BLOG: So summer training has now well and truly started for me! Since my last post, I’ve finished Uni for the year and my fellow Australian teammates have arrived in Russia and we’ve all begun the hard slog which is summer training for a Biathlete.
Alex Almoukov was Australia's sole biathlon representative at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Here is how Alex makes sure he keeps improving on the road to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
BLOG: So summer training has now well and truly started for me! Since my last post, I’ve finished Uni for the year and my fellow Australian teammates have arrived in Russia and we’ve all begun the hard slog which is summer training for a Biathlete.
Our day consists of morning activities which covers a little strength, running and generally waking up our bodies for the day’s activities ahead. Then we have breakfast, a break and at around 10am we start the day’s first training block. At the moment that involves shooting training with either roller skiing, running or bike-riding to elevate our heart rates. This might last for 2-3hrs. Then we have lunch and a rest. Around 3-4pm, we start the 2nd training block for the day. This might be hill-bounding, roller-skiing or a strength in the gym session. It will generally go for another 1.5-2hrs, maybe longer if it’s a roller-ski session.
We are currently training at the World Cup Competition Venue in Tyumen, Russia. This Centre is known as the “Pearl of Siberia” as it’s such a great facility. It has athlete accommodation on site, two shooting ranges, km’s and km’s of roller ski tracks and an athlete café where we all eat lunch.
Its great to train in Russia at this time of year as there is so much daylight that we can train quite late in the afternoon when it's cooler and we’ve had a good afternoon rest. Often the light disappears for the day at 11pm and then sun rises at 5am. I’ll continue training here until July when I’ll be back in Australia for some Australian Cross Country races and on-snow training.
