Is Spring Coming?

It sure doesn't feel like it here in Lake Placid, but boy am I ready for it. Its been a while since I posted here and its mostly because I haven't had the energy to do so this year. Its been a year of the unexpected, with  many twists and turns. As I reflect back on this year it may have not only been my most difficult year but my most valuable year to date. I came into this year with my eye on one race, world championships in Lake Placid at the end of the year. My qualification for this race did not work out...I guess thats racing, sometimes it just doesn't work out like you plan. This last week during the world championships I spent my time coaching rather than competing, something  that was difficult as well as cleansing for my mind. Giving back to other sliders is one of the few things that brings happiness amidst failure in the sliding world. I find it to be very enjoyable, even though it is incredibly difficult. I believe that through coaching others you can learn quite a bit yourself at the same time, in that sense I took some good things from last week. I will continue to maintain that coaching is far more difficult and taxing than being an athlete!  I also got to spend some time with friends and enjoy some good wines, and anyone who knows me knows how much that means to me!

This year tested me in many ways, some races ( mostly in europe during the second half) I saw and got more out of myself as a slider than I have in a long time. I finally have full confidence in my start and have a strong handle on what it takes to be fast at the start. This was one of my biggest successes of the year. I got to the point of full confidence on many of my shaky european tracks which is also huge going into next year. This year I really had to push my focus to the bigger picture and to next year rather than the individual races in front of me. In essence I never walked away from one situation without taking something positive or learning something new from it. 

Im still weighing how long I will slide for, but I am treating this olympic year like it is my last. Doing everything that makes me happy, training at 100 percent, and creating a situation where I can allow all that I have learned in my career to come out for a peak next year, this is my focus. I have also decided to stay in Lake Placid training for the summer, rather than San Diego. With Home Depot dropping their USOC sponsorship I have little reason to go to San Diego to work. I will stay home with friends and family and enjoy a spectacular Adirondack summer of friends and training.

I hope all is well with everyone.

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!