Worth It

This year I have done a lot of visualization and I have learned to embrace it as an important part of my mental training. When I first began, I had the hardest time and I felt like I could never keep my mind locked in on one thing or experience images vividly enough for it to be helpful.  But as with anything else, practice makes perfect--or at the very least it will make you not suck at it.  One of the visualization exercises I do involves picturing myself achieving my biggest athletic goal and experiencing how it feels to have already achieved that goal. I see myself in that place, down to the expression on my face, the tears in my eyes, my body posture, and what is running through my mind.  I picture the people around me and how I interact with them, and the congratulatory responses from all my friends and family.  I do my best to make that moment as real as possible, so that I get to the point that I feel as if it's really happened.  Every time I do this exercise it brings me to tears…but they are tears of joy.  I cry from sheer happiness of actually feeling like I accomplished my goal, and that's when I know I'm visualizing right. And then I ask myself one simple question…

Was it worth it?

And then I become even more emotional. Without a doubt the answer is yes and there is a deep satisfaction in experiencing what success will be like. Now I take the exercise one step further and I let my mind retrace all the steps it took to get to my moment of greatness.  The successes, the failures, the times of self-doubt, the voices of all the people who said I should have given up and moved on by now, the moments I am most proud of--all of it.   My career has been a pretty long one so this part of the visualization process can take a while sometimes. But what I do is work my way backwards and look at my journey from the vantage point of having made it to my destination and all the steps that led me to my achievement.

What I am seeing is my magnificent view at the top of my proverbial mountain and then letting myself remember the grueling hike it took to get there. And when I look back at my climb up--when the path seemed too steep but I kept on going anyway… or the times when the path came to a dead end and I had to search for another way…or even when I was knocked all the way back down to the bottom and had to go back and start from the beginning… I see my journey through the lens of where it has brought me and I know that I am so glad that I stuck with it. This exercise has given my mind a path to follow and made the outcome of all my hard work very real to my brain. It feels like my reality and all I need to do now is go out and have a deja vu experience.

Part of achieving your goal is actually being able to show that you accomplished what you set out to do. But the other part of attaining, the part that completes the magnificent view if you will, and even contributes to it's magnificence, is what happens to you on the inside and who you become. And that's the part that happens through the dead ends, the falls, and all the times you will yourself to continue. When you do this visualization exercise right, you see the whole picture and you appreciate your destination even more because it is firmly connected and intertwined with your journey.


*I wanted to elaborate on some of the specific experiences and memories that I remember during this trip down memory lane but this blog has gotten too long already, so perhaps you can look for it later this week in another posting. I don't know if anyone else would find it as interesting as I do, but at the very least it's a good snapshot for anyone who might be interested.

The Anatomy of a Champion

I've explained this to people time and time again, but I'm not sure they really "get" it. I am a competitor to my core. It's part of everything I do and how I face every situation. There are times I try and hide it a little bit because I'm not sure everyone understands this approach to life and might think it a bit extreme--unless of course you are exactly like me. But if you aren't like me, you might wonder why anything that could possibly be a competition, is. And if it is in fact a competition, then I want to win. It is this approach to life that helps me do what I do for a living, and also helps me in other situations that arise from time to time…

My brother's wedding was this weekend, and when it came time for the bouquet toss, these nice girls didn't know what they were in for. All I've got to say is that if I jump like this when it comes to the Olympic Final, the gold medal is mine!

Earlier in the day my siblings and I took a picture and it seems as if I was commenting on how I should be the one with a ring on my finger. You know, since my brother who is NINE YEARS YOUNGER THAN ME was getting married and all.

When it came time for the bouquet toss, I purposely positioned myself in front and forewarned my competitors. My sister tries to secretly send Cynthia a message and tell her to throw long, but let's be real...I jump for a living.

The flowers go up, and I go into beast mode.

Victory!! It's a shame I don't have an actual picture of me jumping, because I honestly had some serious air time.

Typical of people who aren't "true" competitors, my sister tries to steal my flowers since she wasn't talented enough to grab them for herself.

I plan on applying the same tactics in Eugene, then London, and after that see how they work on a nice young gentleman who will help that naked finger of mine...

The Art of Being Positive

I was talking with my friend yesterday and she asked how my ankle was doing. Girl, that is so last week, I responded. My bizarrely sprained ankle has healed and is functioning fine, I told her, but I did tweak my hamstring last night in my meet. Honestly, she should know this if she followed me on social media close enough but we will give her a pass for having a life. So she said she would now pray for my hamstring to get it together quickly and asked if there was anything else to pray for.

That I stay positive, I said.

For me, that is a far bigger request than my hamstring, or my ankle, or any other non-cooperative body part that doesn't seem to be playing by the rules these days. It is far easier to come back from a strained hamstring than a negative spirit. And I know I'm not there yet-- that god awful place where you throw a party for pity and only invite yourself-- but I want to make sure I don't even get around to creating the evite.

My road is a bit bumpy right now but I haven't lost sight of my destination. Of course I would have hoped for a smoother ride, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter, does it? The only thing that matters is that I stay the course, and I don't care how many times I fall down and bruise my hamstring or my ego, I intend to do just that.

Staying positive means that my focus will continue to stay on what can happen in the future and not so much what has happened thus far. It means that I continue to believe in my goal because that goal is still ahead of me, and that I choose to focus on the good because that is what's going to help me get there. It is definitely a choice, and I want to continue to make the right one. So, please pray for that.

R.I.C.E.

I am no stranger to sprained ankles. Both my ankles have experienced their fair share of sprains over the course of my life and it's to be expected when you've spent most of your time on earth running, jumping, and doing all sorts of ankle jeopardizing activities. So, the fact that I've been nursing a slightly sprained ankle for the past couple of days is no surprise. What is a surprise though, is I have absolutely no idea how I hurt it. Not only that, I've only ever sprained the outside of my ankle, and this time I managed to do the opposite. The whole thing is quite strange and perplexing and I'm almost certain that one of my competitors has a secret voodoo doll with my face attached and has been poking me with pins in the ankle region. It's either that, or I've been sleep bounding and not knowing it.

Whatever the case, I have been prescribed the most ancient and annoying of all remedies… R.I.C.E. For those of you that spent your childhood playing piano and dissecting frogs, you may not be familiar with this, but it stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. This kind of treatment bothers a person like me tremendously and I end up feeling like a helpless caged animal. Yesterday, I tried to add my own twist to it and include med ball throws, bench press, leg press, core circuit, and bike, but in the end the swelling ended up increasing instead of decreasing, and that's not really what I was after. So, today I will follow it a little closer and hope that this little niggle disappears as quickly and as miraculously as it appeared in the first place.

And if you are reading this and you are the one with the voodoo doll, PLEASE STOP!

Almost Famous...

(screenshot I took after watching a clip of the infomercial on youtube.)

It seems that my physique is extremely recognizable. Well…my abdominal section is at least. For the last couple of weeks I've been getting messages from people who happen to be up at 3 am watching infomercials. And the really cool part is, they spotted me on their television! Over the summer I had filmed a series of workout videos for TapouT, and the infomercial for these new workout DVD's has now hit the airwaves. You don't see many close up shots of me in the infomercial portion, probably due to the fact that I was hired to do these videos, and the majority of the other people were participants in the program that transformed their bodies. So, there is a lot more focus on their success stories and the before/after pictures. I didn't participate in the 90 day program and according to my sister, they'd need a baby picture if they wanted to get my "before" body. The videos also feature professional MMA fighters…and obviously I'm not one of those. So, basically I was the gal with the ripped body that you're supposed to think got that body by doing the 12 DVD's that you can purchase. In all honesty, the workouts really and truly kicked my butt. I filmed more segments than anyone else because of course I could handle it--being the professional athlete and all--but by the end of the week standing was a real chore for me.

Let me know if you happen to catch the infomercial…and better yet, let me know if you happen to purchase the DVD's and tell me what you think of these workouts! They are legit and all you need is your living room and your DVD player. I don't promise an abdominal section like mine, but maybe close. :)

To find out a little bit more about these workouts you can check it out here: TapoutXT

Remembering the FUN

When I started out in this sport years and years ago, I chose what events I did based on one important thing. Was it fun? Fun for me does not involve pain so that cut out any events over 200 meters, and left me with the sprints and the events where you sprinted and jumped at the end. The funnest event of all though, was always the relay. Your sprinting with teammates. If you do a sport where you have teammates you work with all the time, you might not quite understand the rarity of this and what a nice added dimension it can add to your experience, but believe me it does.

All these years later I still love what I do, but there are times when I forget to have fun. When I go through slumps… or have a string of bad competitions that make me start to worry how I'm going to make ends meet… or start putting ridiculous pressure on myself based on outcomes, it makes it a little difficult to remember to enjoy what I'm doing. I forget to have my fun. I've started this season off doing my best to hold on to that feeling. I mostly make my living in the sandpit now, but once upon a time I was a decent sprinter. More importantly though, sprinting was fun to me. And truth be told, I find it easier to have fun doing things that don't determine whether I have rent money or not sometimes. So this year I've started off my season running two 4x100 relays and a 100 meter race just for fun. It's been great.

The following video is from our 4x1 relay at Florida Relays. My team is in lane 5, team BoogieFast (don't ask). I am the second leg, in all black. It's a little difficult to pick me out which I think is more reason to make sure I wear my socks this season. Blending in is no fun. :) We came in 2nd, but I really think we would have won if our third leg hadn't slowed down half way thru her turn because of a hamstring problem.

Watch more video of 2012 Florida Relays on flotrack.org

puffy paint, sports bras, and breast cancer awareness

A couple of months ago I was approached about contributing to an important cause. MZ Emmers was gathering sports bras signed and decorated by female athletes and then auctioning them off to raise money for Breast Cancer. I thought this was a fantastic idea and so myself and some of the other athletes at the Olympic Training Center got together for a night of puffy paint, glitter, and bedazzlements--all in the name of charity. What resulted was typical athlete competitiveness--we tried to see who could get the MOST puffy paint, glitter, and bedazzlements onto our little sports bras. Well, at least this is what I tried to do since I obviously was not going to win any artistic competition on merit alone. I got a little carried away and someone had to come over and wrestle the bedazzlements and hot glue gun from my hand. What resulted is some of the most creatively decorated sports bras in the auction, and we don't really know if this is a positive or not.

Since the whole point is to actually have people bid on our bras and raise some money for charity, I encourage you to head over to Ebay and take a look at the bras and then BID! It would be awesome if someone out there was nice enough to give me a bid so that all my puffy painting wasn't in vain. If it sounds like I'm begging…I totally am. If you have another favorite athlete that decorated a bra though, feel free to bid on that. I would assume you did so because you didn't like my decorating, not because I'm not your favorite athlete. :)

I am sure most of us have been personally affected by Breast Cancer or know someone who has and I really just think this is a creative and inspiring way to show our support. I encourage you to take part and share the auction with your family and friends!!

BID ON MY SPORTS BRA HERE

BID ON ANY SPORTS BRA HERE