Down By Two

(A post from Blackout – Don)

Last Saturday came as a surprise to both Jeremy and I. We were unaware there was going to be a bobsled race; therefore, didn’t do much to prepare for it. Sure we’ve been at the track regularly, but practicing 4-man bobsled. The race was for 2-man sleds. Until Saturday morning, we hadn’t pulled out the 2-man in about a month and a half. That sled felt neglected (and it made sure we knew that).

We got to the track about an hour before the race to do a little maintenance. Most of the time was spent sanding runners. After about 45 min, the runners weren’t perfect, but they looked better.

Show time!

Once the sled was in position, Jeremy and I set ourselves and began the cadence: “Back. Set. Ready…”

Since I don’t see much in the back, I have to recall the trip down the track by feeling. And once I felt turn four, I knew something wasn’t right; we were taping walls and dropping out of turns.

Sure enough, once we crossed the finish line Jeremy turned to me and said, “Something’s not right with the steering.” (Yeah, that would explain the ride.) And after the first heat, Team Holm was in fourth place.

After taking a couple minutes to adjust the steering, and getting back in the zone, we were back at the top of the track waiting for our second and final heat of the race. (If there were ever a time to get in the zone, this was it. We needed a really good push off, and you could tell that Jeremy was ready to pilot.

Again came the cadence: “Back. Set. Ready…” And we’re off! We definitely pushed harder; I also gave it a couple more steps before jumping in. (I think I kick Jeremy by accident during the load.)

This time it was a lot smoother, and I could feel Jeremy taking the bobsled to higher lines than before.

Given the condition of the track (I failed to mention it was raining that day and we were sliding on slush – not ice, which would be far more conducive to bobsledding) we were pleased with the run. But, we still needed to wait for one more bobsled before finding out if we medaled.

Sure enough, we made it! We came in third. I gotta hand it to Jeremy; he did a fabulous job getting us down the track safely the first time, and having a killer run the second time. Medaling with a non-responsive bobsled is pretty impressive.

May I see some I.D.?

I've been getting the question a lot lately about what we do during the summertime as bobsled athletes. I think the common misconception is that we just sit around and relax all through the hot summer months and attend parties and take vacations.

Well, that's half true. But the other half is where the real work comes into play.

Throughout the summer we have some incredible plans and goals as a team. Of course we have the general goals of increasing our strength and speed for our pushing abilities, but we also have some specific plans as well. A few of us are going to be working with TOSH at the Utah Olympic Oval to better perfect our sprinting technique. This is going to be a blast to work with the TOSH crew and we'll be sure to post some pictures of it.

We are also planning a trip to Calgary in July to do some practicing at the Ice House, a facility built next to the bobsled track where teams can go and practice their push and loads. I can't decide if this will be more work or more play. Probably a good combination of both, so we'll be sure to have some fun posts about this as well.

Another plan involves heading to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs sometime in either June or August. I'm not sure who all will be going on this one, but it is going to be an incredible opportunity to work with some of the trainers and nutritionists out there at the Center.

As you can see, there will be plenty to do during the off-season, including all our regular working out and sprint training. Plus the norms of life such as careers, social lives, other hobbies, etc.

So where does the title of this post come in to play?

Most of the time when you go to pay for something with anything other than cash, you get asked the question "May I see some I.D.?" Well, what most people don't know about bobsledding is that it is the second most expensive sport in the Olympics, second only to Equestrian. And contrary to popular belief, as athletes we pay for a lot of our training, travel, and equipment needs out of our own pockets.

So a huge overall goal of ours this summer is to actively seek out and gain sponsorships and donations to help defray the costs of our summer training as well as the immense financial burden of next season.

We are currently working to set ourselves up as a non-profit organization, but are running into huge cost estimates to do so, so if any of you blog readers have any experience with setting up a non-profit group, please let us know.

Also, if you know of any companies interested in helping an incredibly talented team as they prepare for the Olympics, please send them the following link and have them contact us to discuss further options: http://www.teamholmbobsled.com/Pages/donating.html

Encore! Encore!

In the immortal words of Monty Python, "(We're) not dead yet."

This past weekend we were supposed to have three days straight of training (Fri, Sat, Sun). The plan was to have us forerun for the Western Regionals skeleton races in the four-man sled because let's be honest: its big, its fast, and it makes a lot of noise as it roars through a turn. Crowds love it and we would have loved to get a few more days of training in before the season ended.

But those hopes were dashed when we were told that there would be no bobsleds allowed around the races. The reasoning behind this decision depends on who you ask. Some cast the blame on the fact that there wasn't much time scheduled for the races themselves, but there have been comments made about something that someone irresponsibly did that caused this verdict to come down to eliminate bobsled for the weekend. We were frustrated and angry to put it mildly. Bobsledding has always been one of the biggest draws for tourists at the Utah Olympic Park and people love it when we train, but since we don't have as many athletes training out here as say skeleton or luge, we always are one of the first programs to suffer when it comes to training time. In other words, we get the shaft a lot.

So, we all quietly began to mentally and physically put our bobsledding season behind us and prepare for summer as we believed that the season was indeed over now.

But then the encore was called for.

It's not something I can talk a lot about right now due to the nature of what we will be participating in, but we are crossing our fingers for another opportunity to train and participate in a very cool project.

Basically what I'm saying is: More news to come so stay tuned!

Attention: Final Boarding Call for the Night

So, last night we had an incredible night of training, minus a few last minute delays and scheduling changes. Joe Sission was short a brakeman so Matt was going to slide with him, and that required some re-shifting of our plans. It was OT (Official Training) for the skeleton athlete's last night so they were scheduled three heats of training. We were very lucky to get to slide at all during their training as it is very uncommon to allow bobsledders into a skeleton race training session, so thanks to Steve Revelli and Tom Raty!

Well, on our first run we were all pretty excited, though I could tell that some of the athletes were a little tired. Even so, when we set the sled down on the ice and started pushing I could tell that it was a good push. I loaded into the sled and felt Don load in behind me and immediately noticed that his knees were farther forward than normal which affected how much room I had to drive. Not his fault, it happens a lot when it comes to four-man in general. With four big guys trying to sprint and load into the sled, it is no surprise when someone ends up out of position. So it definitely made driving a little interesting, but we made it down ok. Well, better than ok.

Our final downtime? 51.42!!!!! Not only did we break through the 52 second mark, we smashed it by 6/10ths of a second! We were all so excited!!! Our second run was a hair slower at 51.64, but that is because our push was slower, a 5.86 whereas our first push was a decent 5.68. All I can say is that as a team I am so proud of how fast we have progressed this season and how far we have come. We are now staring hungrily at that 51 second mark and with two days of four-man training left, we are going to go for it all: a 50 second finish time. I think we can do it, all we need to do is drop our pushtime down a bit and sand the runners a bit more as they are still pretty pitted from all the rust.

But you can bet that we are focusing our eyes on next season's races. Its our time now. Gold medals, here we come!

Last Minute Changes = .03 seconds

Saturday morning came wayyyy to early after a late training session Friday night, but that's OK. I don't know of anything that wakes you up faster than roaring down a bobsled track at 80 MPH.

It was an odd morning when we first arrived to the track. Fog covered the entire valley that the course is nestled in so that when you stood at the start and looked down the start ramp you could barely see turn run. But the fog soon melted away and the sun came out to provide one of those beautiful mornings that really get you energized for slidding.

Well, Don and I pulled the two-man out of storage and wiped off the dust (it's been two weeks since we used it last). But as we were putting the runners on the sled, another team who was going to use the club's four-man pulled their two-man off the truck and set it next to the four-man. After we got the runners on we went into the start house where we found Matt and Brad who was going to be pushing with the other team.

We got to talking and asked the other driver if he was going to do two-man on the first run. He said yes so we all had the same thought: let's do four-man first and then do two-man on the second run. The other driver agreed so we were all very excited.

It was also an exciting morning because we had a lot of friends and family up there. Matt's girlfriend Robyn came up, my mom was there (she's the one who took these cool photos), and Don's family also arrived which caused a considerable stir since his dad is Donny Osmond. Boy did he get a kick out of being up there and watching us train!

So our turn soon arrived and we were all pumped up. I have to say, the chemistry with this team is incredible. Other than the fact that we give each other a hard time ALL the time, we also push each other to be better athletes. It is not often that as a driver you find your pushers teaching you things, but this season I have learned a ton from these guys.

Anyway, we got the sled to the starting line and took our positions. Another really cool thing is the way that all the skeleton athletes have supported us and encouraged us this season. When we launched the sled off the starting block and started sprinting down the ice you could hear them all cheering us on. It was awesome.

Well, the run itself felt great. It was smooth and clean and we definitely felt Turns 4 and 6. Next time I'm going to work on 11 and 12 to get more speed, but when we crossed that finish line we knew we had a good time. And we did, one that everyone both cheered and groaned about. It was a 52.03! A mere three-hundredths off of a 51! I was both elated and disappointed, but only in that 'Gosh I want a 51 so bad' kind of way.

We got the sled back to the top and all our supporters were so excited for us. It was really a great morning!

On our second run Don and I took the two-man down with a 5.6 second push. Definitely a good time as we keep improving. I wish I could say that my two-man run was as clean as the four-man one, but it was still decent. We even had a huge group of school kids lining the start ramp to cheer us on. And Don's family went down to Turn 12 to watch us come rushing through. After that I couldn't tell what his mom was thinking about this crazy sport her son has gotten into!

Sadly, this is the last week of on-ice training for the season, so be sure to check back as we will try to update the blog after each session! And don't worry, we'll be sure to write about all the great things happening over the summer for us!

Fantastic Four

So tonight was an incredible night of four-man training. At first we weren't sure that we would be able to use the Club's sled, but thankfully we were able to work it out where we got it tonight.

And it was awesome.

Myself, Don, Matt, and a newcomer to the team, Brad Welsh, all put on our spikes for our first push start loads of the season....at the end of the season, sadly enough. But it was worth it. We practiced a few dry loads with the sled just sitting on the ice just to get a feel for the load process and to get a better understanding of how to get to our seats on a sprint. After that, we just sat around and waited. My old friend and teammate Joe Sisson was coaching a previous session, so he came up to the start and we shared a few stories with some of the newer athletes.

Well, our time came up and we moved the sled up to the starting line. I could tell that everyone was just a tiny bit nervous and all the skeleton athletes had there faces pushed against the starthouse windows so they could watch us.

Matt yelled "Backset" and Don and Brad both yelled "SET!" and I yelled "READY" and bam! We were off. Now, you have to remember that it was our first push-load so we just jogged a couple of steps and then started hopping in. I got in and all of the sudden I could hear Matt yelling "Get in! Get in!" Then I realized that I hadn't felt Don get in yet. Brad and Matt had to wait for Don to get in before they could take their seats. Well Don did make it in and everyone got into their positions just fine.

Our first run was actually a lot of fun, a mid-54 second. So we dropped another second off our time from last week. I was pleased with that considering we had 7-second push. Once we crossed the finish line all the guys were cheering. We got out of the sled at the finish dock and man oh man did Matt give Don a hard time for not getting in the sled. I had to laugh at the way those two just pick on each other. But it was all in good fun and we were so excited about the run. I asked everyone if they wanted to push farther on the next one and they were all for it. What was really funny is that when we got back to the Joe gave MATT a hard time for the way he was yelling at Don to get in. We all got a good laugh at how the tables were turned on Storms. But he's a good sport so he gave it right back to Joe.

On our second run everyone was pumped up still. With grins on our faces and a bit more fire in our eyes, we pulled the sled to the starting line, set it in the grooves, and called out our readiness. We didn't give it our all, we all held back quite a bit, but we dropped a half-second off our start time. And the second run felt GOOOOOD. It was a lot smoother and cleaner and we had a low 53-second downtime. And as soon as we crossed the finish line everyone just cheered. I heard Matt and Don and Brad just let out the loudest yells when they saw our finish time. I grinned. It was just an incredible feeling for all of us. Fourman training is pretty much the toughest side of bobsledding their is. Its more dangerous, its faster, and its harder on the body. But last night, all four of us were on Cloud 9. That was our track that night.

And as I sat there thinking about it, surrounded by some of the greatest athletes I've ever known, I was pretty grateful for what I was able to do. And then that got me thinking even more. We had just hit a 53 with AWFUL runners that haven't been sanded in years and that have rust marks and scratches all over them. On top of that, we pushed a 6.24, probably a full second slower than we could push if we really tried. And it was snowy last night so some of the skeleton guys were getting 56s, 57s, and even some 58s. So if we sand the runners, push our all, and on good ice conditions...wow. We could be getting 51s or even 50s! Now THAT is something to smile about!

Four-men in a little sled

So Friday night (Feb. 15) was a big night for Team Holm Bobsled. As a driver and as pushers, moving into four-man bobsled training after a season of two-man is a refreshing and exhilerating step!

And a little nerve wracking. While you might think that the two events are so closely related that there's no difference between the two, the honest truth is that there are big differences. The biggest would have to be for me, as a driver. The difference between driving a two-man sled and a four-man sled is comparable to the difference between driving a compact car and a full-sized tractor trailer rig. While they both go on the same road, their handling styles are worlds apart.

As it is in bobsled. In a two-man bobsled you are able to make quicker changes and corrections in your lines on the track. In a four-man sled, however, with that much mass moving at slightly faster speeds, well, its not as easy to drive. Once you drive a four-man sled into a line in a turn, it just stays there and when it gets to the end of the turn, if you don't start driving out of the turn at the right time, you can't just pull the sled down like you can in a two-man. Basically it boils down to the fact that four-man sleds are harder to correct and easier to roll over.

Four-man sleds are incredible examples of engineering. The fact that you can take an almost 1,400 pound sled and crew down the track at 80MPH in those tight turns, it just amazes me. And it sure made some of the newer pushers nervous!

I could see it on their faces as we got the sled prepped for training. To the untrained eye, the sled wasn't much to look at. You could tell that it had seen years of training and some neglect. The fiberglass body had cracks in it and the metal framework was rusted in several places. As a driver my main concern was the steering system. Was it rusted over? Was it responsive enough or would I have to drive heavy-handed? I had no idea and the thing about driving a new sled down the track is that you have about three turns to learn how the sled handles before the danger starts. So basically its a trial by fire 'learn it as you go' sort of experience.

Well, all the athletes breathed a sigh of relief when I told them that we weren't going to be pushing and jumping in at the start. Don (Osmond), and Hans were all a bit relieved when they found out that all they had to do was sit in the sled while Matt (Storms) walked us off the top and then jumped in. No running, no jogging, just a leisure walk. At least they had some peace of mind!

I was a bit nervous, I'll be honest. I've driven four-man sleds before, but it has been a little bit. About two years to be exact. So once we started down that ramp I started praying a bit. I trusted my abilities as a driver, I just didn't trust the sled yet.

The first run, while somewhat smooth, was a bit slower without the push and I was steering too much in the turns to keep us safe as I adjusted to the new steering system. But once we crossed the finish line right side up and with an ok downtime considering there was no push, well, I had a huge smile on my face. Honestly, we all did. We'd done it. We completed a four-man trip successfully, something some bobsledders never even do. When I asked if they all wanted to take a second trip the answer was a unanimous YES.

So we did. And it was a lot smoother and faster. Not by a ton since we didn't do a push start again and Matt just walked us off. But I eased up on the steering and let it run through the turns a bit more. We dropped a full 1.5 seconds off our time between the first and second runs! And we had even bigger smiles on our faces! It was so awesome! I couldn't stop smiling about it, I was so amped up! Everyone was so excited about it and we can't wait to try pushing the sled this upcoming week and loading in. Don and I and my cousin Caryn all went to grab dinner afterwards and I couldn't help myself, I just kept saying over and over again how much fun that was! I am so excited for this upcoming week as we get three days of training. Don was just as excited as we sat there eating our incredible nutritious Taco Bell!

So stayed tuned for this week's updates and pictures! Its going to be a great week!

Frosty the Snowmen

So it was one of those nights of training. Not bad, not superb, just kind of in between. You can tell it is getting to the end of the season because all the athletes are getting a bit more sore and equipment is breaking just a bit easier.

But last night we took three runs (Don and I had two and Matt and I had one). The track was rather frosty so it wasn't as fast as we would like it to be. What happened is that Park City faced some warmer weather during the day yesterday, so the outside air temperature was higher. When this occurs, the ice on the track starts to melt just a touch. Almost "sweat" if you will. But then as the day went on and the temperature started the drop, this "sweat" on the ice began to freeze and this creates a layer of frost on the surface. Frost, for us, is a bad thing as it acts like a miniature layer of sand paper. As athletes we find its easier to drive since the frost gives us more grip than smooth ice, but it also slows us down.

So Don and I had a good push on our first run, a 5.68. Both of us want a 5.5 so badly this season! Our down time was a 52.40, so not too bad! Still, we are pushing for that goal of a 51 second run before the season is over!!! Matt and I had a bit slower push than usual, a 5.98. both of us were shaking our heads over that one. Not sure what happened there. But we had a clean run and posted a time of 52.57. So while our push was slower, our time was considerably faster when you do the math (52.40-5.68=46.72 and 52.57-5.98=46.59 SO 46.72-46.59= 0.13 BUT the pushes were 5.98-5.68=0.3 difference SO Don and I should have had a time that was 0.6 seconds faster than Matt and I).

Wow, doing that math definitely pulled out the arithmetic skills!!!

Anyways, as the season does wind down we have big plans for pushing ourselves physically over the summer, working with TOSH's acceleration program, and finding sponsors! So if any readers have suggestions for companies who may be interested in helping a team race for the Olympics, please let us know!

Be sure to check back this weekend because this Friday we are pulling out the big guns. That's right, its four-man time!