January 30, 2009 (Antholz, Italy) – After a frustrating start to the season, I finally feel that I have gained some good momentum heading into the Biathlon World Championships. The turning point for me, and the team, was definitely the relay in Ruhpolding. Everyone on the team had a solid race and we finished a best ever-5th place.

This was an awesome accomplishment for the entire team and I want to give a big thanks to our entire staff. We had more than under-performed in all of the other relay races this year and it felt great to finally put it all together. Although this was a great result, our team aspires to be on the podium. We were only 23 seconds away from this goal and we are now more motivated than ever to get there.

After having a good relay leg where I finally felt fast skiing, I expected to follow this up with a solid sprint race two days later. Unfortunately, this was not the case and once again I struggled. This was a super disappointing end to what had been a great week. It took all of my will power to let that race go and move my focus to improving the following week in Antholz, Italy.

Antholz has been a great place for me in the past and once again I was able to get back on track there. I had 11th and 15th place finishes there and I had some of the fastest ski times in each race. These were really important races for my confidence with World Champs coming up in a few weeks.

Now that I have a small break from racing, I am putting in quite a bit of training, with the hope of peaking in Korea for the Worlds. I am healthy, confident and ready to give it my best in Korea!