A Day in the Life of...

Greetings,

I thought you all might be interested in what all is involved in a given day for me. Shooting begins at 7:00 every morning and we do everything from static drills to competition stimulation. Statics would be things like holding the weapon out at arm's length for minute long intervals, etc. For competitions, the shooting is combined with the running, so we'll run on a treadmill for ten minutes then stop and fire five shots and repeat. We also do some precision exercises and work on loading the gun as quickly as possible. To help keep us flexible in regards to our conditions, sometimes we shoot in the freezing cold, sometimes they spray us with water (in case it's raining) turn the lights off, glare lights at us, and make us shoot in the sweltering heat. Needless to say, the changes keep a relatively un-stimulating action very interesting.

Next we fence. We warm up, stretch, and work on foot drills for about thirty minutes. Then we "bout" each other for an hour or so and sometimes we bout with the coach and work on specific movements. Fencing is a high-energy sport, so there is no avoiding the sweat and fatigue that follows.

At this point, we either break for lunch or go run. On some days we do distance training and on others we work on intervals at a track. Our mileage ranges from 3-4 for speed workouts or up to 10 for cross country conditioning. We get in about 60 miles a week.

Swimming is the last leg of a training day. We swim anywhere from 3500 to 6000 meters and work on various things such as speedy flip-turns (what Michael Phelps is so famous for) dives, endurance threshold drills (going as long and as fast as you can before you are completely fatigued, and even after...) and shorter speed drills. The pool at the OTC has an underwater sound system, so we get to listen to some peppy tunes which makes the process more interesting.

We always end our day in the hot tub and spend about an hour just stretching everything out. Then it's time for a big dinner and a good night's sleep!

My first competition is coming up the first week of June. I'll be sure to write about it.

Wish me luck!

Current 200m swim time: 3:10
Current mile run time: 7:00
Current aches and pains: Shoulders