Halloween lasts 24 whole hours.

Just needed a little strech after the Dodgeball, 3000m swim, and some 6x5.
Aids in digestion. We ate breakfast at our favorite place in Long Beach. The Potholder Cafe. The waitresses are just as crazy as we are. They were Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss. Some people had never heard of them. Where did those people grow up???

Costumes in Action!!!!!

I LOVE Halloween. Spectacular holiday. You can be or wear anything you want. And you shouldn't feel stupid about it because it is a requirement of the day. I think that more places of business should look positively upon the wearing of costumes.....it promotes the act of smiling and that produces endorphins.....which make you feel good. So you would work better right?

Good thing I work where I do. :) We started our day off playing dodge ball. In costume. I was a ballerina. Was I ever one in real life? Maybe for a split second back in the eighties.... before i was seduced by the chlorine fumes, and my ballet teachers told me i was never going to be flexible if i kept up that swimming stuff. Well fine then.....off to the pool I went, and out the window went my opportunities to wear a tu-tu. Until Today. I made it out of an abundance of pink tulle, elastic sequins, and a lil ribbon. Thanks to Ali G's sweet old school sewing machine, my adult tu-tu is spectacular and will be around for years to come. Nat got her fantastic costume right off the back of the guy working at the Halloween store for only $10.

I got pegged in the tu-tu during the game....the dirt adds a little character to my costume. :) It was a sight to behold. All of us running around in costume. Bets demonstrated excelent technigue when battling for the ball. Squishing it away from the opponent works perfectly!

100% participation!!!

I am very proud of our team and coaching staff!!! EVERYONE dressed up today for practice.

You be the judge.

Does this look more like a skeletal vertebrae and ribs or a spider web?

Punkins

Bought the pumpkins.
Carved em.

Ready for "Trick or Treat"er's!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Citius. Altius. Fortius.

The team spent the past week at the Colorado Olympic Training Center. A week of training, fitness tests, team building, and a few efforts to improve our program in the future by making teaching tools for younger athletes. Very productive!

DANCE.

My roommate Brenda just texted me this saying....she saw it somewhere and thought I would like it.

And I do! It is very true.

"Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain."

Get out there and DANCE!

Working Hard

It is back to the grind. Weights. Run. Core Work. Agility Exercises. Swimming. Drills. More Drills. More Swimming.

Week three and we are starting to become brain dead, sore in places we never knew had muscles, and plagued by extreme muscle fatigue.

We still have over 300 days till the Olympics.....that equals many, many more hours of practice. What gets you through this???

LAUGHTER!!!
Here is an example for ya......

The End.

A few reasons I know that my vacation is definitely over:

1. I had forgotten in my post major tournament haze what it felt like to be sore/out of shape. My leg muscles are now reminding me every time I try to walk up stairs, get out of the car, sit down on the couch, go to the bathroom.....that they do not like what I am doing to them. This is only day three! More advil please.

2. The clean clothes I made sure to have ready for the beginning of training are still sitting in piles on my floor. It will take way to much energy to put them in the closet.

3. The last time I bought milk was almost 2 months ago. I need to go to the store now that I will be staying in my apartment for longer than 36 hours at a time. Which was about the maximum time I spent in Long Beach between all my crazy adventures.

4. It is back to acting like the rest of the world that wakes up around the same time every morning to go to work. Alarm at 6:30? No likey.

Back to work for now....but I'm already dreaming up the next vacation spot to hit. :)

ORO!

We have won the Pan American Gold Medal!


Which means we have qualified for a spot in the 2008 Bejing Olympics! China here we come!!!

Our Venue.

Our venue here in Brazil is in the Maracana Sports Complex. Which has the large soccer stadium (from opening ceremonies), an arena (for volleyball) and our outdoor pool.

This was a picture of it the first day we got here. They had not finished decorating the pool deck and you can not see the huge stadium of seats that is behind me.

It seats about 2,700 people. In our game against Brazil last night 2000 people came to cheer on the home team.
They did not exactly look like this.....

(That was the opening ceremonies crowd)

But they were loud non the less......until we started beating the Brazilians. Then is was the quietest I have ever heard it at the pool. I love Brazilian sports fans. They are passionate and boisterous, waving flags and dancing around. Whether they are cheering or jeering. It doesn't matter. They make a super crowd. !!!!

Fun in the pool.

I was trying to recall the last time I got in the pool to just fool around. Like.... no zipper suit. No whistles. No drills. No polo balls or goals.

Yesterday morning, instead of taking the hour long drive to the venue for practice, we made up our own circuit of dry-land exercises and then got in the pool to stretch out our legs and get the feel for the water since we had a game later in the day. This pool is right out in front of our apartment building.

Here is us having fun.

This is why we win.

You want to mess with us?

Opening Ceremonies: Pan Am 2007

Opening Ceremonies was held in the Maracana soccer stadium. It is the famed stadium that Brazilian soccer star Pele scored his 1000 goal. It holds more that 100,000 people and there was not an empty seat in the house. Holding true to the theme of the whole ceremony, "Viva essa Energia!" or "Share the Energy!", the brazilian people did not disappoint!

We got all did up in our USA delegation attire. (Remember that sweet outfit from a few posts back?) I have to admit once we were all wearing them in one huge pack. We didn't look so special. Golf shorts on. Brand new white shoes beaming. We were ready to march.

Our Team dominated the US procession line. Being the first athletes behind the flag bearer. First to bust out of the tunnel into the stadium and shake it with the thousands of people playing drums and dancing along the path to our seats in the stadium. We tried to focus on the crazy positive energy that surrounded down amongst the other athletes and volunteers. Yet a lot of what we heard was "Boo!". We all pretended that they were cheering like crazy for us. Smile and wave. Smile and wave. Dance a little somewhere in there too.

Unlike other Opening Ceremonies I have been to, the athletes were allowed to sit in the stands and watch the rest of the show instead of being corralled together in the middle of the field while the festivities go on around you. As our team did in the athlete procession, we dominated the seating too and sat in the front row! Go polo girls!

To conclude the ceremony they had some very important Brazilian sports teams and athletes carry the Pan American torch around the stadium. Then they lit a huge metal orb on fire which happened to be sitting just to the left of us. It was an amazing thing to see. Olympic caliber.