Peace Be The Journey

How is it already September?! This off-season has flown by. I've been in Dallas and working full time since April and training at Performance Vault since early May. The last week of July, I headed to a week long push camp in Lake Placid, NY. Other than that, I've been putting in the hours at the office and the gym, and now my pre-season bobsled events have begun. I am looking at the calendar and seeing my life in weeks instead of months, which means summer is over. I skip fall and go directly to winter. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. This happens every year, just like summer break did when I was in school. The beginning of the off-season is great. No training. Just rest and recovery from beating my body up for the past 6 months of the season. We don't report back until October, so the next 6 months seem like they stretch on forever. About 2 weeks in, I start getting antsy. I'm ready to get back in the gym and start prepping for next season, but thankfully I h...

Body fat. Those two little words probably made you cringe. I think that's most people's reaction. Your mind probably went to that one area of your body you're particularly unhappy with or the part of you that is always on your mind. As I have progressed as an athlete, I've become increasingly aware of my body and all that I put it through. I now pay much more attention to what I put into my body nutritionally and how I feel during training. If something hurts, I'm more likely to speak up and see if we can change the exercise up a little. I can articulate how I feel and what I think my body is doing, which helps my trainers and coaches know how to help me improve. I spend more time helping my body recover, so I can push myself harder the next day during the workout. I have learned so much about my body, but I had never accurately had my body fat tested. I really wanted a benchmark, to know where I was starting from this off-season. You can't get where you're...

This YouTube video is pure genius! It's been on my favorites list for a few years now, and it makes me smile every time I watch. I have met both of these men on tour and both went to the Vancouver and Sochi Olympics. They're great competitors and have been very successful. Here's a behind the scenes interview with them about why they made the video and the struggles we all face to find funding as Olympic athletes. It's the same for every country. Bobsled is an expensive sport with competitions held in ski resort towns across the world, so we're all on the lookout for sponsors or creative ways to find funding. If you have an brilliant ideas, please don't hesitate to share. I need all the help I can get. And if that didn't make you smile, just watch this 80's inspired training montage the Canadian guys put together a few years back. I crack up every time. Plug's mullet and mustache are so wrong, and he had them on tour that entire season. As ...