Team Trials and On!

So Let’s try and catch you up to my sliding life!

We had team trials last month. I had some ups and some downs, but the good thing is I was chosen to race on the Americas Cup circuit. This year is definitely a different year in terms of our racing tactics across all the circuits. Let me try and explain this as simply as I can. In theory there are 6 spots for TEAM USA  (3 for World Cup and 3 for Intercontinental Cup) The top 3 sleds go to the Olympics. But there are only 4 Nations in the World that are allotted 3 spots on each circuit, and how you perform on the circuits deciphers if you get 1, 2, or 3 sleds. Well the US women’s team lost 2 sleds last season. Now we have to gain those sleds back before the Olympics so we are able to show up with full quota, Because of this they have shifted people all around in order to give us our best shot to get our sleds back. This means we have to split A LOT of races this year and move athletes all around. Many of the athletes will not get every race. Though this may not be fun at this moment it is crucial in earning our sleds back.

Park City Training- Curves 10-11

Park City Training - Curves 4 to 5

I was awarded a race in Calgary a couple weeks ago. Now for those who do not know, this is where I BUSTED my nose last year and that was pretty bloody to say the least. BUT this year I would have to say I BEAT the track instead of it beating me!!

My Helmet LAST YEAR after busting my face in Calgary

My Old Helmet and my NEW SHINY AWESOME HELMET

Old Helmet..BOOOOO

NEW HELMET! YEAAHHHHHH!!
THANKS SOOOO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED ME TO BUY THIS HELMET!!!!!!!!
It really DOES make a difference!!!

The race had sliders from Russia, Spain, Japan, Korea, Canada, Australia, and some other countries. In regards to the race I place 14^th. Usually I wouldn’t be happy with that, BUT this race was extremely competitive.  There were World Cup sliders in the race as well as ICC sliders. And since it was Canada’s home track, those girls had some INCREDIBLE times. So I can’t really complain. I had 2 BIG PR’s on race day with a start PR as well.  One of my coaches say “Everything is practice until an Olympic Year anyway.”

Calgary - Curves 4-5

Calgary- Curves 8-9-10

As of my next adventure, I AM GOING UP TO WHISTLER FOR TRAINING!  Why am I so excited you ask? Well Whistler was home to the last Olympics. It’s considered one of the most difficult tracks in the world!! It combines extremely HIGH speeds (80-90 miles an hour) with technically difficult driving. Normally you don’t combine both these elements on a track, BUT WHISTLER DOES!  What does this mean for me?? Well I will probably have some pretty awesome pictures of bruises to post (hopefully that’s it). I can’t wait to slide the track, I feel if I conquer that track, then there isn’t much to fear on other tracks.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving  with their friends and family!!

I have been meaning to update my blog for the last month, We just had team trials and I have been running around like a crazy person. I am going to send a blog about the results in the next couple days but I wanted to send out this one first. It is a quick overview on some of the cool things that were happening over at the training center over the last month.

We have some new Bobsled pushers in this year . We have 3 track and field athletes here. 1.Hyleas Fountain (Silver medalist from Beijing Olympics in the Heptatholon)  2. Tiana Madison ( 4th in London 100m, and a part of the GOLD MEDAL world record 4x100m relay in London) 3. Lolo Jones (everyone knows who she is)
It's pretty amazing to be literally training with the best in the WORLD. I watch them run (like a creeper) and I am AMAZED on their efficiency. It's beautiful to watch.  They are so fast!!
  There is another new bobsled recruit in, Aja,  she is a 5 time All American Shot Putter. She is a MONSTER. She won push champs, she cleaned 100 kilos like it was a toy, and squatted 130 kilos 3x's like she was just warming up. She's not the only one to do that either.  PRETTY IMPRESSIVE! These girls are monsters. USA Bobsled is going to KILL people at the start this year. 

I know that this post has mainly been about bobsled but thats ok, because now I am going to post a bunch of bobsled videos that are fun to watch! I have more but they all wouldn't upload!

                                          

Aja Broad Jumping 3.10 meters

Elana Squatting 130kilos (286lbs) 3x

Steve #1 Mens Bobsled Pusher (World Push Champion) @ Push Champs

Hyleas Sprinting 45 meters

                                       

                                         
                                                          Aja Pushing @ Push Champs

Combine and National Push Champs 2012

I got up to Lake Placid On September 16th and I have been staying at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center. It's always a blessing to stay here because food and housing is free. GOTTA LOVE THAT! 

Since I have been here I have participated in my yearly combine that I must take in order to meet one of the qualifications for housing at Lake Placid. It is a test of 8 events ( 15m sprint, 30m sprint, 45m sprint, 30m fly, broad jump, granny toss shot put, 3 rep max squat, 1 rep max clean) with a possible score of 800. The minimum score you can get is 650. This year I had a personal best score of 734. I am pretty happy with that since it is in the top 5 scores this year on the female side. I wanted to run .04 faster on my sprints, but I did run faster than last year so thats all I can ask for.  I have been battling a back problem so this year in the weight room I did not try and max out like I had in previous years. I stuck with a weight I knew I could hit without the possibility of aggravating my back. Although I did let ego get in the way and I thought I would try and Power Clean my life goal (90 kilos/ 198lbs) I did not want to full clean it so I could save my legs for Push Champs, but I figured ehh what the heck I'll try and power clean it. I missed...dangit...

82.5 Kilos power clean (182 lbs) @ Combine

90kilo (198lbs) Power Clean Attempt (sort of turned into a full clean thing) @ Combine

107.5 kilo squat for 3 reps (237 lbs) @ Combine 

Today we had US Skeleton Push Championships. We push on a push track that  reminds me of a roller coaster. The sensation is a bit different than pushing on ice but it gives a good idea who is pushing the fastest. This year I took 6th place out of 17 girls. I set 2 Personal Records on the push track so I can't really ask for too much more. I am excited to work on the track for 2 more weeks before we start training on ice for National Team Trials. I think by that time I should be back in the swing of things with my push because it is feeling a bit rusty

                                        One of my practice pushes from this week of training

For the next 2 weeks I will be living at a church in town due to the fact bobsled athletes are coming in for 2 weeks to do their push championships and a combine so they will be taking up much of the bed space in the Olympic Training Center which limits housing for the rest of us. I am just excited that the church is housing us for free. There will be about 6 Skeleton athletes that will be staying there. I am very thankful for that. 

I am excited and blessed to be up here right now. I cannot wait for team trials and to see what this season has in store for me. I know I worked as hard as I could this summer to get better so I am ready for whatever is thrown my way. I truly appreciate all the support, I can't thank everyone enough!!!

LIVE to WORK

Hey All

Well I first need to start off by professing how bad I have been this summer at updating my blog for that I say sorry to some and your welcome to others. Hopefully most take the apology!

SO what have I been doing the last couple months.. I bet you can’t guess!!!

I have been training, working, and well…training  more. I bet that takes many of you by surprise!

 Work has been going great. God really made the switch between jobs workout for the better x 10!  My Clientele this summer has been so great and consistent. Those that work in the personal training business know that consistency is hard to come by. But my schedule works out perfect with my own training and I truly enjoy working with every client I train.

My own training has been going well… There are always bumps and bruises you have to fight through but God willing I will be going up this season pretty healthy. Right now I am lifting 4x a week, sprinting & plyometrics 3x a week, and doing  strides &  extra core work 2x a week. Sunday is my off day. I am excited for the combine to see if I have gotten faster this summer.  I would like to run .07 seconds faster on my sprints at this years combine and I definitely believe it is possible.

                                        

                                       Here is a couple videos of training

Sled Pulls

Front Squats 176lbs x 5 reps (about 6 weeks ago)

Using my makeshift land sled (my dad made)  to get some push training in 

I have had some big fluctuations in weight this summer, which for me is not normal. For Skeleton I ideally want to weigh as much as I can without losing speed so I am fine with putting on weight.  At one point this summer, I weighed in at the lowest I have weighed in 11+ years (147lbs) due to a Kidney infection. I looked fragile and gross. Not a good look for me! It took about 3 months and A LOT of protein shakes to get the weight back and a bit more! I am happy to say I am consistently weighing around 162 and am ready for the season at that weight.

My weigh in when I was sick! WAY too low for me..

I am headed up to Lake Placid on next Sunday, which maybe the longest travel day in the history of man… On that Saturday Ole Miss plays Texas and game time is at 8:30 pm. Which means we will not get home till 2am. My flight leaves at 6:40 out of Memphis which means I will take an hour taxi ride at 4am to Memphis land in Albany at 2pm after 2 layovers, wait 5 hours for a shuttle, then drive 2 hours to Lake Placid and arrive around 10pm. CAN’T Wait!!! This is why I am going a week earlier than last year because took the combine after a day of travel day like that.. my body was not having that!

In other news, Paulie and I are doing great. I am really excited for him because they won the first 2
games of the season at Ole Miss. The coaches and athletes are working their butts off to make the team successful so I am pumped for them.

Ole Miss Vs UTEP

Paulie and me after the game!

Thanks for reading!! Let me know how You are doing! I love updates!

Have a great one!!

HEY ALL!
Oh my goodness My apologies for the delay on updating my blog. I have been meaning to update it and I will now insert the all too common excuse of "I've been super busy." Well don't think I forgot about you OR that I am not still training, because neither is true.

FIrst I will update you all on my training.!!!
 I have been training 5 days a week following the program written by the same coach as my last summer program. I lift and sprint on Mon-Wens-Fri and I do strides and core work Tues & Thurs.  As many of you " Old-Timers" know (I can say Old-Timers because I am including myself as one :) The hardest thing about training as we get older is that we just don't recover the same. I have been fighting a back problem since December but its gotten better the last month. I had to stop axial loaded squats (for me Back squats and Front squats) as well as Power Cleans and for any of you who know me KNOW that was tough for me because those are by far my favorite lifts in the gym.  But don't you worry I STILL GOT SWOLE! I had to switch to a lot of single leg work which I think is WAY harder, lots of heavy step-ups and lunges. BUT fortunately I was able to squat this last month so I am feeling good!   My sprinting program has consisted of short sprints up a hill the last couple months. I had a hill I sprinted on that was right next to Ole Miss but I went to run one day and it was destroyed my tractors and dirt.. Can't say I saw that coming. Now I run up a hill in my neighborhood, that works just as well, but my neighbors all think I am some crazy lady. But that's alright... I'll take that.  All in all I feel good about my training. Just working hard everyday trying to get ready for Team Trials in October. I have a combine in August and Push Championships in Late September. I can't wait !!

The Hill I run up in my neighborhood

Another view of the Hill

A few Steps into my sprint

Trying to get up that Hill!!!

RUN!!!!!!!!! This is probably when one of the many bees chase after me

In life outside of training. Paulie and I are still doing great. He's the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Ole Miss. The football team is in the 4th week of Summer training right now and he gets more and more excited everyday on the boys progress. I know they will turn the program around in the next few years!!!

I myself, left my last job as a personal trainer at a local gym and decided to pursue personal training elsewhere. I am now working with Rebel Body Fitness at Snap Fitness. I love it and the people are great. I get to run a Boot Camp called "Rebellion Bootcamp" here in Oxford starting the second week in  July. If you know anyone that is interested in Personal Training as well as Group Fitness in Oxford shoot them over my information and let's make it happen!!!!

    

Lastly PLEASE be praying for my Home State of Colorado. The wild fires are really bad there. I keep seeing pictures my friends have been posting that show these fires and it just break my heart people are losing their homes and lives from it.

This picture was taken by a friend in Colorado Springs of the wild fire on Sunday Afternoon

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Update me with whats going on in your life! I really do love hearing back from people!

The end has come....(Just for this season)

HEY ALL!
So my season has come to a close. The past weekend we raced in Lake Placid for National Championships. I was super pumped about this race. I was excited because I knew if I finished really well I would go on to race at the end of March in an International Race. During training (we get 6 runs over 3 days before we race) I was doing very well. I was consistent and I was finishing between 4th-6th place. I knew I could do even better so I couldn't wait to get to the race because ANYTHING happens on race day.  For National Championships we do 4 heats down the track over 2 days. You add up your times and whoever has the lowest time wins. So if you have 1 bad run..your screwed... Anyway as I was saying before ANYTHING can happen.. Well it did...but in a bad way... I just kept messing up on 1 transition in the track that is CRUCIAL for speed, so my times just weren't where they needed to be .. I got 12th place ( I had one run that dropped me about 2 spots) Needless to say I was and still am upset. I would be less upset if I knew I just wasn't good enough, but I know I can do this. I do it all the time in practice, But for some reason it just didn't come together during the race. I know I can't get too down on myself since I just started last year, but that can't always be an excuse. The biggest thing I need to work on is Myself, I know I work hard enough, I know I push myself, I know I want to be the best, and this summer I am going to get back to the grind of TRAINING HARD to be the fastest I can possibly be.

I got back to Oxford, MS last Monday and I started work on Wednesday ( I just can't sit still) I got a job at a local gym. UDC Fitness. It is a smaller place and the cliental is different from Anatomies. It is mainly college students. I am excited to take on this new adventure and tackle it!!! My boss is actually opening up a CrossFit gym in the next month and he asked me to be the Head Olympic Weightlifting Instructor at the gym. He wants there to be a separate class specifically for Olympic Weightlifting ( snatch and clean and jerk). I also get to teach everyone who goes through the gym these movements before they join CrossFit. This is GREAT for me because I know the members will be taught correct form and be less likely to cause injury.  It also keeps my skills up to date for when I get back into performance training for athletes (my passion)

Man can I tell you how much I have been running around the last 3 months....IT'S CRAZY....at one point I was in Lake Placid then Hattiesburg to Hawaii back to Hattiesburg then Wisconsin from there to Colorado to Oxford Mississippi back to Colorado then Park City.  And you know that all happened in 3 Weeks time...SO needless to say I feel at ease knowing I will be in one place for longer than 5 days... I am taking a 2 week break from working out, I have been fighting injuries the last 3 months and it's time to get healthy.

I would love to hear from y'all! Without all your encouragement this season I wouldn't be able to do it. Y'all motivate me everyday. God truly blesses me with a GREAT support system and I know he has me here for a reason. I will continue to FIGHT everyday for this goal for you, me, and God.  I will be posting updates on training this summer as well as fundraising for next season.. Ha it's a never- ending process!

I will leave you with this video of Kyle Maynard. I have been following him since I was in college. My dad sent me this video. If He can climb a mountain...with no limbs...I can make it to the Olympics with all 4 of mine!

Click Here to see Kyle's Video

if that doesn't work
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=7638580&categoryid=2378529

Nice Face!

Well Hello Hello!
I am out here in Park City enjoying my last few days of training.  This track has been fun to learn . It is completely different than Lake Placid.
I also went up to Calgary to train on that track for a week. I kinda have this thing with that track. I sort of want to punch it in the face, and I guess it has a mutual feeling towards me as you can see by the pictures below.

After my best run of the week on the track. What a reward huh!?

Needless to say, my vision was a little obstructed by the bottom of the track

You may be thinking.. "Kristina..that red spray paint is just so cool..." It's not spray paint...

My nose was a little swollen.. I looked Hot!

After the swelling started to go down, the black eyes started to appear

Don't worry. I did not hurt myself too bad. Just hit my nose on the ice in a 360 degree turn in Calgary. There is a lot of pressure on that turn so it mushed my face 3 times and my nose just decided to bleed... a lot... ha This actually happened 2x while I was there. After sliding there, I realized it may be time for a helmet upgrade. Since I have to tape my face shield on it's a little too close to my face.  But the helmet only cost me $80 vs. the NO JOKE $600 UVEX helmet that is about to be mandatory in Skeleton.

WHY does the helmet cost $600.. Is it gold plated?...NO...it is diamond encrusted?...NO... is it made out of the world's finest chocolate?...NO... I actually have NO IDEA why they charge $600 for it. It's probably why EVERYTHING IN THIS SPORT IS SOOOOOO EXPENSIVE... it just is...There aren't too many manufacturers of Skeleton helmets or equipment out there.  I DO know that that the UVEX helmet won't mush my face. So that is a bonus.  I am now on a mission to raise money for my FACE haha. I want to be able to buy a UVEX for next season, but it will take a lot of saving up. Let me know if you would like to join me in my efforts to protect my face and head and I can set up a fund specifically for my helmet.

On a different note. My next competition is March 3rd and 4th. It's USA Nationals up in Lake Placid. I haven't slid Placid since December, but sometimes that's better because you start over thinking a  track instead of just sliding. I will be flying up there on Feb 27th. We start Official training Feb 29 and we will have 6 runs down the track before we race. I have been informed if I do well at Nationals that I will be put in an International race at the end of March in Lake Placid... I am SUPER pumped about this and it is a great opportunity. I just need to hold it together during Nationals and I will get to stay an extra month to train and race, If I don't finish how I would like I will be done with my season on March 5th, and I get back to the grind of training HARD and getting ready for next team trials. Either way I am blessed to compete and excited to try my hardest. Thank you for all the support, It keeps me going everyday!

Long time... I know..I know...

Needless to say it's been awhile... I have been bouncing all around the last month and a half.  The month of December was very eventful to say the least.  I was training in Lake Placid  until Dec 14th and the last few days of ice there was GREAT! it was super smooth, it was considered "World Cup" ice.  I had a blast training on it.
I was able to go to Hawaii for  a week before Christmas because the college my boyfriend (Paul) is the head strength and conditioning coach at (Southern Miss) was in a bowl game down there.  Let me tell you that was a great break from the cold snowy weather!

NOW I know many of y'all are wondering where I will be living when I am done with the season.
As many of you all know the head football coach at Southern Miss was hired at UNC after the 12-2 season at Southern. In being that football is a sport where if the head coach leaves a school , many others follow. A few things fell through and Paul wasn't able to go to UNC. BUT God was looking out because to make a long/ stressful story short, Paul was offered the Head Football  Strength and Conditioning position at Ole' Miss. Its about a 4 hour drive from Southern Miss and it's amazing that he is already a Head Strength Coach at the SEC level. I am super proud of him and I know he will succeed anywhere he is at. He definatley has a gift of motivating and coaching. We will miss the coaching staff that went to UNC . Paul loved working at Southern and Coach Fedora, but we are also excited to walk through this new door and meet new people and coaches.
That being said I am SUPER sad to leave Hattiesburg because of the place I was able to work/train at. I LOVE Anatomies Health Club. Really I just loved the people that worked/worked out there. I never have felt such support and love from people that didn't even know me that well. The more I think about it the sadder I get. I don't think the people in Hattiesburg really know how much I appreciate them and how thankful I am for everything. I wish I could just pick everyone up and take them with me to Oxford, MS, but pretty sure it doesn't work like that. So I just wanna thank y'all for everything

   A few updates about Skeleton:
I am in Park City training until Feb 27th. The track is very different from Lake Placid. I am learning a lot and getting better everyday. At this very moment I am in Calgary training  for 4 days, and will return to Park City on Saturday.
My season is actually over on March 5th. The time has flown by.  On March 3 and 4 US Nationals will be held in Lake Placid. I am SUPER excited about this and can't wait to compete!