Whistler World Cup #1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.