Peace Be The Journey

So the big news in my life right now is I MADE THE 2015-16 USA BOBSLED NATIONAL TEAM!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? I've had several people ask me how our federation goes about selecting the national team each season. Here's a quick run down of how this works and my reactions to being named to the team. Every September and October our team gathers once again from the far reaches of the globe for testing and team trials. All summer we are scattered back to our homes or multiple training centers across the country, but we all convene in Lake Placid for combines, push championships and team trials. Some years we have team trials races in multiple locations, but this year we had 2 selection races in Lake Placid. Beatiful fall colors on Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, NY Good Ol' Lake Placid OTC. We started training on ice Monday, Nov 10. Due to warm, rainy weather we missed a few days of sliding throughout the week. Friday's practice run was not wha

Oh my, how time has flown by. Fall is here and another bobsled season is on its way. I can't believe this will be the start of my 5th season on the bobsled team. Time has flown! I feels like yesterday that I took my first trip in a bobsled and went to driving school. I am now a veteran, which is a crazy concept to me. I feel like there's so much left to learn, so how could I be a veteran?! With each Olympic cycle, bobsled has a pretty high turnover rate, so anyone sticking around for more than four years is kind of rare from what I've gathered. Sorry I've been so bad about writing these last few months. I haven't been feeling creative, which is really rare for me. I've had my nose to the grindstone, which is a very strange and horrible sounding phrase now that I think about it. Between training and my engineering job, I've been busy, focused and hard at work. As I prepare for another season, I've been looking back on what I accomplished last year.

It's amazing how God uses the everyday things in your life to teach you when you stop to listen. I am training at a new gym with a whole new training philosophy and techniques. If you haven't read this blog before, I'll just clue you in that I'm a recovering perfectionist. It's not comfortable for me to do new things in public before I master them. Which is ridiculous, I know. Being in a new place with new people and new training techniques is challenging me for sure, but I'm loving it. I have been doing lots of exercises to max fatigue level (aka failure) the last 3 weeks. The point of this training block is hypertrophy. The medical definition is: the enlargement of tissue from increasing the size of the cells. Jonny's basic definition: We're ripping your muscles apart so there's room for them to grow. Sounds like fun right? (I'm learning all kinds of new words, and it's been fun hearing the reasons behind the exercises I'm enduring.

I recently had a discussion with my mom about my fluctuating emotional state that happens every year. She laughed at my dramatic reprise of how I feel every time one season of my life comes to an end. Imagine the "Whoa is me" look on my face and dramatic arm movements whilst I regale her with my emotional quandary. This is me. Every year. Without fail. Even when I know it's coming. It happens like this: (Summer) I love my life! I love my Texas friends! I love my gym! I love my church! I love my bed! I love my routine! I don't want to go back to bobsled and disrupt this life I'm loving. (First weeks of bobsled season) I don't like this. I'm uncomfortable. I'm surrounded by all these crazy, good athletes who intimidate me sometimes. I miss my friends, my church, my bed, my clothes, my kitchen. I want to go home. (End of bobsled season) I love bobsled! I love my bobsled friends! I love sliding! I love not really having a routine! I love competing! I