December 24, 2008 – I arrived home at about 2:30am last night after a solid 24 hours of travel. Besides taking a long time, my trip home was actually pretty stress free and I managed to sleep during almost all of my flights. It feels great to be back, especially when we have over two feet of new snow on the ground!

My start to the World Cup season was definitely not what I was hoping for but I am confident that I will bounce back and make up for it later. I ended up getting sick right before the start of the World Cup season and remained sick for two weeks. It was nothing too serious, but it was enough to keep me from regular training and I was unable to do any speed work during this time. Because of this I didn’t feel so great in the races where I was able to start. It was definitely disappointing to not race to my full capacity but this is part of racing and I now have to look forward to the rest of the season.

In the past, I’ve had a really hard time moving on and letting go of poor performances and this is something that I have focused on improving on this year. The first three World Cups are over and there is nothing I can do now to change those results. I know that I can be among the best when I am 100% and now I am focusing all of my energy on getting back there as soon as possible.

I was originally supposed to stay home for two weeks but I have changed my ticket and will now be returning to Germany in one week.

I don’t have any room for errors in the next World Cups if I want to climb back up the World Cup rankings. By returning a week early to Germany I will have more time to prepare 100% for the Oberhof World Cup. I definitely have my work cut out for me now, but I have always liked a good challenge!

Happy Holidays!