Tuesday, August 17, 2010

August Update

Here Ye! Here Ye! Come one! Come All to the e-mail that tells the tail Jesse's Mountain Adventures!!

Ok you got me Colorado Springs is a City but there are mountains here and we run up them! You may ask how does one run up a mountain and the answer is you take bigger faster steps. lol

Training continues to go as planned here in Colorado and I am pleased with the progression in my running and lifting. My speed and strength are improving each week, making me feel pretty great actually! Its also worth noting that my Calf's are finally getting back to being rock solid like they were before my surgery. Honestly it was weird for a while trying to contract my Calf's and having them never really harden up as I have grown accustomed to them doing. But now they are responding the way they should, giving me back that explosive feeling coming of the the line or starting block. The Kid is very pleased with this! (To the new commers on my e-mail list I tend to refer to myself in the third perso either using my formal name or The Kid....and yes I am 32 and fully aware of my MANLY Status, The Kid term has no age refference associated to it. Plus Jesse Beckom likes to use it! so just go with it. Oh and I tend to use puncuation as I please fully aware that my old professors are having heart attacks everytime they read my e-mails, See that, I just used a comma as a period! lol)

In regards to the upcoming season, we have our Push Championships scheduled in Lake Placid from September 20-26. The push championships is how we determine who the best push athletes are, which also goes into the determination of who will be pushing on USA Sleds 1-3. Then starting on October 11, 2010 out Team Selection Races will begin. In preparation for Push Championships I am currently in Park City till next Tuesday to train on the Push Track there. The push track will allow me to better perfect my pushing and loading from each side of the sled, God willing it will be a great week of training. Also, I have updated my web-page www.jessebeckom3.com with the USA Bobsled 2010-2011 Schedule, so please take a look.

A couple of weeks ago I had a great surprise in the weight room! My Strength Coach from Iowa State Coach Matt McGettigan who is now the Strength and Conditioning Coach for Air Force Football came down to the OTC to speak with my Coach out here Jon Carlock and watch me train!!!!! Coach Getty said he would stop down one day but it was still a good surprise to walk in the weight room and see him there. Having the opportunity to lift in front of Getty immediately got jacked up and wanted to throw around some big weight.....you know just to show Coach that I'm still a Beast with it in the weight-room! For those of you are unfamiliar with who Coach Matthew McGettigan is, he was one of the Man at Iowa State that helped to get us physically and mentally ready for the rigors of college football and in part for life after football.....or as we liked to say "Getty will get you Right! Right!" You may not have liked certain coaches from time to time but Coach Getty was respected by all and even though he worked the hell out of you, you could not help but like him because he pushed you beyond your limitations for your own good! When cocky lil freshmen would come in we use to tell them that "they were not ready till they got some Getty in them, then they can come talk to us about working out!" It was not until their first day of heavy lifting and gasser's did they truly understand what we meant as their cockyness expelled itself into a garbage can while they were doubled over! Ahhh....college,It was definitely some great times. I.S.U BABE!!!!! Unfortunately though Getty came during my down week (this past week though Getty you missed 4x3 at 230K) of lifting which is where I lift about 75-80 percent of the normal weight I usually lift, but it was still a surreal moment for me. Because in my opinion Coach Getty, Carlock (Colorado Spring OTC Strength Coach), and Jason Hartman (Lake Placid OTC Strength Coach) form my holy trinity of Strength and Conditioning! and I dare anyone to challenge that .....Come on I dare you! Bring it!! And you will loose and not partially but by a lot, a whole lot! So there! lol.

On another note I had the honor of being one of the speakers for the USOC 17th annual Finding Leaders Among Minorities Everywhere (FLAME) Program http://www.teamusa.org/resources/usoc-programs/f-l-a-m-e. From some odd reason they wanted me to tell my story to the college students attending the event. For this talk I addressed more of the road that lead me bobsledding as opposed to the sport itself, stressing the success and pitfalls that I have experienced in chasing my dream. We talked about surrounding yourself with the right kind of people and cutting off those that may be detrimental as you pursue personal goals. I touched on how peoples perception matter, the importance of first impressions, and making sure you are always networking and building good relationships with people. In these types of talks I like to encourage questions at anytime which allows for a better dialog between me and my audience helping to remove that lecture like atmosphere. From the response I received from the student after speaking with them I gather that they enjoyed the experience and found some of the information useful. Who knows maybe I can make a career out of speaking one day, hmmmm.......its a possibility! I may have to have David look over my speeches though since I am a genius at typos.

Talk to you all soon.

God Bless

Jesse