Where Is The Grass Greener
Some nights, when the conditions are just right, a big semi or heavy duty truck screams by our place in Calgary – and as I lay still, on my bed in my room – the entire foundation of the house shakes, ever so slightly; just for a moment, and I often wonder if anyone else […]
Into The Deep End
In a span of time that occasionally tricks my mind to feel as short as overnight, everything has changed. What’s incredible about this transformation, is that it brings with it a stability unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Until now, I don’t know if I ever really allowed myself to entirely believe I had the strength […]
Stay Tuned
As the sun begins to shine with a little more ‘oomph’, Skeleton/Bob tracks morph into their (literal) concrete summer identities – and sliders around the world return to a life that is the yin to their yang. Personally, I wrapped up my season with a few more runs in Calgary – at Canada Olympic Park […]
Connect The Dots
Tossing and turning, I catalogue the thoughts in my rolodex-style psyche; closing my eyes, I wait to exhale. There’s a real shift in focus as Russia invites the world to their backyard to challenge for Olympic Gold. Less than a year before what has already transformed from, as I’ve been told, what was literally empty […]
Water Works
The rain falls heavy into a rushing creek outside our hotel window in another foreign country – and for a moment I can hear nothing else…. It’s almost surreal, the life I find myself leading; maybe because it has all happened in such a relatively short amount of time … but, here I am – […]
Higher Ground
Like a mess of moments – learning a new track can have a tricky way of cluttering up my brain. Memorizing the corners, building a game plan, reviewing video, reviewing more video, and trying to ignore/handle the pressure I place on myself to “know what to do” sooner rather than later. I remind myself once […]
Push the Positives
Third-last sled off in the second heat; Bobbhan Winterberg and I were once again clicking. I flew across the finish line and up the outrun – my heart pounding behind my rib cage. I arched my back and dragged my toes along the short walls to slow down – bouncing and skidding around. But what […]
One-Hundredth of a Second
One one-hundredth is faster than the blink of an eye; it’s faster than a flash of lightning … and it’s the smallest margin of time measured in our (and many different types of) sport. We will scratch and claw and even obsess … all for that practically unseen extra moment of time. There are many […]
What Fast Feels Like
A few things rolled in with some serious speed these last couple weeks – Super Storm Sandy, the US Election, and the turn around from Canadian Selection Races to the start of our 2012/13 Tour. Let me get everyone on pace. While I managed to make time to write about Selection Race #1 (Calgary), Selection […]
Back in the Middle
Sometimes things come easy; other times things serve as a test, but too often people only acknowledge those two extremes. For me, it’s the times between – that weird, grayish, tricky area – where the best of my life appears. This final month of off-ice preparation, back to back appointments and working, has been a […]