Here we are again, Round 2

Obviously I haven't been keeping up with my blog all that much.  During the summer I rarely find the time to blog and instead spend my free time relaxing etc.  But now I am officially moved into my new dorm and ready for my sophomore year at Catholic University.  On July 31, I was all packed up and headed to DC.  We met as a team to train for three days on campus to prepare for our overseas trip.  Upon arrival, we were all surprised to find Chelsea's first team using our facilities as a training ground.  For those that don't know, Chelsea is considered one of the top professional teams in the world and have multimillion dollar players. Here is a link to their website if interested. http://www.chelseafc.com I got to meet Frank Lampard, basically a living legend and took a picture with him.  One of the cooler moments as a soccer fan.

Then our team departed on August 2, heading to Barcelona, Spain. Overall it was one of the most fun trips I have taken.  Being able to play soccer with my buddies against foreign opponents and then getting to sightsee and experience the city with my friends was a once in a lifetime experience.  Here is the link to the blog that the team completed while over there (just way to much to recap by myself) http://catholicusoccer.blogspot.com If the link doesn't work, try it on your smart phone. Here are a few pics of my own:

Anyway we returned last Sunday the 11th and moved into my new dorm.  I have my own room but sharing a suite with four more of my buddies.  It should be a good setup.  We have been having captains practices and been preparing for our official preseason to start up on Saturday.  We will have two-a-days and run a lot. I am conservatively confident about the fitness tests, and overall very excited about the upcoming season.

I will try and update this blog as much as possible during the semester and season so stay tuned!  More to come!

For now,

TZ

End of the Spring Season

Last Wednesday evening I hurt my foot at practice.  I went into a tackle and kicked Luke's knee with the outside of my foot and it did not feel good.  The pain felt like a sprained ankle but it was all in the foot.  I went to the trainer and they said it was either a fractured toe bone or a bone-bruise.  It didn't swell up too bad, but it was definitely hard to walk on.  It was pretty bad timing since our one play-day for the spring season was on Saturday.  I iced and rehabbed as much as possible and was getting optimistic by Friday.  I was able to run and cut without too much pain, but didn't play in practice.

Then Saturday was a big day for the team.  We played American University and JMU right down the road at AU.  Both are Division I teams so we knew it would be difficult to play up to their level especially since they have much more time available to play and train in the spring.  Anyway, my foot was feeling better, not 100% but I decided to play and it felt okay.  I played the second half of both games (two 30 minute halves for each game) and we ended up tying AU 0-0 and lost to JMU 2-0.  They scored both in the second half which was the 120th straight minute for some of us, and we were low on subs due to injuries.  Anyway we were all pretty pleased with our performance so it was a good day of play.

Now we have one week left of the season.  One more practice on Wednesday and then the alumni game on Friday.  It's been fun to play, but I think I am ready for the spring season to wrap up; it's grueling to keep on practicing with high intensity for five weeks or so with only one day of games to look forward to.  I am also ready to get back to more lifting and some biking to train for the duathalon in May.  I'm pretty excited for that to say the least.

It's finally started getting warm out as well.  All of the cherry blossoms are blooming here and spring time has been very pretty in the city.  Here's a pic of the Jefferson Memorial from the city:

Overall school has been going well also.  I have A's in all my classes so far except Philosophy which is hovering around an A-.  I know I struggle in that subject, but I am really hoping I could pull something out on the final for an A.  I don't know if it's possible, but I'll be shooting for it.  I could also be excused from my Math final as well which would be really nice and help with my workload for finals week.

It's also starting to hit me that my first year is almost already over.  We only have about three or four weeks left here.  It's kind of sad to be honest.  This has been a great year for me, and I have really enjoyed myself here at Catholic.  I will be enjoying these last few weeks, living in the moment, but also looking forward to the summer to come.

Take care,

-TZ

Easter Break etc.

A perk of going to a Catholic school: I get a long weekend for Easter.  I headed home the Wednesday before Easter and stayed until Monday after.  It was a great break which I wouldn't be able to get going to any other school.  This break was nice in comparison to Spring Break because the whole family seemed to be around for the whole time.  I got to spend a lot of time with everyone which was very enjoyable.  Thursday and Friday were relaxing and relatively unexciting.  I got to see Meredith and BD in the gym Thursday morning and visited Michael at his work at United Therapeutics.  They are doing some pretty cool stuff over there, and it really makes me want to get some research experience this summer at some type of lab.  I seemed to have tried everything for getting a major-related job/internship for the summer, but I think I might have to resort to working some volunteer job at a lab or corporation. We shall see about that.

Anyway Saturday I got to try out a new type of training.  I rode the bike out on the roads for the first time.  I am training for a duathalon in May and it was really fun getting out on the roads.  I rode with Michael and Dad and it was a good time.  I look forward to riding some more and am hopeful to do well in the race.

Easter Sunday was also really nice.  We had Julee, Grandma, and Nana and Pops to join us for dinner.  The food was great and it was a good time.

Then Monday I caught a ride to Richmond with Julee to catch the Megabus there because there were none leaving from Durham for reason.  The Megabus picked me up late and then we got in traffic and I was traveling from 10am that morning and got in my dorm at 7pm.  It was a long nine hours of travel that should usually only take about 5 hours.

This past week has gone past fast.  I feel like every week should be only four days.  It would make everything much better.  We had practices at 6am this week and we had to run the mile before one of them.  We had to get it in under 6 minutes which isn't too bad, but I was still a little concerned about it.  I ended up doing fine coming in third out of the team with a time of 5:33.  I was pleased with that and then followed that up with a solid practice.  Coach actually emailed me and said I have started to play well these past two days and to keep it up.  It's nice to get positive feedback especially after all this hard work I've been putting in this spring.

It's been hard to find time for the trainer and lifting during spring season but I'm still getting all of my workouts in that I need.  Tomorrow we have practice in the morning and then we are going out in the city to look at the cherry blossoms.  I will try and post a pic if I can.  It should be a good time.

I know I can't really go into detail about everything else, but I don't wanna bore anyone either.  So those are the major highlights of the past week or so.  I have been thinking about posting this since Monday, but I haven't gotten around to it.  I really need to get better about these posts.  Especially since I have a new follower! Shout out to Lindsey for the follow!

So until next time,

-TZ

Is it Actually Spring?

There's no way I could possible fill in everything that has happened since my last blog.  I guess I've just gotten pretty lazy in keeping up with this thing.  I do enjoy doing it, but tough to find the time.

So I'll just hit the highlights here.  Sunday was the first day of our official spring season.  We trained in the morning and it was solid.  I though we were going to do more fitness / running but it wasn't that bad.  It was fun to get back out there with the guys and do some actual drills instead of just scrimmaging and whatnot during captains practices.  So now we have about three practices a week for five weeks and then one day of scrimmage.  We are going to play American University and James Madison (both DI schools) which should be good.

St. Patricks Day was also actually a really big holiday up here which I did not realize.  There was a huge block party off campus which was pretty fun and then a group of us finished the day off at Buffalo Wild Wings.  It was actually a pretty fun holiday; one which I haven't ever really celebrated.

Now I have four more days of school before coming home for Easter.  I just bought my MegaBus ticket for next Wednesday at 12:45 and then I'll return to school Easter Monday.  It will be a good break. Now I just have a chemistry test to get through tomorrow and then it should be a relative cruise.

I'm also working on putting together my schedule of classes for next semester.  It looks like I will be taking 16 credits which should be decent with the soccer season etc.  And now my Physics teacher asked me if I was interested in minoring in Physics and I don't even know what I want to do because I could also minor in Math since I'm far ahead in math but we'll see.  I also want to enjoy myself lol.

And so Wednesday was the first day of Spring and it was decently nice, but now the day after the high is 40 degrees and its freezing especially at practice.  I am truly ready for warm weather.  Hope it comes sooner rather than later.

So that's about it for now.  Looking forward to Easter with the fam.

-TZ

Home Sweet Home

Last week was quite the struggle as the last week before Spring Break.  I had two midterms, a paper due and a test all in the second half of the week.  Needless to say it was great when 5:00 Friday hit when I finished with all of my classes.  Friday night me and a few friends went out to dinner.  We went to Momiji sushi in Chinatown, DC and it was the first time I had sushi.  It was actually great!  I really enjoyed it and I can't believe I had never had it before.  Then later we went to support our women's basketball team in their first round of the NCAA's.  It was a fun game and they advanced.  Our basketball teams were both ranked in the top ten of the nation, and it is good to see that type of success for us.

Friday night we relaxed and watched a few movies and just hung out.  I ended up staying up real late which probably wasn't the best decision since I had to get up early for my bus ride home Saturday.  Anyway I woke up at 5:30 and packed in the morning.  I had requested a taxi to take us from school to Metro station at 7am in the morning to get to Union Station for a 7:45 am bus ride.  This is where the morning got stressful.  At 7:10, the taxi still wasn't there so I called the company and they said there are no taxis in the area, and they probably wouldn't be able to get us to Union station in time for my bus.  So I started freaking out cause the metro was closed and I had a friend with me who had a train to catch at 7:40.  So luckily another man was waiting for a taxi right next to us and somehow he was trying to go to Union as well.  So we waited for his taxi which came at 7:20 and I did not think we were going to make it in time.  We finally got to the station at a little after 7:30 and I offered to pay for the taxi for all of us, but the man was extremely nice and paid for all three of us.   We didn't even have to pay for the ride. So then we ran to get my friend on her train and then I ran back up to catch my bus right at 7:45.  I do not know how we made it in time, but it was definitely a whole lotta luck.  It would've sucked to have to stay until I could get another bus ride too.  Anyway that was definitely way too much stress at 7 am especially after getting like two hours of sleep.  I'm just happy I got home safe and sound.

Later Saturday, me and Michael went for about a 6 mile run which was very good.  It made our Outback dinner even better that night.  A blooming onion, house salad, 10 oz ribeye and mashed potatoes for Michael, Dad, and me.  It was great.

Now I just finished a lift with Michael at the gym which was a good way to start Monday/the week.  I'm looking forward to relaxing this week at home and just hanging around.  I just wish it was a little warmer out! At least spring is soon to come.

In the meantime I'll be taking long naps and relaxing here at home for a nice Spring Break.

-TZ

Stage 2

The next two weeks are going to be a tough grind to close out the first half of the spring semester.  Two more weeks before spring break.  I'm going to have a few midterms and papers due in these weeks, just as classes are starting to get a little challenging.  So far I've already learned most of everything in high school and last semester for classes such as physics and math and chemistry, but now we are starting to learn new things, and I'm having to study more on my own to learn the new materials.  But even with the increase in difficulty, grades have stayed decently decent haha which is good.  Just have to stay focused.

Last week was relatively smooth.  Valentine's Day was relatively uneventful.  I got to talk to Grandma and Mom which was nice.  Then a few of my friends and I went out to the city for a while in the evening.  It was a nice time.

The weekend was nice and it was good to relax and catch up on some rest.  Then Monday the soccer team went to support Earl who lost his mother to cancer last week, so we all went to the funeral which was nearby in Maryland.  It was very sad, but it seemed as if Earl was taking it fairly well.  I just know it's got to be tough for him.

Now today I started my new cycle of workouts from Meredith.  They are more cardio intensive in comparison to the more bulk-focus on the last cycle.  I don't typically enjoy the cardio part, but I've gotta do it to get in shape for the season.  I still find myself really enjoying my lifting which is a good supplement to our captains practices.

So these next two weeks will be very physically and mentally intense, but it will just make break that much better.

L8R,

-TZ

A Quick Post

I just realized I haven't really been keeping up with my blog.  No posts since January! Undece.  It seems as if the time just keeps flying by.  I think this is my fifth week back at school but feels like the second.  I thought about making a weekend trip home before spring break but I missed the weekend I was planning on, and now it's only about two weeks away from break, so it's probably not even worth it.

Classes have been going decently.  18 credits hasn't been that bad so far, and I hope it stays that way.  This past week and this week are fairly loaded with tests and quizzes and such for the classes, so I have to buckle down and get to studying.

We've been having captains practices three times a week which is good for keeping the touch and staying in game shape.  I've basically used those to replace my personal running routine that I fit in with my lifting schedule.  I feel like I've been getting stronger through my workouts which is very encouraging.

Me and my suitemates have started watching the show Breaking Bad which has been very entertaining.  It seems like each episode ends on a cliffhanger and we just have to keep watching.  It's a very kind of controversial topic, but pretty interesting.  I won't go into much detail here but look it up if you're curious.

Not much else to report.  Nothing all that exciting going on.  Just the good ol' grind.  Hope all is well with everyone else.

-TZ