We left Holland on the 31st of August, just two days after returning home from a DSB training camp in Heerde. As expected we had some restless nights and early mornings when we first arrived, thanks to the jet lag. On the bright side though, it made it easier to prepare for the 8am training sessions that we have while we are here. We both passed the jet-lag stage relatively quickly and it was a nice feeling to sleep through out the night without waking up at 2am, 2.30am and again around 4 am.
 
Another reason why I wanted to come to Salt Lake was to get some quality interval training done on the ice before the season starts. After a week of relatively easy aerobic training it was time to up the anti a little and push out some intervals. My legs and lungs immediately regretted this and it didn't take long for them to scream at me to go back to the aerobic training they had been enjoying. Things have settled in a little more now and I no longer think I am going to die during the intervals, now its more like torture than actual death.
 
Saturday the 12th will be our first race for the 2010 ice season. Both Ingmar and I will race in a 500m and a 5km.
I don’t expect to see any personal best times here because its still very early in the season and the ice is far from World Cup quality. That said, I still want to push myself and I like to achieve something new every time iI race. "Something new" can be anything from an improvement in my technique or a better judged effort so I skate as close to as even as possible for the entire distance.
 
We leave Salt Lake on the 18th of September and go straight into another DSB training camp. Hopefully the jet-lag won’t hurt us too much during the first week back and we can get some more good quality training done with the team.