Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Back at school and feeling the pressure

So I have been back at school for about a month now, and the stress of school and track is building up. Being in a graduate degree is a lot different from undergrad and I know that it has taken its toll on my athletics.

Speaking of my athletics, here is a short summary of what has been going on the last two months:

The last week I was in the Czech this summer I hurt my right ankle. I didn't do anything special, but experienced sharp pain after doing some strides. While it hurt quite a bit to move my foot in certain ways I still ran the last meet in Czech. I figured that I would have two weeks in the Netherlands to heal any injury I had and that I would be ready for Nationals. Upon my return to Canada, my ankle was still causing me pain during practices but no one seemed to know what was wrong. While in hindsight it may not have been my best decision, I decided to run Nationals and Provincials with my still injured ankle.

Once provincials were done I would have two full weeks to heal up again for summer training camp at the University of Guelph. During these two weeks I was sent to a local sport doctor so I could get an x-ray and MRI. While waiting for the tests and the subsequent results I was told not to do anything impact training (i.e. no running or jumping of any sort). So at training camp I did a lot of abs, lunges and push-ups. My original MRI date was set for October 25th (a death sentence for my pending track season) but I was lucky enough to have it moved up to September 28th!

Just last week I had my follow up meeting with the sports doctor. Going into the meeting I figured there would be two outcomes. 1) Nothing was seriously wrong with my ankle and I had wasted the now 7 weeks of training or 2) something was seriously wrong and I would need further treatment. In the end it turns out that I did fracture a bone in my foot (and probably should not have run on it) but that my seven weeks off was sufficient for healing.

So in short- I have not been running since Provincials but just recently got the ok to start training again. I am more than a little apprehensive since I do not want to injury myself again, but at the same time I may have saved my indoor season! So tomorrow is the first time this year I will get to run with my group – wish me luck :)

Friday, July 23, 2010

I'm Back !

Apparently I failed at keeping up this blog while I was in Europe - sorry! So I am back on Canadian soil and I will let you know about some of the things that went on in Europe. As I mentioned in my last blog, several other athletes from the University of Guelph joined my coach and I to the Czech Republic to compete as well. Unfortunately we were at the mercy of the weather (as usual) for the majority of the trip. In the first three weeks almost every race I ran was into an illegal positive wind, including one wind reading of +4.0! Then we had a series of heat waves bringing the temperatures up into the high 30's! We were lucky because there were meets every week for us to compete in, so at least we had a lot of opportunities to run/jump. Most weeks we would practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then Thursday and Friday would be more relaxed in preparation for competition. We would train at several different tracks all around Prague depending on our needs for that day.

But of course the entire trip was not all about running! We visited all of the main attractions in Prague and even got to visit some of the countryside. The Czech is a beautiful country and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Europe. This year I visited one castle that was 900 years old and it was amazing. I was also fortunate enough to visit the Netherlands before coming back home to Canada. I have family in the Netherlands that invited me over since I was 'in the area.' While I did have to put my training on hold for over a week- it was a fantastic experience! Not only was I there for the final FIFA game (which although it had a disappointing result, I have rarely seen so much energy before an athletic event!) but I got to experience the Dutch countryside and Amsterdam for the first time in my life.

Now I am back in Canada and have just over a week to prepare for Track and Field Nationals. I am finally recovering from the time change and am no longer waking up at 4 am, which is good! After Nationals the focus will be on Provincials, which are in Sudbury this year, and then my outdoor season will be over....Just in time to start training for indoor season.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Summer Plans

Hello! My name is Sarah Peirce and I am a 60m (and sometimes 300m) sprinter for the University of Guelph. I recently graduated university with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences and specializations in Molecular Biology and Genetics as well as Geography.

At the moment I am attempting to finish my packing check list for my trip to the Czech Republic. Assuming all goes according to plan, this Monday I will be leaving Canada with my coach, Zuzana Mares, and several of my team mates for Prague! I was lucky enough to travel with Zuzu last year to the Czech where I trained and competed in some small meets. This year I have been invited back to compete for one of the clubs in the 100m and the 4x100m relay ! Awesome. While I am trying to be excited for the trip, with the danger of volcanoes erupting and potential airport strikes I would have to say I am more nervous than excited right now. The group and I have been training hard for the last month preparing for the trip. In fact in the last two weeks we have been doing two practices a day…every day. Anyway I think this is a good start to my blogging career. The next blog I post should be from Prague, wish us luck!

Friday, February 26, 2010

March Madness begins

Well it is that time of year that we all love: play offs!! Our Lancer team will be heading into the semi-finals of the OUA West where we will host Brock on Saturday 27th at 6 pm. Very exciting.
The theme of our season has been toughness which we have worked on in every single practice. Bumps, bruises and bleeding are common, but the Lancers Women's basketball team LOVE the pain of the game!
By the way my name is Emily Abbott, born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. You may ask yourself why in am I at the University of Windsor of all places (as a local once referred to Windsor as the "armpit" of Canada). I highly disagree, Windsor is a diverse and fun place where I have met only the most interesting people! When Windsor coach Chantal Vallee recruited me, I admit, I had never heard of Windsor. Yet her passionate vision about creating a succesfull women's basketball program had me sold. I beleived in her. And now here we are ranked no. 2 in the country with a 24-1 record in the OUA. We will have to keep this going.
I am in my 3rd year at U Windsor and am absolutely loving it. I am an english major, which is perhaps the reason I was chosen to write this blog.
Our team has to climb some mountains to reach our goal which is a CIS Bronze Baby -to be returned to Ontario! I know we can do it with our outstanding team, which has so much character. Even our rookies run the show! Our team is extremely deep, we just need to narrow our focus as the pressure mounts. Come watch Saturday fans, it will be tense!
Well, I am off to practice to go box out some giants (Iva Peklova 6'4", Raelynn Prince 6'3", are among them).
Sincerely
Emily Abbott

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Welcome to Official OUA Blog

Greetings OUA Fans!

This is long overdue, but Ontario University Athletics is excited to launch it's official blog. The purpose is to give OUA student-athletes from across the province a forum to provide insight into their day-to-day lives and experiences. Our over 9,000 student-athletes are doing remarkable things as they prepare for life beyond university.

We will debut our student bloggers very soon. Thank you for supporting Ontario University Athletics!