Frankfurt/home

So I am now home, and have been for a week, my luggage however, has yet to make it home to me, last I heard from West Jet, it was Puerto Vallarta....without me, how dare it!

Altenberg was a great last week, the girls finished really well with Canada 1 winning and my pilot, Canada 2 coming 6th. The boys 2man went well, but not nearly as well as expected. Altenberg is a tough cookie of a course.

On Thursday we drove to Frankfurt loaded some bins with sleds, pried an old sled out of a bin which was clearly too small for it, but trust it to the 6 girls there to be able to pull the sled out, by rocking it back and forth and shaking the bin...brains over braun won, as the men were unsucessful! Then we drove back to Altenberg, a whopping 11 hours in the car that day...made for a very long day. The following days we just watched the 4man training. Then on sunday drove back to Frankfurt for real. 

That evening, our last in Germany, we went to the Frankfurt Christmas market, which was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. There were carousels, two of them, one was two stories, simply amazing. The best food, candy, coffee and Gluwein you could ask for. They shut down most of the city centre and set up all these booths to sell christmas things, food, etc, and put out rides. It was the best part of the trip, and a great way to end it.

Altenberg

So I've now been down and survived my 5 runs at Altenberg, which is the hardest track in the circuit...and I'm still ALIVE! very exciting.

The girls race tomorrow, I am not racing, as this track is better to have heavier people and me being the lighest brakeman on tour (the entire tour, with all the other countries) will sit this one out, almost gladly...as this week has definitely taken its toll...lots of new bruises :( We're so busy here, as the track sessions take over 4 hours, every day, and that isn't counting the prep before the track or the clean up after...so it makes for very long days. Heather and I are trying to sleep lots, but apparently sleep doesn't care much about us, thank goodness its almost home time.

Can't believe I've almost been here for four weeks now, where has the time gone? 

Winterberg...

So the week at Winterberg has already come and gone! How tragic that I didn't get to write about the many snowball fights, and snowman making that went on in the 3+ feet of snow we received over the 6 days we were there.

Winterberg is beautiful, its surrounded by snow capped mountains. The track, although not too difficult overall, has some nasty corners, 9-10 are well, awkward is the best way to put that.

Our runs and races went well, although our 2nd start on race day 2 could not have been worse, and yet it was still a top 10 start time out of 26 sleds. It started with the hit, my pilots and my timing was so off, that when I hit the sled, she was mid step, so that when she hit the sled, I'd already died from my hit of the entire sled...our run was awesome, pilot loaded, I went to load, like I've done a million times before, but instead of making it into the sled I drive my shin up into the back end corner of the sled, causing me to be thrown forward up and over my pilot, then back down, instead of the smooth, long jump like catapult my load normally is. I get to the bottom, and my shin is screaming at me, as well as bleeding, one of the race officials feels so bad for my pain that he gives me a bottle of some german alcohol...

Then we load up the sled trucks, eat lunch and drive the 7 hours to Altenberg, note the 'e' in berg, not a 'u'...which leads me to say, WHY ARE THERE TWO CITIES NAMED THE SAME THING WITHIN A 100KM DISTANCE OF EACH OTHER....terrible.

Alex and I driving, we follow the Dutch team for a while, then I decide to strike out on my own, while Alex is asleep...I make it the 200+ k to Dresden, and then Alex wakes up to see a sign saying Altenburg, so course we take that exit, make it to the exit ramp on 2 of our 4 wheels...and get to Altenburg, only to realize, its not Altenberg.....so back out onto the Autobahn, and away we go for another 100km...make it to Altenberg, and our hotel....phew! although not a bad nor too stressful of a drive, surprisingly...as the first part, was a bit rocky...but after the first 150mins of driving it was good, and smooth sailing, only stopping for gas once! I'm now a fully qualified Autobahn driver in any vehicle.

Push House Koenigsee

Here are some lovely pictures of around the track as promised.

Our last day in Koenigsee was spent at the push house doing tryouts as one of the pilots retired and a new one was flown in. Heather and I got some pushes in as well...after our warm up run around the river.

After our 8 hours spent in the car on sunday to get us from Koenigsee (Southern Germany) all the way up to Winterberg in Northern Germany. I got to drive the first 90 minutes on the autobahn, which was good although a little scary as one of our passengers got sick, so we had to pull over, resulting in us losing sight of the sled truck, which knew where we were going...so at 180kmph I drive us and catch us up, passing some massive turn offs and hoping I was going the right way. But we got to Winterberg finally, to this gorgeous hotel, which reminds me of Harry Potter, with all the different floors and the fact that there are stairs everywhere, leading to who knows where. We are located right by the track, so close, that we can and do walk there. Our first day of sliding is tomorrow, and it looks like it could be a good time on this track. Hopefully no more crashes like last week, from which I'm still recovering. But in the mean time, have to go and work on the sled, then do a workout.

Sarah and my adventures to Munich

So today, I've been delegated the drive to Munich and back (about a 4-5 hour stint) to pick up my team mate Alex, one of the pilot's has retired and is flying home, so a new team mate is flying in, to take his place. So Sarah and I are off to drive on the Autobahn  alone, for the first time, ever! I just keep getting awesome driving experience here, first with the sled truck and now with the autobahn and extremely high speeds, in a country I have never really lived in...but I just found out, we get GPS! so that will be another adventure all on its own..

Because we crashed yesterday, Melissa and I flipped right after the Kriesel (a 360degree corner) I'm quite sore today, as we slid down through Siad, Kellstein, and Echo ( the corners are named here) upside down at about 120kmph...then backwards till we finally laid to rest half way through Echo. Needless to say, our sled is a little damaged, with the back end squished together, and the front half not lining up with the rest of the sled...yikes! I'm doing alright, very very stiff, and my headache hasn't left me yet :(

But I need to finish my laundry, which is currently residing in my bathtub! and then its off to Munich! or Munchen as its written here..

Koenigsee Day 3

Big day at the gym today, the German team was there as well...which is always special, because they just stare at all us Canadian girls...workout was good, did my sprint workout on this awesome track in the middle of nowhere Germany, its pretty amazing actually. 

Our sliding track is located on this beautiful river, high in the mountains, next to a cow pasture, so really, we have everything going on. 

I didn't slide today, just moved sleds and cheered everyone on, and of course drove the sled truck! which I'm really getting used to, and I'm rather proud. I slide tomorrow as well as push at the push house. Tomorrow will be quite the workout, much like today was, yikes!

Tonight is movie night, Casino Royale is the choice, as the boys wanted to watch, and were sick of Heather and my choice of Disney movie after disney movie.

Training Day 1 Koenigsee

Today, was my first day down the track at Koenigsee, and it will be a really fun course, once we nail the S1, S2 curves, four C's attached together in about 100m, so very sharp, and very fast, if you hit it right, you can pick up speed, if you smash the walls, you tend to lose speed. We hit the walls hard on our last run, so I'm definitely sore..

Its beautiful here, and very german, with tiny tiny little roads, which I have to manouver the sled truck on, so that makes for very interesting drives to and from the track, thankfully my navigator and co-brakeman, Heather, is amazing and we never get lost, or into accidents! I can see Hitler's Eagle's Nest from my hotel room...it was his summer home for quite some time, and the house, though its high in the mountain tops, and miles away, is rather large. We are going to hike up there on saturday, I'll have pictures to post after.

Otherwise, there is lots of down time, as our on track sessions are only 90 minutes, we take about 45 to prep and 20 to clean up, so makes for a very short afternoon filled with movies and cards and walks into the little town, and occasionally a workout or two.

As its only a training week, we get a lot more free time, and there is a lot less pressure and stress.

Race Day

My first international race was yesterday, I wasn't  nearly as nervous or freaked out as I thought I would be. Had a great warm up, and then a fantastic hit, though my pilot's and my timing was really off, but when that comes together, it will be magic! Our runs were okay, tied for 22nd, which left us out of the finals :(

Sliding

Yesterday was my first day sliding, and since the only other track I've slid on has been Whistler-the hardest track on Circuit-I wasn't too worried about Igls, and so give a big push, and we're on our way, I'm waiting for the speed to pick up, and it does, at about corner 11..and when the track is only 14 corners, the only thing I need to worry about is the breaking stretch, which has a nice corner in it...so dust the brakes, let off for corner, pull hard through tunnel then stop, get out etc. But going down, felt like a waterslide, our top speed was 107kph, compared to the 140kph at whistler...there is also much less pressure.  

In other news, our speed suits came in...and well they're fairly red, and by that I mean, all red, full body red...no other colours, no real stripes...we all look like Santa's helpers. But at least my speed suit is the right size for me, its no longer too big! wooo.

Its race day today, we will be waxing the sled, then lunch then heading to the track to kick some butt!

Igls Day 2 of sliding

Day 2 in Igls, and already the van has taken a serious beating, we can no longer close the back door, and well the side wall is *ahem* a little rocky...but sliding is going well thus far, I've not slid here at Igls as I'm not cleared to slide...yet but will be soon, although I'm now in charge of driving the sled van, as I'm the only one who hasn't crashed it.

Met, well couldn't really say met, but was harassed by a Brit, in the most friendliest way of course, about him "knowing me" he was insistent that he knew me from some place, we've yet to figure out where, as he come to Calgary a lot to train for sliding, but well its only my first year, and I've not been to London for much more than a 4 day stint, so couldn't have been there either, I'm letting him figure that out though.

I'll post some pictures of the track.

Igls

 Finally arrived after a 9 hour flight followed by a 5 hour drive.

Did my first track walk today, beautiful location in Innsbruck, Austria, mountains all around..I'll upload pictures later.
We race on thursday...but I'm not sure if I'm racing or not, there a few brakemen here to pick from. But for the rest of today, I'm going to nap, eat lunch and then do a sprint workout on the one lane streets.

Schedule

And the schedule of where I will be, is as follows:

Nov 17-23

Igls, Austria

Nov 24-30

Koenigsee, Germany

Dec 1-7

Winterberg, Germany

Dec 8-14

Altenberg, Germany

Jan 4-11

not sure...

Jan 18-25

Whistler, Canada

Jan 26-31

Whistler, Canada

Feb 1-7

Whistler, Canada

Feb 8-28

Home

March 

Whistler, Canada

Last night I found out I made the National team, I now have 2ish weeks to pack up and prep for 5 weeks in Europe, training and racing on some of the most famous courses in history. I'm quite excited, but for now, I need to heal and sleep.