One Year Mark!!

I finally hit my one year mark since my hip surgery! I can’t believe that it has already been a year and that I am no longer in constant pain. It did not seem like the time was going by this quickly during the rehab, but I am glad to be through the year mark and making more and more progress every day. It was a rough journey, but it truly tested my patience and perseverance. I had to hold myself back a lot to make sure I didn’t overdo things with my hip which was very hard.

I feel that I am much more in tune to my body now and better about staying on top of injuries or pains here and there. It is such a relief to no longer have to worry about pushing too hard or holding back. Being able to train and do all of the workouts with my teammates is such a good feeling as well as getting myself ready for the season to come and reaching my goal of the Olympics in Rio in 2016!

One of my goals over this season is to improve my fencing so I have been going to a lot of local tournaments and trying to get as much experience and practice as possible. I went to a tournament for D and under rated fencers. I came in third place and earned my first rating of D2013.  USA Fencing tournaments have a rating system based on how athletes perform at tournaments which correlates with their rating it can go from a D to an A and the number after is the year that rating was earned.

 

In November, I also made a trip to Chicago for DeVry University. I was one of the original six athletes that was a part of the team that began attending DeVry before the London Olympics when they became a Team USA sponsor. I traveled to Chicago and was there with some other athletes from various sports such as skeleton, field hockey, and alpine skiing. It was neat getting to meet other athletes that are going to school online at DeVry as well as some of the staff members that we have worked with. We were a surprise for the DeVry employees that are working hard in partnership with the USOC to help out the athletes. I am so grateful that I was able to become one of the original six athletes to attend DeVry University and that I can continue my education along my journey to Rio 2016.