Fitness has always been a large part of my life. My dad seemed to do basically every sport growing up, but as he got older bicycling became something he'd always do. I learned how to swim and bike from a very early age and did not realize until high school that some people couldn't ride a bike or swim. Both of those sports played largely into my life.
My mom danced her entire life and while I disappointed her (I'm kidding mom, I know I didn't disappoint you) with my lack of dance ability and my lack of desire to be on stage, I found my passion in other sports.
I played soccer for a while but eventually quit because I wasn't competitive enough, but as a midfielder I knew I enjoyed running.
I tried gymnastics/tumbling which I did on and off for a bit, mixed in with some attempts at hip hop dancing...but that really isn't relevant to the story because I was terrible at dancing.
My parents forced me to sign up for the neighborhood swim team, even though we went to the pool every day (and I mean literally every day) in the summer, I was scared to join the swim team. Somewhere between 3rd-4th grade I got involved and became obsessed with it. This was the one sport that I found a connection with. I tried a competitive swim team in 8th grade but hated it because it took the fun out of it. In high school I swam on my high school's team through my junior year. I ended up having a falling out with swimming, which you can read more about if you search my YouTube channel or blog.
After my freshman year of high school swim season wrapped up, I joined the High School Triathlon Club. This became an obsession equal to swimming for me.
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| My first triathlon at age 14 (but because I was turning 15 by the end of the year I competed with 15-18 year olds). This was at Trizou in Columbia, Missouri, I placed 5th.
The triathlon club is something I was involved with throughout all of high school and something I plan to revisit this summer when I'm home from college. I feel like it's the nostalgia of swimming and biking from when I was younger, plus running which I've always enjoyed, but I have been hooked on triathlons since that first practice in 2013.
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| At the Lake St. Louis Triathlon my junior year of high school I placed 3rd. |
My success in triathlons gave me the confidence I did not have before. I love everything about the training and the competitions. Okay, cycling stresses me out, but when have I ever been 100% not stressed.
Fitness-wise, coming to college was an interesting transition. For a while I would do a one-mile loop around campus, but eventually it got too cold and dark to do that. I would occasionally work out at the Drury gym but I was terrified of everyone judging me.
This semester my Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes don't start until 11 and my Tuesday-Thursday classes start at 9:30. If you know me you know I can't sleep in so by 8 or 9 I was already awake on MWF. Around two weeks in I decided to try to get up before my classes to work out. Now MWF I get up at 8:15 to head to the gym and workout. Tuesday/Thursday I get up at 7:15 somehow, because I didn't even get up that early for my 8 am last semester. I've found, though, that I feel so much better when I workout in the morning. I feel like I can properly start my day, and I have a lot more energy than if I just laid around in my bed until 15 minutes before my classes. It can definitely be hard to get up and walk to the gym, there have definitely been a few days where I just wanted to stay in bed, but every time I go I'm definitely glad I did.
I'm still learning my way around the gym and it took until last week for me to do a core/arms workout in the gym because I was scared. The first time- I did my normal run on the treadmill (usually 2-3 miles) and forced myself over to the open area to do 20 pushups. I've built on that now, and while I'm still not doing the full ab workout I want to do, I've built my confidence in the gym which I'm proud of.
My next goal is to start lifting weights. It's hard because even at 8 am there are people there who actually know what they're doing and I don't know where to start. I hope that when I go home for spring break, I'll get a trial for a personal trainer so they can teach me the basics, and then I can return to them over the summer when I'm home.
I'm just now realizing how long this is and if you read all of it, I'm super impressed. I guess I just wanted to document that I'm proud of how far I've come physically and mentally. I've been handling my stress and gaining focus for each day through running and now I look forward to running every morning. I definitely still need to work on my diet but for now I'm proud of my progress. I cannot wait to see how much progress I've made by the end of the semester.
Until next time,
Taylor xx
Ps: here's a photo of me (far right) on my soccer team. I was a very happy child...
