Stick Season Rebrand - Michaela Keller-Miller

Posted December 4, 2025

Stick Season Rebrand

by Michaela Keller-Miller

As November ends, I’m taking time to appreciate the creativity of training this time of year. Vermont, like Minnesota, is well known for its stick seasons and has unpredictable weather as we wait for winter. The juxtaposition of being too icy to rollerski but too marginal to snow ski makes flexibility key. At the end of the day, it’s the hard work that matters rather than the mode of training.

After missing out on qualifying for the first international biathlon races of the season by one spot at the Soldier Hollow USBA rollerski trials in October, I’m finding myself with a later race season start than usual. While originally disappointed by this outcome, it’s been a great opportunity to fit in a longer training block in November that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. It’s also worth adding that I’m proud of the fight I gave to rollerskis trials. After spending the 10 days prior sick in bed, with only a few short jogs and rollerskis in the days leading up to the three-day race series, I had my most consistent shooting results since starting biathlon. I also gave everything I could to the skiing considering the circumstances, focusing on strong technique and pacing.

Utah scenery!

While frustrating to not start the season in Europe, I succeeded in keeping a strong mental focus at trials and controlling what I could, which were both summer goals. It also left me motivated to continue improving my shooting and dialing in my ski speed to not leave December USBA trials up to chance. Following Utah, I made a quick pitstop in Minnesota to see my family. I also was able to host a bounding workout with Finn Sisu at Battle Creek! As always, it was great to see so many people working hard together and getting psyched for ski season.

Since then, I’ve been back in Craftsbury, Vermont making the most of stick season and getting as fit as possible for my first races of the season. I’ll be forgoing Period I of the SuperTour in Alaska to prioritize staying healthy for the December biathlon international team trials in Craftsbury. The top performers at these trials will earn a spot at the final US Olympic team selection races in January. The final Olympic selection races will include six athletes racing for the remaining 2/4 Olympic team spots.

The unpredictability of Vermont Novembers.

Racing logistics aside, I’m increasing my odds of qualifying by continuing to control the controllable and maintaining confidence. I’ve been happy with the quality of training that I’ve accumulated in the past month. Despite rainy drab days, we’ve stacked a variety of workouts: 5x4mins L4 rollerskiing on uphill terrain, 5x10mins L3 (threshold) uphill pole running on a day when rollerskiing was too icy, and a SkiErg “time trial” with shooting stages when we woke up to a dusting of snow on the rollerski loop. Maintaining running this time of year and utilizing SkiErgs are great ways to keep the quality high no matter the weather.

Enjoying a full sun day on the roads!

Another favorite SkiErg workout was 6x5mins controlled L4 with shooting. The beauty of the SkiErg is that it can be easily moved to the biathlon range since the floor stand has wheels. This makes it perfect for combo workouts in the shoulder season, as it allows you to maintain fitness and ski-specific strength while practicing shooting at intensity. Bad weather can be the perfect excuse to try something new, get creative with workouts, and to embrace the indoor gym days when it’s truly heinous outside.

Aforementioned 6x5mins SkiErg workout on the range.

Our coach also uses the SkiErg for testing to see what types of training may be beneficial given an athlete’s current testing results. We typically do a 2km test to keep the testing protocol consistent. While the goal of these tests isn’t necessarily a fast time, it’s fun to keep track anyway. In our latest 2km a few weeks ago, I had a nearly seven second PR from a time that’s been essentially the same for a few years. Although erging doesn’t perfectly translate to fast skiing, it was still a welcome sign that things are moving in the right direction!

We’ve been lucky enough to have about a 1-kilometer loop at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center for the past week, which has been a great addition to training options. We’re still bouncing between a few inches of snow and pouring rain, but the snow loop is holding strong. It’s always fun to be back on real snow, and I’m looking forward to keeping the energy and momentum rolling forward into December!

Happy training!

Michaela Keller-Miller