November 25, 2012 (Ostersund, Sweden) – The IBU World Cup kicked off today with the mixed relay here in Ostersund, Sweden. Unfortunately, I was not able to participate because I am just getting over a cold that I picked up on the travel over here. I have still trained a decent amount but I have not been able to do any intense training since arriving here 10 days ago. Normally I am able to train more aggressively with a head cold but this one went straight to my chest; cold weather and hard breathing don’t mix well with coughing.

I started to feel a lot better in the last few days so I am planning on starting the first individual race this Wednesday. I am not sure how I will feel after so much easy training but I am hopeful that I can get right back into race shape after a few hard efforts.

Sickness is something that nearly every athlete deals with at some point during the season. Hopefully I have mine out of the way and I can move on to a healthy next few months.

Unlike last year, where it was really cold for the start of the season, this year has been unseasonably warm. In fact, today was the first day here where we have seen temperatures below freezing. This is definitely not normal for Sweden in November. Luckily it seems that winter will arrive here this week. Hopefully we will even get some snow because it does not seem right to be skiing next to green grass on the side of the trail!

One of the best parts about being over here the past week has been watching all of the Nordic sports on TV. It has been awesome to watch the US cross-country ladies have such a strong start. I believe that the first big result of an athlete’s career is always the hardest. After that, you have no doubt that it is possible again. I expect to see many more great results from this crew this winter!

Read more about Burke here.

Check back shortly for SkiTrax’s report w/photos on today’s IBU race…