Rebecca Sorensen-

We just finished our World Cup/Olympic trails on Saturday the 24th. And I am happy to report that I have made our world cup team and will be headed to the Olympic track for 10 days of training before our world cup season starts in Park City, UT.

Thanks for all of your support!!!

Rebecca Sorensen

Okay...so two of our four world cup selection races are complete. I was fortunate enough to have earned two, 2nd place finishes from Lake Placid. I’m pretty darn excited about the way I have been training and hope to keep it up in Park City. The week was filled with lots of planning and detailed preparation in an effort to be at my best. We were up at 6am for the two days of racing and up late most nights. It is always a fine line in balancing all of the elements that we have in our sport of Skeleton. Everything is always ever-changing. So, off to Park City to hopefully make the world team...!!!

Jennifer Rodriguez

I know I missed a week of blogging, so now I need to catch up. Its been a busy 2 weeks! Last night we arrived to Milwaukee and are getting ready for the US World Cup Qualifier/Olympic Trials. We have one week to get used to the ice and the absolute freezing cold in the rink and next Wednesday the races begin! I’m excited! My skating is feeling pretty good and times have been going well. Hopefully I can keep things going in this direction.

Last week, Philip was in town and it was nice to have him around again. I had to go to Vancouver for a Nike media summit for women...Philip was able to come along, which was awesome! It was fun, but crazy busy!!! There was really no time to do any looking around. We were busy from super early morning until dinner. I had to do quite a bit of interviewing and even a long track demonstration. I must say that its not easy doing a LT demonstration. The track is too big!!! When people are sitting on one side of the rink they can’t really see me while I’m on the other side. So, I had to improvise and do a short demo on one side of the track. It was hard but I made the best of it. With all the interviewing though, I was exhausted! I’m a shy person, so talking to a lot of people I don’t know is very hard for me. At the end of a day full of interviews, I’m wiped! Its good for me though. It helps me out of my shy shell.

So right now, I’m sitting on my bed getting ready to watch Monday night football with my Dolphins vs. Jets. At this moment, there is nothing more important! :) The Dolphins are also recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month during this game as well. Pretty cool!!!

GO FINS!!! :-D

The pic is of the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee.

Rebecca Sorensen-

We are right in the middle of our training week as we prepare for the first 2 of 4 Olympic team trail races. I have been training well despite the ever changing track conditions and in going from a night to morning sliding schedule. This last week’s focus has been all about the sliding and equipment for me. The method seems to keep me in the right frame of mind as we head into official training and to the races on the 14th and 15th. A few days ago we had our annual Randy Price Memorial Award and Luggage Lotto. Although the award was not given at this meeting, we continued the tradition of speaking about Randy and what he has meant to those who knew and slide with him and in sharing his unspoken message of strength and courage for those who didn’t. Randy found skeleton in 1999, 3 years into a thyroid cancer diagnosis. Skeleton was one of the few sports Randy could enjoy and control despite feeling ill most of his short sliding career. He would drive over 5 hours to the track just to take a few runs so that he could feel truly alive. He said that skeleton gave him a special gift. What Randy didn’t know, is that he gave us all a special gift by being a true representation of what an athlete should hold as the his or her highest value- do sport a sport because of the way it can change your life for the better- if you just let it...

Jennifer Rodriguez-

Sorry I’m a little late in writing this week, but I have been crazy busy!!! Last Monday Philip went back to Baltimore, but I was still on a hard week of training so I was back to the regular routine. On Wednesday I was off to Chicago for the USOC Media Summit.
The Media Summit is an opportunity for journalists of all sorts to question Olympic hopefuls in all the winter sports. Its 2 days long and pretty much nonstop from early morning until late afternoon. Its actually pretty exhausting, especially when you have to fit workouts in on the little bit of downtime we have. We get some cool gear though and all meals are taken care of, so you can’t really complain. Plus its always fun to interact with the other athletes. Its a rare opportunity to meet and hang out with the athletes from other sports. I like it!!!
After Chicago I went back to Miami for a couple of days to visit my family and brand new nephew. It was nice to be home. I had the chance to go visit my mom, which was tough but important for me to do. When I was at the site, it really felt like it was just yesterday. It had been about 3 months since I was there. It was nice to be home this time for something joyful.
My nephew has got to be the cutest little guy ever! I know I’m biased, but he’s precious! He was born a week early so he’s a tiny little guy, just over 5 lbs. I’ve never really been around babies, so I wasn’t really sure what to do. He seemed so fragile. Once I held him for the first time, my eyes started to water. I loved him so much...instantly! I can’t wait to have one of my own some day! :)
My brother and his wife also bought a new home recently, so it was nice to check that out. We actually were all able to get together to watch the Dolphin game (which was a complete disaster) as a family for the first time in an extremely long time. I enjoyed that a lot. I love watching sports with my family.
Other than spending time with the family, I still had to train. I jumped on the bike a couple of times and went to the gym. Philip came to Miami as well, so he and my dad joined in on my workouts. My dad has gotten crazy about getting back into shape. I’m proud of him. He’s doing real well. It was super nice being home, even if it was just for a short time. One thing I don’t miss is the humidity! Yuck! It’s so sticky! Regardless, I was glad I went because the next time I get to go home is after the season in March or April. By then my nephew should be crawling...I can’t wait!!!
Anyway, I’m back in Park City now and in my own bed. I’m on a rest week, so time to take care of all the miscellaneous nonsense.
Until next time!!!!jrod

Rebecca Sorensen-

Southwest to the NortheastAfter moving out of the OTC in Colorado Springs, I spent a nice long weekend at home. However, it was far from restful with lots of work to do with both the party I planned and the trip to LP for which to prepare. The party was great. All my friends came from back in the day and a lot of catching up was done. Then, my travel to Lake Placid was a dream. Was only charged 50$ for my extra luggage (thanks Southwest) and had a whole row to myself the whole way. Being back in Placid brings back a lot of memories and I’m super excited to start sliding on Monday. Body feels great and can’t wait to see what happens on the track. I’ll keep ya posted!!! It has already snowed.... Sweet.

Annie O'Shea-

This has been a great week of pushing so far. Despite the fact that my legs are still way too sore for my own good, I feel confident. I think I am going to need a heavier sled than I had last year, by about 3kg. I lost a lot of weight over the past month or so, and I don’t know if I will put it all back on or if I want to.

Last year I thought the extra weight was going to be a huge advantage, and I really didn’t find a difference. Now since I got a little lighter I think I’ll just continue to let my body be where it wants to.

There are only 2 days left of pushing here in Calgary. I have worked on a few things, like staying closer to my sled and running in a straight line. It’s a little more difficult than normal since I am not pushing my sled and I keep hitting my ankles with the metal bunks of this sled. Quite painful.
I am getting really nervous and excited for October 5th (the first day of the season) to come around. I have a little bit of a different feeling this year, normally I don’t get nervous when people ask me if I’m excited, but now I am. A lot of the guests at work ask how I am doing and if I am ready to go. I say yes because I am, but then I get nervous because I want this so bad and I stay that way for a good amount of time. Maybe the change is a good thing for me, I don’t want to be too confident that wouldn’t be a good way to go about anything. Annie

Nicole De Yong-

Lake Placid Update

Well it has been a while since I updated! Last update I was just leaving Whistler. Since then, I drove back to Sun Valley and have traveled to Lake Placid, New York for a training camp. Everything seems like a bit of a whirlwind but I have to admit, having these camps gives me a good chance to get caught up with all the little “to do” things, such as updating my blog.
It is always nice to come east and enjoy training in a new place with beautiful fall colors, good roller skiing terrain, and accessibility to a great facility. We are staying at the Olympic Training Center which provides dorm-like housing, cafeteria-like eating, and a great sports therapy. All of these things create a very “easy” environment in which to train. When we are not training or eating, we have time to rest and get the recovery we need.
We have a full week or quality training ahead of us. The U.S. Ski Team along with some other teams will be joining us in the next couple days. It will be nice to have a “crew” out here to train.
I will do my best to update as the camp progresses!