Annie O'Shea

Whistler World Cup #1

2010-11-29T01:31:00.003-05:00

The first race is over, and let me tell you it was a stressful, very tough week and a half of sliding. Training wasn't going great but I was slowly getting the track down and going a little faster each day. I had more bumps and bruises than I had all together from even my first year of sliding. I'm not sure if I've ever hit the walls as hard as I did this week.

It came to race day and I was really ready, my sled was done runners shiny and my ipod playlist was ready. It was snowing like crazy and made warming up a little difficult, but it sure was beautiful. I pushed well and was excited with that, but my first run I drove too much (which I never do) and was just slower than I had wanted to be. The second run I wanted to drive a little less and well it messed me up. I ended up on my shoulder out of corner 6 and it was messy from then on. I hit more walls and was just even slower and fell back 4 spots.

Although I was very disappointed with the end result, I have to look back on the week of sliding and realized that I learned a lot in a short amount of time. I was just tired by the end and my body was really hurting.

Whistler is a beautiful area and it was nice to be back there after getting to watch the Olympics. Since we weren't home for Thanksgiving Justin and me decided to start a tradition of eating together. Although we didn't cook a turkey and we cook most nights when we stay somewhere with a kitchen we made steak in the broiler (yes learning a lot about cooking things too), my favorite rice and some spinach. It was a basic but great dinner and a really nice night.

There was a little black bear outside our room one morning. I pointed at it and just stared and stopped talking. (I'd upload a photo but I've exceeded my picasa limit and must figure this out, so next time) Although very cute I was glad I was inside and he was outside and there was a deck and about 5 feet from him to me!

We are in Calgary for this week, its not too cold but snowing some, training is tomorrow at 2. Race is Thursday at 9am mountain time!

USA 1

2010-11-10T20:27:00.003-05:00

Team trials has finished and I am back in Lake Placid for training before heading out again. Just to catch everyone up I finished trials as USA 1. I won the first 3 races and finished 3rd in the last race. It was stressful but well worth it. I broke the start record in Park City, pushed a 4.94! Talk about crazy!

I am ready to get the world cup season started, I had a great summer of training. All of my lifts improved and my sprints were faster. Despite getting bit by a dog (just on the hand), I'd say it was near perfect! I did a lot of pushing on the treadmill this summer, you can put the treadmill on manual we have a wooden set up to hold on and push for as long as we'd like. I think that helped me a lot this summer. I spent a lot of time learning how to keeps my butt down and hips low while pushing, which has really shown.

When I got on my sled for the first day of sliding everything just felt right. I didn't change anything from the end of last season. I finally felt like my sled was mine at the end of last year and I didn't want to do my normal re-padding job during the summer. Glad I didn't!

Schedule for the first half:
Whistler Nov 17th - 27th
Race #1 Nov 25th
Calgary Nov 28th - Dec 3rd
Race #2 Dec 2nd
Park City Dec 5th - 10th
Race #3 Dec 9th
Lake Placid Dec 12th -19th
Race #4 FRIDAY Dec 17th!

I'm really excited for this season!

Perfect Foods Bar

2009-05-29T16:12:00.000-04:00

Perfect Foods Bar is a sponsor of America for Gold. As an America for Gold athlete I got my first boxes of the bars a few months ago. They are a blend of peanut butter and honey. And really great!

I know its funny hearing me say that something with peanut butter in it is really great, but I decided to expand my food horizons.

They are a whole food energy bar with 18g of protein bar, all natural, gluten free and soy free with no refined sugar.

My favorite are the cranberry crunch they aren’t a complete meal replacement so for me its great to eat one before a workout when I just need a little something to eat, or during a long night at work. Carob Chip and Peanut Butter are a complete meal replacement, perfect to eat when lunch or dinner is just so horrible I only eat a bowl of cereal.

It is really great to have these bars available, it cuts back on costs for me. I used to buy a lot of different bars at the food store and felt like I had to eat two after a workout sometimes or before going into work. The Perfect Foods Bars are great because after one I am perfectly full, and I know that I ate a healthy bar.

I just saw the bars for sale in a whole foods store when I was in Texas. Its the first time I saw them sold individually, also the first time I had been to a whole foods store in a while. (we don’t have them up in Lake Placid). But if you are curious give the bars a try, great for on the go. Especially early morning flights, anything is better than eating McDonald’s anytime!!

Check them out at www.perfectfoodsbar.com

They really are great bars and I like the peanut butter and honey, so everyone who loves peanut butter would probably like them even more!

Rest of the pictures

2009-05-28T19:21:00.002-04:00

I finally finished my picture post from the second half of Europe. They are beautiful. If you would like to see them please click on http://www.annieoshea.wordpress.com I will be posting my blogs on that website first and copying them to this one. The pictures make it too difficult for this post though sorry.

Enjoy!
http://www.annieoshea.wordpress.com

Thanks Everyone

Picture Post

2009-04-28T22:06:00.001-04:00

If anyone would like to see a picture season update go check out www.annieoshea.wordpress.com I can't put that post onto blogger because the pictures make it difficult. There aren't a ton of pictures up, just some good ones from the first half of the season so far. I will be finishing the second half tomorrow!

Enjoy your night! Its getting late!

Beautiful Weather

2009-04-27T20:48:00.001-04:00

I have been enjoying the Lake Placid weather. Really the randomness of the weather, but hey I'll take it.

Saturday was beautiful, I didn't have a workout just a little rehab in sports medicine so it didn't take up much time. It was about 80 degrees in Lake Placid. Me, Caleb, Becca and Diego (all skeleton sliders) decided to go down to Caleb's parents house. There is a river right across the street from them with awesome rocks that people lay on during the summer. Its always a little warmer down there so it was probably about 90 or so.

We grabbed some snacks and hung out on the rocks just relaxing. The river was flowing like crazy because all the snow from the top of the mountains was melting. I decided to put my feet in the river to see how cold it really was, it was serously cold probably about 40 or around there.

I felt the need to cold tub my legs, so I just sat down, firmly planted on the rock so the current wouldn't take me away. Becca went to the deeper part and started walking in, I decided to join and of course I lost my balance and fell in. This always happens to me. I fell in the river when we were up in Calgary last August using it as a cold tub I lost my footing on a rock and fell in. Slow motion really quite hilarious.

Back to this past weekend though, the water was so cold but the instant you got out of the water the sun instantly warmed you up. I kept getting back in the water and getting out to lay on the rocks.

All the runoff made the river filthy. People up here are always saying the fresh water is so nice and you get out feeling squeaky clean. Well not this weekend I was covered with dirt and Becca had her magnetic bracelet on and had so much iron stuck to it! It was so awesome!

Sunday wasn't the best day it rained, so I spent the day inside just relaxing. The sun kind of wore me out the day before.

Today was beautiful as well about 80 degrees again just a little windy though. I had a lifting and sprinting workout this morning. It was much better than last week. Well easier not better, workouts are always hard!

I wanted to get the most out of the day so I went down to the beach area in town. It is actually funny, they made a beach but its not the best sand even and well its a lake so I have a hard time calling it the beach. Besides the point, anyway it was very windy so I ended up just laying in the grass. Two ducks came very close to me, I almost thought they wanted me to pet them. People must feed them, which I think is so horrible because they don't learn how to get all the food they need on there own.

Tomorrow is just a sports medicine day and make a 30min bike or something!

Seriously Sore

2009-04-23T11:11:00.001-04:00

I had a seriously hard workout yesterday. I went into the weight room still sore from Mondays workout, and Tuesdays rehab in sports med. I don’t have any injuries (knock on wood please if you are reading this, huge superstition). I am doing maintenance on my lower back because the end of the season pushing took a toll on me and I need to work on some small muscle groups.

If anyone wants to be incredibly sore and dread an exercise, do Bulgarian Deadlifts. I think they are the hardest thing I have ever done. It was killer to end the workout with Glute Ham Raises.

I had a great workout yesterday, despite the pain. I was the only one in the weight room (sometimes I don’t like that but yesterday I couldn’t have thought of anything better.) Jason is the head strength and conditioning person who runs the weight room, he writes programs and this off- season I decided to get on his program. I thought it was the best for me because of all the rehab things I am doing, he coordinates with the athletic trainers in sports medicine to see if you are having any problems and can’t do some exercises. As I was saying about yesterdays workout, Jason helped me with every lift. He watched my deadlifts, and cleans, and helped me with my glute ham raises.

Most importantly he gave me a ton of confidence. Normally I have problems when it comes to any hamstring exercise because I have had so many problems with my hamstrings. Jason assisted me on that part of the workout, and said that in about a month he believes I will be able to do them on my own.

I’m an athlete that needs to hear that your coach on the track or in the weight room believes that you can do it. Just a little bit of encouragement is all I want. So I think the summer in Lake Placid will be great for me, getting me ready going into next season and adding a little extra confidence to what I know I can do.

Sorry this post was a little bit scattered. I think I had a lot to say and probably could have put it all in one paragraph but how horrible would that have been.

Little catching up to do

2009-04-23T11:09:00.000-04:00

Well I am back up in Lake Placid, but I had a wonderful time at home. I saw some family and a few friends that were at home over the weekend. I took the week completely off from training, it was awesome!

The only down side was that it wasn’t as warm as I was hoping for. It was actually warmer in Lake Placid the entire time I was home than on Long Island. I was shocked! I brought back my summer clothes in hopes that it would stay warm in Lake Placid. So far that hasn’t been the case. It is now pretty chilly and has been raining for the past few days. This weekend is going to be beautiful though, they are saying a high of 75 for Saturday, I’m hoping to catch some rays, maybe add a little color to my face.

This past weekend we had a BBQ at Caleb’s parents house a few bobsledders came and some other skeleton athletes. It was a nice sunny day and the BBQ was the perfect thing to get out of the OTC.

I started working out on Monday and let me tell you I can’t move too well today. I did 3×10 squats not heavy but after the second set I was already sore. I had some other lifts that added to me not being able to move yesterday or today and I’m guessing tomorrow also. Yesterday I thought I was going to fall down the stairs my legs were so dead. And today I couldn’t go up or down them very well. I am hoping my workout tomorrow will be doable.

Home for Easter

2009-04-10T14:28:00.001-04:00

I am home for a few days, back on Long Island where there is no snow and the grass is green.

I had planned on coming home Saturday with a friend but plans changed and my friend and teammate Katie was wonderful enough to let me borrow her car to drive home. I had planned on coming home today but I was so anxious yesterday that after lunch I decided to pack some stuff and hit the road around 3:00. It was so nice that she let me take her car home, it felt great not having to burden anyone with trying to coordinate rides and now I can head back to Lake Placid whenever I want.

I surprised my mom last night she thought my Aunt was picking me up on Saturday. I thought it would be fun if she didn't know I was coming home. It was funny to see her face she was just shocked, stared at me and said why are you home!

I haven't been home since February so its nice to be home for a while. When I left Lake Placid it was snowing and just seeing the green grass on the drive down once I got around Albany always makes me happy. I stopped for gas and when I got I got out of the car I couldn't believe how warm it was.

Its pretty warm down here today high 50's the sun isn't out but the grass is green and I don't need a jacket just a long sleeve shirt! I am so happy to be home and excited because my older sister Kaitlin will be home tomorrow!

2009 America's Cup Champion

2009-04-06T14:35:00.000-04:00

Well I had my last race of the season Thursday and Friday. I won Thursdays race by.67 seconds. Its a large margin to win a race by so it felt good. Yesterdays race I finished second, behind my New Zealand friend and competitor Tionette.

Winning the overall America’s cup title was a great way to end the season. I won the circuit in the 2006-2007 season as well, so it was fun to win again.

The weather for these races was just horrible. It was warm and the ice was soft and slow. Never the way you want to race for anything. It is the most difficult ice to drive on. It is easy to do to much, and go really slow.

Thursday’s race went really well, I had a great first run and a decent second run. I had planned on using these last two races as training for races for next season. I think in any race you compete in you can learn something. Whether it be how to keep it together for two runs, and if you are in first how to stay in first, or if you are in second how to pull it together for a great second run. I think day one I did exactly what I had planned to do.

Friday’s race didn’t go as I had wanted. I have been having some back tightness from pushing, and when I woke up I was very uncomfortable. I don’t think my head was completely in the right place, and I wish I had fixed that before the race started. Second was a good finish though. Tionette is a tough competitor and she had a smokin’ fast first run.

I enjoy being friends with the people I compete against. I think it is good to be able to hang out, and get along away from the track.

This race was a great way to end the season.

April Showers

2009-03-30T21:53:00.000-04:00

Alright it isn’t exactly April yet but close enough, and it hasn’t stopped raining. It was a cold, muddy and wet day today. Sliding in this weather isn’t very fun. As soon as you pick your sled up and it touches your speed suit you’re soaked. (good thing our speed suits are really bathing suits, still get really cold though).

Its nice to be back sliding again. The week off was relaxing, more boring really. I had two decent runs today for not being on the track in a week and considering it melted a little this past week. When it rains a lot and gets warm the ice sometimes takes a different shape because it melts and refreezes. Track are always the most difficult after that happens you never know which way the ice is going to throw you.

I am testing a few pairs of runners (one of the most important aspects to our sleds). There are so many different types of runners and each athletes has reasons as to why they like the ones they do.

I think it is good to have this final race of the season in April. If you can teach yourself how to race tired, and after a long year and still race well I think you can learn a lot about yourself. So I’m ready to learn one last thing about how I race this season, I will tell you all about it after!

Almost Spring

2009-03-19T21:13:00.001-04:00

Today was a beautiful April day for Lake Placid standards. I woke up early since sliding was in the morning, got a few things done and headed to the track for training.

The sun was out and there were few clouds in the sky, but the wind was blowing just enough so you needed a sweatshirt and some gloves. I love being at the track when its a nice day, it makes me happy. The best time to slide is when you are happy so basically its a win win situation for me.

The track wasn’t as fast as it has been, but it is getting less bumpy which is a good thing. This time of year each time I slide I try to learn something new, or try something out down the track. Whether it be a drive in a different part of a corner or a better way to relax down the track. This is the time to do all different things, make mistakes on purpse to see if your mind is fast enough to correct them, thats what makes a skeleton slider great.

My biggest stuggle in the past was consistency, that was mainly what I worked on this season during training and races. I am still working on being consistent but don’t feel like I am struggling with it anymore. What you aim for is two runs to be within 2tenths of each other, sometimes a little more is ok and well a few hundreths is pretty awesome.

After lunch I decided to get motivated and do a short running workout. My roommate and teammate was going so I figured I would tag along. It was a simple workout 8×80meter strides on the grass in the field outside the training center. This time of year it is a good idea to start running on the grass, except that the snow is still melting and the grass is soaking wet. So after my workout the back of my legs and my back were drenched and I was a little covered with mud. Abs were the end to my workout for the day. It may not seem like much but it is only March, and sliding before working out takes a lot out of you.

I won’t start my heavy training until the end of April or the beginning of May. Team trials take place in October so the summer is very long.

In Lake Placid

2009-03-12T21:50:00.000-04:00

I realized I haven't written much lately, its been a little boring in Lake Placid. Sometimes its a good thing to have nothing to do here but it doesn't give me much to write about.

It was getting warm a few days ago. I went for a walk around Mirror Lake and down Main Street with my friend and the little girl she babysits. It was a wonderful walk, the sun wasn't out but it was relaxing. Unfortunately, that weather did not stay, it got rainy and muddy. Now its back to freezing. At the top of the track today for sliding it was about 10 degrees. Normally in the middle of winter 10 degrees isn't too bad, but after a few days with the warm weather, its hard to stand the cold again.

Other than sliding, I have just been working out. I am not back into the serious training yet, just workouts to stay in shape and not feel too lazy. I have been doing crossfit workouts. I think they are the best cross training workouts.

I am enjoying just sliding for fun right now, testing some equipment and just taking more runs down the track. I am racing the America's Cup April 3rd and 4th, the last race of the season. I wasn't going to but I decided since I am leading in overall points, why not see if I can win the whole thing. I think racing experience is one of the most important aspects of a mainly mental sport. Even though I had so many races this year I think it will be good to end the season on one also.

Thats about all for right now. I do the same thing just about everyday. Maybe something interesting will happen soon!

Check it out

2009-03-06T12:25:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone if you have a minute, go check out my BIO on the America for Gold website...

http://www.americaforgold.org/athletes/annie_oshea.php

If you haven't done so already read the website and get to know America for Gold a little more.

Just in case anyone was wondering, yes I know the pictures I have up on my website are old and I am not the little anymore, I think on Monday as long as the weather is nice I will be taking new ones. So everyone be excited! I sure am!

America for Gold

2009-03-04T09:03:00.000-05:00

I have never been happier to say that I am officially an America for Gold Athlete! I just found out on Thursday! I am so excited and I think this will be a great experience for me, to meet and talk with other people, while helping America for Gold get on the map some more and telling more people about skeleton.

I couldn't have done all of this without everyone who donated when I was raising money for my application. Thank you to all the people who help me and believe in me! This is going to make going into next season (Olympic Year) a little less stressful which is all I can really ask for!

I will be using this money for equipment and travel expenses, and getting a job this summer for the extra things. I am actually braving the cold today to go job searching, it isn't too busy in Lake Placid now so I might have to wait a little while for a job, but hopefully not.

Thank you again everyone for all of your help! It means so much to me!

Back in the U.S.A.

2009-02-10T11:15:00.000-05:00

Finally home, is really all I have to say. The flight back was good but it just always seems so long. I almost didn't want to leave though, I love being in Europe. I will just have to be excited again for next year.

It is really great to be home though. I think I will stay home for about a week or so then head back to Lake Placid and slide some more and workout. Mainly get a job since now I have to start finding a way to save up for next year.

Thats all for now, just wanted to tell everyone I was back in the US!

9th Place in Konigssee ICC Race

2009-02-09T20:57:00.000-05:00

This was the last stop for the ICC tour this season. I finished the race in 9th place. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but I am happy with how things ended.

I had the best first run I had had all week. Again in training I was having problems with bendaway the curvy straight away and kriesel. On the first run I got them both and had my best speed out of kriesel. Run two wasn't as good as I had wanted so I fell back into 9th place.
Its really easy to lose speed out of kriesel and that was what I did for the second run.

It was a good week though I learned about this track which is very important since it is on the schedule for next year as well.

It took me a while to get back into the swing of racing this year, so I am really excited that I finally feel like myself. I am racing well and I am glad to end my European half on a good note.

Days off in Konigssee

2009-02-04T07:37:00.000-05:00

We left Igls on Monday and headed for Konigssee, it was a short drive, didn't even take two hours. Its kind of hilarious though because the shortest way to get here is to drive from Austria into Germany back into Austria then finally back into Germany! Cracks me up! You see all the old border stops along the road when there wasn't the EU, I think its cool that they are still up but its almost like they are there to be used again. The drive was beautiful though just like all the others.

We unpacked and decided to hit the indoor water park for a few hours as a team. I think this is the first outing we all did together, and the lone Australian Lucy and her coach came along. It was so much fun just to get out. I wanted to go to the water park last year but no one else wanted to. I was glad to go this year, there was a huge slide that went outside the building and came back in, super fun! It was a good two hours to just let loose and hang out with everyone.

The only sad thing about the water park was that my what I thought was so wonderful water proof Timex watch turned out not to be so water proof. I noticed it was broken before we left the water park. I was really disappointed because I don't function that well without my watch, I love knowing what time it is. This is the second watch that I have had the same exact one because the last one did this as well. Not even a year ago. Although that one fell in the toilet and never dried out. Also very annoying. I'm calling Timex when I get home or at least writing an email. My hairbrush broke this trip too. Well it was actually broken before we left for Europe but I brought it with me anyway. Bad idea its been driving me insane. No one buy conair or Timex they seem to break a lot. I want to review my hairbrush when I get home as well. haha oh I have a lot to do.

We had the entire day off on Tuesday and decided to go to Salzburg, back to Austria because its only about 20min from Konigssee. It was a fun afternoon. Caleb myself and Greg (from France) did a workout early that morning and we went to Salzburg after lunch.
It is a beautiful city, there is a castle that is the only one that was never overtaken in Europe. We walked halfway up to it, there is normally a tram that goes to the top but it was out of order so you have to take the long road all the way around. It was a long walk so we didn't go all the way. I'll have to do that next year when I come back.

We just walked around, went in the little shops. There was an outdoor market, I got a pretzel because I normally love them but it was one of the worst I have ever had they put too many spices in it.
There was a beautiful church called Dommusik Salzburg, its one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. And I have seen a lot of churches in my travels. I lit a candle for everyone I was thinking about, and said a small prayer for the whole family. Random, the parking garge was in a mountain. It was crazy instead of having a tunnel it was a parking garge. Our car is a little scary bringing into garages though, its just under 2m tall and most garages are 2m or 2.1m and our antenna hits the roof and scrapes it the entire way, so it always sounds like the top of the car is hitting but its not.

Its always a lot of fun to get out and see things. I am so excited that this trip we haven't just sat around in the hotels. Sightseeing is so amzing and I love enjoying the atmosphere of other countries and just seeing different things. Its one of the best things we could possibly do, it makes the trip not just about slidding and you don't over think the tracks because you are having such a great time doing other things. I slide best when I'm really enjoying myself which is why I think so far this trip has been such a success!

6th place in Igls ICC Race

2009-02-02T04:14:00.000-05:00

I finished in 6th place yesterday for the 7th ICC race of the season! I am really excited. I was in third after the first run, but some of the girls had a really bad first run so I wasn't too sad at how I fell back.

It was such a good race day, the sun finally came out for the first time yesterday which was crazy that it wasn't out all week because Igls is the most beautiful stop on tour and is supposed to always have the best weather. The trees were covered in snow, and standing in the sun was by far the best place to be. The only problem was that it got really windy and all of the snow blew into the track from the trees after a few people had gone. I was 8th off and there was so much snow in the track.

No complaints though, my first run was pretty decent I made a few mistakes and found all the snow. I was really relaxed when I got to the line though which was a good thing. For the second run I was just going to have my best run all week. I pushed a 5.49 my goal was to be under the 5.50 mark which I was and that was the fastest I have ever pushed in Igls I was pretty excited.

My run was great, I might have been driving a little too much in places I didn't need to be, but Kriesel was perfect for the first time all week! I was excited. When I got to the bottom and saw my time, I was only a little disappointed because I thought it would have been faster. Mr Rettl, Martin Rettl's dad came running up in the outrun to take my sled for me and give me a big hug. He is so sweet he comes to training and our races when we are in Igls, its just like having Martin there to give you a hug and a big smile.

The day was pretty awesome, I am glad to have been on the podium for second half. I am hoping that next week in Konigssee goes well too. We are leaving today, sliding doesn't start till Wednesday so you will have to wait and see what sightseeing I do this time! Instead of medals you get a cup, I love it!

A few days off

2009-01-28T14:53:00.000-05:00

We had two days off after the Cesana races and didn’t want to waste them while in Europe. Unfortunately there weren’t too many things that close by that we could go visit. We have a limit on our mileage on the car for the month and we didn’t want to drive too far and go over.

Caleb myself, and Kimber decided to go to wine country are in Italy. We headed towards the Barolo and Barbaresco areas. We figured we could have some good wine and relax for two days and see some pretty awesome Italian cities.

It was a ton of fun; the first day we got there the weather was beautiful and sunny. It was Sunday and in Italy nothing is open on Sundays. It’s a really cool concept but really different being from the US and all. So we basically walked around lonely towns until we found a place to eat. It was random down a side road in one of the towns, but they had amazing food. There were a lot of families eating at about 2:30 or so, we think they must eat supper on Sundays because they were eating the full 4 or 5 course meals. Again another great concept, very family oriented. The three of us on the other hand had just eaten so much for the past week 3 courses for lunch and 5 for dinner we couldn’t bear to eat more than just one, didn’t even have room for dessert. It was amazing food though, that is the best part about Italy.
We went back to the hotel and just hung around for a little while, unpacked and then decided to go walk around the town we were staying in. Again a really nice town, a lot of stores and some were actually open on the Sunday night. This town was a little busier than the small wine towns. Good thing or we would have been extremely bored! We found an amazing pizza place to eat at, it only cost 4.50euro for a pizza, talk about an amazing deal. (I know it sounds like we had just eaten lunch but the night was actually getting late, we do more than eat, time flies by and I don’t know how.) We decided to get pizzas for the next day so we could have then for lunch!

The following day was a pretty gross day out. It started out just rainy and cold and slowly turned into snow. We walked around a town and checked out some of the old buildings. The problem with being tourists in the wintertime is that nothing is really open. We couldn’t see a few of the castles we wanted to but the towns themselves are worth walking through. Caleb found a wine store with really good priced bottles he wanted to buy, so Kimber and I sat there and drank amazing cappuccinos while he read the list and decided. (Another amazing part about Italy would be the to die for cappuccinos). After that we had appointments at local wineries, I’m not going to lie I was a little skeptical I was afraid to be bored. I had the best time at both wineries. The owners and wine makers sit down with you and personally pour their wine for you and talk to you about it, and listen to what you have to see about it. Its crazy the history that goes into all the wine and how many family generations have had their vineyard. On owner was telling us that he thinks this type of wine will die with his generation because the younger ones don’t care enough. I found that to be really sad, I wouldn’t mind coming to Italy and living on a vineyard, it would be like the Parent Trap. That’s a good movie. Speaking of movies if anyone wants to get the Italian wine experience through a movie go watch A Good Year. I saw that one a while and couldn’t stop thinking of it all day.

Ironically enough we went back to the same pizza place for dinner, we couldn’t help ourselves! I think we all fell asleep at 9:30, what an exhausting day, but a ton of fun and a great way to refresh our minds!

12th and 7th in Cesana ICC races 5 and 6

2009-01-24T08:43:00.000-05:00

Let me first start by saying Cesana is the track from the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino. They built the track about an hour and a half north of Torino because of the colder weather. They tend to do this a lot for the sliding sports. When we have races here we stay about 20 min past the track up the mountain in Sestriere. Its a nice town, small ski town with hotels all over and people walking in ski boots.

The first race in Cesana was Friday (yesterday) I finished 12th. I had been having problems with track all week, I wasn't understanding it and couldn't go fast or have good runs. I figured for the race I was just going to let it happen and see if I could make something click. That wasn't too much the case yesterday I had two decent runs that weren't very fast, and with some mistakes here and then that added up to big mistakes. I wasn't dissapointed at all since I have only been here once before which was last year.

The race was crazy though its still snowing, on top of the 7ft they got in late December it won't stop. I think we got over a foot of snow yesterday. This morning when I woke up it was snowing again. The track is almost completely covered, everything but the start. You don't see any snow in the track only when you load the sled and continue into corner 1.

Race day number 2 I finished 7th today. I am so excited. My first run was amazing the best I had all week. I made one major mistake I hit the wall before the first corner which is slow. So I was hoping to improve my second run. I was in 6th place after my first run. My second run was not as pretty as my first I made a lot of mistakes that just add up once you get to the lower part of the track. I fell back one spot, at least I didn't fall back more than that.

At first I was a little disappointed because I hate falling back in races, it is my goal to not do that this season. I realized that for the second time on this track I can't complain too much. I was able to put things together in the second race and I learned a lot about how to drive on this track. I am very excited that I finished 7th and am growing to like this track because if you had asked me in the beginning of the week if I like sliding here I would have said no.

If only someone would go play in the snow with me that would be perfect. I don't think anyone wants to get cold though. So I might have to go jump in the snow piles by myself since I have never seen this much snow in my entire life!

Thats all for now, have to start packing for our next stop we have a few days off so I will keep everyone updated on what we decide to do!

After that a pitt stop in Venice, Italy

2009-01-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

After leaving Cortina and heading for Cesana, we decided that we would stop for a few hours in Venice since it was only about an hour away. It was complete spur of the moment and we didn't have long time to spend there before needing to get to the hotel in Cesana.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't very nice, it started out just being really foggy I kept hoping the sun would come out but it didn't. We parked and walked across the main bridge. It is such a cool city. I thought it was so weird just being right next to the canal the whole time. If we had more time it would have been so much fun to take a boat tour, but we were cutting it close.

We walked around and stopped in some of the Vencian Glass shops. The glass is beautiful, made right there in Venice. They make amazing things, dishes, decorations, jewelry. Everything and anything really, at a decent price I was very surprised. I wanted to buy the entire place, but I thought it would be best if I didn't.

We had lunch at an Italian place, it was cute and I had the best pasta ever. Raviolis with pumpkin sauce they were amazing! The waiter was telling us about the flood they had a few weeks prior. They got about a foot of water in the building. I think its crazy that the city floods but still looks as beautiful as it does! There is graffiti all over the place which is very surprising. You would think the city would clean it up.

If anyone is every looking for a place to vacation go to Venice, but wait till it gets warm because it started raining pretty bad which was not fun. Everyone walks around with umbrellas though and I really thought I was going to get poked in the eye with one. Luckily none of us did.

Really if anyone ever wants to go bring me with you please!! Thats really all I have though, since we didn't get to spend any time there. I'm just glad I got to see Venice once in case thats the only time I ever get to go.

24hr stop in Cortina, Italy

2009-01-23T07:52:00.000-05:00

After we picked up Kimber at the Munich airport Sunday morning we headed on our way to Cortina, Italy. There really was no reason we decided to stop in Cortina. Just the fact that there is a bobsled track there and skeleton was suppoesd to race on it this year, but they didn't open the track because of financial problems.

The drive in was insane the mountains are crazy (they are pretty awesome everywhere but these were unbelievable.) Here are just a few pictures.

Realizing now that we would probably never get to slide in Cortina we thought it would be a cool place to stop. And it was the town was so old and cute. Its not a very big town but main street has a lot of shops, and some cool old buildings.
We walked around main street, for a while and checked out some of the shops. Most of them were having amazing sales, I was very surprised. The festival of ice sculptures must have just finished when we got there, because there was about 20 sculptures of animals or monsters. They were amazing. Probably about 10-15 feet tall or bigger.We were complete tourists and took pictures in from of them. Caleb me and Kimber in front of the polar bears.

The next day we drove around the town to find the bobsled track. It took a while to find, since they weren't using it this year they really didn't plow around it. We found some of the corners though, and it was crazy there was about 5 feet of snow in it. After that we drove to almost the top of a mountain just to drive and see the view of Cortina from the top. It was really awesome. I love the town, its just so beautiful.

We didn't do too much, we didn't have a lot of time. It was just a cool stop for a day off.

From Konigssee to Munich

2009-01-19T16:15:00.000-05:00

Before we left for Munich we decided to stop and do a little sightseeing. We drove up Kesltien, the mountain that Hitler's Igls Nest is on top of. During the winter you can drive all the way to the top so we didn't get to see it, but it was a beautiful drive and must have gone up another 2 or 3 thousand feet in elevation during the drive.

After the race in Konigssee (so now this was Saturday the 17th) Caleb and I headed back to Munich to spend the night before picking up Kimber at the airport the next morning. It is only supposed to be about a 2hr drive from one place to the other. About 45 min into the drive there was a decent amount of traffic just going a little slower than extremely fast.

We didn't think anything of it really. They have electronic signs that change when things are happening on the road. This sign was a triangle with cars saying STAU at the bottom. We didn't know what stau meant and from the picture I was just guessing that it meant slow moving traffic ahead, because that was all that was happening.

Well we came to a dead stop and at that point decided to look up road signs and words. Well STAU mean dead stopped traffic. Funny, if only we had looked it up sooner we might have been able to take another road. But no so we sat in traffic moving about 5 or 10 feet every so often. Then we stopped moving. In Europe when you are in traffic and aren't moving you have to shut the car off. So we sat with the car off for 2 hours! Luckily it was a warm day so we weren't freezing.

If you think about it is so smart to shut the car off, you save so much gas. I think they stop the traffic completely when there is an accident since we were on the autobahn it must be a safety issue. At least thats my opinion!

We finally made it to Munich. We were going to visit the Germany museum of science history, but by the time we got there it was closing soon and we were tired. We stopped at a nice wine bar and were planning on heading to the Hofbrauhaus but it is really crowded on Saturdays and would have been insane. So we just went to the hotel and had dinner.

Following

2009-01-17T16:30:00.001-05:00

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8th at Junior World Championships

2009-01-17T16:25:00.000-05:00

It was a difficult week for me in konigssee, Germnay. The track isvery tough and you need to find that rhythm in order to slide well. I got half of the track down, which is a step in the right direction. I am hoping when I come back at the beginning of February I can figure out the rest. With any of the German tracks, the most important thing is getting more training runs, which is hard to get on these tracks.

I wouldn't say I am dissapointed. I didn't crash this year, so that's a positive step. My runs weren't anywhere near perfect.That's what happens sometimes. Next stop is Cesana, Italy for the Torino track. There should be a lot of snow waiting for us. They got about 7 or 8 feet in December right before Christmas.

I have pictures from Konigssee I will post as soon as I have internet again.

Race Tomorrow

2009-01-15T15:59:00.000-05:00

Wish me Luck everyone!!! Junior World Championships are tomorrow at 2:00 my time. Keep your fingers crossed I might need it!! I'm really nervous.

Ok thats about it for now. Have to try to get some sleep, my runners are sanded and I just have a few things left to do in the morning. This way I won't be too bored after breakfast.

So don't forget to keep your fingers crossed while you are sleeping!!!!

Waiting to Slide

2009-01-15T03:47:00.000-05:00

In case anyone ever wonders what I do while I'm in Europe, normally its just waiting to slide. It almost 10am, we had runner checks this morning to make sure everyone's runners were legal, now I am just sitting around until its time to leave for the track at 1:00 or a little before. Kinda boring day. We can't do much sightseeing because sliding always gets in the way. Sightseeing makes me really tired especially if you walk everywhere and I don't want that before a race.

The night before last night we went to the Hofbrauhaus in Berchtesgaden, they have the best beer. Its very inexpensive for beer over here, so much better than at home. Oh do they have such amazing pretzels also. The Hobrauhaus is the coolest place though, its so old and just the coolest atmosphere I can't really describe it. But to sit in there and think of all the people that have ever gone in to just hang out, have a beer or a secret meeting. I mean the Hofbrauhaus has been there before World War II. There is just some great history in this little town.

Sliding yesterday went much better than the day before. I think I almost have the track put together. I can pick up so much time if I just get 4 curves to be perfect. That would be nice so the Germans stop kicking my butt.

The past 2 nights I have gotten about 10 hours of sleep which is nice and all but unfortunate for me because last night I just couldn't sleep. Thats normally how I work if I get too much sleep for a few nights then I must decide its been too much and I have to deprive myself for a night. Lucky me right. I got enough but it just would have been nice to really sleep. I was almost half sleeping for the night.

Thats about it though, just hanging around. Today is the last day of training then we race on Friday. I'm nervous and excited which is good because last year I wasn't nervous and I think it hurt me. Oh and the euro has gone down a little today so I'm pretty excited. Might go to the bank across the street and take some money out before it goes up again!

Sliding Day 1

2009-01-13T13:46:00.000-05:00

It was a fun first day of sliding, although I already have ice burn on my butt and a sore ankle. I swore to myself I was going to have a good Kriesel (where I crashed last year) every run this week. That didn't happen on the first run down the track. I came out and flipped onto my side, directly onto my butt actually. The I flopped back over but in the short amount of time it took me to do that I hit my ankle really hard somewhere and got a burned butt.

Its ok though my ankle is just sore I think I bruised my bone pretty bad, but I've been icing it. The second run was much better, I just need to work on my timing a little bit more. Its really fun sliding here though, there is a rhythm to this track you have to hit in order to go fast. Hopefully I figure it out by Friday.

I think I have beat the jet lag. Tonight will be the real test though. The first night I woke up at 4:30 or so then stayed up till 6 then fell back asleep until 7:45. But this morning I slept from 10:45pm till 8:45 am and only woke up once for a tissue. Crazy!! I really hope I get a full night sleep tonight that would be awesome. I haven't napped and am a little tired from sliding.

We went to the food store today to pick up a few things for lunch because it is not included in our hotel price since its the slow season. But I got some good stuff and some Nutella and pretzels. (yes I know you can buy that at home so whats so good about it, but at home I don't eat any I save it all for Europe!)

That's all I've got for now though. Nothing to interesting on this side of the ocean. I'll try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow so I can post them because its so beautiful here and its been sunny out so it's even more amazing.

Schnitzel was for Dinner!!

2009-01-12T04:52:00.000-05:00

So dinner was awesome last night, it was schnitzel and french fries. Traditional schnitzel is veal but they can make it out of port and chicken if they please.

Did my best to stay awake last night, I watched some of my episodes of ALF, then watched some of the Flintstones. I thought I was going to pass out at 9:00 which would not have been good. So I ate some snacks then I got a second which. I thought I was going to last longer but I made it to 10:30, fell asleep in the middle of the Flintstones though.

I woke up at midnight though and was so afraid I was going to be up for the night. Luckily I wasn't, just needed a drink. I did wake up at 3:30 or so though. But managed to be in and out until about 4:30. Breakfast wasn't until 7 and I was already starving. I napped from 6-7:45 though (I call it a nap because I was wide awake just forced myself to sleep).

Had breakfast at about 8 (the wonderful rolls with butter and jelly, breakfast meats I don't really eat) I had eggs, I don't think I have ever had eggs for a Europe breakfast. It just the Americans and the Japanese staying at the hotel so its really quiet I like it a lot.

Caleb and I did a track walk after breakfast, its cold out!! The track looks really nice. Glad we got that done for the day already. Probably going to do a light workout later.

Not too sure yet what time sliding is tomorrow. I'm really excited to slide though, a little nervous for some reason but I know it will be fun!

Europe...

2009-01-11T11:33:00.000-05:00

Well I made it to Europe earlier in the day, after sitting on the runway at JFK for about 2 hours because of the snow. Not really a lot of fun, but at least the plane took off. The flight was good, I tried to sleep but only got a little bit here and there. The drive from Munich to Konigssee was beautiful the trees were covered in an icy snow and the sky was so blue.

Needless to say I am exhausted and had to take a nap earlier. I was aiming for just an hour and a half but I think it turned into about a three hr nap. Opps. Well hopefully I will be able to sleep through the night. I really hate waking up and 3am and being ready to go.

It is really cold here, especially for Europe its never this cold. I get so excited coming to Europe every time. The hotels are so cool and so different from what we are used to at home. Dinner is in 20 min and I'm hoping for something good. Schnitzel is my favorite so maybe it will be that. I am going to need a coffee badly or I might just fall asleep in my food or at 7:00. Neither would be ideal.

Well have to get ready for dinner. We have internet all week which is great. If anyone wants to chat go on skpye and find me!!

11th and 12th Place in Park City

2008-12-14T16:16:00.000-05:00

Intercontinental Cup races 3 and 4 did not go as well as Calgary did. In the first race I took 11th place and the second race in Park City I took 12th.

Of course I wish I did better in these two races because they were so important. Looking at it now, nothing was really in my favor this past week. I wasn't training as well as I would have like to be. I have not slid well in Park City yet this year, during team trials or the America's Cup race. I'm not really sure what my problem is, the only thing I can think is that the whole time I expected to slide well. And let me tell you it does not work that way. Unfortunately that had to happen for two races.

But now it doesn't matter and I am back in Lake Placid ready for one last race before Christmas break. We race this Friday, and I'm hoping the weather stays cold. There is a good amount of snow on the ground so its nice getting into the Christmas spirit. Sometimes while traveling it doesn't even feel like its Christmas time because there is no time to sit around and watch movies or bake cookies. I'm really excited to go home.

Wish me luck for Friday!

Sidebar Links

2008-12-13T09:14:00.000-05:00

You'll notice that there are now icons on the side of this blog.

USBSF
USA Bobsled & Skeleton
Vancouver 2010
FIBT

Click on any of the icons to get to the webpages where you can find the latest available results. Annie cannot always get to a computer on her travels, but you can follow her. Sometimes there is live feed available fro FIBT.

More updates on the blog and website to come. Please remember to read the "Support Annie" post.

Thanks!!

-Kaitlin

Facebook Group

2008-12-13T09:10:00.000-05:00

Hello all, this is Kaitlin, Annie's older sister, taking over this post. I just wanted to let you know that if you have a Facebook account, you should go ahead and join the Facebook Fan Page. Click on that link or just search for Annie O'Shea on Facebook.

Also, you can now subscribe to these blog posts by email or RSS. If you subscribe by email, you will only get an email when Annie posts. No junk mail or anything and no mail unless there is a new post.

Thanks for your support!

Support Annie

2008-12-11T23:22:00.000-05:00

Dear Family and Friends,

I want to give an update about how the 2008-2009 season is going so far. As you may have read on my blog or heard through the grapevine, I did not make World Cup this season. I had a shoulder injury during team trials and it affected my sliding and racing. Despite this setback, I am committed to working harder than ever in order to improve my world rank in skeleton.

This season I am on the Intercontinental Cup Circuit. The competition is very difficult and I am still traveling through North America and Europe for races. I finished 4th in the first race, and have 2 more races in Park City, and one in Lake Placid before Christmas.

A spot on the World Cup team is funded; unfortunately, the Intercontinental Cup Circuit does not receive any funding. In order to make ends meet, I am applying for a scholarship called America for Gold. America for Gold is an organization that tries to help U.S. athletes by awarding grants to them. The application is lengthy, including financial information, letters of recommendation, and a personal statement. Before I can be considered for the scholarship, I am required to have 25 people who will donate $5 every month, for one year. This can also be done with a one-time donation of $60.

This is where I need your help. I am asking for your tax-deductible donation of $60. By securing donations to my training fund before I apply, it shows that I am dedicated to doing everything I can to succeed. Please consider helping me in my training and helping me to earn additional, much needed funding.

If you are interested in helping me please let me know. You can visit the website at www.AmericaforGold.org, read about the scholarship opportunity and learn about athletes they already support. The link for the EZ giving form is http://americaforgold.org/_doc/EZ-Gift-Enrollment-Form.pdf. You will need to fill out this form, email me at annieoshea.com@gmail.com and I will send you the address to send it to.

I will let you know when I have received your form and when I have mailed everything (all of the application materials need to be mailed in one packet). The deadline is January 15, 2009. I know this is a busy time of year, but please take five minutes to think about it. Your support is worth more than you know.

Thank you for your time. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Annie O'Shea
USA Skeleton Team

Last Week Intercontinental Cup Race #1 Fourth Place

2008-12-11T23:03:00.000-05:00

The first intercontinental Cup (ICC) race took place last Thursday in Calgary, Canada. I finished 4th. Not too bad to have a medal finish for my first ICC race of the season.

The competition is very close and places were determined by hundredths. I had two pretty decent runs, just didn't pull everything together enough to get on the podium. I'm happy though with how I did.

I love sliding in Calgary although its always freezing. It was about -16 Fahrenheit on race day with the wind chill. Just imagine standing on the start line in a speedo full body swim suit freezing your butt off. Its actually the worst part of it all. I was lucky enough though when I stood on the line the sun came out, when I took my pants and jacket off I had a false sense of warmth. By corner 12 down the track though your arms are cold and you realize how much you are freezing. Your ready to be done even though you still have 2 corners to go. But you make due, I've learned to deal with the cold. I don't love it, but I do love the sport so I'll make due.

Sorry for the delayed updates. My days get very busy and I loose track of what I posted last.

Directly after the race and the medal ceremony I had my car all packed up, with all my teammates sleds, so they wouldn't have to pay $200 to get their sleds on the plane. I headed back to Utah. I got stuck in 45 min of traffic outside of Calgary. I had one of teammates GPS that I was using since I would be driving back in the dark just so I didn't miss a turn. Well that GPS cursed me. I know how to get back into the states but I was following the GPS and wasn't paying enough attention to the road signs. (the easiest way to go is to take I-15 all the way down). For anyone who doesn't know always check your GPS before you start a trip (I didn't know this) it took me to the border and I knew I was lost, not lost just not where I wanted to be. I entered the US in Glacier National Park. (not the way I wanted to go) The roads up until this point were bad, a little icy, very gusty with a ton of snow. I was already driving slower than I wanted to be. The border agent was so nice and gave me another map to follow and directions back to I-15. I didn't end up using them because I would have had to take so many turns and it was too dark to see everything by myself. So I continued to follow the GPS, which ended up taking me back to I-15 but going through Glacier National Park was insane. I was going about 20-40mph for some of the drive, and was so lucky I had a jeep because of all the snow on the road. If it were the day time I would have loved the drive because I hear it is beautiful, but all I could see was what my headlights lit up.

But do not worry everyone. I made it back to Salt Lake City safe and sound. I stopped in Dillion, MT for a few hours of sleep, just enough to make great time back to Utah. The drive was interesting. I have never been more alert while driving, since I had to pay so much attention to see the road! It was an adventure, it would have been so much fun if someone could have been with me.

I just thought it was such a funny trip. Its crazy the things you do in this sport. I love driving though thats why it was so great! Next time I travel anyone is invited if you have free time and want to keep me company!! Seriously let me know!!

Drive from Salt Lake City to Calgary

2008-12-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

Although everyone was really nervous for me to drive from Salt Lake City to Calgary, I had a great time doing it. Friday, I flew into Salt Lake and left for Calgary Saturday morning at about 7am. Before I even left I was planning to take a nap somewhere along my drive before it got dark because I only got 5 hrs of sleep the night before. (Yet again, I couldn't sleep. Shocking.)

My drive was great; it wasn't too sunny, just overcast, for the most part, which was good because driving in the sun always makes me a little more tired. I had fun singing to myself and just looking out the window for the drive. I had planned on just renting an intermediate car, but when I got the counter I was explaining that I would probably be driving in snow. The man who helped me was very nice and he upgraded me to a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I know it's not the best on gas, but I figured it was the best choice in case the interstate roads were bad.

The first state to go through is Idaho. It's a pretty flat state, where I was. I stopped in Idaho Falls for gas. It was perfect for my trip that gas was so cheap. I was able to fill up my jeep for just about $17 or so per fill up.

Here is some more of flat Idaho. I took most of my pictures thinking of Kaitlin, because she always takes pictures on her road trips. I thought I needed to also. I will say it is quite difficult to take pictures and drive when you want to get the picture perfect. The picture below is what it looked like for a few hundred miles. I think the best picture
will be the one to the lower right of the screen. It was the craziest thing. All of a sudden I was looking out my window and saw a truck driving with a man running next to it and cattle herding behind the truck. It was just so insane to me there would be about 10 or so cows then a 50m break then more cows then another break and then more cows with their calves. It looked like there were hundreds of cows coming out of the ranch. I just loved that they followed each other down the side of the ranchers road.

My next stop was a little bit past Butte, Montana for more gas. Now Montana was a little bit better than Idaho; it's more mountainous. I just loved looking out the window and seeing the snow covered mountains. It was really beautiful, at one point I looked out my side view mirror and was just in awe of them. I mean just look at those mountains - that's why it
was such an amazing drive. I was really surprised that I wasn't the least bit tired.
Mom this picture is for you. THE COWS!! Every time I saw cows just freely walking in a field I called them happy cows. There were a few places where the cows didn't look too happy and it made me really sad.

That was basically my drive. Montana got a little flatter but still hilly once I got closer to the border. Crossing the border is always nerve racking to me. For some reason I'm just afraid that they are going to make me pull over and just take up more of my time. It took about 20min as it was though, there was a little bit of a line. I think the worst part of the whole drive is going through Canada. You think once you cross the border Calgary should be an hour away but really it's about three. I did start to get a little sleepy when I was about an hour outside of Calgary.

I made it though, no naps or anything. I did though get a little lost as I got into Calgary. There are two ways to go into the city and for some reason I went the opposite way I knew. I don't really know what came over me. The drive though only took me about 13 and a half hrs, including all my stops. (it helps that my stops were never really longer than 10min). I'm glad I drove up to Calgary it was fun, and I had some good alone time. Which is something that is hard to get when you travel with people and live with them all the time. Quiet time is nice.

Kate and Mom, I hope you like my pictures. I have a few more but I didn't want to make an entire picture post!!

Home for Thanksgiving

2008-12-06T23:21:00.000-05:00

After the race in Lake Placid, I drove back home with one of my teammates, John. It was a good ride we didn't stop once you save a lot of time that way.

It was so nice being back home for the week. The whole family was home for the first time in what seemed like a while. Thanksgiving was great and the food was amazing. Especially since I wasn't home for it last year. I was in Calgary last year for the world cup race, I went to Banff for Thanksgiving dinner with Caleb. It was a good dinner but nothing like being home.

Kate and Erin did the Turkey Trott 5km race Thanksgiving morning. I was planning on waking up with them and going and taking pictures. I didn't make it out of bed with them because I didn't get much sleep the night before. Sometimes I just don't fall asleep at night, I've decided if I get more than eight hours of sleep 2 or more days in a row then I don't sleep fully for a few nights. Kind of annoying but you make due. That's besides the point though, they came home and we watched the parade. I think I was packing and mom was making the turkey.

I love being home, I never feel the need to do much, just say hi to people and workout. I didn't get to see all the people I wanted to because the week goes by fast when there's a holiday. I prefer just staying home anyway.

I had to fly out to Salt Lake City the morning after because I was driving up to Calgary for he first race. So I packed up some leftover turkey for my carry on and was on my way.

Race Catch ups

2008-12-06T22:46:00.000-05:00

So past race results, in Lake Placid for the America's Cup I finished 2nd in both races.

I was really excited with how the races went, I was sliding pretty well for the week. I really put everything together on race day. Each day I had two good runs, they were consistent with each other, which I think I might have said in one of these that is my ultimate goal this year.

It was kind of crazy, race day one I beat last years World Champion. I didn't look at it that way, but everyone else did. I was just so excited for my runs, they weren't pr's or anything but they weren't too far behind the German World Cup girls either day.

Thats about it from that race.

Cold Weather has arrived..

2008-11-18T22:21:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-12T12:43:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-10T13:24:00.000-05:00

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..

2008-11-08T18:42:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-07T21:47:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-05T23:28:00.000-05:00

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!!

This years race series

2008-10-30T23:04:00.000-04:00

Well I have all of my races picked out for the year. Obviously it is a little different than last year since I am not on the world cup team, but I am still happy with how my season should go. To start with I am racing the America's cup races in Park City, Calgary and Lake Placid. I am doing these races for more training and just to get myself feeling more confident racing. Then I am doing the entire Intercontinental Cup (ICC) tour. It is the tour right below world cup (I have to update my website they just added this tour last season). We start in North America, the first race is in Calgary, the next two in Park City, and the fourth is in Lake Placid. After New Years I head over to Europe to race in the Europa Cup in Konigssee, Germany and then race Junior World Championships the following week. There are 4 more ICC races that month, not too sure of the order for those I forgot.

As of today I finally feel back to normal on my sled. I realized the other day that my balance point was completely off. A balance point is what tells you where you should be on your sled, you don't want to be too far back because it slows you down, and too far forward makes you skid down the track. After I got hurt I was really far back on my sled, and I didn't realize it till about 2 days ago. I am sliding much better as of today and I'm just excited now.

I race tomorrow for the first America's Cup race here in Park City. I am first off, which seems to happen a lot when we race, but I'm ready to go. I am just glad to feel like myself again and be excited for the season.

Well wish me luck, I'm off to relax in bed!

Team Trials have ended

2008-10-27T12:24:00.000-04:00

Well the past month has been a little rough. The first few days of sliding were going pretty well, until I hit the wall with my shoulder and left a big burn in it, and now a hole. I had to take about five days off from sliding right before Lake Placid team trials. I must say my timing is really horrible for most of my injuries. I finished the two races in Lake Placid in 5th and 4th, not my best and I knew I could have done better. I was a little disappointed but was ready to head to Park City to finish the last two races.

I thought Park City was going to go great. I was hoping my shoulder would be almost healed, but it had actually started hurting more. I don't want to describe in detail anything about it, in case people don't like that kind of stuff. So if you want to see a picture or let me explain to you how it felt and still feels call me or email me I will be glad to tell you. I will say when it first happened for at least the first four days I didn't look at it, and every time sports med touched it I almost fainted. I probably almost fainted eight times a day. It was rough. Ok enough about that, as much as my arm hurt in Park City sliding wasn't too bad. It didn't feel like last year, but it was ok. I tied for third after the first race, and was ready to throw down for the second, and instead I had a horrible race, I finished fifth. Disappointed again.

But I'm moving on and ready for my international races to start for the season. I will be doing the America's Cup race in Park City this weekend just to get more sliding and then I am headed to Calgary for the America's Cup again for more training. First half of the season I will be in North America and who knows if I do really well I might be able to get back on the World Cup team. But until then I am glad that I am still doing all of the races I can this year. It will be a lot of work but I am really excited anyway.

So for now if everyone could just keep there fingers crossed that my burn heals quickly, and stops hurting that would be the best.

First Day of Sliding!!

2008-10-06T12:08:00.000-04:00

Today was awesome, it was the first sliding session in Lake Placid. The track was so smooth, the best its been at the beginning of any season so far! The ice was pretty quick for it being the first run and all.

My sled is amazing, it did everything I wanted it to do, I couldn't be happier!! I can't believe how cold it is now, there was a little bit of snow on the ground at the top of the track this morning and there's snow on the top of Whiteface! Crazy!! My new helmet is awesome also, its comfortable and it doesn't fog, its really light also, which is nice when you have a decent amount of G's trying to push your face in the ice the lighter the helmet the easier it is to keep your face out of the ice.

Yesterday was a good day, it was Caleb's Birthday, we went to Octoberfest at Whiteface and road the gondola to the top of little Whiteface, (which I didn't even know there was a little one and a big on) it was so high and cold at the top of the mountain, and windy I thought we were going to blow over!

Thats really all for now, have to go put some more tape on my sled then blow dry it to make it stick. Some of the tape decided to come off today, I hate when that happens its such a waste. I have to do a workout later also, crazy if you think about it, we just started sliding but we have to make sure we can do our workouts also to keep our speed and strength up.

Lake Placid Training

2008-09-24T12:00:00.000-04:00

Training is going well so far this week. I actually just ordered myself some vitamins to take while on tour. I never realized how expensive they are especially because you have to make sure they are safe. Since we get drug tested all the time taking vitamins is basically at your own risk. Its best to use the companies that have a guarantee. The ones that send there vitamins to companies that test batches and make sure they are safe. Its such an ordel I spent a good amount of time deciding what kinds to order and what brand. I figured it out though and I can't wait for them to get here.

We start sliding October 6th. I can't wait. We don't have that many runs on the ice before team trials this year. Normally we slide for almost the entire month of October and then race but this year we are only sliding for about a week and a half. If anyone wants to come up to Lake Placid for trials they are on October 16th and 17th. Its beautiful up here right now, the leaves are changing and although I said it was cold the air is so nice.

Well, I have to go eat lunch and get ready to go to the push track. That's another reason why its nice to be up here now. The push track isn't on ice but its better than nothing. Its good to get the feeling of running bent over before we actually start sliding. So that is what I am doing today.

Hope all is well!!

Wow 2 weeks went by already

2008-09-22T15:40:00.000-04:00

Ok so I thought I was going to be really good with my blog from now on. So I took a little bit of a break while I was home and this first week back in Lake Placid. Let me catch everyone up.

The week at home was pretty awesome, I did everything I wanted to while at home. Saw some family and the few friends that were actually at home. It was nice just being at home, I didn't go swimming at the beach but I did walk on it and put my legs in the water. The Pacific is nice but I think I will always prefer the Atlantic. I really didn't want to leave but I had to. I train as much as I can while at home, but its nothing like the workouts and dedication I have while I'm at the training center. For the drive back I left my car home and just rented one for the day. It was good I really like the car but didn't realize until I got on the road the the air conditioning was broken, and it was kinda hot out that day. So I have 5 of my 6 hour drive sweating and just being so uncomfortable. It wasn't too bad, they felt bad and gave us a little discount, so it was worth it.

So now I am back in Lake Placid, where its been about 20 degrees at night. I'm freezing already and I can't even believe it! Its been gorgeous during the day though, not too hot just in the 60's but the leaves are changing and its been really beautiful. My workouts have been going well. The new track in Lake Placid was finally built, its really awesome to run on, I actually walked to it today to do my workout so I wouldn't have to borrow anyone's care or bother them. It only took about 15 min, not bad at all.

On another note, I have also been busy getting my sled and helmet ready for the season. I am so excited to start sliding. The changed a few things at the track and it looks so awesome. They covered the spectator area at the start, and a lot of the finish is covered. That's really all I can think of right now. I am back into the swing of things with my daily routine so hopefully I will be better at posting. I think I go in 2 weeks spurts or something.

Have a great day!! I will keep everyone updated!!

Birthday Countdown

2008-09-04T17:32:00.000-04:00

So there are about 6 and a half hours until my birthday. If you couldn't tell I am pretty excited. I don't know exactly what to do tomorrow but my mom and dad will be meeting me in Cornell since that's where I will be. I'm so excited I haven't seen my dad since May and my mom since July. That really is a long time.

I have already planned for next summer that I will probably go home twice just so I don't get too lonely or homesick since it will be Olympic year. Yes I know I have this whole season to start and finish and kick butt in but you have to think ahead. Anyone can plan visits to come see me if they would like. Pos came to visit this year and it was nice just to see him and for him to see where I train and what I do with my busy days since I never find the time to pick ip the phone.

Well that's about it I just got my teeth cleaned. Caleb's friend that we are staying with is a dentist and told us to come in which was awesome I love having really clean teeth.

Again I am ending with I cannot wait to be home!! And of course for tomorrow!! Well midnight really!!

New York State

2008-09-04T11:54:00.000-04:00

Well we made it, back to the wonderful state of NY. Although I am in Buffalo today and won't be home on L.I. till Saturday its still good.

Just wanted to say we made it back and I really am excited to be home in two days. Nothing really going on or anything to talk about just shopping for the day.

I will say I wish I had a blackberry I think I would post more often its so easy. I am just sitting on a bench outside of a store typing away. That's all though. Write more later.

Eastern Time Zone

2008-09-03T12:05:00.000-04:00

We have made it back to the eastern time zone! I can finally call people without having to do math or hang up the phone really fast becuase I realized I called at midnight!

We are just passing the Notre Dame exit in Indinna it would be cool to stop but we want to get to our final destination.

That's all for now, just wanted to say my watch now says the same time as everyone elses at home!!

Traveling through Indianna

2008-09-03T11:29:00.000-04:00

Well we got a little bit of a late start this morning which I didn't mind because I would have been very tired if the alarm actually went off.

So far today we have gone through Illinois now we are in Indianna, so close to east coast time. Can't wait to finall make it back.

The cheapest gas was still in Iowa it was $3.53. We didn't fill up though but it was the cheapest.

Before the trip started I said I would stop at the first Dunkin Donuts I saw. It was not too far back in Illinois but I didn't notice it till we passed so I will have to wait for the next one. Not to mention I just had coffee this morning. But I have to stop for it soon, I mean I've gone all summer without it!

For tonight we are stopping in Buffalo and staying at a friends house. I have ti change my plans a little bit. I was going to be home mid day on the 4th but then had to go to Cornell for a technology project for skeleton mid day on the 5th. To avoid way too much extra driving I will stay in the area on the 4th and just be home on the 6th.

Just wanted to fill everyone in. I will post when I cross into the eastern time zone!!

Evening update

2008-09-02T18:53:00.000-04:00

We just entered Iowa, now all I see no matter where I look I see corn. People just love their corn here.

I have a correction on the cheapest gas so far comment it was actually just in Nebraska it was $3.59.

We are actually driving past Des Moines and going all the way to Davenport Iowa not s short night but tomorrow won't be too bad. Just watching South Park on Calebs Ipod.

Next stop Des Moines, Iowa

2008-09-02T14:38:00.000-04:00

As we speak I am driving through Nebraska with Caleb. We didn't get the earliest start leaving Denver so this will probably be a long day. Especially since we entered the central time zone not too long after we got into Nebraska.

I just drove for a little while, it is currently my break time. We just stopped at Applebees for lunch, much better than just grabbing fast food, and it all cost the same price.

On a side note the cheapest gas so far was just outside Denver $3.69, the most expensive was in the middle of no where in Utah $4.19. It was the only exit with services for like 120 miles or something.

Before I forget yesterday the first rain of our trip we saw was about 2.hours outside or Denver, it poured the whole time we drove the mountain passes. We made a guess on when it would rain, I got it right, Caleb said Iowa.

That's about all. Nebraska is quite boring, so I have to go be the DJ!

Calagry push championships.. a little late

2008-09-02T11:07:00.000-04:00

Last week the team had push championships up in Calgary at the indoor ice house. Believe it or not its cold there already I didn't bring enough warm clothes with me.

It was a long week of pushing and working out. I was pretty much exhausted after the first and second day. It was nice though to just spend the time pushing and getting back into the swing of things. Its the funniest thing to push your sled for the first time after not pushing one for a few months. I always stand there for a few minutes thinking I totally forgot how to run bent over. I remember right away it just feels awkward.

I came in second, I had a pretty good week just got my conidence up some more. I wasn't able to bring my sled since it was all the way at home and I was in California, it really is hard to push a sled that isn't yours.

The push camp got me really excited for the season to start. I am ready to be home and then head to Lake Placid and breathe in the cold fall air.

I will post some pictures once I get home. Sorry for any typos I am typing on a blackberry and my thumbs slip a lot and I don't always notice!

Traveling across country Heading for home

2008-09-01T14:39:00.000-04:00

Well after a fun and what seemed like a very short summer I am heading home. Driving across the country with Caleb we stopped in Las Vegas last night since neither of us had been ther before. We tried our luck at gambling and made 40 dollars better than nothing.
Today we are heading for Denver, Colorado for a stop tonight. As I am typing we are driving through Utah.
I think its crazy how big our country is, and how long it takes to get across it. Compared to when we are in Europe, we can drive across some countries in 8 hours or so.
I will do my best to keep blogging it should be easier since I am just going to be sitting in a car for about 10 hours a day. The goal is to be home by mid day on the 4th just in time for my birthday on the 5th. I am really just excited to get home and have a BBQ!
I will check back in later.

Long Island or Bust as Kaitlin would have put on the car window if she was with me, just like old car trips!

2008 OLYMPICS

2008-08-09T19:35:00.001-04:00

So the Olympics have started and I think for the next two weeks I will be glued to the TV! I love watching all the athletes in the Games, every country! Of course though my favorite thing ever is to see the US sweep the podium! But it is also great when a country who has never won a medal wins one. Any medal, gold or not!

I wish that the TV coverage would show more athletes and events though.There are 19 Olympians that I know from the training center, and according to the TV schedule we will only see 4 or 5. Some is better than none though.

I don't know if anyone watched opening ceremonies last night (everyone should have) because they were amazing! The parade of nations was great, there are so many countries I didn't even know existed. The lighting of the torch though I will say was unbelievable to say the least.

The US medal count as of 5:00 pacific standard time is
3 Medals
1 Gold
1 Silver
1 Bronze

GO USA!!!

Life update

2008-08-05T21:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I am really behind on my updates, but what else is knew. I get so busy and I don't even realize it. I try to not get so behind on keeping everyone posted with new and exciting things I am doing. They must not be that interesting or something who knows.

Well to start with, let me catch everyone up. Texas was so much fun, it was a great break from the training center, and the people I see everyday. I really like San Antonio, if only it wasn't so hot! I couldn't function for that long outside. Its always nice to see family, too bad everyone wasn't there. We went to Sea World, the pool, shopping just about everything I could need on a vacation. It was really fun playing with Carmen and Luke, although Jess thought I was bored the whole time, I wasn't one bit.

We have started a tradition even though the summer is just about over. We (Caleb, Cassie, Becca, myself the 2 interns and a few of the track athletes) have started Sunday Funday! Every Sunday we go to the beach and just have fun for the day. Two weeks ago, we dug the biggest hole, my sisters would have been proud. It was so much fun, the picture is just in the middle of our digging, the end result was much better. This past Sunday we had tickets to the AVP volleyball tournament, but we decided to just spend time on the beach. The water was awesome, so we just went swimming for most of the day. It was great, Sundays are now my favorite day of the week!

Workouts are going well, this week is a down week before we get into our power phase. I've given a lot of tours this week, so thats a plus. Not much to say really, I'm getting stronger and faster which is always a plus. I just can't believe the summer is almost over and I am heading back home soon!

Anyway, I can't believe that we will be sliding in about 2 months. Its crazy when you think about it. I'm getting really excited though I can't wait! My room is decorated with the collages I made before I left for Cali, with a few sliding things I love to stare at on my wall. Oh that reminds me, Cassie finally made it out here. Well about a month ago she got here, her roommate was a field hockey girl, but she left for Beijing so I moved into the room with Cassie. Its fun that way, except that now I live on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed. It is a good place to hang some pictures and other things, now I just stare at them when I wake up in the morning, and fall asleep.

Thats all I can really think about for now. I really will be better at keeping up with my posts from now on. Talk soon!!

Week Off... Vacation

2008-07-07T12:23:00.000-04:00

Well this year I decided to take a vacation to visit some family members in Texas. My cousin her husband and their two kids who I have never met. I made it here yesterday, without my luggage of course, what a shock, it didn't make it out of San Fransisco with me, I almost didn't make it out of there either.

Anyway as soon as I walked out of the airport all I said was man its hot, and Jess told me it just rained so its really not hot out today. Good thing I don't really have to run or I don't know what I would do with myself.

I am doing some homework right now, okay actually I took a break to write my post, I am trying to get as much done today so I don't really have anything to do when my mom, sister and aunt get here. I think we are planning on going to Sea World. Very exciting I love amusement parks,

I guess thats all for now, just wanted to update my location. I will post again if not before I leave then when I get back to California. That is unless I melt in the heat!!

Colorado Springs Team Training Camp

2008-06-22T23:06:00.000-04:00

The past week I have been training in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center. We had a National Team camp for bobsled and skeleton. It was a week for the coaches to see how well everyone has been training. We also had a lot of meetings, PR, nutrition, teamwork as well as board meetings.

The week was jam packed we were up every morning at about 6:00 and at the track by 7am. It was good to get the track workouts done early because by about 9am it was already getting very warm. We were at 6011ft altitude and it wasn't as bad as I thought. The worst part were my allergies I don't think I stopped sneezing or blowing my nose all week.

I had the best time working out with all my teammates, I think it is awesome when we cheer for the bobsledders and they cheer for us also. We didn't stay at the training center we had to stay at Colorado College because the training center was full, it was a lot of fun though it reminded my of my freshman year at Plattsburgh. The rooms were about 90degrees with the bathroom right down the hall, but I really loved it. I really loved my dorm room my freshman year, even though living at the training center is basically the same thing, it was fun to live in a different atmosphere for a week.

The last night before we left, the sponsor of the event had a reception Gala for us. It was a semi formal event and it was so funny to see all of the athletes dressed up. I am used to seeing everyone in workout clothes or winter jackets, or speed suits. Everyone looked so good.

I was chosen as Skeleton Rookie athlete of the year. I was really surprised and so excited all at the same time. I am so proud of myself for everything this season and I really couldn't have asked for more. We also as athletes had to vote for a male and female bobsled and skeleton athlete that we thought showed great character and a person who we thought supported the team and anything else basically we wanted tot pick an athlete for. It was called the athlete's choice award, and my teammates chose me as the skeleton athlete. I was so excited again. I thought it was a great end to a wonderful year and a great week. It gives me a lot of confidence going into next season. I really do love the entire team, and respect them it is such an honor to have your teammates support you! I couldn't ask for more. On a side note I also got crash of the year. What a shock!!

Really it was a perfect end to a wonderful week. I am excited to be back in California though and get back to my workouts. I still have a lot to do before the summer is over, and I am so excited to keep improving!

Season Recap

2008-05-30T22:12:00.000-04:00

So I just thought I would let everyone know in one post what my race results were this season. I know I put them in separate posts, but I was thinking about all my races today so why not put them up.

Well let me just say that my first world cup race ever wasn't as nerve racking as our US team trials are. I was shockingly relaxed almost the whole season. Except after my mishap in Konigssee I was a little bit afraid to go down the track again but I did awesome.

World Cup Season 07-08
Race #1 Calgary, Canada-10th place
Race #2 Park City, Utah- 10th place
Race #3 Lake Placid, NY- 12th place
Race #4 Cesana, Italy- 17th place
Race #5 Cesana, Italy- 19th place
Race #6 St. Moritz, Switzerland- 14th place
Race #7 Konissee, Germany- Crashed! Disqualified second run, lost my sled
Team Competition Konigssee, Germany 3rd place- redeemed myself had the best run of the week!
World Junior Championship Igls, Austria- 9th place pulled my hamstring on the first run, talk about bad!

I chose to give up my own spot for World Championships because I knew I wouldn't have been able to compete at my full potential. It was really depressing at the time, but now that the summer has come and workouts have started I realize how glad I am that I made that decision. For once an injury I had healed correctly. I am pleased that I won't be spending all summer re injuring myself and just not performing at my full potential.

Instead I am beating all of my max lifts and its only the beginning of the summer! I am really excited and glad that I am working this hard! I can't wait for the season even though its such a long way away. Everyday I improve during the off season gives me more confidence for the upcoming season!

One More Thing...

2008-05-23T22:18:00.000-04:00

While I was home I received my Associates Degree in Sports and Events Management from North Country Community College. I was very excited!

Now I am attending Empire State College and doing it through the online portion so I can continue going to school while sliding and working out. I just started a semester on Monday and it seems like it will be interesting. I am studying business, and I can really plan my own degree. My semester will be finished August 29th, just when everyone is starting up with their fall semesters! But I might plan on taking a class during the fall and spring and my main semester either for the summer months or in March.

Well its still all up in the air, it really depends how much I like going to school online. Not to worry I will keep you posted on this also!

Ok so its been a while

2008-05-23T21:51:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't posted anything in a really, really long time I apologize for making everyone wait to see what has been going on in my life.

I guess I could start from where I left off:

I gave up my World Championship spot, because I pulled my hamstring the week before. It was my decision, and for once I wanted my muscle that got injured to completely heal. Yes, it was probably one of the hardest decisions I have yet to make. I gave the spot to one of my teammates, she was the one that raced Winterberg in my spot while I was at Junior World Championships. I spent the week of training, videoing for my team I learned a lot. It was a great week, although I was so upset I wasn't the one racing. I am very proud of myself for making the decision I did, and it was nice to have friends and coaches just wanting me to get healthy and standing by whatever I chose.

Back to North America, I spent the next month rehabbing, finishing school and working out. I competed in the America's Cup races in April, to make up some points that I missed from crashing a race, and not attending one. It was the toughest America's Cup field around, so I wasn't able to defend my Lake Placid Gold Medals. But thats ok because American Noelle Pikus Pace came back, Olympic Medalist Great Britain Shelly Rudman, and German World Champion Anja Huber were just a few of the athletes in the race! I finished 4th and 5th in the races, and got what I wanted, my confidence for my hamstring to know that I was healing correctly.

I was so excited to go home though, and just get away from the sliding atmosphere for a little while. Its tough always being around the same people, but I love it all at the same time. Being home is always so great I got to see my family and friends, and just had a great time catching up with everything. I think I was home for the longest amount of time I have been in about 3 years. Almost 2 months spent at home! It was so wonderful, and shocking enough I don't think I did everything I wanted! I took a little bit of time off from workouts, and then started right back up with the conditioning phase. Luckily its easy to workout when I'm home, I workout with my Coach Pos at the high school, and the football coach lets me come in other times.

I am now refreshed and ready to go for complete summer intensive training. I love being home and wish I could be home all the time when I'm not competing, but I know my training is the best at the training center.

I am now in California and well it really hasn't been sunny yet! I can't believe it, but it rained today. I'm excited to be back here! There is such a small group of use for now though. Only 4 of us. Becca is my roommate, I will say it is nice not to have as many roommates this summer! Even though I loved mine from last year.

Well I start giving my tours again on Tuesday, I'm looking forward to it. Something else to do, while everyone is doing there own thing! I will actually keep you all up to date on new events and interesting things during my summer months!

Junior World Championships

2008-02-08T16:43:00.001-05:00

I am taking everything from this year and using it as a learning experience. I thought the race today was going to be great. training yesterday went well and I was so excited for today.

My push was great until my last step and I felt something in my hamstring. I got on my sled and figured by the bottom it would be gone. Well me and my wonderful leg muscles had a completely different plan. I had the trainer wrap my leg just for precautionary measures. I was warming up for my second run and thought I might be able to push without it hurting. Until I bent over. As soon as I took my sled from Martin, I knew it wouldn't be smart to push all out.

I pushed the best I could without making anything worse. I wanted to be extremely careful since World Championships are in 2 weeks. I feel back to 9th a the end of the race. I was really sad at first mainly because I knew I could have done better if nothing happened. But at the same time that isn't always true. I learned a new thing anyway today, that everything and anything can happen. So after another race I have moved on.

I am looking forward to this week. We don't have a race, I almost don't know what I am going to do with myself since we race every week. You get used to it. We are going to Oberhof (I don't know how to spell it and haven't looked it up sorry but its in Germany) we are pushing (well I will spend time recovering) and sliding. It is a track just for luge so there is no start ramp for us. We just have to lay there and go down. No running it will be perfect!

Well I will be spending the weekend not doing too much. Just watching the bobsled races. Women race tomorrow and men on Sunday. They cheered me on today so I will be excited to cheer for them. It is funny it will be the same athletes that were in the team race! So its cool we are all juniors! I am going to rest but will tell you more about my next destination soon.

If you can't win, Go out with a bang...

2008-02-06T10:16:00.000-05:00

Well the Konigssee race was a little bit interesting. I have never crashed and never lost my sled. Training was going well, the track was hard but I wasn't messing up completely and I was staying on my sled.

The race was fun, after the first run I was in 17th place, I was so excited for the second run because I skidded a lot on the first and was ready to correct my mistakes. I got to the line and was ready to go. Nothing was different and I was ready to do well. My Kreisel (a 360 degree corner with a lot of pressure and a lot of loops) was going well so I thought. I got in and got all my steers correct, until the last one. I think I was a millisecond too late I came out and was extremely high. I should have relaxed as Martin had said to do all week. Instead I got a little nervous and drove out when I really should have tried to stay on the corner. I came out and well here if you would like to watch the rest I'll post the link.

The crash looks way worse than it really was, so no one be scared. I was perfectly fine just a lot of black and blues and ice burn all over my butt. That was the worst part. So check this out...

http://www.fibt.com/index.php?id=169

Click on Womens skeleton Konigssee race.

After all that I had to go home and get better, and race the team race on Sunday. I was so nervous to race and I really wanted to say no but I didn't want to let everyone else down. I knew I had to get back on my sled as soon as possible. I was all warmed up, my butt was healed and I was almost ready to go down. I was so glad Emily and Jamia were there to keep me company. Martin kept checking on me to make sure I was doing okay also. I got to the line and thought tears were going to come to my eyes as corny as that sounds. I couldn't help it. But the second I pushed and got on my sled I didn't think about anything just each corner as they came. My kreisel was the best it had been all week. Everyone was excited for me at the bottom, and I was so happy I went down the track before leaving Konigssee.

As a team we placed 3rd, it was such a cool feeling. We were all saying it was awesome to have our first world cup medal, even if it was just in the team race!

St. Mortiz Race #6

2008-01-27T04:25:00.000-05:00

This was a great race, St. Mortiz is beautiful as I know I have said a million times already. But if you watched the race online you could agree.

I thought the race went well, I was really excited because training went so well. My first run was good but I made a few mistakes that I hadn't made in training. Which in my opinion really stunk but you have to expect it for the first race on any track. I didn't mind too much I just wanted to have a good second run. It was a good run in the parts that I wanted to fix. But I made other mistakes. Thats fine though, because I was so excited to be there! I think its good to make mistakes because you learn how to correct things when they matter.

This year I am working on my consitensy, and using this as a learning experience. Since I haven't been to three of the tracks this half I want to do the best I can and learn a lot while doing it.

We made it to Konigssee last night. Our hotel is a little weird. I know I am back in Germany though. It is set up odd so to get to our rooms we walk downstairs and through a tunnel then up the stairs again. Wonder what the tunnel was used for?? My room is so cold. The heater is hidden by a desk and doesn't heat the room too well, so it was a cold night of 59degrees. I'm hoping it warms up, I slept in socks, pants and a sweatshirt and I haven't done that in forever. Kind of funny! But it keeps it interesting!

I have to go explore the rest of this place and take lots of pictures for Kaitlin. We have the today and tomorrow off so hopefully we will do something cool!

Ready as I've ever been!!

2008-01-24T14:04:00.000-05:00

The race is tomorrow afternoon at 1:00. I am really excited for it. We didn’t slide today but training yesterday went well. I think I have figured out the top of the track. It is the most important part here, it is so easy to skid and hit walls that you can lose so much time.

It takes a lot of focus to slide well here. The track is 1700meters long so there are a lot of mistakes you can make but also a lot of places to pick up speed. In training the fastest I went was 132km/hr. I’m not too sure how fast that is in mph but it felt fast so everyone check your speedometers! The start of the track begins in St. Moritz, but when we make it to the bottom over a mile later we finish in a town called Celerina. We end in a completely different town. I didn’t know until I was sewing my bib for the race (what we wear on top of our speed suit) and Courtney told me. I thought it was such a cool fact!

I spent my day off working on my sled, and just relaxing. I didn’t sleep very well for some reason so I watched one of the only English channels, BBC World it was either that or CNN and BBC was more interesting during the day. Caleb and I went and walked around the town for a little. I looked at all the very expensive stores and tried on sunglasses I can’t even imagine buying. But it was fun, I did find a book store with English books, so I bought 2. I figured I have a lot of time on my hands still so 2 was a better idea in case I finished the first one too fast! St. Moritz is so pretty, every time you turn you see a snow covered mountain. You really can’t ask for much more.

That’s all for tonight! Wish me luck, I’m really excited. My motto of course Relax and Have Fun! I have also added to my sled “Be not afraid of greatness…” Time to relax and go read one of my books! Good night everyone!

“I’m on the starting line for the rest of my life, Ready as I’ve ever been!”

Torino Races 4 and 5

2008-01-19T14:59:00.000-05:00

Well Torino is a beautiful place, and I am so glad I finally got to go and slide the 2006 Olympic track! It was such a great experience. We had our new coach Martin with us this past week, and I learned so much I´m not sure I knew what to do with all the information!

Torino is so far the most difficult track I have ever slide on, there are still new tracks I haven´t been to so we will see after I slide on a few more! You can never stop focusing on your run in Torino if you do, something will go wrong and you can get into trouble pretty quick. I mainly learned how to put my complete attention into any single run this week.

I was pretty content with the race the first day. I finished in 17th and my runs were better than they were in training, and I finished ranked higher. I thought it was ok for my first ever time being there.I can´t say as much for the second day though. I had a great first push I was so excited and my run wasn´t great so I was hoping to fix it on the second run! I was excited to push fast again, well as soon as I took my first step that all came to an end. My sled came out of the groove, I don´t know if anyone has ever tried to stop a moving sled on ice but it is very difficult. I fell on my knees trying to stop, if anyone was watching it wasn´t a pretty sight. I got my sled back in the groove and as soon as I took the first step forward I realized the coaches had said come back. I could have restarted because I hadn´t made it to the timing eye.

I crossed the finish line and knew how bad it was. Martin was there to meet me and carry my sled, with nothing but positive words. There will be millions of other races, but really who wants to come out of the groove. Orvie and Greg comforted me when I got back to the top so I started to smile and realize it wasn´t the end of the world just one race.

Needless to say I learned new things on race day. You have to pay attention when things like this happen if I had looked at the clock I would have realized I could have restarted, but I didn´t and now I know for next time! You never stop learning no matter what you are doing in your life or however long you have been doing it. Nothing is ever perfect, you just have to realize how much you put into something and how much it means to you

We are in St. Moritz this week and race again on Friday. I am very excited to slide here and I hope to do very well. I know I will be learning more this week since it is a totally different track than Torino. I am extremely tired so I am going to bed, and will write more tomorrow.

Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes between my z´s and y´s they are in opposite spots on German keyboards and I am all confused with my typing. It has taken me forever to write this. But goodnight!

"BE NOT AFRAID OF GREATNESS..."

Igls, Austria

2008-01-11T14:24:00.001-05:00

Well we made it to Austria, after what felt like an incredibly long travel day. I couldn't sleep much on the place and was pretty exhausted the day we got here, good thing we weren't sliding right away.

We slid the past 2 days and its been going well. I'm glad we came here first because Igls is a simple track but hard to pick up speed on (its slow and short). I am competing in Junior World Championships here in about a month and any extra sliding time will be great. You can do very well on this track if you have a good push and find the little extra to give you more speed. We have a second coach to add to our team for second half, his name is Martin and his home track is Igls, I have a feeling I can learn a little something extra from here. I am excited hopefully I can win!

We leave for Italy on Sunday and start our first day of training Monday morning. I am excited but at the same time a little nervous, Torino is a very hard track and if you don't pay complete attention the whole time from what I've heard it could be bad. As long as I do my best that really is all that matters for the first time being there.

It is so warm here right now, hopefully it gets a little cooler so sliding will be faster but who knows. I am ready to compete again it feels like we have had such a long break from competitions. After the race in Lake Placid I am ready for a real race. I really am loving being on world cup, everyone gets along well, and everyone seems to help with sliding and everything else. I realized today while walking the track that I have learned so much more this season then I would have thought. Its the little things, I have found its easier to talk with the coaches and my teammates about the tracks and lines without feeling like I am wrong. I know to ask more and analyze different aspects of the tracks.

Well hope everyone is doing well back at home! Eat lots of chicken and drink some soda for me. I eat a lot of bread and butter, and a lot of odd meat.

Trying to Get Ready Before Europe

2008-01-06T02:27:00.001-05:00

I haven't decided to go to bed yet tonight, so I thought I would update everyone as much as I could before I leave on Tuesday. The Internet in Europe isn't always up to par like it is in the US or cheap so I might not be able to update my blog as often as I would like. I am still not sure if I plan on bringing my computer or if I might just borrow Caleb's and Courtney's when I need one. I just hate lugging the heavy thing and my other carry on.

We just had the Bobsled Bo-Dyn challenge this weekend. It was actually more fun than I thought it would be. Some of the great NASCAR and NHRA (drag racing; top fuel cars, and funny cars) drivers where up in Lake Placid, and they really have a great time with it. The Bobsled Bo-Dyn project is bobsled technology to make the sleds the best they can for the US team, its a great project and we just learned today that they are starting a Skeleton project soon! The NASCAR and NHRA guys use sleds that don't have to the same type of driving or body as the regular bobsleds, these are very hard to crash and don't go as fast but its still fun for them. The race each other during the day and get an overall winner. Today Boris Said won today he is a NASCAR driver. All of the drivers had the New York National Guard men and women as their brakes and they all seemed to be having a great time as well.

They are all really great people, and I love how much they love our sport, everyone is excited to try skeleton next year and I think that is so great. They all took the race so seriously today and it really made me love watching them. I am also excited now since NASCAR and NHRA races are always on the speed channel and ESPN, normally I flip right through the channels but now I will be interested if I know any of the drivers. They put so much into their sport, and I like what they do as well.

I am also working on re padding my sled with waterproof padding. So far its taken me 2 days, I keep walking away from it though and not coming back to it, because I want it perfect and its not turning out exactly as I want it. I have to go to the welder also and he hasn't been in his shop for the past two days, so I don't have everything that I wanted to be done finished yet. At least I have till Monday night. I suppose I could start my clothes packs but I haven't gotten to that either, so much to and so little time it seems like. I think I will get a lot done tomorrow so this will be good. But not if I don't go to bed anytime soon, so I am off to sleep. Night everyone!

Lake Placid National Championships

2008-01-03T20:34:00.001-05:00

Well this was an interesting race overall. I was excited to come back to Lake Placid and slide but at the same time I wanted to stay home with my friends and family. My one goal for training and the race here was to come and have two consistent runs during training and the race. My training runs were within two hundredths of each other each time and that boosted my confidence for the rest of the season.

I was set for the race with 5 girls in it, except since it was so small I don't think I took it as seriously as normal. I normally weigh myself and my sled before every race, and I didn't this time. I always wear a thing pair of race socks but I forgot them in the drawer (pronounced draw so yes some people are laughing I am sure). I was a little off this race day and I'm pretty sure I ate a few too many Hershey kisses while at home.

I had a great first run and I was very excited I did what I wanted, the bottom of the track was almost flawless, the top could have been better but I was focusing on the lower part of the track more. I was in second though only nine hundredths behind Keslie. We weigh our sleds and ourselves after the first run of races. I got on the scale and I was .1 kilogram over the weight limit for the combined weight. I couldn't believe it, I have never been overweight before I was shocked. I tried getting the rest of the snow out of my shoes but I couldn't find the brush anywhere so it was all stuck. I was unofficially disqualified. Lets just say before the second run I wasn't happy, I was really mad especially because I had to use the bathroom before my first run but I decided to wait until I got back to the top, bad idea.

I have never been disqualified from anything in my life, not a track meet, or a tennis match or anything. I guess there really is a first time for everything, kinda crazy. I had a long talk with Orvie, my head coach, after the race he had a great point when he said this is a lesson I had to learn, its unfortunate but we are all glad it happened in a race that isn't a World Cup Race because that would have been the end of the world.

I am spending the rest of the week before we leave for Europe re padding my sled. I am now using waterproof padding because snow always finds its way inside the little cracks and I don't want anything affecting my weight anymore. It takes a long time for my old padding to dry out. We leave on Tuesday the 7th and head to Austria first. I'm very excited to start the second half of the season.

11th in Race #3

2007-12-16T09:36:00.000-05:00

Well the third race in Lake Placid was alright. I finished in 11th place, but I wasn't too happy right away. I was in 7th place after the first run, and was so ready for my second. I pushed faster, got on my sled and was ready to go. I had almost the same run as my first, except for the fact that out of one of the corners I must have been in a place where most of the other athletes didn't go. I was against the left wall and then crossed over to be against the right wall. This is normally great except most people can't do it. Since it was snowing I got stuck in the snow on the track and it really slows you down. It was an even bigger problem because it was at the top of the track where you are supposed to pick up all your speed. I just didn't really pick up my speed because I had a nice run.

The race reminded me of my senior year at the state meet. It was the hurdle race of the pentathlon and it was windy, I must not have been on my game or something because I four stepped between hurdles. I had never done that in my life. I was really disappointed in myself, so I took a few minutes but new I had to move on because I had four more events. So I will just take this race and move on, not let it effect me and just keep training till we leave for Europe in January.

I'm still proud of myself because it was only my third world cup race, I just thought it could have been better. Its never fun getting to the bottom and seeing on the time clock 5 instead of 1. Well Live and Learn.

It was so nice that Mom, Aunt Susie, Uncle Jimmy, and Evan got to come. They drove all the way up in a snow storm just to see me, I was so excited. We went out to dinner, good thing because the training center food has been so bad! It think everyone had a good time, we walked around town, they went shopping, and I gave a tour of the training center.

It was a great weekend and I was going to race in the team race today. Once in a while they do one male skeleton athlete, female skeleton athlete, one men's and women's bobsled everyone gets one run and they combine all four times. They had to cancel it though because the weather is bad and they don't want anyone out if they don't have to be. Too bad it was going to be fun! Maybe next time!

Lake Placid, NY

2007-12-10T13:55:00.000-05:00

Well, its really nice being back in Lake Placid, there is a ton of snow on the ground and its been snowing since we've gotten here on and off though. After a long trip back east and no sleep then sliding in the morning its been a long few days.

We were supposed to have sliding this afternoon but it was canceled since all of the countries but us shipped their sleds on a transport truck to get to Lake Placid. The truck is late because of storms on the dive out, so no sliding for anyone. Its would be nice to do that so you don't have to bring them to the airport but we always bring ours with us so we can get extra sliding time. We are hoping they come this evening so we can all still slide at 7:30 or around then. Who knows though.

I hope we can slide, I need the runs here though because the track is so different from team trials. To change the track the add water on a lot of the corners and give the track more of a bowl shape. This basically makes the track easier, the track crews like to make the tracks easier because they take pride when there is a race and someone gets a track record. The track looks great and all, very smooth but we got used to it during trials and well now its almost like new. I still think most people will have more trouble than we are though so that's good.

I am currently in the process of moving my room to a room down the hall. I asked for a new roommate for the next housing period and so far I like it. Its just me and Courtney this week. I am trying to catch up on school work and finish my finals for my online class and hopefully do well on my accounting and economics test. I found accounting to be very difficult on my own so I'm not sure how well that will be. I still have some of my internship left and I don't know how I am going to get all this done but I'm sure I will do my best, especially because I have to!

Speaking of school work I should go start on my marketing final. Hope everyone is well!

Another top 10 finish in Second Race

2007-12-08T13:37:00.000-05:00

Park City World Cup was great. The first day of official I pr'd both of my runs, I was so excited to be in the 50 second category. The next two days didn't go over too well. I just wasn't sliding well. I'm thinking it was the lack of sleep I was getting. I'm not too sure if I had gotten used to my normal roommate Courtney or if Katie and I are just on different time zones and pages. Anyway though. who knows I still ended up doing very well.

The night before the race there is what we call a race draw, your number for the race gets chosen randomly for you by a computer. They only seeded the top ten in this race and since I finished tenth in Calgary that included me. Lucky me of course I drew number 1, I wasn't surprised I actually it the day before to my teammates. Just like team trial 2 out of 4 races I was first. I must have been pretty nervous the night before the race because I got about 4 hours of sleep. My sisters will tell everyone I wrote them text messages asking if they would sing me a son to make me fall asleep. Well no one came through and sang to me, so I was out of luck.

Nerves aside, or so I thought I was first off. I wanted to have a good run. In team trails my first runs weren't too fast, but I made up time on my second one. Well I decided not to do it any differently for the world cup race. I got to the bottom and thought I had a good run, I really didn't make any mistakes, and then I noticed the time wasn't that fast. Well thats ok though I figured because I would just go faster my second one. I finished the first heat in 12th which I was still proud about, but I really wanted to be in the top 10 again.

I had a great second run, one mistake but my run was 3 tenths faster, and in my sport thats a lot! I moved up 2 spots finishing the race in 10th place.I was really excited, I got to stand in the winners box for a sled, until my teammate Courtney came down, she had a great second run as well and moved up a few spots! For anyone who was watching the race live, I hope I didn't look too funny on camera.

Overall I am so excited about world cup so far, and I am ready for the race in Lake Placid. I love this track. We slid this morning at 8 after getting 4 hours of sleep because of course our flight was delayed in Chicago.

Thanks for the comments everyone, and for being interested in me. I hope I talk enough about the races. If not and you want to know something else just ask and I would love to answer it for you!

The race is on Friday this week!! Stay tuned! Thanks!!

Park City, Utah

2007-12-03T01:30:00.000-05:00

We are now in Park City, Utah and it is finally not -30 degrees outside. I must say I am extremely excited to be able to feel my face. I thought it had fallen off last week, but I checked and its still there!

The weather is nice, its been snowing for the past 2 days but we saw sun today. I never did venture outside though, but I heard it was deceivingly cold. We were able to slide yesterday, just the US team so it was great. 5 of us had and hour and a half to take runs. It was nice except it was so snowy in the outrun (where we break and then get out of the track) that I couldn't feel my toes by the middle of the session because they were soaking wet!

Tomorrow is the first day of official training. I am so excited for this week in Utah. I am really prepared for this race since I won the last race of team trials here by about 8 tenths of a seconds. Which is like winning a 400 meter or longer track race by a few seconds! I had never been that focused and relaxed all at once as I was during that race. I just need to find my inner competitor for Thursday, as funny as that sounds!

My roommate is Katie for this week which is fun! Normally though she is the one not sleeping and staying up until all hours of the night. But it seems like the past few days I have been the one falling asleep at 2 in the morning. I think I have it covered tonight though, I'm exhausted and we have to get up early to go to the track. I guess I will be heading to bed. Goodnight Everyone!

Top 10 First World Cup Race Calgary

2007-12-01T21:10:00.000-05:00

Well I have to apologize for not writing my accomplishments of the first race sooner. The Internet in our hotel stopped working on Monday so I couldn't even write to say that the week of official training before and during the race was between -20 and -10 degrees outside without the wind chill. I tried not to think about how cold it was with the wind chill. You couldn't let any part of you face show or you just couldn't feel it. I must say I have never been that cold in my entire life. Just think, go put on a full body swimsuit that isn't wind resistant. Its not fun!

The race went awesome for my first ever World Cup Race. I had just about a perfect first run, putting me in 8th place after it. My second run wasn't as good and I made a few mistakes that cost me two places. I ended up finishing 10th.Even though my second run wasn't perfect I wasn't mad because I was so excited about how well I did. I had no reason to complain, not many people can say they had a top ten finish at their first World Cup event.

I was nervous, but I will admit not as nervous as I was for team trails. Its really hard to make our World Cup team and I was almost more relaxed to race in the World Cup. Crazy right!

I don't know if anyone had a chance to watch the race online, if you did thanks so much for keeping an eye on me to see how I'm doing! The support is great and I couldn't do it without everyone.

I'll actually keep posting about the week of training and right before the race. This Thursday in Park City, Utah. Its snowing here now its so beautiful!!

How to watch the World Cup Races

2007-11-20T12:25:00.000-05:00

Its getting colder and colder here everyday. I'm guessing next week, race week, we are going to freeze at 9 in the morning. We haven't been sliding this week because there is luge World Cup races. Instead we have been at the ice house with the indoor push track. We have this week as a recovery week, just to relax, work out, and get our body worked on by our trainer.

The push track is a great help to practice pushing. It's so simple to get a lot of pushes in because you don't have to go down the track, instead you run, get on your sled, go up a hill and come right back down.

Instead of watching the races this year on the speed channel, you can watch them on NBC.com. Check out this press release it will tell you all about the new viewing.

http://usbsf.com/TopStory6.html

I am going to watch the luge race this week to see if they show every competitor, I know on the speed channel they didn't always show every person it would only show the top 3 for the second run. Anyway I will let everyone know how it goes.

Time to start my morning, mainly with homework since today we have the day off! Have a great day!

Calgary, Canada

2007-11-15T13:14:00.000-05:00

We made it to Calgary about 3 days ago. Its just like Cool Runnings the bobsled movie just to give everyone something to relate the location to.

Its cold here compared to Lake Placid and Park City, but that always seems to happen. We slid yesterday and today, the ice is a lot harder here, so if you don't relax enough you skid and slow yourself down more than hitting walls. Lets just say I wasn't very relaxed so my first day of training wasn't great but today was better by the 3rd run at least.

Its about 40 degrees today, but I don't know what it is about Calgary it always feels like it is about negative something outside. The cold goes right through you here. It should be in the 30's next week which is good for sliding except we have next week off from sliding because it is Luge World Cup.

We are going to the ice house later on today. It has an indoor push track, so we are going to use extra pushing as a workout. All next week we are pushing instead of sliding. Its a cool place, I'll take some pictures and put them on the website later on today.

Have a great day everyone!

World Cup Team

2007-11-11T15:40:00.001-05:00

Well the races are finally over and I accomplished my goals! I have never been more excited about anything I don't think.

I am on the 2007-2008 World Cup Team and couldn't be happier!

The races in Park City went well, I finished 3rd in the first race out here. And the second race I won! Thats right 1st place! I had my heart set on it that morning and night before actually and I did it! I had a dream the night before the last race about sliding, and I never dream about sliding. But in my dream I pushed my best and won the race! I woke up super excited and ready to go! I won by a lot more than in my dream so that was even better!

I got my new gear, winter coat, snow pants, gloves, socks and some new Columbia boots, and a nice backpack. Its really awesome stuff!

We leave for Calgary on Tuesday and will be there for about 2 and half or 3 weeks. Then back to Park City for a week, and then to Lake placid around December 9th or 10th.

I'm really excited for this and ready for my first world cup race! Thanks for all of the support from everyone! It means so much to me, and it really helps me race well!!

Utah

2007-11-03T13:54:00.001-04:00

Well I'm in Utah now, the weather is beautiful. Its really sunny and not too cold yet. But soon I bet. Glad there isn't any snow though.

Sliding is going well, just getting used to this track again and hopefully learning a lot more to pick up some more speed here and there down the track. But its fun and fast so there isn't too much more to ask for.

I am staying at the Condos right near the track, so its nice not to have to go out to eat for every meal. I don't have Internet though so I won't be posting too often. Hopefully after the races I can find a way to let everyone know how I did. If not we have to play the telephone game and everyone can spread the word! We race next Friday and Saturday! I'm excited this time. I was too nervous in Lake Placid, so I'm hoping my nerves have calmed down. That would be a good thing.

Well I hope everyone is doing well! And thanks for coming to check up on how I'm doing! I'll write again soon!
Annie

Race #2

2007-10-27T11:58:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's race was extremely close. I placed 3rd, I was behind by 1 one-hundredth of a second.

It was a rough day, my runs weren't too great, but third is great so I don't want to be bummed. I'm excited to leave for Park City, I'm looking forward to spending some time on a different track for the next 2 weeks. And it is very pretty in Utah, everyone should come sometime!!

I leave for the airport at 2am tonight, so I'm planning on being like Kaitlin and staying up the whole time, since it will really only be midnight in Utah. I'll sleep on the ride to the airport and the flight.

Thanks for everyones' support, I appreciate it all. Keep thinking big things for the next 2 weeks. The next races are November 9th and 10th!!

Hope everyone has a great week!

RACE #1

2007-10-26T11:42:00.001-04:00

The first race is over, and I am a little relieved. I must admit I was really nervous, but I'm doing better today the nerves are going away!

I placed 2nd!!! It was an intense race!! I'm on my way to world cup! As long as I keep up the good work and do my best everything should turn out okay!
Race #2 is today and I am really looking forward to it. just going to stay calm and have fun! I leave for Park City, Utah on Sunday and begin sliding on Monday out there. The races are the 9th and 10 of October! We will know after that what team I've made!

Thats all I have for now I have to go and work on my sled but I will let you all know how I did in todays race as well!!

NEW PICTURES

2007-10-09T00:43:00.000-04:00

I just added all of my pictures from sliding over the past 2 years! The good ones anyway! I'll put a few up from summer training tomorrow!! I'm sleeping in so after that most likely! Hope you like them!!

Lake Placid

2007-10-08T23:13:00.000-04:00

I finally have a few moments away from everything where I can update everyone about what I have been doing. I've been so busy with school, work, training, and internship and now we've started sliding!

Sliding started on the 1st of October, the first day is always crazy it feels so fast but really the track was about 10 seconds slow. The next day was about 25 seconds slow and we had to push our sleds to cross the finish line! It was a race to see who could run the fastest! It has been raining for the past 4 days or so, we have only slid one more time and now it is canceled until further notice because it is going to rain for the next 7. At least I'll have time to catch up on school work and sleep.

Its great being back in Lake Placid the leaves are changing and it smells so great outside! Its getting a little cooler, it would be better without the rain. What can you do I suppose. My roommates are Katie another skeleton athlete and Julie a bobsled pusher. They are awesome, we have a great time together, but stay up a little late sometimes. We are a little crammed for space but it makes it a little homier.

School is going well and I'm looking for a 4 yr school to go to in the spring. I'm looking at SUNY Empire State College and doing it online and studying Business Management. I'm excited.

Well its getting late, and sliding is canceled in the morning and I am so excited to sleep in because I only have to workout and go to work. I'll keep this updated more often, I just have to use my time more efficiently. If anyone is good at that, I would love to take lessons. Just let me know!!
Goodnight Everyone!!

Excited for Disney!

2007-08-02T22:15:00.000-04:00

Well I've had an extremely fun week so far. I went to two Padres games, a day game against the Phillies and a night game against the Diamondbacks. They lost both games but it was okay. Baseball games here are a lot of fun, the park isn't too big so the seats are always good.

Saturday we went to the Del Mar Racetrack to bet on the horses. I won $12 for the first two races, then got all excited and bet all the money again and lost. It was a great day though. Really hot, but worth going. Its always fun to get out of the training center and do something new.

I am leaving for Disney World in the morning for a family vacation. I can't wait to go, I haven't been there in a while. It will be great to be somewhere different. I hear its been raining a lot there it will be nice to see rain and maybe one thunderstorm, not a lot though. Just a day since it still hasn't rained here.

I'm all packed and ready to go. My flight leaves early in the morning, so I'm going to relax. I'll write all about the fun with Mickey and Minnie when I get back! Take care and goodnight.

Summer Outings!!

2007-07-28T00:39:00.000-04:00

Hello Again! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying your summer! I know I am!

Last Tuesday a few of the athletes from the training center (mainly my skeleton teammates) went to Balboa Park to watch a local Veledrome cycling race! It was really awesome to see them ride up the wall, you almost don't think its possible! The bikes have no gears and no brakes, and once they stop pedaling the wheels stop and they basically fall over. Good thing everyone kept pedaling when we were watching. Its a great local event though, and Balboa Park looks like a lot of fun, and huge too. So Kate and I will have to go there when she comes out!

Lately I've been giving tours, and hopefully starting my fall semester early. That would be a huge help for when the season comes around. Other than that training is still going great. I am so excited for the week off and joining the family for a vacation in Disney! Its the best place ever! Tomorrow after training we are taking a team trip to the Del Mar race track to spend the day watching the horse races and betting for some people. Not me though my luck I'd go home with no money!

Two of the roommates have gone to Vegas for the weekend so I have my room to myself, just Keslie, Courtney and me to hang out! We went out to PF Changs for dinner because it was Greg's and Keslie's birthday. It was fun we stuffed ourselves because the food hasn't been good here for the past week or so. Still no rain since I've been out here but it just started getting seriously hot! The past week and a half have been extremely humid and much hotter than normal. Everyone says August and September are the hot months of the year and rain comes in October.

I really love it here though, and training is great as I already said. I'm doing so well! But I can't wait at the same time to get back to Lake Placid and see the mountains and hear the thunderstorms again! The lake is calling my name! So is the GAP Outlet though I actually miss working there, its so much fun!

Its time for bed though, lifting in the morning and then the sun and racetrack all day tomorrow! I'll write all about it when I return! Hope everyone has a wonderful night!!

Annie

Summer Training

2007-07-16T23:03:00.001-04:00

Thanks for coming to read my first blog post. I'll do my best to update it whenever I do something fun!

For anyone who doesn't know, I am training in Chula Vista, CA for the summer. Southern California if definitely the place to be! The weather is great - nights are a little chilly but other than that, its never really too hot! It hasn't rained here at all, and I got here at the end of May! It's a good thing though, you never have an excuse not to train!

Summer training doesn't require snow or cold weather. I do sprint work on the track and Olympic lifts 5 or 6 days a week. I run anywhere from 10-150 meters. Most of the time its about 40-60m. I am currently in the power phase of my workouts, meaning shorter distance, but more repetition. For weight lifting it's the same thing, the lifts are lighter now, but I end up having to do about 5 sets of 5 for each lift. I train every morning at 9:30 and I am normally finished around 12 or 1PM.

For fun I seem to go wherever anyone with a car is going. The beach is great; I've gone to Coronado, Pacific and Ocean beach. We had a team dinner the other night, and it was great. We ordered fish tacos (yes, I know it doesn't sound too good) and then we sat on the beach and ate as the sun went down. Fish tacos come either grilled or fried with a bunch of different types of fish, I had mine grilled, and they are so good. I was a little skeptical at first but they are a must try for anyone coming out to CA! I've yet to actually swim though, there's a lot of seaweed, but at least the water isn't too cold! Since there is no pool at the training center athletes can get a pool key for one of the local community pools. They're nice during the week because there aren't too many people around. I give tours of the OTC as my job here, so if you have any questions about the training center I'm the girl to ask! I give them 2 or 3 times a week for about 2 hours. It's not a bad deal at all.

I have 4 roommates. 2 Skeleton girls Courtney and Keslie, and 2 Bobsled girls Jamia and Emily. Jamia and Emily are the 2 who I share my bedroom with, Keslie and Courtney are our suit mates. Its not too bad with the 5 of us though, we have a common room with a tv and a nice balcony with a table and chairs outside. 2 bathrooms - which is a huge plus!

Thats all I have for now, but I will post some good daily activities in the next few days! If I missed anything write a comment and I'll be happy to answer!!

Thanks for reading!!

Coming Soon

2007-06-29T22:19:00.000-04:00

Check back for updates.

Visit my site!
www.annieoshea.com