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!

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!

The Night Hell Must Have Frozen Over

It was cold. I mean, we're talking COLD. Friday (Feb 1st)night's practice was almost miserable. I had to loan my gloves to Don who was pushing that night and everytime I touched metal it was so cold it burned my hand. We're talking instant minor frostbite here. And we made the crazy decision to train in our spandex racing suits that night! Why oh why didn't we just wear normal clothes training clothes???

A highlight of the night was that we had a photographer from Provo come up to take some candid shots of us training, Mark Weinberg. You can check out some of his shots at http://mlwphotos.com/proofs/teamholm/ .

So, we've established the fact that it was cold. Like, in the teens cold. So on our first run as soon as I loaded into the sled and felt Don load into his seat, my helmet began to fog over. And I mean, really cloud over. Most of the time I can just tilt my head back a little bit to get some air on the helmet shield to clear it up, but this time I had about 40% visibility for most of the track. Imagine doing that at 80MPH!

But it only got worse from there. There was so much snow up at the track that it had covered the tarps that are over Turns 14 and 15. Once we came out of Turn 13 it was like looking down into an underground tunnel: pitch black. So that mixed with a fogged helmet made for a pretty interesting run! It was a 53 second and given the conditions I was ok with that.

So the second run was only marginally better, a high 52 and I just had to laugh. It truly was a great night of training in the worst conditions imaginable. It wasn't that we were really able to work on our technique so much as now we know that we can slide in the worst conditions possible. Its like they say, sometimes you just need to face the worst situations in life just so you can know that you can handle it next time it comes around. Experiences like that should give us all confidence that we really are stronger than we thought we were.

But, still, I think it was cold enough that Hell froze over that night!