86 Days

Coming back from my Grand Prix event in Wakayama, Japan, on monday, I am a little disappointed. Though I broke into the top 32 at a Grand Prix for the first time since last year, my performance was hardly spectacular. I definitely didn't fence the way a fencer in the top 16 in the world should, and even though I lost to a Miyake, pretty tough Japanese fencer (I believe he was selected to the Olympic Team, but I'm not positive yet), I didn't execute the way I should have. My actions were wild and my movement was spastic. I guess the short turnaround from the Junior World Championships in Moscow and the Olympic Announcement in Virginia Beach really affected my fencing. At least I'll be home for a couple weeks to train now before my next trip: in two weeks I fly to Dallas for a big Media Summit with a lot of other Olympians. Then two days after I get back, I'm off the Seoul, Korea, for the World Cup I placed third at last year. All the while, I'll be studying for AP Tests, even taking my physics one on one of those two days between Dallas and Seoul. It's a ridiculous schedule but I've gotten used to it over the years.

Today was my first real day of training during this Senior Project, but even though I was supposed to fence today, my teammates and I decided to cancel practice because on of them had hurt his hamstring in Wakayama. With the others either in school or not training (unfortunately two of my teammates just missed the Olympic Team, one for USA and one for Canada), it's tough sometimes to get practice in. I'll probably make up today and tomorrow (tomorrow I'll be missing it because of the Drew Music Concert, I'm playing piano) by going in extra hours on friday and saturday. Even though I missed practice today, I stayed extra late at the gym today. I got some well-needed conditioning in by playing basketball for a couple hours, then hit the weights for about an hour more. I'm ridiculously sore as I write this. Tomorrow I'll keep up my regimen by swimming for a couple hours (I'm alternating between weights and swimming everyday as my cross-training) before I go back to Drew for my AP Physics class, and then to the concert.  It's going to be a long day tomorrow....

For those of you who are wondering, I'll be posting a full workout regimen for fencers trying to compete at their highest level later on during my project. I first need to see what weights and repetitions are best for  fencing; I'm still experimenting a little bit but I think I've found a good workout routine.

86 days until the Games- hasn't hit me yet, but I think there will just be some spontaneous time where I fully realize how close it is and what I'm about to do