Holiday Season!

I am very fortunate to be so close to home and spend lots of time with my family. This year would be the first year that my sister would not be able to be home with the family over Thanksgiving, but knowing she would be home for most of December was good to look forward to. Even though our family’s thanksgiving was small, I invited up some athletes from them Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to join us. It was great to have friends and family together and enjoy some good food, play some pool, and watch football.

 While I was home for Thanksgiving I was able to go to the Blossoms of Lights with my cousin Jen, her husband Mike, and their daughter Annalise. We had a great time enjoying the lights and watching Annalise run around. I also got to go out to the shooting range with my dad and practice trap shooting with him before his pheasant hunting trips.

 

I also did a photo shoot with Shannon Gray, who I met through my personal trainer Scott Jones. She does some amazing work and wanted to feature me in a blog and new website called Love and Wander. The link is below and tells a little more about my story and journey in pentathlon. http://loveandwander.com/spotlight-sammy-achterberg/

Shannon’s website is below and a huge shout out to her for doing a photo shoot for me and getting some amazing pictures! www.shannon-gray.com

Training has been very hard gearing up and getting ready for the 2014 season. In December, the Olympic Training Center usually has an international training camp with pentathletes that come in from all over the world. This year would be a little smaller than previous years, but there were still quite a few athletes. Some of the athletes were from Czech Republic, Lithuania, Egypt, New Zealand, and the entire team from Guatemala.

While the athletes were here we were able to do the Incline with them. The incline is an old railway and basically a stairway that gains over 2,000 feet of elevation in less than one mile. The base of the Incline sits at 6,600 feet and the trail climbs 2,000 feet in just over 3⁄4 mile. Parts of the trail are extremely steep and require everyone to watch their step and be cautious. I have only done the incline a few times but was finally able to beat the 30 minute mark with a time of about 29 and half minutes! We also drove through Garden of the Gods and got to show them some of the great places in Colorado Springs.

 My sister, Amanda, was able to visit me in Colorado Springs and join me for a community service event for Ronald McDonald. We built gingerbread houses with some of the other athletes from the training center which was a blast and fun to get into the holiday spirit!

 Before Christmas I participated in another local fencing tournament. In the morning I competed in the women’s division and finished in 3^rd place. I also competed in the mixed division later that day, but didn’t do as well and got bumped out fairly early in the direct elimination rounds. I still have a lot of work to do, but one of my favorite quotes is, "the only time success comes before work is in the dictionary". I believe this is very true and know that I need to put in the time and dedication to improve and get better in penthathlon, not only in fencing, but all of the events.

Being home with the family for Christmas was really nice and spending time with them over the holidays is always a great gift. This year was our families first year without my grandma, my dad's mom, which was difficult. It makes me appreciate the times and moments that I get to spend together with loves ones and friends.