Friday Nov. 12, 2010

Put everything away. Take it back out. Repeat. Find this here. Lose that there. Repeat.

That's sorta how I've felt this past week. Here's my 'living' schedule/situation:

Saturday Nov. 6: Leave Butler @ 2am for Rochester. Leave Rochester @11am for Albany (to see Katie Springer!!).
Sunday Nov. 6: Leave Albany @ 10am for Schenectady (to see Heather Furman!!).
Monday Nov. 7: Leave Schenectady @ 6:15am for Leah's friend's apartment in Lake Placid.
Thursday Nov. 11: Leave Leah's friend's apartment and enter Amy Will's apartment.
Saturday Nov. 13: Leave Amy Will's apartment and enter Leah's apartment.
Sunday Nov. 14: Leave Leah's apartment and enter Olympic Training Center (OTC)


It hasn't really been all that incredibly crazy except that I'm a naturally unorganized person.

I mean, I haven't even brushed my teeth today because I couldn't find my toothbrush. I should probably go do that now though...when I was at the top of the mountain a few hours ago, I found it in my skeleton bag...how It got there, Lord only knows. I just made sure not to breathe on anybody, and chewed a lot of gum.

So, in between my moving around... I've been doing a lot of sliding on the ice track, and also have spent a few days at the push track.


Practicing at the 'push track'

In sliding sports, there is no way to practice only one curve on the course. It's sort of an all-or-nothing type deal. The push at the beginning of the race is extremely important, and the "push track" has been rigged up so that athletes can practice the sprint without having to actually slide down the mountain.

We've spent 2 days now doing sprint pushes at the 'push track.' I've been feeling pretty good about my pushes, and am excited to actually get to run a few times from the top on "real" ice next week.

Every day since Monday we've had between 3-4 runs down the bobsleigh/skeleton track. I can't always see improvement in myself, but Coach seems to have faith that I am improving, and that patience is key.

Today, for the very first time, I felt like I WAS my sled. It was a very strange, very wonderful feeling. Usually I feel as though I'm just a passenger, being jostled around, a bit at the mercy of my sled's own thoughts. But not today! I can't even begin to explain it...but for about 30 seconds, I actually felt like I was totally in control, as if the metal runners were directly attached to my thighs. It was AWESOME!


View from Curve 4 (there are 20 curves in total)

Needless to say I'm having a blast :) Two beautiful bruises on my right leg are all i've racked up so far...many more to come i'm sure!