BLOG
All over the place!

Lately I've been titling my articles after where I've been. Therefore, "all over the place" seemed like the only appropriate title for this update. I will say that we at least stayed in the European Union. I've always said that I enjoy being in other places, but not necessarily traveling to them. I believe the last place I left off on was Obertilliach with a new stock to try out. Since then I've gone swimming in the ocean and skiing on snow! Here's how I did so.

After a time trial in Obertiliach (that went very well) a few of us drove back to Antholz to meet a guitar maker that was interested in making biathlon stocks in the future. Since my new stock needed some further customizations we knew he would be more than happy to help. It's still going to need some getting used to and more adjustments in the future but it's for sure shaping up to be a very fine stock. Then we were back to Obertilliach in time for dinner.

It was at dinner that night when the other guys proposed the idea of making a run for Croatia. Yes, Croatia is a place. If you've never heard of it that's okay, because I'm pretty sure we were some of the first Americans to go there. Slovenia is just south of Austria and Croatia is just below Slovenia. We had three days of rest and we were not about to give into cabin fever. So come next morning we packed up and were off. Less than five hours later we were searching for a place to stay in Funtana, Croatia. We had almost no standards beyond a bed and a roof. To our liking we found a place with more than these for a cheap price. Most of the people spoke German and English to our convenience. After the weather we were given in Obertilliach the sun never looked better. The temperature was perfect. Whenever I got bored with tanning on the beach I would just jump in the ocean for a quick swim. I had never even been in a Mediterranean climate prior to our little 48 hour vacation. We planned to leave as early as possible knowing that we would procrastinate. We didn't get back to the place in Austria until about 11pm.

The day after we packed up our stuff and headed North West to Salzburg, Germany. The next day brought the second Rossenfeldt climb test. For me, it was the first shot at the hill that I had only heard horror stories about. Rossenfeldt is a scenic hill just outside of Salzburg that just so happens to have paved road winding all the way to the top. So hey, why not rollerski as hard as you can to the top?! I shouldn't complain. Climbing is my strong point. Three days of rest were almost completely used up in 12km distance, 1000 meters of total climb and an hour of race pace effort. I was about four minutes behind Tim and the second man on our team.

This special day was not over just yet. After cramming down lunch I was at the local sport university. It felt very similar to the OTC in Lake Placid. I was shooting a group with my new stock in the indoor shooting range with various sensors attached. The system they used measured trigger pressure, weight shit, recoil distribution, barrel movement, and probably some other factors that I didn't notice. The goal was to isolate and monitor the different parts that all have to come together when taking a shot. I learned a few things from it and will talk with the coaches about it later on... So we all hopped into the van and headed for Oberhof, Germany.

Oberhof is essentially the biathlon mecca of the World. Perhaps even more so than Ruhpolding, which comes in a close second. Oberhof creates the largest crowds every year when they host their World Cup. As for training: It has just about everything you need. Early next morning I was skiing on snow in the above ground ski tunnel. After all these years my first time on skis of the year still takes a little getting used to. In the afternoon we had classic roller ski and shooting combos. Now, for the longest time the roller loop in Ostersund, Sweden was my favorite loop. Then came the loop in Toblach, Italy to challenge Ostersund. If that wasn't enough Obertillach's loop was also in the contention. I couldn't decide which one I preferred best. Turns out Oberhof's roller �loops� shattered the competition. The roller loop that I skied on that afternoon was probably five to six km long and had the just right kind of terrain. "Loops" should be plural because apparently having a ski tunnel, an indoor shooting range, and 60km of running trails isn't enough. This place has two roller loops. Both of which are much longer than the one we have in Fort Kent. We did the classic combos on the upper loop and a time trial on the lower world cup venue loop. The time trial did not go so well, but it wasn't really all that bad either. I was little tired on skis much like everyone else on the team and only had one bad shooting stage.

So THAT is what's new in the world of Russell right now! There's much to think about and work on from the past week. If I read my flight itinerary correct I should be home Wednesday night / Thursday morning. Only a few days left and I'll be back in the county. Among all of the things I've learned this whole camp one of them is that I'm going to have to learn how to drive standard at some point.

Obertilliach

And now for the middle portion of the camp. If the venue in Obertilliach, Austria had it's A license and could hold a world cup I might say Antholz and Obertilliach are closer to each other than Presque Isle and Fort Kent. Since Obertilliach is not technically world class I guess that makes our venues in the county the closest two world cup venues. In an Austrian defense however, this place has some very world class training opportunities.

To give you idea of what "world class training" means: The German Women's A and B team, the Belarus team, and of course the Austrian team are all currently training here. Not to mention the greatest biathlete of all time Ole Einar Bjorndalen also trains here. Much like Antholz the hiking is also very nice and accessible here to.

The only down side to this past week has been the weather. Obertilliach is one of those places that is known to have exceptionally snowy winters. Apparently that carries over into the summer with lots of rain. Since there is no dryer where we are staying my clothing ceases to dry out. In fact just having a washer and a finicky internet source at our place is asking for lot. I'm certain that the house we're staying in is much older than America is! We sit on a steep hill side with a switch back drive way down to the valley. It's a great house and all, but it could also make a suitable setting for a horror movie.

In other news my new rifle stock recently came in. Since we have a few days of rest right now we might make a trip to the beach (it's closer than I thought; I should really work on my geography). I'll have more news and pictures in a few days. All things considered I can't complain.

Anthloz - Aug 1, 2010

The past few days have been exciting to say the least. The travel was almost uneventful and the training is already well under way. I've been to Antholz before, but never in the summer. I had only good memories of this place and so far this trip hasn't failed those expectations in the slightest. Not sure where to begin.

About a week ago I glanced at my flight itinerary and somehow gathered the idea that I was leaving on Wednesday the 28th. Turns out my flight left Portland on Tuesday! I didn't double check for this kind of error until Monday morning. My plans for Monday took drastic change as I scrabbled back and forth (as in to Caribou, to Fort Kent and back to Caribou again) to get everything packed and ready to go. Other than that the trip over was pretty uneventful.

Don't ask me what the exact altitude of the Antholz is, but I know it's high enough to be called "altitude" training. The team staff is taking this as an opportunity to test how each athlete reacts to the effects of altitude. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but we've been using some fancy equipment to gather the necessary data. When each of us go to bed every night we attach a clip to our finger tip. I tried to take a picture of this to make explaining it a little easier. All this does is measure and record certain pieces of information; such as heart rate and saturation of oxygen in our blood while we're sleeping. The goal is figure out how each athlete responds to the prescribed training and altitude together and then of course make the optimum changes in training from there to get the most out of altitude training.

Speaking of training. If it were not for the training that's becoming more difficult everyday I would consider this a vacation. Our hotel sits rights next to your typical green tinted glacial lake in the middle portion of the valley. We can rollerski down most of the narrow road leading up to the hotel and put in a solid climb back up. The roller loop at the world cup venue has what could be sharpest corner ever and a even a wooden section if that makes any sense. We went for a hike the other day. Some of the views could compete with that of New Zealand as far as I'm concerned. All of these nice views and convenient training options help distract me from how tired I already am. After all, as I type this it's my third day at altitude which is typically the hardest day to deal with. It takes about a couple of days before my system remembers what altitude training is all about.

So far so good. Tomorrow is our well needed off day. We are supposed to go some sort of local festival. I don't know any of the details beyond that. With the way Armin, our Italian coach, is bragging it up it should be plenty entertaining. If you can read this than that means I must of found a source of temporary internet. Modern technology hasn't exactly penetrated all of central Europe yet.



PHOTOS

New stock!	This is not what Obertilliach looks like.
This is what Obertilliach looks like.	Croatia!