When it Rains…

I sent this Irish Blessing to one of my sisters a few months back, I was having a hard day today and it just came to me that I needed to read it again. So, I thought it would be best to share with others.

I wish you not a path devoid of clouds,

Nor a life on a bed of roses

Not that you might never need regret

Nor that you should never feel pain.

No, that is not my wish for you

 

My wish for you

That you might be brave in times of trial,

When others lay crosses upon your shoulders.

When mountains must be climbed and chasms are to be crossed;

When hope scarce can shine through.

 

That every gift God gave you might grow along with you.

And let you give the gift of joy to all who care for you.

 

That you may always have a friend who is worth that name.

Whom you can trust,

And who helps you in times of sadness.

Who will defy the storms of daily life at your side.

 

One more wish I have for you:

That in every hour of joy and pain you may feel God close to you.

This is my wish for you, and all who care for you.

This is my hope for you, now and forever.

Sometimes I think it is easier to sit and mope instead of taking the time to call your family and friends. If my Internet was better this week I would call everyone. Instead I’m working on emailing. Although not as good its better than nothing. My favorite line in this blessing would have to be “And let you give the gift of joy to all who care for you.”

This too shall pass…

Seeing as the first half of the season is over tomorrow, I felt that I could finally accept what my summer has brought me and spend the time really filling everyone in. It has been a rough 6 months to say the least.

So, why not start somewhat from the beginning. I spent the beginning of my offseason with nagging left knee pain. It was the strangest pain that not only baffled me but also the athletic training staff at the Olympic Training Center. I would describe my pain exactly the same every time I complained about it; I would tell them that my bones hurt and this made no sense to anyone. We changed my workouts took this out tried this instead and nothing ever felt better. Nothing worked. I finally saw our team Doctor; orthopedic surgeon Dr. Byrne we decided to get an MRI, which of course came back with nothing conclusive. Just that my medial meniscus looked worn, but nothing too horrible. So I sucked it up and against my normal fear of pain and better judgement I got a cortisone shot. Spent a few days resting and tried to workout again. Well it didn’t work at all.

Before I lost my mind, I did what any homesick girl missing her mom would do; spent a week at home on the beach with my family. It was just what I needed no work, no workouts, no stress, and no knee pain? Yes to all but the last one.

I got back to Lake Placid after a refreshing week off on Monday August 6th. I told myself alright if you can get through your entire workout then your knee is fine and you will be great this season. That didn’t happen, I got through one sprint and was in excruciating pain I just sat down and cried. The next day I told myself alright if you can push on the treadmill skeleton style then thats all I need this year and I will be fine. I thought it was going well, got through the pushes I set as my goal and didn’t have any pain. Until I got 30 feet from the treadmill and my knee got “stuck”. So I lost it again, and saw Dr. Byrne that afternoon. I think my exact words to him were “I can’t take this anymore you have to go in and see what is wrong.”

That was Tuesday, August 7th and I had surgery Monday August 13th. Needless to say I told almost no one that I was having surgery or what I had done for a good amount of time. I didn’t know what he was going to find in my knee but we talked before I went in and said fix whatever you see. Come to find out when I woke up that I had a brace on my leg and got a stitch in my lateral meniscus because I had a tear at the deepest layer possible.

I didn’t really comprehend how long my recovery would be and how hard it would be to come back to sliding and working out. I tried to race team trials, and it was so hard to get back on my sled. I was uncomfortable, in pain and tentative all at the same time. Being a stubborn athlete I did it anyway and even came to Park City. It was too much too fast and my knee got really swollen and I couldn’t finish. I got put onto the Intercontinental Cup Circuit for this season.

I’m amazed everyday how difficult it is when I go to warm up and push my sled. Even being on my sled isn’t easy or comfortable. I still don’t feel like myself sliding and its really disappointing. I know it will get better but its hard to deal with and as positive as you can try to be it doesn’t always work out.

I’m ready for a break and to work on getting stronger and faster again. There is one final race tomorrow before the first half of the season officially is over. I’m going to focus on relaxing and feeling more comfortable and hopefully end on a good note.

New post soon.. For Real!

I think some motivation is in order before I catch everyone up on the past few months. Everything has been a little harder than normal, but I think it makes you want it more…and you end up more grateful when it all works out because you’ve worked your hardest!

          “Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.”

 

It’s been too long..

Here is a good one I found a while ago..

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

Mark Victor Hansen

It has been a long time since I have posted anything about what I have been up to. Just a little bit longer and I will get to it again. Mark the day though October 12th in Lake Placid, NY there were snow flurries! A decent amount of them too! It has been a cold October!

Staying Strong…

“Be confident.

Too many days are wasted comparing ourselves to others and wishing to be something we aren’t.

Everybody has their own strength and weaknesses,

and it is only when you accept everything you are – and aren’t –

that you will truly succeed.”

Much Needed…

May God give you…

For every storm, a rainbow,

For every tear, a smile,

For every care, a promise,

And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer.

Irish Prayer

My $5 fund…

I thought I would give everyone a little insight on “My $5 fund” all of my coworkers have been asking me how my fund is

Sunset at the beach while having dinner at Guppies in FL. Mom and me!doing lately so I figured why not share a little of my oddness with everyone else. 

doing lately so I figured why not share a little of my oddness with everyone else.

A little background about “the fund;” a few years ago my Aunt sent me this article along with a $5 bill. The article was about a woman who wanted to take her family on vacation she decided to save up every $5bill until she had enough to afford a week vacation for her family of five. It took her about a year to take them on a week vacation to the beach.

It became just a little something for me to do, work on saving money and not spending any of it, and before I knew it when we had cash tips at work my coworkers always handed me the $5’s because they knew I would put them in “my fund.” It has gotten to the point that if I am out and want a coffee I have to look in my wallet first and if I only have 5’s I won’t buy anything. I make it a point to not spend any of them, instead I put them in the bank (the bank tellers must think I’m nuts always giving them $5 bills).

Need some more recent family pictures I suppose, this is from 2010!

But who cares, I have a purpose for this fund. It was originally going to be my vacation fund for who knows when, then it changed to how long can I really save all of these $5’s. Until maybe sometime this past winter when I wanted my mom to come to Europe and visit, but we had World’s in Lake Placid and that was the big goal. All of this made me realize that our trip to Russia as a family in 18 months is going to be an expensive one. That is when my $5 fund finally had an official purpose, it has become the Russia 2014 Olympic fund.

I will continue to go out of my way to not spend a single $5 bill, to see how many I end up with come February 2014. I had the sweetest customers at work a few weeks ago. They asked what I did and I told them my whole skeleton story. Their first question after how crazy are you was; is your mother going to be able to go to Russia with you. I began to tell them about my $5 fund (they are the first customers I ever told this story to), I explained that everyone is coming to Russia no if ands or buts. They were so kind and went into their wallet and took out a $5bill just for my fund.

Florida vacation before heading back to LP for training, Aunt Susan, Mom, Uncle Jimmy and me.

Maybe I am feeling extra Olympic because opening ceremonies are tomorrow and I don’t have work so I can stay home and watch which I am so excited for. For the Vancouver opening ceremonies in 2010 I had to work, so my roommate/teammate Rachelle and I decided we needed to record them. The DVR in the athlete lounge was full so we went out and bought a VHS tape just to record them! She watched while I was at work and when I came home we watched them on our VHS tape. It didn’t occur to us until long after that we probably could have just found them online and watch later as well. Taping it ourselves was more fun! Just excited I get to watch tomorrow.

Just wanted to share a little bit with everyone while it was on my mind. But, seriously if you have anything to save up for this is a great way to do it. Might take a little long but I feel more dedicated to my cause this way!

As Kaitlin said… “Holding it together”

That’s right Kate, I’m stealing your blog title from yesterday. Mainly because that is how I feel at the moment just holding it all together while the summer goes by way too fast, I work too much for my training to be as good as it needs to be, and for my knee to continue giving me problems.

This is what I need, back to our family Disney trip in 2007. Dad is taking the picture.

On a positive side, the weather in Lake Placid really has been great despite one humid hot day I thought I was going to have an asthma attack (which I will sit here and tell you I don’t even have asthma, but who knows). It has been a while since I have posted yet again, my days with free time I think are mainly spent napping or in a stare at the t.v. or Justin’s computer screen (not even my own)!

I’m pretty sure I know the remedy for my feeling of being tired of working and hurting from training; this picture is just what I need. Kaitlin’s post with the picture from Point Lookout inspired me (our favorite beach right at Grandma’s house, what a perfect place)! I need a family vacation, Disney would be ideal but even the beach or just home is calling my name!

Training is going well, been doing a lot of modifying to accommodate my knee pain, mainly changing up my running for the time being. Still feeling super strong so thats all that matters. I can’t believe it is already the end of July, the summer goes by way too fast.

Just sent in my Devry University application to start a masters program in the fall so I have something other than just sliding to occupy my time.

Its not even late but I am getting so tired I can’t even think about the many things I should write about. So for now I am thinking of calling it a night; ice my knee and head to bed. Come back tomorrow for a better try on updating training and everything like that.

“Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss.”

It’s already July!

You can tell summer is in full swing when there is no time for anything other than workouts and work, with a little bit of coffee and enjoying some sun. We got back from our annual team camp in Colorado Springs last Sunday, just in time to make it home before the crazy fires out there.

Mid falling down after pushing the prowler 20yards and my legs just couldn’t sprint to tag Kyle’s hand.

Snatch pull to knee at the NSCA

Team Camp was fun like always, jam-packed with meetings, team building and our regularly scheduled workouts. We left Lake Placid at 3am Sunday morning and had a miserable travel day getting all the way to Colorado. Traveling to and from Lake Placid is never an easy day. The NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) is one of our sponsors with their headquarters in Colorado Springs, they were awesome enough to let us workout at their facility for a few days to get out of the training center. They were responsible for our first team building activity on Monday which about killed everyone!

Another one of our team building activities was to go to Dream Dinners and with a partner have one person blindfolded and the other use their non dominant hand to put together a dinner. Of course we made it a competition just to keep it interesting. It was so much fun and a great way to have easy healthy dinners. We got to BBQ them at the pool for dinner that night.

Snatch grip off-set overhead lunges

 

It is great to get away from Lake Placid for a week and train at another training center. The Gala on the last night was fun like always, Justin got the bobsled athlete’s choice award. (the only award athletes vote on). Some of us went to Fort Carson army base and talked with some of the wounded warrior soldiers, it was a great experience everyone was so interested in what we do.

SGT Olsen and myself at the Gala

The weather was awesome it was nice to not worry about it raining and have it be almost 100 with no humidity. It has been good being back in Lake Placid this past week. I started a new training block last Monday, front squats instead of back squats, clean pulls, only three days of lifting still and I have sets of 5’s. They are much better than sets of 10.

I have been working a ton, which is not what I wanted to do but we are starting to get busy and so many people are just randomly out-of-town at work. I suppose its alright get it all in now, since I have already decided I am not working next summer.

Going outside on this beautiful day to do tempo (strides and 1min abs). Wishing I could be in Florida with my mom, one sister, aunt, uncle, cousins and kids. Maybe next time. Must train!

Woahhh got busy

Well, I guess training got a little overwhelming along with work and pure exhaustion really! So a huge catch up here:

My weekend of nannying was exhausting it took me until the last day to realize that I needed to tell the girls to play by themselves so I could sit or eat. I’m not sure if I ate all that often. But they are both so cute and fun, made me miss my cousins and being with them all in Texas though.

As of last week I am on a 3 week training block, back to 3×10’s, the main reason why I was so exhausted last week and with work I barely had time for anything. Last Monday’s squat workout was so tough I had tunnel vision developing for my last 3 exercises and by the time I finished it was full on. I had no peripheral vision, was so confused and just had a headache. So glad I didn’t have to go into work because I had to take a 2 hr nap to feel normal! The rest of the week was difficult but not that bad. I have been having a hard time with my allergies and being able to breathe while training. It is the most humid it has been up here in so long I almost feel like I have asthma during some of the workouts.

I had a great Saturday morning at the track by myself to do strides and abs. It was a great day, put on my new Brooks running

Relaxing during sets of strides. A little kinesio tape on my knee because its been nagging a bunch!

shoes and felt super springy! Such a great feeling I just wanted to fly over the high jump bar. Made me miss a teammate Sam Culiver, we spent a lot of time at the track together last summer, but this year she is training at home in Arizona with my other teammate Rachelle.

Work was busy of course and it makes the weekend go by too fast most times. I already feel like the summer is going to fast and I just seem to always be busy. With what else? I’m not really that sure !

Today was the start of week 2 of this 3 week block, the weights and intensity were heavier than last week but I’m not as tired today. Might have helped that I switched my allergy medicine from Zyrtec to Claritin and I think that helped! That is all I have time for at the moment, running downstairs to get a massage and then dinner time. Hopefully there is something good in the cafeteria I am starving tonight!