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?
:)
