-22 and sun shine in St Moritz

Well official training was full of the highs and lows that seem to be a theme this season for me. I did a track walk with a bobsled coach at the start of the week, and because bobsledders and skeleton sliders drive very differently the language used in the track walk could not be the same, instead we talked about where the pressure needs to be in the corner (rather than where to steer and how to steer). We also did the walk from the bottom of the track up, rather than the top down, again a different perspective. It was good to think about the track differently. My first run of official training was excellent and nearly everything I learnt from the track walk worked, but then the second run did not go as well. Second day of official training, I completely oversteered everything, it was terrible and I had one of the slowest speeds on the track possible (I am used to having a very high speed not the lowest). So I was quite dishartened by it all after day two, I was going so slow, I hit a few walls hard, and the walls here in St Moritz are not smooth like other tracks, here the ice on the walls is sharp, pointy, and great for ripping speed suits. So yesterday before training I spent a lot of time watching all the video that has been taken of us sliding, and going over the track notes I wrote last time I was here, I realised that I was just doing way way too much, and needed to be still and relax more. So I did, and I had two much better runs. With the 10th fastest speed in the second run (20 kmph faster than I went the day before). Today is a day off for the women, a day to prepare our sleds, sew our race bibs so they fit, and to go and watch the mens race. Ben and Iain race today, and Peter (dutch) will be making another attempt to meet his countries qualification rules, he has met the FIBT standards and the IOC standards, we are all hoping this will be the race he qualifies at. He was allocated a spot at the last Olympics but his country wouldnt send him. It would be tragic if it happened again, as Peter has earned his spot, and really deserves to qualify.

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back blogging again.

Well it is time I started blogging again, there have been many different reasons why I havent been keeping this diary upto date over the last few months, sorry if you missed it.

Kelly and I are now in Switzerland staying at Hotel laudinella where the US team and Peter from holland are as well, Peter did not get his top 15 he needed int he last race, he is half way there to qualifying, hopefully this week he will get there.

Ben and Iain are here in St Moritz as well, Tionette is staying in Konigssee where her partner Angus is sliding with the kiwi bobsled team.

I am so stoked to have qualified. Still waiting for the official announcement from the NZOC, they are waiting for a form I need to fax them, and I am waiting for hotel reception to print it for me so I can fill it in, has taken them over an hour so far...

I will back date some of blogs and put up the emails I was sending out to friends and family. But right now it is dinner time, having spent about 4 hours at the track today in -10 degrees I am ready for hot meal. Training for the women starts tomorrow, they expect lots of snow this week so it will be interesting to see how that effects us.

I promise to keep you all posted on it all goes.

Lou

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Race day with my new Speedo skeleton suit

On the start line with coach Tim Nardiello

Waiting for the green light with cameras on me.

and I am off...

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A day of Harry Potter

Today Iain and I are going to see Harry Potter at the movies, Jack (my coach's son) saw it last night and said it was good. Iain only just discovered Harry Potter and has been reading the books non stop this last month after years of laughing at people who read the books, now he is hooked.
I ate something a bit dodgy the night before the race and all yesterday afternoon, last night and this morning I have been a bit queezy and crook, I am so glad I didnt feel like this during the race. I might have to catch a cab to the supermarket and get some fresh fruit, all the food here in the restarants are so greasy and ick. But now I am going to be adventurous (or perhaps foolish) and venture away from the bathroom to see Harry Potter, I hope it is as good as the book.
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Lake Placid World Cup

Today I raced in the 2^nd world cup of the season here in Lake Placid New York. Training this week has been great, my first run on the first day back was a new personal best time (unfortunately I didn’t beat it today). The weather here this week has been crazy ranging from 16 degrees with sunshine on the last day of training, blustering snow showers that caused heat one of the men’s race to be cancelled, and -10 degrees today with super cold fast ice for the women’s race day.

In the first heat this morning I finished 16^th out of 29, today was the first day this season that I have been on real cold ice and I was skidding a lot in the straights, and I had been getting corner 3 perfect every run but today I hit the exit hard and lost lots of time. I also made a big mistake in corner 10, so I was pretty sure that I would be able to improve on the 16^th placed run for the second heat. I fixed some of those mistakes and was two tenths ahead going into the last section of the track in the second heat, but lost time in the bottom of the track and finished 18^th. My overall placing was 19^th, with a 58.50 and a 58.62, it is a better result than last week, but I know I am capable of much more. The race was very close with in the Kiwi camp with Tionette finishing 20^th (58.55, 59.08) and Kelly finishing 21^st (58.77), it will be good to see all three of us in the top 20 in the next race. My world ranking is 22^nd (26 points), Kelly is at 25^th (19 points) and Tionette is at 27^th (17 points).

Our overall nation ranking is still 10^th but today we beat Italy and Russia, we were only 2 points away from beating Australia and Norway, and five points away from Japan, so I am still confident we will be able to recover our top 8 nation ranking.

The men’s race was yesterday and it was very exciting, it was snowing heavily, which should not have been a problem here as they have built roofs over most of the track, however the roof covering the start was removed so that Eurosport could get a good shot of us diving onto our sleds. The people sweeping the start trying to keep the snow out of the track where inconsistent with their sweeping and some athletes had a cleaner and faster track than others. At least 6 protests were filed and at the end of the first heat a team captains meeting was called, the heat was cancelled and the race was started again with only one run being held and it was made sure that the track had the same amount of sweeping and cleaning before each athletes run, and in the end a fair race was held.

Ben Sandford finished 14^th and Iain finished 31^st, which for Iain was a great improvement on his finishes he had last season. The men’s team is also ranked 10^th in the Nation standings.

Ben has already flown out to Switzerland to have his sled worked on by the builder, the rest of us head to Europe on Monday for the international training week on the Olympic track in Cesana Italy, after that we move onto Igls in Austria where the 3^rd World cup of the season will be held.

So I have a few days of rest now, which I feel like I really need, time to recharge and catch up on some sleep after a challenging full on start to the season. I have not been able to relax on my sled the same way I was able to at the end of last season, I haven’t found that beautiful peaceful flowing feeling on the sled yet, I remember exactly what it feels like, I just need to replicate it again, I will have the chance to find it in Italy at the Olympic track next week.

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Today was the last day of official training. When I woke up I went out side to see how many layers of clothing would be needed for the cold day at the track, and found that a singlet would do, it was 16 degrees outside!!!!! When Kel and I got to the track we did a track walk, and when it is real warm the track is usually very frosty, but it was too warm for the frost to grow, the track was one big wet slippery water slide, ice melting quicker than the refridgeration plant could refreeze it. They had a lot of difficulty maintaining the groove so alot of people were popping out, but i managed to stay in both runs.

My first run was fantastic I finished 11th and pushed close to my personal best, at one stage during the run i was in 9th. I should have left it at that, it had been my plan to take only the one run today with the ice conditions so poor, but my good result egged me on to try and do even better and in the second run i steered too much for the conditions and I finished 19th, but it was a very good run, i just cut too much ice for slow soft conditions.

So that is all the training over, tomorrow the guys race at 9am local time, and we race the following day. I just got my race bib and sticker, I drew 18th, not a very good draw but it will have to do, Kelly got 11th (very nice) and tionette got 21st (very good, top number in the 3rd draw). Our race bibs are sooooo huge, as big as a baggy tshirt, so i have had to sew the seams in so that it fits snugly and wont flap as I slide.

Kelly Peter and I went to collect our speedo speed suits that were being made especially to order for us, but when we got the the hotell where the speedo crew are staying i found out that they had lost my measurments and did not have one for me :( Kelly got a great black suit with hood, thumb loop and booties, real nice, they are going to send me two over to Itally next week, and for the race on friday i have a spare one that was made for the americans, no hood and the zip is at the back rather than the front but it fits good, and will be better than the ones that I have.

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sliding fast again

So today was the first day of official training, my ribs were feeling good and breathing is perfect, the 3 days with no training was exactly what I needed. As usualy Kelly Peter and I were the first there at the track, we get there early so we can do a track walk and not be rushed to get through our warm up. I was a bit nervous about not wearing the chest brace, but i dont want to go slow here and i want to feel my sled, i'll put it back on if I really need too. Run one was a personal best push time of 5.81 and a new best down time for me as well, 58.38. So happy. My ribs were a bit sore, but nothing like they were last week. Yay, got my groove back and my lungs back and my ribs seem to be staying where they are meant to be.

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Didn't get to slide yesterday, which was for best really, I have caught a cold, and it was good that I had a full day off with no training or travelling. Today after training I am moving into the Golden Arrow hotel with Peter Van Wees, it works out the same price as the Hostel and we wont end up sharing a room with strangers, just a bit more comfortable and there is a hot tub and swimming pool as well. Official training begins today at 2pm.

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calgary photos

Ryan Davenport, my sled builder, making me a new saddle

the plastic rib brack Jeff Pain made for me that protected my ribs all week.

On the start line with my coach, waiting for the track to be call clear and green light.

and I am off with tv cameras filming.

me

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Wednesday and Thursday the first world cup of the season was held at Canada Olympic Park. A Chinook was rolling in over the mountains, which meant that the days were warming up, we had a high of 11 degrees and the ice temperature was a very warm 0 degrees at the start of the race.

I had a very challenging week, when I first arrived the out run (the section of the track after the finish eye) was so bumpy that we were bouncing in our sleds the whole way up the ramp. This rattled me to the bones and knocked my ribs out of place, the same ones I knocked out during my crash in Lake Placid a few weeks ago, so I have been seeing a chiropractor daily having them put back where they should be before the next training session where I was knocking them out again.

The day before official training began I was particularly sore after one run and found it hard to breath, obviously I did not get my second run in, but over night it settled down and I thought I was ready for day one of official training. But after the first official training run (one of six) I had big breathing issues, and had to lie on the floor to breath, I was in a lot of pain, and unable to do the second run. Jeff Pain, the top Canadian slider offered to help me build a rib brace, he had built one for himself last season after breaking ribs in a crash in Sigulda Latvia. So with a solid molded plastic rib brace made and another trip to the chiropractor I was ready for the second day of official training, but my breathing was still difficult, it feels like I just cant get a full breath in. The brace worked but it was very hard to relax and be heavy and still on the sled when wearing it. My coach tells me that my head and shoulders have been way to high, which is not an issue I usually have, but I managed to complete day two with out ending up lying on the floor of the start house in pain and trying to breath.

So I had my 3 safe training descents which meant I was qualified to race, and there was one more day of training. My times had all been so slow; I was 2 seconds slower than my personal best time at this track and trailing at the back of the field. When I saw my chiropractor to get the ribs manipulated back in (I spent 14 days with them out of place after my crash in Lake Placid so they were popping back out with every run, three at the back one at the front, ouch) he told me he was positive I had broken a rib, which didn’t help my focus and relax. The last day of training I slid a bit faster, I have not had issues with any corners, and have not been skidding, but I have been going slow, it is just real hard to relax and be peaceful on the sled when you have a plastic corset and busted sore ribs and it is painful to take deep breaths. Being relaxed and comfortable on the sled is the key to a fast time. So on race day I finished 24^th out of 30 with a time of 60.03, more than a second behind my Personal best time here. I am disappointed with the result, but really I know that I am lucky to have been able to slide at all this week, and I can thank Jeff Pain for making it possible by building me the brace. Every race counts towards Olympic selection, this poor result just means I will have to step it up in the next races. Kelly Moffat finished 26^th with a personal best time of 60.19, and Tionette Stoddard finished 30^th with a 63.40 after flipping out of corner 8, she did very well to get back onto her runners so quickly. Our nation ranking has dropped to 10^th, but I am confident we can claim back our top 8 ranking in during the next few races. On Thursday I went and had xrays to see what was going on with my ribs and sternum, thankfully no breaks, must just be badly bruised with muscles spasms making my breathing difficult, the good news is that today after 2 and a half days off sliding I am breathing fine again.

The star of the Kiwi team this race was Ben Sandford who improved on his great World Champs result here last year and finished 8^th overall, Russell Ward finished 36^th, giving the men’s team a nation ranking of 9^th.

Yesterday Kelly and I traveled to Lake Placid New York, where Iain Roberts has been training for the last 3 weeks, Iain will take Russ’s place on the team for this next World Cup. Later today I will put up photos from this week on my blog.

I feel like I have unfinished business in Calgary, after I crashed here during the world champs last season and then had this challenging week of injuries and slow times, I look forward to coming back here injury free and plastic corset free and claiming a new personal best down time, but it will have to be next season.

But now it is all about Lake Placid and my last run there a few weeks ago was new record for me, so that will be a good time to improve from, and the good news is that Lake Placid has not got any hard left hand hits, so my ribs wont get such a battering as they did in Calgary. I am off to the track in an hour to get some sliding in, official training begins tomorrow.

Lou

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