End of the year

It’s looking like that time of year again, where I evaluate last season and make plans for the next one.

Last season was a whirlwind! Haha. The competition in Wales in January was the first one where I saw I could beat people which was an awesome step. Then there was all the training camps and intense strength and conditioning that led up to zonals. In zonals I did excellent in pools and showed everyone how far I had come, unfortunately I was very sick with covid and/or RSV and didn’t have the athleticism to capitalize on it. After some more training and recovery I did very well in Poland and was on the cusp of breaking into the top 16 in the world. And then the awesome summer trip throughout Europe :). Since then it’s just been more training and improvement and recovering from the last 2 years on the road, reorganizing my life after a move and a career change, and looking at the next 4 year cycle.

Due to reclassification and paperwork I won’t have any competitions until the NAC in April, and nothing big until the World Cup in May. So I am planning on another 5 months of strength and conditioning like I did last year, lots of kettlebells and yoga and walking/running. Once it warms up I might start ocean swimming again too. And I will continue my lessons and training and whatever training camps come my way. Then there’s 3 competitions in 2 months in Europe so I may just spend the summer training in Germany and Spain so I can go to competitions in Hungary, France, and Poland that are all a few weeks apart. After that I’ll come back for another few months of recovery and practice and then have a similar situation with a cluster of competitions in Asia. But that plan can wait until it gets closer :).

My goal this season is to start winning 1-2 DE bouts per competition, putting me solidly in the middle and closing in on the top tier.