Bad Luck?

Im really getting screwed over by people lately. I went out to my car this morning on the way to practice to find my car painted on. This is the rear window:

"Learn to park"

Which I kind of understand, as my car was a bit crooked. I thought it was funny. Until I drove all the way to practice and noticed that they also wrote "Ass f*ck" on the side window.

SERIOUSLY? What the hell is wrong with people. Right after I get my wallet stolen? Give me a freaking break.

To add to that, I went to the store to grab some milk, cereal, and soy for my coffee. I had to write a check since I have no cards, turns out for out of staters like myself, they need to see an ID with the check....

Wana hear some good news? I got an Olympic Oval coffee mug for 4 bucks!

And...

They're taking the hockey boards and ice markings off one of the ice sheets in the middle of the oval to make an actual short track rink!! Itll have spring loaded pads on the sides instead. It should be done before the World Cup in mid October!


Here it is now.

On the way back from practice I found myself behind this cool truck...

American Cup 1

I got 4th overall and made ALL the A finals!!!!! Ive NEVER made an A final before it was pretty sweet. Mike said it was the best hed ever seen me skate and Derek said I looked like a real speedskater!! Coming from them it means a lot. I took lots of pictures not related to skating, like the amusement park in Mall of America and some resulting from boredom in the hotel :)

Also...I left Nurf, my stuffed turtle there :( AND I got my wallet with my ID, money, cards, etc and boarding pass stolen!! I left it in the bathroom at the airport, a few seconds later went back in realizing they were gone and the lady that went in after me stole them!!!! I thought she deserved to be torn apart slowly by Komodo Dragons then crapped out and eaten by dung beetles....It turned out not as horribly incredibly extremely bad as I thought when I found my passport and the lady at the desk felt bad for me and gave me another boarding pass. :) It made me feel so bad when this nice old lady came up and offered me 20 dollars to get something to eat, she said shed gotten her wallet stolen once too and knew how I felt. I couldn't take her money, but what a nice lady!!!

Andrea was with me and bought me and ice cream and I felt better :P (I owe you)

Im doing a LT time trial this weekend to get a time for American Cup in 3 weeks, yaaaay!


My roommates make fun of my skater butt all the time and decided to let me know what they thought by putting a poster on my mirror.



Star on the swing






The plate of our rental car!

American cup 1

Im leavin for MN on thursday, ill get there about 5:30pm. Hopefully in time for the premier of Greys Anatomy!!!!! Im staying at a hilton (I think) with the New Edge peeps. Hope to see Rochester there!!

This might not be a great idea but I want to schedule that LT Time Trial the weekend after Am Cup. I cant wait any longer!!

2 Olympic Trials? Whaaat?!

Its true!! See Andrew Loves blog for the details, he went to the meeting. Veeery interesting.

New Goal

Ive been watching the Norge team kick ass on the long track the past few weeks. These guys are crazy, they're all like 7 feet tall and all blonde! So I start thinking... im tall and blonde too... so that means I can also skate with them!
So I went to Mike the other day and tell him I can kick all their asses, they got nothing on me. Hes like totally. And you can definitely skate lower too. *note the sarcasm*

Today I decided to sign up for a time trial so I can get a qualifying time to skate in the A ice with the Norwegians. The qualifying time for the 1000m is 1:27, which means I will improve in this time trial by 8 seconds.

NO JOKE! Im TOTALLY serious. Im goin' for it.

Grrr..

So I'm kinda in a slump as far as training goes.... I want to be able to go faster but I just can't. Sometimes during practice well do 2 lap flyers and everyone goes out full speed but I'm always a half lap behind. It's really discouraging, I really don't understand why I cant at least keep up. I'm working so hard, getting in those extra crossover in the corner, trying to get that lean on the straightaways, but its just not happening.

It happens too when we do 9 lappers (or 1000m races) , everyone will go real slow until 4 laps to go then take off, but Ive come to realize I only have ONE speed and can't accelerate. My legs will completely die and shut off when I try to move them faster.

Its even more frustrating during relays when the skater I'm going out for is relying on me to match their speed coming out. The other day I basically got told by another skater that I'm too slow, dangerous, and annoying because I'm never in the right spot. Well you know what? I am slower. I'm the slowest skater on this team and I just started doing relays last month. But I'm trying VERY hard to skate with them, I never miss workouts. I always give 100%.

I asked Mike if I should be doing extra weight workouts, but he said more long track would be a better idea, to get some strength in a low position. So Ive added some more LT and more running to my schedule. Something amazing better happen soon, I don't know what else I can do.