Sunday, February 14, 2010

Women's moguls: Kearney wins first U.S. gold

"Pressure is just a made-up thing," she said. "There's no such thing as pressure. I remind myself sometimes that I'm skiing because I love to ski. I'm not skiing for airtime on NBC. I'm not skiing for the fans at the bottom. I'm skiing because this is what I want to be doing." - Hannah Kearney



Video | Women's moguls: Kearney wins first U.S. gold | NBC Olympics#kearney+clutch+first+u+s+gold


Way to go Hannah!!! Vermont is so proud of you. You worked so hard and are an inspiration to us all.


Check out this note that Hannah's strength coach gave her on the morning of her Gold medal day. From USSkiteam.com


Saturday February 13, 2010
Coach Reminds Kearney She Was Prepared



CYPRESS MOUNTAIN, BC (Feb. 13) - On the morning of her gold medal day, U.S. Ski Team strength coach Alex Moore gave Hannah Kearney a notecard. On it was a collection of statistics of the work she had done leading up to this day. It was a reminder of the lifetime commitment she had made leading up to a stormy, blustery night on Cypress Mountain.

The notecard, which had a lightning bolt on the front, included over 1,000 water ramp jumps, 200 hours on a bike, 1,400 squats, 480 pullups, 14,000 jumps and 170 recovery sessions, and more - all since Kearney turned off her World Cup title season last May and focused on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010.

"He gave it to me just to give me the confidence to know I had done everything I could and had prepared for this day," said Kearney.

Moore worked with Kearney nearly every day - not in the gym, but online through the U.S. Ski Team Sport Science department's Visual Coach Pro software. The online logging system allowed Kearney to train at home in Vermont, while sending data back everyday to the Team's Center of Excellence in Park City, UT.

According to Moore, no one was more detailed than Kearney in staying on top of her conditioning program day in and day out.

Friday, February 5, 2010

THE Pool

One of the things I love about being a triathlete is that you get to be a part of 4 different athlete communities. You're a part of the triathlon community that's a given but you also become a part of the swimming, cycling and running communities as well. If you're like me you spend a good amount of time not only with triathletes but the single sport athletes I mentioned above. As triathletes we start to love the same things that our single sport counterparts love. We love getting new running shoes just like runners. We love getting new bike gear like cyclists and we love going to new pools like swimmers.

I had been hearing about this amazing pool in the White River area for quite some time. My swim training partner had been to it and had raved about it. Apparently it uses little to no chlorine and instead uses UV rays somehow to keep the water clean. I was working with a school in the area today and decided to check it out. What an amazing pool!! This place was legit. There were US Masters swim banners up. Several different swim teams. 11 lanes 25 yards and then the pool can also be switched to 25 meter lanes going the other way. Anyhow I highly recommend checking this pool out. It's called the Upper Valley Acquatic Center.

As I was walking out I see Tim Rollings!!! I haven't seen Tim in several years. Tim used to be CEO at the Burlington YMCA and is now the CEO at this Acquatic Center. It was great to catch up with him. Tim is an amazing cyclist and former 2:20 marathoner.

Kaizuuur

Kaizuuur