Oberhof, Germany

I drove through 5 different countries yesterday en route to Italy. The trip took about 10 hours, it is one of the amazing things about central Europe in a few hours you can be in a different country, it really makes you realize the proximity of everything. Last week was mostly a disappointing week both training and competing. I was never really able to get a grip on the track and feel comfortable sliding. We are only allowed 6 training runs prior to the race and generally I am able to pic things up on the first day of training and then move forward in finding my comfort level and extra speed in the runs. This week just didn't go that way. I have had really good training and races on this track before but I wasn't able to turn it around for the weekend and I finished 14th in the WC. We are in Italy nor for a training week, it is European Championships this week, but since we aren't European we won't participate. I am looking forward to a stress free week of just sliding and not worry about having to master a track in 6 runs. It will be nice to just slide and really work on the small details of sliding without having to worry too much about the consistency. I have actually never slid hear before so it will be an exciting "down" week.
Lastly I am selling t-shirts to raise money to help cover some of my expenses I have already endured this season as ell as a last minute fundraiser as I push towards Vancouver next month. I am selling the t-shirt for $20.00 e-mail me clukeyluge@googlemail.com if you have any questions or would like to order one.

Winterberg WC

We have had two races since Christmas break and while I have finished 7th and 10th I still have a lot of things I still need to improve upon before Vancouver. Some athletes are simply satisfied with finishing a race, or just qualifying for the Olympics; I am definitely not one of those athletes. I set daily/weekly/monthly/yearly goals for myself and am constantly analyzing myself athletically. Don't get me wrong I do enjoy everyday, and I am very fortunate for the life I have. But I will always be a fighter, and doubt there will ever be a day in my athletic life that I can't find something that I can improve upon or do differently. Some people would disagree with my mentality, but I see it is a strength. While some athletes find it easier to make excuses or try and justify a weakness or result, I a, always looking inward first.
My main focus for the coming 4 weeks of training/racing we have is to just take every run to fall into a complete comfort zone on my sled. Luckily we have a week of just training coming up next week and I hope that we are able to slide double sessions so I can get my run count up. I am still 80 runs behind on the year compared to my teammates. Which if you multiply by the average run time (45 seconds) which works out to about an hour of time on my sled (again my over analyzing/tracking every aspect of my training). So from here on our any extra runs I can get are going to be very valuable.
We are In Oberhof, Germany now for our next world cup. I enjoy sliding on this track, it is a real luge track in the sense that you have to really drive the sled in every curve. This style of track suites my natural abilities better, as I have a tendency to overdrive a lot. We race Saturday afternoon. Stay warm!!!

Julia

Happy New Year...New start!!!

The past few weeks have been extremely busy, productive, and pleasant. I spent ten days in Lake Placid, training and recovering there. The training center was practically empty and I was able meet and work with the trainers a lot. I left there feeling near 100% and with full confidence that I will be more than ready come our World Cup race next weekend. I went home to Maine for 5 days and had a great Christmas with my friends and family. I spent a lot of time with my sisters, and nephew. He just turned a year old and I can’t believe how much he changes while I am gone. He is becoming his own little amazing person. I can already tell he is going to be a great athlete. ☺
It was really nice to be home although it went by very quickly and I was extremely busy. I am so gracious to everyone who has been supporting me these past few months, and the community planned a great send off celebration for me. Thank you to everyone who came, it was so great to see all of you, and many of you I haven’t seen in a few years.
We just wrapped up our first week overseas, I had my best finish of the year, finishing 7th in the world cup. I was mostly pleased with my race, more than anything I am thankful that my health has kept up and I have been able to maintain the great feeling I had at home, while hopping back on my sled. I pulled my fastest start time ever here, and had a really good week of training. I still have some work to do in my sliding, but this is a great place to start and I hope to only move forward from here. The next month my only focus will be using every run to get more comfortable and natural feeling on my sled, something that for me comes with taking many runs. We are packing up now and heading to Munich for the night before we move on to Winterberg, Germany.

Happy 2010 everyone! We had a nice mellow NYE, which for myself concluded at 10:30PM (we had qualifying the next day) We did however light off a bunch of fireworks, which is the biggest bonus of spending NYE in Germany.

Vancouver Bound

I think the title says it all!!! I will have a longer post in the near future.
Our team will be formally announced on the Today Show Fridy at 8AM!!!

Moving Forward....Lillehammer

First and foremost I must thank everyone for all there e-mails over the past 6 weeks or so. I keep everyone's kind words very close to my heart, and I am sorry that I have not found the time to respond personally to you all. But please no that I appreciate them very much and I hope in the coming weeks to have a bit more time on my hands and will send out notes to all of you. Most of you read about my injury this past week. I was working out in the gym, and felt a pop in my neck while doing pull-ups on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning I got a MRI that showed I had two discs they were protruding and pushing on a nerve route in my spine. On Thursday I drove to Munich with our trainer to meet with DR. Christian Schneider and received a cortisone injection to help quickly relief the inflammation. I am very thankful that he was so willing to get me in so quickly and help me. The injection was very successful and I now have almost all the feeling and strength back in my hand. I still have quite a bit of pain in my upper back, neck and right triceps, but am very optimistic that as I get my muscles to relax and start functioning properly these symptoms will too significantly decrease if not (fingers crossed) disappear completely. regardless I am getting ready to slide tomorrow and get ready for this weekend, our final world cup competition before the Christmas break. We are in Lillehammer, Norway and look to get ourfirst real taste of winter this week. The drive up from the airport was snowy and the sun is only out for about 6 hours a day.

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.