Sun, May 24, 2015

Well today I wrestled in the finals of the German Grand Prix and had a convincng win against Estonia 5-1. This is the athlete who I lost to at the World Championships last year.

It was tough preparing to stand across from her once again, to relive that heartbreak especially with some fresh, uprepared-for winds in this road.

Last week in Greece I still didn't quite have my head screwed on right and I left my silver medal in the room when we packed up and left the Olympic Academy dorms where we were staying.

Everything about the trip had been picturesque and perfect. We would run everyday on the road beside the ancient Olympic track. It doesnt get much better than that. But I stepped onto the mats and I still didnt quite have it.

For so long I had been so unsastisfied with my wrestling. I remember when I won the University World Championships I had to force myself to smile because I was upset with my performance.

One thing I am working on this trip and especially this past weekend, is to remember to smile and to rejoice in each moment.

We had a two day tournament in Germany and so I weighed in on Friday and saw my draw that night. I had picked #2 which meant i was at the top of the bracket; with the other two Russians, and a whole whack of other tough girls from Eastern Europe. For some reason a lot of the good heavyweights come from Eastern Europe (and no, unfortunately they do not all have unibrows. Most are quite awesome people). I ended up wrestling the two Russians again in he quarter and semi-finals and wrestled with some spunk I had been missing for awhile. I had two big 4-point takedowns in my semi-final that I was pretty proud of!

This set me up for a final the next day. The one major problem with being a heavyweight wrestler is that my final is always last so I miss so many exciting finals but don't get my wrong, I do prefer to participate rather than observe.

I was so nervous heading into that match that I mustve done a hundred sprints to try to loosen up my boody. I wrestled a sharp tactical match at the beginning and built off an early lead.

I finished the match trying to brush away the dissapointment of not executing my game plan as well as I would have liked. I'm still trying to find that fine balance between always being hungry for more and being confident in my abilities and just going after it without any fear.

It is a long road ahead and I am continually moving forward, stumbling everyonce in a while, but always progressing towards my goal.

That work starts tomorrow!! I have chosen to stay in Germany for a couple days extra and take in the training camp in Hennef. It is a great camp with over 90 female wrestlers so I will have lots of fresh meat to work with. Unfortunately I am the only Canadian who is staying...Now you know why this blog post is so long...

This also means I will most likely write an update sooner rather than later in my boredom...

I have already finished off the stash of Milka chocolate bars that were supposed to get me through the week... What to do next?!