Beautiful day in Torino

Day 3 of training here in Torino. I was happy and unhappy with my two runs today. They were both very skiddy but a lot of people were having the same troubles as me, and the good thing was that I had a PB for this track, despite the skiddy! It was a beautiful day here today and the temperature actually managed to climb to 0C.

Rugby fix

After two days of training now, things are going well. It was a beautiful day here today and when you could find a spot along the track that was in the sunshine and out of the wind, it was actually quite pleasant. It is so strange being somewhere with hardly no contact at all to the outside world. We have one TV channel that is in English which is Eurosport. I also managed to catch the France-South Africa rugby test on a local channel here, but the french commentating wore a bit thin after awhile.

Torino

Finally, we made it to Torino and drove up to Sestriere which is where we are staying, a drive of about 2 hours. The track is about 15 minutes down the mountain in a town called Cesana. Sestriere is the ski village where most of the skiing will take place at the Olympics.

For the last day or so we’ve been to the track several times to watch the Italians and some other small nation athletes slide. Also I’ve gone to the gym in the afternoons in an attempt to keep myself awake and ward off this jetlag. I got a good night sleep last night so I’m hoping it won’t be too bad for me.

In this village, the internet doesn’t seem to exist and getting a phone line is also proving to be very difficult. So for this week, I’m not going to have much contact with the outside world at all L, including my Mum, Dad and little brother, Kieran who is off to the Pan Pacific athletics meet in Melbourne, good luck KJ!!

Travelling again

Sitting, waiting, watching. I'm at Albany airport, waiting for my flight to Chicago. Albany airport has two shops, a café and McD’s so I’m not overly excited about being here. I stayed at the Best Western near the airport last night because I managed to hitch a ride with a guy who works in the Bobsled office who is flying home for Thanksgiving, thanks Brian!

3 flights today: Albany – Chicago, Chicago – Frankfurt and then Frankfurt – Torino. I’ve brought my laptop and a couple of DVD’s, book and mp3 player to keep myself amused although I’ll try to sleep most of the Chicago – Frankfurt flight which is 8 hours.

All of yesterday was spent strategically packing. I have 90kgs of luggage so takes some effort to get it all into my 3 bags. Luckily I got an extra baggage allowance from AirNZ, otherwise I’d be charged through the roof for all my gear. And the thing is its all equipment too! I have very few clothes and luxuries with me so it’s all pretty much essential stuff I have with me.

Lou & I after a hard day at the office

Lou & I after a hard day at the office in Lake Placid.

21st in Lake Placid World Cup

21st! And a downtime PB which I'm very happy with of 58.77sec. 21st is kind of a sucky place to finish as it means that I only just missed out on the top 20 and a second run to try to gain spots but that's ok, I'm happy with my race. Lou finished 19th. I'm off to eat because I'm STARVING!

Men's Lake Placid World Cup race

The men's race was held this morning and what a drama it turned out to be! It had been snowing all morning which is never good for racing because the snow makes the track very slow. To make the race fair, if it's snowing, the jury must decide how often the track is swept before the race begins. Unfortunately, in the first heat of the men's race, this didn't happen and the sweeping of the start was rather inconsistent. Because of this, many protests were lodged. The jury met and decided to scrap the first run and base the race entirely on the second run, giving all 41 men a clean slate but only one run, when usually the top 20 would get two runs. This made for a very interesting and exciting race as nobody could afford to make the slightest mistake. The results turned out to be: 1st Eric Bernotas (USA), 2nd Paul Boehme (CAN), and 3rd Zach Lund (USA). Ben and Iain, our kiwi contingent, placed 13th and 31st respectively, and our friend Peter of the Netherlands came in 18th. Well done boys! Us girls race tomorrow morning so I'm now just finishing up sled and equipment prep etc before hopefully getting to bed at a reasonable hour.

Pics of Lake Placid

Me and Lou on one of our many track walks.

Lake Placid track with a fresh sprinkling of snow.

Training in Lake Placid

The flight back to Lake Placid from Calgary was pretty uneventful. Iain (kiwi slider) came and picked Lou and I up in Albany, which is just over a 2 hour drive from Lake Placid, THANKS IAIN!!
We have had two days of official training now for the World Cup here. One more day of training to go before the men's race on Thursday and our race on Friday. I'm really hoping for a good result here as it is a track that I really enjoy sliding and have been sliding well here so far this season.
I've just finished a Jarrah Hot Chocolate Fudge thanks to Mum who sent some goodies over last week, love you Mum!

"The big shots are only the little shots who keep shooting."
Christopher Morley

World Cup Calgary pics

Waiting on the start line for the track to be cleared for me.












Taking off from the start. I load onto my sled about 20m down the track for the rest of the ride down the hill.

26th in Calgary

My first World Cup result came today, 26th. This meant that I didn't get a second run because only the top 20 get two runs, but I was still very happy with my race as I did a personal best time for this track in Calgary. Lou came 24th and Tionette, an Australian who is sliding for NZ, came 30th. Lou's and my points (top 2 athletes per nation) are now added together to create a nation ranking so today's results puts us in 9th overall. We have two kiwi men racing tomorrow, Ben Sandford and Russ Ward.

Last day of Calgary official training

Today was the last day of official training for the Calgary World Cup. We got 3 days in total with 2 runs per day. Every day I have improved so pleased with my build up to the race. It starts at 10:15am tomorrow. How exciting! First big race of the season. Jobs on the list tonight include polishing my runners so they are race ready, checking my sled to make sure all it’s bit and pieces are still in their correct place, sticking race numbers on my helmet and sled, getting my race equipment together and then attempting to sleep tonight.

I’ll be back tomorrow with hopefully some good results :)

World Cup training in Calgary

It’s been a busy few days here in Calgary. So far I have had 13 runs and slowly getting the track sorted out. There are a couple of spots that have been giving me a bit of trouble but I’ll have them sorted out before Wednesday, which is the World Cup race here. I already have a new personal best time for the start here which is a great sign because I haven’t been pushing it 100% yet.

I have the day off today, which is kind of lucky because it’s starting to snow, and snow makes the track slow.

On the agenda today is some sled prep, shopping and some weight training later this afternoon. I have to time my weight sessions to correspond with the bobsledders sliding sessions otherwise I can’t get on any of the equipment in the weight room.

The picture above is the start of the track, which goes for 1494m to the finish line, with 14 curves to negotiate along the way.

First couple of days in Calgary

The first couple of days in Calgary have been great. The weather has been nice and mild, although we did have a wee bit of snow last night, nothing major. I’ve had 4 runs on the track now and getting a good feel for it. We slide this morning at 10:30am after the bobsledders.

Yesterday I went shopping with Lou, in search of some essentials, of course. I was rather pleased with my purchases of a digital caliper which I need to measure the rock (the amount of bow) I put in my runners. This amount can be anywhere from 5mm to 15mm, depending on ice conditions, the track itself, weather conditions and the type of runners I am using that run. I also bought a thermos flask for those long, cold days at the track J

I have had one session in the “Icehouse” which is an indoor start facility that replicates the start of the actual track. It means I can practise my starts more often than just twice a day during my runs. I pushed a personal best time on my second push so very happy with my progress. Just goes to show that the work I put in over the summer is going to pay off!

Time to go and have breakfast and get my gear ready to go to the track.