Hello and Happy Thanksgiving!

11.27.08 Östersund, SWE

Our caterer mentioned he will try to give us a Swedish version of our Thanksgiving meal with chicken (kyckling) instead of turkey (kalkon), mashed potatoes (potatis-mösse) because I don’t think you can get sweet potatoes or yams here, and lingon berry jam (lingon sylt) because you can’t seem to get cranberries (tränbär) easily in Scandinavia either. He definitely didn’t mention pumpkin pie.

But, as you know, it is not about the food we will eat tonight. This is my third year celebrating Thanksgiving with Americans in a foreign country. Because we are not surrounded by festive decorations, holiday sales on TV, and the quintessential ingredients for the big meal, The “thanks” and “giving” can shine through. I am very thankful to be here, to have this opportunity, and to be supported by so many of my loved ones, friends and community.
*
It feels pretty good to be back here in Sweden. It is a familiar place, and except for the lack of light, it has been easy to transition this past week to the time, food, and language. The snow conditions are excellent. The tracks are mainly built with man-made snow, from snowmakers that have been running around the clock, but this morning I awoke to an inch or two of new snow. We are staying right at the venue, only a few feet from the trail. We watch people ski all day long from 7 in the morning till 9 or 10 at night. In addition to the local skiers, kids and ski-joring (skiing with a dog), more teams are arriving in preparation for the first World Cup. Out there right now, our team is joined by the Russians, Swedes, Canadians and Ukrainians. This is only the beginning, but really the World is at my finger tips on this circuit.

A view of Östersund’s biathlon stadium from our apartments at noon.

A defining image of Sweden that is important to convey about this time of year, is the light, or shall I say the lack of it. Recall how far north Sweden is on your globe, and how far, at this time of year away from the equator and the sun’s winter rays. The sun rises on my way to training, around 8:30-8:45am. It begins to set, and the light dims around 2:30pm, slowing setting til 3:30 or 4 when bright lights flood the trail, because by 5 its just dark. 8pm then feels like 10pm.

Building the new grand stands above the stadium.

The venue is also preparing for the races, setting up new stands, tents, and walkways for spectators, and working tirelessly on the tracks so that everything will be world-class by Wednesday – the opening race. I will follow up on this photo so that you can see the difference when the venue is packed and the races are on.

The US Team’s wax room: lots and lots of skis, and two of our wax technicians – Andi from Germany and Gara from the Czech Republic - who take care of them, test them, and make them very fast for competitions.

As the races near, I will begin to test my fleet of skate skis. I have different pairs for different snow conditions, temperatures and course, and for these upcoming races I will need to figure out which ones feel the best here in Östersund based on their ability perform in a variety of snow conditions, their ability to glide and carry speed, and depending of how soft or hard the ski surface is, how smooth they feel when I ski fast. The preparation of equipment is so very important, and this is only the beginning. By the end of the season I will know my set of skis inside and out. Your equipment becomes and extension of yourself.

My teammate, Lanny Barnes, and I in our kitchen during a rest day.

However, it is not all about skiing. We train for an hour to three hours a day, which leaves a lot of time remaining in the day. I have a variety of books with me, a knitting project, and spend time online writing e-mails and reading the news. We fill our time by watching movies, taking naps, eating our meals together, stretching after training, walking around town, and simply relaxing. It might sound like we can stay in our PJ’s all day, but at this point in the year we’ve completed the majority of our training and it is time to shift to racing. This means quality and low training hours, high quality rest and recovery, and most importantly, high quality racing.

Östersund - 360°

Its pretty simple here, this little video from my camera (its classic home video quality, hope it doesn’t make you nauseous) will give show you 1. our brown-sided, green-trimmed apartments, 2. the city’s heated water tower, 3. the biathlon range and stadium, 4. Frösön, the lake below, and 5. the trails and hardwood forest.

While I am here, here is a little Swedish vocab for you:
Hello Hej-Hej (pr. Hey-hey)
Good-bye Hejdå (hey-door)
skis – skidor (shi-door)

1 en
2 två (tvoe – like toe)
3 tre (trey)
4 fire (fearre)
5 fem

biathlon skidskytte
cross-country längdåkning
competition tävling

Thanks!

St. Agnes 6th Grade - November 2008

Thanks for the visit again today!

I will post another blog later next week once I am in Sweden. I think we figured out how to post comments today. Remember to choose the Anonymous identity when you log in and if you would like, sign your question or comment with your initials. And always, if you would like to write more you can always e-mail me: haleyhjohnson@gmail.com

Best of luck this winter and keep in touch!

Best,
haley

Back from Utah - Training at Altitude

Hey! Great to see all of you at HoJo’s! Thanks for hosting a great dinner:)

I am now back in Lake Placid and relishing being back home after having been gone for a month. My training camp in Utah finished up well after the races. I got the chance to mountain bike a few times and spent some time up in the mountains above Heber Valley. The weather was exactly the same every day; blue skies, perfect 60-70 degree weather, and no foreboding fall weather in the forecasts; it made for ideal training conditions. Everything was quite pleasant really. Easy days were kept easy and were used to take a break from the shooting range, so that as we grew tired at the end of the camp, we could harness our focus for shooting and technique workouts.

Looking up at the Timpanoogas, Utah.

Training at a higher altitude is quite different from training at lower altitudes, and below is just a brief description of my experiences. The Soldier Hollow venue is just above 6000 ft (just a bit higher than Mt. Marcy). The mixture of gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen) at this level is the same as what we breathe here in Lake Placid. However, there is lower atmospheric pressure at higher altitudes. This pressure difference alters your body’s ability to transfer the oxygen you breathe in from your blood to your tissues. Oxygen is a part of an important energy producing process in your body. At a cellular level, this is how your muscles are able to “fire,” to make you jump, run, and ski.

Your body adapts in order to account for less oxygen. During the first two weeks at a higher altitude, these are some of the changes that occur in the body:
- You will breathe more heavily, so that you can take in more oxygen.
- Your blood volume will increase so that you have more red blood cells to carry the extra O2.
- Your heart rate at first will increase to pump more oxygenated blood through your body, but then returns to normal.

In Utah, compared to Lake Placid, my body is working harder to perform each function – thus taking more energy to do the work. This triggers an increase in carbohydrate metabolism to ensure that my body is getting enough fuel for basic metabolic functions and for training. With this, my bowl of oatmeal, raisins, cinnamon, and milk in the morning over the course of the three weeks also increased to give me more carbohydrates and protein for workouts such as long bike rides or high intensity rollerski intervals. I paid a lot of attention to how I fuel my self, how often, with what, and how much. I needed to take in enough carbohydrates for my muscles to not only stay fueled, but to also replenish muscle fuel supplies after training. Basically, this means: I ate a good breakfast (as mentioned above) drank a lot during each training session, had a small PB&honey sandwich or granola bar and fruit after training, ate a great sandwich with lots of veggies, cheese and meat for lunch, had a snack before afternoon training (bowl of cereal usually), drank more during training, enjoyed a balanced dinner, and had some yogurt and cereal before I went to bed.

The air is also dryer in Utah. You can feel it in your lips, skin, and the overall general feeling when you are dehydrated. So, needless to say I was drinking quite a bit of water, sports drink and getting in a lot of raw fruits and veggies to help me stay hydrated.

So what is the benefit of training in Utah?
Well, first of all it is a great place for the Junior, Development and National Team to train. Soldier Hollow offers a high quality biathlon venue. It just so happens to be at a high altitude. So – our coaches and staff accommodate for this and we take advantage of the metabolic changes in our bodies when we return to sea level. A temporary increase in oxygen-carrying blood cells when you return back to sea level means your body has an increased ability to produce energy. This week, I have four high intensity training sessions planned. I won’t necessarily ski faster and be stronger, but under these conditions, I will help teach my body to work efficiently with a higher heart rate, higher lactic acid production and under greater physical stress. These workouts mimic racing, when I will need to depend on my ability to perform well despite these adverse effects. There remains a myriad of changes and benefits which take a more extensive scientific explanation, so I will leave it at that and see you in class on Wednesday!

Myself, Sara, Lanny, Tracy and I on a run in Utah.

Soldier Hollow Charter School - Mrs. Marcy's 6th grade class

I introduce to you the 6th grade class that I met with this morning at the Soldier Hollow venue. I told them about Lake Placid, your class, your poster and shared with them the Lake Placid pin that I gave to all of you before I left.

I also talked to them about biathlon, what I do for training at the Soldier Hollow venue and that my teammates and I will get to compete around the world this winter. And that we are psyched to have all of you follow us along the way.

The Soldier Hollow class seems excited about learning more about Lake Placid and the Adirondacks. Utah is a pretty cool place too, so enjoy learning more about it. Each class now has each other's mailing addresses, and you both have this blog to be able to converse back and forth on. Have fun!

Looking up to the 6th grade class.

Racing in Utah

All together, I had three races at Soldier Hollow, and with each race I performed better and better. The photos below are from the Mass Start race on Sunday. All 15 women started together in this 12.5km race. There are 5 loops and 4 shooting stages - 2 prone and 2 standing. For every missed shot you ski one penalty loop. The race took almost 40 minutes, and at this high altitude and at the end of the race series, I was quite happy to cross the finish line and sit down. I did not shoot as well I would have liked: I hit all five in my first prone stage, but missed 2 in each of the following 3 stages. But, I was skiing better today, more adjusted to the altitude and better recovered after a cold, so I was able to finish in 3rd. The men had the same race and here you can see them just after the start climbing the first big hill out of the stadium:

The men's race was after our race, and during our cool down jog (to flush out lactic acid from our legs and to help our bodies recover) we were able to watch and cheer for them. Here are a few of my teammates trailside: Sara Studebaker (Boise, ID/Lake Placid), Laura Spector (Lenox, MA/Lake Placid), Annelies Cook (Matt Cook's sister, Saranac Lake/Univ. of Utah), Denise Teela (Heber City, UT) and BethAnn Chamberlain (Caribou, ME). Sara is my roommate at the OTC, Annelies also skied for NYSEF while growing up and I have being doing biathlon with BethAnn for 10 years now! Having a solid group of teammates is awesome and definitely very important. Even though we compete individually, we train, travel, eat, live, succeed and fail together. Also, we are looking forward to creating a strong women's relay team leading into the Vancoouver Olympics.

Utah Training Camp

Hello! I am now in Midway, Utah and only a few minutes away from Soldier Hollow, the 2002 Olympic Venue, and our main training site for these three weeks. Gosh, was the western landscape a bit shocking after leaving Lake Placid and its glorious foliage! The mountains are mainly shrub oak (small oak bushes) and grasses, with intermittent aspen and pine groves. The cool dry air of a higher altitude (around 6,000 ft - which is just above the height of Mt. Marcy) is refreshing. These of course are some the first things I notice when I travel from the north eastern US to the west, especially since most of my day is spent outside in it. This photo is from our front door. In the background you can see the snow covered Timpanoga mountain range. And yes its snowed! We trained on Saturday while big white flakes fell.


Training has been normal since I've been here - shooting, rollerskiing, running and biking. But, this week I have three races. This doesn't really change my schedule, but it has made me set a routine and goals on a daily basis so that I can be prepared to perform well. This next photo is looking down on the biathlon venue, rollerski trails and the building in the middle is the Soldier Hollow Charter school - the one I will visit on Monday the 20th. This is called the Heber Valley and on the eastern side of the Wasatch Mountains, which is home to famous ski mountains like Park City and Deer Valley. I am here almost every day (and it looks like this almost every day too!) for combo training, which is rollerskiing and shooting combined so that I can practice shooting with a heart rate.



And when we are not at the venue we rollerski on local side roads or twisting roads up into the mountain canyons (like the road from Keene to Lake Placid).

And one thing that I find different about Lake Placid neighborhoods and Midway neighboorhoods are all of the animals. These were only two of many horses throughout town that people kept in their backyards and small farms. Horses, cattle, even a herd of llamas, are all over the west. Most places you go you are driving along someone's field, pasture, or barn.

For hiking and running, we then take the opportunity to get up into the mountains. This photos is from a few years ago of my teammates running in the mountains north of Park City - can you spot them running along the hillside in the foreground? The Wasatch mountain range is again the backdrop to this spectacular run.

It is Friday and I am nearing the end of my training week. I have two more races this weekend; a sprint and a mass start. The sprint race is 7.5km and I shoot two times, both prone and standin. The mass start is 10km and I will shoot prone two times and standing two times. The excitement of this race is that it will be a head-to-head competition of 15 women. I am nervous, but excited! I will let you know on Monday how the races go!

Monday is my day off, and typically the team will sleep in, someone will make pancakes and we'll take the day pretty easy. But this coming Monday, I will also head into the Soldier Hollow Charter school to meet Mrs. Marcy and the 6th grade class.

Hope all is well girls! More stories and photos will be up in a few days.

-haley

The Inner Athlete

Being an athlete is all about physical strength, coordination, skill, and training. Let's call that the outer athlete. Being an athlete also reveals an inner athlete within that harbors your determination, energy levels, ability to focus, and at its heart your love for what you do.

It is the eve of my second biathlon race here at Soldier Hollow. This morning I went for an easy run in the mountains above the nordic venue, followed by a yoga class in town. I have this afternoon off and will first take some time to dryfire: which involves standing in shooting position, repeating my breathing and shooting sequence, and visualizing my Sprint race tomorrow. And then, I will take some time to check in with my self. I raced yesterday, but was a bit disappointed with my shooting and my skiing performance. Tomorrow I believe I can do better - ski faster and shoot accurately. Training my "inner athlete" is just as important as training my body to ski and shoot. Tomorrow I want to be fired up and ready to go, but I also want to be relaxed, calm and focused. How can I prepare my self to do that?

On a daily basis, I take the time to train my inner athlete so that I can mentally and emotionally be ready to stretch my ability to its highest potential and to confidently focus on each target, so that each one is a hit when I race and train. One way I am trying to achieve these (we are always a work in progress!) is through meditation. I am new to this technique, which takes patience and an interest in improving the way your mind thinks. Kind of like a homemade recipe - I have been tinkering with what works for me. I add a bit more time or alter that right words, like ingredients, that work together to train my mind to relax and focus.

If you are wondering why I thought you might be interested in this, I have found a little excerise that might give you an idea of how you can affect your mind, body, heart and the environment around you.

"Masters of Energy" **

1.Begin at your seats. Together, discuss the energy - the feeling of your classroom. (Is it busy or exciting, tiring or energizing?) Have a recorder write this on the left side of the board in a column.

2.Close your eyes and now bring your attention away from the room and class, and to your self. What feelings do you find inside your self?

Discuss: If you all feel comfortable, share some of the feelings that you found. Have the recorder draw a big circle on the board and write these thoughts inside the circle.

3.Stand comfortably in front of your desks. Close your eyes. Imagine you are a big oak tree. In your mind reach up through your spine and head like branches to the sky, stretching, and then through your core, your legs and feet, feel your roots ground you to the floor and flow deep, deep into the earth. Feel how stable you are with these two different forces.

Discuss: Upon opening your eyes, discuss what you felt when you lengthened and rooted yourself. Have the recorder draw a tree with your thoughts (next to the circle). What did it feel like to grow and stretch like branches in your mind? What did it feel like to root your self to the earth?

4.Return to sitting at your desks. Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Now, how does the room feel?

Discuss: Have the recorder write your thoughts in a column on the right side of the board. Then look at all of the different thoughts, feelings, sensations, emotions, and ideas you have written on the board. Did the feeling of the room and your self change throughout the excercise?

Aspens in Utah.

Through this excercise, I hope you were able to feel a bit of your own ability to pay attention to what your mind is think and what your body is feeling. Paying attention is one of the biggest keys to this excerise and for me an important part of training my inner athlete - I need to know and understand how I am feeling and why so that I can make my self feel great and ready to handle the challenges that come my way.




**I found this activity on http://www.kidsrelaxation.com/ under Past Activities. I tailored the directions to individualize this activity for the 6th grade class.

Thanks for the 1st visit

Hi. Below is the photo of the ski tunnel and shooting range in Torsby, Sweden . Thank you for letting me share my trip to Sweden with you in the class room. I am headed off to Utah next, and wanted to introduce to all of you our blog and I we can stay in touch while I am traveling and you are here in Lake Placid. In this blog, along with an article, I will post photos and video like below. And at the bottom of each post there is a spot to add a comment. There you can post questions, your experiences, etc. to start a discussion.

This video is during training at the new shooting range near the ski jumps last week. You'll notice I am wearing a helmet and you can see my ski poles and rollers skis. A paved ski trail leads right up to the 4-point shooting range and is perfect for biathlon training. My coach took this video for me to watch my prone shooting process from start to finish. And now you can see it too:

This second video is from another training session last week and shows my teammate, Laura Spector (http://blogs.fasterskier.com/lauraspector) and I (on the left) on the last climb up to the range. (You can see the roof of the shooting range at the end.) We use video analysis a lot during training to evaluate our ski technique. It helps to see what you are actually doing while you ski. Often in your head you think you must look great, when in reality you might move your limbs in odd ways that you don't even notice. Together, being able to visualize your movements in your head and have them match what your body is actually doing can improve your body awareness. This skill is key to improving and mastering the different ski techniques and your feel for the snow.

Enjoy and let me know what you think of these blogs!