Thursday, August 23, 2012

A Day in the Life Of...

Today I decided to bring my camera to work. I though it would be cool to take everyone through a day in the life of a USA contracted rugby player.  Here at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA we've fallen into daily routine. We joke that we live in the movie Groundhog Day, but a much funnier version ; ) so here goes, a photo guided walk through the day--a day in the life of...ME! : )




I start the day by starting up my beautiful, black Lance scooter. He gets me pretty much everywhere I want to go. He doesn't have a name, but I like to think of him as my boyfriend because he takes me places and he makes me smile : )  

Riding to the Olypmic Training Center everyday for the past few months, I've seen them building the new housing complex. It's pretty amazing to see it transform each day.

The views around the OTC are so beautiful! Sunrise and sunset are my favorite viewing times and the ride in on my scooter makes it that much easier to take in the sites. 
Entering the OTC!
Once I arrive at the OTC, I make the walk to the cafeteria. On my way, I stop to look at the mini garden planted by the staff. There are tomatoes, lots of tomatoes, some cucumbers and peppers. Every now and then we'll pick a small, cherry tomato on the way into the dining hall. 

At breakfast, I order my food, grab a pen and sit to do the day's crossword puzzle. Crosswording (our a new, made-up verb) is our latest hobby. I'm 
totally obsessed and can be seen crosswording 
during almost every non-rugby moment of the day. 


After eating and crosswording, we head to the training room to stretch, foam roll, use heat packs to get the muscles warm, do our individual list of prehab exercises, or to just hang out and crossword some more. After, we walked over to the gym for our first session of the day. Today, we started with lifting. We're at the end of an intense cycle which has made us strong and powerful, lean-mean-rugby dominating machines! HA! ..but seriously, watch out ; ) 

        
80 lbs!


Post-lifting is for food and relaxation! As with breakfast, we add a little crosswording to lunch to keep it exciting. Today, we were treated with Lunde on the piano in the dining hall-what a wonderful sound. I headed to the AT&T Center for an afternoon lounge, which quickly turned into an afternoon nap. My nap gave me enough energy/recovery to get going for the next session of the day. 

 


After my nap, I went down to the field 30 minutes before practice to work on some passing skills with Ric. We all come to practice early to get prepped, mentally and physically, for the training session. 
 

Today's practice was really fun! In addition to passing skills and running lines, we worked on our tackle technique and turnover ball. Ric always keeps it fresh with new ideas for every single session! We even got to practice our try-line dives!! SO FUN!

After practice, it's time for stretching and recovery. Today, a few girls went to the pool while others took a dip in the ice bath. Dinner comes at the end of the day (usually at 4:30-yikes, we're like grandma's out here!) leaving plenty of time for relaxation and night-time recovery. 


Tonight we went to Griff's house for our weekly family night. We played Taboo and ate brownies! I love hanging out with the girls, so family night is always a special treat. Living and training here is an amazing dream come true. I never thought it would be this much fun! We train hard, so we can play hard and it's awesome! Time is flying by (it's already been 8 months!) and each day always holds something special. I hope you enjoyed this trip through our day. 
Check out more pictures that didn't make the blog here: A Day in the Life Of