Cold Weather has arrived..

Winter is officially here. Its about 20 degrees in Lake Placid during the day, and about 10 degrees at night. I love when its this cold because the track gets very fast, but standing in my speed suit is brutal!

The first day it got cold, but it was really wet, I was standing on the start line after I took my jacket off, I tried to hide behind my sled. It didn't work as I planned, I didn't stay warm.

I am racing in the America's Cup this Friday and Saturday, hopefully I don't freeze! I will be home on Sunday, I am driving home with one of my teammates! I'm so excited to be home for Thanksgiving, all of the girls will be home! We aren't all home together so this will be a lot of fun, especially since I was in Canada last year for Thanksgiving and I missed being home.

Back in Lake Placid

Its nice to be back in Lake Placid. We got in about 1:00 last night, its just so nice tocome back from a trip of sharing beds and being in hotels to go and sleep in your own bed under your own blankets. Needless to say I slept in this morning and didn't feel the need to wake up for 8am sliding (and I didn't have my sled, I braved the chances and gave it our bobsledder again, I mean you can't break down twice in one trip right!!) But today was the fastest day of triaing I think ever. The boys and girls broke the track record set on race days. The ice was speedy today. Kinda crazy.

Hopefully I will slide tomorrow morning, but until then I have to unpack, which is the worst part about it all. Next trip I have decided I am not bringing as many clothes as I normally do. I barely wear my regular shirts, I think I must stay in my sliding clothes the majority of the time, who needs to put jeans and a nice shirt on!

I was really excited when I put my suitcase on the scale and it weighed 48lbs a pound and a half lighter than on the way out. I don't really know how that happened since I could have sworn I had more stuff in it! My runner case was lighter also, always a plus no extra charges for 2 bags on Southwest you have to love flying them. If only they flew internationally.

Alright back to my laundry I have to go move it out of the broken washer and put it in a working one, since I do want my clothes cleaned. Then I have to eat lunch and workout.

Back in Utah

We made it back safely from Calgary. The drive wasn't too bad, I think it took about 13hrs or so. We split the driving up between myself, Cassie and Becca. Cassie drove most of the way though, just like on the drive up. The weather was good until the last part of Idaho when it started raining.

We had a music party once we got into Utah, I was the DJ. Anything to keep us entertained on such a long drive. I am staying with Cassie tonight and fly back to Lake Placid Tuesday afternoon.

I'm excited to get back to Lake Placid and start sliding there again. I think I will take a few days off, Caleb and I might take a day trip up to Montreal or something like that.

Thats really all for now, just hanging out for the day, going to Cassie's parents house for dinner tonight and going t o play with her nephew.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Another 3rd place..

Just finished the second America's Cup race in Calgary and I finished 3rd again. I had two consistent runs today, which is what my ultimate goal is. All in all I am pretty excited with how I finished today also.

There is a girl Tionette from new Zealand and the two of us always have runs within a few hundredths of each other. Of course thats how it was today after the first run she had a 59.71 and I had a 59.72 its crazy how that happens, one hundredth is nothing its weird to think about loosing or winning by that amount. She had an amazing second run though, I made a mistake or two so I stayed in third and she moved from second place to first. Its fun when the competition is that intense though and you are so close to someone. I'm glad when she does well, and she is glad when I do well. These races were funny crazy though because we pushed the same for a few of the runs.

We got the coolest trophies, I got matching ones since I finished 3rd for both races. I'll post a picture of the medal and trophy, I got two or each but only took a picture of one.

There is a party tonight (the FIBT always has them after most races) its convienent this time though its at the bar that is in our hotel, so we can go for and hour or two then go back to our room and go to sleep. We are going to drive back down to Utah tomorrow morning we will probably leave at 6 or 6:30am try and get on the road as soon as possible for this 14 hr drive.

I have to go start packing, we want to pack the car before it gets too dark and we are planning on going to the 4-man bobsled race at 6:00 tonight to cheer on our bobsled teammates.

I'm excited to get back to Lake Placid and just have some fun sliding time. My confidence is up and I am ready to just go slide on the Lake Placid track and love it again, since I didn't have the best time when we started sliding there in the beginning of the season.

Thats all for now! I'll be back in the States tomorrow! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

3rd place

Well we just finished the first America's Cup race here in Calgary. I took 3rd, which I am actually really excited for because I only had two real training runs before the race. Its funny I pushed faster in this race then I did last year during the World Cup race, and I have a sore hamstring now.

I had two pretty decent runs today, I worked on the parts of the track I find to be the most important. I have a few more things to work on tomorrow, but I am excited and glad to even be sliding here in Calgary.

I think thats about all I have for tonight, my sled is finished and I'm almost ready for bed actually. I have to ice a few more times before I get to sleep though.
Wish me luck for tomorrow!!

Interesting Streak of Luck so far this season

I have never thought that I am an unlucky or lucky person, just normal. I have now decided that I might have had a streak of unfortunate luck hit me. Its actually funny if you look at the whole month we have been sliding and racing so far this season. But hey things can only get better from here... right?? HAA just kidding the answer is: yes!!!! everything is getting better. I'm on the right track!

I am just going to sum a few things up from the past two weeks just to make everyone laugh because it makes me crack up, and why shouldn't my blog make people laugh!! Last weekend was the Park City America's Cup races, I raced both days, but if you look at the results from the first day my second run says DNS (did not start). I didn't get hurt or anything, I just popped the groove (which is what we put our sled in to start the run) twice. I was competitor number one in the race and since I was first off they decided to let me take another one. Then I popped the groove again. I couldn't get myself to take a third and pop again so I called it a day. Race number 2 was better, I stayed in the groove and had decent runs, they weren't horrible but weren't great. I finished 6th and just felt I built my confidence back up.

We left from Salt Lake to drive up to Calgary for the America's Cup, the drive went well, with stops it probably took about 14 hours. Three of us had given our sleds to one of the bobsledders who was driving up the next day, we found out as soon as we crossed the border into Canada that his truck broke down and he was only a half an hour north of Salt Lake. Horrible for him, and so unlucky for us. The first few days of training I just coached the boys and our one girl who had her sled. It was helpful I learned a lot about the track just from watching which is what I planned on coming to Calgary for as it was.

Oh the funniest part and I already forgot, we all thought it would be a good idea to search on Craigs list before we booked a hotel to see if anyone had part of their house for rent close to the track. We found this awesome advertisement spacious 2 bedroom and bathroom with use of the kitchen. In our minds that was great we could save a little money, cook for ourselves and not have an expensive hotel bill. Well we got into Calgary and about 11:00 and found the house and come to find out it was horrible false advertising. There was one bedroom, and a smaller bedroom which the woman lived in and her stuff was still in it, and a bathroom to share with her, and it hadn't been cleaned (it wasn't gross but it wasn't spotless). We spent one night there, 4 of us in one room with beds on the floor, its so funny we couldn't help but laugh about. So the next morning we went hotel hunting and found the best deal. So we are clean and happy now. I just had to share that part, it was too good to pass up. Thats how we try to budget travel, normally it works out perfectly, this time we had a little bit of a mishap.

The sleds arrived early Wednesday morning though so we got to slide yesterday. It was snowing but better than nothing. The only problem now is that for some reason my hamstring is pretty tight and I can't figure out why. So I'm taking it easy on the push and just icing a lot. Everything will be fine and I get back to Lake Placid Tuesday night so I can get into sports medicine the next day and just get my whole body in great shape before Intercontinental Cup first half.

Race days are tomorrow and Saturday at 9:00am. We haven't decided yet if we are going to start our drive back Saturday after the race and just somewhere halfway or if we will do it all on Sunday.

Runner sanding time, time to go get race ready and have an awesome day tomorrow. One of the people on the Mexican team keeps telling me to smile more, so I think I am taking his advice and I'm just going to smile at everything. Because as I said it can only get better from here!!