Sunday, June 26, 2011

There's more to life than bobsled...

It has been an incredibly busy past two weeks. Last weekend I went home for my Chico High School 10 year reunion. I made the mistake in high school of running for Class President and therefore was put in charge of making sure our reunion happened. It was a great success and I think every one of my classmates that attended thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I have since put in my Class President resignation and I am hopeful that someone will pick up the next ten year term.

After my reunion I headed back to Colorado Springs for our yearly National Team camp.  This is a time when our entire national team gets together to ‘bond’ without the stress of competition. This year I was able to bring a few of my teammates to the Boys and Girls club. I was excited and thankful that my teammates were willing to make time in our busy camp schedule to put the kids through a mini bobsled tryout. There were four different stations for the kids to rotate through including vertical jump, broad jump, ‘shot toss’ and a bobsled push station which included scooters for the kids to push each other. I know the kids really appreciated meeting Olympic bobsledders and even seeing a gold medal!




Bobsledders in the making!


I ended up skipping out on the finale of camp because my older sister, Amber, got married Saturday. I was thrilled to be apart of the wedding as the maid of honor. It was surreal to watch my big sister walk down the isle. She looked absolutely gorgeous and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. I come from a family of four girls, so we are excited to welcome a new brother into our family!



It’s been a crazy, fun, exciting exhausting few weeks, so I am looking forward to getting back into my training rhythm and continue to move forward towards my next bobsled season.



 

Sunday, June 12, 2011

A day in my life..

The life of an athlete is filled with hard work, complications, joy and freedom. Our ‘work days’ are very different then typical Americans work day, but for us it is very normal. Our lives revolve around meals, workouts, massages and sports medicine. My day starts at 8:30 when I go down to the Olympic Training Center cafeteria and get my 2 egg scramble with ham, mushrooms, spinach, and pepperjack cheese made perfectly by my favorite chef, Flower. After breakfast I head down to start our first workout, which includes hill sprints and explosive starts. I then go to sports medicine and recover to prepare for our next lifting workout later in the afternoon. Our recovery includes stretching, icing, and using noramtec pants, which essential attempts to squish the lactic acid out of your legs. After sports medicine I work my way back to the cafeteria have lunch and head to my room for a quick nap before workout number two. The next workout is in the weight room and consists of anything from squats to Olympic lifts which usually take close to two hours. At the end of the day I head to the recovery center here at the Olympic Training Center and use the cold tub and hot tub to help my body recover so that I can perform for the next days workouts.


My job is unorthodox and does not have the pay that a 9-5 job has, but it allows me to spend my days working towards a huge goal and dream. I think sometimes we may take the things we are giving and allowed to do for granted. I am pretty lucky to have the opportunity to live at the Olympic Training Center where everyday I wake up and see the Olympic rings and motto all around me. It surprises me how fast I adapt to my surroundings and how eating breakfast next to Michael Phelps or training daily with a gold medalist turns normal. A day in my life is anything, but ‘normal’ and I am very lucky to support of the USOC to help me reach my goals.