After I finished my final exams I packed up and went home to Lenox, MA for a few days. The time at home was just enough to drop off my school accessories and make sure I had everything I needed for summer training in Lake Placid, where I’m now a resident athlete at the OTC. I spent only a few days at home because I thought it was important to get to Lake Placid for some combo workouts before the camp started. The camp, by the way, will consist of one week in Lake Placid followed by two weeks in Fort Kent, ME.

Our three-week camp commenced yesterday with some shooting drills followed by easy combos at Mt. Van Hoevenberg. It’s the first time that I have been a part of an all-women’s biathlon training camp, which makes provides a great opportunity for all the female biathletes in the country to come together and train with one another. Aside from catching up with friends from across the country during the workout, we got to experience again what it feels like to shoot at a busy range, and take on the pressures of speed and distraction that accompany it. In the afternoon, the rain clouds descended on us as we completed a two-hour rollerski workout with 45 minute segments of double poling and skating without poles.

Today we’ve got our first interval session of the week, and it’s on the treadmill. We’ll be following the “Vancouver protocol”, which is meant to mimic the Olympic course in Whistler—lots of V2 and V2 alternate. I’m scheduled to go in just a few hours so I did my strength workout already this morning.

Tomorrow we’ll have a meeting to acquaint all of us with the selection criteria for this year’s World Cups and the Olympic games. It’s something everyone’s waiting to hear…