I Need An Altitude Adjustment!

I went to SLC last week for 4 days to check out the U of Utah and meet my new skating team! Little did I know the altitude would impact my skating. There were people from all over skating with me and they had no trouble at all and there I was, gasping for air the 3rd lap, and this was SHORT TRACK!! Good thing im moving there, ill get in some good high altitude training so when I have to skate anywhere else itll be easy!! They are so lucky, they have 2 hours of ice every day and for long track im not sure but the schedule seemed pretty open. One day I skated 2 hours of short track, changed my skates, then skated 2 hours of long track! Every skaters dream, right?!

Theyve got some sick crosstraining options too! World-class skiing, mountain climbing, road/mt biking, rock climbing, pancakes, all sorts of fun stuff! Everyone there is really nice, the coaches are cool, its a cool city with a kindof train thing called the UTA TRAX running through it. The school didnt have the major I wanted but im willing to compromise. :)


My new grocery store, Wild Oats!!


Fast people on the Oval



Fast people on the ST (Cherise is in there somewhere!)



My aching legs after a hard 4 hours of awesometastic ice time!!

PARK CITY!!!

bobsledder poster


A sliding track


Reminds me of lake placid!!

SLC


The most amazing scenery I have EVER seen!





Cool bridge on campus


If anyone watches the spanish soaps on Univision, heres their mothership!!


The TRAX


From the plane

Tea Partay!!!

I am in no way trying to advertise Smirnoff but we were watching this in health class the other day, it's pretty much the MOST RIDICULOUS THING IVE EVER SEEN! Hahaaaa! We all New England gangstas yo!

Jerry Whitmer!

Jerry, as you read this you probably laugh and call me a lier but I really did have a post about you that got deleted a while back!!! So... to make it up this post is dedicated to the awesomeness of Jerry Whitmer, the creator of the STAY BENT JIG!!! . Jerry, you have changed the course of the future of speedskating, everyone LOVES this jig and thinks your awesome but you dont need me to tell you that! While im at it ill go ahead and say that thanks to Jerrys craftiness, I have the only Stay Bent with LIME GREEN lettering!


What a sexy jig.

International Pancake Day!

IHOP was giving away free pancakes, so naturally we decided we needed to go there after practice and have a "team meeting". It was fantastical! We decided it was important to have "meetings" every other week from now on.

So This Is Where Pancakes Come From!

The Pancake Bunny visits me often.


And so does.... the Pancake Tortoise?!

Pancake Review #6

Organic FlaxPlus Multigrain Pancake Mix

INGREDIENTS:
Yes, it's an actual mix for once!!

PREPARATION:
Mix the mix with milk and oil and tadaaaa!!! So easy.

Equipment Used:
Cast Iron Skillet, a flipper, a bowl!

Strengths:
They are so much easier to make than from scratch. They taste like little mouthfuls of happiness. And they're HEALTHY! Whole grain. No pesticides. Sustainable. Sustainable pancakes? Why not!

Weaknesses:
They take a little longer to cook but I guess they don't have any egg so its OK to undercook a little ;P

Notes:
These are good at filling you up, I usually have 4 pancakes. With these I only need to make 2! Another thing I can watch swim in gallons of maple syrup! Mmmmm

Long Track Nationals

WOW! It was soooo much fun, my cold decided to come back after the 1500 but Zicam is a wonderful thing. Ive never skated pack-style before, its like short track on the long track. Thoes were some of the most vicious races ive ever skated! So much bumping and jostling in the corners, it was intense! Especially Jims 3000, ive never heard people scream so loud in the last 100 meters!!

I probably had the 1 or 2 best races of my LIFE. The 500 and the 3000. I lost first place to an actual Cat.1 skater in both by only hundredths of a second, if that, and got insane pbs. I was SO happy to finish THAT CLOSE to someone THAT GOOD, I never thought id be able to do something like that. Beth really helped me prepare for the 3000, she gave me a great pep/tactical talk and screamed the whole race! (and bribed me with 50 bucks, but OBVIOUSLY I was only racing for the glory...hehe) But seriously, Beth is awesome. I really appreciate the coaching. Its so nice to have someone to pump you up, tell you what to do and what to think so you can just go out and skate without worrying. I was lucky enough to have the support of Tim and Karen and Jim too! The coaching and cheering meant ALOT!! It makes me wonder if next year when I go to college ill have a team as awesome as RSST!

I got to meet some cool people there too! I met Ken Anderson from Chicago, whos blog I read, there is a link to it under "links"! I think he did pretty well, ended up top 3 maybe? Sounded like he was having some good races when I asked. Jim introduced me to Amy Peterson, I had NO IDEA what to say! What does one say when meeting a 4 time olympian?? I also met Brian Boudreau who is a national record holder for a number of distances! SO many cool people there!

Here are some pics, Ill have more up later these are the only ones I have now! My brother took some nice ones, plus some videos!


Julie and her gummy bears!


This is her explaining with the gummies the start of her race.


The green one is her. :P


I sure do love gummy bears!!


What a sexy jig!!


(Leslie!!) They also had what they called "CHE Hockey", if walking isnt your style!