My trip back to Lake Placid was less stressful than the first one I did. This time I knew what to expect and I was returning to see a few friends of mine. This helped to calm my fear because this is the time I had to test to see if I advanced to the next round. I had to improve drastically from my last visit to Lake Placid with a monster scale.
Arriving at the center I was greeted by the front desk lady who actually remembered me. I was sure that she had seen many athletes come and go but for to know my name helped to ease into the transition. I unpacked and waited for our evening meeting. In this meeting they would outline our schedule for the week and what group I would be participating. I was selected into group two which allowed me to have enough time to warm up and get my mind frame set.
The following day was testing. We started at 10:30 on the track for our speed testing which isn’t my best event. I had tremendous amount of strength but the speed always got the better of me. This has been my one down fall throughout the training and the one thing I been working on the hardest. One it came to my time I did the best run of my life. In fact I had a personal record at the track that day, but that was not enough to help me on my journey to being on the US skeleton team. I was at loss at first but decided to tell myself I can do this….What do I have to lose nothing…and picked it up for the next event.
This event was the broad jump which shows how far you can jump from the line. I actually scored rather high and knew I was well on my way. I just had to keep this motivation going for my best event which was the weight lifting and finish with style. I wanted to show these coaches who Anja really is!!!
Moving into the weight room I started to practice my clean lifts. I was tossing that weight around as if I was throwing a coat over my shoulder. There was nothing to it. Many at the gym were shocked and telling me I needed to add more weight so that I can maximize my points. The moment they said testing begins is when my nerves got the best of me. I wasn’t able to add more weight like I wanted but know for the future that I just need to focus more and not worry what’s going on around me.
Despite not adding weights to the clean lifts I was able to KILL IT on my squats. I am more confident in this portion of the testing and I said..what the heck what is another couple Kilos. Before I knew it I was squatting 120 Kilos which is 264 pounds which gives you the most points available for that event. I had guys whooping and hollering all over the gym floor. The coach was shocked that I was so strong. In fact I had no idea either. I was so happy to have been able to show them what I can do despite being new to the sport.
Thanks again for all the support from the people at Sprint to the people from the youtube video. If you have haven't seen it. See the link below. Everyone has been so kind and it helps me realize that I can really accomplish whatever I put my mind to.
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