Eat’n Good In the Neighborhood

Athletes are expected to eat healthy and be aware of their nutrition in order to perform at their best. This may be the case most of the times but have you ever wondered what happens when you put a bunch of overly competitive people in a dining hall full of dessert? Well, I guess these pictures will explain tonight’s dinner at the Olympic Training Center…

It seems like everything is more fun around here when we are competing… maybe it’s because we’re not ready for our competitive season to be over and we refuse to give it up or maybe the desire to compete just runs in our blood. Every day at practice, I have a bet with someone to see who can push faster or who can have a better down time. Tomorrow we’ve picked teams. One National Team member and one rookie per team and we’ll combine the times. The losing team has to serve the other team dinner in their speed suits. Hmmmmm. Should be interesting! Luckily, I get a handicap when I’m racing against the boys! It makes it more exciting and adds a little bit of thrill to our practices. I love it.

Take Your Breath Away…. Literally

Hello! I made the long trek to Lake Placid yesterday and as soon as I stepped out of my car and turned into a human popsicle, I was ready to go back home. –29 degrees is nothing new to Lake Placid winters... They are known to be brutally cold but I never fully comprehend the feeling of such sub temps until I step outside for the first time and lose my breath and the film on my eyeballs start to freeze. Sounds gross but it’s true!

It’s uncomfortably cold even when you bundle yourself with heavy layers and thick gloves… try stripping down to a spandex body suit with your neck exposed to the “what feels like” –48 degrees with the wind chill and add 75 mph more of head wind while your body is only 2 inches off of an icy track! Do I have any takers? I just shed a whole new light on the sport of Skeleton! Haha. These are the days when you wish you had chosen a summer sport. Needless to say, today was a chilly day of sliding. When I couldn’t feel my neck, hands or feet when I got off the track I decided that aerodynamics were going out the window on my next run… For the first time in my skeleton career since I purchased a speed suit, I wore snow pants and my winter jacket down the track! Now that’s the way to go! I may have gone quite a bit slower with the hood of my jacket acting as my own personal parachute as it flapped in the wind, but I didn’t mind one bit! It was definitely an entertaining day.

Luckily, there are warmer temps in our future. Anything above zero is going to feel like a heat wave!

747 – brilliant flight home!

I had the craziest flight home on Monday…

It started with a two hour security line that I had to be pulled out of in order to make my flight making me one of the last people to get on the plane. Not the best start to my day but as soon as I stepped foot on United flight 917… my luck turned around! My teammate Marci had met a really nice flight attendant on a previous trip to Europe and he remembered her as soon as she got on the plane. She was going to be upgraded to business class but she was such a great friend and didn’t leave me alone in the middle seat of the cattle car section. The next thing I know, we were both moved up to Economy Plus with seats together! A free upgrade to more leg room and seats together… who could ask for more? Well, that was just the beginning!

It happened to be our pilot’s retirement flight and they announced that as we were about to take off but I kind of tuned the rest of the commentary out. After we took off I noticed the plane making unusually sharp turns and I could see the ground out the window one second and then the clouds above us the next…I thought I was going to be sick and had no idea what was going on. The next thing I knew, we were zooming past the airport again but we were super close to the ground! AAAHHHH! I guess it’s a tradition to make a high-speed, low altitude, fly-by on your last flight so that’s what we did. It was really neat…especially in a big double-decker plane. I later found out that they won’t let the pilots do that in the States so it was really special that the Frankfurt airport allowed it.

For anyone that hasn’t flown Internationally on United in over a year … no more free alcoholic drinks in Economy seating! That was always the best perk flying overseas. Anyway, before I knew it, our friend had poured us champagne in nice glasses and it seemed as if every sip I took he replaced it with more…oh boy! Marci ordered a vegetarian meal but I was told to be patient. Be patient? I was getting hungry watching everyone ear but let me tell you…it paid off big time! I was given a first class meal! That’s not just one tray of food, but an appetizer plate, a main course that I would have ordered at a restaurant, and finally, a gigantic ice cream Sundays with whip-cream and fruit on top! Oh yeah, it was wrapped up with a glass of bailey’s on ice. WOW! I’m pretty sure the people around us hated us! The whole time I was thinking… how am I getting so lucky? This never happens to me?

Finally, the big kicker that made people stare and wonder who we were to be getting such special treatment… The pilot comes strolling back and stops to talk to us for an entire hour! This is his last flight and he spends an hour talking to us? What’s going on? He told some really neat stories about the highlights of his career flying planes. He said the last thing on his mind now was the landing. He was pretty nervous about making his last one perfect. No pressure or anything! That part of the trip was really great.

The rest of the time was filled up with season 2 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. The best show in history! Needless to say, it was the best flight I’ve ever been on! Too bad time flies when you’re having fun…I was home in no time!
PS: The landing was like butter! J

Winterberg Winter Wonder Land Race

What an unfortunate race to end the season with. And what’s even more unfortunate is the fact that people just look at the time sheet and judge athletes on their sliding ability when they don’t know the conditions of the race. In a sport where there is usually no more than a 3sec spread from the first and last place finishers… there was a 15 sec difference! Half of us slid in a blizzard!

The jury deemed the first run unfair and cancelled the results. We ended up continuing about an hour later and had a one-heat race where the best time won. After the fist few sliders, the conditions started to fluctuated severely. Every 5 minutes a new front came in and dumped snow, making the race a lot like our previous trip down the track – unpredictable. For the most part, it was luck of the draw. The same situation occurred for the men. Our top ranked man ended up in 32nd place. Hmmmm.

With all this said, it’s still racing. You still have to stay focused, give it you best shot and slide with confidence. Sometimes the race conditions aren’t optimal but if you make sure you did everything in your power to slide fast, the rest is out of your control. You can’t blame yourself for bad weather even though it may make you “look bad” on paper. It’s just a number… move on to the next race… maybe luck will be on your side that day.

It was a great Europa Cup season. I ended up in the same overall position as last year (7th). Except this time around I didn’t go to the first race because it overlapped with our team trials so I didn’t receive any points. Therefore, I see it as a definite improvement and I’m happy with my results. Torino was my biggest accomplishment. That track taught me so much about timing, reading curves and even how to use different driving techniques effectively that I’ve never tried before. As far as my push, I really surprised myself in Konigssee with the 4th fastest start time of the race! That was definitely encouraging. I’m going to bring everything I’ve learned back to Lake Placid with me tomorrow and get some quality training in the next few weeks. I have two more races this year that I’m really looking forward to! I can’t believe how quickly this season is flying by!

Photos:
1-The view from the start house on race day. The pine trees were blowing over in the wind and snow!
2-Warming up for the race.
3-Marci, Kim and I jumping off the side of the track in the starting area.
4-2006/2007 Europa Cup Team USA (Kyle Tress not in photo)
More pictures of the race on GoKeslie.com in the Media Gallery-click "2006-2007 Season" Album

Quick Note

...just found out that our internet cafe is closed tomorrow so I won't be able to post my results until I get home :( sorry! I updated my "2006-2007 Season" photo album on my site. Check the "Winterberg-Germany" folder. We had a blast Indoor Go-Carting and sliding in the rain. We also were able to watch the World Cup Skeleton Race in Igls, Austria Live at the Irish pub. It's always cool to see people on TV that you know.


(Photo: Watching Eric on the big screen)

WET, WET, WET!

I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on Tuesday morning and made the trek to Winterberg, which is about two hours from the airport. The trip went fairly smooth except the roads in Europe are difficult to navigate if you are unfamiliar with the area. They don't have North, South, East, and West on their signage...only the names of towns in the direction you want to travel. How am I supposed to know which way Hobenbergenndorff is??? Luckily, my trusty navigator Kim was able to get us here like a pro!

Winterberg is a really cute ski town. Unfortunately, there isn't an ounce of snow in the area. In fact, it's not even cold enough to make snow here! It's definitely a tourist town and I know they are suffering with the warm weather. There are also great stores on main street to shop in but because of the torrential downpour, no one wants to be walking around outside. This is when I appreciate big malls in the U.S. and a roof over my head! So if there's no skiing and shopping is no fun, what is there to do when we're not sliding? We would usually hang out in our hotel but somehow we booked ourselves in the only place that is under construction! I didn't sleep a wink last night so I tried to take a nap but I felt like my head was going to be drilled out. There is nothing worse than wanting to relax and having a cement drill and a handful of screaming German workmen on the other side of your wall! Luckily today was their last day working until we leave.

Tomorrow afternoon we are going to practice our driving skills away from the track... GO-CARTS! There is a really fun indoor raceway down the street and we're going to entertain ourselves with some friendly international go-cart racing! Sliding is expected to be cancelled tomorrow because the weather is outrageous and is only going to get worse.

There are a ton of sliders here because it's the last Europa Cup Race of the year and the Europeans are using it as a qualifier for their European Championships. Today was a lot of fun...for a minute I thought I had changed sports and was on the U.S. National Waterslide Team. Does that exist? Because if it doesn't, I think we need to create it! From the moment I stepped off the starting block, I was following the lines of the water flow and dodging lakes and puddles at the end of most turns. My face shield was completely fogged and I was soaked head to toe after a minute of being on the track. It was great fun! I just wish I had more clothes with me... at this rate, I'll be out of dry apparel by tomorrow! Yikes! Plus, they don't believe in dryers in these parts. I don't know if I prefer this weather or the four feet of snow in three days we got here last year!

Aside from the wetness... I was happy with how my sliding went because you have to adjust to all kinds of conditions (including swimming down the track). Tomorrow there are supposed to be hurricane winds and it may get just cold enough to have freezing rain and some wet snow. We are scheduled to race on Sunday and the forecast calls for two feet of snow so they may change the race to Saturday. I'll let you know.



(Photo: Wet helmet from the pouring rain! Yuck!)

Back to Europe :)

I'm going back to Germany tomorrow! Can't wait... it seems like I haven't slid in forever and it's only been a week. I did some sled work while I was home to make sure my sled was in its best condition just in time for it to get thrown around on the airplane. I wish I could buy my sled its own seat after seeing how poorly they handle it. It makes me so sad watching them pick it up and slam it on the ground after we take such good care of them but I'm sure we've all taken worse hits down the track.

I'll be in a place called Winterberg, Germany. It's a small ski town about two hours north of Frankfurt. I slid there last year and didn't do very well so I'm looking to end my international race season strong this time around. The top of the track was reconstructed over the summer so I'm interested to see how different it will be.

Just wanted to let everyone know I'll be back in Europe (with my own computer this time!) so keep your eyes out for new photos and journal entries this week.

The Rule of “4”… What now?

I feel like the last half of my life has been separated into 4’s. I went to high school for four years…I went to college for four yeas… and I’ve been sliding for four years. Wow, time flies! It seems as if society has psychologically prepared us to move on every four years through its education system. Although, I am going on my twelfth straight year of dinning hall food... I think I may have missed the memo to learn how to cook for myself. Oops. Anyway, my point is, I’ve hit year number 4 in sliding and I’m starting to get antsy. Luckily, I’m still in love with my sport and have no desire to quit but I need a change. I found that I’m the happiest when I have a lot going on in my life. Whether it’s because one thing makes me appreciate the other thing more or the fact that I feel productive, I don’t know exactly why.

With all of this considered, I’ve decided to implement “Plan B” into my “Plan A”. “Plan B” being a life outside of Skeleton in the “real world” as they say. And of course, “Plan A” is competing in the 2010 Olympics if you were confused. Now that I’ve got that laid out… I’m applying to Graduate School at Northwestern University for Sports Administration. I’m submitting my application this week for Summer Enrollment and all I can do is keep my fingers crossed. Please don’t be smart and ask what “Plan C” is because I don’t know. Well, I do know but it’s in the works and I’m not ready to share that idea with the world so hold your horses!

I guess since I shared this much, I’ll have to let you know if I get in or not. I’ll keep you posted.