rope MASTER

I did it! Twice!!

Since about junior year at Purdue, I have set firm competition goals for myself. This year, through work with Dr. Ross Flowers (one of the awesome sports psychologists here), I set training goals too! They include things like walking on my hands for certain distances (my biggest challenge, grrr), throwing so far in practice, etc. The one I've been focusing on most recently is this:

Climb the rope in the weight room all the way to the top using just my arms (no legs).

In November when Mike and I started training, I could climb the rope maybe halfway up with legs and arms, and I got horrible rope burn on my ankle too. I tried my hardest to climb it with just arms the first time, but couldn't even get two pulls in! Once I learned how to prepare myself for my rope-climbing attempts and a little bit about the technique of it, I saw slow but steady improvement.

Tuesdays are gymnastics days for us. In this training cycle, we sprint, jump and do javelin footwork with a sled on Tuesday mornings, then gymnastics in the afternoon! Skin the cats, rope climbs, isometric stuff, etc. My original goal was to climb the rope all the way to the top with just arms before Indoor USA Championships, but I hurt my back a few weeks before then (and had almost reached my goal!), so couldn't attempt it until about 2 weeks ago.

It was frustrating to have a setback, but sometimes you just have to recalculate success for later.

Don't forget about what you want to accomplish just because you didn't do it in the original timeframe you planned to.

This past Tuesday (April 6), I climbed the rope all the way to the top with just arms. Then, I did it again! I didn't really know the other athletes that were lifting when I accomplished my goal, but one of the foreign kayakers could tell that I was excited; I looked down from the top of the rope with a huge smile on my face, and he gave me a subtle thumbs-up! It's nice to be supported by other athletes, and that is a huge perk of living here.

I can't wait to climb the rope three times with just arms next time it's in my training schedule. Next week is rest week, AND I'm going back to Purdue for the meet that is considered "alumni reunion" each year!!! I'm so excited to see some of my best friends that I miss talking to so much. More on that later :).