Haley Johnson

May 28, 2009 (Lake Placid, NY) – The 2009-2010 season has begun! Well, actually it’s been on for the past month for me. After a relaxing break visiting friends and family, I eased into my training plan for two weeks before our first National Team camp in Whistler, B.C.. There, I joined up with our men’s A-team for a week and a half of training at the Olympic venue. The camp was filled with long distance skis on both the Nordic and biathlon trails, analyzing our competition courses inch by inch, getting reacquainted with combos (skiing and shooting training), learning new slowfire (shooting without a heart rate) drills to build our fundamental shooting skills, and spending the afternoons running amongst huge Douglas firs, Western Red Cedars and MTB bikers.

Our coaches and staff are Swedish, Italian and German, and our training schedules are set up so that we reconvene for camps each season, with Whistler being the first. This creates a pretty neat training set up with super-concentrated, high quality training camps where a lot is learned, changed, discussed, and analyzed, followed by a month or two of training on our own or in a group like in Lake Placid which gives way for the aforementioned changes to evolve and develop. I entered the Whistler camp as one athlete and excited as another; I made huge improvements in both my skiing and shooting techniques that set the focus points for training throughout May and the beginning of June until our next camp.

Whistler was a stellar start to my year from a performance perspective, plus BC is just a very cool place to be. As an Eastern I am in awe of the gigantic flora and would plant red cedars in my yard if I had one. There were handful of other skiers training on snow in the first week of May, one group in particular was the Methow Valley (Washington) Biathlon and Nordic Team. We’d use the range the first part of the morning and they’d use it the second. In a small sport like biathlon, it is always fun and reassuring to see younger kids giving it a try and liking it. I’ve gotten to know Casey and Matty a little bit, and just met Madison and Kelsey. I wish them all the best!!

I ended the 2008-2009 year quite satisfied with my accomplishments and equally as eager to begin the Olympic year. I just absolutely love what I get to do and I would like to thank everyone [US Biathlon, personal sponsors, Lake Placid, family, Rossignol and SkiTrax to name a few…] who have helped make it possible!