Sunshine..

It has been a great week of training in Lake Placid, with some wonderful weather. It was almost 80 degrees again today, super sunny and almost hot for doing tempo.

As for this week of training sprinting on Wednesday was awesome because we weren’t on the gravel hill in the woods we were on a street right around the corner. Although, I wonder if we will be able to keep running there. An elderly man who lives on the block came out today and was annoyed that we were creating a “circus” as he put it I suppose. I’m not sure why people are so possessive of their street, mainly because they don’t own it, it’s not a private street! Just let us train!

Non training; my biggest accomplishment might be that I set up a twitter account finally, but since I waited so long my name has been taken. So, I decided to just be backwards and make it @OSheaAnnie why not, I wanted my entire name and nothing else! I’m not so great at it yet, but follow me I’m sure I will catch on soon!

I spent my time after workouts doing my recovery; stretching and icing in “the tub” as I call it and get Morgan to laugh every time! The cold tub is about 50 degrees and is the easiest way to ice everything that is sore after a tough workout. Wednesday after the tub, Morgan and I got a coffee and sat on main street in the Adirondack chairs just relaxing in the beautiful sunshine!

Justin tried really hard to teach me a proper golf swing today. You might think all athletes should be good at everything but this is not the case. Golf is tough! He sure was patient though, I think it helped that he laughed at me a whole lot! I practiced my swing at the track while he was doing his running workout, and we hit golf balls in the field outside after dinner. I think he was afraid I was going to hit a car and break a window. I am slowly catching on, but I have a hard time not breaking at the wrist and remembering to bend my knees. Practice, practice for me because it felt so great the one effortless nice shot I had!

For the holiday weekend I will be watching the girls I babysit for often. Friday through Sunday, wish me luck I might be so exhausted after that I can’t get up Monday morning. Or I am expecting to be so hopped up on coffee to get through! We will see. I have some things planned but I know it is never that simple! As long as the weather stays nice it will be better, it is much easier to entertain outdoors!

Normally, holiday weekends don’t exist for athletes, training continues on its normal schedule. Which means the majority of the employees have to follow that as well. It’s a lot of hard work for everyone not just the athletes at the training centers sometimes!

That is pretty much it until the weekend ends! Good luck to Vinny  (Kate’s husband for those who don’t know) and his Vermont Marathon! Wish I could have made it watch! For the next one of course, I’ll be there!

Morgan retweeted this from @addicted2success and I liked it so much I retweeted it as well and I wanted to share:

“I am too positive to be doubtful. Too optimistic to be fearful. And too determined to be defeated.”

New week, new program

Our beautiful weather has disappeared for a little while, normal for Lake Placid after having a beautiful weekend. It was absolutely perfect 80 degrees and sunny! I got to visit with Kaitlin, we met about halfway at the NY to VT bridge that she helped oversee the building of. We had a wonderful day with her boss and his family at the bridge grand opening festival. Kate told her boss that my accent is stronger than hers, but I failed her because I didn’t channel my inner mommy (her accent is the worst) so my Long Island self didn’t show up on Sunday. Sorry Kate… next time I will be actual Annie as you put it!

Me and Kate on “her bridge” as I call it!

We played frisbee, Erin would have been so jealous! I never ran to fast to catch it though but it was a lot of fun to play, could be a nice game to play next time we are all home. I’m pretty sure Sarah enjoys frisbee as well. Hopefully we will all find time to get together this summer.

Workouts so far have been good, my adductor/hip is sore and slightly weak but not really hurting. I have a different program for the next three weeks 4×5′s and 3×5′s instead of 4×10′s and 3×10′s to work up to 10′s again. Tempo was extra tiring today because we did it inside in the gym and it is just so much hotter, being outside is just better (but not in the rain)!

I am excited for tomorrow’s sprinting workout because Brad (strength coach) took my suggestions and has found us an incline to run on that is not in the woods! I cannot wait to not slip on gravel or get eaten alive by mosquitos while sprinting!

I set a goal with Under Armour’s whatsbeautiful.ua.com a competition to redefine female athletes; I will have a summer of sprint and weight training without injuries to get ready for the 2014 Olympics! There are challenges to accomplish your own goal and they decide a winner. I need to post some videos and pictures of training, once I understand everything I’ll explain it more.

That is all I can think of at the moment, its getting late and I didn’t sleep too well last night it was just too hot in my room, but I put on my summer blanket today so tonight should be better. Tomorrow is a busy day, time for a cup of tea and then bed.

Wait one last thing; I am finally going to make a twitter account but I am so behind that my name is already taken, anyone have any thoughts other than annieosheaUSA.

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.”
Walter Elliott

Week 1 Done!

First week of training has officially ended, it had its ups and downs though. Maybe it was the lack of cardio I did this year in April, or the heavy weights I felt the need to use to just leave me sore beyond belief. No matter what it was I had to take yesterday and today off from training. My hip flexors (which are most important to aid in the movement of your legs especially for running) were so tight they weren’t letting my adductors work and I was just a disaster and couldn’t lift my leg anymore yesterday.

It’s alright though, no need to get discouraged it is only May, and I just get a new program with 2 weeks of conditioning because as my strength coach pointed out so nicely I am a “fragile” athlete. Said with the kindest meaning, I will be getting a new program to follow this summer.

Something to follow maybe…

“To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.”

Picabo Street

I started work yesterday as well, it was so slow it was the perfect first day back. I was home by 9:30 and only slightly exhausted! If only work were like that everyday it wouldn’t be so terrible! Work again this evening and I am sure it will be crazy because Saturdays always are.

It is a beautiful day in Lake Placid, I better get outside an enjoy it. I am currently sitting inside drinking my coffee. Boy I would just love to have my own deck and be able to sit outside in my own Adirondack chair and enjoy my weekend mornings. Last summer all I wanted was to buy the house right across the street from the training center, everyone would have loved it and had to visit it has a screened in porch and an amazing deck. But, of course I couldn’t buy it, it was way too expensive and I don’t have that kind of money! If only though, even renting it would have been amazing. Oh well.

Heading outside, going to meet up with Kaitlin tomorrow at the Champlain Bridge event to enjoy some more beautiful weather.

1st day of training complete!

Finally finished with my first day of training for the off season, it was a long and exhausting one, but I am sure glad to be back into the swing of things.

I am slowly figuring out my new routine, Morgan (a teammate) is going to be my workout partner this summer. There are a lot of bobsled and skeleton athletes here already and training early might be a huge hassle, so Morgan and I have decided to try to start our workouts around 10. No, its not as early as maybe you expected me to wake up, but I need to make sure I get enough sleep at night. Its nice to let your breakfast digest before warming up and doing sprints as well.

Monday, Wednesday and Fridays consist of a full warm up, 2 plyo drills (jumps or medicine ball tosses), sprints in Henry’s Woods up a dirt, gravel hill (last year running in the woods was my least favorite thing to do, I mentally prepared myself for it today but it was helpful that it wasn’t raining or too cold), followed by a seriously long and exhausting lift. Tuesday and Thursday we have what we call tempo it consists of about 3x5x100m strides with 30s-1min of ab exercises after each stride rep. Saturdays for this 4 week block I have an extra day of lifting, just to exhaust me enough and as Brad (strength coach) says make me a beast. Not going to lie I’m a little worried as to how exhausted I will be especially this Saturday, but it must be done.

I am already so sore that I am having a hard time walking down the stairs. I feel like my legs are going to give out and I am going to fall right down! I noticed it in the middle of my squats today; 3×10 with 2 warm up sets and 1 warm down set. Barbell walking lunges almost made me literally fall over, my glutes cramped and it was a tough exercise as well!

Got my recovery in, protein shake, stretched, Norma Tech compression pants, and the cold tub for 15 min which I am pretty sure was colder than 50 degrees today. Now the rest of the day is going to be spent in bed watching tv, reading and taking defensive driving online (yes just for the fun of it to lower my car insurance)!

Tomorrow is “an easy” day, maybe not so much because I will be incredibly sore. Easier than today and I don’t have to lift anything heavy until Wednesday! How wonderful!

Training Starts Tomorrow…

‘Only as high as I reach can I grow,
Only as far as I seek can I go,
Only as deep as I look can I see,
Only as much as I dream can I be.’

Back to my normal schedule starting tomorrow morning, no more sleeping in or staying up too late. Summer training begins and it is time to get serious, train hard and improve, making gains to help me succeed this coming season!

I am going to be sore and exhausted this week, but I am really excited to get back into my routine!

4th at Team Trials and 2 weeks in Whistler

I know I haven’t posted anything in the longest time, I got busy with traveling, homework and well just being stressed.

I finished 4th during team trials, I was fifth in both races in Park City. One of my best friends on the team Courtney retired. As she was coming up the out run everyone was cheering. It was one of the saddest moments yet. Her myself and Keslie were crying on the finish dock after her last run. We talk all the time and I miss having her on tour and doing workouts with her.

I went to Whistler with the World cup team and coaches for two weeks of sliding. They brought me because anything could happen and well at the time I thought hey maybe I would be in Whistler. The track is so much fun. Really fast, corner 14 you can just feel the speed it is a crazy feeling.

We had so many video cameras on the track during training and so many coaches I think I really learned a lot. I got a total of 10 runs, which was a lot I didn’t think I was going to get that many because I was USA 4 and just brought along as the extra. The track is very technical and your mistakes can add up very quickly.

I was just so grateful to be there and get sliding time. That pretty much made my season before it even started.

After Whistler I went to Park City to forerun for the race that week. Which I realized at the end of the week was not a good idea. I spent too many hours at the track, and my happy sliding turned into grumpy sliding and I did not have good training runs. I was ready to go back to Lake Placid.

Season starts TOMORROW!!!

Well I am just getting ready for bed tonight and I am just so excited because we start sliding tomorrow night. I’m going to be so anxious all day tomorrow because we have to wait until 6:00 to slide.

I got my brand new sled on Friday night after I got back from being at the wind tunnel at RPI. I was so excited about my sled coming early because I really thought that I wasn’t going to get it until tomorrow night and I was going to be so stressed to pad and tape it really fast. I ran up and down the hallway and skipped my way down to the front desk. By the time I lugged my 65lbs box all the way up the stairs I was exhausted. I opened the box to find it packed with all packaging peanuts, after I took my sled out I got in the box with all the peanuts, mainly because it was the easiest way to clean them up. It is kinda fun to sit in a box full of peanuts!

My sled is perfect though, I am so excited to slide on it tomorrow, it fits me perfect and I am fully balanced. I finished padding it earlier today, that is a record for me. It took me a day and a half which is crazy because last year I spent 2 weeks  padding it all because I was so lazy I think. There are a few minor placed where I can fix the tape a little bit, but I am going to wait because I know I will fix a few more things before that.

About the wind tunnel, the students at RPI, down in the Albany area created a wind tunnel just for skeleton. I went down on Friday to try out a few things, it was a really long day, but in the end I think it was totally worth it.

It’s hard to get sleepy when you are really excited, but I am off to try to sleep it would be good to wake up early even though I don’t slide until the night. But next week I slide at 8am. Ouch that means waking up at 6, can’t think about that yet!

Sore as can be

It’s amazing what one day of being back to pushing can do to you. I went to bed last night not thinking I would be that sore, but woke up this morning and didn’t want to lift my legs to get out of bed.

My hipflexors, hamstrings, and shoulder are extremely sore. Yes even my shoulder. I was so off balance yesterday and I was swinging my arm like a crazy person I think. Never just back and forth, a little sideways with a little bit of a hurdler arm.

Today me and Courtney decided to postpone our lifting workout until tomorrow. I was supposed to do squats today but since doing anything hurts I decided it wouldn’t be the best workout. We don’t push until 5 tomorrow so we are going to lift before that.

I think I am going to do some school work then watch a movie. I forget how much free time there is sometimes.

Life got in the way

I finally am sitting in front of my computer doing nothing (which I haven’t had time to do in I can’t even remember). I realized how outdated my blog was and that I am complelety slacking.  So I apologize to everyone.

This summer has been seriously crazy. When I am not sleeping I wake up and train, eat somewhere in the day and then go to work for about 10hours or more. I do this about 6 days a week. Talk about having no outside life. This past two weeks I worked about 99 hrs in the 2weeks. Call me crazy I sure did!

I have a little bit of a break this week. I am in Calgary for a push camp. They have an indoor ice house here and we got to come for a small camp. It’s the perfect time to get back to running bent over and especially on ice. Today was the first day back, and of course I just felt really rusty. The first time back on ice every year I swear I forgot how to do what I do and I get really nervous. Needless to say I was super nervous today and it really is no big deal, all I had to do was run.

I am just really excited for the season to start. I think I am in a really good place right now mentally. I am happy I have my family and friends, I am going to stop working soon and just focus. There really isn’t anything to complain about.

My birthday was just on Saturday, I played mini golf, went to dinner and then out with some teammates and friends. It was a great night!

I started online classes last Monday, now I really have to stay motivated and stick to a schedule so I don’t fall behind. Better buy a calendar or something.

I can’t believe that the summer is basically over. It is really weird to think about, mainly because it was just getting nice again in Lake Placid. Hopefully once the season starts it isn’t going to be 70 degrees, thats the worst for keeping ice.

I will be better about the blog from now on. It seems that I go in spurts doesn’t it. Again I apologize. I’ll get some pictures of the ice house this week. I’m exhausted all of a sudden.

A week or hard workouts

My training schedule is on a four week cycle. Three hard weeks followed by a fourth down week. Then I change my program and start something new.

Tomorrow will be the end of my third hard week and I am excited for a down week next week. Its a catch 22 though I will say, I am improving in all my lifts, so I want to keep increasing and not take a lighter week. But I know in the long run it is needed so I don’t tire myself out before the season even starts.

I ended up working a lot this week, wasn’t supposed to but I picked up some extra shifts because its hard to turn down making good money. Even with all the extra work I couldn’t believe how strong and fast I felt. Which is a good thing.

I went to the track today by myself to do my sprint workout before I started my lift.  I had one of my best sprint workouts in a while. Just 60m but I stayed in drive phase and I felt good.

I got some sun this week which was a huge deal. Now I have to get ready for work, probably going to be a long weekend.  Just looking forward to an easier week next week!