2 Weeks Already...

The best view of the rink in Inzell (the left side of the picture) and the surrounding beautiful landscape!

Cross-country skiing with Moritz Geisreiter, Jilleanne, Jeffrey, Maria and Kuck
to flush our the stiffness and losen up our legs.

From 'bobsledding' to watching the locals celebrate Fasching (a Karneval celebration in Bavaria like that of Mardi Gras) to seeing Mozart's birthplace to eating at Running Sushi, a never-ending converter belt of food/sushi, to recovering the body in the sauna after all our training, to German Catholic mass to cross country skiing on the most perfect day, and to hours of training, it's been a packed two weeks that have flown by us. This morning we separated; the US Team traveled this morning to Heerenveen for the next World Cup while Jeffrey and I are staying back here in Inzell. Ah, it's too quite here now and sad...sad, too, that our coach and mother has left as well. Because of my frustrating season ending decision, poor mom has to be away from family for the next 4 weeks...she had not planned on this, believing I would have raced better and made the last speedskating competitions so I feel terrible now!

The path around the Falkenstein mountain that we run on

Jeffrey will only be staying til Tuesday when he heads to Salt Lake City for the last American Cup and to hopefully get some personal best times on the fast ice! I, Nancy Jr., will continue to stay here in Inzell for 10 days working on perfecting my technique and getting my mind set for next year.

This last week has definitely been really hard. With not going into complete detail,  my poor performance at the World Cup in Hamar, Norway, 2 weeks ago, factored into a decision that put me out of being placed on the Team Pursuit for World Championships. Thus, my season has come to an end abruptly...definitely earlier than I am used to and definitely painful. Again, another trial to overcome...

Brian/Jeffrey warming up, cross country skiing, mom getting in her workout

The decision was made last Monday approx. and since then, it's been a process laying out my schedule for the next months and then leading into next year's season. After not really having skating success since the last Olympics (2 years ago from now), there is a need to gain confidence back by setting goals, both short and long, and achieving them. That already has started this past week by utilizing the ice time here in Inzell and working on perfecting my technique and fixing my weaknesses. We have less than two years to the Sochi Olympics and it's hurt not being able to gain momentum these last two years because of my injuries, but as I keep getting knocked down...I am getting back up. Because of the numerous trials I keep facing, there is no denying I've questioned and asked the Lord to please tell me were He wants me placed and if skating is not it, to help make that clear, for I love this sport and a more permanent trial would have to stop me. :) As of now, I am fully able...so my pursuit to gold and sharing the love of Christ with those around me, continues on!

So on a more positive note (yes, sorry for this heavier-toned post), again these next weeks are going to be refreshing, focus building/goal-writing, but also there will be some fun mixed into it. On the agenda so far: watching the World Championship Biathlon in Ruhpolding (the next town over) next week, going to Munich for a day to explore, jumping in with the Inzell speedskating team for workouts the next couple days and changing up my training regiment, and then ending on a train ride to Switzerland to visit relatives and the birth place of my great-grandfather before I fly out of Munich and back home. 

Two verses (of many) that have helped me through this week has been 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

"but He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

God Bless,
Nancy Jr.


1 Corinthians 9:25

Inzell photos

Thanks to our Dutch friend Stephan Tellier for these photos he shot today. This was my second to last hard workout before America's Cup IV competition starting March 2nd. I will be easing into this next week and resting a lot to give my body adequate time to recover and feel explosive for racing...leaving for Salt Lake in 3 days!

Me, Brian , Maria Lamb & Jilleanne Rookard (and Coach Nancy Sr in the
background) during an 8 lapper today. The laps were progressive, going from
35 seconds for the  first lap to 31 seconds for the last lap.

Jilleanne & Nancy before a set of laps.

Our company in the ice rink is very international because athletes all
over the world are drawn to Inzell's beautiful setting and new facilities.
Here is Dmitri Lobkov, a well know Russian sprinter and his teammates
chatting after practice. They're doing everything they can to prepare for a
good showing for their homecrowd at the next Winter Olympics in Sochi.
It's good to see that he's smiling here because it's still not often that any
Russians smile or say hi when we see them, haha.

an Inzell "short"

Hey guys! I've been gathering clips here and there for the last couple days and quickly put them together to made a short film. By no means does this reflect very well how our training session goes every day because these are very, very random and I am no film geek with mad skills. It's also difficult when you're too focused during workouts to remember to take film, especially on the ice. But maybe you can gather a little feel of what's going on over here in Inzell. I'm planning on adding clips to this and reposting a longer video in a few days. Enjoy!

Inzell Training

Sorry everybody for the lack of posts, especially from Germany where its so exciting! We've been really busy and have internet availability only in one place. Nancy and I also really try to get pictures or video in every post but we haven't taken enough of them showing training so we've waiting on posting a little.


As for the training, the speedskating season is coming to an end in a few weeks so we're giving it our last tough training week and then it's off to racing. I've definitely made a big step here in Inzell with my skating, both technically and physically. Being it the end of the skating season as I mentioned, speedskaters become so accustomed to the feel of being on ice that they have the greatest ability at this point to fine tune technical issues. For example, after watching about 2 hours of film from skating on Sunday, I pinpointed a problem with my hips on the turn, fixed it the next day and I think that fix could be one of my biggest breaks this season because I've been skating so much better since then! As for strength, hard training in the summer and fall pays off as we tend to skate faster with more rested muscles. Therefore, if these two aspects of technique and strength come together as planned, speedskaters can make big improvements in late winter and as for me, I feel I'm in a great position going into my last competition (March 2-4). As always, I can't forget that I am only here with the dedication of my great coach, support from countless friends and the ability God has given me. Thank you!

Bobsledding

Over the last few days I've gotten to know some of the German speedskaters (while Nancy and Brian already know most of them) and on Thursday night they invited us to join them for some..."Bobsledding." Whatever they meant by bobsledding we could never quite understand so we braced ourselves for either extreme. We figured that we might actually end up at some Olympic sized bobsledding course or maybe just a lame bunny hill with some plastic sleds.


The result was more like an actual bobsledding course. We ended up at the base of a steep foothill where a German family had snow-blown a track up an old ski run into the tree-line. We grabbed some old-fashioned wooden sleds and then walked up the course for about a good 20 minutes to the beginning of the run. It was a blast! The wooden sleds got us going super fast as we plowed into the steep walls and over bumps while none of us were able to avoid epic crashes on the way down. Halfway down a band of German "kinder" hung out by the course and unleashed armfuls of snow into our faces as we whizzed past, haha. No waivers, no cost, great Bavarian hospitality and the most fun I've ever had on a sled! (Thanks Nancy Jr for the pics).

You can see the German kinder on the right preparing to unleash
their furry of snow onto unsuspecting sledders (Brian on the left)

Brian and I and our speedy wooden sleds