The bobsled track officially opened for sliding training (Bobsled, Skeleton and Luge) on October 15th.   Since opening day I have been sliding everyday to better my driving skills, get more comfortable in the driver’s seat as well as prepare for team trials and future races.  Yesterday I had 3 of my personal best down times on this track and overall it was a great training day.  Today was the first day official race training for the USA National Team Trials races.  During a race week there are 3 days of official training where each driver/brakeman team gets 2 runs (or trips) per day to prepare for the race.  In the event there are crashes or injuries the rules allow that a driver only needs to make it from start to finish during an official training day for 2 runs.  Races will be held mid morning October 27th and 28th (Wednesday and Thursday) following the USA National Skeleton Team Trial races.  We have a group of 6 rookie women brakeman whom have been training and going through a serious of rookie camps and testing in order to get to this final stage of qualifying for the National Bobsled Team (World Cup) or National Development Bobsled Team (Europa Cup/America’s Cup).  They are from all over and different athletic backgrounds (Auburn University, BYU, Oral Roberts, SUU, Baylor, etc.)  I am heading into these races feeling excited, nervous, overwhelmed, anxious, crazy, ready, and any other emotions you can throw in there.  It will be my first team trials in the front of the sled as a pilot and the same for my teammates Elana Meyers (Olympic Bronze Medalist brakeman in Vancouver) and Jamie Greubel (World Cup brakeman last season).  We entered driving school together, have crashed each other, banged each other up and have been rookie pilots on this journey together for the past year.  It will be great to compete against each other as well as go on the America’s Cup Circuit beginning November as the future of Team USA Women’s Bobsled.  Below are some pictures and video of the past 2 weeks of training.  It wouldn’t have been bobsled if opening day at the track wasn’t a nor’easter blizzard and now going into team trials a heat wave up to 60+ degrees F this week.  I will post results of the races following Wednesday and Thursday.  I will be teaming up with JennaBree Brown (Heptathlete - BYU)on Race Day #1 and Kristi Koplin (NCAA Hammer thrower  finalist) on Race Day #2 with Katie Stoever (Pole Vaulter – Oral Roberts) as my alternate for this week’s Team Trials races.  I look forward to seeing the results of our teamwork and can’t wait to “Dig it Out” at the start and slide with speed to the bottom!  Please keep Team Fenlator in your thoughts as well as the other members of Team USA Bobsled as we test our hard off season training on the hill this week for the first races of the season and new Olympic quad!

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Today seems like every other Sunday in my schedule… finally a rest day in my week from training and working.  It’s a low day with my nutrition plan (aka since I am not expending the normal amount of energy I would with a fully scheduled busy day, I don’t need as many meals and calories… BUMMER!) and I am trying to get the rest and recovery I need to push me through the week coming up.  But actually this Sunday, October 3rd, is slightly different… I am in at my Mom’s house in my hometown in NJ, spending the day lounging around with my Mom and little sister appreciating their love and support.  I found myself reflecting throughout the day on how life is so precious, it doesn’t last forever and if you’re not living in the moment when are you living?  Friday morning, October 1 2010, around 1am, my dear Aunt Linda passed away.  She suffered unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm a little over a week ago.  She is a hair stylist and complained to a customer that her head was hurting, must be a migraine coming on, then suddenly passed out falling to the ground.  After being rushed to the nearest hospital, they decided it would be best to move her to a hospital in North Jersey (closer to my hometown) that specialized in brain traumas.  After the first 48 hours, things seemed to be looking up although the family new Aunt Linda was nowhere near in the clear.  Then of course as we were warned her condition turned back to the worst and it was only a matter of time.  Since I started on my bobsled journey in September 2007, over the past 3 years, seven members of my family (including Aunt Linda) have perished; the majority as sudden events.  It has taken a toll on my family and emotions are fragile.  Every time we mourn the passing of one relative, get their things in order, address any legal issues and begin to move forward it seems we are faced with the same shocking news just told a different way. 

As we all know no matter how far we try to bury the thoughts, death IS a part of Life.  Every living thing has an expiration date, sometimes we can accurately project the termination date and sometimes frankly, life just happens.  Meaning accidents, tragedies, traumas, unimaginable events occur with no rhyme reason or heads up.  That’s why today instead of mourning the passing of my Aunt as well as reminiscing about the other loved ones whom have passed, today I dedicate this blog to the “Celebration of Life!”  (This one’s for you Aunt Linda….may Angels lead you in!)

Dear Aunt Linda,

When I close my eyes super tight, I can see you clear as day.  Your super frosted hair, olive Italian skin, black mascara, bubbly personality and the smell of sea water.  When I think of you the parts I remember most are from my childhood vacations visiting you down the shore where we’d go to the beach and collect sea-shells, splash in the extremely warm over filled Jacuzzi in your backyard, telling your loud mouthed pet bird to be quiet during holiday events, your awesome apple pie with the delicious crumbs on top, New Year’s day and football at your house, playing board games with me over and over again, smiling and laughing uncontrollably, Mom teaching you how to French braid – my hair as your guinea pig and let’s not forget my first haircut at Nana and Poppop’s house where I had a huge afro due to you using a “pick” to comb my hair out like you do your other clients (none of which had crazy curls like me haha).  Never once do I remember no matter how hard your days may have been, you not smiling and trying to keep the brighter side of things in focus.  You may have perished from life on this earth but my memories of you and our cherished times are everlasting.  Rather than be saddened by your departure, I’ll be glad to celebrate the life you lived, having you as an Aunt and relieved that you are not longer suffering.  You will always remain in my heart, an angel looking down, a star in my sky.  You will be missed and never forgotten.  Love you always - Jaz

Despite our own agendas, busy lives and whatever else we have going on it is often we make the mistake of taking advantage of those we care about most and whom care for us.  Sometimes we don’t tell people enough how much we care about them, appreciate them, love them, and even miss them.  It only takes a quick phone call, a post-it note left on the fridge, a one line email/text, maybe even a thinking of you note.  Needless to say most of us, scratch that all of us did not get where we are today on our own we had a network of great people behind us helping along the way.  Take a second and reach out, we only get this one life and boy can it go fast!  Live, Laugh, Love….

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Congratulations to all the athele's whom were able to qualify and compete in the National Team Combine and Push Championships this past week.  A special shout out to my roommate, 2010 Olympic Bronze Medalist, Elana Meyers, who was able to defend her title as push champion from the brakes for the third year in a row as well as win the push off from the driver's bar.  Also Steve Langton, 2010 Olympian was able to dominate last week in the combine and win his second push championship.  Steve was plaqued with injuries last year for testing and was able to come back and make the olympic games after a long hard struggle!  Super excited for the team and where were are headed for this upcoming season... Look out WORLD!

Click here for the full results and complete article on last weeks events!
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When at the peak of the mountain, or my specific case the first stage of peaking in performance testing for the season; sometimes one can fall or slip which is a reminder that they are not invincible, struggles make you stronger and at the height of your game anything is possible.  As much of a cliché, what goes up must come down at some point - this also connects to an athlete's thinking of never be satisfied; if a goal is achieved make a new to reach for.  Sometimes this can cause confusion of when are you doing too much, when do you need to give it a rest in order to move forward and when is it okay to not just "push through" and take a breath for a minute? 

An athlete's worst nightmare is to not be able to perform, to compete, to have the adrenal run through from their soul to every vein in their body as they prepare to show their stuff.  To show what they have so long been working too hard for.  As an elite athlete you have to make mini goals to keep the motivation and eye of your ultimate goal from drifting too far in the distance, to keep your focus, to consciously accept the reality that it just doesn't happen overnight.  There will be trials and struggles daily, weekly, monthly and every year throughout.  That all being said, I have been fortunate throughout my athletic career to not be "plagued" but injury or suffer from minor setbacks.

My hamstring had been bothering me for a few weeks and I was seeing out sports medicine fellows regularly to stay on top of the issue and keep it from becoming a bigger problem.  Unfortunately that wasn't enough, I was still working over 40 hours a week (many of those days standing on my feet for 10 hours at a clip) intensely training often twice a day 2 or 3 times a week, and simply just internally chatting to myself keep pushing through, keep going, don't stop, there’s no time or room for breaks right now.  In the end my body said if you won't give me some time sooner or later I will make you.  It did just that!  I pulled my hamstring probably earlier than I thought but the 2nd degree strain became extremely painful one week before the National Combine and Push Championships.  It was to the point that walking down the hall, down stairs, sitting stationary; all of it was discomforting and utterly disappointing.  I urgently rushed to our sports medicine training room and talked with my man Curtis (the Sports Med fellow whom I have been working with all summer).  He immediately checked out my hamstring, didn't see a complete tear but wanted to get the pain and inflammation down as soon as possible, I was schedule to see our training center doctor the next day for his evaluation.  At my appointment many scientific terms were being thrown around, confused looks, and I concluded that it didn't sound good but I would take whatever news I received in stride and roll with the punches.  Doc says, "Well if you were in season about to race we would be patching you up to send you back into the "game" to race, but since this is the beginning of the season and these injuries tend to linger, No activity for the remainder of the week and before the combine we will re-evaluate to see your mobility then and make final decisions!"  Mind you this was Tuesday before the combine, exactly 6 days before testing.  Aghhhhh zero activity, I don’t know how to do nothing, zero, zip, zilch... what is that?!?!?  At the end of the day though your priority list becomes clear, the season is long (through March) and it is just beginning.  I had to put into prospective to myself that it is better to take the time now to 100% take care of this injury while I can rather than "be tough and push through it" possibly making it worse and having it create problems as the season goes full force and there is no time to really handle it.  Like I said injuries are like plagues if they aren't quarantined and immediate attention is not given to them.

But have no fear nothing can rain on this girl's parade.  Taking treatment day by day and the athletic trainers, doctor and I have a few plans in place in order to have me ready for the make up team testing Oct. 14th as well as sliding and team trials races beginning Oct. 15th.  In the meantime I will be supporting my veteran teammates and the rookie athlete's training and testing this week to show off their hard work.  It's the beginning of a new Olympic quad but the intensity for us rookie drivers and brakeman is very real as we are paving our path to make the Sochi Olympics :-)
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I recently just celebrated my 25th birthday, August 29th.  Seems like yesterday I was watching the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics in my living room with my parents telling them that would be me someday walking into Opening Ceremonies when I got older.  Wasn't sure what sport yet, gymnastics, beach volleyball, track and field.... at that time it didn't matter; the dream and goal were already established.  Here I am today living at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center, training with Olympians everyday, working harder and harder than my competition to represent my country on the world's stage in 4 years as well as succeed in achieving one of my life long goals.

It was a great birthday weekend with good friends in Lake Placid and I received an abundance of messages and cards with well wishes!  There was a Rookie Bobsled Camp in town for the week and the night before my birthday we went out on the town so to speak.  Many thanks to everyone, especially my teammate/roommate Elana Meyers for making sure I had a cheerful time and had some Jazzy time!!! :-) So now I am another year older, more experiences under my belt, lessons learned, as well as continually growing into myself.  One of my favorite movies "The Wizard of Oz;" Dorothy is told to follow the yellow brick road to Oz in order for her and Toto to get back home to Kansas.  I am not necessarily trying to get "home," but home in this sense can refer to the Olympic Experience and the yellow brick road is the journey I am taking to get there!

Many have asked if I feel "older" so to speak... my answer... I am just beginning to live! :-)  The world is at our finger tips and there are opportunities waiting to be scooped up and taken advantage of everyday.  Some are more risky than others, but you only get this one life so why not live it to the fullest?!?!  So far the past 4 days being 25 have been delightful and I hope the year continues with this positive joy and the support I have been receiving from family and friends.  After a few days off from training to nurse some hamstring troubles, I got back into the workout mode and had a personal best power clean of 107.5 kilograms (approx. 237 lbs).  Huge lift for me and just about had 110 kilograms, maybe next week!  I found out today that I am "Athlete of the Month" at the Olympic Training Center.  This is a huge honor considering I am among over a dozen Vancouver and multi-time Olympians right now all residing at the OTC.  It is always great to see the sacrifices you make and the dedication of hard work you put forth turn into positive results.  Not to mention and by far most appreciated, I am in good health, am able to do what makes me happy on a daily basis and have an awesome network of people behind me.  I may be 25 now, but this is just the beginning of my "yellow brick road" journey towards Sochi 2014!  Cheers...
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Got Milk?!?!?! 08/14/2010
 
Earlier this past week I had the honor and privileged of accompanying Elana Meyers, 2010 Olympic Bronze Medalist in Women’s Bobsled (also my teammate, roommate and friend) to NYC for the Got Milk Refuel America Campaign and a taping for an underground show called “My First Date with a Celebrity”.  Also at the Milk event were Olympians, Shawn Johnson - Gymnastics, Chris Bosch – Miami Heat Basketball and Apollo Ohno – Short Track Speed Skating.  This Milk campaign was to promote the importance and benefits of refueling your body after workouts (especially intense ones where your body is mostly depleted of the nutrients it needs to begin recover), so you can be ready for your next workout.  Milk has been trying to spread the word across all ages but especially the interest of young children and young adults in sports or related activities.  Research has shown that low fat chocolate milk is the best post-workout drink to refuel your body as it is loaded with important vitamins and minerals, healthy carbohydrates and protein, not to mention it is pretty darn tasty.  The campaign in NYC not only emphasized this but also unveiled the newest Got Milk ads featuring Apollo Ohno and Chris Bosch.  It was a great experience to get young America active and educated on the importance of what they feed their bodies especially if they have an active lifestyle and want to pursue athletics.  Although Elana and I were only in NYC for the day, it was a jam packed 18 hours, but great to be back in a familiar area and also be Elana’s tour guide for the day as it was her first time in the Big Apple.  Elana and I after the events took the subway uptown to Time Square so she could see some famous monuments.  Well if you consider all the places we went were famous due to some sort of eating dish, haha.  Due to the crazy scheduling of events I was not able to spend too much time in NJ, but indeed was able stop by my hometown to squeeze in dinner with my mom and steal some homemade treats to bring back to Lake Placid with me! J
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I got a great tip from a fellow bobsled athlete about this website, www.DreamBank.org.  This website is an innovative online gift registry by achieving your “dreams” or “goals” with monetary donations as well as taking some of your donated proceeds and donating them to the network of charities linked with DreamBank.  It is a very easy concept where you think of a dream gift you would like friends, family and followers to contribute too, post your dream gift on DreamBank and inform everyone about your link and how to contribute to your cause.  This website organization also dedicates some of its resources to help create positive change for the planet and important social causes.

I have decided that this website is a perfect opportunity to mix achieving my dream/goal of funding my bobsled career in order to qualify for the 2014 Sochi Olympic Team as well as give back to the community and important causes I care about.  Please take the time to view my link where there is a short description of my dream and objectives, an easy PayPal link to donate to me directly as well as view information on the Save the Children Foundation (my charity choice). 

Support Team Fenlator at DreamBank

There are also PayPal links displayed throughout my website as well as information on the Sponsorship page for donating, becoming a sponsor and tax deductions for supporting Team Fenlator.  No matter the amount of your support, all proceeds will go to fund my 2010-2011 USA Bobsled Season as I debut as a pilot for Team USA beginning my journey to Sochi, Russia (with the exception if you choose to donate through DreamBank, as mentioned above, a small percentage will go towards charity).

Stay tuned for the season’s schedule and more updates to follow!
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I know it has been quite a few weeks since my last update and I apologize, but have no fear I have some updating here!  J  Over the last few weeks I have attended a college teammate's wedding, vacationed in Switzerland, had a slight case of food poisoning, continually working on bobsled athlete recruiting, became manager at my job in Lake Placid (aka more responsibility and work hours), started working with a new nutritionist and have been hard core training of course (I call it hard core because today my legs were so sore it hurt to slide flip flops on, couldn’t imagine trying to put on socks and sneakers.) 

It all began June 24th when I woke up early to train (running workout in the pouring rain I may add) before heading to a half day of work before piling my suitcases and anything else I thought I might need for my travels in my car and trecking 5 hours south to home sweet home NJ (at least for the night).  I woke up early the next morning to fit in a lifting workout before the weekend’s events began, ran some errands, packed my weekend bag and headed to central Jersey to meet my up with my college teammate and old roomie Lauren Deane so we could carpool down to Maryland for some Enck wedding festivities.   

My college teammate Danny Enck got married on June 26th to his beautiful wife Desiree in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  Family and friends traveled from all over to celebrate this couples special day; New Jersey, New York, Arkansas, California, Pennsylvania, Delaware and more.  I was very fortunate that my training and travel schedule allowed me to attend the wedding and I am so happy for my friends starting their new life as Mr. and Mrs. Enck.  It was a mini college reunion of the Rider Track and Field and Softball teams at the wedding and I was able to spend time with very good teammates and friends of mine, including my College Coach, Robert Pasquariello, whom initially got me involved in USA Bobsled.

After attending the wedding, I traveled back to Central Jersey to pick my car up and visit a great friend and supporter Jen “Janksta” Alksmant for an hour or so before heading back to my Mom’s house where the frantic packing began for my 10 day trip to Switzerland.  My Mom practically thought I was moving back into her home and then going to reorganized all my stuff again in a suitcase and move to Europe.  I guess since the season ended I was so used to having some type of belongings at every place I traveled, I forgot how to pack for just a simple trip… I quote myself, “wait I have to pack real clothes, like nice ones, not a whole bag full of workout and snow gear?!?!? I don’t know how to do that Mom, can you help me???”  Haha.  Needless to say it took some thinking but I got it done and the next afternoon headed to Philly International Airport for an 8 hour direct flight to Zurich, Switzerland where I would arrive early the following morning.

As the plane landed the pilot gave us a brief on the date, time, weather and directions to passport checks.  I peeked through the tiny airplane window and saw the sun shining bright, the greenery, the sky clear and knew I was going to have an awesome 10 days in this country.  I met a great woman who sat next to me on the plane, Darcy.  She was a young teacher from California visiting her friend in Zurich whom has taken a Nanny Job for a great family residing in Switzerland.  It was great conversation that passed the time of the long flight.  I zipped through passport patrol and customs, got my luggage and eagerly walked to the waiting area to meet my dear friend I was visiting and staying with.  We wasted no time and after dropping my bags off went right to the "Top of Zurich," the highest point in the city, to see the gorgeous panorama view of nature, architecture and mountains.  You can see the Alps, hills and valleys of other districts/Cantons and of course all of Zurich.  It was amazing.  Throughout my ten day trip I was able to visit Luzern, Appenzellar, hike on EbenAlp (part of the Alps Mountains), eat REAL Swiss cheese fondue, taste the delicatessen foods and drinks of this awesome nation, learn parts of their history, culture and language, party at Zuri Fecht, see the waterfall, visit the art museum, tour a castle and of course get in some bobsled training.  It was a perfect vacation filled with lots of activity and taken at the perfect time during my training cycles for a little R and R with a side of fun. J Unfortunately the day before I left Switzerland, my friend woke up feeling very ill and had a pretty high fever, I did not have any symptoms at that point.  Later in the day we both ended up very sick.  We came to the conclusion it was a slight case of food poisoning, at least we think.  Needless to say the 9 hour flight home could not have happened fast enough.  I slept most of the trip but by the time I arrived back home in NJ, full exhaustion set in and I was for sure sick a few days.  No worries it did not rain on my trips parade and thankfully I recovered quickly as I headed back to Lake Placid 2 days later and got right back to work and training.  Now that I am back at the training center it is back to the daily grind and the clock has begun to tick fast as believe it or not the 2010-2011 season is about to begin.  Check out some pictures from over the past few weeks and hope all is going well with each and every one of you.  Keep in touch!
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Calling all female athletes.... still want to be competitive in sport?  Looking for an opportunity to push your skills and abilities to the edge?  Have a need for speed and adrenoline?  Dreamt about competing on the world's stage and in the Olympic Games?  Maybe bobsled and skeleton are opportunities for you....

Below are some recruiting camp dates that have just been posted for the next few months.  Please take a look at the USBSF website and fill out an athlete form so we can have your information on file and keep you up to date with news and events for upcoming camps.  Also, if you have further questions or inquiries feel free to contact me (jfenlator@gmail.com) as well as Don Hass (donhass@frontiernet.net) or Elana Meyers (eamballer24@gmail.com), both of which are in charge of bobsled and skeleton recruiting for the 2010-2011 season.

Camp Dates: (location - Lake Placid Olympic Training Center - Lake Placid, NY)
July 19-22: Screening Camp (Combine Test given)
August 22-25: Bobsled Camp (Combine Test given)
September 1-4: Screening Camp (primarily skeleton)
September 12-19: Skeleton Push Championships Testing (invite only for new athletes)
September 20-26: Bobsled Push Championships Testing (invite only for new athletes)
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Just began my second week back in Lake Placid, training at the Olympic Training Center.  My time home was awesome yet very busy.  Initially I got some quality “R and R,” but then it was time to jam pack the few weeks I was home where I visited with friends and family, started training for the upcoming season and worked a bunch to put some savings aside in my bobsled fund (If you would like to donate to help me qualify for the Olympic team going to Sochi 2014 please contact me or click on any of the PayPal buttons throughout the site J).  Now that I am back at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY (a place that has become my second home) it is back to the grind.  I have 3-4 jobs up here that I will be working regularly and some sporadically this summer to save for the upcoming season’s expenses as well as support my regular bills now and while I am in season unable to work. 

It feels great to be back up here and get back to my regular training regiment while having all that I need right here in one place.  The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and USA Bobsled Federation (USBSF) have selected athletes from a list whom applied for resident housing at the training center, and I was one of them.  It is a great opportunity to be at this facility having my strength and conditioning coach, sports medicine and the recovery center, and a dining all with pretty delicious healthy choices available to me every day.  This one advantage allows me to focus on my training and pushing myself athletically without the worries often faced when traveling or not at an Olympic Training Center.  Where can I train? How much does it cost?  Do they have equipment conducive to my training? How much will I be spending on groceries this week? Who can I consult with on my training?  How am I going to pay for this and my upcoming season expenses?  These may seem like miniscule questions but to the elite athletes whom daily lives revolve around this with the hopes of gaining inches on their competition everyday to achieve their goals, they are questions that loom over them every day.

Many athletes that were here last summer have returned again for this summer training as well as some new faces.  Despite the frigid winters here in LP, summer is actually quite nice, just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to short.  Since returning to LP I have already had a full time work week at my job while getting back pretty intensely with my training and attending to my second job a few days.  Now obviously this is not ideal to be working so many hours and training on top of it, or vice versa, training so intensely every day and working 3-4 part time jobs or 1 full time job.  But as I have said before USA Bobsled is an amateur sport, we don’t have the bling, the perks or the limelight of other athletes in sports like the NBA, NFL or Tennis.  Not to mention our equipment just to do our sport is ranked the most expensive next to Equestrian (go figure horses and bobsleds).  Now that I have transitioned to the driver’s seat not only is there more pressure and responsibility when it comes to performing in my sport but a great commitment especially financially.  The runners (blades) we use can range from a couple thousand to $10,000+.  They are only made in Europe by a select few people and after purchasing them you have to pay shipping and insurance to get them to your location.

Many have asked why do you do it?  Why do you put yourself to the rigger physical training, the long days, the travel, the expenses, the worries, and the risk?  Why?  Well the answers fairly simple, when you have a dream that you have had since you were a little child, it’s been on your mind and your heart for years, you’ve trained for achievement and success your whole life, why stop at mediocre when you have the potential to be great.  Life isn’t a sprint it’s more like a marathon, there will be highs and lows to every bath you take and along that journey you learn about yourself, others, and experience some pretty awesome things along the way.  My journey in bobsled is far from over and this one in a lifetime opportunity has been calling my name since I was 4 years old.  These questions of why are only small prices I am paying compared to the indescribable feeling and satisfaction I will gain when I do one day achieve this mission.

As always I appreciate the support.  Fundraising updates are in the making, but for now please take a look at my sponsorship page or click on the PayPal links to donate directly  J
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