Denver!

I better get to sleep soon since I have to catch a plane to Denver at 7am tomorrow. I'm going westward to visit my sister Felicia for a week. She has a break between projects at work and I have a week off before I continue training for the rest of the season.

Felicia and I are planning on attending a two day yoga retreat close to Denver. I'm looking forward to sharing a one room, one bed, no electricty, heat or water hut with my sister for two days. I just hope that the water in the communal bath house is warm. Right now I'm sort of picturing a bucket with a string or maybe a metal bathtub? This should be an interesting two days.

Besides the one room hut and bucket shower, I am truly looking forward to a week where I am not thinking about fencing (although I probably will do a lot of thinking about fencing anyways). At least I am not putting my fencing stuff on for a good week because sometimes this journey can suffer from tunnel vision. Both my chiropractor and massage therapist told me to take the time to center myself and truly use the time to rest both the body and mind. There won't be another week long opportunity like this until the end of the season. Meditation, yoga, and vegetarian food here I come!

I still can't believe that the Olympics are less than a year away.

After I get back from Denver I am headed to NYC for a week to fence and get treated for my various ailments. I haven't been to the Big Apple in a while and I'm looking forward to going back. A trip to the city is always a fun time even when I feel like I get caught up in the faster pace. I'm sure my NYC friends that read this blog are thinking that I'm a big country bumpkin after that sentence. Maybe I shouldn't tell them that I saw a deer on my way home from the fencing club this evening.

I know that I still have yet to comment on the Marion Jones incident but I promise I will. In the meantime, you can read about what happened to her by clicking here.

It's truly a sad story and it's definitely worth the discussion.

See you all in Denver!

Recap on Mother Russia

It turns out that results don't always add up to the way that you feel like you performed. I hate to say it but I fenced well but not well enough to beat the Russian to make the next round (to the top-32). I was close but no cigar in the end. It wasn't even the cheering Russian fans that did it in for me, I just think I made one or two errors that cost me the match.

As for the team event. I fenced really well and I think the team fenced very well as a whole. We were one touch away from beating Romania to make it to the round of top-8. It's unfortunate but we are still about forty points ahead of Venezuela to qualify a team for the Olympics.

That's the short and long of the description of World Championships. It didn't go badly and I think I fenced well overall, but unfortunately my result wasn't super spectacular. They never said that qualifying for the Olympics would be easy.

back from Russia

I just got back from Russia late last night and I am totally jet lagged. I don't think I've ever been this tired from a trip before-maybe I'm getting old or maybe it was the four hour lay over in Paris and the five hour lay over in NYC? Who knows.

I thought I would share a picture that a friend of mine took of me on the plane. It gives you an idea of how I feel right about now.




It's a little dark but I think you get the picture.

I'm going to blog later today about the whole trip and my thoughts on it later today. I'm also planning to comment on the recent events with Marion Jones-she had to return her medals from the Olympic Games after pleading guilty to taking banned substances. I remember seeing her at Sydney and I have lots of thoughts on the matter-coming up soon.

Hope all is well and you didn't miss me too much!