Post by aaosmts19 on Jun 1, 2008 19:18:22 GMT -5
Hello all,
Back to reality; it was so hard letting go of the fantastic week. Truly, I don't think I've ever had as great a vacaton. After my father's passing, there was nothing I needed more than to just take off by myself and let the wind blow me around wherever I wanted to go.
I went back to the Oval Friday morning. The drills they did were pretty much in line with what I had noted in early posts. This drill where they skate on the left leg around the entire oval by throwing their right leg forward and giving a sort of 'hop' with the left leg was a brutal exercise for them. At one time or another everyone would have to take a break by touching down their right leg, taking a few strides, and gripping either their left upper thigh or their left cheek (and I don't mean facial). It was definitely a brutal strength training exericse. At the begining of the drill, when the coaches called everyone to the center of the ice, I couldn't hear exactly what was being said, but Jai was quite animated with his arms and legs, instructing them in how to do the drill, what to accentuate, what angle they should strive for, etc.etc. They all started groaning, knowing the drill to come. As the first 5 lined up at the start, Apolo turned to those in his group, laughed, and said "probably 10 laps today!". They were NOT looking forward to this drill. Actually I think it was between 3-5 laps, but that was hard enough. Jeff had quite a time with it, grabbing his left cheek and grimacing. It seemed like what I would do if I had pulled my sciatic nerve. He was quite behind everyone else, just absolutely GUTTING it out. During the last lap Jimmy was hanging behind him, coaching him on, but not about to let him quit. At one point Jeff said "oh my G*d", groaning in pain and exhaustion as he moved towards his finish. JImmy laughed and coached him onwards saying "Oh my G*d, yes!". And he gave Jeff a 'well done' when he moved across the finish line.
What more can I tell you that I haven't mentioned? On Thursday they were being videotaped by other staff, I'm sure just so they could review their drills and technique...not by the media.
Jeff Simon is tiny. One of the guys had the white "D" on the front of his helmet, the same "D" logo that you see for Detroit. Will have to check bios and see who that was. Another skater had "FCP" on the side of his helmet. KOri mentioned that Apolo had a new helmet; it was very light silver with a blue/burgundy stripe down the middle of it.
Jimmy does most of the loud verbal coaching, yelling this and that, while Jai is apt to stay off to the side, watching the execution of things and offering individual feedback at the conclusion of the drill. The coaches have a 3-ring binder which must have a list of all of the drills for the day. On one day APolo skated over to the side to take a look at the list; on another day Shani was looking at it.
When I was there, they always ended up with a relay drill.
When they are done, while they are still in the heat box at the rink, they take down the top half of the skinsuit and throw a shirt on, take off their skates, and walk barefoot with skate and helmet in hand, back to the locker room.
On Friday, at the completion of the skate session, I noticed Apolo and Shani driving the LEXUS over to one of the adjacent soccer/baseball fields. There they met up with others, and Larry, and started jogging the fields. THe attire was black shorts, white sneakers, army-colored tshirt and red beanie (someone needs to talk to the boy about that combination!). It was at that point that I drive out of the parking lot, sad to be leaving, heading for 15S to the ride to Vegas.
SO it seems that they get there around 7:30 or 8:00 am and spend time warming up by jogging or on the stationary bikes, then do 1 1/2 hrs on the ice, then have some other activity to cool down, stretch. They go home for lunch and then come back mid-afternoon for more dry land training, staying until 6 or 7:00. They do this 6 days a week; they trained on Memorial Day.
And now to my teaser....it actually wasn't a tease, I really did get a chance to speak with Allison. I was coming up the stairs from the tunnel and she was coming down just after ice training. I wasn't really sure it was her (without the makeup), so I just congratulated her on the past year and wished her well for the next season. Well she spun around with this big smile and asked me who I was, that they had been watching me in the stands the past few days and wondering who I was. I told her I was just a tourist. Asked her how her health was (at this point I was making comments in a generic way, in case it WASN'T her). WEll, that girl proceeded to bend my ear for 10 minutes about her whole health situation. It was incredible. WIsh I were a doctor...she was spitting out technical terms and training terms, and measurements of this amino acid or that enzyme. It was one problem after another. At that point I mentioned her name with something like "well ALlison you should know that there is a big fan base pulling for you and we all worried for you last season and will be keeping our fingers crossed for you this season". She seemed surprised, I think, to know that people knew of her health issues. She mentioned about it perhaps having started from the masseuse. They used to have a masseuse in Colorado Springs but when they moved everyone had to find their own. So she did some research and found this guy that was supposed to have all of these credentials, came recommended, and owned his own gym. She said he was doing accupressure therapy, and SHE THINKS, that he was maybe trying to impress her so went a bit overboard. The cardiac virus caused her HR to be at 160 AT REST. So she had been going thru one problem with her physical system after another; they didn't know if she had somehow damanged her brain stem, perhaps from a previous injury that didn't manifest itself at the time; they tested her for this and that, over and over. They had a new team doctor last season and during the WC he prescribed her sudafed and clairtin, both legal for racing; but it caused her HR to shoot up again so she couldn't catch her breath during the meet.
I asked her how the move went and she said "terrible". I asked her why. She said they had everything easy in Colorado, and here everything was harder to manage...new doctor, new masseuse, no housing, how much she missed her mother, how you had to feed yourself now. She said the only good thing to happen the last year was to get the coaching staff really on board.
I have to say that she is absolutely beautiful. Beautiful eyes, beautiful skin, beautiful coloring...and she doesn't need makeup!
SHe asked me where I was from; I said that it was too back that they never got to the NOrtheast. SHe said she was from PA, and that Caroline Hallisey had been from the Northeast.
Then she said that she was getting ready to start on her website; she wasn't sure who was going to design it; she wanted it to be geared toward children. She mentioned either April (apolo's website mistress, or her cousin).
SHe just kept talking and talking, in no hurry to go to the locker.
I told her about all of us online last winter, crashing LIVE RESULTS, and the party we had. Told her we were all pulling for her every race she was in. She was stunned, and grateful.
At that point I just wished her, again, good health and good luck for the coming year, and we would be following her and routing for her.
She was a really sweatheart.
I stayed at the Crystal Inn in West Valley and let me tell you, the beds and pillows are fabulous. I could see the Oval from my hotel room, and see it lit up at night.
Again, a great vacation and I had loads of fun sharing it with you all!
Back to reality; it was so hard letting go of the fantastic week. Truly, I don't think I've ever had as great a vacaton. After my father's passing, there was nothing I needed more than to just take off by myself and let the wind blow me around wherever I wanted to go.
I went back to the Oval Friday morning. The drills they did were pretty much in line with what I had noted in early posts. This drill where they skate on the left leg around the entire oval by throwing their right leg forward and giving a sort of 'hop' with the left leg was a brutal exercise for them. At one time or another everyone would have to take a break by touching down their right leg, taking a few strides, and gripping either their left upper thigh or their left cheek (and I don't mean facial). It was definitely a brutal strength training exericse. At the begining of the drill, when the coaches called everyone to the center of the ice, I couldn't hear exactly what was being said, but Jai was quite animated with his arms and legs, instructing them in how to do the drill, what to accentuate, what angle they should strive for, etc.etc. They all started groaning, knowing the drill to come. As the first 5 lined up at the start, Apolo turned to those in his group, laughed, and said "probably 10 laps today!". They were NOT looking forward to this drill. Actually I think it was between 3-5 laps, but that was hard enough. Jeff had quite a time with it, grabbing his left cheek and grimacing. It seemed like what I would do if I had pulled my sciatic nerve. He was quite behind everyone else, just absolutely GUTTING it out. During the last lap Jimmy was hanging behind him, coaching him on, but not about to let him quit. At one point Jeff said "oh my G*d", groaning in pain and exhaustion as he moved towards his finish. JImmy laughed and coached him onwards saying "Oh my G*d, yes!". And he gave Jeff a 'well done' when he moved across the finish line.
What more can I tell you that I haven't mentioned? On Thursday they were being videotaped by other staff, I'm sure just so they could review their drills and technique...not by the media.
Jeff Simon is tiny. One of the guys had the white "D" on the front of his helmet, the same "D" logo that you see for Detroit. Will have to check bios and see who that was. Another skater had "FCP" on the side of his helmet. KOri mentioned that Apolo had a new helmet; it was very light silver with a blue/burgundy stripe down the middle of it.
Jimmy does most of the loud verbal coaching, yelling this and that, while Jai is apt to stay off to the side, watching the execution of things and offering individual feedback at the conclusion of the drill. The coaches have a 3-ring binder which must have a list of all of the drills for the day. On one day APolo skated over to the side to take a look at the list; on another day Shani was looking at it.
When I was there, they always ended up with a relay drill.
When they are done, while they are still in the heat box at the rink, they take down the top half of the skinsuit and throw a shirt on, take off their skates, and walk barefoot with skate and helmet in hand, back to the locker room.
On Friday, at the completion of the skate session, I noticed Apolo and Shani driving the LEXUS over to one of the adjacent soccer/baseball fields. There they met up with others, and Larry, and started jogging the fields. THe attire was black shorts, white sneakers, army-colored tshirt and red beanie (someone needs to talk to the boy about that combination!). It was at that point that I drive out of the parking lot, sad to be leaving, heading for 15S to the ride to Vegas.
SO it seems that they get there around 7:30 or 8:00 am and spend time warming up by jogging or on the stationary bikes, then do 1 1/2 hrs on the ice, then have some other activity to cool down, stretch. They go home for lunch and then come back mid-afternoon for more dry land training, staying until 6 or 7:00. They do this 6 days a week; they trained on Memorial Day.
And now to my teaser....it actually wasn't a tease, I really did get a chance to speak with Allison. I was coming up the stairs from the tunnel and she was coming down just after ice training. I wasn't really sure it was her (without the makeup), so I just congratulated her on the past year and wished her well for the next season. Well she spun around with this big smile and asked me who I was, that they had been watching me in the stands the past few days and wondering who I was. I told her I was just a tourist. Asked her how her health was (at this point I was making comments in a generic way, in case it WASN'T her). WEll, that girl proceeded to bend my ear for 10 minutes about her whole health situation. It was incredible. WIsh I were a doctor...she was spitting out technical terms and training terms, and measurements of this amino acid or that enzyme. It was one problem after another. At that point I mentioned her name with something like "well ALlison you should know that there is a big fan base pulling for you and we all worried for you last season and will be keeping our fingers crossed for you this season". She seemed surprised, I think, to know that people knew of her health issues. She mentioned about it perhaps having started from the masseuse. They used to have a masseuse in Colorado Springs but when they moved everyone had to find their own. So she did some research and found this guy that was supposed to have all of these credentials, came recommended, and owned his own gym. She said he was doing accupressure therapy, and SHE THINKS, that he was maybe trying to impress her so went a bit overboard. The cardiac virus caused her HR to be at 160 AT REST. So she had been going thru one problem with her physical system after another; they didn't know if she had somehow damanged her brain stem, perhaps from a previous injury that didn't manifest itself at the time; they tested her for this and that, over and over. They had a new team doctor last season and during the WC he prescribed her sudafed and clairtin, both legal for racing; but it caused her HR to shoot up again so she couldn't catch her breath during the meet.
I asked her how the move went and she said "terrible". I asked her why. She said they had everything easy in Colorado, and here everything was harder to manage...new doctor, new masseuse, no housing, how much she missed her mother, how you had to feed yourself now. She said the only good thing to happen the last year was to get the coaching staff really on board.
I have to say that she is absolutely beautiful. Beautiful eyes, beautiful skin, beautiful coloring...and she doesn't need makeup!
SHe asked me where I was from; I said that it was too back that they never got to the NOrtheast. SHe said she was from PA, and that Caroline Hallisey had been from the Northeast.
Then she said that she was getting ready to start on her website; she wasn't sure who was going to design it; she wanted it to be geared toward children. She mentioned either April (apolo's website mistress, or her cousin).
SHe just kept talking and talking, in no hurry to go to the locker.
I told her about all of us online last winter, crashing LIVE RESULTS, and the party we had. Told her we were all pulling for her every race she was in. She was stunned, and grateful.
At that point I just wished her, again, good health and good luck for the coming year, and we would be following her and routing for her.
She was a really sweatheart.
I stayed at the Crystal Inn in West Valley and let me tell you, the beds and pillows are fabulous. I could see the Oval from my hotel room, and see it lit up at night.
Again, a great vacation and I had loads of fun sharing it with you all!
~Lori
...and good for you to take some 'me' time for this absolutely fantastic trip!
