I had a very busy weekend! My school wrestling team had a big meet, I won two of my matches!
He said
This week was the first week we saw any real version of winter but oh boy did we ever get blasted. After having a couple of unseasonably warm and dry months, we were really spoiled. I got way more rides outside in November and specifically December than I ever anticipated. It was really nice—mostly because a lot of those were with Danielle too. But, after Christmas and into the first week of January that trend did not continue. The very cold days were far more frequent, and – as we had into this weekend – the first real snows of winter came, and came with intensity. Suffice it to say, my rides have consistently been inside in the basement. And with Zwift, I find I am actually quite enjoying it.
Last summer I managed to track down my first real ‘smart’ trainer that could track speed, power and with my Apple Watch could also track my heart rate. And, the best part is being the Zwift Hub, it natively links up with Zwift and allows me not only to collect tons of data (and I love ride data), but it also allows me a virtual experience that is pretty close to the real deal! For Christmas this year, Danielle and Emelia got me the Zwift Cog upgrade that allowed me a much more realistic gear shifting experience. The setup is pretty much complete and now that I have been forced to the basement in the thralls of winter, I am happy with the setup. Sure, I would much rather the temperatures on the other side of at least 5ºC and to be outside, but for this will do.
This week, everyone was back to well everything. Danielle was back to work last week, as was I. But this week was back to school for Emelia. She made the shift from having a lot of time to spend with friends or work a lot of shifts, to being back at school, work, Cheer and Wrestling. And, friends too, I guess! It sure makes a big difference and makes things a lot easier now that Emelia is a licensed driver. We don’t always have to drive her to and from work, and she is actually able to take the care over to see her friends or to bring them back to the house. She has been an amazingly responsible and appreciative driver, so she has afforded herself the privilege and never has the perspective that we owe it to her.
Lastly, I will let Danielle talk more in depth about it as she was able to go and cheer her on at it but Emelia had a couple of Wrestling Meets this week and we’re loving seeing her take it more and more seriously. She is really wanting to and hoping she can qualify for WOSSA this year, but we’re just so dang proud of how focused she gets and how she wants to perform well. Especially for a sport like this that is so far out of her wheelhouse, and comfort zone! This weekend – to spoil Danielle’s thunder – Emelia had her first win by a pin and we were just so damned proud of her. She’s learned so much this season and improved as well! Well done Emelia! We’re so proud of you!
She said
What a busy weekend Emelia had! After getting back in to the swing of things with school after the Christmas break Emelia was wrapping up big term ending projects, extra wrestling practices plus work, cheer training and life in general. The extra wrestling practices were to prep the kids for the latest multi school wrestling meet. Emelia has been battling some confidence in her skills but she has incredible coaches and teammates who have been helping her learn and to get more aggressive in her approach. All the work is starting to pay off. Emelia and I were up at the crack of dawn getting prepped and ready to go to Beal for a huge meet.
Emelia was nervous and excited to get at it. She has been battling a bit of a shoulder issue so she was nervous going in. She taped her shoulder and went into her first match. Well the opponent took full advantage of taping and went hard at the one shoulder. We chatted after and she realized that the taping wasn’t really helping at all and she opted to take the tape off and kept stretching to loosen up her shoulder. Second match was much different, she learnt from the first match and late in the second half of the match she was able to dominate and pin her opponent. She was so happy and proud of how she did. Her coaches were so trilled too, she has been lucky to have two incredible coaches this year. Her main coach Mr Harvey is so good with her, he knows exactly how hard to push her and how to listen and guide. He is one of a kind and we could not be happier with how he has taken her under his wing. They have been working on a plan for the remainder of the season to strengthen her position and she is so excited to get back at it next week.
Wrestling was only half of our sports filled weekend. We of course have cheer still, right now we are rebuilding AGAIN, as the kids came back from the holiday break they found out one of their teammates would not be returning. The decision was made to change the routine extensively vs replacing the athlete. Change is good but we have no time to really pivot to be ready. The girls only had a few practices and are just this practice finish tweaking with what looks like will be the routine for the competition next weekend. So they now have one practice to make sure all the changes are clean before we head to Niagara Falls for Border Showdown. This comp is unique, normally in cheer we go against our level, age and group size. For this competition we are against all level 3 teams no matter age or team size. The top teams get a bit to Canadian Finals. This has been a goal Emelia has wanted since she started cheer and has never made it. So the girls are nervous now how this routine will show at comp with all these changes so close to a big competition. The coaches and the girls have been working so hard to adjust again. Let’s hope that Tuesday their last practice before they compete will bring good results so the girls can go in with some confidence!
This week will prove to be another really busy one, Emelia has a full calendar, we are hoping that in this week we can give her some downtime to rest and recover between all that is going on. We are beyond proud of her, she works so hard and even if things don’t go the way she wants she is learning to take things in stride and push herself to work better next time. Way to go Boo!