Igls abridged update

I am extremely exhausted right now, but I want to send out a quick update regarding the past week in Austria. I finished 12th in the world cup, and normally I would be disappointed with that result, but I am so happy with the way I am sliding. All I can really control is the way I feel on the sled, and use each run to improve and better myself as a slider. I will try and get a more personal update out later in the week but for now I am going to cheat and post the latest press release from our team site.


IGLS, Austria - Julia Clukey, along with sisters Megan and Emily Sweeney advanced to upcoming World Cup luge races Monday as they eliminated Kate Hansen in a race-off in Igls, Austria.

Clukey, 24, of Augusta, Maine, fifth in the 2009 World Championships, had the two fastest runs in wet conditions and 50 degree temperatures. Using her trademark fast starts, the 11-year veteran was never threatened. Her times of 40.645 and 40.636 seconds totaled 1 minute, 21.281 seconds. The racing format allowed each racer to score their best two of three attempts down the 1976 Olympic track.

Sixteen year old Emily Sweeney, of Suffield, Conn., 2009 Junior National Champion, placed second in 1:21.642. Her 22 year old sister Megan Sweeney, also of Suffield, Conn., a two-time Junior National Champion, took the final available spot by clocking 1:21.727.

Kate Hansen of La Canada, Calif., the 2008 Junior World Champion, had the fourth best times of each heat and finished with her two best runs totaling 1:21.942.

Calgary WC-----Arriving in Europe

I am overall mostly pleased with my first world cup of the season. The first race is always the most nerve wrecking for myself because it is the first true test to see if everything you have done in the summer is going to pay off on the sled and in the track. Although my placing wasn't as high as I had hoped, both of my runs and split times definitely showed that my speed is there, and that my training this summer is going to pay off. I had some small problems in the start curve, which is rare for me as generally the start is my strongest part of my sliding and finished the first run in 14th place. My second run although not perfect was significantly better and I moved up three spots and finished 11th. I was hoping for a top 9 finish, but I took a lot away from the competition and am now ready to attack the rest of the season. It is so easy to slide reserved and be complacent with just finishing the run. To be one of the top sliders you have to take risks and really let the sled run and try to work with it, rather than trying to always control it. Every day and every run I am learning more and more of this with my training. I realize this is a lot of luge lingo, so if anyone has any question please feel free to e-mail me. Clukeyluge@googlemail.com. Even if you don't have questions feel free to e-mail me anyways, I enjoy hearing from so many people, especially from back in Maine, it makes me feel close to home.

We have been in Europe since Monday evening. Our first stop in Europe also happens to be my favorite place to visit, slide, and just be in. Igls is a small town nestled right in the middle of the alps. The views are breath taking, and unlike Germany the sun seems to always be shining here. It is by far the most beautiful place in the winter time that we visit. I am a little bit disappointed though that there isn't any snow here. Somehow competing in our sport in the cold, is a little bit easier when there is snow on the ground. I also really like sliding on this track, although it is the slowest track on circuit, it is sometimes difficult to find the time and speed for a fast run. It is very important here to drive precise lines to maximize the push you get from every curve. This is the most attended world cup in the history of our sport, over 180 sleds entered to compete, generally on an average world cup there would be around 110 sleds, sometimes in Olympic years it would rise to 130 max. Because of so many sleds that have entered, our training was limited to just 5 training runs. despite this I have had a good week of training and am ready and excited for the race tomorrow morning.

We had a Thanksgiving dinner yesterday here in Austria. The hotel did a great job preparing all of the American traditional foods. The one thing I missed was Cranberry Sauce from a can WITHOUT real cranberries. It has been years since I have had that processed perfectly canned shape goodness.

Big day for my knee

I was doing my rehab this morning around 6:30 and thought I would try and step it up a notch and give my knee a new challenge. And it PASSED!!!! I was able to stand on a physio ball for 60 seconds without my knee feeling at all unstable. woohoo!!! Balance is a big part of my training, I normally do a lot of squats and other exercises while standing on the physio ball. I am excited that I am able to start pushing this aspect of my training. At first I mocked my friend who wanted to take my picture, but now I am glad he did. All of our training is complete, and I am very excited and ready for the world cup on Saturday.

Calgary World Cup

Our training is done and we are officially into the first race of the season. I have had a good week so far in training and am really excited to take to the hill tomorrow in the qualifying race, and then again Saturday in the World Cup. The weather has been quite warm here in Calgary, well by warm I mean around 40 degrees. They are still able to maintain the track here despite the warm weather because it is a very dry climate. Not a lot of humidity in the air. Thanks to everyone who has followed me and supported me all summer. I am ready to show everyone how prepared I am.

Whistler training week

We just wrapped up our week long training in Whistler. It is mandatory that every athlete be offered 18 runs of training within the Olympic season. I spent most of the week at the track. When we weren't sliding ourselves, I spent much of the time watching the other countries slide trying to get a better understanding for the flow of the track. You can learn as much from watching people slide as you can from being on the sled yourself, sometimes more because you are able to really see where the natural pressures in the track are, and can see when an athlete is steering. When you are on the sled sliding it is more important to relax with your run and kinda take things as they come, absorbing every curve. The unique thing about luge is that you will never have two runs that are exactly identical, even being 1 inch lefter into a curve will change the where and how much you have to steer. The best sliders are able to adapt quickly and fix a problem before it can become a real problem (crashing). Overall I am very happy with the way the week went for myself. I really feel that I have a great understanding of how the track works and how to negotiate it. It took me a few days to get comfortable on the track and begin to drive consistent lines, but by the end of the week I was really focusing on relaxing, and becoming more comfortable and confident with every run. The track is very fast in Whistler my top speed was just under 87 MPH's it is really such a rush to slide there. While the speeds are very high, the track is so smooth, when you drive it right it feels like a sort of dance in a way. Everything just flows together, ALMOST effortless.
We are heading to Calgary now for the first world cup. I really feel as though I am ready for the competition's to begin. Although it was a slow start to the season and I missed some early runs because of my knee surgery, I feel as though I really optimized the time/runs I did have on the track and feel as though all my summer preparation and training is falling into place.

Goodbye Park City sun.......hello Vancouver

***Teammate, Tony Benshoof took the photo above. He does amazing work with his camera. If it weren't for him I would have very few photos of myself sliding. So big Thanks to him!!!!***

We are now sitting in the airport in Salt Lake City, UT getting ready to head to Vancouver for the International training week in Whistler. This is the only training opportunity we will have on the Olympic track prior to the games. We have had really great training in Park City. We had long days with double sessions, and the coaches kept us very busy. I definitely think the team is ready for the training week, and also ready to transition over to world cup weeks and competing. We will have 18 runs in Whistler, I definitely feel like I had a good grip on the track last year, and I am looking to just completely focus on getting completely comfortable with every run I slide. The most important aspect of sliding is being comfortable on the sled and not tensing up. When you are tense on the sled, you will be more likely to make sharp movements which ultimately can cause trouble (crash, get off line) but if nothing else you will lose time going down the track, because with all of your movements you are causing extra friction between your sled and the ice. This was the biggest thing I worked on this summer both in wheel training, and in balance/agility work outs.
The men's team was finalized during the race-off in Park City. Congratulation to Chris Mazdzer and Trent Matheson for earning their spots on the World Cup team. They will join Tony and Bengt (who were pre-qualified). The woman's team will be finalized after the training week in Whistler. The first two team trials proved to be very close, competitive racing. Two more girls will join Erin and I in the world cups.

I will try and keep my blog up more, from here on out we will just be sliding once a day. Whistler area is known for having a lot of bears, so we are hoping they aren't all in hibernation yet, last year we missed them by about a week.
I was featured on Bill Green's Maine Saturday November, 7th. This is the link to the episode, I am not sure if it will be shown on the internet. But you can probably catch it on channel 6 some night this week.
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=110717

Long week in Park City

I had a great first week of training here in Park City. The track is in great shape and we have been able to utilize our time here and get a lot of runs and also get speed training in preparation for the training week in Whistler November 8th. The track here is very different from Lake Placid, most noticeably it is a much faster track. We train from the bob start here and reach speeds just over 81 mph. The other major difference between the track here in Park City and Lake Placid is the curves are far more stretched out so it is a great place to work on position (aerodynamics) and also smoothness in driving. If you are stiff on the sled or creating more friction with the ice (driving more than needed) then it shows greatly in your finish time at the bottom. I have been able to take a lot of runs this past week as we have had double sliding sessions available everyday. It has kept me very busy between sliding, working out, sled work and rehabbing my knee my day starts at around 6:30 AM and most days I don't sit down to dinner until about 8 PM or so. Oddly I really enjoy being this busy, I am a very detail/schedule oriented person, I don't like to waste any minute of my day. And mostly I love the fact that I lay down in bed at night and am usually asleep in about 2 minutes.
I am five weeks out of Surgery now and I am really making big steps in my rehab (finally). It couldn't come soon enough for me. I am now able to do a lot of strength exercise for my quad and hamstring with out causing any extra swelling in my knee. While in Lake Placid I was working with the head trainer Peter Toohey, and he did great things for me to get me ready to go on the road. Most importantly he helped to remind myself that I Can't approach my rehab the way I do my normal training. In my normal training I want to lift as much as possible and work through all the pain/fatigue of my muscles. But with rehabbing my knee I have had to take a step back and realize that working through the pain in most cases is just prolonging the process. With the type of procedure I had normally you would go the first three weeks without any activity, I went 4 days mostly because of the timing or lack there of. So after 5 weeks, I now have done a lot of reading and have a much better understanding of good pain vs. bad pain and know when I just simply need to give my knee a rest.
We have the day off today from sliding, Mondays are the universal day off in the luge world, because generally it is a travel day in the world cup season. After 6 long days of training we were all very much ready for a day of rest and relaxation.
We have four more days of sliding here then we will pack up all of our gear and head to Whistler for the International training week for the Olympics. I am really looking forward to getting back on the track in Whistler, and also it will be nice to see the other competitors and shift into competition mode with the first world cup lurking only three weeks away. I am about to head to the gym for a work out and rehab. Happy Fall!!!

PS: The weather is amazing here, cold at night (which is important for track conditions) and bright, sunny and warm all day!!