Back in Maurik

This week I was really back home, because I got welcomed back by my personal trainer. She had a couple of really heavy workouts planned this week, just in case I forgot about her! The focus was more on intensity than strength in order to raise my heart rate and get back into action mode. We did do some strength exercises to test my level compared to when I left for Florida, because last time I came back having taken quite some steps back (also due to my birthday cake and Christmas meals...). This time I came back stronger and more ready than ever to kick some butt. Even though I was still strong in my muscles, which I'd also been using a lot on the water, I hadn't done much cardio, therefore the high intensity was quite hard. After each session this week, I couldn't bike home directly after, I had to regain some strength in the changing room! I did however really enjoy the workouts and I'm excited to get back to working hard in the gym as well as on the water.

Still, nothing quite measures up to the days on which I can hang out at a lake all day and get 4 sets of training in. Especially not when those sets are with an awesome trainer who has some unusual tricks, that really helped me improve my tricks. Today was one of those days! I went to Maurik, the ski club where I started dreaming of participating in competitions, after revisiting for the 2013 youth Europeans, that dream turned into participating at a E&A championship. Those goals I have now met, so I decided to set a new one. This season, I will learn a flip, I've said it before, but now I have a deal that I have to respect!

In Maurik, Coyotte - who trained our national team a couple of times last year, and will again this year- was coaching for the day. I was super stoked when I was asked to come by and ski there, because this meant great coaching from Coyotte, but also skiing with one of the people that trained me in my first youth camp. She was one of the people who inspired me to want to be good in water-skiing and helped me along the way. Now we were really excited to ski together once again, and hopefully we can meet more often. Even though it was pretty cold today, I wanted to ski until I felt I had taken everything out of today that I could. Since I have 2 suits, the third set I was wearing a wet one, so throughout the set I got colder and colder. still I was having too much fun and learning too much to want to stop, so I kept skiing until I was told we really had to go back. After this, I had some difficulties getting warm, but there were still some tips I really wanted to work on, so I wanted to get back on the water one more time. Luckily Coyotte had brought a suit for himself, but didn't want to ski in the end, so he let me borrow it. It was a bit too big, so despite our efforts to keep water out by folding up the sleeves, after each start I had collected a pool in my leg, where the water couldn't escape. Still this was much better than starting a set already cold. I did a new trick almost first try, which was awesome and I didn't expect to do so in the 4th set of such a cold day. Furthermore I improved many tricks and am on my way to learning some new tricks. I'm also content with my slalom set, since it was the first one on the colder water, which always feels a little different than warm water. I can't wait to keep working on those tips in the three weekends the federation has booked with him for the national team!!

All in all a great day today, especially after having done my SAT yesterday. This test is a necessary step towards going to university in America, but it took from 8 till 14.00, so I was exhausted by the time I was done. It was also quite stressful, because it can earn me a good academic scholarship, which I will need in order to finally achieve the biggest goal I've held over the past couple of years, which is to combine studying at a university with water-skiing at a collegiate level. Now all I can do is wait for the results, which won't be for another month or so....

More about my experiences in Maurik in:
New PB!!
The Rookies