NOV 4 2015: First day back at the sliding centre. I was feeling very nervous. I knew the ice was pretty fast (from helping out at the selection OT and races earlier in the day) so I decided to do my first run of the season from corner 3. It was a pretty smooth run, no big hits, really fast. So I decided to do my second run from the top. I meant to push VERY slowly, but accidentally went a bit quicker than I planned. I think all those summer push sessions paid off because everything felt a lot less awkward than last year. Anyway so I pushed off faster than I planned, came out of the grooves nice and straight, then got really overwhelmed and forgot to do all of my steers. I smashed EVERYTHING after corner 10. It was extremely painful. I ended up going 128.52 km/hr though, which was like my second fastest speed ever from the top. Yeehaw. What a way to start the season!
NOV 6 2015: I decided to play it more safe and push nice and slow. I concentrated on a few key steers in particular. My two runs were much smoother and much less painful. I still hit out of corner 16 but not like the other night. Confidence was somewhat restored.
NOV 7 2015: I was still incredibly nervous but now knew that I can handle the track. I pushed a tiny bit quicker and everything was fine. For once I didn’t flop out of corner 6. My neck felt very tired on my second run, hopefully that improves as this season goes on. I got a new PR speed: 128.82 km/hr.
I plan on sliding again on Thursday and Saturday this week. Then the week after that the North America Cup OT starts. At this point I have been told I might be able to actually race in the NAC race, but not sure yet. They are going to send me all the paperwork and I will be on standby, basically. If I don’t race, then I will probably at least forerun the races, which will be on November 26th and 27th.
It will be really cool if I get to be in the race, as that has been one of my skeleton goals, but unfortunately it’s out of my hands. Because I didn’t do the testing camps in the summer I am basically the last choice to be in the race, so it depends on who else enters the competition.