It only took about 4 days of down time (we spent 4 days in Lake Placid while our sleds were shipped from Europe to Canada) to get my head back on straight. Seriously, it's amazing how draining it is on tour!
Wake up...breakfast...sled prep...go to track...trackwalk perhaps...warm up...slide...back to hotel...lunch...lay gear out to dry / sort & prepare for next day...repair anything (i.e. torn pieces of shoes from dragging them)...sled work...work out...recovery...dinner (often a 1.5 - 2 hour affair due to European customs)...video review...pack gear back up...Skype Brad hopefully...go to bed.
Do that, or some variation if we slide in the afternoon, for 3-4 days of training.
We rotate whether the men or women race the day after the last day of training, or whether women do. So it's either an off day (while the men race) to leisurely race-prep the sled (a 3-4 hour process) before racing the next day, or a mad rush to get it all done the same day training finishes.
Then, it's pack up, load up, move out. Drive to the next destination, already putting the track and its design, curves, steers, character, speed, subtleties out of your mind and focusing all energies on the next track.
Anyway, it's quite exhausting! I find myself at the end of the day wanting to read, to write in my journal, to put up a blog post, but my brain is quite often unable to find focus for anything.
But during my 4 recovery days in Lake Placid, I slept heaps, relaxed a bit, and feel a bit more rested. I also managed to use the greatly improved Internet access (compared to Europe) to upload some videos and photos for you. Coming shortly! :) If you want a preview, my YouTube channel is KGabryszak.
Now we are in Whistler, BC Canada, training for the World Cup race this week. Exciting track, beautiful location, and I'm stoked to be here!
(I've given up trying to get video put together for the second and third World Cups, but will try to get them up later! So, with some delay, here is the post for World Cup 2, December 9th and 10th.)
After Igls, I was DEFINITELY excited to move on to a new track.
Not just the next race, or a new track this season, but a new track completely! The last time La Plagne was on the World Cup tour was possibly a decade ago...meaning that a large portion of the World Cup sliders hadn't been there before. Exciting!
The drive was even exciting! We started off in our VW caravan.
New scenery, since we'd never driven this way...
Stopped at the Geneva airport to pick up Katie Uhlaender (she'd skipped the first race in order to compete in weightlifting, to try to qualify for Olympic Trials in that sport - which she did).
We also passed by Chamonix, famous ski area.
After Geneva, we accidentally split up. Our GPS told us to veer left, while the boys' GPS told them to veer right. Oops! So Annie and I were on our own for the next 2 hours, and it was so pretty! We drove through Annecy, (put in a bid for the Olympics recently) by the lake:
Annecy is a place I'd like to visit now!
Then we saw the mountains, and got a little nervous about all the switchbacks facing us.
After a search for gas (4 stations, 40 minutes, 1 that worked), and the fall of night, we made our way up the mountain.
21 sharp switchbacks later, we found the track, built into a gully deep in the mountains:
A few more switchbacks and we found our hotel and reunited with the team. Phew! (PS - the garage was a little tight, but the European drivers had no trouble.)
It was beautiful in La Plagne - something we didn't know until a few days later when the clouds finally lifted!
The track was super fun too, more technical and very long. For example, in Park City a fast time for women is 50-51 seconds; in La Plagne it was 1:03 or so, more than 10 seconds longer!
The start was one of the longest that I've ever seen. In Park City I'll take 14-16 steps but in La Plagne I took 20 steps; in Park City the push record is something like 4.94 seconds but in La Plagne it's now 5.35 seconds (Annie broke it in the race!).
This was from a training run:
A few days in, I realized that my balance point had shifted, so I needed to put more weight in the front of my sled. With the coaches gone to the track already, and the weights locked away, I had to improvise.
Hmm. What do I have around that I can use?
After some finagling to fit them in....yeah, that should work.
Hmm. That might be a bit rattly.....ah! Solved. Not quite duct tape, but...I had a pseudo weight plate!
It worked, and that day I was over a second faster per run in training! Phew.
World Cup Race, Saturday 12/10/2011 The day of the race came around, and I was feeling pretty good. My pushes the day before the race were in the 5.70s, and usually I push 0.15-0.20 seconds faster race day.
But then, for some reason when I heard the coaches shouting for me to push, I got off rhythm and loaded off the wrong leg, tweaking my hamstring and pushing slower than I'd hoped. Gah!
Still, the run was overall the best of the week, though I messed up curve 16, dragging a toe the whole way through and bleeding time. Still, I was in 15th place, better than the last race! INSERT RUN 1 HERE
Getting ready for my second run, I realized my hamstring was super sore and it made me nervous. The PT was awesome and he did what he could; I managed to push a bare 1 hundredth faster which was a triumph since I expected to be slower!
The run was worse at the top - flopped off curve 3 and missed the second steer in curve 6, but at least 16 was better! Bottom of the track was "a dream." I dropped one spot to 16th, which was disappointing, but also great since it was better than Igls! Baby steps. INSERT RUN 2 HERE
My teammates excelled though - Annie finished in second - her first World Cup medal! - and Katie finished in 3rd. Woohoo! 2 medals!
(I'd post the photos from the award ceremony, but.....my phone died and though we tried everything, the only way to fix it was to restore the phone with a backup from 2 days prior. Yes, I lost everything from the race!)
Odds and Ends The best part of France was the food. Wine with every dinner (not that the athletes could really imbibe, but a nice touch nonetheless), cheese, amazing bread, desserts to die for. Ok, so really the meals weren't so great, but the starters and finishers, mmmmmmmmmm.
Oh, and on an outing to the grocery store, I found a bit of home away from home, an old sports shop:
Then it was off again - World Cup #3 awaited us in Winterberg, Germany.
With racing stress, busy training schedules, work, travel, and unreliable (read: horrible) Internet access in Europe, my blog has been neglected. I have blog posts drafted for La Plagne, France and Winterberg, Germany, however haven't been able to upload photos and videos for them!
Those posts will come, soon hopefully!
But now that I'm back in Europe (and have Internet again after a web-diet for the last week in Altenberg, Germany, a town so far east it's practically in the Czech Republic), I figured an update was due. Even if only a text update.
Igls, Austria, December 2-3, 2011 - I got a post up about it. In short, a dismal race. 20th place.
La Plagne, France, December 4-10, 2011 - pretty sweet. Still not an amazing finish, but I was excited to learn a new track. I'll write about it later in a separate post, but in short it was a great track, beautiful location, fun racing, and I ended up in 16th place.
Winterberg, Germany, December 11-18, 2011 - by this point, I was pretty frustrated to say the least. The weather also didn't cooperate, and we ended up with a one-heat race. I came in 17th...which is still better than my 19th there last year. I tried to stay positive - not easy, but at least I tried!
Then it was home for the holidays, woohoo!!! It was AMAZING to spend time with Brad, have a normal schedule, recover, decompress, put the first half behind me, and just relax.
I also slid at the Utah Olympic Park a few times, which was pretty funny since I had to be pushed off the start with a broom to let my hamstring heal (see La Plagne post later for the story). While home, I figured some things out with my new sled....
.....and.....
.....and things are going pretty well on second half! An Altenberg race post will come later as well, but I had my best finish of the season there this weekend, and sliding is finally feeling comfortable! I'm starting to trust the sled, relax, and have confidence. Which feels amazing after the struggles of first half.
Now we are in Königssee, Germany, the track that's special to Brad and I - from our first trip sliding Europe together, to World Championships and getting engaged here, to Brad's 3rd place Europa Cup finish in December. So wish me - and the whole US team - luck for the races this coming Friday and Saturday! (January 13 & 14, 2012).
Check my Facebook for links to watch the races live (should you have the crazy need to be up in the middle of the night) or to watch a replay afterward (when you wake up).
Cheers all, and thanks for the support and encouragement!
Saturday June 26th, three friends and I drove down to Moab, to do this crazy road ride. It went from just off the main road into town, up to Dead Horse Point and back.
If you've never driven up to Dead Horse, you really should. It's phenomenal, the views are stunning, so totally worth the drive.
If you have been there, and have been to Moab in the summertime heat, then the following will mean a lot to you:
The ride was low enough that we had to ride UP that first scary steep switchback
It was June
We were going around sunset
The ride was a total of about 44 miles, out and back, and we wanted to stay long enough to watch sunset over the desert, and then the moon rise a half hour later. We'd brought bike lights so we could ride back down. It was my first time night riding....and was phenomenal! Well worth the miserable beginning in the miserable heat.
I won't bore you with the ride details, except to say that I made it up the steep climb without stopping, and got my heart rate up to 198 at one point. And didn't die. And that it was one of the most fun road rides I've ever done. Great ladies, great scenery, great organization, great sunset, great ride.
But here are some pics! And, for those of you that have never been, they are pics that are dark enough to not spoil TOO much the great surprise that is the view when you go for the first time. Hint hint.
Moonrise:
The next morning, the four of us did a recovery ride, and passed this burn site. The black and green contrast drew my attention.
PS - all of the night shots were taken with.....my old iPhone 3G. The 2 year old crappier version - I'm so proud!
As I mentioned in the last post, I didn't take a lot of photos at the Igls track since you've seen it so many times. :)
It was the first World Cup though, and I was excited to be back on a track I knew.
But it didn't turn out as I'd hoped. All week I struggled, overdriving the track and unable to find the speed and rhythm necessary to place well. Igls is one of those tracks that I don't usually gel with: easy to get down but difficult to get down quickly! A single mistake near the top of the track followed by a perfect run will still be slow.
WOMEN'S WORLD CUP RACE - Friday 12/2/2011 By the time race day came around, however, I felt as prepared as possible. I put aside my doubts (in my head I watched them slide away from me on a skeleton sled actually!) and went out 100%.
My first run, the top was almost perfect, except for a push time that was identical to last year's PB (personal best - I was hoping to be faster), then I missed the timing in curve 11 and nearly flipped out of curve 12, and flew about crazily. Oops! Still, the down time was somehow enough to be in 18th place!
Phew. Second run, time to redeem myself.
Nope - the run was better, but it was slow. What does that mean? It means that I steered too hard, didn't let the sled run, didn't allow it to find it's speed. I dropped two places to 20th, but learned a lot. Oh, and I took two more steps on the push trying to be faster and instead was 0.12 slower. Oops again!
TEAM RACE, Saturday 12/3/2011 But the next day, in the team race, I pushed faster and slid better (still messy, but...better). Usually I feel a lot of pressure in the team race - I have a men's bobsled team, a male skeleton athlete, and a women's bobsled team racing with me, and my mistakes cost the team as a whole.
Thankfully, my run was solid. Not as fast as the top women, but better than my own race runs! Pushed a new PB (woot, finally!), and while I still lost time on the other team, managed to at least hold our team's position rather than drop us in the ranks of the race.
We had a great team too - lots of fun! For some reason, we thought it would be funny if one of us pretended to start a chainsaw and mow everyone down, and for some reason, I ended up being the one to do it. We died laughing, but it looks horrible! And without the chainsaw-starting-motion, it just looks and sounds like a machine gun. Still, funny!
Hahahahah...in ten years someone will blackmail us with this!
POST RACE ENTERTAINMENT Remember year before last, the Krampus post from Königssee? Well, this year we had to leave for France the day before the Igls version, but the Krampus were still out in force for practice. We had a hilarious time!
Some of the bobsledders enjoyed the challenge...watch them plan where to run through the crown of Krampus:
But the Krampus were more than up for it...(pay attention to 0:31 in and watch the Krampus - admire his agility!)
By the way, those bells rang every 15 minutes with just a few chimes, and every hour for several minutes, like you hear behind the scenes here. Awesome - we always knew what time it was!
And I ended up getting caught in the middle with the conflict....my price for this blurry picture:
Was this:
Which, by the way, are still visible over a week later. Ouch, those whips aren't fake!
But it was a great time, and a very unique custom, and a good way to end a disappointing week of racing on a positive fun note.
The first World Cup of the 2011-2012 season was in Igls, Austria. Admittedly, I didn't take a lot of photos there because I've posted about it a few times now, have a lot of photos, and you've seen the whole place by now!
But the preparation....and Thanksgiving...
Brad left first, for the Europa Cup tour. His first race was the week of Thanksgiving, and I didn't leave for Europe until just after Thanksgiving. Packing, Jean Luc really REALLY didn't want us to go. He tried to get us to pack him.
Then he tried to stall us by laying on Brad's clothes.
When that failed, he and I took Brad to the airport, sad! But we could watch his progress online. :)
And once he got there, use Facetime on our iPhones to talk, almost as good as in person!
(Ok, not nearly as good, but better than just voices.)
And so Thanksgiving came and went. Brad had some version of turkey in Germany, (Königssee, our favorite place) at his hotel, and I was one my own for dinner in the USA.
With him gone, my family in Alaska, and his family in Germany visiting friends, I went to two Thanksgiving dinners with friends! First time in the USA for the holiday in years....
So I cooked a lot...which I love...and while I remembered to take photos of the process, I forgot to take photos of the finished products! Oops.
Cornbread with real corn:
A little pan of candied yams - make that a little yams with my candied, oops:
And of course green bean casserole. With almonds:
Two dishes of each, one for each dinner. So fun!
One of the dinners involved deep fried turkey - my first experience with it.
Very cool.
Even cooler was the redneck wine glass my friend had.
After Thanksgiving I cleaned the house from my cooking mess, packed up, dropped Jean Luc off at doggy daycare - he didn't even notice when I left, and made my own guilt free way to Europe.
While I was checking in at the airport, I got a text message from Königssee. A single word: "Third." Brad's first medal, and on a German track to boot. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
I was so excited that I wanted to scream and shout and jump up and down....but seeing as I was at the airport, I didn't want to get tackled by security. Instead I cheered under my breath, did a few fist pumps, and continued through security. :)
Here he is in Königssee after the award ceremony. So awesome! Our favorite place and even better now!
The awesome part of my own trip was Munich. After we landed, I left my luggage with the team and hopped a train from the airport to the city, and spent the day with Brad! And got to see his parents, since they were traveling in Germany and had met up with him too (as shown in the above picture).
All too soon it was time to take another train to Innsbruck, Austria.
Waved and kissed goodbye to Brad through the window and it was off to the first world cup of the season in Igls, Austria!
In honor of the holiday, here are 11 things I'm thankful for. (Why 11? It's our favorite number and has brought us a lot of love, happiness, and luck. Let's turn it up to 11!)
11. The opportunity to grow up in rural Alaska, one of the most beautiful and unique places in the world, and have experiences there that shaped my whole life.
10. The chance to now live in another of the prettiest places (Park City, Utah), with so many opportunities for community and outdoor activities to boot!
9. A home of my own with my family.
8. The opportunities available to us here - education, choice, freedom - and a mind to take those opportunities.
7. My health and the things I can do with a healthy body.
(And to be a girl - I can enjoy pink and frills AND be tough at the same time!)
6. The opportunity to represent the USA on the international stage, challenge myself to be the best I can be, and to compete against the world's best athletes!
And along with that, to make friends from all over and travel the world to do so!
5. Friends that do things like throw surprise birthday parties, cheer at races, and make me feel loved!
4. Kind of the same as #5, but....an amazing group of girlfriends that give me all the support I could ask for and more.
3. The best four-legged furry son in the world!
(Who is also a 60 lb lapdog.)
2. A loving family, and that we were able to (almost all - missing Katrina and her family) be together in one place this summer.
Parents included:
The 6 superkids, L to R: Adam (20), Matthew (17), Jeanette (26), Joe (28), Kimber (31), Danielle (bride, 22)
1. The best partner / fiance / 'husband' in the universe: Brad Stewart! Over 7 years since the fateful September day we met, and it's been the best trip to get from there to here! And better every day...
If you have connections with a company, group, or individual that would be interested in sponsoring a skeleton athlete currently ranked 5th in the USA (34th in the world) or two, as Brad is ranked 8th USA (62nd world), please let me know! :)
The Utah Skeleton and Bobsled Association (USBA), which runs many of our training programs, is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization, so donations may be tax deductible:
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