WHISTLER TRAINING AMONGST BEARS

There are bears at the track!! Although so far I have not spotted one yet! I'm keeping one eye on track and one on the woods around the track that contains them!! Some have even been spotted around the Whistler village, mmmm, must stop eating honey so much so they don't smell me.

The track is slightly different from last years World Cup race, but I really like it, its tricky, fast and challenging. I have good and bad days so soon hoping they will dwindle out to only good days!

Our team took a trip around the Olympic Athlete village to see where all athletes will be accommodated during the Olympic period. It looks lovely the Canadians have done a great job creating an environment that will be used on after the Games.

EQUIPMENT TESTING

Here is a picture of part of the Lake Placid track looking at the view with the amazing colours of trees. It looks amazing this time of the year, it also means that its the time of year for equipment testing. Everyday In my sliding I have been trying to work out the best set up on my new sled, the best runners and settings that will make me as quick as possible, so long as I slide great lines too! Its a trial and error job but it all needs to be done so that I know more about the sled and what works well for me when I head to Whistler on the 24th Oct for two weeks of sliding that all teams get before the Olympic race runs.

OFF TO LAKE PLACID

I was in Winterberg for five days, enough to get used to being on ice again and start my testing process on my new sled, but not enough to settle down and un pack my bag as now I'm in Lake Placid! A long days travel....just to give you a taster of what it was like.... Pack van Sunday 2pm, leave 3pm, travel from Winterberg to Gevena airport Holiday Inn, arrived at 3.30am Monday. Up at 7pm to get to airport for the lengthly checking in process with our hundreds of bags and sleds! Sat on plane at 12.15pm but it got delayed for over a hour, arrived in Montreal Monday afternoon as re-living hours on the plane with time change. Had long border control as we drove across into USA and onto Lake Placed, arrived about 8pm ready for dinner that all of us were way to tiered to eat! Finally went to sleep about 10pm as we all forced ourselves to stay awake so jet lag wouldn't be quite so bad...although we all awoke at 4-5am eyes PING awake!!

CHANGE OF VENUE

The start of the season didn't quite happen how we all thought. Our sleds were driven out to Cesana, Italy but all the athletes never made it as there was a emergency phone call to say "HOLD don't go to the airport there is no ice on the track its melting off"!! Ahhhh. So what now... the refrigeration was broken and it was too hot to keep ice on the track. So all athletes were told to be on the end of the phone and any minuet of the day we could get the phone call to drive to any airport in Britain to fly out to any other track.
Luckily the track in Winterberg, Germany said yes so the team all rushed there a day later then the original leaving date.
Winterberg was raining as usual for this town, and the track was very very bumpy, but at least we were on the ice...first runs of the season.

PACKING TIME AGAIN....!

Its that time of the year again that I start to pack my big bag and head for the ice. I have trained very hard this summer to get myself into my best ever physical shape for this Olympic season. I am at my strongest and quickest physical peak that I have ever been...now all I have to do is to put it onto ice and push as fast as I can and then slide my sled down the ice track.....easier said then done!
There has been a buzz in the air all week as I have been on a pre-season training camp in Bath. Meetings about the season and plans about the months ahead.
The British team first of all head out to Cesana, Italy where we will have our first ice runs of this 2009-2010 winter season.....the most nervous runs of the season!! Its always scary after a summer of no ice to stand at the start of the track and sprint off the top...and iv been doing it for 8 years now! I need to toughen up a little!
I will let you know how it goes very shortly.