Burn Baby, Burn!

Burn Baby, Burn!

A great way to sum up this past week of sliding at Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Track.

This past week was the Skeleton Intercontinental Cup. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were Official Training days, where each athlete (9 different countries represent'n) gets a total of 2 runs per day. Thursday and Friday were race days for the athletes. I was fortunate enough to forerun (aka slide before the athletes) for Official Training on Wednesday, and then foreran again before Race #1 on Thursday.


My 'new' OTC iD

This week, the ice was FAST. Track workers spent 23 hours/day (no joke) working on the ice to make sure it was smooth, clean of debris & imperfections, and as cold as could be.

I was really frustrated with my sled & my driving during my 7 weeks of sliding before Christmas, as I was having a very hard time breaking the "1 minute" milestone... actually, my quickest time in that time frame was a 1:00.00 ... c'mon, really? But in this sport, it really does come down to hundredths of seconds... and not being able to get under that milestone really had me second-guessing my future.

This past week though, I finally joined the 'sub-minute' club. I threw down a 58.8, which is my PR since beginning skeleton sliding in January of 2010. Oh, how wonderful it felt! Along with another 3-4 runs that were sub-59's, and a few other sub-minutes. Coach claims that my sled knows that i'm starting to 'like' it, and therefore it's translating to quicker times... if that's the case, I'm gonna make a space for it on my bed tonight-

However, with fast ice, and fast times, comes fast driving - which, though i'm not a novice driver, I still...well... could use some help.

When a beginning slider takes his first 50-or-so trips down the ice, one of the biggest 'problems' Coach sees is that the athlete tends to 'pull' on his/her sled, and therefore slide with their elbows sticking out. Well, I suppose the speed, along with the intensity and energy associated with the ICC cup made me revert back to my bad-habit roots...

Not only does chicken-winging the track decrease aerodynamic speed... but it also tends to Increase the size of one's elbow... by allowing for intense blows to the appendages if you happen to take a smack to a wall.... Ahhhh, and that I did.... See?


Just a tap to the upper arm in the Chicane (straightaway)

This ain't nothing compared to my days (aka just 4 weeks) as being a bobsledder last year... I'll take a skeleton bruise any day over this! ....

December 2009 after a couple crashes in a bobsled

And actually, last year during my skeleton training I was plagued with bruises all over my hips, thighs, elbows, etc... but my bruise this week was the first one I've acquired in my 9 weeks sliding since November 2010 - so, heck, I'm actually a little proud of it :) No, it doesn't really mean i'm any 'better' (though I am a little for sure) - but more so, I fit inside the 'bumpers' of my sled, and Don has the 'saddle' cushioned nicely to my box-y figure...

So with forerunning the ICC on Thursday, I left the track around 12, and was back to the track around 2 in order to prepare for the "Lake Placid Cup" series races for the Elite Developmental athletes.

My runs during forerunning in the morning were still comparable to my fastest of the season, and I was hoping to combine a fast down time, with a fast start time for the Lake Placid Cup. However, with a jam-packed schedule on wednesday of a morning sliding session, video reviews, and a 5-hr drive to Montreal and Thursday morning comprising of 2 runs, I was unable to really tap into my quickest start times, due to some leg-lag. Ahhh, but I was still considerably happy with my times for the day, and was able to capture a bronze medal for the race.

Most of the developmental athletes here have anywhere between 2 weeks and 15 weeks (me) of sliding experience. So, to have been stuck in the '1-minute' club for the entire fall season, I was beginning to second guess myself. Now that I'm beginning to love my sled, know the track, and understand steers, it's all starting to really come together.

So a little burnin' from the ice & some bruises... but burnin' up the track with some great personal times... couldn't be happier :)

Tubing and the Intercontinental Cup!

Most people wonder what my 'day' is like. The weekdays are filled with working out, sliding, sled work, and physical maintenance (icing, stretching, etc). The weekends, well, they're pretty low-key.

BUT, not anymore! ... or, at least, I've added a bit of excitement to the weekend saga.

Saturday, I no longer became JUST a substitute teacher (which, has been a bit slow), but also picked up a job at the Tubing Slopes! Where else can you get paid to ride down a hill on a tube (to pack the snow of course, certainly not for 'fun'...) So Thursdays through Sundays I will be joining a few of my skeleton friends- Adam, Derek, Greg, and Kristina on the tubing slopes! I'm now an Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) employee... like many of the locals up here.


Umm...packing down the snow before we opened the slopes - me, Derek, Adam & the rest of the work crew

Before Christmas, Lake Placid held the skeleton/bob World Cup. Many sliders were past Olympians, and are ranked highest among their countries.

This week, the Intercontinental Cup came to town! The athletes that compete in this circuit are still sliding at an extremely high level, but are often their respective country's 4th-6th (or so) ranked sliders.



I drove fellow athletes to training at the track, but wasn't training myself... got a little bored...

The Intercontinental Cup has been affectionately called the 'fun' circuit, and it shows, as many of the athletes from other countries have exchanged hellos and smiles and quick chats with me. Which, is pretty different than the World Cup athletes. I hope in a few years to perhaps be blessed and lucky enough to get a chance to race with such wonderful people!

On wednesday morning I'll be forerunning for the ICC, and then driving to 2.5 hours to Montreal to pick up my friends who were competing in the America's Cup circuit in Calgary, Canada! A Busy, but fun week!

Back in the Saddle

Flushed face, sweaty palms, and the jitters.

It's back in the saddle again (literally & figuratively), here at Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bob/Skele Run.

A month doesn't sound like all that long since I last slid on the ice. And, well, it's not really. I mean, I still remember what the track looks like, and I still can (somewhat) recall the nitty-gritty details of sliding face-first down the track at 70 mph...

But, that very first run down the track REALLY had my heart pumping. It's like being eight years old again, just mounting your 2-wheeled bicycle after only having learned how to ride without training wheels the summer before. It's a nervewracking feeling! You know that you CAN do it... that you HAVE done it... but how exactly DID you DO that???

My fellow athlete, and friend, Lauren Salter rode to the track with me yesterday. The two of us, though quiet, were certainly thinking the same thing. 'Phew' and small 'sighs' were exchanged between the two of us, as we were both anticipating our first day back on the ice. Nerves and jitters abounded.

The start house had a different atmosphere than a majority of sliding time in the past. Though every day at the track is accompanied by athletes whom are excited and even anxious about their runs, yesterday, the nerves of 13 of the 23 sliders were extremely high...as we were all experiencing our first day 'back on the ice' together. iPods were stuck in peoples ears, there was lots of pacing, some sliders were quiet and kept to themselves, while others couldn't keep their hyper mouths from yapping (ok, ya, ya, that might be me...)


My sled's temporary 'makeover' for the first day back

My first run felt WEIRD. Not scary, not slow, not (uncharacteristically) fast, not out of control, not in control (which doesn't worry me)... just weird. I actually felt dizzy the entire mile down the track. I'm still unsure if I was dehydrated, and the speed and pressure was cause for my dizziness... or if it was because my mind was not used to having to concentrate in such high-demand activity, and so my eyes and mind could not keep up with my speed as I shot through the curves.

Despite my dizzy episode, the ice was actually very 'slow' yesterday, which was due to at least a 30 degree increase in temperature within a 24-hour time frame, and Coach Don telling the ice-track-workers not to make the track 'too fast' for us. For the first day back, I was thankful for that!

I finished the day with 3 runs and a hearty dinner. My workout in the morning, the sliding session in the evening, and all the adrenaline pumping through my body (basically all day) really began to wear me out. I had a little bit of sled work to do at night, helped a few athletes prepare for their venture to Calgary Canada for races next week, and crawled into my olympic-ring-stitched-mattress-bed by midnight. Gosh, its SO GOOD to be back here in Lake Placid!

Home on the Range

It's funny how going home reverts you back into your 12-year-old self. Too lazy to write in my blog, I leave the dirty dishes in the sink, let my room become a hazardous disasterous catastropherous area... you know the drill... or maybe you don't? Is it just me?

Coming home after a long leave is always really nice. Of course, as with anything that we anticipate, the THOUGHT of going home might actually be more enticing than actually BEING home. But, no, this year, it really was all I'd cracked it up to be.

Reunions, reunions, reunions. The word really got a negative connotation while I went through high school, but anymore, I'm more than happy to have reason for a reunion. Due to a large family, our own business, being a part of different organizations across the country, and loving to travel - I had several 'mini reunions' with many special people in my life in the past month.


Sarah & Mike Egan's sweater party with Danielle, Kristin, Sarah, Mike, and me

For one, going home is always awesome - and probably much, much different than the 'normal' persons homecoming. When visiting our farm market, Soergel Orchards, I'm able to visit with my entire family (and adopted, awesome, employees) in one fail swoop... probably 30-40 wonderful people at one time. Hugs, questions about skeleton, excited chats, and the very welcome sound of "Hi Seesol!" from my little cousins, all make me soo so so happy. Now that I'm an aged, mature, sophisticated, 25 years of age, I really have come to realize how truly special it is to have such a closeknit family, and such a great group of employees to create our family farm business. If you've never seen or heard about it, check out www.soergels.com - my grandpa, Pop, built the place from the ground up, and this Christmas was the first without him. The Holidays made me very aware of his passing, but I feel very blessed to have had him as such a large part of my life over the past 25 years.

New Years was really really great. I have spent the past 6 years at my friends' camp in mid-Pennsylvania, where friends, drinks, and jumping into a cold frozen creek fun abounds. I love Camp Bucktail III, and was apprehensive about changing my typical NYE plans. But my AmeriCorps NCCC girls were having a mini-reunion in New Orleans, and I found a cheap ticket, and simply HAD to go.

My AmeriCorps NCCC team spent 10 months of our lives together in 2008/9... travelling, volunteering, eating, sleeping, grocery shopping, 15-passenger van riding, laundering... everything that a typical 'couple' does...we did, as a family of 11. To say that our team became close over those 10 months is an understatement. Only five of us were able to get together... but Jamie, Phoenix, Shelly, Kristen, and my time in New Orleans over New years was filled with laughter, tears, and lots of Bourbon street shenanigans (all in good, clean, fun of course!). The 4 days, 3 nights, went extremely fast, and I tried to savor every minute that we had together.


Five of us girls from our AmeriCorps NCCC team! Kristen, Shelly, Phoenix, Jamie, and me

I paid for all my NOLA fun by spending the following 3 days cooped up in my parents house with the worst cold I can remember. My athletic training was at a minimal last week, as my head felt like it'd pop when I'd begin to over-exert myself. Since coming home from Placid, i'd hoped to get in a lot of work, and a lot of training... neither has been at the level I had imagined, but I'm happy that my lack in either direction has been made up in time spent with friends.

This week is my home-wrap-up-week. Seeing last minute friends that I haven't had a chance to see since being home, and reorganizing what things I need to take to Placid. Next weekend I'll be visiting Katie Doster, my AmeriCorps team leader, in New Jersey - and then heading to Schenectady to see Heather Furman, one of my Bike&Build teammates, and then heading the rest of the way to Lake Placid, NY. It will be SOOO nice to get back into a routine again.

My time here at home has been fantastic, but I'm chompin at the bit to get back on the ICE!