The Wohnwagen adventure

Being a biathlete has brought me more opportunity then I have ever imagined in my life. I have been able to travel places I never would have imaged and made some great friends from all over the world. This winter a new adventure came to life while looking for races to do mid-season. Myself and a couple good friends of mine were all looking for new opportunity through the month of February. Looking for great competition and some challenging events to help boost my racing level up a notch or two, we decided on traveling to Germany to battle it out in a couple German cups here. While looking to make this trip as economical as possible, we decided upon traveling and living in an RV, wohnwagen, for our duration here. As I stated earlier, biathlon has brought so many different adventures to my life. You never know where you might find yourself year to year or even month to month.
Our first stop in our Wohnwagen adventure is to Oberhof, a biathlon hotspot. Here is a quick overview of life here in Oberhof.
Oberhof in a smaller size town about three hours North West of Munich. It seems similar to Lake Placid, NY because it is home to many winter sports including bobsled, alpine skiing, Nordic and of course biathlon. It was actually the first stop on the Tour de ski this year. It was home of the 2004 World Championships for biathlon and hosts a biathlon world cup every year in January. It opened its own ski tunnel a couple summers ago just down the road, so not only do you have skiing all winter long but through the summer now too. The venue is home to one of the largest stadiums, which is packed full through the World Cup with somewhere around 30,000 people for every race. The World cup venue is only one of about five or six different biathlon ranges you can find here. One of which is indoors with huge doors that allow you to rollerski in and out of. This range also provides a video screen of your target next to every point, allowing you to look at your shots with a quick glance after every shot. Home to many German National team athletes, Oberhof is defiantly not a bad place to be a biathlete.
Nestled in the Thuringer Forest, with Nordic trails headed in every direction, this small German villages has a great Nordic population of all different abilities. The towering pine forests surrounding the area are all heavily weighted down with heavy white snow and makes for beautiful skiing. And it’s often foggy weather has earned this place a nice name of Foghof.
Our races start this weekend with an individual race. I am new to the German Cup scene, so I am excited to get things underway with Saturday's individual race. No matter the fog, wind or crazy hilly race course, I am just happy to be here and to have a race bib on.
More stories still to come.....stop by again soon,

BethAnn

Jericho Vermont

Back in Vermont! We just competed NorAm #5 with a sprint race held on saturday and pursuit sunday. The weather cooperated and stayed within legal racing limits and we had two well run races. On saturday both Russell Currier and Katrina Howe were second in the senior sprint races, and Andrea Mayo won the Junior womens sprint race. On sunday Russell sat out in favor of training prior to Lake Placid NorAm's. Katrina came back with a strong race taking the victory in the senior womens pursuit race. Andrea Mayo completed a great weekend taking her second victory in as many days winning the junior womens pursuit race.

For full results visit the Ethan Allen Biathlon Club website
http://www.eabiathlon.org/

World Junior/Youth Team Trials

Happy New Year!

MWSC Juniors get off to a great start for the new year. Four Qualify for the 2011 USA Junior World Championship Team that will be competing in Nove Mesto CZ! Corrine Malcolm, Grace Boutot, Ben Greenwald and Raleigh Goessling all had strong performances in trials and will represent the USA in the Junior competitions January 29th through February 5th. Follow the teams progress as they compete at www.biathlonworld.com with live results and video coverage.

The 2011 USA Junior/Youth Championship Team

Minnesota Cup 2/USBA IBU Trials Sprint

It was a good day for MWSC athletes, in the women's race BethAnn lead the way in second place with strong shooting and skiing with only Haley Johnson (former MWSC teammate) in front of her. Katrina Howe struggled a little with shooting but posted one of the faster ski times for the day to keep her right in contact in fifth place. Junior Corrine Malcome notched up another strong ski performance but struggled on the shooting range.

In the men's race Raleigh Goessling and Ben Greenwald put in yet another great set of performances showing that they are coming into great form prior to world junior trials to be held at the end of the month in Jericho Vermont. Both put in strong skiing efforts from the start and cleaning the first shooting stage, continuing to ski strong they were able to stay in contention with a strong senior competitor and former 2010 olympian Wynn Roberts. In the final shooting stage both Raleigh and Ben picked up two penalties to finish the day with a strong 80% shooting.

We have just one more race tomorrow, a pursuit format (four shooting stages, two prone, two standing) individual start race. Below are some photos from todays event. Also check in on our XC team in their first events of the season in the NENSA Eastern Cup openers, good luck to all of them.


Ben Greenwald


Raleigh Goessling


Katrina Howe


Haley Johnson


BethAnn Chamberlain


Corrine Malcome

Grand Rapids Minnesota and Mt Itasca

We all arrived in Grand Rapids a couple days ago and were greeted with cool temps (not the -15 to -20 degrees of last year) and lots of natural and man-made snow, so the skiing is great. Yesterday was the first of three races and the MWSC crew had some great races and some are hungry for the second race. The junior men's field of three was lead by two MWSC guys, Raleigh and Ben, who both put up strong skiing days and solid shooting. The guys came in 2nd and 3rd over all only being bested by senior athlete and former Olympian Wynn Roberts. On the women's side it was good to see all of our ladies putting in strong skiing efforts through the entire race, shooting not where any of the ladies can shoot and they are all looking to pick it up for the next two competitions. The women's field had pressure put on at the front of the race by Haley Johnson and Susan Dunklee who shoot the same 2 penalties through the first three stages and were skiing close, in the final stage Haley was able to take the lead for sure with 2 more penalties, one less penalty the Susan's 3. It was a very exciting day and everyone is now resting and focusing on tomorrows sprint race!

Filling in the gaps

As we work our way into the racing season, our hours of training start to decrease slowly and the intensity levels rise. This creates an influx of free time, especially while at a training camp or while racing. A big part of being able to perform at a high level regularly is making sure you are getting enough rest in between workouts and races. We all stretch, dryfire, sleep and practice other good recovery activities we are also often left with hours of the day that need to be filled with activities that promote recovery without having to work for it. The last couple weeks here in Canmore have given us a good taste of that time for the first time this year. And from my observations, this team has been pretty darn creative with their time.
In addition to the normal movie watching and book reading, our group here in Canmore has really made the most of our recovery time. All of the females of the team have committed quite strongly to what the European call “fancy work”, also known as knitting. I think we could keep just about any knitting store in business for quite some time with this crew. Eileen especially, will make sure that there will not be a cold head in the house with her exceptionally fast hat knitting cadence. I try to keep up but just can’t hold the pace for long without messing something up.
I was impressed at the fore thought of the team as well with three of us each bringing our own separate game of Banana Grams. We put two of the games together to make one epic game. It turned out to be a pretty long one but also a good one. A travel size game of Monopoly, in both English AND French!, was purchased during one of the very frigid days we encountered during our stay. I steered clear of these grueling and what sounded like, very cut throat games.
And last, but by no means least, I contributed to our “after school activities” with my putter and golf balls. Yes, I traveled all the way out here with a golfing putter in along with my skis. Having a father that is as dedicated to the game of golf as I am to biathlon, I have made and heard many comparisons between the two, especially between shooting and putting. I decided that it might be fun to bring a putter with me this winter and practice a bit of putting here and there. It is as much of a mind game as shooting is and kind of fun to do at the same time. It also can become a great source of entertainment amongst the team.
So while we are working very hard out on the ski trail and shooting range every morning and afternoon, we are also working hard in a different kind of manner when we are settled into our rooms.
Wishing you all a snow covered December!
-BethAnn

Canmore!

We are entering our final week in Canmore, the first two have been filled with ski care, getting use to skiing on snow again, and preparing for USBA Trials races. The first week was very warm, and a mix of roller skiing, running and some skiing by the end of the week. The Canmore Nordic Center does an amazing job of making snow once the weather cooperates and gives cold temps. In the matter of a week with cold temps and some natural snow we have gone from 1k of skiing around the range to over 15k of skiing (mostly on rock skis, but still good skiing).

We lucked out on the weather for the USBA Trials races for both World Cup and IBU Cup positions. The weather provided the temps for snow making but refrained from being so cold that we could not hold races, each day we had cool temps, good shooting conditions, and a clean track to ski on. There were great efforts being put forward on all fronts, we saw great skiing from all of our athletes and very promising shooting. In the end one current MWSC biathlete, Russell Currier came out on top for the men to be selected to compete on the World Cup in December, and three MWSC alumni (Laura Spector, Tracy Barnes, and Bill Bowler) will be joining Russell at either the World Cup or IBU Cup events this december.

With our last week in Canmore we will be taking advantage of the snow that is available and skiing lots. On the schedule will be a trip to Banff to watch the new Harry Potter movie this evening, a long classic ski in Lake Louise, a large Thanksgiving dinner (round two, we tested out this meal while in Utah in October). Below are photos taken since we have been here. We hope that you all have a great Thanksgiving where ever you are!


BethAnn hard at work

Corrine Malcome during first sprint race

Russell skiing out of the range

Wax table at work

Snow making

Men's Mass Start

Raleigh finishing shooting standing

Kat skiing

Andrea starting second sprint race

Corrine and Andrea shooting standing during first sprint race

Women's Mass Start

Women shooting prone during Mass Start event