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 :)