Motivation from Cap'n America

The two comments from the last post were from my camp friends JoshO and Jimmie Banta. If you haven't read them I suggest you do-they were both pretty funny. Banta chose to post anonymously because he has horrible grammar and can't spell Bela Karolyi. Of course, if I couldn't spell the name of the greatest gymnastics coach ever to grace this earth, I would post anonymously too.

Reading those comments from my camp friends reminded me of another camp friend, someone you might call a "beast" at working out, Seth Brownold. Seth works out more than any non-professional athlete I know, and at the tender age of 21 has taken up triathlons as a hobby. We affectionately call him Cap'n America. His facebook profile has the quote "We forge our bodies in the fire of our will." from Mr. Han in Enter the Dragon. I often think about this when I'm lacking strong motivation to work out and it always gives me that extra push. Thanks Seth, and thanks Mr. Han.

I have to say, though, Banta's motto of ABWO, or Always Be Working Out, has motivated me too. It's on my mind constantly and I have found myself doing extra sit-ups and some extra running in my down time. Nothing gets me going like the blog ramblings of a Jersey insurance salesman.

This week, training has gone fine. I only say fine because I'm not allowed to sprint still and I don't like the idea that I'm not allowed to do some aspect of training. Monday found Hang and I doing cone drills and more quick-feet movements. The cone drills Eric set up had us bobbing and weaving between poles and cones in these odd, twisted movements. Shuffling between six foot high poles while your trainer cheers you on made me feel like I was in the Westminster Dog Show. Unfortunately, the "treats" Eric had for us before, during, and after the cone drills were not food treats but sets of stairs. While Hang is supposedly a highly sought after baseball recruit, his staircase running skills were not what got him there. I frequently found myself waiting for him to go so I wouldn't run into him. That being said, bring us into the weight room and his leg power makes me look like a ten year old Swedish girl. Power is the name of his game, speed is the name of mine.

I missed Wednesday's training because I had a rare opportunity to accompany my dad and his friend to a Counter-Terrorism Conference held at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. It was really interesting and thought-provoking and I don't regret my decision to go whatsoever. I was able to go to the gym earlier that day and work out my chest and hamstrings so the day was not a total loss.

Today's training consisted of ladder drills, stairs, side squats, and medicine ball tosses. I was quite tired from not getting much sleep Tuesday night so my running was not up to par. We did end on a high note, though, when Eric had me do twenty yards of Death Planks and then 2:30 worth of different ab drills. He told me that those were some of the best Death Planks that he had ever seen. Ben-1, Death Planks-9,000. I'm on the board!

On my way home from training I was finally able to get on the phone with Eric Bernotas-the current US Champion. We talked for a half-hour about a number of different topics within skeleton. It was really informative and he was so friendly and helpful. He basically told me that the 30m sprint is definitely the most important test and that a good time on that will keep the coaches looking at you. He said there are three categories you can fall in to; Slow, Average, or Fast. I'm obviously trying to put myself in the Fast category but he also said overall sprinting speed is not the same as sled-pushing speed. He told me that it's a learned skill and that even after five years, he's still getting the hang of it. A good example of this is when he compared himself to another teammate of his. Eric can run a 3.79 30m time, while his friend can run a 3.95. However, if you put them on a push-start, the friend can outrun Eric by 1/10 of a second. So, obviously, the two different sprints correlate but are not exact. I can conservatively run a 3.59, so I think I'll be in good shape to get the coach's to notice me. I can definitely run faster, but there's a real question of how healthy my hamstring will be when I run. Eric told me that the surface you run on is a basketball court, which is bad news, since the floor gives and it is by no means an ideal condition. Even still, I plan on easily running faster than their times.

And finally, some pics from the training session my dad came to:

This is me during the side-lunges drill with the band attached to my ankles.

Me running the stairs. My dad took about 160 shots of me running the stairs.

These two above are from the medicine ball toss and spike drill.

These three below are a good series of the medicine ball side-toss drill.

And these last two are of me doing bicycle kicks and oblique crunches.

In other news, this site sucks for trying to upload photos. I have no idea why the picture comments are squeezed into the side like that. Sorry folks.