Alone again

I called Luke this morning to finalize travel plans only to hear that he is no longer going. Our coach determined that with the way things are going over at Cesana, no coach for the EC, and Luke's relative inexperience that it may be too much. Luke was bummed, but also relieved. I am not sure if the door is closed for all other sliders, but that is my expectation at this stage. The caution level is up a notch for me, but I am still going.

Broken bones

Bumps and bruises are a regular part of skeleton, but worse things do happen on the track. I got word tonight that two of our sliders in Cesana broke their collars today during training runs for the Intercontinental Cup race. I don't have any details, but I was really disheartened to hear this news about my friends and I hope for their speedy recovery. Both of them are excellent sliders, and they have a lot of competitions that they need to mend up for this season!

Of course, this news also makes me wonder how my own experience will pan out in a little over a week. There is no US coaching for this race, I have received very little support from the USBSF in spite of specific requests for very basic assistance, I am in short supply of training time in Park City to train and test runners, and Cesana is making it clear that it is a track to be reckoned with.

Some good news - I will not be the lone US slider going to Cesana for the EC. Luke Schulz has committed to joining me. I hope he doesn't regret it after hearing about the carnage. He's a good guy, and I am relieved to have a teammate join me for this competition.

In other news, my request for time off from work has been approved. I asked for about four weeks - one each for Cesana, Park City, St Moritz, and Winterberg. The downside is that this will be unpaid time off during a period of huge expenditures. I would be looking for well heeled sponsors if I had a spare moment, but for now I will leave that to serendipity and keep my nose to the grindstone.

Have I mentioned that I work with some really cool people? Accenture has a regular e-newsletter they send out that spotlights people doing cool stuff. My manager took it upon himself to submit my story, and I was selected for inclusion. Apparently I will be the first story to come out of Navitaire. Pretty cool!

Chasing 49's

During a normal training session at the Park City track, most sliders will do somewhere between two and four runs. Any more than that, and your body usually starts to complain. Lately, I just can't seem to get enough. I have been taking five runs most sessions this week and only stopping because everyone else has left. Tonight I took eight, and it was probably one too many. My neck is a little sore as I sit typing this out, but the ice was so beautiful I couldn't resist.

Our training session started at 6pm with eight sliders. I was trying another set of borrowed runners. Out of four runs, I had one okay run, one mediocre run, and two downright scary runs. I just couldn't dial them in. Meanwhile, teammate Matt Griff had established that this was fast ice by throwing down a personal best of 50.06 seconds. The US session ended, and the international session was set to begin at 7:30. As I suspected, Yuuji Takahashi from Japan was the only slider for the two hour session. I had promised him I would slide in his session, and I had another set of runners I wanted to try out. Besides, Griff had just put down a great time and I wanted one as well. What I really wanted was to get into the 49's - uncharted territory for me.

Yuuji went first while I fussed with getting my runners changed. I made my way to the start hoping that I wouldn't be bouncing off walls as I had in the first session. As I got underway, I could tell that these runners were really responsive. Much better than being our of control, right? Well, there is such a thing as too much control. I managed to keep things more or less together, but did get into trouble a couple of times due to to the excellent steerability. As I flew up the outrun, I could see the clock showing a personal record! A 50.17. Still shy of a 49, but close enough that I had to go again. Ice like this doesn't happen every day. Next run was a 50.14. Even better, and a good enough reason to go again. I took two more swings at it and started doing worse. I was beat by my last run, and called it a night. I will resume my pursuit on Tuesday only because the track is closed on Monday.

International training

Over the past week or so, I have had the opportunity to train with world-class athletes from other nations including places that defy geographic limitations with respect to winter sports such as New Zealand, Australia, and Jamaica. These latest recruits to the Jamaican bob team were brand new to the ice this week - it will be interesting to see their progress. Japan, the Netherlands and Great Britain were also represented. Most of them have now made their way up to Calgary for the World Cup race taking place over the coming week, but the Japanese team stayed for one last day of training before leaving this evening. The picture is of team veteran Kazuhiro Koshi giving the trademark point which he does before every run. In addition to sliding with some great people, I finally admitted that my equipment was giving me problems. I usually wait too long in arriving at this place, and I held true to form this time around. After almost two weeks of progressively worse sliding, I realized that I had a bent runner. I borrowed a different set and things were great.

Some other videos

Utah Winter Games - Park City - Jan 20 2007
Start
Curve 6

I am not exactly sure who took these, but they did a great job! I will post the info if I find out.

Think fast

On the way up to the track tonight, I was on the phone with another skeleton athlete and we got talking about how team trials went. Then we went down a somewhat abstract path. Surprised at how far we have come, but then wondering how we will get faster. Fast enough to compete at the highest levels of competition. I am still using the same gear that I used last season, but I am somehow going faster. I know that I am driving a little better, but does that explain it all? What is it that makes the best sliders consistently so much faster? Is it all in their head? Is it the shoes? I have a hard time quantifying my own marginal improvements.

Nick Vienneau - US Skeleton Team Trials - Training Runs - Lake Placid, NY - 2007

This is a copy of a video I put on Google Video comprised of clips from training runs in Lake Placid. Of special intereset is the purple Spyder suit I use for training...

Auspicious Beginning

Last weekend marked the end of national team trials for skeleton. I ended up ranked tenth in the nation, which was better than I expected at the outset of the season. I will be competing on the Europa Cup (EC) circuit in Cesana, Italy, St Moritz, Switzerland, & Winterberg, Germany. I will also do an America's Cup (AC) race in Park City. I am beyond excited about the trajectory for the season, and am especially excited to slide in St. Moritz. It is the the cradle of the sport, and home to the only natural track in the world. The EC team is comprised of two men, the other being John Daly. He has slid a number of tracks in Europe already. The biggest hurdles I face at this stage are pulling funds together and getting time off from work. My employer, Navitaire (an Accenture company), has been amazing thus far, and has really backed my pursuit. On the money side, it has been flowing out of my account ever since team trials began this October in Lake Placid. It required two trips and three weeks of the month because of a flawed trials criteria. That is another story. The cash outflow has just begun. I am flying into Italy next month and then into Switzerland in January. I will spend a hair over three weeks in Europe to do all of the races. Unlike the World Cup and Intercontinental Cup teams, Europa Cup receives no funding at all from the USBSF. Regardless, things are shaping up great so far this season!
(Photo Credit: Steve Peters)