You can always find the silver lining.

and for me having the compeition analyse really helped me get a more positive look at my race today.

Of course it was a frustrating experience. I struggled with an ejected live round during my first shooting stage and my bolt jamming, but still managed to keep it together and clean.  yes! I cleaned a stage, at the time I was too frazzled to even really revil in that moment but its definitly a positive note on today.  Little did I even realize that with that one clean shooting (even with the extra time it took) I was temporaily moved up to 26th place.  My later standing shooting would drop me rapidly back through the pack… I wouldn’t recommend missing 4?

This is a different level of racing and I know it will take time for me to get to where I want to be.  I just have to be paitent.

Some more interesting data…

I, Corrine Malcolm, yours truly…claimed a very different spot on the results list today.  I had the absolute slowest shooting time.  But thats just free time right?  I could be pissed or frustrated about that, but I know I’m a slow shot.  I lost right around 2mins on the range today.  thats not me skiing around a penalty loop, thats me laying there trying to point my rifle at something.  That’s two minutes that I can earn back this summer with a lot of range time and a lot more practice.  TWO FREE MINUTES!!!

Next the really exciting stuff…the silver lining I am clinging to today.

Although I finished a dissapointing 46th.  I never gave up.  I could of. but I didn’t.  and I earned the 19th fastest ski time for the day.  That I can be happy for. That I can be excited about.  That gives me hope.  And so with that I move onto the next race.  Wednesday….and I can’t wait.

If you don’t have anything good to say don’t say anything at all.

there for…I will just have to wait until later.  Once I have found some good in today.

 

Corrine

Thanks Again to Judy Geer for all the photos!

You can find the results here:

http://services.biathlonresults.com/DataCenter_IBU.aspx

 

So today was the first race of the World Junior Championships.  And oh billy did I look terrified  on Eurosport!  (and to be honest, I was, terrified and excited and all sorts of crazy)  I got to start as bib number two, can you say TV time?  And europeans everywhere are shaking there heads as I was a nobody surrounded by girls who have incredible pedigrees in this sport!  Surrounded by talent.

I felt alright skiing, I’ve been fighting a tickle in my throat for two days now.  Not sick but not 100% just kind of blah, but I wasn’t really worried about it going into the race.  I still had a job to do.  I skied alright, I actually gained about 15 seconds on the Italian in front of me going into prone!

The highlight of my day was my shooting, hands down.  I missed 1 shot in both my prone and standing stage, the middle shot I think on both… inevitably given the finger each time.  But I just kept pushing.  I didn’t feel great out on course, I felt pretty solid on two of the bigger climbs but just couldn’t attack the transitional sections as I would like to.  If the course was a dog, it was walking me?  And for the first time ever my shooting saved my butt.

Looking over the course times and range times is interesting…out of the 67 girls I was something like 63rd on the range.  what does this mean?  I shoot…really really slow.  I know this, but hey I’ve got to look at it as free time I will learn to gain back as I continue with biathlon.  Next summer will be a time to work on my range speed, not now.
As for my skiing.  I felt bad, and weird, it was as if I couldn’t feel all of my limbs?  Needless to say, my course time was actually not that slow.  The Italian girl that started infront of me cleaned and with fast shooting ended up in the top ten.  We had the exact same course time!  If that doesn’t motivate me to shoot better and faster moving forward I don’t know what will.

I ended the day 33rd.  Just shy of the top 30 I had set as the number in my mind.  I think I was 6 seconds out?  Its attainable.  Its reachable.  Tomorrow is a new day. a new race.  I have a long way to go, but today, even as strange as it was (for good and bad) was motivating.  I’m excited.  I’m smiling and I’m looking forward.  Always forward.

And by goodies I mean cookies!

Just found some pictures from making Gingerbread cookies at Kelly’s for the most incredible cookie exchange I’ve ever been to!  Okay its the only cookie exchange I’ve ever been to…but it was a good place to start!

 

Kelly and Andrea hard at work

 

The starting of the spread!

 

Kelly keeps her concentration…nonsense!

 

The happy family.

With 13 athletes from all different programs from all over the country you’re bound to be on different training plans right?  We are quite a mixed bunch, some with plans, some with out, some under the guidance of our trip coach and leader… however yesterday I would be the only one not taking the day off.  (don’t worry I got today off instead)

So while the team slept, lounged, and roamed around town eating tasty baked goods Vlad and I headed over to the venue.  On the docket….strength intervals, L4 intervals, and tolerance intervals!   Mmmm Mmmm my favorite way to start the day.  Full of coffee and a egg sandwich (European eating is just my style) I was ready to go.  We convinced the range men to let me use an unassigned point and I promised to not get in anyones way…well atleast I’d try.

Vlad stayed on the range long enough to zero me and then he was off to cover and wax a seemingly endless procession of skis.  I was sharing a rifle rack with the Polish girls who were all very friendly, just another normal day?  I was on point 11, which ended up being in the middle of one of the russian boxes.  Which was fine, basically inbetween every interval I would just ski over inbetween all the russian coaches and start pushing buttons.  The first time I definitely startled a few of them when they realized I was wearing the wrong blue suit!  With their athletes  also doing intervals there was some overflow onto my point but when I would roll into my point and look lost they were quick to scramble and get the target cleared and on the right stage.

It was really relaxed even with everyone sprinting around.  It was sunny, the sky was clear and I got to put down the first tracks on the freshly groomed trails.  It all made for a really calm morning and was the perfect way to start the week seeing as how this place is only going to get more and more busy!

The final part of my workout was my favorite.  Tolerance intervals.  The basic purpose is to help train your body to handle lactic acid so that your body can continue to perform.  I’ve started to do 5 of these after all of my intensity (races and time trials included) sessions.  I find the biggest hill, preferably long and steep and just hammer…trying to move as fast as I possibly can.  Alpine areas work really well for this, but at this venue I had to settle for whatever I could find.  I picked an awesome hill which had felt pretty long and steep and went for it.  Odd looks and musings aside it was fun…. and actually made this hill seem a lot smaller!  I’m looking forward to the races knowing I can charge that sucker!

 

So if you are getting sick and tired of my style of writing (lets face it I write the best run on fragments out there…) I’ve found a little read for you.  During my 24 hours back in Hayward before jetting across the ocean I did an interview with the local Hayward paper.  They put together a nice little article which you can find…

Here :   http://www.haywardwi.com/articles/2011/01/23/features/doc4d370ac71ce3a794523229.txt

Today we had a little warm up race here in Nove Mesto at the race venue for the Junior World Championships!  It was a 7.5km sprint and with alot of other teams already here in town it made for a pretty good race.  I think its good for me to gain experience on a bigger stage then the US domestic circuit leading into the races next week, shake out the nerves so that I can ski more relaxed and focus on the task at hand.

Before the race report a few highlights…

1. Saying Labrit (good morning) to one of the Latvian coaches and watching his expression changed from amused to entirely confused.

2. The start gate lady counting down to me in German.

3. Not totally getting my butt kicked?

I was the very first junior women out on course so I skied a large portion of my first lap entirely by myself… it was a little unnerving not to see anyone…after all 85 people started in front of me, and with 20second start intervals there is bound to be some overlap.

My skis were fast, the corners were sugary, and the range approach didn’t seem to daunting. And it was sunny, things were looking ok.  I got a correction coming into the range from our coach and took the clicks before shooting prone…but it wasn’t enough, I was still slightly left of center but somehow I still got two of the targets to go down.  After a second lap it was back in to shoot standing.  A Russian girl came into the range behind me which was a little intimidating, but I tried to focus on my own thing.  She got two shots off before I even pulled the trigger once, these girls are fast, fast on the range, fast on the trails.  I know I can’t let how fast the other girls shoot rush me.  I’d rather take an extra 10seconds on the range and spare myself a few penalty loops.

After missing my first shot in standing I resettled and thought “take good shots”.  I hit the next four, leaving me with 60% on the day.  a few months ago I would have been thrilled with 60%…now I want more.  I remember coming home from trials and exclaiming, “that I CORRINE MALCOLM had infact shot 70%!!!” I was estactic and my younger brother remarked “I’ve never heard anyone so happy about a C before?”  That’s really stuck with me for some reason.  I should want an A right?

The last loop felt pretty good, and I soon began to realize I hadn’t warmed up hard enough…it took 5kms to get me feeling quickish on my skis…and I don’t want to waste two thirds of my race feeling sluggish when I don’t have to.  Asides from being a little intimdated on the washed out corners things were going ok.  Until I planted my pole into my ski going into the final uphill and killed any hope I had for momentum.  I face planted right out in the open and was left frantic as I tried to get myself back to upright….

So I suppose there were some good and some bad today.  Some things I did well and some things to learn from heading into this next week.  I’m glad I was able to get all the kinks out today so that starting next weekend I can have even better races.  I got my tush handed to me today by some pretty stellar russian girls….and perhaps a few polish gals but I’m just lulling them into a false sense of security right?

Corrine

Here are some pictures that Ethan’s mom took for us!

Getting some shooting corrections from Vlad during training the other day.

One of my range approaches that I didn’t fall flat on my face!

I’m starting to wonder if three weeks here will be enough to turn my lungs black… I actually witnessed a women shoveling coal into her basement window on my jog this afternoon!

Also I never thought I would ever eat fried broccoli…dinner changed that…and yes there was in fact more potatoes!