Stop and smell the roses

When you are fully involved in working toward a goal sometimes you don't stop and smells the roses. I was reminded of this lesson this past week by a few good friends of mine; friends I call my family. I have been greatful as you all know about all the support that I have recieved during this past year with trying to get on the US team. Its been tiring at times, emotional at others, but I forgot what it was to reconnect with friends and spend "quality" time just talking to them. I mean....REALLY talking to them. That was something I didn't do before with friends. We all were just out having a good time and seeing what crazy thing we can get ourseleves into.

Now in this time in my life, I have different things that are important to me such as my family and friends. Sometimes you tend to lose sight of that. So take this from me someone who goes to the gym about 3 hours a day and works 40 hour work week, call that friend of yours or family member and let them know that you are thinking of them. Thanks Gina, Corey, Mel ,Grace and Michelle for reminding me of this lesson.

Love you girls. (:

 

 

Personal Best

I would like to say I give my personal best each and everytime I step into the gym.  On Monday I demonstrated that by killing my number numbers and even shocking myself.  It has to be a mental game I play with myself.  Don't look at the weights that I am about to lift and just DO IT.  And that is just what I did....I plowed through my work out and you know....I am pretty proud of myself. 

I did notice that I had some areas I had to work on such as my sprinting and my broad jumps. I need to find a way to explode out of the start and keep that momentum.  I am dedicating this month to "SPRINT SPEED."  Do I take my work with me to the gym???? Well I guess I do. 

Let's hear it for Aug 3rd.....my next adventure at the Olympic training camp. 

Happy Fathers Day!

Since Father Day is coming up I wanted to dedicate a this blog to my father Berislav Dimitrijevic.  My dad has been my number one supporter in everything I dedicated my time to; from being the number one tennis player in my age group to driving to Romania to deliver food in a war ridden country.  He was the motivator of the group and had a personality that would light up a room. 

He was a very well-known doctor and professor in Serbian who would be on TV almost every week discussing nutrition and exercise.  He would be considered the Dr. Oz of today for Serbia during that time.  He was often found traveling to many different countries to share his medical findings and speak to conferences. 

I remember as a child always asking for presents upon his return.  One particular time I asked him for a frog.  I am not sure why I asked him for something like that but I know that he made it happen.  On that trip he called my mother several times in panic saying he didn’t know where to get a frog in German and had no idea what he was going to do.  My mother response was “you told that child you were going to get her a frog and that is what you need to do.”  Little to my disappointment he returned from that trip with a toy frog. I guess I forgot the small detail that I wanted a live one.

When my brother moved to the United States he was able to visit and see how the American lived.  He was entertained with the fact that you could get refills of soda and that the Americans have a concept of the all you can eat buffet.  I believe that both my brother and father were eventually thrown out of a couple of those restaurants for eating way too much. 

My father was a master of speaking and had a magnetic personality that you would instantly become friends with.  Sadly he passed away in 1997, but I will always have some great memories of him taking coins out of peoples ears or just cheering me on at my tennis matches.  To this day, I have a feeling he is still with me, watching and cheering louder then before.  I know he would be extremely proud of my accomplishments here in the US and even prouder that I am following my dream.   

Working day in and day out

For some people the dread of the gym is huge.  The thought of getting up and working out is just a difficult feat.  For me it's something I look forward to.  I welcome the challenge of the day of lifting heavier weights or pushing my speed at sprints.  It's this feeling I get when I am ready to explode and catapult me into the next level.  I sometimes don’t realize how strong I have become until I sit down and review the tapes.  I see the effort I am putting and the muscles that have come out of nowhere.  I cannot believe I have come this far but yet I have so much more to go.  Below is the next installment of my workout since many of you have asked. 

As I mentioned in many of my post I really appreciate all the support everyone has given me.  Although I am working out at the gym every day, I really need that extra support from of all you.  Every person who writes on my Facebook page, every comment on the blog just propels me forward and shows me that I can do this.  I can accomplish this!!! If you have not done so please pass on my link to my blog or my facebook page so that I can pushed to the outer limits of accomplishments.