it's too sunny to practice in the rain

yesterday i had my first day feeling strong! it was great. we had a lifting session in the morning and i finally started feeling strong again. i hadn't lifted regularly for awhile before coming to san diego, so it's taken me a bit to get some strength back. i felt it good yesterday!

we were back in the gym today and i was really pushing myself. our strength coach has been on me about using weights that are too light for me, but now he's happy-and so am i. i still have some ways to go in getting where i want to be, but i feel like i made a breakthrough and i'll be moving up fast.

we had a webinar with usada (anti-doping stuff) today. this was my 3rd usada talk..and we're still not even in the pool of players to be tested. seems kinda silly if you ask me. maybe one day the women will be in it and the talks will carry a bit more weight. for now, we know we can't dope (duh) and we take care to use clean supplements (those of us that take them). im actually not upset about staying away from usada for now because it involves quite a bit of scheduling-which, as my baby knows, is not my strong suit.

the week has been moving slowly and i can't say i'm mad about it. last weekend was LONG for me, so the "recovery" time has been quite nice. (i'm not sure you can call 2-3 sessions/day a recovery, but whatever, rugby is fun!) i went to joshua tree national park with a friend and a friend of a friend : ) it was beautiful out there! we stayed with my friend's grandparents who live just a few miles from the park. we climbed boulders, saw cool trees and played a lot in the desert. i was exhausted from the elevation, which was conveniently not mentioned to me until after our day of running and climbing on rocks, and a full day in the sun. the trip was perfect though and i was really happy to get away from campus for a bit. i also learned how to play mexican train, a dominoes game, which was really fun.

im excited for some friends to come to san diego this weekend. there is a tournament-i wish i could remember the name of it-here and i'll get to watch some rugby and hang out a bit..yay! : )