Archive for December, 2008
Dec 2008
Tears of Mixed Emotion
Sometimes we all just shed tears of mixed emotion. This was certainly the case for me tonight... I watched a short highlight DVD of the Beijing Olympics that my parents gave me for the holidays. For those of you who don't know...Beijing was the most magical and fulfilling experience of my life! I fulfilled my dream of becoming an Olympic Gold medalist. What's more, I felt like I was a part of something bigger and more meaningful than anything else I had ever experienced...I represented the United States of America on the world's biggest stage. I never would have imagined how emotional and incredibly proud I would be to wear the Stars and Stripes...it was literally life changing for me. For the first time in my life I realized the Olympics was more than a sporting event. The Olympics was a time when all nations could set aside their differences for two weeks and enjoy coming together to watch the world's greatest athletes take the stage and compete. I had never and may never again be exposed to an environment that seemed so pure, so positive, so focused on perfection and so hospitable to others who don't even speak the same language as you. There was a sense that everything was right with the world. It was truly magnificent!!! Imagine watching a DVD of something you lived through. Now imagine this time period being the most amazing experience of your life. Imagine being in the movie. Imagine a soundtrack that exudes inspiration, triumph, defeat, emotion, love, and a sheer will to win. Now you get an idea of what the scene was like in my room as my eyes were literally locked on the TV. I began watching while stretching my hamstrings on the floor. By the end of the DVD I was about three feet closer to the TV and crouching down on my knees with my hands on the floor in front of me. My heart rate had spiked while my brain had simultaneously released tons of adrenaline deep into my veins and muscles...I was ready to explode with excitement. I was enthralled. This was one of those times we've all experienced when you really don't want the movie to end. While this was unbelievably exciting for me to watch I had some feelings of sadness as well...the Beijing Olympics are history. For me, watching and in a small sense reliving these moments that had surrounded me in Beijing was like thinking of the most perfect day...the day when everything went right...when the weather was perfect, the food was spectacular, the company was second to none, your expectations were exceeded...you were the happiest of your life and don't know if it will ever get any better...and you can never go back. That day can never happen again. You will never relive that experience. The only thing left is the memory that is in your mind...and that memory tickles your mind like it wants you to come back and relive some more but there is no possible way. This is the sadness I feel. As I sat in my room I shed a few tears of mixed emotion. Tears of the happiest moment, the highest high, the dream come true and the tears of knowing that experience will never come back again...I will never be able to relive or go back to the Beijing Olympics. So tell me...how would you feel? Is this absurd or is there some legitimacy to my feelings? I don't know? As the year of 2008 comes to a close I think more and more about the best year of my life. The year I graduated the University of Texas, finally got my high blood pressure under control, had a great Olympic Trials and Beijing Olympics and finished it off by spending more time with my wonderful family than I had in years:) I wonder if there will be better years? Of course there will be. There will be different experiences, different joys and triumphs... I guess the difficulty for me is the uncertainty of not knowing what/if or when any of these things will happen.
Should Have Been Swimmers
Garrett and Michael were not selected as the NBC photo of the year. The admittedly cool image above was. Oh well, I'm biased (as a dad should be), but I still like swimmers best. Thanks to the thousands who voted!
Last Day to Vote for Photo of the Year
Garrett and Michael Phelps are featured as one of the NBC photos of the year. If you haven't already, log on, go to the vote section, find the skinny scroll bar on the right and find the photo of Garrett and Michael. Thanks.
Versions of that photo have already been featured in "Best of 2008" sections of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, ABC TV San Francisco and many others.
Heading back to Tejas
Tomorrow I will be leaving Wisconsin and heading back to Austin, Texas. I must say I am a bit sad about leaving. My time here in Wisconsin has been wonderful. This break has been filled with great memories of spending time with my family and friends, playing in the huge amount of snow we had, snowboarding, cooking and getting a chance to just kick back and relax. I realize we must always return back to reality but it is still sad to leave all this behind me. My training will begin abruptly when I return back to Austin. I get in late Sunday night and will be getting up by 6:20am on Monday morning to go swim. I have never shied away from work, sacrifice or training...however, this doesn't mean I like it. I completely understand that the work I have put in has taken me above and beyond where I could have ever been without it. There is still a bit of nervousness inside me about going back for winter training. This will be my sixth year training with Eddie and Kris at Texas...I know what winter training entails. We will swim two hours every morning and night. On top of this we will do weights three days a week. The difference in this training is that the coaches realize there is nothing else we are doing except training...they absolutely kill us every workout and every set. Let me take a minute and clarify something.... I don't see this blog as a forum for me to complain. This is not its purpose in any way, shape or form. I want this to be a place where ya'll can get some insight into what I'm feeling and what my life is like as a professional athlete. My point is that although I have been to the Olympics and have been fortunate enough to have had some success in my career, I am still as human as anyone else. I guess there will be times in all of our lives when we feel intimidated or even a bit apprehensive about things. Right now I think I am just dreading the dead tiredness, pain, and mental stress I'm about to be put into. I have found the best thing to do in life is take things one step at a time. When I return to Austin and start training, I will think about the practice at hand...not the number of hard practices that are still to come. This mentality puts me in a better position to focus on the work I will be doing at that given time. There will be updates throughout winter training...check back soon!
Happy Holidays!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. I always love this time of year. There is no better time to be with family and friends. It doesn't matter what religion you are or what you believe in...the winter has always been a very special time to spend with loved ones.
The reason I love the holidays so much is because there is just a sense of happiness in the air that is different than any other time of year. Mixed with the joy of the season is wonderful food, beautiful lights and seasonal music.
The other night I went to the Nutcracker ballet with my family. The ballet was really a great time. It was different than anything I'd ever been to before...there is no talking. The costumes and the dancing were beautiful!
After the ballet we went ice skating outside in downtown Milwaukee. I'm not quite sure if my skates were really dull or what but I was slipping all over the place. The skates were rentals so I'm sure they weren't the best skates... Either way, my sister, mom, dad and I all had a really nice time skating outside. The park we were skating in was all decorated with tons of holiday lights. Some swim fans recognized me and we snapped the photo below.
Right now my dad and sister are making Beet Gnochni with a Parmesan Cream Sauce with Prosciutto. It is going to be absolutely spectacular...Seriously the food at the holidays is simply outstanding (if very rich on occasion). Remember, eat in moderation and exercise and everything will be just fine haha...
My holiday season has been very enjoyable so far. I hope all of you have also had a great time with family and friends:)
Snowboarding!!!!
Aaaahhhhhhhhh I'm soooo excited!!! I went snowboarding today for the first time in six years. I stopped snowboarding my junior year of high school because I didn't want to risk getting injured for swimming.
Originally I had planned on going skiing with my family this winter in Vail. When I was younger we went to Vail and it was literally my favorite vacation EVER!!! There were several reasons Vail was so amazing...I learned to snowboard, there was fresh powder every day and the Packers won the Superbowl while we were there. Unbelievable:)
Today my sister and I went to a small private ski hill in Wisconsin that our family used to be members of many years ago. Luckily we still know the man who runs the ski hill so he let us come ski for free!
We put our gear on and successfully got on and off the chairlift. We really didn't know what to expect because it had been a long time since we had gone.
Before I continue this story (That's us at left in Vail.) I must give ya'll some background info. Snowboarding has been the biggest thing I have given up for my swimming. Every winter I miss it. Every winter I dream about it and imagine what it would be like. Sometimes when I can't fall asleep or am at a meet and need to relax I close my eyes and picture myself carving down the mountain. As you can see, I love it. To me, there is nothing better than cruising down the mountain with snow falling all around and just enjoying the great outdoors!
As my sister and I prepared ourselves for the first run I was so excited I was about to jump out of my boots. I was standing at the top of the hill about to make my first descent. How many times had I dreamt about this? How long had I wanted this to become a reality? Answers: many and long. My face was grinning from ear to ear and I was screaming at my sister to clip her bindings faster so we could go! This was it. Here I go... The run was absolutely perfect. I was making great turns and felt like a million bucks:) seriously I think I visualized this so many times that I was just ready to go. It felt like I had gone last week not six years ago. This goes to show how powerful visualization can be.
The rest of the day was outstanding. I was carving all over the place with my sister. My heart was content...but now I want to go again...now I want to go to a bigger place and ski longer runs haha. My dream is to one day have a house in Vail and spend time with my family and friends skiing, snowboarding and playing in the snow. I know this can become a reality if it's what I really want! Wow life is so great!
Wisconsin Foodie Segment
Today I had a really fun and unique opportunity to be on a cooking show called 'Wisconsin Foodie.' This is a new show that focuses on the unique and flavorful foods Wisconsin has to offer. They have also had well known chefs, cheese makers and restaurants in their episodes. I was asked to be on the show and to bring a healthy and tasty recipe to prepare with the resident chef, Brian Moran. I prepared bison steaks seared with herbs and finished with a red wine reduction. Why bison? Because it's a flavorful red meat that is low in fat and high in protein.
We started shooting the show at about 10:00am and continued for a couple hours. It really was like being on something I'd watched so many times on the Food Network. At first we talked all about the preparation, the smells, the bison, the nutritional content of the meal etc. Then the cooking began. My recipe calls to pan sear the outside of the bison and finish it in the oven. All the while Brian and I were talking about cooking, food, swimming, and my training.
This was a great opportunity for me to get some experience cooking on a show and being in front of a camera crew in this type of setting. I really want and plan to get more and more into the food industry. Thankfully the producers of 'Wisconsin Foodie' Mark and Arthur invited me to be on the show and give me some exposure.
The producers plan to have the show run in the middle January. I will put a link to the show on the blog as soon as it is available!
Definitely check out the 'Wisconsin Foodie' website to get more of an idea of the show.
Whiteout in Wisconsin
Well, the snow slowed as day finally dawned. Basically, everthing is closed. Coaches were probably frustrated and age-groups swimmers were no doubt delighted. Garrett has been worried that our early-season snowfalls in Wisconsin would be gone by the time he got up here for a holiday visit. Well, I don't think it's going to be a problem. More is on the way.
Tough Morning
This morning was pretty tough... Practice was killer. First off the pool is really cold. More than anything, I hate cold water. Cold water kills morale without a doubt. We warmed up for about thirty minutes, then jumped into a set of 10, 300's best average on 3:45. This means we did 10, 300's going as fast as we could possibly hold. The interval was 3:45. I was dog tired. My arms literally felt like they were tightening up more and more with every stroke. I mainly was trying to stay long in my stroke and keep my head looking at the bottom of the pool. I think it is always necessary to be thinking about our strokes, especially in hard sets like this. Many times we fall into poor technique when the work gets tough. When we begin to fall apart and get fatigued this is the most important time to keep our technique as close to perfect as we can. Our mind and muscle memory learns to hold this correct technique for our races when we practice it on sets like this. Although this was a really tough set I left practice feeling energized and ready to go. There is something about working hard in the morning that just starts the day off perfectly. I ran some errands and headed home. Before I got home I stopped at a gas-station to fill up. For some reason I felt enticed to go buy a lottery ticket...this is very out of my nature...in fact I think this is my first time to ever buy a lottery ticket. I asked for the ticket that was five dollars and gave me the opportunity to win a custom chopper motorcycle. I would love a motorcycle! I understand a motorcycle is not really in the cards right now due to my status as a professional athlete...However, I still want one haha:) I pulled my credit card out to pay for the milk and lottery ticket. The man behind the counter told me that Texas State Law prevents you from paying for a lottery ticket with a credit card. I asked him why? He said, "it's probably to keep people from over-extending themselves..." Wow, I think that is a great idea! He added, "If so many people didn't over-extend themselves we probably wouldn't be in such a financial crisis right now." I had to agree with the man. What do you think? I won the five dollars back!
Driven to Succeed: Freestyle Insight
Check out my new DVD! The focus of 'Driven to Succeed' is on Freestyle technique and important lifestyle tips that will help make you more successful in and out of the pool! You may now purchase the DVD on swimroom.
Here is the trailer for the DVD. I hope you like it!!!
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