Thursday, November 12, 2009

Twitter

I finally caved in and now have a twitter account.
I'm not sure how much I will actually use it, but I have one now, so if you are on twitter feel free to add me.

Username: JennaShoemaker

New York City Marathon

My weekend in NYC was fantastic. It was so great to see my mom, sister and little brother.

I had the opportunity to swim with the NYU swim team at their pool - for part of 1 practice - but they were really welcoming and it was fun to swim with my younger sister. They then had a meet to attend, so I was left to my own devices to get in the rest of my yardage. I buckled down and managed to pull out some great swims including one 7,200 yard session on my own. A giant thank you to all of them though and especially to their fantastic and amazing coach Lauren Beam.

I attended the marathon expo and spent a bit of time talking to my liaison at the American Cancer Society about some potential ideas for the 2010 season. There is a lot to flush out still, but they are excited about the opportunity to partner with me and I am over the moon to work with them to raise some money and awareness. The pre-race dinner was great and hearing some of the stories of the athletes racing for ACS in the marathon were both inspirational and amazing.

I also sat at the Garmin booth and signed some autographs for them. That is always fun as I love spending time with the Garmin team. The booth is always out of control busy and it is good fun to hear some of the questions that get thrown at them... and at me... when people think I work there. Their sponsorship has been terrific and I look forward to working with them over the next few years in the build up to London.

Marathon day was great. It was a bit chilly for the spectators but perfect run weather for the athletes. It was great to see the elite athletes and of course to see my mother running. We were watching between mile 16 and 17 and at that point she was cruising along and smiling. It was a few miles later that she said she kind of got "over it" and hit the wall a bit. But her final performance - 3:54 - was terrific and as always, incredibly impressive.

The weekend was all too short and since then I have been back in Boulder training and working. I'm nearing the end of my first training block, which has been swim focused while I continue rehab on my leg, and if I'm being honest, the end of the block can't come soon enough. My arms are not used to all of the k's in the pool and I've dug myself into a pretty solid hole of exhaustion. It is really great to be back training, I feel much less "out of shape" after 3 weeks in the pool, but I am itching to get out and start back running!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

In and around Boulder and the USA

Interbike: I spent a few days out in Las Vegas at Interbike. It was a great experience and it gave me an opportunity to see some of the awesome new products that are out there and to talk to some really great people in the industry. I did an autograph signing for 3T which was great fun. I'm always excited to meet people who know me and follow my career and to be able to give them some pointers or words of wisdom... and I'm also quite happy when they have no idea who I am!

I have been working hard on my partnerships and sponsorships for the 2010 season. I am renewing partnerships with a number of companies and am looking forward to starting some great, new and exciting ones as well. It is important to me to consider carefully the companies that I choose to work with and to remain loyal to all of those people who have been behind me for the past few years. Stay tuned in the weeks ahead to find out more about the companies and people who are helping to keep the Olympic dream alive.

On top of working a few days a week as a nanny, I have been spending a lot of time in rehab working on building up my muscles and sorting out what exactly has been causing the pain in my left leg/hip. It has been a month now since I have been "living in pain" which is terrific and slowly but surely I am building back into my running and cycling. The good news is that the pain subsided in large part on its own, which suggests that there isn't anything really serious going on and with the help of some great doctors and therapists at Boulder Center for Sports Med as well as Tri Massage, I am beginning to understand that it is probably just a series of muscle compensation patterns gone wrong!

The weather has been interesting in Colorado. One day its 75 and sunny and two days later we are in the middle of a blizzard. I'm not sure how I feel about it and with another impending storm coming in the next few days I'm starting to think I should learn how to snow shoe or ski or something!

This weekend I am heading to New York City for the New York City Marathon. Clearly, I'm not running, but my mother is, so I am heading out East to cheer her on. It will also allow me to spend some time with my younger siblings and to meet with the people from the American Cancer Society since I will be officially partnering with them starting in 2010. It is a partnership that means a lot to me and something I am very excited to get to work on!

After that, I have about two months until I head back to Australia for the beginning of training camp. I have started to ease back into training with a more swim focused block which will give my legs a bit more time to heal and become rebalanced before I overload them with training again. I'm really excited about the 2010 season and honestly wish I could start my run block now... but... as in everything, there are lessons... and I'm learning to be patient right now.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

It's a shame...

After all of the terrible stuff that has been said about me, and the questions on my intentions, I decided to come clean now... rather than later.

It's a shame that everyone is raking me over hot coals... perhaps everyone should stop assuming things until they know the facts.

"a portion of the proceeds" are going to breast cancer

yes. this statement is vague but true.

EVERYTHING is going to breast cancer EXCEPT the costs associated with listing in through Ebay. Both people are responsible for paying for their own dinners, so that cost is not calculated into the equation. Had I said it was all going to charity, I would have been lying... but by being vague it stirred the pot a little more and got everyone talking... Everyone just assumed based on the statement that I had an intention to keep money. Yes, I suppose the article kind of hinted that I was doing this to raise money directly from THIS auction, but that is such small scale thinking.

The actual point of the auction was not to raise money for myself off of THIS auction but rather to make a point and to create a media buzz. We need to shake things up once in a while and stray from the norm. There are so many amazing and talented athletes who are so gifted but so broke and it's just such a shame that there isn't more money to support all of us. The press behind all of this has been amazing... and who knows, maybe someone or some company will be inspired to support a lesser known sport or athlete in a lesser known sport that they otherwise may have ignored.

So, anyway, thank you to everyone who has supported me. I know, you know who I am and what I stand for and I am very grateful.

I look forward to sitting down to dinner with whomever the winner is this evening and to sharing some insight with them. They can rest easy knowing that I'm NOT pocketing a cent from this auction and every penny (aside from ebay fees) will be going straight to help fight breast cancer.

Best,
Jenna