Feel the Rhythm! Feel the Rhyme!

DO YOU B-LIEB IN MIRACLES!

2007-04-22T14:24:00.000-07:00

We did it!! After a grueling two and a half months of training and a week of bruising skeleton runs and memorable times, I realized my dream and got invited to be on the US Skeleton Development Team. It's been an absolute wild ride so far and it only looks to get even wilder.

I apologize for not updating this sooner but we had to check out of our rooms on Friday at 7:30 AM and I didn't have internet access this weekend at the wedding. Friday started early, obviously, because the tryout ended at noon and we wanted to get in a couple of good runs so we had to head out to the track at 8 AM. Unlike previous days, we were going to the top of the track and doing the full run so we were all really excited to see what it was like. When we got to the top, it was an experience in and of itself. The view of the surrounding mountains and the track is breathtaking, and just being in the start house with all of the bobsledders and skeleton racers is exhilirating.

Once we had settled in, our one coach, Amanda Bird, a.k.a. Birdman, brought us out onto the deck and talked to us about the extra 4 turns that we had since we moved up, and gave us tips on how to negotiate those turns. Then her and Steve Peters, the other coach, gave us 4,207 suggestions on what to do, followed by a "Just relax and don't worry about anything" quip. Thanks guys, you really put us at ease with that one. A really unique part of our start from the top was the fact that we were able to do a running start on the track. A professional skeleton or bobsled racer has brush spikes which get amazing grip and don't damage the track. They don't have us buy those because they are very expensive. They do have us get outdoor track spikes so that we can practice on the Push Track which is made of rubber and helps you practices your push starts. Because of the weather, the Push Track was closed, so we thought we had all bought spikes for no real reason. However, since it was the end of the season, we were allowed to run on the ice and therefore we could do a running start.

At this point I'd like to emphasize a few points on the "Sink or Swim" experience the other skeleton racers and I were put in. In a normal tryout week, you have video review sessions of your runs and the coaches critique you on what you did wrong and what you need to fix or keep the same. We didn't have any video review sessions. In a normal tryout week, you get to practice your start and load at the Push Track. We didn't go to the Push Track. In a normal tryout week, you get about 12 runs in before you move to the top. We had gone on six runs since the storm had come through and cut out two of our track days. In a normal tryout week, you don't do a running start from the top since it's during the competitive season. We did get to do a running start. So in review, we had no video review sessions, no practice starts or loads, only half of the practice normal people get before going to the top, and we got to do a running start when we actually went to the top. In short, our coaches threw us into a Sink or Swim situation, where you either picked up their suggestions real fast, or you were screwed. The collective group not only all swam, we were doing what was effectively a butterfly stroke as beginner sliders. More on that later.

We were actually all pretty excited about the situation we were thrust into, because it gave us less time to think about what we were doing and just made us enjoy the moment and go out and do it. We all took our first push starts pretty easy and effectively jogged a couple of steps before we jumped on the sled. I had padded up as best I could from the day before, and was excited to finally go from the top. The ride was one of the coolest experiences of my life. There is no way to put into words the experience of sliding along a mile-long sheet of ice, going over 60 mph with G forces ripping at your body while you're 12 feet up, sideways, on Turn 10. Since we were going from the top, we were able to get really high on the turns and fully experience the run for what it's made of. Unfortunately, my previous day's injuries were determined to come back and haunt me. On that first run, I really tore up my arms. When I got down to the bottom, I couldn't lift my arms and I had blood seeping through my protective clothing in several areas. I got back up to the top, told Birdman that it was a thrilling experience, but I had to stop for the day. I refused to take off my padding though, because I didn't want to see the wounds until I was in front of proper medical attention. I hung around the rest of the session with the coaches and other sliders and took lots of pictures and videos while simultaneously icing my arms.

During my time with the coaches, I realized that it was getting late and we were supposed to have had our personal meetings with the coaches by that time to find out if we were invited to be on the Development team. I cornered Amanda and asked her "Are you guys going to e-mail us if we are invited back?" to which she replied, "Oh, you're definitely coming back." Since I had not had a meeting with anyone, and no one had said anything to me or anyone else that I had seen, I was perplexed. Naturally, I said, "Excuse me?" and she said "You're definitely invited back," like I was supposed to have known that already. I had run through this situation in my head a thousand times, and when I found out I was invited back it could not have been any more anti-climactic. That being said, I was ecstatic by her answer.

The more exciting part of the tryout was what I found out after she told me I was invited back. She told me that she is normally a really harsh critic of new sliders and that out of a group of 15 sliders who tryout in a session, she might think that 2 or 3 guys could be competitive on the Development team. For our group, she said we were probably the best recruitment group she's ever seen (she's been in the sport since 1997) and that we were not only all quite athletic, but we caught on to stuff a lot quicker than she ever expected. Her best example of this was our ability to recognize where we were on the track and where we were when we hit walls. She said that she still has people on the Development team who, after 3 or 4 weeks of sliding, still have trouble telling her where they hit the walls during their runs. We were ALL able to do this within a matter of 2 or 3 days. While she was amazed by this, none of us realized it was that special because we could all do it, and we just saw it as a necessity because we didn't have that many runs before we went up to the top. So, you either figured out where you were screwing up, or the next time you screwed up, it would hurt a lot more since you were going so much faster. The friendships we had all formed during this past week were great, and we were all happy to hear that the majority of us had been invited back to be on the Development team.

I have a lot more to say on the entire experience and my future but for now, my mother's birthday calls. We are about to head out to celebrate with family, so I must leave you hanging. Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

Posts and Pics to come.

I Left My Heart (and Shoulders) In Lake Placid

2007-04-19T17:27:00.000-07:00

After our successful runs from Start 4 yesterday, everyone was feeling pretty excited for everything else that lay ahead. A couple of the skeleton guys decided that we wanted to relax and kick back so we headed into town and drank a few beers and played some darts. It was Lionel, Dan, Blaine, Nick and I who experienced the Lake Placid "nightlife" and enjoyed its low-key style. They're all really good guys and I enjoy being around them both on the track and off of it.

We headed to the track today around 11, and the entire process of getting there and getting up to Start 3 was much much much smoother today than yesterday. As an added bonus, the Start House was much bigger, much nicer, and had a bathroom this time around. We had about an hour before we slid, so we all took pictures of the beautiful day and the gorgeous sites. They told us that from this start, which was about 4/5 of the way up, we should just let the sled and ice take us for a ride. Apparently, the ride they took me on was called "Destroy Ben's Shoulders in Every Way Possible." I probably hit the wall 10 times on that run, and each time wasn't a glancing blow but a full-on hit. I came back far from happy. The crazy thing was that I had the fastest time for the guys, but I definitely had the second-worst run in terms of hitting. Lionel ended up going down sideways for a bit which tore his Under Armour and shoulder apart along with his ankle. For the next run, I had Amanda Bird, one of our coaches, teach me a few different ways to steer so that I wouldn't hit so many walls. Before I left for my second run, I taped my knee pads to my shoulders so that it wouldn't hurt as much when I hit. I was pretty cautious on the second run and as a result it was much smoother but a full two seconds slower which put me behind almost all the other guys. While I was very happy with that, my natural competitiveness had me looking to find a happy medium where I would stay relaxed, but keep it under relative control. I fortunately found that happy medium and ran another fast time with only a few scrapes at the end. The third run ended up taking out my ankles, forearms and hands from when I hit the wall. I ended up getting ice burns on the back of my hands, and had to go to Sports Medicine with Lionel after we got back so we could get bandaged up. After we got bandaged up, we joined the other skeleton athletes and the two coaches in the gym for some practice with our push-starts and loading onto the sled. It was fun practicing the loads because you're told to just try and do "The Worm" dance move to get on your sled.

In other news, I look like a complete tool with all my bandages. I have bandages or something on my left ankle, both of my hands, my right forearm and my right shoulder. Everyone has injuries here or there, but I have the fortune of having my bandages being held up with stretchy lace material. SWEET.

Lionel and I had dinner with two of the bobsled girls and it was really cool hearing some of their war stories from bobsledding and living the life of a full-time athlete. I have to reiterate again how friendly everyone has been up here. Starting with Eric Bernotas and all the way to every single one of the athletes here, every single person has been outgoing and helpful. It makes the whole experience exponentially better.

We have to check out of our rooms and leave for the track by 8 AM tomorrow so that we can get a couple of hours on the track before we have to leave by noon. It should be awesome because we not only get to go from the top, but we get to do a running start since it's so late in the season. I'm not sure if I will have access to a computer tomorrow afternoon, but if I do I will make sure to write about how tomorrow goes. I'm really sad that we have to end tomorrow, because we're only just getting used to the track and starting to learn some things. At this point I'm trying not to think about that and just focus on having a good time. It's pretty easy when you get to do what I'm doing.

Headfirst Down that Slippery Slope

2007-04-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

OH MY GOD! WHAT THE HELL DID I GET MYSELF INTO?!?!?!!!

That's your thought (or at least mine) about halfway down the track on your first skeleton run. There was a solid five-second span during that first run where I just screamed every curse word I knew, and some I didn't, and swore to myself that I would quit this sport as soon as I hit the bottom. However, that was really only a five second span, and even though we only went on half the track, the run lasted about 52 seconds. The other 47 some-odd seconds consisted of me having the biggest adrenaline rush of my life and trying to remember the 9,317 instructions they gave us before we went down.

The one thing above everything else that we have to remember is that we have to relax. This is completely counter-intuitive considering when you do the full run, you have to have a really explosive start to compete in the event. However, as soon as you finish that push start, you have to make your body as close to jello as possible so you can protect yourself. If we tense up, when we hit the walls, our bodies will just ricochet off of them and into the opposite wall. If we are "loose as a goose," then we'll hit the wall, absorb it the impact, and go straight again. Hitting the wall is an inevitability. Everyone does it, there's no such thing as a clean run where you don't hit the wall. So, you really do have to focus on being as relaxed as possible. When your chin, which is an inch off the ice, drags along the ice on hard turns, just relax. When your helmet fogs up or your contacts fall out and you can't see anything, just relax. When you feel your track shoes ripping apart from dragging along the ice, just relax. When you hit a wall so hard, it feels like someone hit your shoulder with a sledgehammer, then poured gasoline on said shoulder and lit it on fire...hey man, just relax. It is most definitely one of the hardest things I've ever tried to do.

They tell you that on your first run, you really don't think of much and the whole memory seems like a blur. Yep, they nailed that one right on the head. I really only remember getting pushed off, hitting the wall 10 feet into my run (that was not my fault but my coach who pushed me...it really calmed my nerves when I hit a wall that early), and then I remember my screams of terror, this one odd straightaway called the Chicane, and then the end. They then tell you that your second run is definitely scarier because you know what you're getting yourself into and you don't know why you're doing this stupid sport again. I have to say, though, that right before my second run I found myself in a serene calm. I was really at ease during my second run until the turn where I hit my shoulder. The third run was just a little bit smoother than the second one since I only had a glancing blow on my shoulder.

It's scary, no doubt about that, but it's also amazing and a once-in-a-lifetime thing to do. Every time I finish my run, I find myself glad that I made it, and then glad that I did it, in that order. I have a healthy and respectful fear of this sport, and I can't wait to do it again. Yesterday, we started from Start 4, which was halfway down the track. Today, we go from Start 3 which is apparently a lot steeper and faster. Friday we go from the start, Start 1, and from there we will reach speeds around 70 mph.

I did get a little personal victory yesterday with my run times. The first run we all did, basically every guy got a 52 or 53 something. I got a 52.25 and was the fastest out of all the guys. The girl, Rachelle, killed us when she clocked in at 51 and change. Steve, the head coach, said he predicted it because testosterone will kill you when you first start this sport, because it gets going and it tenses you up. The second run, I got a 51.20, all the other guys got in the 52's and 53's again, and Rachelle got a 50.90. The third and final run I clocked in at 51.05, the guys clocked in again at 52 or 53, and Rachelle got a 51.27. Granted, the coaches said that they're not necessarily looking for what we can do right away, but how we respond to instructions and coaching with our form during the run. So, I'm not looking too much into it, but it did help my confidence a little when I got a good score. I don't know if it will help me much after I butchered the athleticism test, but I do know it didn't hurt.

We are about to head out to the track to do some runs at Start 3. I'm very excited, to say the least. We have taken some pictures, but I don't even want to try and negotiate the picture uploading on this website until I get back home. More updates to come!

Dealt A Crushing Blow

2007-04-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

My world came to a painful halt yesterday on my first 30m sprint. After warming up properly, doing my progression sprints, and doing three practice full-out sprints, I pulled my right hamstring in my first tested sprint. This was not the hamstring that has given me problems in the past, which may or may not be good or bad for me. I didn't say anything to anyone at the time but after the three tests were finished, I talked to the coach for a bit. He had me get it checked out at the Sports Med office but they just told me I pulled it and gave me some stimulation and had me ice it.

I can't even begin to describe how frustrated I am with this. The fastest time in the 30m sprint was 3.65, with a 3.73 coming in second. After that there was a significant gap and the rest of the times were basically 3.9 or higher. I ran a 4.01, which put me in 11th out of 20 total athletes, and 4th out of 7 skeleton athletes. On my slower days when Eric and I would test I would routinely run around a 3.65, 3.66. Knowing that I am not only faster than everyone else but significantly faster just makes me infuriated since I can't show that. I didn't want to sound like a complainer so I chose not to talk to the coach about my injury until after the testing, and even then I didn't tell him how much it hurt. Unfortunately, my hamstring definitely mentally effected me on the 30m sprint, the vertical jump test, and the medicine ball toss. The physical effect was quite evident on both the sprint and the medicine ball toss.

I was not only depending on impressing the coaches in the gym but I was fully expecting myself to do just that. I know I'm faster than everyone here and to be in the middle of the pack...well, it just sucks. I didn't train my ass off for two months to come here and be average.

Luckily, we are not scheduled to do any more running, since the push track is closed and we aren't allowed to run on the actual track since we don't have the proper spikes. We start sliding today at 10:15 so I'm really excited for that. I got paired with my helmet and sled yesterday, so that was cool. My helmet looks pretty funny and my sled's name is Roger Medema. If anyone knows what that name is in reference to, I would appreciate it if you clued me in. I definitely have more to say on the sliding subject but I need to go ice down and get ready to go to the track.

On a final note, to everyone who's texting me, calling me, posting, THANK YOU. I gotta give a shout-out to Samantha Brandolini who called from ITALY to wish me good luck. Sam-I'm pissed I didn't get your call, I guess it went straight to voicemail, but it meant a lot. Send me your number by texting me or messaging me.

Off to my crash-course in skeleton...get it? get it?

Injuries suck. I'm pissed.

Denied the Dream...For Now

2007-04-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

I finally made it to Lake Placid! Let's take a moment, though, and reflect on the actual journey up from Albany. Last night, I was treated to a healthy dinner of chicken wings and spinach & artichoke dip washed down by nothing but the finest tap water in all of Mechanicville. The general dinner discussion revolved around gawking at the unnaturally attractive bartender and JoshO and Jason "Meat" Donlin saying, as loud as possible, without actually yelling, that I was trying out for the Olympics. Much to my relief, JoshO and Jason did not succeed in their endeavors and no sandwiches were named after me. After dinner we retired to a nice, relaxing night of watching TV and just vegging out. I guess you wouldn't be surprised to hear that I woke up many times during my sleep last night. As weird as this sounds, I felt like I got a good night's sleep, but I woke up pretty often since I was so excited to get up here. I woke up at the crack of 7:40 am, with no alarm clock, and prepared for the day ahead.

JoshO and I luckily had an uneventful drive up and we witnessed little to no accidents, unlike our insane drive from Poughkeepsie yesterday. We concluded on the drive that the US decided to have the Olympics in Lake Placid so that no other teams could find their way there and therefore the US would win all the medals. Seriously, it's in the middle of NOWHERE. The last 20 miles of the trip the two-lane roads were barely plowed and this was the middle of April. I can't even imagine it in January/February. We did arrive, though, and I filled out about 79 pages of paperwork effectively signing away my soul and declaring that I've never had herpes. I'm pretty sure that I was completely truthful in the paperwork, unless someone isn't telling me something. (Antoian? Helga? Now's the time to come clean, it could cost me my tryout if you don't) I checked in to my room and found out that there will be six of us competing in skeleton, with about 20 people trying out for bobsled.

The skeleton crew has two triples across the hall from each other, with each room decorated and preserved from 1980. The guys are pretty cool. I have two roommates, Brendan and Nick. Brendan plays soccer at DIII Marywood and has done the skeleton school back in November, so he serves as a sort-of guide for us. Nick played soccer down in Florida and then played in the MLS for a bit. He's 32 and is married with a little boy. The guys across the hall are Dan, who played soccer for the Air Force (he's funny), and Lionel, who is from Alaska, did the pentathlon at Tufts, and is also really tall. 6'5'' last I checked, which would make him the tallest skeleton athlete in history if he makes it to competition. I forget the other guy's name, since he just moved in, but I know he goes to TCU and he seems just as nice as all the others.

Unfortunately, due to this weather, the dream of actually doing a skeleton run will be postponed for the near future. Due to the horrible weather that the Northeast has had, the track was not only closed for today but tomorrow as well for repairs. Since we had nothing else planned for today besides the intro meeting, we essentially had a free day. We checked out the skeleton track (cool), the hockey rink (goosebump-inducing) and the ski jump (purely terrifying). We then went into Lake Placid the town for a bit, and then played HORSE in the gym for a little. We also met some of the other athletes, including some of the bobsled girls. They are JACKED. They've got some serious muscle on them, it's quite impressive.

We have another meeting at 9 am tomorrow and then are free until our 4-Item test at 3 pm. I found out that they are doing away with the 5 hop test, and instead putting in a medicine ball throw test. Umm...jackpot? I've only done that twice a week for the past two months. I really lucked out and if I don't post the best mark on that event I'll be supremely disappointed. I won't judge the other athletes prematurely, but from what I've heard from Brendan, who has done this before, I'm pretty confident.

The down-time is plentiful, but we keep ourselves busy surfing the internet, watching tv, eating and working out. I get along well with the other skeleton guys and I can't wait for the actual racing part on Wednesday. It's frustrating to get up here and be told you can't even race until Wednesday, but that will only make me hungrier to get up there and do it. Here's to hoping that my hamstring holds together tomorrow and I blow the socks off the competition!

Prepare For Glory

2007-04-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

TOMORROW!!!!

I apologize for the lack of posts the past two days but I've been incredibly busy trying to get ready for this trip. I'm right now sitting in JoshO's (and Jason "Meat" Donlin's) guest room in Albany, NY. I took the train to Poughkeepsie today and JoshO picked me up there and then we drove from there to Albany. It was a 90 mile drive and we passed 19 accidents in those 90 miles. The "Nor'easter" that is passing through will make the drive up to Lake Placid tomorrow far from pleasant. We were hoping for a "Southwester" but unfortunately the "Nor'easter" decided to rear its ugly head.

In an unrelated note, I ended up partying with Shavlik Randolph and JJ Redick Friday night downtown in Philly. For anyone who doesn't know me or my life they are both former Duke basketball players who are now in the NBA so it was a story that I'll be telling for ages.

Sitting in this chair, less than 24 hours from my first run, I find myself decidedly not that nervous about the actual tryout. I'm sure the butterflies will come, but right now it's smooth sailing for me and my stomach. I'm more worried about what it will be like living there for a week. Will I get along with the other athletes? Will they have clean facilities? Do they have internet access? None of my worries are actually about the sport or the tryout, just everything else I'll be dealing with. I'm sure it will all work out and I'll have a great time though.

I'd like to go ahead and thank everyone who has helped me along the way, be it actual trainers, my financial sponsors (read: parents), or anyone who has ever wished me luck or made a facebook group about me (read: JoshO). I was truly surprised at how supportive my family and friends were and I will not soon forget it. No matter how this tryout turns out, I'm supremely grateful for the many different ways my support network has helped me. Above anyone else, I'd like to thank my parents. I don't think many kids have the fortune of being raised in a household whose parents support you unconditionally through both your worst nightmares and greatest dreams. I love you both, thank you.

This week promises to be epic regardless of the outcome. We don't know what will happen, or what my future holds, but I'm very confident that I'm ready and prepared for whatever lies ahead. I'm ready for anything, but prepared for glory.

Imagine Where You Will Be...And It Will Be So.

2007-04-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

Amphetamines...and now rehab.

Or more appropriately put...physical therapy. That's right folks, I've managed to re-aggravate my hamstring injury. It happened yesterday during my workout with Eric and we immediately stretched it for 20 minutes, then set up an appointment with his friend Larry Grello who's a very talented physical therapist. I met with Larry yesterday and we did stretching for about an hour and I just did a lot of icing and resting. I also set up appointments with my old Pilates intructor, Kristen, and she said she could do some stretching with me, too. Today I did an hour's worth of stretching with Kristen, and then the same with Larry. It's pretty sore but I think that's from stretching it so much.

I could easily try and put into words my frustration but it's not worth it for a number of different reasons. As my cousin Tim Foster said, "There isn't room for negativity anymore. All energy is towards physically and mentally making this the best tryout." Well said, Tim, well said. (Tim, by the way, is getting married in 9 DAYS to a lovely lady named Caralyn Desautels. The whole family is really excited and wondering how Tim convinced her to marry him. She's way out of his league! But seriously, congratulations to them and I can't wait to see you guys next Friday!) Tim had a good point, though, and I'm really trying my hardest to stay positive and visualize doing my best and getting the invite to be on and train with the team.

On a different note, I finally got all of my equipment together. I went to Kelly's Sports, which is easily one of the best sports stores I've ever been to, and I managed to procure elbow and knee pads, gloves, and additional track spikes. I got my track shoes yesterday in the mail...yikes. In my defense, Eric-who's an accomplished sprinter and at 39 runs a 10.7 100m dash-said these are the best and they only come in one color combo. They. Are. Hideous. Imagine the brightest and most visually offensive orange you've ever seen...and then put that color on my shoes. It has black on the back part with some black stripes in certain areas so I effectively look like I killed Tony the Tiger and made track shoes out of him. I tell you...They're GRRRRRRRREAT!

In case any of you didn't know, because I definitely had no clue, Lake Placid is in the middle of f-ing nowhere. The closest town is the fighting city of Albany, NY and even that is two and half hours away. To arrange transportation to the tryout, I had to get creative. While flying directly from Philly to Saranac Lake (the closest airport) is possible, there is only one flight per day and I don't want to take the chance of it getting delayed or canceled. I've decided that I will go to New York City Saturday afternoon, meet up with my sister and a bunch of friends that night, and more importantly meet up with the "Comments Master" himself, Josh Oryhon. Since Josh is the only undefeated and unscored upon goalie in SUNY-Albany history, I deemed him worthy of being part of my entourage that took me up to my tryout. Sunday, JoshO and I will drive to Albany, relax that night in his humble abode, and wake up early on Monday to travel to Lake Placid and check out the sites before I have to check in at noon.

4 MORE DAYS and I really can't wait. It's going to be an experience of a lifetime. At this moment in time, I'm reminded of one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies. Standing with his troops before battling the Germanians, the great General Maximus Decimus Meridius said, "Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so." One week from tomorrow, I will be celebrating my invitation to train with and be on the United States Skeleton Team. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so.

True Life: I'm On Amphetamines

2007-04-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

Got a bit of a shocker today after meeting with my doctor. I recently started taking Adderall (which is amphetamine salts) for help with my schoolwork and found out that it is on the list of banned substances for Olympic athletes. I'm really not worried though, for a number of reasons. For starters, I only take it once a week, literally, and the drug quickly passes through your system. Since I take so little, and my diet already involves drinking lots of water, it should be out of my system by the end of the week. I also wrote on my USBSF membership application that I take Adderall and I was still approved for membership so they can't ever accuse me of lying. I really don't think I'll be tested next week because I'm not on the team, and even if I do get another invite back, I still have not participated in any international competition.

After my class today I decided to try and get the last items that I need for the tryout. I ordered track spikes online (they're hideous but apparently the best out there), I had my own sweatsuit, and the only other things I needed were elbow and knee pads, a mouthguard, and gloves. I figured Modell's at the King of Prussia mall would suffice for my shopping needs...how wrong was I. Modell's carried exactly one kind of elbow & knee pad set, which were Youth sized. They had about 70 different pairs of baseball gloves, which makes sense since it's baseball season, but they literally had no other gloves of any kind. You would think for a store that advertises itself saying they have all your equipment needs, they might follow up on that. They don't. The mouthguard I wanted was a Shock Doctor, which they had, but they only had one of the possible 6 types available on the market today. I got that type but if I find the other, better, versions, I'll buy those. Shock Doctor has a stellar reputation and I'm willing to pay $20 to protect myself from injuries resulting in dental work and concussions. I think my Mom would be happy with my attitude on this one. I'm going to head out to Kelly's Sports in West Chester sometime this week because they have a great selection of items and are definitely cheaper than Wayne's Sporting Goods. Plus, it's about the same distance for me.

As for training, I'm going to the gym in an hour to get a really long lifting session in, and then will follow that up with a good run on the elliptical tonight. I've set up a one on one session with Eric tomorrow at 10:30am so that should give me a good indication of how my hamstring is feeling.

Holiday Inn Express

2007-04-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

Signing in to my "Facebook" account this morning, I was given a healthy dose of reality right to my face. My friend Samantha Brandolini, of Penn State fame, ever so eloquently said, "Ben, I thought you were keeping a blog...not a workout diary." Ouch. On this dreary morning the truth stung like a fresh band-aid coming off of Bigfoot's chest. Given this "revelation", if you will, I will make an effort these next two weeks to write more about my thoughts and emotions regarding this unique journey. Be forewarned-I, myself, am not even too sure what might come of this.

I visited Duke this weekend and had a fun time trying to explain what the hell I'm doing with my life right now. Though I found out about my tryout last time I was at Duke, I was in a bit of a state of shock and uncertainty and while some friends heard what I would be doing, not all did. My conversations with those friends were quite entertaining. I frequently had to explain what skeleton racing actually is...and my best description of it is "Luge, head first, with a running start." For the people who didn't know what luge was, I likened it to bobsledding without the cover. For the people who didn't know what skeleton, luge, or bobsledding was, I walked away because they were apparently very un-American in that they had never watched a Winter Olympics. The general follow-up question would go along the lines of "Have you ever done it before?" to which I so wittingly replied, "No, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night!"

It was fun though trying to explain it all and spread the word about the sport. One of my goals, if I make the team, is to really try and market the sport and increase the fanbase and overall interest in skeleton racing. I definitely think that the lack of professionalism and organization within the USBSF is directly tied to their lack of success in creating a substantial fanbase. The ineptitude over at the USBSF office is mind-boggling. In my brief history with them, I have been less than impressed. My first encounter was when I e-mailed them asking when they were going to have more outdoor track tryouts. They never responded. My next encounter was when I sent in my application with the athletic resumé. It took them 4 1/2 months to respond. Once I sent in my first batch of paperwork, it took them a month to send a confirmation e-mail. The second batch-no e-mail confirmation. I then e-mailed them asking for confirmation and it took them 6 days to respond. I realize that I am in no way a priority for their office but my encounters with them has still left a bad taste in my mouth and I'd be utterly shocked if I found out this unorganization was only in their dealings with me. I feel that if they got some organization within their office and had an athlete or coach really try and market their sport than they would have tremendous results. This is where I feel I could make a difference if I make the team.

Another question that I frequently got this weekend was if I was nervous, excited, scared or anything like that. I'll be honest, there are definitely moments where I get a little apprehensive about the actual skeleton racing itself. I'll be going around 70 mph with my face but a few inches from the ice and little more than a helmet and some pads to protect me. Ice isn't exactly a "giving" solid like rubber is so the danger is very evident. Those apprehensive moments, however, are brief and pretty few and far between. I was unbelievably excited for a long time about my tryout but I'm way past that feeling at this point. I really just want to get up there and see what I can do-see how far my training has taken me and how far I can take myself. I have no doubts I'll be able to do it but I want to know how well I can do it.

The one thing I am a little scared of is how this will affect my whole life. I'm right now looking into where I can go to school next year and beyond and am trying to plan that out. It's unnerving knowing that there is a possibility that all of my plans will have to be thrown out the window to pursue a dream. But it is a dream, and dreams are worth pursuing. That, I am certain of. When I'm focused on the here and now, I realize that, more than anything, I want to be back in school full time. When I'm focused on my life in general, I realize that not giving this skeleton "thing" my all would be a regret that I could not stand to live with. I'm not putting skeleton ahead of school, or school ahead of skeleton, I'm just saying if I have to choose between the two, it won't be a quick decision. Life comes at you fast, and as weird as this sounds, jumping on a metal board and going 70 mph face first is just my way of slowing down life for awhile.

He's Like a Sex Tornado On Ice!

2007-04-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

Last night I saw the movie "Blades of Glory" with my friend Brint Markle. I have to say, it's a really funny movie and I'd recommend it to anyone. One of the quotes in the movie is when the figure skating announcers are describing Will Ferrell's figure skating character, Chazz Michael Michaels, and they say, "He's like a sex tornado on ice!" While I was laughing pretty hard at the time, I only hope that one day someone will describe me like that. One day...one day.

This past Wednesday Hang and I got a new training partner. His name is Brendan and he graduated last year from a high school out in Lancaster, PA and is looking to get drafted by an NHL team in their upcoming draft. He's a nice kid who's a little bit small but has good heart. He really needs to work on his arm motions though, he basically keeps them at his sides whenever he runs. I don't know if that's from hockey but I do know that it kills your speed if you run like that. We had a hard training day with Brendan and Hang doing different exercises the whole time and me switching back and forth between the ones they were doing. Eric had me showing Brendan how to do some stuff which was fun because I always like seeing what the other side is like in a trainer-trainee relationship. One of the cool drills that Hang and I did with Eric was sprinting with Eric attached to us by a bungee cord-type harness. Though Hang is a good 40 pounds of muscle heavier than me, Eric said that I had much greater power and pulled him a lot harder than Hang did. I figure this is from my days playing rugby in the pack because when you have to scrum, technique is everything. The technique in a scrum is basically getting as low as you can and driving as hard as possible. It's awkward at first but once you get the hang of it your power amplifies exponentially. It was good to know I haven't lost my low-running power because when I have to push a sled I'll be bent over the entire time.

I was scheduled to have a training session yesterday (Thursday) but Eric got sick and couldn't make it in. Instead of getting a good gym workout in, like I should have, I slept through my nap alarm and missed my time. I did some bodyweight stuff and light cardio at night but nothing too serious. I'm going down to Duke this weekend and thought my flight was at 1 so I had to schedule my Friday training session at 7:30 AM. At 11 PM on Thursday, I realized I had booked a later flight (3:40 PM) and that the early morning session wasn't needed. I hemmed and hawwed about it for awhile, but decided, "Screw it, I'll only get this shot once." I didn't call Eric to reschedule and I just sucked it up at woke up at 6:45 AM this morning. We started off well but when we were running through the sprint progressions I felt my hamstring act up slightly. Luckily, this time it wasn't as bad as the other times and I realized it right away. Eric just had me ride the bike for awhile and then the only other thing we did was plate-pushing. Plate-pushing involves me pushing a 45 pound plate across a sport court floor for about 25-30 yards. This is to simulate me pushing the sled since I'm hunched over and moving a weight. After that we did some core (120 Russian twists, 50 toe-touch crunches, 100 regular crunches, 25 medicine ball sit-ups, 50 legs-raised crunches) and then he helped me stretch for 10 minutes.

I can't begin to tell you how frustrating this hamstring issue has been. It's not a debilitating injury, which is good, but it's nagging and doesn't let me train my hardest. Just going through the motions isn't good enough for me, I want to feel a burn, get my heartrate up and really see improvement. Just maintaining my current level isn't enough, I always want to get better. I've had the same issue with my diet and weightlifting. I dropped 6 pounds pretty easily in the first week, but I've been stagnant ever since. I eat really healthy and run and workout as much as I can. The problem is that my body grows muscle at an incredible weight so whenever I workout I seem to gain muscle. This is a good problem to have in the grand scheme of things, but it's still a problem for me right now. My old weightlifting sessions went about an hour and a half long, now they're down to 25 minutes, maybe 30 if I do extra core work. My body just doesn't get smaller unless I stop working out, which I refuse to do because I would lose a lot of power and speed.

This is the first time in my training that I've really felt frustrated by the limitations I've encountered. I want to work my ass off in these speed training sessions, but I can't because the hamstring thing won't go away. I want to lose weight but I can't because I would do so by losing muscle which is completely counter-productive. All I can hope for is that my body cooperates with me for the week of my tryout so that I can rest up the following week or two and get 100% healthy. I'm in the best shape of my life and I know I'm not even close to fulfilling my potential. It's aggravating and frustrating and I just want it to go away so that I can become the best athlete I can be.

With Excellence Comes Sacrifice

2007-04-02T19:26:00.000-07:00

I have to say with just two weeks to go, some of the little things are getting to me. I went to Five Guys today with my mom and sister and while they had some fantastic smelling burgers, I had to make do with my Saladworks salad and soup. Oh, and a whole wheat roll and some water, my tastebuds could hardly handle the excitement. I was also informed that this weekend, when I visit Duke, my old rugby team has a match against a very weak Guilford team. I played there for two years and really miss it. Lee, my other half at Duke, informed me that I would be able to play for sure when I came down. Much to my dismay, I had to say no because I can't risk injury this close to the tryout. I can't tell you how much this frustrates me because I really miss the competition and the entire sport. These are the moments when my conviction to training is truly tested.

On a good note, I was able to return to running today after a two week hiatus. Eric had me running starts and light sprints out on the soccer field. We didn't push it at all and just had me exploding out of the starts and then cruising the rest of the way. We also did more speed ladder work and I ran a few sets of stadiums. Stadium runs consist of me running up and down the bleachers on the side of the soccer field. We finished the workout with 40 YARDS of Death Planks, then 30 sprinter sit-ups, a minute of bicycle crunches, and then 200 varied crunches. It was brutal but it felt good to get a good burn going. I will be doing some cardio later tonight and then tomorrow I'm looking to get a really good run in with the nice weather along with a really good lift in.

Lastly, I really recommend checking out the comments in the past posts. They're pretty funny and might give you a few ideas for your own posts. Don't feel pressure to be funny, any and all posts are appreciated, humor or not. In fact, most of the time, JoshO really isn't that funny but we feel bad because he thinks he is. BA-ZING! But, seriously, keep 'em coming JO.

Motivation from Cap'n America

2007-03-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Let's Get Down To Business, To Defeat...The Hang

2007-03-26T16:07:00.000-07:00

That's one of my favorite Disney songs and it works well since I'm competing against Hang (pronounced Hung) during my training. While it's good motivation for my training, the training itself has not been going as well as I had planned.

Last Wednesday I re-tweaked my hamstring. Hang and I had gone through a tough workout doing lots of quick-feet type work on the step ladder. My hamstring has felt great ever since I got back from Europe two weeks ago and it has not given me any soreness whatsoever. At the very end of the workout Eric had us doing 70% sprints and on the first one I pulled up lame. I was really frustrated because it didn't hurt whatsoever, I wasn't pushing it, and then all of a sudden it just seized up on me. We originally thought it was a spasm, which did happen, but I strained it as well. I was supposed to get tested on my 30m time the next day, but with the injury it was a no-go.

That Thursday I scheduled a massage for that morning. Eric told me that I had really tight "ilial-tibial bands" and that a massage would not only help my hamstrings but those as well. I asked to repeat what was tight and he again said, "ilial-tibial bands." I told him "Bless you! Now what is tight again?" Making sure he wasn't pulling my leg...get it? get it?...I asked the masseuse if those things actually existed. They do, and mine are tight. Go figure. The masseuse gave my legs a good working over and then offered to stretch me to make me more flexible...this was quite awkward. If getting your legs thrown left, right, up, down and at painful angles all over while you've effectively got a tiny towel covering your bits and pieces isn't awkward, then I don't know what is. It did help though and my legs felt better after she was done.

Later on in the day I went to training over at Parisi and had my dad come to watch and take pictures. I'm still working on uploading the photos but they will be posted shortly. Having my father come to watch me train was a lot of fun. My mom posted earlier about how I certainly don't get my enthusiasm for hard training from her, and while some things are unique about me, my training ethic is most definitely culled from my dad. After he returned from Vietnam, my dad was in charge of a reserve Marine platoon and would have to lead them in physical fitness training because they were tested throughout the year. My dad prided himself on being better than anyone else in his platoon in every aspect. He would do more pull-ups, sit-ups and he would run faster and farther than anyone else. At the end of a distance run he would run back and encourage those that had yet to finish. He then waited for everyone else to leave before he would have my mom come bring the car as close to his building as possible and she would help him essentially crawl to the car. He now can't play sports and can't run at all...ahh what a life.

Though the posts that people write are encouraging, nothing beats having a family member present while you're training. It gives me that little extra "oomph" to do that much more. Eric took it "easy" on me that day and had me do about 5 sets of stairs, medicine ball throws-horizontal, medicine ball tosses-vertical, and side lunges-killer. Each set of stairs involved me doing 10 flights of 21 steps, the medicine ball throws had me in a planted position throwing the ball sideways, the medicine ball tosses had me squatting and heaving it up then squatting and throwing it down, and the side lunges had me going about 45 yards back and forth with a thick band around my ankles. Then, of course, came the abs. Eric wanted to show off to my dad so he had me do 320 different crunches and then 15 yards of Death Planks. Eric got a kick out of it. I, on the other hand, just wanted to kick him.

Pics and another post coming tomorrow!

28 Days Later...

2007-03-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

28 days from now...and I can't wait!

Unfortunately, the enigmatic Philly weather decided to toy with my training and last Wednesday it went from 67 degrees and relatively sunny as I walked in to my training, to 43 degrees and raining when I walked out. That night an ice storm came through and it prevented me from training on Friday.

Since I had some extra rest time, including a little St. Patrick's Day celebration with some of my good friends, Eric felt it prudent that today be a little bit of a punishment to whip me back into shape. We had an intense day of power work with tire flips, sledgehammer swings, hitting a heavy bag with a bat, and medicine ball throws both up and down. Not to mention sled-pulling, which naturally turned my legs into jello. The good part about this is that Eric has noticed marked improvement in my strength and, while the sled pulls and everything may hurt, it will only make me that much more explosive on my starts. We finished the session with 300 different types of crunches with Eric showing me even more punishing variations on the ones I know. I love it. We are training Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week and on Thursday we will be timing my 30 meter and 40 yard dashes. I'm really eager to see what I get because my hamstring is feeling great and I've lost a decent amount of weight the past week (even with the wing-eating from this weekend). I'm also going to ask my Dad to take some pictures of the training facility and of some of the workouts I do so I can post them up on the blog. He's been bugging me to let him watch my training so I figure he can help out while he's there.

On another note- I'd like to extend a huge thank-you to my lovely cousin Jamie Lieb Arslanian. Jamie has been either interning or working for SEI Investments the past couple of years and realized that Denise Bernotas-the sister of the current US Skeleton Champion Eric Bernotas- worked at SEI with her. Jamie e-mailed Denise and the two of them put Eric and I together. I'm now corresponding with him regularly through e-mail asking him around a million questions about the sport. Mainly-is it noticeable if you pee your pants during a run? Also, can the spectators see your tears and hear your screams of horror during the race? He's been very helpful and I'm very grateful to him for his advice. However-it couldn't have been done without the help of Jamie and Denise. Thank you both so much!

In related news-the US Bobsled and Skeleton Team just captured the World Cup Season title with 45 medals over the course of the season. The USA team is now considered the top team in the world and if their success continues they will be the team to beat in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Check out their website at www.usbsf.com and click on the video-it's exciting. Zach Lund captured the World Cup Skeleton title while Eric B. came in 2nd. U-S-A! U-S-A!

More later this week-don't be afraid to post!

Push it to the Limit

2007-03-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

Happy March Madness everyone! Quite possibly my favorite time of year-temperatures rising, spring around the corner, and upsets left and right from Thursday-Sunday 12 hours a day.

Contrary to popular belief, the real world still exists during the NCAA basketball tournament so I have still been training. This Tuesday I had an off day from Eric at Parisi and was able to do my own thing. The weather was fantastic, about 70 degrees and sunny, so I took advantage of that and went running around the mountain in the morning. Nothing crazy, just some light conditioning. I then went to the gym and did some upper body work. Since I'm trying not to gain weight I've lowered the amount of weight that I lift and increased the number of times I lift them. This should maintain my strength and give me more definition but not give me any more muscle. In the afternoon I ran over to the park on my mountain and did some plyometrics and worked on my sprinting starts. Plyometrics, according to Wikipedia, "is a type of exercise that uses explosive movements to develop muscular power, the ability to generate a large amount of force quickly. Plyos involve a lot of reps and can tire out your legs pretty fast. I've got five exercises I cycle through and since I haven't done them in awhile my calves were pretty sore after. I've been hesitant to work out my legs with weights in the gym because I feel that that was a catalyst in my hamstring originally being sore and hurt. I've therefore decided that for my legs I'm only going to do plyos since they involve only my body weight.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I had another speed training session with Eric at Parisi. My baseball counterpart, Hang, came in earlier so I had a one-on-one session. I really prefer these a lot more since Eric can really pay attention to my mechanics and the rest time in between exercises is less since Hang isn't around. No knock against him, he's a great guy, but who wouldn't prefer more attention in a training session? This training session was about jumping power and explosiveness, which I should have known since that was the one thing I worked on the day before. Despite being a little bit sore, we warmed up and tested my vertical jump. I've increased it to 27" but that is still the 30" that I need to get for the tryout. Eric and I still feel I can easily attain that since I'll be cranking up my workouts in the month to come. One good thing that came out of this was that my muscle endurance was good since I was basically able to jump the same height at the end of the training session than from the beginning.

Spurred by my less-than-stellar vertical jump along with the realization that the tryout was 33 days away, I really pushed myself in the workout. Something inside my head just clicked and I decided whatever Eric gave me wasn't enough. When he had me run 10 flights of stairs for conditioning, I thought that it wasn't enough so I did another 5 flights taking them two stairs at a time. 21 stairs, 15 times? 315 stairs no problem. He then had me finish my workout with an ab routine consisting of Russian Twists and sit-up throws. Each of these exercises involved a medicine ball and after 150 reps I decided that another 50 crunches couldn't hurt. Eric was happy with how hard I was pushing myself and said I should come in on my own more often.

Since I've missed a few training sessions I decided I would make one of them up today. I went in and met up with Eric around 12:30 to do a full sprinting workout. Today's workout was all about starts so it was just a barrage of different types of sprints. My favorite involved me taking a medicine ball, squatting down and then exploding up and tossing it as high as I can and then taking off and sprinting before it hit the ground. It was really exhausting but it was fun to try and hit the ceiling (I never did). At the end Eric had me run through eight different sit-up variations with 30 reps each with the promise of a special exercise at the end. Little did I know.

Eric showed me this exercise called "The Caterpillar" which will heretofore be referred to as "The Death Plank." The Death Plank involves me starting with my toes on a line and my hands on the ground in front of my toes. From there, I walk my hands out one at a time until I'm in a push-up position. Then, I shimmy my hands simultaneously as far out as they can go until my face is about two to three inches off the ground. Then, you somehow walk your feet up inch by inch until they're about a foot behind your hands and you go again. I had to do The Death Plank for 15 yards and it was by far the hardest exercise I have ever done. Your entire body is literally shaking violently trying to maintain your balance and not fall down. Just imagine-you're supporting yourself only on your toes and hands with your arms almost fully-extended above your head. I'm pretty sure the Geneva Convention outlawed this type of torture at some point-we need to research this so I don't have to do it again.

Ending on a positive note I've lost 6 pounds in 3 days on my diet. I'm probably going to gain that back tonight while I eat wings watching March Madness, but who cares. After The Death Plank, I deserve a reward befit for a king.

I'm an idiot...

2007-03-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone...I'm an idiot. I know I haven't written in two weeks so I profusely apologize. I've been traveling a lot and just generally not writing, obviously. I promise that from here on out I am fully committed to this website.

Unfortunately, exactly two weeks ago today I tweaked my hamstring running at Parisi. It had felt sore for the previous 4 days and I hurt it when we were testing my 30m time. We've known from the very start from everyone (Parisi, Kristen, myself) that I'm not an exceptionally flexible person. However, I really need to improve that so that I can push my body to the limit without injuring myself. Eric put it best when he said that athletes "are constantly on the line between injuring themselves and doing something great." It feels fine now, but I've decided to add on some yoga a couple of times a week to help my general flexibility. This should be quite interesting because I've seen the yoga classes at my gym and I will definitely be the only one in the class with testoterone in their blood. I hear great things about it though and am excited to start.

This morning I met with my dietician to go over the supplements she put me on and to review my diet. She has me on three supplements; an ActiveMan's general vitamin, a glucosamine vitamin, and flax seed oil. The general vitamin is pretty self-explanatory, but the glucosamine and flax are really the intriguing ones. Glucosamine helps lubricate joints and helps prevent injury to the joints, all great things. Flax seed oil is completely filled with Omega-3 fatty acids, which, although they sound bad, are really very good for you. It makes sure your body is getting the necessary fat to burn so that it doesn't burn muscle when you work out and it also helps glycogen replenishment which is a key to muscle recovery. Ariel gave me a 12 page article on it which I will probably read later tonight.

Last night I was perusing the official bobsled and skeleton website, www.bobsleigh.com, and found out that there actually is a limit to the sled/sledder weight. The US site really gives no information on the actual sport itself so I was quite happy with the information overdose that bobsleigh.com provides. I discovered that the sled and pusher can only weigh at most 115kg (about 253 lbs) in international competition. I came to Ariel with this information and we decided to change my diet around a little bit so that I can lost some weight in these next five weeks. I am currently at 207 pounds and our goal is to lose about 1-2 pounds per week so that I can drop below 200. We changed my diet and decided to add some extra running (about 4 hours per week) to accomplish my weight-loss goal. For fun I weighed myself about an hour after my Parisi session today and saw that I was down to 203. I don't think this weight-loss thing will be a problem.

After the meeting with the dietician I finally came back to Parisi after a two-week hiatus. I was originally only supposed to miss four training sessions but last Friday Eric had to cancel so I couldn't come back until today. Eric was very conscious of my hamstring (which feels fine) and he had Hong and I warm up extra long today. After our warm-up we had an intense session of sprinting and stadium stairs. We were working on conditioning today and since it was so nice out Eric ran us through a series of sprints out on the soccer field combined with stadiums steps up and down the bleachers. While at times I hated the workout, it really felt fantastic to get back out there. We then got to do some work balancing on a physio-ball and then we did lots and lots of crunches, as always. The physio-ball, for those that might not know, is basically a giant rubbery-type ball that people use to work on their balance. We did maybe 5-10 minutes of just trying to balance on our knees with our hands raised and I had a lot of fun with it falling down and getting back up. Eric said he filmed the training session and will sell the physio-ball footage if we ever cross him.

I plan on doing a plyometric workout later tonight with some light cardio and tomorrow more of the same. I will also be heading out to my high school's track to work on my starts and to get in some extra running. Later that night is potentially my first yoga session so it should be an interesting day. I'll keep you posted!

Sheer Terror on Ice At Breakneck Speeds

2007-02-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

This blog title is the same as an article I read in the New York Times about the Adirondack Luge Club. It was an interesting article and I was surprised with the broad range of people who try that sport. Luckily for me skeleton racing isn't as popular so I don't have competition like Anne (Grandma Luge) Abernathy. She qualified for the Turin Games...at age 52.

Skeleton-thank the lord-requires great athleticism for the push start so I don't have many people outside of my generation competing against me. I know that this training has a purpose and that no Average Joe could do well in this sport. Well, at least I keep telling myself that. Otherwise there wouldn't be a point to the ferocious workouts I do.

And this week, they have absolutely been ferocious. Wednesday was an entertaining day with a Pilates workout with Kristen at 11 and then a sprinting workout with Eric at 1. Pilates has definitely been harder than I expected. Kristen has me running through these really weird exercises where I basically look like a beached whale trying to get back to the ocean. I'm sorry I can't better describe the moves she has me do but they are really like nothing I've ever done or seen. I'll humor you by attempting to describe this one exercise I did for this workout.

Kristen had me stand on a padded box and put one of my legs back onto a padded bar at the back of the box. This bar was attached to springs underneath the top of the box. Keeping my back leg straight she then had me do a one-legged squat where my back leg pushed the spring-loaded bar down but I had to stay completely upright and couldn't lean to one side or the other. My bent knee couldn't go in front of my ankle so a lot of the weight was put back in to the back leg. Then I had to return to the starting position without bouncing. This doesn't sound bad but with the body positiong she puts me in to it's really awkward. I'm pretty sure at some point I'll actually look like I've got some sense of body control and I'll do the exercises well. However, that point won't come for a long time.

After my workout with Kristen I then grabbed a quick snack and headed over to Parisi to work with Eric. I was supposed to be training with this guy from Maryland who is trying to get drafted by the MLB this year but he's been sick in all our previous workouts. Thankfully he is better and I now have a training partner to help push me. Eric says that we have to remember this isn't a competition and to not compete against each other. Yeah, right. Maybe Mr. Third Basemen can forget his competitiveness but I can't. If I'm asked to do a thirty yard sprint next to someone else, I don't care who they are I'll push myself to beat them. Bottom line though, he's a nice guy and I was happy he was there. Eric ran us through 60 minutes of sprints, sprints, and more sprints. And abs. I was really sore from the combination of the Pilates and Parisi ab routines but it just goes to show that the workouts are doing their job.

Thursday was a relatively easy day with lifting and some cardio. I did a leg workout for the first time in awhile and was really pleased with the results. I stopped working out my legs when I started the Parisi training just so my body could have ample amount of time to recover in the beginning. I wanted to do an easy lifting session for my legs but found that I had an easy time lifting the same weight despite not lifting for a couple of weeks. I'm expecting that since I'm now combining weightlifting for my legs along with the speed training I should see some better results. After my leg workout I pushed myself on my arm workout lifting for both the biceps and triceps. I cut my hand right before the workout so it was a little weird lifting with a bandage but I quickly got used to it. After the lifting session I did a couple of miles on the elliptical and called it a day.

Today I had a workout at Parisi and was supposed to have a basketball game out at Swarthmore College. Unfortunately I had to cancel on basketball with the cut on my hand but it turned out that would be a smart decision. Eric told us Wednesday that today we would be working on quick, explosive steps with a speed ladder. For those of you that don't know, a speed ladder is two nylon straps that are a foot apart that have plastic strips connecting them every foot. When you lay it down on the ground it looks like a ladder, hence the name. I've had some experience doing different exercises with these things so I wasn't afraid. Once you get your foot movement down (which is hard with some of the variations) it's not that bad. Boy, was I wrong. Eric had my partner and I doing reps over and over and over again. Here's one variation, do it six times as fast as you can. Here's another variation, do it another six times as fast as you can. We basically had that for an hour. We looked like we were playing a weird version of Dance Dance Revolution while simultaneously mainlining crack. Even though the ladders are only 10 yards long, doing that many repetitions that will quickly give anyone a workout. My partner lasted through the speed ladder workout but ended up puking right before the abs routine. I didn't. Great Success! We then had to do 30 sprinter sit-ups every five yards for 25 yards. For those scoring at home, that's 180 sprinter sit-ups including the start line with about a 5 second break in between each set of 30. Earlier in the day I made the mistake of telling Eric how my abs had been sore the day before. Seeing my pain after the second set he completely sympathized and showed me a different variation that I could do that was easier. I wasn't there for sympathy so in a proverbial "Screw You" I completed the rest of my sit-ups in the proper sprinter sit-up form. While I now don't have the ability to bring my back off the ground or bed if I'm lying down, it was well worth it to show him how much I wanted it*.

*And by "it" I mean horrible abdominal and calf pain that makes it look like I'm walking around on eggshells. Man, I really showed him!

I should be doing a light weightlifting routine later tonight to work on my back and tomorrow I have Pilates with Kristen at 11:30 and then basketball at 2:00. Let's hope I can move by then!

A Healthy Dose of Healthy Eating

2007-02-20T18:52:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! It's been an interesting few days so let's get into it.

Saturday was my day of rest and day of indulgence. I knew that once I met with the dietician on Monday I would dive head first into dieting. I figured, why not one last day of good eating? I had wings and a "Soprano" burger that had marinara and cheese on it along with a garlic bun. Good stuff and I won't soon forget it. Sunday was an easy day with me just doing some cardio in my basement on the elliptical and doing the at-home workout that the Parisi guys gave me. That workout just consists of me doing their "Dynamic Warm Up" along with 3 or 4 exercises to improve my acceleration and the same thing for my top speed. As well as abs. Never forget those abs.

Monday started bright and early with an 8 a.m. Pilates workout with Kristen. This was my first Pilates workout and I'll be honest I had no idea what to expect. As soon as we started she had me on this padded table with so many springs, bars and chains I thought it was a Medieval torture device. We went through an hour of different exercises working on my shoulder position, my hamstring flexibility (I'm really bad there) and of course my abs. She was throwing a lot of information at me but it was all really helpful. It's funny because she knows a million technical terms for muscles and movement and stuff but she often throws in childlike names for bones and muscles. It's like a medical school anatomy and physiology class with the professor occasionally saying things like "suck your tummy into your bony butt-bone." It's an entertaining juxtaposition.

At 10 a.m. I had my meeting with my dietician Ariel to go over the meal plan she made for me and to take my measurements. She mapped out 8 days of eating for me with three meals and two snacks each day. Everything that she had me eating had all the nutrition facts and measurements listed in the packet she gave me. I have to say I was quite impressed with the work she put into this. We went through checking which foods I liked (chicken, baked potatoes, fruit) and which foods I didn't like (fish, yams, more fish). She originally had me cooking and baking a lot of my meals but I had her change that when I said I'm doing this to become a top-notch athlete, not a top-notch chef. I'll still be making a lot of my meals but my day will have some extra time with me not making my own carrot cake from scratch three nights a week. An amusing part of the meeting was when we had some portion-opinion differences best illustrated with the following conversation:

Ariel: And for Day 3 lunch you'll be having steak with assorted vegetables. Do you like steak?

Ben: Of course! How much do I get to eat?

Ariel: A good portion, about 8 ounces.

Ben: (Look of horror) Good portion? That's more like 16-20 ounces for me.

I proceeded to tell her of my "Steak-Off" with Dennis down at Duke and how I ate 34 ounces in one sitting. I think she threw up in her mouth a little bit. The best part of the meeting was when she told me I can eat what I want for one meal a week. Those words may come to haunt both her and me.

I was then scheduled to have a speed training session with Eric but he was sick and had to cancel on me. I decided to go back to the gym and do an upper body workout. I worked on my back and did some cardio. Good session but nothing too brutal. Later in the day I tried my first swim workout. My goal is to swim for about 3 hours a week. I lasted 20 minutes in the first session. It was a good reminder that I really suck at swimming. However, I like it a lot and it's a great workout in that it's real easy on your joints, lengthens your muscles, and improves your conditioning.

Today was a relatively easy training day. Eric was still sick so I couldn't go and train at Parisi. I did another swim workout and am about to do the Parisi home workout as well. I started the diet today and it's been pretty tough. I really have to pay attention to when I'm eating and what I'm eating. I definitely feel that the diet will be the toughest part of my training. It's not that hard for me to avoid unhealthy foods. The hard part is cooking all of my food, portioning it out, and keeping to the meal plan. I figure if I truly focus on it for two weeks then after that it should come as second nature. Once I get this dieting thing down along with the swimming, everything else will come easy. It'll be hard at first, but I'm willing to put in the time and sacrifice.

Tomorrow should be a great day and I'm really looking forward to it. I've got Pilates with Kristen at 10 a.m., Parisi with Eric at 1 p.m., and basketball at 5 p.m. I'll be exhausted tomorrow night but I'll be feeling good about myself.

As a final note I'm going to plead with you readers. If you guys could post every so often it would really encourage me. Reading feedback makes my day and gives me good motivation knowing that there are people out there reading up on what I'm doing. If you take ten seconds to make my day I will greatly appreciate it. Thanks a lot!

Living the Family Dream...

2007-02-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! Sorry for the delay on this post, but as I say to my campers- "You're giving me excuses and I want results." No excuses-here's the post.

I met with the dietician yesterday (Thursday) and did a metabolism test. It consists of me wearing a nose plug, reading a really boring sports nutrition book, and breathing into a tube for 10 minutes. When that was done the machine printed out a bunch of results and we went over them and had a general nutrician discussion. Anyways, I had a really informative discussion with the dietician and learned a lot. It turns out that I do in fact have a high metabolism and if I do no exercise and just chill all day I burn about 2800 calories. With my exercise, I need to take in about 4000 calories a day just to maintain weight. That's right, right now my entire family is supremely jealous of me. That being said, I'm going to be eating healthy and for some reason I have a feeling quarts of pork fried rice and pints of Ben & Jerry's probably won't be allowed in my meal plan. I meet with her again Monday to go over my meal plan and to take measurements so I can see how much I change from now until the tryout.

Today I had another training session at Parisi Speed School. Due to the storm on Wednesday I missed that day's training so I knew today would be tough. Eric didn't disappoint. It was basically a sprint workout the entire time with me working on my starting technique and my first step. That's one of the areas I really need improvement so it's a crucial part of training. He tested me in my 10 meter sprint and I got times of 1.47, 1.51 and 1.45. They are ok times but I need to get down to a 1.39 or below to really improve my 30m time. At the end of the sprinting, which lasted about 50 minutes, Eric had me doing conditioning work and abs. Conditioning was brutal but relatively quick, and the abs were killer. He says next week he's got an even tougher ab workout for me...I can hardly contain my excitement. I was completely exhausted after today's workout and came home and crashed for about two hours. When I finally woke up, I made myself some dinner and then headed to the gym for some upper body weightlifting. Today was shoulders and it's been two weeks since I've done them so I didn't push myself completely and just tried to ease myself back in. The training is tough but after a workout you always feel good about yourself so it's easy to get motivated for it. Tomorrow I'm hopefully doing some swimming and weightlifting. Should be fun since I haven't swam in a long time. I'll let you know how it goes!

A Healthy Dose of Reality

2007-02-13T14:23:00.000-08:00

Once I figured out the best way to go about training I had to turn my thoughts in to actions. First order of business was getting in to the Parisi Speed School at USTC. I called them up, set up my first meeting with them, and headed out there the next day. The two guys who run my training are Gary and Eric and they really are superb. They truly know what they're talking about and they are very easy to get along with. I was very happy with how well that turned out. The first couple of times I met with them was a combination of them showing me how they would train me as well as them testing me to see where I was athletically.

For the Four Item Test the letter I received luckily gave me the times/scores that they expected me to get for them. They said that for the 30m sprint I needed a time in the 4.00s or better; for the 30m fly-in a time in the 3.20s or better; for the vertical jump a height of 30" or better and for 5 hop test a distance of 14 meters or better. I felt that going in to the testing, with no formal training, that I would be right around most of those marks. With my track training in high school (I did the long/triple/high jump) I was confident that my vertical jump and 5 hop test would go well and that the sprinting would be fine.

We started with the 5 hop test which I did the first run at a distance of 43'10''. Not too bad in that it equates to about 13.37 meters. I then did the vertical jump test...yikes. I only got 25.5" and was very unhappy with myself on that. I know for a fact that my vertical jumping ability used to be higher so I was quite upset. I redeemed myself a little bit on my second go-round with the 5 hop test when I got 45' even (13.716 meters). I gave the vertical jump another couple tries but nothing exceeded my previous mark.

The next Monday (yesterday) started my formal training at Parisi. They took it easy on me the first week and told me flat out that Monday's workout would be brutal. They didn't disappoint. My training consisted of side-squats with a very thick bungee cord tied around my ankles, tire flips with a 175lb tractor tire and sled pulling both forward and backward. I also had some sprinting and jumping thrown in there with abs at the end.

However, the big news of the day involved my sprint testing. Eric wanted to test me on my 30 meter sprint from a standing start so that we knew how far we had to go. I knew that I wanted to walk in to the tryout at Lake Placid and blow them away with my scores. In a sprint that is that short, every hundreth of a second counts. I figured if I ran around a 4.1 that I would be in good shape to improve my time to about a 3.8 or 3.7 if I was lucky. I wanted to get well below a 4.00 in April. Eric had me sprint three times with him hand-timing me. He refused to tell me my times until I was completely finished. Begrudgingly, I finished the sprints with only my mind telling me if I was improving or not each run. At the end of the third run I asked him my times and he told me: .................. 3.65, 3.62 and 3.56! I was absolutely floored! (For a reference point that would give me a 40 time of around 4.5/4.6. Marques Colston-the rookie Wide Receiver for the New Orleans Saints ran a 4.55 last year at the NFL Combine) After asking him if he got the times right and if I actually ran 30 meters I started celebrating. He was really excited too and said that with a crouched start and two months of training I could get my time down to a 3.2. That's the time that they expect you to run for the fly-in!

That was the first time in this whole experience that I really felt like I have a shot at this. My next step is to contact the Pilates trainer and continue to work on my sprinting as well as my overall body strength. I'm feeling more and more confident as the training gets harder and more and more motivated by each passing day.

62 more days!!

Jack Bauer's Favorite Olympic Sport

2007-02-12T22:11:00.000-08:00

One of the toughest parts of trying out for the team is figuring out how to train. They tell you that you will be tested for your athleticism in four different tests (more on that later) and that they don't expect you to have any experience in actually driving a sled.

I should clarify now what I am actually trying out for. They say that if I pass the four tests and show exemplary driving ability that I will then be asked to train with the development team for the remainder of the season. If I do well there it seems that I would then compete on either the America's Cup level or the Europa Cup level for the next couple of years. If at any point I do very, very well at those levels, then I would move up to the World Cup Circuit. The World Cup Circuit is the creme de la creme and that's where I would get my opportunity for the World Championships or the Olympics. So, obviously, I am nowhere near trying out for the Olympic team. That being said, I am one step closer and that only motivates me more. If the development team is where I would start then I want to make it through that tryout so that they have no choice but to invite me to train with them.

The Four Item Test that they administer has four parts to it-a 30 meter sprint, a 30 meter fly-in, a vertical jump test and a 5-hop test. The 30 meter sprint is from a frozen start while the 30 meter fly-in is a 30 meter sprint but with a running start. The vertical jump test sees how high you can jump from a stationary position and the 5-hop test sees how far you can jump hopping five times with two feet.

I figured that the best way to train is to train different aspects of my body with different trainers. I first researched for a speed training school to work on my sprints and found The Parisi Speed School at USTC in Downingtown to be my best option for that. I know that the best way to maneuver a sled while lying down is to have a strong core and good body control so I will be working with my mother's Pilates trainer to help develop my core muscles and overall body control. I also wanted to meet with a Dietician to discuss my diet and the best way to eat for this type of training. I also wanted to continue lifting weights for my upper body and to get into a swimming routine for my endurance. My whole goal is to go in to this tryout in the best shape of my life and I feel that this routine and these exercises would really help me accomplish those goals.

Skeleton...cause I'm no luger

2007-02-12T21:26:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Welcome to my journal chronicling my experiences training for and trying out for the US Skeleton Team. I'd like to thank you for visiting my Blog and taking your time to read about my time.

I guess the best way to start this blog is to give a background of how and why I decided to try out for the team. It all started last winter while I was watching the Torino, Italy Winter Olympics (go Russos!). I found myself thinking, like any other red-blooded American, "Wow-that would be really cool to represent your country in the Olympics." Being what I would consider an adventurous type I found myself frequently watching and taping the bobsled and skeleton races. While watching these races I got interested in the sport and read up about it online wondering how I could try this sport. I unfortunately found out that there are only two tracks in the US (Park City, Utah and Lake Placid, NY) and the only way to try it out if you're not part of the team is to pay an exhorbitant amount of money for a fantasy camp. I also found out that many of the athletes that compete in these events are around my size with relatively the same athletic background that I had. Checking in to how they started skeleton and bobsled racing I learned many of them had little to no prior experience before they got into their sport. Needless to say, this encouraged me to further check in to trying out the sport. I sporadically talked with my friends about my interest in trying out for the team but really didn't make any effort in the beginning to contact the teams. The thought of trying out wouldn't go away and a little over four months ago I sent in my Athletic Resumé and a little letter saying why I wanted to try out. I didn't get any response for a long time so, while I didn't lose interest, I did lose some hope. Then, a week ago last Friday, while checking my e-mail down at Duke, I found out that I had been granted a tryout for the team from April 16th-20th in Lake Placid, NY.

I was ecstatic. A bit shocked in the beginning, but ecstatic. The common conversation with my friends would go something like this:

Me: Remember how I said I wanted to try out for the US Skeleton Team?

Friend: Yeah.

Me: Well I've got a tryout in April in Lake Placid.

Friend: (Laughter for a long time)

Friend: (More laughter)

Friend: Dude that's so cool! Let me know how it goes.

Next came the hard part-convincing my parents to let me try this amazing experience. I had mentioned something to my Dad about my interest a long time ago but all I remember him saying was, "Let's pretend we didn't have this conversation and you go do what you want and just don't tell me about it. Hopefully I'll actually forget this conversation." He did, but that didn't help my confidence at all. I approached him the night I got back and he was fine with it once he knew it wouldn't get in the way with school. I asked him if we should tell Mom even though I thought it might be best to keep this from her. He assured me that we had to tell her. I asked him how he thought she might take it to which he replied, with a frightened look on his face, "I don't know, you're going to be the one who tells her!" Thanks Dad, way to help a brother out.

I approached my mother right before she was going to bed. I said, "Mom, there's something I need to talk to you about but we might want to ease you into it and just bring up the topic tonight and discuss details tomorrow." She replied, "Just tell me what it is, I can handle it." Right. Even though I wasn't reassured by that statement whatsoever I proceeded to tell her about everything. She completely, utterly, totally surprised me by stating how exciting this was and how much fun I would have doing it. Who knew?

With the relatively full support of my parents, family and friends I knew that this entire process would be an experience I would not soon forget.