Annie O'Shea Colorado Springs training camp

Check out this great post about the recent US Bobsled/Skeleton training camp in Colorado Springs.

Annie O'Shea

After Colorado I realized that this summer has already gone by very quickly. Just look at the calender its July 12th today, the track in Lake Placid opens on October 5th. My workouts have been going great but there are so many aspects to this coming season that I haven’t started on yet.
Between workouts, working and doing rehab and recovery I run out of time in the day. When I do have a few extra minutes I just want to sit and stare at the t.v. or look out the window. I am trying to work on my time management skills so I can do the extra things to prepare myself for the upcoming season. For example I need to start doing mind runs, it is a great way to prepare yourself so you feel like you haven’t been off your sled for 5 or so months.
I know this coming season is going to be difficult but I am looking forward to it. I’m excited to experience my first Olympic season, and as long as I keep my head on my shoulders and do my best, I will be satisfied with everything.
I will admit every now and then I think about “the Olympics” (in quotes only because it haunts me sometimes) and how nervous I already am sometimes, but I guess its inevitable, how could you not be nervous. I am talking with a sports psychologist every now and then on certain ways to learn to turn these thoughts into positive ones. I realized that a lot of people have thoughts like this, and the way to become a better athlete is to learn how to deal with these thoughts.
I don’t want to rush the summer any faster than its already going, but I am very excited to go home in August. I plan on going home for only about 5 days or so really because I don’t want to miss too much of work. But I am excited to see my family and go to the beach.
These are just some random thoughts that I’ve had and I wanted to share them with everybody.

Rebecca Sorensen

I was just thinking about the phase “the other side of the tracks” and it made me think about our neighbors to the west. It happens to be the children’s miracle hospital. On our side of the “tracks” we have athletic dreams and the opportunity for the ultimate pursuit of them. On their side, they also have dreams, but the dreams and the pursuit of them is quite different. Their road is not paved in or to gold, their rooms are not paid for, their dreams are not every four years. They are children. They didn’t choose this life. They didn’t ask to be sick. They live grown-up lives and deal with grown-up issues. Their goals are to feel better, be better, live. We visited the hospital last year and I often think of the children and how they have been doing. I often consider how different my life would be if I lived on the other side of the tracks...becca

Jennifer Rodriguez training cycle

July 9, 2009

Well, after having to train by myself for 5 weeks in Miami, I'd have to say its been real nice to be back with my team again! My team is awesome and like my second family. I missed them!!!Right now I'm at the end of 2 hard weeks of training with 2 days left to go in our cycle. It's been tough! On Saturday I get to ride from Salt Lake City up to Deer Valley. Its my last workout of the cycle, its going to be real hard but I'm actually really looking forward to it.Next week we finally get the chance to get back on long track ice! It s very exciting for all of us. We've been doing some short track skating and inlines, but its not the same. My feet are all cut up because my inline boots are not nearly as good as my long track skates, so another reason to be excited to get back on the long track ice. Next week is a rest week for us, so we'll just get to play around on the ice for a little and mess around with our skates before we head out to Vancouver for a 2 week camp on the 19th.Anyway, that's it for now. Until next week!

jen

With her mom gone, speedskater Jennifer Rodriguez stays determined

By Linda Robertson
lrobertson@MiamiHerald.com
Throughout her skating career, Jennifer Rodriguez has had one indefatigable source of inspiration: her mother.
Barbara Rodriguez was like a stopwatch from afar, providing the push Rodriguez needed in the demanding sport of long-track speedskating, which is as much about beating agony as beating your opponent.
Barbara fought cancer for 16 years. ''If Mom can stand the pain, I can stand the pain,'' was Rodriguez's mantra on the hardest laps.
She, in turn, motivated her mother. ''If Jen can do it, I can do it,'' Barbara would say.
On parallel paths, they tried to steal time.
Barbara succumbed June 15. She was 59. The cancer that started in a breast had spread to her nervous system.
She was at every one of Rodriguez's Olympic races -- 1998 in Nagano, Japan; 2002 in Salt Lake City; 2006 in Turin, Italy. Her first trip to the Winter Games came after a double mastectomy. Her third came after a recurrence of cancer, in her liver, and she learned to give herself injections so she could travel to Italy. There, inside the Lingotto Oval, she wore a blue Team USA beret to hide ''my bad, three-inch hairdo,'' and cheered with husband Joe.
Now Rodriguez faces the prospect of going to her fourth Olympics without her mother. She's entering the second year of a comeback at age 33 with the goal of competing in the 2010 Vancouver Games. Rodriguez, a Miami native and Palmetto High graduate, is the only Cuban-American to win medals at the Winter Olympics -- two bronzes in 2002 in the 1,000 and 1,500 meters. She's our J-Rod, a former roller skater nicknamed ''Miami Ice,'' and she wants to win another medal.
But she is weary from ''the worst year of my life,'' she said. ''I've been an emotional wreck.'' Divorce from skater KC Boutiette, who got her into the sport. Financial problems that have mired her in debt and forced her to sell her car, her training bicycle, her old skinsuits and maybe even her engagement ring. And now the death of her mother.
Rodriguez contemplated quitting, leaving the ice once and for all. That's not what Barbara would want.
''At first my mom thought the comeback was crazy, but she supported my decisions,'' said Rodriguez, who left Miami and the bike shop she and Boutiette owned together to move back to U.S. team headquarters in Utah. 'She said, `OK, you're going to do it and you're going to do it 100 percent.' ''
J-Rod's return was erratic: a few top 10 finishes, a World Cup victory in Nagano, a broken skate blade. Yet, she felt the old rhythm coming around, and the desire.
''I know my body is capable, I know it's in there,'' she said.
`HARD TO WATCH'
After the season, her mother became ill, afflicted with double vision, nausea and unbearable headaches. Barbara was set up in hospice at home. Rodriguez spent the past five weeks of her mother's life at her bedside, rubbing her head, holding her hand, talking as Barbara slipped from lucid reminiscences into hallucinations. The last couple weeks, Barbara couldn't tolerate medication and couldn't eat.
''It was really hard to watch her deteriorate and suffer so horribly,'' Rodriguez said of her father, Joe, and brother, Eric. ``In the past, she had always bounced back.''
Barbara's 10 cats knew she was dying. Her favorite, Bella, licked her face. On what turned out to be Barbara's last day, her family played her favorite music -- Christmas music.
'We hated it, but we said, `Here, Mom, we're playing this nonstop,' '' Rodriguez said.
Barbara was buried wearing her daughter's leather Team USA jacket from 1998. After the funeral, Rodriguez debated whether to continue skating. Did it make sense or was it a mistake, borne out of her frustration from 2006, when she overtrained and didn't win a medal?
She had poured all her savings into the Elite Cycling and Fitness shop, which Boutiette continues to run, and now she's nearly broke. Speedskating doesn't pay the bills. Unless you're Apolo Anton Ohno, the short-track skater who won Dancing With The Stars, you're stuck in obscurity until the comet-like illumination of the Olympics. Rodriguez receives $1,750 per month from U.S. Speedskating and the U.S. Olympic Committee, but like many Olympic athletes in fringe sports, she has no sponsors or endorsements. It's regrettable to see her and her peers struggle when it was revealed in the recent USOC shake-up that more than a dozen executives were earning outlandish six-figure salaries.
''If your sport is not on TV, your chances of sponsorship are slim,'' she said. ``There are only five speedskating tracks in the U.S. Americans don't have access to our sport, even though we have one of the best teams in the world.''
DONATIONS NEEDED
Rodriguez got financial aid from her mother, who worked for Junior Achievement of Miami, but her father, who owns a graphics business, can't afford to send checks. Rodriguez is hoping that even in these tough times, donors will step forward. One way to contribute is through the website Americaforgold.org.
She just wants to get to February. She has to. Her mother is gone, but her message of determination lives on. Rodriguez hopes to skate in tribute to Barbara in Vancouver.
''It's strange but sometimes it feels like she's still here,'' Rodriguez said. ``I feel her presence. She gives me strength.''

Nicole De Yong

It is hard to believe I am 11 weeks into my summer training program…time sure does fly by! These weeks have varied from 24 hour volume weeks, to intensity weeks, to 10 hour recovery weeks. Each week is focused with specific workouts and some even contain benchmark time trial tests. The tests performed so far are a good indicator as to what my fitness level is compared to past years. Pleasantly enough, my results have improved!
Last week I completed a volume week which entailed 6 hours of roller skiing, 7 hours of running, 3 ½ hours biking, 2 ½ hours strength, and a 5 hour over-distance hike. After a big volume week, I am taking advantage of a recovery period this week.
I am looking forward to a team training camp in Park City in two weeks. Camps are a good opportunity to focus 100% on training and recovery without the distractions of everyday life at home. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on my training progress!

Kaitlyn Farrington on her way to recovery!

Snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington recently had surgery to repair her meniscus and sent us an update. We are all hoping for a speedy recovery!



On tuesday I walk in to the Heber Valley Medical Clinic for my third meniscus surgery…

Signing my knee away!
Tuesday was the day of the surgery and if I could tell you all about it I would, but honestly I think I was a little loopy. I can tell you that my dad came down for the surgery and it was so fun to see him!
Dr. Cooley did my meniscus surgery. I had torn my meniscus in Mammoth. Cooley just went in and trimmed it up. Now my recovery is starting and I am gimping around with my ballin cane…
I will be back on snow in August and I can’t wait! I should be in Hood shredding right now.