Halloween!!!! I personally love Halloween because I am a major sweet tooth!  I remember when I was young me and my friends would map out our route for trick-or-treating before we went.  We would go right after school and “pound the pavement” until we couldn’t walk any longer and our pillow cases were full to the brim.  Then I would come home and sort it all along with my brother and sister.  Then the trading would begin.  I love rockets and caramilk bars.  I would always trade for the black candies since I loved them and my sis didn’t.

I love the community aspect of it, too.  There was one old lady in Melville who would knit mittens all year and then hand them out instead of treats.  Everyone rushed for her house after school.  What a great idea!  I hope that this year you or your kids go knocking on neighbours’ doors.  I can’t wait to see the great costumes of the kids this year!

Let me know what you are dressing up as and what your favorite halloween treats are.

Hey All!  This is a little switch up from what I usually write.  I want to ask you to write in with a comment about this question.  Every year I get a flu shot.  Before I started getting it, I used to get pretty sick every Christmas and this was a problem because that is the date of our National Trials.  Once I started getting the shot, I didn’t get sick anymore.  So, this year I was planning on getting it again.  Here is the dilemma: Do I get the flu shot or the H1N1 shot or both?  Another question: Why are there 2 different shots?  If everyone is worried about the H1N1, why is there another flu shot?  Why doesn’t the H1N1 shot = the flu shot?  I wasn’t planning on getting the H1N1 since I don’t think the risk is very high, but now I am getting confused.  I would love to hear what everyone think about this.  Please comment!

This past weekend I was in Richmond for the fall world cup trials.  Saturday was the 500m.  I was in a great mood and totally ready to have a great performance.  I had a good pair and I thought I had a really good chance at making the team.  I started with my fastest start of the year and a good first corner.  I accelerated throught the back stretch and had a good corner entry into the last turn.  I pulled ahead of my pair.  I decided to take an extra crossover at the end of the corner before I started my straight-away strides.  Before I knew it I was crashing into the ice.  I was in shock!  I slid down the straight-away and my pair didn’t pass me back until the final 50 meters.  I fell!  I was on such a good race.  My predicted time would have put me in fourth.  One hour later I had to race again, but the wind had been blown out of my sails.  I skated a slow  time and my coach and I decided that I shouldn’t race the reskate.  I went outside to try to calm down.  What a disappointment.  Was I really that bad after all this hard work?  Suddenly I get a phone call.  My coach decided that I should race again and says that I need to be on the line in 5 minutes.  I jump into my skinsuit and do 2 quick laps for warm up.  I go to the line and race for the third time all by myself.  I don’t make the team.  I was devastated.

Monday I had the 1000m.  I’m not one to dwell on misfortune, so my mood had returned to it’s normal upbeatness.  I was ready again to try my best.  I get off the line quick and proceeded to have a great first lap!  The first 600m  went so well.  I tied up for the last lap, but I didn’t care.  I felt so much better that my speed was there and I had one of the fastest first laps of the competition.

I realized that after all the work I’ve done, it has payed off.  Even though I won’t be travelling to world cups this fall, I know that I have what it takes to make the Olympics.  Now I get to refine my skating at home (without jetlag!) for the next 2 months and then I will try all over again at the Olympic trials.

This summer I showed you guys what I do for summer training.  Since the end of August we have been in full swing of ice/winter training.  It is a little different, since we are mostly on the ice, but it follows the same time patterns.  AM and PM sessions almost everyday and practice racing on the weekend.  The ice sessions are about 2 hours long not including 30 min warm up and 15 minute warm down.

Monday: AM Laps on the ice (usually 4 sets of laps from 6-12 in length)

              PM slide board (this is immitating skating movements on a slidding board)

Tuesday: AM Aerobic or Anaerobic Power on ice (translates to really hard!)

               PM weights (mostly jumps, squats and power cleans)

Wednesday: long cycling ride 60-150mins (Ahhhhhh! this is recovery)

Thursday:  AM Sprints or Aerobic power on ice

                  PM interval run 45-60mins with 45-90sec anaerobic bursts

Friday:  AM laps or sprints on ice

            PM 30 min recovery ride

Saturday:  AM practice races (the oval puts on races every weekend so we can get in race shape)

                PM weights right after races

Sunday:  OFF!

I pop into class at the U of C in betweend training.  It truly is a full time job.  I hope this gives you a better idea of the life of an amateur athlete.  Next time I’ll let you in on what it’s like to be on the road for World Cup races.  It’s pretty funny because we get a lot more rest…

When we first moved into our house, we wanted to do a few renos.  The bathroom was the first priority.  We got that one done before we moved in which meant working night and day during that one month I get off training in the spring.  That was last year.  Since then we’ve done some touch ups, but not a big project.  Arne got the itch to get something done.  We went to go look at some counter tops at ikea and bam! we left the store with a chunk of oak butcher block.  That got the ball rolling quickly!  We had a half wall in the kitchen and we’ve wanted to make it a breakfast bar so we could put some stools up to it.  Arne cut down the wall a few inches and went to work.  Now we have a beautiful addition to the kitchen.  On to the stools…

This is what we normally do on weekday nights.  Arne and I get comfortable on the couch and watch some tv, movies or sitcoms on DVD (which we are watching in this photo, we love The Office!)  It’s a good way to wind down before bed.  Rest is a part of my training regime…

Randomly, we will find something really fun to do.  We will have friends over for dinner, go to a movie, out to dinner or something totally different.  In the past 3 weeks, we have acquired tickets to 2 concerts.  One set from friends, to see Barney Bentall’s son Dustin Bentall at the Palomino.  Surprisingly good, but really late for a week night Last night we scored tickets to the Listen Now concert with K.D. Lang and Bryan Adams!  Arne is a grad student at U of C and the U was giving away tickets.  He scooped some up and we were in!  The concert was entertainment for the day that the Dalai Lama was in the city.  Although I didn’t know many of her songs, K. D. Lang was amazing.  Her voice was so powerful and clear.  I was stirring in my seat for the next act, Bryan Adams!  I loved his music when I was young.  Turned out I knew the lyrics to all the songs and Bryan totally killed it.  He was on stage with just his guitar and an accompanist on the grand piano. 

Now that was a night out of the ordinary!