Time flies when you’re having fun! Week three of the World Cup is already done, and at the time of writing I am in the van on my way to Le Grand Bornand for the final World Cup before Christmas.
Hochfilzen delivered a beautiful winter wonderland, with one night providing over a half meter of fresh snow. As a winter athlete I’ve learned to make the most of every competition, regardless of conditions, but I’ve equally learned to be very grateful for every centimeter of sweet powder that nature provides! There is not much in life that can be compared with fresh groomed ski tracks—as far as you’re able to see!

My Hochfilzen competition schedule was to compete in the sprint first, and then the pursuit. 
During the sprint my body felt like it couldn’t quite get into high gear, and so I struggled a bit in the tracks here. With that said, it was my first race of the year at altitude so I have to be patient and let my body fully acclimatize. All things considered I managed to keep control physically and hold a very even pace. However, one penalty loop each in prone and standing really hurt the end result—so there’s room for improvement to be had on the range. I ended up in 46th place, and am not quite happy with that result, though I kept looking forward and was ready to hunt during the pursuit. 
I used the training day between the competitions to regain the good feeling on the shooting range, and recharge the body and refocus the mind. The pursuit went much better as I managed to hold my focus and perform at the shooting range, which resulted in 19 hits. My body felt much more acclimated, and in good shape all throughout the race. It was an awesome feeling hunting down woman after woman and to cross the finishline in 25th, and with an isolated 10th best pursuit time!