Last night I was informed of my qualification to the 2009 Senior World Championship Team.  It was a restless two weeks of waiting and nervous racing that I think disrupted my normally settled demeanor on the shooting range.  Luckily, in every competition I turned in ski times within the top-20.

The sprint on Friday was a little more satisfying than the previous races.  I shot 1,2 but kept the thought of shooting out of mind while on the course so that I could focus solely on turning in fast splits. I am really happy to see that this past year’s training has enabled me to be competitive ski-wise in the senior field.  At the start of this weekend’s races I was a little fatigued.  Despite one day off on Monday, the long ski on Tuesday may have been a little taxing when combined with a short intensity session the day before the race.  I maintain my belief, however, in the importance of the pre-race speed workouts because the sprint, at 7.5km, is such a short race that you can’t afford to take time getting into a rhythm on race day. 

On the last day, in the pursuit, I finally got a grip on my standing shooting in the final stage by forcing myself to think it was no different than training and therefore to remember all the key points of shooting I worked so hard at making habitual.  I was starting among girls who had shot better than myself the day before, so I knew I had the advantage in skiing.  In the first 2km lap I made up about 5 places (more than 10 seconds of time).  Nove Mesto has a tricky range; there is a long flat section in front of the bleachers that is still a good place to make up time but it is followed by a short steep hill right as you turn the corner to enter the range.  Each 2km loop was like a sprint of its own because the hills are just steep enough to either V2 or V1 but gradual enough that you always feel that the tempo could be faster.  I shot 2,2,2,0 so I knew I had to leave everything out there on the last lap if I still wanted a shot at the world championship team.  While I normally have great consistency in my lap times, differing even in 15km races by only 5-10 seconds, I skied this one about 30 seconds faster than the rest.  It was satisfying to cross the finish line knowing how hard I had exerted myself, and I hoped that I would be rewarded for that effort.

On Monday we travel to Antholz, Italy to compete in World Cup 6, after which we will have a training camp in Ruhpolding before traveling to South Korea for World Championships, which begin February 13.