We are coming around the final stretch of a solid 6-week training block. Running intervals that brought me to tears, shooting that made me so angry I could scream, and hot, muggy, buggy days have been on the schedule for the last 5 weeks. It takes a lot out of you, both mentally and physically! Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been all bad. I hiked Katahdin for the first time, participated in the tour of Stockholm, had some good, solid interval sessions, and learn some news ways to cope when things are not going smoothly. Even with all that, I am still very excited for a low-hour week. I’m thinking I may escape to southern Maine for a few days that week, to spend some time with my sisters. A little time away from training is always good, especially after the past weeks we have had. But, it is essential to do the hard training now if you want to be fast in the winter. That’s what I’ve been telling myself; It’s all for Junior Worlds. I’ll be a first year junior this year, so trying to qualify for the Junior World Championship team will be tough. But, if I put in the right kind of training, it can happen. We’ll see. No sense stressing over it right now. That’s still 5 months away! For now, I’ll just focus on doing what I do. One shot at a time, and one foot in front of the other!
After our week off, the biathletes will be heading down to Jericho, Vermont, for a training camp. I’m pretty excited about it. Even though 99% of the time we are down there it is so muggy that you don’t want to move, and even though the barracks don’t exactly provide the most comforting atmosphere, (pictures will be posted so you all can see them), I like going to Jericho. Although it may seem unlikely, what with no internet service and hardly any cell phone service, Jericho is usually a fun camp. You never know that kind of things can happen with this group of athletes. And it is so different from any other camp we go on. As cliché as this may sound, I love the bonding that goes on during this camp. What do you do when there is nothing to do? Well, you look to your teammates, and hope that they have something more exciting to do than doing nothing, if that makes sense.
Anyways, I’ll hopefully keep you more up to date as interesting things happen. I feel like I write that in almost every blog entry, but seriously. I’ll try.
Andie.
