A Few Days in One GRP Biathlete’s Life

Hey everyone! Hallie, GRP biathlete, here, to give you a little glimpse into the summer (training) life in Craftsbury. Around the Center, I am apparently notorious for “doing everything” and being a busy bee, so writing this blog post is helping me do something I’m not great at - sitting down and resting!

This week is a “big” week of training, the first of three in the training block. A tricky thing about being a biathlete is creating time for both physical and shooting training (which includes both dryfire and live fire), as well as resting and working. Here’s a snapshot of three days where I tried to do all of those things!

Monday

6:30 Wake up

7:00 Breakfast. Coffee is essential.

8:00. Training! Today’s workout was static shooting followed by rollerski combos with speeds. This means that we first spent about an hour doing shooting drills, then began our two hour skate rollerski workout that included shooting every 10ish minutes and accelerations sprinkled throughout.

Prone shooting during the shooting drills. Weather update: Hot, hence the silly shirt.

11:30. Dryfire time. I try to dryfire between 10 and 30 minutes a day to reinforce the shooting training that I’m doing on the range. Dryfire is often done indoors, and does not use bullets. Instead, we are able to practice all of the other parts of shooting, such as range procedure, trigger squeeze, and breathing without spending the whole entire day on the range. As I began to dryfire, I felt a distinctive pop in my rifle and I immediately knew that my firing pin had broken. So, after a quick exchange of the firing pin, I was back to dryfiring. It is much better to break it on a random summer day than right before a race! That has happened to me do and it really raises the stress level.

The (broken) firing pin is the metal thing second from the bottom, with the black ring in the middle. The object that I’m holding is part of the bolt, which is integral in the rifle firing.

Here I am, working on breathing in the prone position

12:00 Lunch! Lunch today was left over chickpea curry with arugula from our garden. If you have ideas of how to not let all the little buggies eat your arugula, let me know.

1:00. 4 Winds Preparation. Since I moved to Craftsbury, I’ve been a volunteer with the 4 Winds Nature Institute, a state-wide group that visits schools to incorporate nature learning in to the day. “Four Winds Nature Institute is a non-profit organization advancing the understanding, appreciation, and protection of the environment through community-based natural science education and research.” This summer, the Craftsbury Public Library is supplementing their summer Outdoor Adventures Program with 4 Winds Materials, so I spent a bit of time this afternoon preparing for tomorrow’s lesson. The last time I taught this lesson, and I made a Powerpoint for it, as visitors were not allowed in schools and I was racing in Europe. It was much nicer to be able to plan in-person activities.

Converting remote lesson plans to in-person lesson plans! Progress!

2:15. BKL Biathlon Meeting Time. I am part of a group created by the US Biathlon Association whose goal is to introduce more kids to the sport of biathlon. Right now, we are creating a website that compiles relevant information.

But still, making good use of video technology to connect with Danika who is in Lake Placid.

4:00. Afternoon Training. Today’s training killed two birds with one stone: training for me and previewing the courses for our weekly citizen’s race. It is important to to check the course each week because signs inevitably fall over and we don’t want any lost racers.

Bridges are not my favorite things on bikes, but I’m working on them!

6:00. Community Fitness. Comfit, as it is affectionally called, is a one hour long weekly fitness class designed for individuals who like to be active, but also social. This week, we started with erg relays then moved in to a strength circuit. I’ve been teaching this class fairly consistently for the past six years and have really enjoyed getting to know community members this way.

Erg relay! One partner erged while the other did a core exercise (toe taps).

7:30. Dinner time. We had salad, with many backyard garden ingredients, VT Fresh pasta, and local sausage. It was approximately one million degrees, so we ate on the porch (you’ll notice a theme here).

Harvesting for dinner. Dinosaur kale and Ezrilla lettuce

Porch dinner

8:45. Meditation. Perhaps one of the most important things I could do in my day, but definitely not what I make a priority. I’ve been meditating a bit off and on for the past year or so, initially for the “biathlon benefit” but it is definitely more holistically beneficial than that! I get into stretches of doing it, and it is wonderful, then I don’t again for a couple of weeks and think “ugg, I should do it” and turning on the app feels like a chore, but once I’m in the swing of it, it’s very pleasant!

9:30. Bedtime.

All the essentials: good book, water bottle, lavender sachet, eye mask (thanks 5am sunrise), earplugs (and phone charger…).

Tuesday. Interval day! Weather is still approximately 80 degrees with lots and lots of humidity. Which means lots of sweating.

Breakfast. Toast with jam, eggs with cheese, coffee with cream. Happiness.

8:30. Intervals. Today’s intensity workout is uphill running with poles. We warmed up for about 30 minutes then got to work. The workout was 1+5X5 L4. Uh what??? This means that we did Level 4 or race pace intervals, aiming for a lactate between 4 and 7.6, but ideally above 5. For five minutes. And five of them. With the “1” meaning on additional one at the beginning of a slower pace, for warmup. Who knew that ski training involved math.

The very end of the last interval. Raleigh’s energy was enviable today. I felt like I was swimming up a mountain, weight by cement blocks. But it’s the effort that count during a workout like this.

11:00. Doctor’s appointment. I’ve been dealing with a small ankle issue and decided it was finally time to get it taken care off by a professional.

Doctor’s orders were for ice, after draining a cyst on my ankle bone.

1:00. Midday meditation. As you may have gathered, I’m not the best at resting. Sometimes encouraging myself to meditate as a rest period is useful because it still feels “productive".”

Don’t be too impressed by the 39 hours. This winter, I’d listen to a meditation track as I went to sleep, so many of those hours were snoozing.

3:00. 4 Winds. Time for the 4 Winds program at the library. The Children’s Librarian at the Craftsbury Public Library was a wonderful assistant. We taught a group of seven children in preschool through early elementary school about birds in the winter, and those that migrate and those that stay in Vermont. The timing was a little “off” as the curriculum is designed for the school year, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. We didn’t get in to the fun fact that some birds cool themselves by pooping on their legs!

Checking out the bird nest on the library porch.

4:00. Shooting practice. Today we did some partner drills to help us work on trigger squeeze and consistent breathing.

5:00. Tuesday Night Race. This weekly race runs more six months a year, with running and biking in the summer, running in the fall, and skiing in the winter! New this year, we have a 3k kids race and it’s super fun to see the little ones out there, having a blast.

Race registration plus snack time.

Start of the running race.

7:15. Strength. Disclaimer: I do not support my this schedule with such go go go all afternoon long and starting a workout at this hour! But, sometimes, you just have to fit it all in.

Hex bar squat jump. Yay for self timer.

8:45. Dinner. Local beef, Vermont cheese, local potatoes, garden greens. Also, generally not in to the nearly bedtime dinner time.

Yummmmmm. Nothing better than a burger after a long day.

Wednesday. I’ll just give you the highlights from today! But again, hot, humid, and sweaty.

7:40. Bike ride with Kelsey. A couple hour dirt road cruise. The Craftsbury area has some pretty picturesque dirt roads.

Cruisin’ with Kelsey.

11:00. Garden time. I have a little bit of down time and the garlic scapes (the pretty curlicues on the top of the garlic) are getting huge, so it’s time to cut them and then I’ll turn them into pesto. And I’ll also pull a few weeds while I’m in the garden. Photo 1: Peas! 2: Broccoli 3: The garlic scape pesto, that looks oddly like guacamole but doesn’t taste like it at all. 4: Garlic scapes.

12:00. Lunch. Leftover pizza, freshened up with the just-made pesto.

A very scape-y pizza!

1:30. Kitchen Work. Over the past few weeks, the GRP has been helping out the COC kitchen. We’ve been doing all sorts of things: dishes, mopping, prepping salads, making granola, washing potatoes, you name it!

Caitlin in the Dish Pit.

4:00. Bike Club! Each summer (except last) for the past four summers the COC has hosted Summer Bike Club. This year there are 65 youngsters and a lot of coaches riding together each Wednesday afternoon for the summer months. Abilities range from first pedal strokes on singletrack to experienced rippers. It’s a blast!

Working on eyes up, attack position, flat pedals over an obstacle.

Cool bike fenders/mud flaps! These were designed by a former CNSC junior!

5:45: Shooting. Today’s shooting practice is a 30/30. This is a shooting test, done on paper targets, and is scored for precision. 30 shots are prone, 30 shots are standing. This was my worst 30/30 in the last two years, perhaps because I knew that I was going to write about it on this blog. Joking aside, I got a bit bummed about how poorly the test went for me, but I tried to remind myself that training goes in cycles and each day can not be the best.

7:45. Dinner! A break from our “regular salad” and we tried something new. Strawberry and feta salad. All the main ingredients of this salad are from within a 10 mile radius of our house! And wild turkey kebabs. I shot this turkey this spring, as a Novice Hunter during Vermont’s Youth and Novice weekend. As a vegetarian for the first twenty years of my life, this was a big deal for me, but I decided that if I am going to eat meat, that I need to be involved in the entire process.

Thanks for following along!