Week 10/11 - William Gates - Cycling/HWC

Cycling Week 10

My final week with the Cycling Program included leading one final campus tour to an athlete from Pennsylvania who could potentially come here in August. Luckily, the tour was during the week so all of the buildings were unlocked and we could show her around. The cycling team even treated her and her mother to lunch in the dining center.

The video projects were both completed. The campus tour video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mN7shmY8r8 and the Road Race course video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M80R1gziQBA&feature=related. Coach and I also shot more video of other roads around Columbia that display the beauty of the roads and countryside.

The cycling shed also was completed. Coach and I had to go to Jeffries hardware shop to get some hose and some other little things to help hang up a peg board. Taking out some of the excess trash from the shed to the trash container behind Cranmer was challenging because I had to carry it and walk it from place to place, but it was a good workout!

I also had to compile a list of athletes who I had talked to this summer who graduate from high school in 2012 and send them all a message letting them know that they can start applying for admission.

I am really excited that this internship is complete, although it was great learning all about the sport management side of the cycling team and developing a deeper relationship with Coach Grigsby. It was such a great experience and I am glad that I was given the chance to do an internship with the team.

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HWC Week 10

Week 10 of my Wellness Center internship included receiving the prizes for the Flab2Fab fitness challenge and making sure everything was accounted for. There was no weigh-in during this week, mainly because I would have gone over in my allowed hours at the Wellness Center, but also to hopefully allow for a larger weight loss for the participants for the final weigh-in. I could tell that some of the participants were upset that the program was almost over.

The Couch-2-5K program also came to an end on July 23, 2011 with the actual 5K event. Friday I had to go out and mark the course with flags and athletic spray on the road. I put arrows before, in, and after every turn so that it made it clear which way to go. I tried to make it as fool-proof as possible. One issue that I ran into was that Friday night I was told that the gates on Waterworks Street were not open, when I called twice and made sure they were going to open them. Saturday morning...EARLY morning... I went out on my bike and marked some more places and made sure the gates were open. They were open Saturday morning, which made my life better. We had 21 people complete the 5K and 12 of those people completed their first 5K that morning! It was super exciting and everyone loved it! They thanked me for hosting the 5K. I wish we would have had some sort of door prizes to give away to help wrap up the program and event.

HWC Week 11

Monday and Tuesday were my last two days of the program and of my internship! Monday I had to lead the final, last chance group workout for the participants. I also had to make sure that everything was in place for Tuesday. Tuesday was weigh-in day. We also did measurements to see how many inches were lost. Then we re-did the 5 minute step test. The group ended up losing 370 pounds and 232 inches! The 'Biggest Loser' lost 10.43% of her body weight! It was exciting to see everyone pretty happy with their results. The people who did not seem ecstatic about what they had done were the ones that I could tell did not give 100%, but I learned that I can really only provide so much help for them and that they are the ones that have to take it into their own hands and decide if they want it bad enough or not. We had prizes for the biggest losers and then a couple random prize drawings, too. Before everyone left I gave them an "end of program survey" to get feedback on their thoughts and what they would like to see to help improve the program if we have it again.

As soon as everyone left, I just stood in the room, took a deep breathe and felt mixed emotions - happiness and worry. I am happy that almost everyone who started the program finished and that some were so happy about their results. I am worried for some people because I can tell that they might slip off and go back to old, unhealthy habits and reverse everything that has been worked for in this program, but I told them that they can contact me anytime if they need motivation or someone to talk to anytime. It was such a beautiful experience - learning about myself and others and developing great friendships with amazing people.