oh the pain...

I have been bobsledder for six years now, yet it still surprises me how sore I am every year when training starts again.  Monday starts off with conditioning in the morning followed by a lifting session in the afternoon that includes more squats then I will ever do once I am retired.  Tuesday is more of an active recovery day followed by Wednesday, which is by far my least favorite day.  Wednesday’s lift is incredibly tough and includes deadlifts, hang pulls, RDLs and pull ups.  This last week it took us close to three hours to complete this workout.  By Thursday my body hurts in every possible place and it feels like there is no way I can function let alone complete another workout.  Somehow I find a way to convince my body to move through the day and complete more conditioning and lifting.  This goes on for the rest of the week until Sunday when I get the day off.  It is amazing to me how powerful the mind can be and of course the Aleve my parents sent me helps too! Every morning I wake up and remind myself why I punish my body the way I do.  My desire to be the best in the World pushes me through each workout and helps me to not only work hard but to complete every workout with intensity.

Determination

This past week we had a watermelon eating contest at the Boys and Girls Club.  Everyone was added into a drawing and were selected by age group to compete in the watermelon eating contest.  There were four different age groups, but unfortunately there was not a 20-30 age group so instead of participating I led the kids in cheering on each of their age groups. After the contestants were chosen they each were given close to a quarter of a watermelon to complete.  Once the whistle was blown and the contestants began to gobble up their watermelon the entire club was overwhelmed by cheers and screams by the audience.  The participants each had a different technique to try and complete the watermelon the quickest. 

In the end the older age groups came out as the winners.  The contest had been over for close to ten minutes when I looked in the corner and a little boy in the 6-8 age group was still working on his watermelon.  I watched as one of the teachers let the little boy know that the watermelon eating contest was done and that he didn’t have to finish the watermelon. He continued to press forward and was going to finish that watermelon no matter how long it took him to complete it.  After another ten minutes passed he finally finished the watermelon and held it proudly over his head!  He looked incredibly proud.  He had done it.  Sometimes it is not always about being in first place, but instead being determined enough to finish. 

getting ready to dive in!

The winners!

SportFit!

I remember in high school it was not very cool to be a female jock.  I struggled with wanting to be apart of the popular crowd, but identifying with the athletes.  For the males the popular crowd and the jocks were one in the same, but this was completely different for the females and decreased the amount of females to participate in sports.  My senior year I was one of two seniors on the track team mostly because it was not popular to spend time competing in sports.  I have always been very competitive and passionate about sports, so it was no surprise that in high school that I wanted to pursue college athletics. I knew I had to get stronger and faster in order for me to be competitive at the college level.  For this reason I decided to train at Chico State with a group of high school athletes in a program called SportFit.  SportFit was my first experience with Olympic lifting and really helped me transition from high school athlete to college athlete.    

I was incredibly excited to be able to come back to Chico and work with the athletes at SportFit.   I was even more excited to see more than a handful of female athletes in the gym working hard to get stronger and more explosive.  This is such a positive change from when I participated in SportFit and was the only female athlete.  I learned an incredible amount from Steve Henderson and his crew at SportFit and I was able to put my college degree and my National Strength and Conditioning Certification to use.  I hope when I am back in Chico again I can continue to work with the athletes at Sportfit.  I enjoyed working with all the athletes but I was mostly pleased to see the increase of interest from female athletes.

Happy Birthday Amber!

Amber and Emily on Amber's 3rd Birthday

Happy 30^th Birthday to my older sister Amber!  Amber and I are only 13 months apart in age.  I have always felt lucky to be so close in age with my sister and to have a built in best friend.  Amber and I were constantly mistaken for twins when we were kids.  It is probably more because of the ridiculous short, permed haircut our mother gave us both then the fact we actually looked a like.   I am sure many people also thought that no parents in their right minds would have two children so close in age on purpose!  Of course like any sisters we have had our fair share of arguments and hair pulling fights, but she has always looked after me. 

I remember after my first season of bobsled I came home and had 12 cents in my bank account.  My sister knew I was struggling and would randomly, on her own, add money into my account to help me survive.  I have always been proud of my older sister and I hope that if some day I have children they will have a relationship with their siblings like I have had with mine.

Christmas 1983

1986

Flower Girls 1985

1998

Amber's wedding June 2011

2011-2012 Bobsled Season









Bree and Emily in the Susan G Komen Boobsled







It is not often that my family is able to come to a bobsled race. Some of it is the timing of the events, but mostly it is the location. It is not often that we have bobsled competitions in the states let alone close to California. This year we were fortunate enough to have a home World Championships in Lake Placid, New York. It is very different having a World Championships in the states versus Europe mostly because Americans are not well versed in Bobsled, so therefore it is difficult to draw fans. I was able to draw a few fans of my own including my parents, sister, my aunt, uncle and cousins. Regardless of the outcome of the race it was nice to look around and see people who supported me and were excited to experience my world. I rarely get a chance to see my extended family, so I really enjoyed being able to share a big part of my life with them.


Now that another season is complete I am looking forward to spending some time relaxing and getting back to my ITA work. Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout the years.

Elana Meyers and Emily 5th place in Germany