Training, exams and my new wee Niece.

I’m back up in Christchurch to sit my navigation exam, it went well, I am confident that I passed but I used every minute of time to get through it, which worries me as I was told that by others who sat it recently that there was heaps of time left at the end, I have to wait 10 days for the results. I also came up here to catch up with my trainer Ashley, I’ve been following his program for 5 weeks now and I’ve been getting stronger and stronger and the front squat harness is just brilliant. I have found a few things that my new shoulders don’t like, dead lifts, and incline bench press, but I don’t have to do them to become strong and powerful, they are certainly not a prerequisite for skeleton so they are off the program.

I caught up with Ashley in the gym at Rugby Park in Christchurch, the sacred home of the Canterbury Crusaders, my 16yr old brother and my 5 year old sister (who knows the names and faces of more crusaders and All Blacks than I do) are jealous that I (I don’t even understand the rules of rugby) get to be in the gym while these international rugby legends are training. My dad and brother are both Crusaders fans and were very keen to know who I saw and met, and they find my ‘I don’t know’s very entertaining and frustrating. some rather good looking, fit athletes is not what they wanted to hear…at least my step Mum could appreciate what I had to say ;)

I also got to meet my new little niece Breanna Louise Corcoran. She was just gorgeous, a placid chilled out baby. Guy and Dani are handling the task of being Mum and Dad just fine.

Air borne adventures

My flying is going great with two flights a day, I hope to take my brother for a flight next week, he’ll be my first real passenger!

I got to go exploring in the helicopter, my instructor circled all the little huts in the shotover/skippers/mototapu area and sent me and another instructor out to find them, I haven’t flown navigating off a tramping topographical map before, there is a lot more detail, neither myself or the instructor who came with me had ever flown in the area we were headed to and it was rainy with low cloud, so it was challenging and exciting conditions to fly it – but as a commercial pilot I wont be able to only fly on good weather days, so it was good experience. We found all the huts, even landed at one, there are some beautiful remote spots up there. We got to fly over Shania Twains mansion she is building, checked out the old chinese gold miners water tunnel they built to divert water into another river, and saw massive waterfalls with all the rivers in flood from the 3 inches of rain the night before. We flew home via Skippers Canion, and through the Queenstown control zone, it was very cool.

Back in Wanaka

I'm well into my new program, and now back in Wanaka and training is going great, the weight of my dead lifts, bench press and clean pulls are still limited by my right shoulder, but that is to be expected with surgery only 12 months ago, but the weights are going up and the box jumps and knees to feet jumps are getting easier, and the Turkish Get Ups are amazing for my shoulders. My front squat harness is a godsend, the strength and stability through my core that I used to have is finally returning. That painful, tired and achy body reminds me daily that I’m getting stronger and faster, the only problem in my training is that every time I decided to do a speed session it starts raining, I miss the athletics track in Timaru, it is much easier to train on than wet grass. But the big benefit of training here in Wanaka is the ice at the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground, soon I’ll be back up there practicing my push starts on the ice high in the mountains. I cant wait.

A new trainer and a new program gets me moving forward.

I have a new trainer, Ashley Jones, he has been great and he is use to working with athletes who have shoulder issues. YAY. He has also arranged equipment support for me from www.speedpowerstability.com, THANK YOU!

Front Squat Harness

My first 12 weeks back in NZ were spent recovering from the injuries/illness I picked up on tour and sitting my 6 commercial pilots licence exams.

I knew that in order to get the amount of study required done I had to find a way to keep my head in the books every single day. I also needed to pay off my two credit cards that where fuller than they had ever been. Amazingly I found a way to do all of it! A free bed at my dads helped and after a short break to get healthy and fit, I started working 12 hour days, two jobs one at the reception at Tekapo Helicopters, and in the evenings a Kohan restaurant in Tekapo, the best Japanese restaurant in the country! With it being the quiet time of the year there was plenty of time for me to study for my exams while waiting for a keen tourist to walk in the door looking for a heli flight. Some how I also managed to find a way to get to Timaru 3 times a week to train at the gym and athletics track there too. After 7 weeks of way too much work, and way way to much study, and lots of yummy authentic Japanese dinners after work, I had done all my exams, and could start focusing on training.

My focus switched back to training and I started googling for ‘training tools dislocated shoulders’ as I knew that with all these rugby players that bust their shoulders there must be some kind of aids that would help me regain my strength in the gym with out pushing my shoulders past their limits…and I found the right site, www.getstrength.com makers of the front squat harness. Finally 2 years after I stupidly agreed to get on a trampoline for a ‘core conditioning session’ that became a ‘lets dislocate shoulders and screw up the next two years’ session, I was able to train properly and squat. The front squat harness is wicked and I recommend it to anyone who has suffered from dislocations, subluxations, or shoulder instability and finds it difficult or impossible to do back squats and front squats. Go the front squat harness!

Food Poisoning

The world championships was horrible, I got food poisoning. It really sucked, I spent 5 days lingering near by the closest WC, and only managed to do half of the official training, then on the first race day I got too sick and too weak and ended up in the local hospital 4 kg lighter. I was in hospital on a drip for 5 days. They think it may have been salmonella, but I'll have the test results sent to me in NZ. What ever little monster it was that I ate, I can say that was the sickest I have ever been. I am feeling much better now, just a bit too skinny. I am flying home today. No money left for racing. I'm going to miss 3 world cups, in 6 seasons I have only ever missed 2, so I am not too happy about having to head home and not race, but it has got to be done. The main goal of the season was achieved, that was to get the shoulders working and driving the sled after having surgery.

The shoulders are great and work properly on the sled now, and I was sliding extremely well in Igls before I hurt my ankle, I feel like I am getting close to being back on track after the shoulder/trampoline incident derailed me.

Homeward bound Hanover to Frankfurt to Hong Kong to Auckland to Queenstown (then a 3 hour drive to Burkes Pass), with a 10 hour stop in Hong Kong I am going to be a jet laggede wreck when I get there.

Ben and I are at the World Champs

Ok,so lets go back a week or two, training was going absolutely brilliant in Igls, I was flying I was loving the sliding, and going faster than I was last year and I felt like I was getting back to where I was the season before ( which was the main aim of this season, to get the shoulders working properly after surgery and find the fast form I had before I busted them), I was confident of a good result in Igls, I had no doubt that I would get the top 15 i need in order to continue being part of the NZ Academy of Sport Winter Olympic Performance program, my coach, Martin Rettle (former world champion and Olympic medalist) was very happy with my times and my sliding too. And I was having no trouble getting my shoulders on the sled, which I was finding difficult during the first half of the season, in fact I have not needed any pain killers for my shoulders at all, they are great!

On the Saturday before the official training started (monday) the track was fast, I reached what I think was my highest speed this year on the track 106.95kmph, it was a good run. The track in Igls is a very safe track, it is very unlikely that anyone will crash there... before the finish line that is.. however the out run is a different story, the track is not long enough for skeleton and the speeds we go, we do not have breaks and need uphill sections of track to help us slow down, but igls is an old track and does not have the breaking stretch we need, in an attempt to fix it, millions of euros was spent building a tunnel that goes under an adjacent ski run and then shoots up hill at a very steep angle. But they never put refridgeration on the up hill bit after the tunnell so there is black rubber on it and not ice... any way lots of people get hurt in that out run, especially when you hit the wall in the tunnell. To stop us before the end they put down foam mats that we hit head on, they can hurt too, and sometimes they stop your sled but not your body so you fly off the sled, makes great television coverage but really sucks for the athletes.

Any way, so the track was fast i was sliding well, and I had been there for 4 weeks and every fast day we had they had put down the foam matts to stop us. But this day for some reason they did not put the matts down. I flew up the end of the track off the iced track and up the steep shoot, I went higher up than i have ever gone, I put my feet down to stop myslelf and stand up, but slipped over and started sliding back down the track just as I heard them clear the track and another slider start their run, I was trying as hard as I could with my feet and hands to stop sliding back, and I hit the lip where the iced track becomes the rubber track, and I was flipped off the sled, I managed to hold onto the sled and get out of the track, but I knew that I have done something bad to my ankle when I was flipped off the sled. I made my way to the waiting truck and got back to the top, packed up and headed to hospital. I have broken one of the tendons in my left ankle, and have a plastic air cast for the next 5 weeks. It is painful.

So first day of official training I took two runs and did not push, second day i took two runs and pushed a little. I had two hours a day with a local physio who was doing all sorts of lymph drainage and what seems like meditaion over the ankle trying to free the blocked energy, not you normal physio treatment you'd find back home, but these guys were the physios for numerous olympic champions, so I trusted they knew what they were doing.

Race day I pushed as hard as I could but it was not good enough and I finished at the back of the field. Gutted.

But my results this year have qualified me for the World Championships (qualification is now based on individual points, so no team effort required anymore), so Ben and I headed off to St Moritz, my ankle was feeling stronger every day and st moritz is a long fast drivers track so i figured that if there is any track in the world where I might be able to overcome a seriously slow push it is here. I spent a month here before the Olympics last year so i also know this track well.

First day of official training I woke up with my stomach churing, I was surprised that I was so nervous, but didnt think anything of it. After an uneventful safe first run I did not understand why I still felt so nervous, then just before the second run I realised that it was not nerves and I thought I might be sick. On the start line I was seeing how easily I could pull my mouth guard out while still having my helmet on just incase I had to in a hurry, not exactly the best mental preparation to be going through at the world champs.

Two days ill with food poisoning. It was not fun. I had to miss the second day of training.

This morning I am feeling a bit better and have managed to eat a little breakfast but I am weak as, and am sucking down as many gummi bears and lollipops as possible, they dont seem to upset my stomach. I am training today, I need to get one more run to be elegible to race, I would like to take two but will have to see how strong I feel after the first run, I have not eaten much in the last two days and there is no point in exhausting myself today when I have to race tomorrow.

As I write this it has just started to snow big fat snow flakes, so the track will be slow again.

In order to get a PEG's grant from SPARC I have to come 11th here.

With all my injuries, crashes and food poisoning over the last two seasons it really feels like someone has a voodoo doll with my name on it. But I'll never give up while I know I have a fast run in me, it is still possible, the world champs has 4 runs so consistency is the game. And I sure as hell need that PEG's grant to get out of debt from this season.

Well I better go and dig the car out it is under a half meter of snow.

My Brother Guy is getting married today.

The story of Guy and Dani (read at the wedding by several cousins, in pantomime style)

Once upon a time, many years ago, Guy and his buddy were driving out to
Lincoln Univercity, probably late for a class, with music cranked and dreaming
of foreign women... They thought they were hallucinating when two
beautiful foreign girls laden with backpacks appeared on the opposite
side of the road trying to hitch a lift.  In record speed they spun the
car around and screeched to a halt, and asked in their most manly
voices: “G'day, where ya going?”

“Akaroa” replied the girls in wonderful exotic accents.

“What a coincidence! That’s where we're going! Jump in.”

These two young university punks couldn't believe their luck, two hot
travelling Swiss chicks! but even better, they were career women, they
were OLDER WOMEN and they were single.

The lectures, tests and assignments due that day were rapidly forgotten
and a life-changing road trip to Akaroa began.

Guy and his buddy somehow became tour guides and the one-hour drive to
Akaroa became a weekend long adventure.

Soon enough the girls had to move on and Guy and his buddy had to get
back to uni and find excuses for late assignments.. “two hot Swiss
chicks abducted us and held us captive in Akaroa” did not go down so
well with their professors!

Our romantic goofy brother Guy had managed to part with an email address
and an awkward 'shared moment' with Dani.

Guy, in an attempt to pull, had briefly held Dani’s hand. Dani’s
surprised and quizzical look in return scared Guy off!

Time passed.

Dani continued her world travels, and Guy’s “Swiss Miss kidnappers”
story gained him huge street cred in the computer rooms at uni.

But Dani’s curiosity got the better of her... “Why did this cute kiwi
boy hold my hand?? What did he mean by it?” …and so the emails began.

Dear Guy: What did you mean when you held my hand?

Dear Dani: What did you think I meant when I held your hand?

Dear Guy: I think I know what you meant when you  held my hand but I'm
not sure…please explain.

Dear Dani: I think maybe I did mean what you think I meant when I held
your hand but I'm not sure as I don’t know what you think I
meant...please explain...

…and so the emails continued until one of them figured out what the
other one thought, and a long distance internet romance blossomed.
Eventually Dani returned New Zealand to figure out exactly what this
Kiwi boy actually thought and meant.

But sadly, Dani’s world-wide holiday had to end and she returned to
Switzerland... It did not take long, though, for lovesick Guy to follow.
His American passport unfortunately would not allow him to work so Guy
became a kept man, a toy boy, the homemaker while Dani went out to work.
It was a tough life ;). Dani returned every day to find her young Kiwi
lover had baked bread and cleaned house and prepared dinner. Eventually
Guy’s visitor’s visa expired and he was forced to return to NZ. Once
again they were separated.

Eventually — and to our surprise — Guy’s years of Dungeons and Dragons,
computer obsession and time spent building weird and wonderful levels on
his favourite computer games led him toward a bloody good job, and the
family collectively sighed with relief.

Overnight Guy became an EMPLOYED ELIGIBLE BACHELOR! and Dani quickly
returned to NZ... and finally the romance continued.

Hurrah!

Guy and Dani, you've had a fairytale romance that has spanned the globe,
and I wish I could be there to share this day with you, instead I send
my very best wishes, love and prayers that today is the beautiful
beginning of your future together and your soon-to-arrive family.

All my love

Lou
Igls, Austria

In the end I could not justify the amount of money it was going to cost for me to go to Japan. Instead I stayed in Igls Austria and trained. Which was definately the right decision. I have had over 30 runs here on this track and I have regained the fast feeling on my sled that I had a few years ago. My high speeds are very good and my down times, while not as fast as I was before I busted the shoulders they are getting close, getting back there. The official training for the Igls world cup starts of Tuesday, we have two days of training, three runs each day, then a day off and then we race on the Friday. The training and race results will be on fibt.com.

Following this race I am off to St Moritz for the World Championships, St Moritz is a fast exciting track, I had many training runs there last year, and managed to reach 129.9kmph, I am looking forward to breaking that and hitting higher than 130kmph.

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas

I am still in Igls training, and all is going very very well. with three days training on the track, I then fore-ran the Austrian championships and went faster than I did in last years world cup race here where I finished 17th. So it looks like I am getting back to where I used to be. My shoulders are not too bad, they get stronger every day, and I now have no trouble caryying my sled around, I still have a half second to find on the track to be able to equal the times I was getting prior to dislocating my shoulders and surgery, but I hope that my time here will help me get comfortable on the sled so I can find my pre injury race form. I had about 30 runs before christmas, which is not enough to have any serious hopes of getting anywhere but the back of the pack so here I am getting in as many runs as possible so that I can be on a more balance playing field by the next race. I train today at 2pm and 6pm, better go and get to the track.

Ciao
Lou