Perfection In Wine That Isnt 100 PTS

This will be my first wine post as I havent had much mental energy, or tasting time over the last month to post on wine, but last night I had a wine that I wanted to share with everyone as it reminded me of why I love wine.

There are certainly great varieties and locations in the world that produce mind boggling 100 wines, Hermitages, Bordeaux, Burgundy, the list goes on and on, but there are other wines that do not score 100 pts, they are as good as they can be in that they do not have any flaws. They may not be as lofty or awe inspiring as they great wines of the world, but they can bring just as much joy. I love wines like this because they are a)cheaper and b) have no discernable flaws. There is such joy in drinking them as they dont require you to see flaws in them. They are perfect in their element. You could have a great wine, lets say a classic 96 point priorat, but its missing 4 points because of lets say a little too much back end alcohol....Although its an amazing and technically scored higher than the flawless 90 pts wine it still has a flaw. I always love it when i get the flawless wines that are as good as they can be. These wines remind me of people, they are the average person doing their very best in life, they may not be a movie star, but they are flawless in their own right. While the 100 pt wine is the gold medal in the Olympics, the flawless 90 pt wine is a victory in a developmental race. There is joy to be had in both. There is joy to be had every day.


Here is the note on the wine that inspired me

2005 Giacamo Conterno Barbera D'Alba Cascina Francia

93 points: Medium Intensity Ruby color w a faint black cast and very little rim variation.

1 hour decant

The Nose is immediately remniscent of the fruit meeting the earth. What a primal and but majestic nose, free run cherry-rasp juice, tar, crushed purple flowers, a custard like sweetness in the background. I think of rich fertile soil when I smell this. Soft but fresh on palate with a pure blackberry compote that layers immediately to tertiary complexity of fall leaves, loam, faint hints of saddle leather and finally returning with a beautiful sweet but also tart cherry finish...the purity of the fruit is allowed to speak here and I'm so excited about that. This wine is all encompassing in the mouth, and oh so long, low + tannin, med + acid, med concentration, med - alcohol.....93pts

and I will add that this wine changed dramatically at the 3 hr point, gaining alot more depth and rusticity moving away from the femine aspects of the wine earlier into lots of smoke, tar, minerals and dark fruits on the nose and palate. Towards the end I almost got some northern rhone-hermitage "esque" elements in this wine

best barbera i have ever had.

http://archives.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081026/news_1s26digest.html

A little love from my adopted home of SD in the link above. 

This week in park city we are going to be preparing for this weekends Americas Cup. now that the stress of selection races is over I will be stepping back, testing runners and working on things that will create success for me on the first half of world cup. I am absolutely exhausted right now though!  Sunday we head back to Lake Placid for two weeks of preparatory training and runner testing.

My 5th Consecutive World Cup Team!

As i sit here writing this im absolutely exhausted and thats only after 3 races out of 4. Luckily our selection policy for the world cup team drops one race, so if your first 3 races are great it is possible to have secured a world cup spot by the 3rd race if the rest of the field cannot catch your point total. This was the case for me yesterday as I secured my spot. 

Although yesterdays race runs were by no means good, they were enough to land me into 3rd place. I had one large error on each run which hampered my final result, but I was happy with what I learned from the race. There is another race tonight which I will most likely race in, although it means nothing to the final result. I am excited to now refocus on the world cups starting in November and to work diligently at improving my start, which seems to finally be coming around not only in my times but in my understanding and execution of the biomechanics of the start. 

This week has been great, we got a little lucky and got upgraded here at the Westgate resort at the Canyons in Park City, where we are staying and have had a great week. Lots of luxury and good food, something essential after being at the Lake Placid OTC for so long. For the next week I will be here in Park City racing in the America's Cup here, and then returning to Lake Placid after that for a few weeks of preparatory training for the first half of the world cup circuit in Europe. Im really looking forward to it!

A win on day 2

Eric and I tied to the hundredth of a second today in race two. Ill write more later but here in the press release for now. 

http://usocpressbox.org/

click on the link that says pikus pace smashes track record, dated 10.17.08

Team Trials Have Begun, Race 1- 2nd Place

It has been an intense few weeks of preparation for team trials with a few minor hiccups in the overall plan due to a few minor injuries, some inclement weather that shut down the track and other normal distractions. Overall my plan for performing this fall worked out very well and I am satisfied with todays race 1 result of 2nd place here on my home track. The race was very tight. Eric Bernotas edged me out by a .10 of a second for the gold. He is a great teammate and a pleasure to compete against. My other teammates, Kyle Tress, Matt Antoine, Stokes Aitken and John Daly also contributed to a great day of racing as they all had very good runs which pushed me to do my best. The highlights of today were my very strong start times (although I still have more to give)  and  the way I executed my plan for the incliment weather that was thrown at us. It was well over 50 degrees and pouring rain. Thankfully Lake Placid is an entirely covered track.  Although not everything was in alignment in regard to my equipment and the ice temp today, I did what I needed to do to get the job done. It was a very positive note to start the 2008-2009 season on. I made some major changes to my start technique in September and have been working diligently since then to make in my norm. It is finally falling into the right place at the right time. Im excited and will update you on Race 2 tomorrow. The weather will be cold and clear, the perfect weather for my style of sliding!

15M personal best

Today I did some impromptu testing in my 15m sprint and had a personal best of 2.27s , .03 s faster than my previous best, 2.30s . This also happened after a very hard triple workout yesterday. Its a great time for me and is very encouraging that things are where they need to be!

A small injury and some very cold weather.

So tonight the temperatures are supposed to drop into the 20's!!!! Good news for us, now we only need mother nature to cooperate for another month! I had a small injury, just a 2 day thing. I was doing my monday workout and although i didn't notice it at the time i put by back into a pretty good spasm, but as im sitting here writing this it seems to be getting better quickly. I didnt miss any workouts so its no big deal, but these times are good opportunities to learn about my body and how to fix it when these things happen. 

On a side note I had some great pushes wednesday despite my pain. Im really focusing on finding a mental que that allows my biomechanics to happen naturally without thought, and I think i've found it. Im really excited to pound this into my head with repetition in the coming weeks before team trials. 

Saturday night we are having a nice bbq and bonfire at my parents with some vino from my cellar. Ill probably get into some barolos, super tuscans and maybe some Chateauneufs. Its always fun to have the team down and get out of the training center and the mindset that goes along with it. These crisp Adirondack nights are perfect for it!

Well im back in Lake Placid. My cross country journey with Annie was a success. Im finding every year that its really important to take your time. The damage that is done to the body when driving that distance in 3-4 days is too much. The first day I was back in the Lake Placid, the fall air set in, crisp, clean and biting with an unmistakable smell. I stopped in at the bobsled track and there are numerous improvements which will undoubtedly make the sliding facility even better. There is a new finish house for the timing systems along with new roofs over the start area. All of these improvements will help us have better and fairer races less affected by mother natures curve balls. 

On a training note things are going very well. With the help of my teammate Jon Daly I have really started to make some progress with my start. The momentum from Calgary seems to be moving forward and should result in some great results this fall when I Peak for team trials. The season is coming so fast....We start to slide October 5th, potentially earlier....tick tock tick tock. 

calgary push camp and xc drive

Well here I am, in the midst of my biannual reminder of how big this country actually is. Annie and I are currently passing from nebraska into iowa, on our trip back to NY in preparation for the winter season. Every time I make this drive it blows me away how much open space there is in America.

Priceline is my new best friend, you can get 50 percent off on almost any hotel and it sure has been helpful on these long trips.

Last week we had our calgary push camp, where we practice our push starts in an indoor refrigerated facility. It was a great week and I took more than 50 starts over the 5 days. At first it was very difficult to make the adaptation to running on ice pushing a sled compared to the higher friction improvisational things I do during the summer. It was very clear to me that I am the fastest I have been in my life. I was within two one hundredths of my 2006 olympic year personal best even with being as uncomfortable as I was with the adjustment from the track to the ice.With Every push session I became more efficient in my starts and more comfortable on the ice, finally feeling good during my last push session. The uncomfortable transition to ice is something that happens every year and is exacerbated by the fact that the us does not have its own push track to utilize year round. If the usoc and usbsf want to do the one crucial thing to help the usa win more medals in bobsled and skeleton it needs to get an iced push track on us soil. Overall the camp was great and I am looking forward to solidifying my technique in the weeks that come.

I will arrive in lake placid on the 6th of sept and am looking forward to the fall air, the training, and seeing my family. This is the best part of the year for me.

Check out this San Diego Union Tribune article I was interviewed for....

He painted a good picture of the training center right now, although we dont run with out sleds, we push them while they are on the ice....ahh ice sports in southern cali :)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080816/news_1n16cvcenter.html

Why I compete

Well, here I am, my first blog post.....what to write about? i was thinking my first post should be something that defines me, something that is at the core of who i am, and then it popped into my head, a discussion between my sports psychologist about why I compete.

Its a question that had an immediate albeit easy answer....the normal ...to do my best...to win medals..but he wanted me to go deeper. The answer was still simple but its power is what defines me as this view gives me not only a passion to commit to my sport and work for the grandest of stages, but to face any challenge of my life.

As im watching the Olympics tonight, Rhaj Bavsar, a US gymnast is telling his story. His story and his dilemma mirrors my answers to Jim's question. Here Rhaj stands at the Biejing olympics, unexpectedly, after he thought his career was over. In the years that preceded his unexpected appearance tonight in the Olympics he felt a lack of a true definition of self as his life moved away from sport. What Rhaj realized that fixed his dilemma was a personal view of himself, a realization that who he was as a top gymnastics athlete is something much bigger than his athletic "self". Once Rhaj saw his life as bigger than athletics he no longer struggled, and as he and his teammates put on an edgy and gutsy team qualification I cant help but think that his change of mindset is part of not only his success but his teams. 

My answer to Jim's question mirror's Rhaj's revelation.

At the heart of the Olympic journey is the innate belief that our potential has yet to be fufilled. From this wellspring of belief in ourselves comes a lifelong journey of fulfilling that potential. it applies not only to the athletic realm, but to all aspects of our lives. It is what hooked me from my earliest years as a slider. It is defined by what is best in all human beings. Dreams, commitment, passion, dedication and triumph over adversity. The effects of these experiences leave is with something greater than out athletic pursuits, they help define who we are at our core. It is something we cary into every arena of our life, inspiring and uplifting along the way. This is the real expansive power of the Olympics. It is the collective power of the people that we inspire, to have the courage to embark on their own journey, seeking what is best within themselves and in their own ways emboldening others. We are all worthy to stand on the grandest of stages. This is the true power of the Olympics. This is why I compete.