I arrived home from Germany last night after a brutal travel day of 26 hours. Despite taking over a day to travel home, none of my bags made it. Nevertheless, it feels great to be back home after seven weeks on the road!
I spent the last two weeks of our Europe camp in Oberhof, Germany. The training facilities in Oberhof are absolutely top-notch; they have nearly 10 kilometers of paved ski trails, a brand new indoor skiing facility and multiple shooting ranges. It’s no wonder this area produces top winter athletes year after year.
Our focus during the first week in Oberhof was on the Summer World Biathlon Championships. The men’s field had over 70 competitors and included some, but definitely not all, of the top biathletes in the World. I was very pleased to finish 4th in the sprint race and 5th in the pursuit. Although I was happy with these results, I was a little disappointed to finish just off of the podium both days. Oh well, hopefully that result will come in the winter when it really counts. More important than the results, these races were a great opportunity for me to see what I need to work in the next eight weeks leading up to the first World Cup. I have definitely made some big improvements this year, but I still need to make some small changes before the start of the season in order to reach my goals.
After the races, we spent most of the last week of our camp in the new DKB Ski Hall. This is the latest indoor skiing facility where it’s possible to ski on snow all year. It felt really nice to get back on snow and to start testing skis for this season. I tested through quite a few skis and was really happy with the results.
Unfortunately, I only have one week at home before I take off for our next camp in Utah. After seven weeks on the road I definitely wish that I had more than a week at home but that’s the way it goes as an athlete. At least I have a really low week of training so I will have some more time to catch up with family and friends.
