What would you all like to see in this newsletter!? Please comment or write me so I know what direction to go with this.

Waikiki and Lifting Weights

Every Labor Day Weekend I make the migration west to the beautiful island of Oahu. This journey lands myself and about 20 of my Olympic Club teammates in the land of Mai Tais, sunshine, surf, and joy.

The Waikiki Rough Water is a 2.4 mile race I enjoy not so much for the racing part, usually I am in the middle of a hard training block or have just wrapped a swim so I have never fully been able to “race”. But I love it for the camaraderie and beauty of the course. This was an exceptionally fast year, thank you currents, and while I was still recovering from the Farallon Island swim the week before and dealing with some shoulder pain I was pleased with my top 5 finish and 1st in my Age Group (30-34).

I would highly recommend this race to anyone!! And if the 2.4 miles intimidates you, there is a fin division!

Lifting weights is THE most important thing you can do for longevity in your sport. Should I say it again?

I love lifting and I love how strong I feel after a few consistent weeks of increasing weights. In full transparency though, I really struggle to prioritize lifting. For myself, having a busy schedule with limited free time to train I always find myself leaning towards a swim or bike before getting myself to the gym.

As I started building for Tahoe and the Farallones I noticed a twinge in my shoulder. Long story short, I started swimming too much and not lifting enough.

Gearing up for Swim California I am making this a huge part of my training plan. Getting in the gym to lift about 2 hours a week. That is 2×1hr sessions or 3x45min+ sessions. I thought I might share some exercises I do.

2 day week about 45 min, I usually add in some other things

Tuesday

Warm Up 5 min on Erg + 10x T,I,Y shoulder lift with a light weight, balance on one leg

Pre Lift Medium weight dumb bells or fixed barbell 3 rounds 8x RDL + 8x Rows + 8 bicep curl

Lift

3× 10 chest press + 5 incline push ups between each

3× 10 rows

4× 6-8 leg press start light, then round 2-4 increase weight + back extension in between

3×12 hamstring curls

3×8 (4 ea) renegade rows

Finish

Glute bridge series 10 both, 10 L, 10 R

Abs

Thursday

Warm Up 5 min on Erg + 20 monster walks forward, back ward, each side

Pre Lift 3× 10 rows, bicep curls, squats

Lift

3× 10 shoulder press

3× 10 tricep extension + abs on bench

4× 6-8 back squat increase weight round 2-4

3×12 RDL with dumb bell maybe add balance component

3×12 bicep curls

3×12 calf raises

Finish

Glute bridge series 10 both, 10 L, 10 R

Abs

I would love to hear what type of lifts you like to do or send me any ideas!

Right now while training is in a bit of a lull I am focusing on work and Swim California and Sea Dreamers. It is utterly exhausting.

I am so grateful I get to pursue my passions but sometimes it feels really lonely. Like, does anyone care? Does this even matter?

Every day I am spending 1-4 hours talking networking, talking with potential donors, sponsors, aligning with the team, checking in on the timeline, project managing. In running this project I have learned how to create a plan, a marketing strategy, a fundraising strategy, lead a team of unpaid over qualified volunteers, utilize AI and office tools, talk to various people, network, etc….it is a lot.

Our first Sea Dreamers event was on 9/20, which I am really proud that we got off the ground. We learned about Bay Keeper, microplastics, cleaned up about 50lbs of trash for Ca Coastal Clean up day, and then got a group to swim in Aquatic Park—3 of the attendees it was their first time!!

It was easy for me to fixate on what didn’t go well, we only had about 17 people and we were hoping for 30. I felt so bummed about that.

However, my friend Murphy reminded me to focus on all the wins. The wins being we organized a really nice first event, three women were introduced to swimming in the bay, we picked up a lot of trash, one woman who showed up heard about us on the news, and we are building something that is going to grow.

I am really proud of the Sea Dreamers team and I could not do this without them. Maya Geringer, our Program Director, has absolutely been the workhorse behind this and kept us all on track.

I am excited to see where this goes but for now, I just need to remind myself to celebrate the small wins.

🙂 “Nations ratify the world’s first treaty to protect international waters”-AP

“The High Seas Treaty is the first legal framework aimed at protecting biodiversity in international waters, those that lie beyond the jurisdiction of any single country. International waters account for nearly two-thirds of the ocean and nearly half of Earth’s surface and are vulnerable to threats including overfishing, climate change and deep-sea mining.”

“The high seas are the world’s largest crime scene — they’re unmanaged, unenforced, and a regulatory legal structure is absolutely necessary,” said Johan Bergenas, senior vice president of oceans at the World Wildlife Fund.

😢 “World’s oceans fail key health check as acidity crosses critical threshold for marine life”- The Guardian

Oceans failing a key health check as acidity crosses a critical threshold

“Scientists are concerned that it could also weaken the ocean’s role as the planet’s most important heat absorber and its capacity to draw down 25-30% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Marine life plays an important role in this process, acting as a “biotic bump” to sequester carbon in the depths.

In the report, all of the other six breached boundaries – climate change, biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows, and novel entities – showed a worsening trend. But the authors said the addition of the only solely ocean-centred category was a alarming development because of its scale and importance.”

Behind the swim is a whole team and so I just want to shoutout the people who have made getting this far possible.

Each newsletter I am going to shoutout someone who went above and beyond. This week I want to shoutout:

💙 Felicia Lee and I have been friends for about 15 years. We know each other through USA Swimming and collegiate rivalry—she went to Stanford and I went to Cal. Over the years, through the Olympic Club, we have become dear friends and she has been a cornerstone of my swim and training. Thank you Flee for bringing toughness, laughter, and perspective to this whole project.

I also want to thank all the donors who have come in and gotten us close to $100,000.

This isn’t just my swim; it’s a journey for all of us who love the ocean, crave adventure, and believe in trying something even when it feels impossible. Thank you for being here.

Donations are currently being accepted through my 501-c3 non-profit, Sea Dreamers. During Swim California we will be stopping and having various Sea Dreamers events to bring more women and girls into the ocean and create more awareness around ocean conservation—because I believe we fight for what we love and women fight pretty damn hard.