I am in the last few days of this summer’s National Team Camp. After a few more shooting workouts, a long bike ride, intervals and strength these next few days, I will surely be looking forward to a few days of Ramp;R. It has been another successful training block, however, but this time with different goals and accomplishments than that of my first camp earlier in May. The first two weeks of camp I was together with whole women’s team whose members ranged from Development to A-team. In my history with USBA, this is the first women’s team specific camp. In part due to our asking, but also because we now have a solid group of lady biathletes who can together push each other and women’s biathlon to new historic levels of participation and international results.br /br /br /pimg id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354025688350402482″ style=”DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px; TEXT-ALIGN: center” alt=”” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k1DHbqzFvCE/Sk1R_yhxJ7I/AAAAAAAAAm8/iK8ahDEszPw/s400/Haley_%26_Laura_Classic.JPG” border=”0″ //pp align=”center”span style=”font-size:85%;” Laura S. and I at the end of classic ski on Slide Brook Rd. in Soldier Pond, ME. A bunch of us jumped off this bridge into the river moments later for a refreshing swim after a long ski./span/ppbr /Training sessions were designed to maximize our time together; intervals like the one pictured below and lining up on the shooting range for timed shooting drills and tests created a necessary atmosphere that is hard to replicate with a small group or by one’s self. Skiing in a close group on matched rollerskis on a long ascent really brought out morsels of strategy, fight and perservence that come from having our competition just behind or just in front of you. Shooting together simaltaneously tested our abilities to maintain the internal focus of our own shooting process as well as being aware of the speed and precision of competitors around us. Kind words of advice earlier in the week reminded us that the roots of ‘compete’ involve coming together – so thats what we’ve done. We know that in order for our women’s group to progress we need to improve our ability to handle race-like situations with close competiveness, fast accurate shooting, and strategic technical transitions (in skiing). And as we look towards improving our women’s relay team, we also come together to think like a team, even in situations like when we make dinner together, make travel plans, or pack the van.br /br //pdiv align=”center” /divdiv align=”center”
