Off day

Today was an "official training" day here in Minnesota. Other than not racing, everything else was exactly the same as any other day we've been here. We got up, ate breakfast, loaded up the car, went to Mt. Itasca, warm-up, zero, skied/shot, cooldown, waxed skis, coffee, back to hotel. I could get used to this! I shot much better in training, which was encouraging. Tomorrow, we have another Sprint format race, then drive down to Minneapolis, and fly home Wednesday.

The good news is that it's not quite time to go back to the real world for me. I'm working a half-day Christmas Eve, then my company shuts down for the rest of the year. Other than checking e-mail a couple times a day, it should be a very relaxing week back home in Rochester with plenty of skiing and probably a few beers with family and some old friends!

Final note of the day - While the athletes not currently on the World Cup team are all here in Minnesota competing for a crack at that team, the December World Cup races finished up yesterday with a historic day for a US biathlete. Tim Burke took over the World Cup yellow jersey yesterday, worn by the overall world cup leader, which makes him the #1 biathlete in the world (this is the first time a North American has ever had that honor). There was a banquet here in MN last night for everyone competing in the trials, and the race director gave a very nice speech mentioning how huge of an accomplishment this is for Tim, and the progress that US Biathlon has made to get to this point. To top that off, he'll wear that yellow jersey at the next world cup in Oberhof, Germany, which is basically the Yankee Stadium of biathlon, there will be over a hundred thousand beer-slugging, biathlon-crazy Germans there watching an American race as the best biathlete in the world.