Week 9 Mom finally updated my blog...

We arrived in Florida on Monday, the 5th.  It is hot and humid in Coral Springs, but I am enjoying the rain.  We are staying in an extended stay type hotel for the next 10 days, so it is much different than the Cottages we stayed in before. 

Our first day of practice, we had a crazy monsoon type storm, But it was during our lunch break, so it didn't affect practice too much.

Now that I am here in Florida, we are training harder than ever.  I thought we practiced a lot in California, with long days.  But we are practicing even more.  We don't have as many specialty training sessions, so we are mostly in the pool.  In fact, we spend 3 hours more a day in the water.  Usually we go to the pool at 7am, and come home at 6pm, with an hour lunch break.  We do all of our land training in the evenings after dinner.  At least the view from the pool is nice. 

Alligators any one?  Right outside the pool.

We got to spend our last half day off in Fort Lauderdale. The beach was really pretty, and I could not help but think about all my friends who were stuck in school while I "shore" was having a "swell" day. haha 

But enough relaxing!!  We have only 3 more practices till we leave for Puerto Rico!!  I'm sure we will be working like crazy before we leave.

GO TEAM USA!!

Week 7-8 ( sure wish mom would update more often)

last sunset in Riverside

Goodbye California....Home!! I am coming home!!

This week was our last in Riverside, California.  The Riverside Community College pool has been one of my homes away from home, in addition to The Cottages at CBU.

We have worked really hard on flexibility, strength and conditioning this summer.  I feel like I have improved a lot. Strength and conditioning has been pretty hectic, but we know that it will make us stronger swimmers. We took team pictures this week too.

Junior and 13-15 teams in California

We had trials for the Senior Training Squad this week.  Members of this team have to permanently relocate to Santa Clara, California for training in the first part of September.

I got to come home on Friday, August 2nd, for the weekend.  I was excited, but my afternoon flight was delayed 3 times, so I was disappointed too.  Luckily, I finally made it home. Too bad my luggage caught a later flight.  I was super glad to see my family, and spend the weekend with them.  I also got to spend some time with good friends. 

 But before I knew it, it was time to head to Florida.
It was hard to leave again knowing that I wouldn't see them for a while. I have missed being home and being with my family.

Week 5

We have been training lots as usual, and have been working out booties off! We are focusing on strength and control on land, and also flexibility. We have a strength and conditioning coach who comes every other day and we do work outs on land with him. We also have a gymnastics coach who comes on the days that our s&c coach doesn't come. I really enjoy the gymnastics day because we are learning lots of cool tricks and learning to control our bodies.



Our favorite coach, Mike 2

The 13-15 national team joined us this week, and it's been crazy. It's nice though to have other girls here, especially my club team teammate Olivia. It's nice having someone who I am close with and reminds me of home. It's help a lot.

I am getting home sick, but I just have to remember that I can do hard things. I have to keep my eye on the end goal and keep pushing my self to be the best I can. I am so thankful for all the support I have at home, and all the texts, emails, and letters I have received. It is overwhelming how much love and support has been shown to me!

On our days off, we have done lots of fun things. We actually get to get read for the day and spend sometime acting like normal people! Shopping, lunch dates, movies, ice cream, it's the one day we are allowed to eat desserts! It's nice to get out of the cottages and get a change of scenery.

my first dessert after 3 weeks!  YUM!!

The Cottages: where we are living

Riverside is such a different, but gorgeous city. Super old historic looking buildings with vines growing up the sides, and super green! It's really different from Mesa, but still has beautiful sunsets!

It even rained at practice one day.  Swimming in the rain was awesome, and made me feel like home...

Finally, this week, we got a kitten.  Some of the girls found it wandering around and have adopted it as our team pet...



Week 3 and 4

This week has been great.  I got to spend some time with my home team and watch them swim at the National meet.  They did great and I am really proud of all their hard work.

Some of my team from home



My mom was able to come over and be the team mom/chaperone for 8 days.  We girls kept her busy with concussions, doctor appointments, physical therapy appointments, and a bout of the stomach flu that hit 4 girls. I even hurt my wrist -- bruised my scaphoid bone in my hand.  I have to go easy on it on the land for about 10 days, but I can swim fine.  It feels much better now.

OUCH!!



It was fun to spend time with my mom, and have her see all the great training that we are getting. She even spent one evening doing pedicures for us, and took us shopping at the huge mall on our day off.
We had the 4th of July off, so the team all got to go down to Newport, and spend the day at the beach.  We went to Rockin' Baja Lobster for lunch-- yum!!  we came home to Riverside for the big firework show, but most of us ended up falling asleep before the show, so we skipped it.  These coaches are working us HARD!  Sleep is precious!

Bela and me at Newport Beach

Kaylee, Karenza, Bela, Sandra, Monica, Claire, Coach Heia-Yoon

Ellie, Shiree, Rachel, Katie, Anita

not pictured: Gillian and Karena



 

Week 2

It was quite hard to get back into things after my little accident last week, but I did it and am back into the full swing of things! This week was a tough one. Lots of new work outs and new sets, but I managed to get through it!

We had Wednesday off and so we all slept in and just hung out with each other. Later on in the day we went shopping to get some of the things we needed or forgot to bring.

It was so nice to get out of the house and go to somewhere that wasn't a pool! I had a great day just relaxing and getting I know the other swimmers better.

My club team from AZ are here in Riverside right now for their biggest competition, NATIONALS. It was so good to see them and my coaches. I wish them good luck as they finish up such a great season! I get the opportunity to go watch 11-12 finals this afternoon and cheer on 4 of my cousins who are swimming team, duets, and trios. I am excited!

 I am so so so thankful for all the sweet thoughts and prayers from people back at home and all over the country. There is no way I'd be here if it wasn't for the love and support shown unto me.

OH NO! week one, I spoke too soon!

So the end of week 1 started well on Saturday morning.  But about noon, it all came to a screeching halt.  During a drill, where I was upside down in the water next to a teammate, I was kicked in the head. 

Unfortunately, this kick was pretty bad.  It got me right on my temple, across to my nose.  I came up out of the water all dizzy.  My coach had me get out and ice my head, but when she checked on me a few minutes later, I was out cold.  They were not sure if I passed out, or fell asleep.  But either way, they wanted me checked out.

So off I went to Riverside Urgent Care.  My vitals were good, but I "got" to do a CT scan too.

The scan results came back that night, normal, and I was cleared to swim again.  So after getting the afternoon off, and Sunday morning too, it was right back to intense training. 

I am grateful for the many thoughts and prayers in my behalf this weekend.  I definitely felt uplifted because of them.  I am also grateful for the blessing given to me.  I know it gave me strength and comfort.
 

Week one

First, let me say how grateful I am to each and every one of you that has helped make it possible for me to be here. Thank you for your love and support!!


Dang. This week has been crazy. CRAZY. I arrived in Riverside on Sunday evening, and we got right to work Monday morning.  We work out 10 hours daily, with a 1 hour lunch break. 7-9 land work out, 9-9:30 speed work out. 9:30-1 drills, 1-2 lunch, 2-5 more work. Our training this week included land workouts in the morning (running and conditioning), and working on drills. We also worked on flexibility/stretching.
We had Friday off, well we only were in the pool 2 hours. I am having a great time and am really enjoying getting to know all the other swimmers better. We girls have fun together.
Even though I am so so so sore and tired, it is so worth it. It'll be worth it when we are standing on the podium in Puerto Rico.

I am so excited to announce that I have been named to the 2013 Junior National Team. This is a dream come true for me after many years of hard work. It is an honor to be selected for this team out of all the swimmers in the United States.

On this blog, you can find all kinds of information about sponsoring me, making donations, or just follow what I am doing.

Once I leave for training in California, I will update and let you know all about it!

Thanks for your support! I appreciate you all!