The start of another season

Not sure how often people read this and to those who do I apologize for not updating anytime in the past six months.

The summer training went really well. I was able to boost my overall fitness and shoot about 10,000 live rounds. I competed in several local and national level summer events. As always, the Pemi-Harvard series was a blast and there was more participation this year than last.

I attended the US Summer Nationals in PA which was a good time. The racing was difficult with temps in the mid to upper 90s.

I also participated in quite a few silo shooting events which were a fantastic diversion from shooting at 11.5 cm. circles all summer. Silo is a fun event and anyone should try it at least once. The shooting is really difficult but you will learn to hold steady shooting offhand.

For aerobic training I ran almost everyday and rollerskied at least once each week. The rollerskiing was primarily to keep my upper body in shape and to work on skiing with greater efficiency. I entered one rollerski race which was the climb up Whiteface Mountain near Lake Placid, NY. Many national nordic team members were there and I have the distinction of being the slowest finisher in any catragory in the to year history of the event. It was very hard and humbling. I can't say it was fun but I do plan on attending next year.

Getting onto the snow was good. The first day out I felt like a rank beginner. The rollerskis are stable and don't wiggle around too much. The snow skis moved around a ton and it was rather disconcerting at first. The idea of early season skiing was to practice efficiency.

The first race of '09 attended by me was a biathlon NorAm Cup event in LaPatrie, Quebec. The race went well and I finished second both days racing in the Masters class. This age group is for guys older than 40. Temps were in the single digit F range with wind blowing from 15-25 mph so it was really cold and tough shooting. Next weekend (1/10-11) is the NorAm in Jericho, VT where there is no Masters catagory so I must pit my skills (as they are) against the Senior Men who are racing for a spot on the US World Cup team. Should be fun but I expect a thourough ass kicking in the results sheet. I'll post a report when the Jericho race is over.