBU Cup Trials for biathlon. Having very little expectations for the races in my first season doing any sort of biathlon, I tried to enter the week with an open mind, but truth be told, I was pretty nervous. We were scheduled to race 4 times: 2 consecutive 7.5k sprint competitions, a rest day, a 12.5k mass start, and then a final sprint. The day of the first sprint (two shooting stages, 1 prone and 1 standing) I came into prone and hit 3 targets. Not awesome shooting, but pretty good for me! I skied my two penalty loops, came around the loop and got into standing position. And promptly missed all 5 targets. Shoooot. It wasn’t that fun skiing 5 times around the penalty loop, and truth be told I got a little dizzy. But the good news is, it definitely took a lot of the pressure off for the rest of the week! From there on, I decided to just have fun with it and approach the shooting with as relaxed an attitude as possible. I was able to improve my shooting a little bit in the next sprint (hitting 4/10) and then in the mass start I actually hit 8/10 prone targets and had my best shooting of the week (55%). I had another tough day on the range in the final sprint, but by that point I just let it roll right off. The truth is, I haven't been doing biathlon long enough to be competitive in range time or accuracy, but every race experience I get is something to learn from and build upon. I now know exactly what I have to work on, and I’m feeling confident in my skiing right now, so I’m excited for the rest of the ski season.

I got in to Craftsbury late Thursday night and was psyched to see all the snow here, but then… DUN DUN DUN I came down with a stomach bug! Luckily it appears that it was just a 24 hour thing, and it may end up being a blessing in disguise as I’m definitely getting plenty of rest after all those races. I’m excited to head home for Christmas and then back to the Midwest for US Nationals in Houghton. I haven’t skied in Houghton since Senior Nationals back in 2008 I believe, so it will be fun to go back to the homeland (1/2 of my family is from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan).

Enjoy the pictures of the biathlon races in Mt. Itasca, all the race shots are from Minnesota biathlete Jakob Ellingson (check out the full gallery here).

Shooting prone with MWSC biathlete Maddie Phaneuf

Getting used to skiing (and tucking!) with a rifle on my back

Standing shooting (had to be the lefty ruining the picture...)

Taking the corner at the top of the course with Kelsey Dickinson from MWSC. It was fun to race with her and to catch up, I haven't seen her since the USBA Talent ID Camp back in August 

Clare starting one of the sprints. She's been crushing it in biathlon this season, and will find out soon if she'll be repping the US at IBU Cups in Europe later this season. Psyched for her!

Thanks for reading everyone, and please, make sure to do your snow dance so that we get something to ski on in Park City!! Here's wishing everyone happy holidays and a white Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Solstice wherever you are!

Getting Back Up

Cresting the hill during the Bozeman 10k Mass Start. Photo Anya Bean

After a few really nice distance skis in West Yellowstone, we moved up to Bozeman for the second weekend of SuperTour races. I was looking forward to these races a lot, mostly because I felt a little unfulfilled after the Yellowstone weekend, and also because classic sprinting is one of my favorite race formats, and last year we didn't get to do the sprint in Bozeman when cold temperatures forced the organizers to cancel. 

My pre-race workouts all felt good, my energy started to bounce back, and I was ready to go! The sprint course in Bozeman had a few good climbs and one somewhat steep downhill that curved sharply to the right at the bottom. In good  conditions, it's completely fine, but during the pre-race workout, it was covered in ankle deep slush. A little challenging, but I knew the grooming would be better the next day. Then, when we showed up for warm-up on the sprint day, it more resembled a sheet of ice. I talked myself through it, did a few laps of the course for warm-up, then hit the line for my qualifier. Things were going well, I felt great on the uphills and in double pole, and then I headed down the hill full of confidence, only to catch an edge and find myself skidding backwards, looking up towards the top of the hill where I had just come from. Well, crap. I didn't have much time to think about it, so I quickly turned my skis the right direction, untangled my poles, and skied as fast as humanly possible for the rest of the short qualifier. My surge of adrenaline helped me get going again, but I was really nervous about making the heats. Then, results were posted, and I was 26th! Okay, maybe not my most spectacular qualifier, but at least I would live to fight (later) that day!

We only had about an hour and a half between the qualifier and the heats, but the whole time my stomach was flip-flopping and I was filled with nervous energy about the thought of facing that downhill again. It was completely silly, but I was actually dreading the heats. With a little over 40 minutes to go until the quarterfinal, I told myself it was time to put my big girl pants on, and I went to warm up on some of the other Bohart Trails. When the gun went off in my quarterfinal, I completely forgot about the downhill and focused only on the other girls in front of me and around me, and gradually I moved up in my heat. After the uphill I was in 2nd place, I stayed on my feet around the corner, and then used a slingshot move to propel myself into 1st. After double poling like mad, I crossed the line first with the second fastest time from any of the quarterfinals. From there on out, it was game-time, and although I didn't make the A-final from my semi, I was so happy that I managed to conquer my fears and turn my day around from an embarrassing (and slightly painful) fall into a really fun and successful 8th place result. Plus, the other GRP girls had a great day too, and CPatts was 3rd, and Kaitlynn Miller was 7th after a ripping fast 5th best qualifier!

The trails may have been even icier for the 10k mass start the following day, but armed with new confidence and positive race vibes, I decided that I was just going to take whatever the course threw at me. Starting from bib #24, I had some work to do. I missed out on the leaders when they broke away, but I skied a solid race, came through the stadium after 5k in 5th, finished in 7th, and most importantly, stayed on my feet the entire time! I knew that those days of nor-pining (riding the ski lifts with nordic skis) with Rosie Brennan back in the Park City Nordic Ski Club days would come in handy some day. Speaking of Rosie, she has been absolutely dominating the SuperTour races and her win in the 10k was her third in a row! She has overcome a really tough year to post some inspiring results, and I'm so proud of her for persevering. Watch out world!

I also want to thank our awesome wax techs for the weekend: Nick Brown, Bryan Cook, and Brayton Osgood. Not only did they give us incredibly fast skis with great kick, but somehow the grip also survived the skidding, snowplowing, and general abuse of the Bohart downhills. Ski magic, I tell you.

Thanks for reading! Here are a few pictures from Bohart, mostly courtesy of my photography whiz friend Anya Bean, thanks Anya! Check out some more of her photos from the distance day on Fasterskier.

A happy team in green!

Mass start mayhem and fun. Photo Anya Bean

Braving the downhills, especially this one where I fell the previous day! It actually wasn't bad during the mass start, but some of the others slightly resembled a luge track. Photo Anya Bean

Enjoying the post-race sun with friends. This western girl needed her Vitamin D! Photo Anya Bean.

The GRP women had a great weekend, all placing in the top 10 both days! It was awesome to race with these speedy ladies.

We finally got a team photo! GRP Ski with the Bridger's in the background. Good thing the boys have been practicing their soro squats..

I'm now in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, prepping for IBU Cup Trials in biathlon. Biathlon and learning to shoot in general has been a fun adventure for me this year. While I haven't been shooting long enough to have any real expectations for these races, I'm really excited to try out my first real on-snow biathlon races, and I'm sure it will be a lot of fun. Stay tuned for updates!

Just the Beginning

I'm a little overdue on updating everyone on what's going on in ski world. Since my last post, we've been on snow for almost 3 weeks, raced our first SuperTours in West Yellowstone, and we're currently in Bozeman, Montana for the second weekend of SuperTour races.

Finally getting on snow has been the best feeling! Nothing feels better than being able to do distance sessions on real snow and new terrain, whereas the thought of another two hour rollerski on the same roads was making me want to snap my rollerski poles in half. Luckily, I didn't, and we all made it through some tricky days when the roads were too wet to rollerski, but there wasn't quite enough snow on the trails to ski. Hello, bounding time trials!

It was so nice to get to West Yellowstone last Tuesdsay. I've been coming to West for Thanksgiving since I was in middle school, and I think I've only missed 2 years since then, so in some ways it feels more like home to spend turkey day there than at home in Park City. It was so nice to catch up with friends and family, and talk with ski reps and coaches that I don't usually get to see during the summer. 

I think that my friend Annie (P) on the Stratton team had the best insight on the first races of the season: they're a win-win situation. If you do well, you get great confidence going into the rest of the season. And if you don't do well, it's okay, because a) sometimes it takes a while to find ski speed again, and b) there are so many more important races left in the season! Unfortunately, I had one of those "what am I doing out here??" type races in the skate sprint, which was probably a result of travel fatigue, a big adjustment to the altitude, and not having my mental game quite down. I tried to stay positive and was able to turn things around a little bit in the 10k skate individual, which was good because that race format is usually one of my least favorite. I finished 14th in a competitive field, and now I'm really looking forward to the races in Bozeman. Even though it rained here, the klister skiing is really good and hopefully it will freeze up enough tonight to make for some fast sprinting tomorrow! 

Stay tuned for updates from the Bozeman races, and in the meantime here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

We did get some skiing in Vermont before we left. Here we headed up Stowe Mt. and then sketchily descended. Turns out that edges do come in handy sometimes.

Once we arrived in Bozeman, we did our usual Costco run. It takes a lot of food to fuel 9 skiers and 4 busy coaches/wax techs!

We weren't really sure how we would fit the boxes in the van, as it was almost full from ski bags and duffels before our food run...

But everyone got a box on their lap, and we somehow fit everything, at least for the 1.5 hour drive to West

GRP ladies training on a rare sunny day in West

Finishing the 10k in the altitude pain cave. Thanks to my brother Dan for the pic!

Watching the men's 15k distance race. Here's Alex Schulz

Gordo on the first climb of the course.

Pete climbing

Our men's team celebrated Movember. Just look realllly closely, the mustaches are there I swear.

Great to be back in beautiful Bozeman! We're happy to have much warmer conditions than last year, when they had to cancel one of the races due to temperatures that mostly stayed below -10F.

Hammering some pre-race intervals on the Bohart course with Caitlin and Kaitlynn. Photo cred Anya Bean

And smiling on the recovery!

Thanks for reading!