Tired...

I had yesterday off from training, though I did go to the gym to watch my team mates workout...its all about being a team ! Everyone on the team is very supportive, we constantly cheer each other on. I am really glad to have such great team mates.

Today I had a very long, hard, exhausting workout. I had snatches, clean and jerks, back squats and clean pulls. It took me nearly 2 1/2 hours to complete the 4 exercises of the workout. Following our workout everyone went to cold plunge to help aid our recovery from the workouts our bodies just endured. I was supposed to cold plunge for 10 minutes but only lasted 5, I thought my little toes were going to fall off it was so cold ! (cold plunge is a 50 degree bath filled with cold water and ice, sounds fun, huh ?!)

Our team headed off to lunch and then back to the training room for recovery massages. We left the training site at 4pm and I about fell asleep on the bus ride back I was so tired from the days workout. When we arrived back a the village a bus load of other Team USA athletes were arriving and I saw a few familiar faces from the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center where I live and train. The village is really starting to fill up and everyone is arriving from countries around the world ! I did take a quick cat nap for 40 minutes and do feel much better, but am looking forward to a good solid 8 hours of sleep !

Tomorrow I have off of training, though a few of my team mates don't we will all be there to cheer them on. Saturday, my workout will be moderately heavy, then I will have Sunday off and a hard workout on Monday. I'm looking forward to the next couple weeks of workouts, everything is all coming together for the competition !

Some photos to share....

I thought I would post a few photos for everyone. I did not have to train today so I didn't really have any exciting news to share except that I am feeling much better from yesterday. Enjoy the photos !

Melanie and I decided to hop in the ring for a quick sparing workout.....but she laughed the whole time.....believe it or not she can focus, but only when she lifts weights and plays cards.

Cheryl riding our team bicycle to the training hall. She's so nice to let us sit on the back.... The Olympic mascots near the dining area.

She never stood a chance....

A light and easy relaxing day !

I wanted to post the photo above on my blog a long time ago but I had to do some photo shopping on it since I scanned it in.....the photo is of myself and my 2008 Olympic team mate Melanie Roach. At 14, the time this photo was taken, I never in a million years would have thought that we would be on the Olympic Team together....if I post how old Melanie was she would kill me because you would be able to figure out her age now :) I was at a Junior Squad camp in Colorado Springs and she was there training for the summer and I remember running out of the gym asking her for a photo with her ! I couldn't believe that she could Clean and Jerk 113 kilos, I was star struck ! Today was a very different pace for Team USA since we have arrived. We only had 1 training session today! We traveled from the Olympic village at BNU (Beijing Normal University) for our 11am training session. I had snatches and snatch pulls...the workout took less than an hour. we ate lunch, and then we went to the sports med. training room for recovery. I had a 1 hour massage by a great massage therapist (Thank you Lauri Ann!), and then some treatment on my shoulder. I has surgery a little over two years ago on my left shoulder and every now and then it acts up, but not worries ! I am feeling 100% and ready to go.... I was awoken by thunder and lightening at 2am this morning and I stayed up for 1/2 hour watching the cities sky line light up from our enclosed patio. We woke this morning and the weather was no exaggeration at least 20 degrees cooler than it had been since we have arrived. I have talked with other friends and USOC staff who have been here for a week and they said it is the coolest it has been since they have arrived. If the weather stays like this I will be fine, but yesterday it was so hot I lost 2lbs. Living in Colorado Springs for 7 1/2 years I am used to a dry heat, but certainly no the humidity they have here. The rain seemed to clean up the sky and the air. I know Beijing has been actively making changes to help reduce the smog and air pollution and they have certainly done a great job at it. You can tell that everyone who lives here is very excited about the Olympics and wants to help. They love taking pictures and speaking with you even if their English is minimal they are still very excited to meet and talk with you.

Local News story from WPTZ in Vermont

http://www.wptz.com/video/16993731/index.html

A quick run down !

July 26/27 Early the Saturday morning 100 members of Team USA left San Jose and flew out of San Francisco for a 12 hour flight to Beijing. The flight was surprisingly well and we arrived in Beijing feeling only a little tired. We arrived in the Olympic Village at 5pm on Sunday. The village is absolutely amazing. The buildings are all brand new, the landscaping is beautiful and there is every possible thing you could think of here. It is a small city within a city. The dining area has many different foods to choose from including a 24 Hour McDonald's ! July 28 I slept 9 hard hours last night. I woke feeling rested and ready to go. The jet lag was honestly not as bad as I had anticipated. Around 9am my three team mates and I went to the dining hall and had a great breakfast and then caught a bus to travel to the 24 Hour Fitness Olympic Training Facility at Beijing Normal University. My training went better than I even anticipated considering our travels the last two days. We trained at 11am and 3pm with lunch in between at the Team USA dining facility (which was amazing !) at Beijing Normal University followed by a quick 10 minute cold plunge to help recover from the previous workout. My team mates and I traveled back to the Olympic Village for dinner and a few hours of card games.

WOW WOW WOW

What an AMAZING day ! After waking up at 4am and flying across country I am a bit tired. Not from flying, but from the days agenda.....

Myself and my team mate Natalie and our coaches Bob and Dennis arrived in San Jose where we met up with two of our other team mates Cheryl and Melanie. When we met Melanie we were also greeted with her 93lbs suit case....I questioned if her children were hiding in her bag it was so ridiculously heavy ! Though her children were not hiding in her bag, Mel brought enough stuff for an entire village.

We went on to travel to San Jose University where we went through outfitting, processing and briefing. I can not even express how much stuff we got....Nike and Polo were very generous to Team USA....I will not have to buy any clothing for a looooooong time.

Though the whole day was absolutely amazing, the highlight had to be meeting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ! Myself, Melanie and Natalie met and talked with the Governor about lifting and the two handed press. Following that Cheryl and Steven Lopez (2 time Olympic Gold Medallist) presented the Governor with a Team USA Olympic Jacket.

Tomorrow is going to be an incredibly long traveling to Beijing so I must finish packing up my new wardrobe of TEAM USA clothing and head to bed......this is the first day of my Olympic journey and it has already been INCREDIBLE !!!

Leaving !

Well as many of you know I leave tomorrow ! My flight leaves very early in the morning and we will arrive in San Jose around noon. There we will go through team processing and get our outfitting. The rest of the day we will be busy with alterations and briefings. We then leave the following morning for our direct flight to Beijing (YES !!! Direct flight !!!) Also exciting news....I am blogging on my new lap top computer courtesy of Lenovo ! Thank You very much for such a great computer ! Thank You to everyone who has called and sent emails wishing me Good Luck in Beijing. I truly appreciate all your support. I am off to an Olympic send off BBQ that my Olympic Training Center team mate Jackie Berube is throwing for Natalie, Casey and I. Well, my next post will be from Beijing, so stay tuned ! ! !

I compete CLEAN !

The certificate above shows that I took a pledge to compete as a clean,

drug free athlete!

The Pledge

"I compete for the love of my sport, my health, and my victory."

"I know sports make me a better person."

"I believe that a victory obtained by cheating is a counterfeit and hollow win"

"The only sport I believe in is a clean sport, sport that is free of all cheating, including doping"

"I pledge to uphold these beliegs by always competing clean."

Olympic Medal Tracker

I found this on the Internet and thought it was a great idea to post, its has a count down until the Olympics starts and then posts Team USA's medal count ! Olympic Medal winners at NBC Olympics.com!

Pastor Promise Lee

Athletes are given opportunities to meet new people that they normally wouldn't cross paths with had they had not been an athlete. The man in the photo with me is Pastor Promise Lee. I actually did not meet him at the Olympic Training Center, I met him through his daughter who worked with my Mom.

I first heard about Pastor Lee from my Mom who told me he had written a book about his life. At that point I did not know what the book was about, I just thought it was neat that my friends Dad wrote a book. So I was able to get my hands on a copy of his book titled "Pardoned." To give a short summary of the book it talks about Pastor Lee's life as a young rebellious child and his transformation into a man of God. At 15 he was sentenced 12 years in the Colorado State Penitentiary for second degree murder. When he was released for prison at the age of 26 he gave up his wild ways and became a worker of Gods. He is the Senior Pastor of Relevant Word Ministries and a well known community activist in the Colorado community. A few of his MANY accomplishments include co-authoring 3 publications, winning The National Civic League's All-American City Award, and being recognized at the White House by Vice President Al Gore for his work in strengthening communities.

I had lunch yesterday with Pastor Lee and his teenage son Josiah. I spoke to Pastor Lee about his book and his life and asked him many questions which he all openly answered. We even talked about my fears of transitioning from being a weightlifter to a 'normal' person. I sat and thought, "How silly I am worried about not lifting weights when he was in a jail cell for 12 years locked away from society....." I realized that sometimes I stress about things that are unnecessary and that there are other things I could be putting my energy into.

I can't put into words what an amazing and truly remarkable person Pastor Lee is. He is the person that he is because of the struggles he went though, but I believe it was all in God's plan.

Community Support

Two weeks ago I was given the opportunity to be apart of "Movie Night at America the Beautiful Park" here in Colorado Springs. A group of 20 or so Olympic athletes were recognized and the group was presented with a banner from the Mayor of Colorado Springs (that's him in the picture !) on behalf of the citizens of the city. We sat for 2 hours signing autographs on posters, t-shirts and even Home Depot smocks. I loved meeting so many people that have the Olympic Spirit ! Colorado Springs is a city that loves the Olympics and their Olympians. They are a huge support and we are very lucky to have such a great community to live and train in. One little boy came up to me and asked me if I rode to the park in a limo. I responded and told him no. He then asked, "Do you drive a Lamborghini ?" I said no again. He couldn't believe that the group of Olympians there did not ride in a limo and I did not have a Lamborghini. I told him I drove a Honda and he replied, "Well that's not very fancy for an Olympian !" I thought it was pretty funny and got a kick out of it !

Fox 44 Interview

Unfortuneatly I am unable to post this video directly on my blog but I have the link below (sorry its so long). The segment was on the local Fox 44 network in my home state of Vermont. Enjoy ! http://www.fox44.net/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?clipId1=2666626&at1=Sport&vt1=v&h1=Essex+Native+Heads+to+the+Olympics&d1=112100&redirUrl=www.fox44.net&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=

Last week and what's coming up !

Well last week was a busy week of training. Overall I was happy with how things went but not satisfied ! So last week we finalized everything with Jason's airline ticket and visa paperwork for him to go to Beijing (this was probably one of my highlights of the week!). I also did 2 interviews for FOX Sports network, one is for a Denver based FOX network and the other for back home in Burlington, Vermont. The segment in Burlington should air tomorrow night. I will post a link on my blog so you can view the segment online. Last week I ran into an old friend from the training center who is now the President for a non-profit called America for Gold, Inc. He said that when he was training he was lucky enough to have the financial support of the military but still found it hard to meet the financial demands needed to compete at a high level. Many of his teammates and friends around the training center struggled financially relying on parents, odd hour jobs that pay little, and credit cards. He said that it shouldn't have to be this way and believes if the American people were informed of the struggles of many of our Olympic athletes and hopefuls they would be willing to get behind and join the journey. So, America for Golds mission is to help underwrite the expenses of as many athletes training for an Olympic sport by providing funds for America's athletes. Their web site is not yet up and running but the address will be www.americaforgold.org. They are currently getting ready to start a national fund raising campaign where they will attempt to sign up 100k people to donate $8 a month for one year. Depending on how much money is raised will determine how they can give back to the athletes. I am going to start to do some volunteer work for them which I will keep you posted on and up to date once the web site gets up and going. For training this next week we are on a recovery week which means things won't be so heavy and I won't have so many repetitions. My body is very happy this is a recovery week and I should be well rested for next weeks workouts. Time is ticking down, August 12th is right around the corner ! I am also very excited because this week I am going to be participating in my first USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) education presentation. Myself, and 2 USADA staff members, one being Nathalie Bartleson (1996 Olympic Gold Medalist in Synchronized Swimming) will be giving the presentation to the Junior National Mens Gymnastic team at the Olympic Training Center. Anti-Doping is something that I feel very strongly about and am glad to be apart of spreading the word and educating other athletes. I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July weekend. Have a great week !

More good news !

A few days ago I found out that my husband, Jason, will be able to attend the Olympics. We were not sure if he was going to be able to go because of work. We've got his ticket booked and he will be in Beijing August 11 very early in the morning until the evening of August 14. I am truly very lucky and excited that he will be able to go to China to support me. Training has been going well this week. I am really looking forward to tonight's workout, we have 90% snatches and clean and jerks. This morning we had snatches off the blocks and a pretty great squat workout. I just got out of the 50 degree cold plunge with my teammate Natalie Woolfolk and am sitting here shivering ! I want to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July !