Day By Day

Wow, I cannot believe my last update was roughly a month ago and SO MUCH has already happened! Trust me, it's worth the read...

I wrote my last update on the verge of leaving my house to go and speak at the first ever CT Disability Film Festival. Can I tell you how amazing that was?! I had the opportunity to give some first hand experience to the audience about training for 2012 after the viewing of Warrior Champions. First off, I absolutely loved the film. I actually watched it twice over that weekend and could not tell you how many times I got the shivers. For those of you who haven't seen it yet it's about the journey of wounded soldiers who set the goal of competing in the 2008 Paralympics. I was extremely heart warmed when watching my friend, Melissa Stockwell's journey (shout out to Melissa) to Beijing in swimming. I can honestly say that I know where these athletes are coming from in regards to training up to trials, not knowing what will happen, but putting absolutely 100% in everyday practices, regardless of the ups and downs. I had a great time answering questions about training for London and giving advice to others about living out your dreams. BIG shout out to Harriet and the Mandell JCC for putting this on and inviting me to share my story, I had an amazing time!


On April 10th I finally broke the 1998 100 Back (25 meter) American Record! If you look at my past October blog I wrote about how I set a goal of breaking it at a home meet during winter season. It was so worth the wait because I went well under the record time. Prior to April I wrote down a bunch of small goals going up to trials and breaking this record was one of them. I'm so grateful for my coaches (shout out to my CCAT Team) who have taken so much time to really understand the impacts of Muscular Dystrophy in regards to training. I know for a fact I would not be where I am today without my team.


So I've been trying to stay away from social media. On Wednesday, April 11th I deactivated my Facebook. I know such a shocker! I was thinking about doing that for a while, to get a clear mind and focus on my training. And how long did my social media vaca last? 9 days...SAD! I'm actually having someone else control my Facebook for the next 3 weeks so if you do need to reach me, please email me at kouragemakesdif@aol.com. Also last night my sister challenged me to going without my IPhone for 24 hours. Little did she know that's been a goal on my 2012 bucklet list and I doubled it to 48 hours because I know I'm not addicted to my phone. So far I have not checked my phone since 7:30pm on April 20th and will not get it back until tomorrow night. I actually feel fine, I'm not having any withdrawals so take that Alison (shout out to my sis) :)


Earlier this week I went to NYC and absolutely loved it! I had the opportunity to spend time with my CAF family and couldn't have asked for a more perfect day (shout out to Barbara and Virginia)! I spent most of the day bonding with my mom as we spent time soaking up NYC (shout out to my amazing mom). We had the opportunity to see the SNL studio (which was so amazing) and learned about their set. It's actually the biggest set inside NBC and looks a lot smaller in person. Ask me what a Wide Angle Microscopic Lens is and how it's used on their set. It's pretty cool I must say. Sadly, that's basically the little knowledge I know about film except the Kuleshov Effect (I'm such a nerd). Anyway, I absolutely loved spending time with my CAF family, so many amazing things on the horizon for them and I am so grateful to be one of the countless athletes they support.  I'll be going to their annual San Diego Tri again this October! So excited! If you have not checked them out yet, then you are missing out!http://www.challengedathletes.org/site/c.4nJHJQPqEiKUE/b.6449023/k.BD6D/Home.htm


Classes and my internship are starting to come to an end. On April 20th I was asked to attend a Board of Fellows lunch with other students at Trinity. We had the opportunity to talk with very successful almuni. It's truly inspiring seeing the possibilities after college, although uncertain and worrisome it may seem at times. I met with my advisers in regards to my senior year. I can't believe in less than 3 weeks I'll be a senior it blows my mind. I'm up for writing an honors thesis next year and I've decided to write it on disability rights and sports. It's obviously a topic near and dear to me and I'll most likely be doing research for it over the summer. As far as plans after Trinity I'm seriously considering law and doing some work experience before taking the LSATS. Although I have these plans, they're mostly guidelines as I know so much can happen in a year. Session at the Legislature is starting to come to an end. Everything's over at 12am on May 9th, no more legislation will be passed! It was pretty exciting at the Capitol witnessing the Senate and House debates about abolishing the death penalty. So many Representatives and Senators brought different opinions and arguments to the table, it certainly kept my attention.


And now I've updated you to today. Again, I love my Saturdays! I had morning practice and felt a little stiff in the water, but worked it out. At this time with trials, I'm taking everything day by day and if I can't do that hour by hour; practice by practice, if not lap by lap. I had a great conversation with my coach during practice that helped me become more focused and motivated for June. Regardless of what happens, I've learned so much on this journey that this is not an all or nothing situation anymore. It's an all gain situation. After practice I spent the rest of my day with the Synergy Center as they kicked off their Sensory Celebration with Autism Speaks (shout out to Brian). I had an amazing time getting to know the Synergy Center and painting with Autistic children today! I might have had more fun than the kids because I want to go back to the Florence Griswold Museum just to paint. Anyway, I loved today and seeing the possibilities for the Synergy Center is truly inspiring.



Going forward, this is the nitty driggity I'm getting down to! I have about 3 weeks left of classes and my internship. I'm taking my training day by day and seeing where this journey is taking me. My next swim meet is May 12th at Yale and I cannot wait to kill it! I'm SO looking forward to summer, but I'm appreciating each moment along the way, phoneless or not.

:)

One Amazing Break

It's Sunday, the last day of spring break and I don't want this to end. Do I really need to go back to campus? I'm having too much fun with my life, who honestly needs school? Kidding of course!

Here's why I've been loving this week...

Last Friday, March 16th, I will remember that day for the rest of my life...I'm not being over dramatic either I promise. I somehow was introduced to President Clinton that night by Governor Malloy. I had no clue this way going to happen to me, just completely starstruck. Everything was a blur, I felt like I was in a movie because everything seemed to line up perfectly that day. Once everything was over that night, I just wanted to stay awake. My life was better than any dream I could have thought of. So, I decided to write all my thoughts down and send off an email to my political science professor of the experience (see below).

Hi Professor,

What a day, I'm still in utter shock!

Meeting with Governor Malloy was great! We didn't talk about politics, rather about disabilities and overcoming challenges. I had a great conversation with him about his disability and how he memorizes his speeches or publicly speaks off the top of his head. He wanted to know everything about me; my life story, my disability, my goals, how I got to Trinity, how Trinity has accommodated me, etc. He gave me some great advice which he learned from his mom; that no matter what challenges society may put on you for being different, the only quality that makes one successful is by helping others. We talked in his office for roughly 45 minutes. His staff were the ones who got me the ticket to hear President Clinton speak tonight so I formally thanked him. As I was leaving, Governor Malloy said if there was anything I needed help with to never hesitate to ask, so I took him up on his offer. I basically said before outright asking him, that if I didn't ask this question, I would always wonder 'what if' and also if I didn't ask him this question, it would be an automatic 'no'. So I said, I know this may be very hard and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, but as you're also seeing President Clinton tonight, by any chance may I meet him? Governor Malloy said he'll see what he can do and he gave his assistant my contact information. They told me to show up at the Bushnell for 6 as President Clinton's speech started for 7.

I arrived at 6, had my ticket and saw Governor Malloy as he entered and said how he can't make any promises but he'd see what he could do for me to meet President Clinton. By 6:30 no one had called me so I went to my seat and assumed it was a no. Around 6:40 someone official approached me and said to follow her. We went back stage pass all these lines and there I was with Governor Malloy passing Nancy Wyman in addition to a huge line of people waiting to take a picture with the former President including Senator Blumethal. I walked with Governor Malloy straight up to President Clinton and the Governor formally introduced me to President Clinton as the Trinity student who is training for the Paralympics and a human rights major. As secret service had my camera (we were not allowed to take pictures) there was a professional photographer from the CT Forum taking pictures of us talking and then a picture of the Governor, President Clinton, and I. I still cannot believe this happened to me!! I just told the former President how I'm a human rights major and greatly admire and appreciate all of his humanitarian work and cannot wait to hear his speech tonight. The Governor and I walked away after and I gave him the biggest hug and could not stop thanking him. He said not to worry about getting the pictures as the CT Forum will email him all the pictures he was in and he will then forward me the picture of us. I then met the Governor's wife and was talking to her about the informative conversation I had with her husband earlier that day and she hugged me as I left the backstage. As I left the backstage and went into the lobby a reporter from the Java section of the Hartford Courant came up to me and wanted to know everything about my experience meeting President Clinton! She took my picture, wanted to know how I got to meet the former President, where I go to school, etc. She said this will be online tonight/tomorrow morning. I don't know how this happens to me!!!


President Clinton's speech was great! He talked about his humanitarian efforts and how he envisions government's role in society. He said that the private sector, government, and NGOs should work interdependently as that is the best way people can flourish. He didn't talk much about politics, it was more about bipartisan efforts. In addition, he said how this was an amazing time to be alive. He pointed to Brazil as they work for shared prosperity, responsibility, economically and socially. He said his American dream is to continue its prosperity and for people to have the available resources to achieve their goals, through education, jobs, etc. He also said that the education problem is very complex, but what we need to do is understand one's differences in order to move forward to create solutions; he believes that we should be aware of childrens' home lives in addition to what they do in school. He also stressed that anger fogs reason and logic; President Clinton is truly an optimist.

I'm hand writing Governor Malloy a heartfelt thank you tomorrow. I'm so grateful for everything and I'm still in shock I met President Clinton!

Thank you again for everything,
Kristin

I have this picture saved on my phone, so whenever I start to think something's impossible or not doable (not to sound too corny)...well, this will be a friendly reminder that I'm wrong :)


On Tuesday I went to visit some of my best friends at Northeastern (shout out to Allison and Jen). I absolutely love these girls! They took me around Boston as I've only been to the city for business trips and fell in love with this place (shout out to Ray Allen and my Celtics). I'm seriously considering moving to Boston after graduation, but a lot can happen within the next year and a half.

For the next few days I was back in the water training. I had to take some time off to let my right arm recover, but no worries, back to mermaid mode! I've been doing a lot of freestyle to strengthen different muscles in my upper body as I do so much backstroke all the time. My coaches are still not allowing me to look at my times and are having me base everything off of how I'm feeling in the water and right now I'm feeling really strong. Last night I was looking over my training schedule for April and Trials in June are going to come fast! I decided a while back that I'm going to treat Trials just like any other meet so I can stay relaxed and focused. I'm actually looking forward to this meet as my training program has been going so well this season. I cannot thank my training team enough!

On Friday I filmed my first segment for the Endlesss Abilities Documentary (shout out to Zack, Will, Tripp, and invisible Harvey). I've been talking with the crew since February and I was SO excited and honored to be apart of their project. The crew is made up of 4 guys in their 20s from Rhode Island who decided to film their experience traveling across the country while visiting physically challenged athletes at various levels in different sports. The purpose of the film is to unite able-bodied and physically challenged athletes has we all have the same goals and love sports. You need to check them out ---> http://www.endlessabilities.org/! The film will be out and 2013 and I will certainly let you know how and where you can watch it! Anyway, on Friday we did a basic interview at one of the pools I practice at and so far, that was one of the funnest interviews I've ever done. I'm really happy that people my age are interested in this topic that's so near and dear to me.  I can't wait for you to see the film. The crew will be coming back to film me in the water in May and then after Trials.


Saturday I was planning to get ahead on homework, but decided to curl up in a blanket and fall asleep with my dog.


And now it's Sunday, the last day of spring break. I seriously want to have a 6 week extension as it would go perfectly with the beginning of summer. Today will be super busy! In about 5 minutes I'll be off to the pool to see my coach, then immediately head up to Hartford for the first ever CT Disability Film Festival. They'll be showing Warrior Champions (I highly recommend you watching it) and then I'll be speaking on a panel after the showing. Then, I'll be back at Trinity, scramming to do homework and unpacking everything.


Oh! And BIG shout out to my best friend Scout! She told me last night how she qualified for London Para Trials in track for the 100 yesterday!! She's my motivator.

I absolutely loved this week and cannot wait to see how the rest of the semester unfolds. It only goes to show that the best is yet to come :)

Details, Details

So driving back from my meet at Rutgers last night I wrote 
everything down about the meet, the variables, what
 I had control over, what was good, what I 
can improve on. I woke up this morning absolutely so
 tired, more fatigued than I have ever felt in a very long time.

Rutgers events- 100 free,50 back, and lastly 100 back. My times 
were consistent  and slightly faster than my last meet. No best times,
 but I've been training really hard. I was 2 seconds off my 100 back 
American Record, and for having to improvise my starts as I 
forgot my starting device. 

What was good- finishes, turns, stroke/pull. My coach I went to 
Greece with said this was the best she's ever seen me. I'm the most 
water efficient I've ever been. She was really impressed by my
 finishes and there was no hesitation with my turns. I was swimming
 straight and sprinted into the wall for a finish.

What can improve on- making the last 50 in my 100s faster as I know I 
can swim under the times I did this weekend. I'll be improving on keeping
 both of my 50s in the 100s consistent.
 I can certainly improve on certain techniques in regards to my backstroke. 

Variables- The air on the pool deck was colder than the water, I was 
shivering the entire time even with 3 towels and a jacket on. The new 
Lazer I brought was too loose on me as there were no red marks on my
 shoulders and there were major gaps in my upper body. Had to 
improvise my backstroke start as the meet was using national 
guidelines (which I didn't know) and was not 
allowed to use the gutter and didn't know I needed to bring my starting 
rope. I improvised by having my coach hold my feet at the wall and start
 by laying on my back instead of what I've been practicing. For the 100 
free and 50 back I may have had 5 minutes in between those events, if 
any. In addition, I was in the car for 3 hours that morning driving 
from CT to Rutgers. So many variables that effected my races,
 but I managed everything well. 

Mentally- The more I relaxed, the faster I was. I was way too intense, 
stressed, and put too much pressure on myself as I was concentrating on 
what times I wanted which is the absolute worst thing to do. I need to 
learn how to let go and know swimming has a place in my life. I 
definitely need to stop being so hard on myself. My true goal is to keep 
going, improving, and to know that I swim faster when I'm relaxed and 
not stressing about things I cannot control.

All in all, I'm still exhausted, but loved the meet! I loved cheering
 on our new swimmers yesterday; it was truly refreshing. 
Currently, I'm going back to bed, study for my midterms 
and train again tomorrow.
 I know it's 9am, but good night :)

Back For Round 2!

I’m back for round 2! This spring semester is crazy! I'm amazed that I found time to write another blog entry during the second week back on campus...


So I thought last semester my schedule was busy, but manageable...now, it's just crazy! This semester I have my internship, classes, and training. Everything looked pretty doable on the calendar, but I somehow keep challenging myself on how much I can take on. I do have to say, I am getting use to this new schedule and absolutely love everything I'm doing.  


My internship is amazing, I couldn't ask for more. I'm working at the state legislature, interning for our Senate Majority Leader; 18 hour week. Last week I had the opportunity to meet the Lieutenant Governor and make myself feel at home at the capital. It feels kind of surreal that I'm working in the capital, but it's slowly becoming my reality. I'm new to this whole political scene, but I'm getting the hang of things. I love the atmosphere, there's always something going on, meetings to attend, people to meet, and letters to write. I'm looking forward to next Wednesday when session starts and am excited to see what really goes on in my state government. 


As for classes, I'm taking requirements for my human rights major. Right now it's just a ton of intro readings for the classes, but things will start to pick up. 


My days are pretty filled. Most of the week I'm working until the afternoon at the legislature and make it back to campus just in time for class. It gets a bit tricky with training. On those days I usually have to wake up for 6 to be in the water by 7 to be back on campus for 10:30 for my class at 10:50. The rest of those days I'm in class until 4. Mondays I work all day and usually come back to my room by 6pm. After that I go and lift. I somehow am trying to fit in doing homework and researching issues for this session on top of everything. I told you, it's getting pretty tricky this semester juggling everything, but so far so good!


Training's going well, but I'm still in the process of adjusting a few things to my new schedule. For instance, I had to switch from swimming Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday to Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. I'm also swimming an hour earlier in the morning so I've had to adjust my breakfast routine. In addition, I'm in the process of evaluating when would be the best and most effective days and times to lift after work. I always have to keep in mind physical exhaustion and my limits as that's a main factor for MD athletes to get weaker. I’ll be making up one of my workouts tomorrow as today I didn’t eat enough before practice. That means I'll be swimming after work and classes, but it's doable, I'm a go-getter for things I want! When my body doesn’t have enough energy, I literally want to go to sleep. These are all manageable adjustments which will become my normal routine in no time! I do have to say, being flexible and adjusting to new circumstances is one of the best things I’ve learned over the years.  


As for swim meets, I only have one local meet in downstate CT this month and then a disability regional meet at Rutgers next month. Taking care of my body and training to the best of my abilities is really my priority at the moment. London trials are going to be here before you know it and I can honestly say I’m giving my goal every single ounce of effort and energy I possibly have. Although my goal is taking a ton of time, effort, more effort, and challenges, I’m living my dream and I’m holding nothing back.


Round 2 is underway and I'm beyond excited to see what amazing experiences will occur this semester!


Stay tuned :)

Ending 2011 On A High Note

I apologize for being a HORRIBLE blogger! I only have free time when I'm on break and it has FINALLY arrived! I usually never do this, but for the past 4-5 hours I've been watching old episodes of The New Girl (I completely recommend watching it!) and just not doing anything. Now it's time to finally give an update!

I'm so glad finals are over! It was way too stressful, it was just bad. There were times when I spent too many hours writing papers, studying, writing more papers, then going back to studying. So happy I finally have a chance to breathe!

So my last blog was in October before I left for the San Diego Triathlon, my favorite weekend in the year. You would think that San Diego would be warm in October, but for some reason it was as cold, if not colder than Connecticut! I packed shorts and summer clothes, but the whole time I was freezing!!  Despite the weather, I LOVED seeing my friends from the Challenged Athletes Foundation. My family and I had a great time at the swim clinic on Saturday and Sunday was the big swim. Again, the air was pretty cold, but I thought a mile swim would be doable as I've done longer distances before. I had my swim buddies with me, Felicia and Tony and we just went for it! The water was FREEZING! 60ish degrees! I've never felt my face that cold before. Except for the temperature, everything else was going great; however, we were a half mile in and I was still shivering. It's not good to keep my muscles cold so I decided that I should get out, risking my health just wasn't worth it. I then went to the emergency tent and found out I caught a chase of hypothermia; so glad I decided to get out! I definitely don't regret going out to San Diego as I absolutely love CAF and catching up with my friends Scout Bassett, Ryan Levinson, and others. I hope that next year the water's warmer!

The week after San Diego I had my first swim meet of the season with my CCAT team. We hosted it in a 25 meter pool which is pretty uncommon to do these days, but it was so much fun! Loved cheering on my team and at that time I was 4 seconds away from breaking the 1998 100 Back American Record...so close! I know next time we have a meet there, I'm pretty sure I'll break it!


During the month of November my training was intensified to training 6-7 days a week. I swam 4x, lifted 2-3x and cycled before swim practice. Granted, there were times when I had to let my body rest whether I got sick or I needed to give myself more time to recover. During this training period my AMAZING longtime friend, Scout Bassett, came to Trinity for a few days! Scout spoke to our students about her life story, invited by our WGRAC group, and I'm beyond grateful that she came!! Scout stayed with me in my dorm and we had so much fun during her stay! Is there a such thing of having too much fun, because I think we were pretty close to that! If you don't know Scout, I'd recommend Googling her name and just read the first few articles that come up. Scout is one amazing friend to me, I love her, we have so much in common, I could go on and on about her...she's basically amazing. I'm so blessed to have her as a friend.

I'd say about 2 weeks after Scout's stay I had a swim meet at Harvard. I woke up at 4 am to drive into Cambridge and swim at 7 in the morning; you gotta love it! Can I just say that Harvard's pool is AMAZING...period! So I was first heat first event for the 50 free and what happens to me? My goggles filled up with water as soon as I dove in...oh of course that would happen right?! No worries though, I immediately threw them off and swam without seeing where I was going! I do have to say, regardless of the slowish time, it was pretty entertaining. 100 back was next and with the new adjusted stroke (oh, my coach changed my stroke a week before) I dropped roughly 30 seconds! Who does that?! From my first meet of the season (3:40) I went down to a 3:11...crazy! So needless to say I left Harvard feeling pretty happy and had to buy myself a Harvard swimming sweatshirt of course!

Between this time and the end of the semester, I was training and really concentrating on my grades. Those were the only two things I needed to concentrate on with no distractions whatsoever. I seriously cannot get over all the work professors give us during finals, but that's another story. The end of the semester left me feeling BEYOND exhausted!

So last Saturday was my most recent swim meet. I was registered for the 200 Back and 150 IM. The week prior, I was going under the American Record times for both events during practice, so I was definitely looking forward to swimming at Wesleyan. So I decided to wear my Lazer and swim fast enough to make these new records official. Wow, I was not expecting to go that fast! To make the 200 Back American Record I needed to get under an 8:32, during practice I was going 6:30s, and that day I went a 5:57! And on top of that, I broke the 2006 100 Back American Record (2:53) by going out for my first 100 in a 2:52! Then, to break the 150 IM I needed to get under a 6:57 and I did a 5:31! The 150 IM was a personal best regardless of having an injury and I couldn't be happier with those swims! The 100 and 200 back were 5-10 seconds off my best times before my injury, so I was on cloud 9! I loved having my teammates there and some of my friends from high school cheer me on (shout out to Laura and Jackie)! That was an absolutely amazing day for me and I'm looking forward to experiencing more like moments.

What still shocks me is that I'm doing half the work I use to do when I use to get those times. The only thing I can conclude is I'm more water efficient than ever, training smarter, listening to my body and knowing it's okay to stop, and I'm surrounded by the best coaches and trainers who know my body. I'm finally getting all the right things together and there's no better time to have that. I couldn't be happier with where things are going...I really couldn't.

At the moment, I only have 2 weeks off of school and then January I'm taking a winter class to graduate on time. On top of that I'll still be training and going to swim meets. My second semester looks busier than ever. I'll be interning for CT's Senate Majority Leader (18 hour work week), taking classes, and training. It's going to be so busy, but I'm ready for it, I love keeping busy and am really looking forward to my internship!


My friend, Laura, gave me a congratulations card for my swims and on the cover it said, "Success comes to those who never stop dreaming". Now, without getting too corny, it is pretty true. No matter what challenges I've faced, I've always kept dreaming, kept pursuing my passion, and kept going. Whenever I want to quit, I always picture my 7 year-old self dressed as an Olympic swimmer for Halloween telling me to keep pushing forward. And I couldn't be happier where things are going for me. I'm so glad to end 2011 this way and ring in 2012 with more positivity than ever before. I'm living out my childhood dream and becoming the person I always dreamed of...how could that not bring a smile to my face?

:)

New Beginnings

I've been meaning to write another entry as I realized my last one was in July and I finally have some free time.

So what have I been up to lately? Just training and college life. It sounds like a pretty simple schedule, but trust me I'm occupied, but I like it that way.

Finally I'm getting things right my junior year. Unlike last year due to my late transfer, I'm finally living on campus and absolutely loving it. I lucked out with an amazing roomie :) and I finally have a class schedule I like and professors who make the class material interesting. My favorite class so far is about immigrants and refugees. Part of our requirement is to spend time with an immigrant or refugee once a week. I've been tutoring a refugee from Africa in Anatomy and I'm learning more than I could ever  imagine if I was just reading a book. Other than my classes, I'm in the process of starting a Toastmaster's Public Speaking Club, coordinating an event on campus for International Disability Day, and hosting my good friend, Scout Bassett, to speak at Trinity next month. In addition to that I'm in the process of applying for some internships at the UN and the state legislature. And when I have free time on Wednesdays I'll be helping out my high school swim team with stroke technique. Yup, I'm busy...


As for training, it's going amazingly well. I'm doing all of my training off campus; swim practice and weights in the morning before my classes. My routine usually consists of training at a local pool during the week with my coach's workouts and then traveling down state to practice with my team on weekends. I then do weight training with my trainer/therapist 1-2x a week. I'm concentrating on improving my upper body now so most of  my land exercises are more specific to that area. As I had to start from the ground up after my injury, I can now say I'm roughly 2-5 seconds away from my old times. This is great news as I'm training differently than I was prior to my injury as I'm not using certain muscles and relying more on my upper body in order to be water efficient. Although I still have so much work to tackle in order to have a legitimate shot for trials next June, at least I know I'm on the right track with training and I'm certainly optimistic.

Words cannot describe how excited I am for the San Diego Triathlon next weekend sponsored by the Challenged Athletes Foundation! That is going to be one busy weekend as I leave next Friday, the triathlon's Sunday, and then arrive back at school Monday night...and I have a 10 page paper due too. I'm planning to do all my work on the flight as it's about 6 hours. For the tri, I'm just doing the swim portion, it's a mile in the Pacific, and the water's suppose to be low 60s/high 50s. I've swam in mid 60s before, so I don't think there'll be that much of a difference. I'm looking forward to spending time with my friends who will be competing that weekend. I love the positive energy at this triathlon with the amazing people and stories heard about trials and triumphs. It's honestly my favorite weekend out of the entire year.


Stay tuned :)

Summa Summa!

So this is the second time I'm sitting down to finish this entry. Last week I somehow got distracted so I'm determined to finish this tonight!

 

I'm loving summer and there's one week left of July!

So where to begin?

 In June I went to a gala for the Challenged Athletes Foundation as they're one of my sponsors. It was held at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC. The event was to raise money for sports grants or equipment for challenged athletes and to thank our supporters. I had an idea of what to expect, but that night was better than anything I could have imagined! There were some amazing stories from athletes about their challenges and successes. CAF does a great job of showing athletes, supporters, and others that anything is possible and there's no reason to give up. I loved seeing my other athlete/friends dressed up instead of dressed for a swim meet or triathlon. The event ended with a performance by Macy Gray which was amazing, she has such a great voice! Us athletes went on stage for her last performance and danced to her last song. :) I left that night feeling inspired and grateful to have CAF support countless athletes across the world and all together we raised $1.4 million! Above is a picture of myself and my friend, Paratriathlete World Champion, Melissa Stockwell at the gala.

This past week I had a national meet up in Quebec. It was only to get looked at by the paralympic classifiers  due to my previous nerve injury. As the paralympics are divided into different classes based on function, I knew I should be looked at again so I can compete against people with similar mobility as me. I really had no clue what to expect as the process consists of a long muscle test followed by some swimming, but I went in with an open mind. The meet started on Friday and I was classified on Thursday. Late afternoon that day (Thursday)  the classifiers decided to drop me to a lower mobility class...I was relieved that the stressful process was over. That was bittersweet; bitter in the sense of knowing you're slightly weaker, but sweet that you're competing against others with similar mobility. So the next morning I had the 100 free prelims and dropped roughly 15 seconds since last month! I was beyond happy and then the classifiers came over to my coach and I and asked if I could get muscle tested again for my right arm. Again I started to become stressed. They wanted to figure out why on land I can't lift my arm, but for my backstroke I can lift it straight out of the water. Even I don't know how it's possible, but since they came up with the same results again the classifiers officially left me in my new class. At least I know the classifiers are very thorough and really make sure that each athlete competes fairly.

Saturday I swam the 50 free and breastroke. I'm not a breastroker so I wasn't looking forward to that event, but I dropped 9 seconds since the last time I swam it at a big meet! I was certainly shocked and to top it off I dropped another 10 seconds on my 50 free since last month! That's just unheard of! Sunday I swam 50 back and dropped 14 seconds since last month...again! That was crazy! I brought home 3 golds out of 4 events too. And best of all during that whole meet, I had absolutely NO nerve pain!

So overall I dropped over 30 seconds since June and am 30 seconds under world ranking cuts! I'm now only 10 seconds away from my old times before my injury and have to drop an additional 5 to make the London cuts! I can do this, I can really do this, especially with my new training schedule and great team I have. I feel really hopeful about making the London cuts with the way I've been dropping time, but I'm taking each day at a time. I've realized that swimming is not my whole life, a passion and keeping my muscles in shape, but not the end all. Regardless with what happens at trials next year, I'm going to keep on swimming.:)


Other than swimming and training, I'll be working at Hospital for Special Care's Ivan Lendl Adaptive Sports Camp in a few weeks. My job is to be a counselor, but to also improve on how the camp can be more accommodating to children with Muscular Dystrophy and neurological disorders. Most people don't know that someone with MD can fatigue very quickly out in the heat or that taking multiple rests is very beneficial while being active. I'm excited to work with the kids and ultimately see what I can do to bring more kids with MD out of the house and on the court, deck, or track.


I saw Rihanna a couple days ago and she was amazing! Sounds exactly like she does on the radio without lip singing. I love her hair and want her hair cut, but without the red lol ;)

Summa summa summa time!