The Beginning...

The key to the off-season is to relax and rejuvenate the mind and body as much as possible before jumping back into training just weeks later. Speedskaters 'off-season' is typically shorter than most sports, lasting around a month or less and for myself, coming off a year that was mediocre, I decided it was best to keep up most of my condition from last year. After my success in my season-ending competition in Calgary, Canada, I took approx. a week off of any training, and then jumped back into conditional training. This consists of lots of cycling, running, balancing strength, core and then keeping up my weekly therapy. Therapy that in the past has been to take care of my injuries, but now I can excitedly say that I am keeping up my therapy because I'm preventing future injuries. I can firmly claim that my physical health is probably back to what I was pre-injury or even better, thanks to my support team here in the Chicagoland area! Praise the Lord.

As I sit here writing this, I am still in awe that this upcoming season is already Olympic year season. Where has the time gone?! This past week it's been fun seeing people's posts and updates on how their first weeks are going (for most skaters this week is the start of Olympic season training) and gets me super psyched to think of hopefully making my second Olympic team, and hopefully alongside my brother as well!

Now as we begin this new season of training, we will be bringing y'all along for the ride, giving regular updates on training, showing what it will be taking to make the Olympic team with exercises and crazy videos, and hopefully getting y'all pumped for watching some Olympic Trials in December and Sochi Olympics in February 2014. For now, here is a glimpse of our 'fun' stair/low work workout on a hot sunny day at home here in Wheaton.

Again, we couldn't be pursuing our dreams without our support team. My therapy team: Paula, Dr.Yoss&Carl, Dusten, Dr.Major. Our Extreme Endurance supplements that I swear by and a huge shout out to Oakley that continues to supply us with great eyewear/products! Thank you all...

God Bless, Nancy Jr.

1 Corinthians 9:25