This past weekend the US Biathlon Team and biathletes from all over the country were back in Jericho for another round of Olympic Trials. These rollerski races were another stepping stone towards Olympic qualification for many, and it was once again a good opportunity to watch some of the world’s best athletes rollerskiing on our home course.
For this set of races, the “MNC House” hosted 3 SLU athletes who are aspiring biathletes. Lucy, Jackie, and Tim all stayed with Coach Adam and Coach Liam in the Jericho home base, and it was a good opportunity to chat about how the various teams are all training and getting ready for the winter.
On Saturday, the MNC crew had a bounding session at Honey Hollow and so we had to miss out on the biathlon action that day. It was a great workout on our favorite dirt road though, complete with peak foliage and elderly drivers motivating us by yelling about how much faster they would run back when they were in the 101st Airborne (shoutout to our favorite new Honey Hollow resident and Pugs fan).
Hey, there’s a familiar face! It’s Ben Carnahan back for mid-semester break!
After bounding, I met up with Kai at the Range for some double pole intervals. With the biathlon races recently completed, the Range was still open for skiing so we took advantage of an opportunity for Kai to get in some double poling since he wasn’t competing in an XC running race that weekend. I have to say, it was a pretty focused and productive session and I was able to get a lot of video footage. 4×7 min Level 3 on the Fall Rollerski Classic course, with the last 2 minutes of each interval stepping up into Level 4 pace.
After the double poling, Kai and I hit the gym to continue those strength gains. Oddly though, we did not see any of the rest of the team at that session…I guess everyone decided to do a strength workout at home on their own, right 😉
That evening, we had a really nice “dinner party” comprised of MNC coaches, some SLU skiers, some US Biathlon skiers, an independent professional biathlete, and a US Biathlon Coach. We got together for a group photo with the Pug sign, while also getting our best antlers out to “Moose It” for the legendary ski club Moose Nordic (click for additional photo sample).
Skiers, coaches, and biathletes embracing the Pug and the Moose!
Back row L-R: Pro biathlete Raleigh Goessling, MNC Coach Adam Terko, SLU skiers Lucy Hoschartner, Jackie Garso, and Tim Cunningham
Front row L-R: US Biathlon Team athlete Jake Brown, US Biathlon Team coach Danika Frisbie, US Biathlon Team athlete Paul Schommer
Photo by MNC Coach Liam John!
On the final day of racing I got to go watch the action, including the main races and also a mass start youth race afterward featuring both Tim’s (Cunningham and Cobb), Charles, and Marika. Great races everyone!
A big mass start group feauring Tim Cunningham (yellow helmet) and Tim Cobb (all black just behind him) and Marika
This week we’re going to be putting in a lot of volume with some big training days. Having school off on Thursday and Friday for most should help!
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