November 3, 2008 (Lake Placid, NY) – It is Monday night and I am sitting down to check out the week ahead and having a bed time snack. It is the eve of my next training block and my final prep before the Biathlon World Cup season. This is a high intensity week and will kick off tomorrow morning with double pole and no pole combo (shooting + skiing) intervals followed by precision shooting drills. The remainder of the week is highlighted by threshold and race pace intervals complemented with recovery distance training, strength and precision shooting drills. And so on and so forth.

My planning usually starts with my training schedule and I fill in the rest of life from there. However, if there’s one thing I am improving upon is that life is not a training log. So, yes on paper it is “Week 45: Intensity” but in my head I’m going call this week: “back home”. I just returned back to Lake Placid from a successful training camp in Soldier Hollow, Utah and a recovery week in Colorado. After a month on the road, it feels really good to be back in Lake Placid. My bags are unpacked, but I am ready to re-fill my self with friends, family dinners, voting, chats over tea, runs with friends, some cooking (I hope), a yoga class or two, finding my winter knitting projects, a couple school visits to St. Agnes and some good R&R in the Adirondacks.

I really like when my weeks fill up with such substance. Striking a balance doesn’t always happen, but most of the time I can make it work because I find that my training doesn’t mean that much unless the time before and the time after are treated just as importantly. The week doesn’t just flow from one workout to the next magically. I need to pay as much attention to what happens in between. Of course, such focus is a bit idyllic and not always realistic, but worth the effort.

So, looking back at my schedule, is there time to focus 100% on biathlon and time to relax and enjoy being back home? Yes. And looking ahead, my first World Cup race of the season is coming up (Dec. 4th Individual, Ostersund, Sweden). Will I be ready? Yes!

Thanks for reading! I’m new to this website, but I look forward to keeping you all posted through out the season. Enjoy your first days back on snow!