After almost four solid months of racing, countless hours of plane rides and european autobahn driving, ten different biathlon venues, ski conditions ranging from pre-season ice to frigid Finnish snow to Ruhpolding slush, and endless cravings for Mexican food, I am finally headed home today!

We wrapped up the final week of competitions in Khanty-Mansisysk, Russia on Sunday and now I find myself in Munich, ready to catch a plane for the USA in a few hours. The races last week weren’t my best, but I was able to squeak out enough WC points to push me back up into the top-15. It crazy to think that this whole journey started with the Ostersund Individual, way back in 2011. But when all the races were over, I finished the year in 14th place in the World Cup overall. I’m really happy with the season and I want to thank everyone on the US Biathlon Staff for helping me reach this level. Without the hard work of our coaches, waxing staff, administrative staff, medical staff, and the support of my equipment sponsors at Rossignol, OneWay, Adidas, and Toko, there’s no way I could have come anywhere near this level. I feel very fortunate to have been able to work with all of these people over the past season.

Now, as I sit in a Munich hotel room for one last morning before heading across the pond, I’m looking forward to a little time off from the biathlon world. This season has been the best of my life in so many ways. Thank you to everyone who followed my ups and downs throughout the year. I’m grateful to be a part of the crazy world that is World Cup Biathlon. See you after the break!

-LB

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Hi Everyone,

Sitting here in my room on Wednesday afternoon, enjoying a day off from racing here at World Champs in Ruhpolding. It hasn’t been the World Champs that I was hoping for so far, but there are still two races to go. Things started off Ok for me in the Mixed Relay. I hit targets and skied reasonably well. At that point, given the prior two weeks of training and preparation, everything seemed to be going as planned. Then, two days later, I managed to put everything together in the shooting range during the Sprint, hitting all ten targets, but my ski speed was nowhere in site. It was by far the slowest I had skied in a race all season, by almost a minute! I have no idea what happened. I wasn’t nervous and I had good sleep the whole week leading up to that race. But, as we always say, “That’s Biathlon!” You just have to roll with the punches.

The next day in the Pursuit, I skied a bit better and was shooting well so that by the time I got to my last shooting, I was in 9th place, with a chance at a top 5. This was right where I have trained to be. It’s where I want to be. It’s where I have been. And I missed the last two shots of the race! This dropped me all the way back down to 20th, where I started the day. The Individual was another step in the right direction for my ski speed but this time it was my shooting that put me out of the running. I missed 4 targets over the course of the race, and at World Champs, on this course, you can’t afford to do that and expect to place well. I finished 38th.

There are two positive things that I am looking at when assessing the past week of racing. One; my ski speed, which started out extremely poor has improved every race since that point. Secondly; I managed to pick up just enough points in those three races to stay tied for 13th in the overall World Cup total. This means that I will get a start in the Mass Start on Sunday (At World Championships, the Top-15 world-ranked biathletes get a start spot while the other 15 Mass Start positions go to the 15 best biathletes [that are not currently in the top-15] from the Sprint, Pursuit, and Individual races at that particular World Champs)! Tim also got in, so we will have two guys on the 30-man startline come Sunday. For now, I’m enjoying the day off and looking forward to the Relay on Friday.

I’d like to thank Toko for bringing me onboard as a sponsored athlete. I am psyched to be a part of the Toko team and excited to help out with the promotion of their product line. I’ve already made good use of the footwear freshener! It’s a must in the damp monsoon-like conditions that have persisted throughout these World Champs.

Besides racing, things have been pretty mellow. I have stayed either at the hotel or at the venue most of the time as there hasn’t really been space for anything else. We did, however, get a chance to enjoy some Bavarian culture with the team and other various friends on Sunday evening after the Pursuit. Check out the slideshow from that night (above).

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Hi Everyone,

World Champs is finally here and conditions are definitely spring-like here in Bavaria. We’ve been training at the Ruhpolding venue the past couple of days and it has been more like a swimming pool than a biathlon stadium. Temps are expected to climb towards 60 degrees fahrenheit today for the Mixed Relay! We attended the opening ceremonies in town last night and if the crowd-size is any indication of how many people will show up for the actual races, it is going to be one of the biggest World Champs ever. Today we start of with the Mixed Relay: Sarah Studebaker leads off, followed by Susan Dunklee, then Tim Burke, and myself in the last leg.

-LB

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Hello all,

I’m in Ridnaun, Italy at the moment getting ready for the upcoming World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany starting next week. We’ve been up here at the top of the valley now for almost a week and I have to say that World Champs can’t get here soon enough. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the Northern Italian sun or the cuisine, it’s just that this time of year is always a bit trying for most biathletes. This is the time of year where we start to “taper”, heading into World Championships. Generally speaking, this involves “tapering” off the amount of training that we do in order to allow the body to recover fully and hopefully be in peak form for what can be as much as six races in a twelve-day period.

On the surface, I could see how some might conclude that a “taper” is nothing more than a little mini-vaca at a secluded mountain resort in Italy. However, we still have specific workouts that need to be executed well and then there is the ever-important recovery phases that prevent the athlete from actually going out an experiencing the surrounding environs as any leisure holiday-maker might. Basically, I’ve been doing a lot of sleeping, reading, and a bit of dry firing. In summary, I can’t wait to get back to racing!

In other news, the Scandinavian world cups went extremely well for the team and I think we all are excited to continue that momentum into Ruhpolding. We had a historical best in the Khantiolahti Sprint race with Russ, Tim, Jay, and I all within the top-16! I think this was the high-point for me. We were also invited over to Finnish biathlete, Mari Laukinnen’s Parents’ cabin for a traditional “smoke sauna” and a huge Finnish dinner. The sauna was amazing, set apart from the cabin and fueled by a huge stove that gave off a lot of heat and a bit of smoke that was naturally vented out the ceiling. After a few cycles of heat followed by a submersion in a hole cut in the ice of a nearby pond, it was time to head back to the hotel for the evening before heading out to Munich in the morning.

After Scandinavia, we headed back to Antholz for a week of training in our coach Armin Auchentaller’s home valley. And now we find ourselves here in Ridnaun with a few days to go before heading back to Germany and World Championships. We will take part in a local Italian Cup race here tomorrow as part of our preparations. After that, it’s mostly rest and a few key intensity workouts before the first races in Ruhpolding.

Until then, all the best!
-Lowell

Thank you to the IBU film crew for putting together this film! Besides the guitar/singer, it’s pretty good! I would say this is my first music video, but who could forget my rousing 2010 version of “Jingle Bells” as seen by tens of biathlon fans around the globe!

Hi Everyone!

US Biathlon is raffling off 4 tickets to this year’s Superbowl! This is an all-expenses paid trip for you and three guests for two nights in Indianapolis! The raffle tickets are only $2 a piece but the contest ends at 1pm EST on Thursday, February 2. Thanks for the support and good luck!

-LB

http://www.celebritiesforcharity.org/raffle/once-in-a-lifetime-super-bowl-game-raffle