It's finally time to hit the road!   I’m all packed and ready to make the 1200-mile drive out to Lake Placid’s Olympic Training Center.   Not only does it house hundreds of Olympic athletes from all different sports, it is the home of the USA Luge headquarters and half of its National Team members.   It is a wonderful facility that contains housing , a cafeteria , training facilities and a sports-med department that fixes us when we break down.    Just across the field is our USLA office that houses our year-round start complex.    It is basically my home away from home.

I’ve made this 21 hour drive so many times I don’t need a map.   I do it straight every time…stopping only for a few tanks of gas and snacks.   I know it's not the smartest thing to do, but for some reason I really enjoy driving through the night while listening to talk radio.   As funny as that sounds, its very peaceful to me – a time to reflect on my summer and mentally prepare for the upcoming season.  It is a tradition in a sense.   After I have logged in 15 hours or so, I always tell my self – “well you’ve come this far…” and usually complete the 20-22 hour drive in one piece without trouble (though 3am flat tires have been a reality more times than once!).

All of my loose ends are tied up and I have said my goodbyes to my good friends, family and my girlfriend (who is a angel for putting up with my travels!).  Goodbyes are always the toughest part for me.   It never seems to get easier and yet I know I’ll be seeing them in just a few (ok five) short months.   My entire Luge career of 21 years has been a cycle of hellos and goodbyes every six months.   Crazy, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.

The next month will consist of hard team-oriented training.  We’ve all been doing our own thing and training on our own during the summer. Now its time to get together and motivate each other for while.    Even though our sport is an “individual” sport, our team dynamics are very important.  A good team will support, push, challenge and motivate each other more than any single person can do on their own.   At the end of the day we are all trying to achieve the same goal and without proper team support we will never reach our full potential.

Fall in the Adirondacks are my absolute favorite.   I can’t think of a better way to start off the season and every year I am amazed at how beautiful it is.   As October approaches and the nights get progressively colder, we all start getting the itch to get on our sleds.   The track crew will begin “icing” the track once the night temperatures get down to 40 degrees regularly, which is typically during the first week of October.  

Our sleds will arrive from Liechtenstein at the end of the month and it is literally like Christmas for us.   As I put my sled together it will be like meeting an old friend who’s been away for the past six months.  It's always like that – and as corny as that sounds its true.   I can’t wait to tell you how those first runs feel in October and post some photos of the beautiful Adirondacks in the fall.