Hello all,

Well I will get right to the point in this e-mail. We had our annual Push Championships last week and unfortunately I had the worse day of testing in my life! I was about .13 of where I should have been. I finished out of the top 10 when it came to pushing. It was by far not my best day. I know what happened, how it happened but not sure why it had to happen at that moment. I let myself get to amped up before I was going to push which, translated to me having bad form when I was pushing. Also for some crazy reason right before I pushed decided to change the hand position that I have been using for the past 5yrs (for some reason I thought it would be faster). These factors resulted in all of momentum and power was not going in the correct direction, it was going east and west when I ran instead of North and South down into the Ice. I looked at the video , output force chart, forward acceleration chart, speed (mph) charts and saw where I lost the time in my pushing and realized what I did wrong.

The next day when we had 3-man combination pushes and I was able to gather my self and correct what went wrong the day before. The trick for me is to get amped up but to breathe and refocus and calm down before I push. The combination pushes I was in on times were right up there with the fastest times or withing .03. However most drivers make their decisions regarding teams based on the individual pushes, so the 3 man combos hold some weight but not a lot.

It has been a trying off-season for me this year dealing with my leg surgery, then a hyper extended ligament in my right knee, high hamstring issues in my right leg, a strained right abductor and groin. My Trainers in Sport Medicine gave me the treatment I needed to get back training normal. But before heading up to Calgary I ended up me receive a shot in my groin to relieve the pain that was still feeling in it. I am not good at discussing injuries because frankly they annoy me more than I can verbally express nor do I like the fact that I have had to take time off in order to heal. I feel that I need to let you all know because I did promise to keep you all up to date with the highs and lows in my journey to become an Olympian.

I know you are all wondering where things stand with me and what my next move is, so let here it goes. Since I did not do myself any favors pushing I will have to talk to some drivers about getting a race off against push athletes that drivers may have already named to their team for National Team Trials. Once I get the driver or drivers to understand that I just had a off day and I have always preformed in races, and agree to a race off between me and one of their guys I will then beat them out of their spot and take their place on the sled, and compete in Team Trials. The bottom line is that if I do not compete in Team Trials my quest for 2010 ends here....But that is not going to happen! I have given up to much and fought to hard to let it end like this! I WILL GET MY RACE OFF, I WILL TAKE THE SPOT THAT IS IS MINE, I WILL MAKE WORLD CUP AND WITH BY GRACE OF GOD I WILL BECOME AN OLYMPIAN!!

Team Trials start Oct 5-10 in Lake Palcid then we had to Park City for a week to finish up Team Trials. I will continue to keep you all up to date with my progress as it happens.

God Bless and thank you all for your support!

Jesse