A Day in the Life: Kelly Zahalka, Day 1

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, January 23. THROUGHOUT this week, SwimmingWorldMagazine.com will follow the life of Naval Academy sophomore Kelly Zahalka as she details her daily activities in her own words as part of the "A Day in the Life" series.

As a Naval Academy swimmer, Kelly will provide an inside look into one of the unique settings of collegiate swimming, and will be using the lingo and terminology present on the Yard. Luckily for us, she will provide translation where necessary. For instance, the Yard is what the Naval Academy calls its campus.

Kelly has posted a 4.0 grade-point average throughout her collegiate career and is ranked first in her class in both the academic and military Order of Merit. She has been named to both the Naval Academy's Superintendent's and Commandant's lists in each semester, and earned inclusion in the 2006 Patriot League Honor Roll. She was inducted into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars during the fall of 2006.

Athletically, she lowered the school record in the 400 IM by nearly five seconds with a Patriot League record of 4:24.41 to win the event last year. She originally broke the record during prelims with a time of 4:24.59, then came back to upend it in finals for the title. During her rookie season, she also totaled 26 individual event victories in regular season action while competing in 10 different events for Navy.

In Kelly's first entry, she writes about an intense Monday which started at 5:25 a.m., and ended with her back in her room by 7:30 p.m. She also wrote about a challenging Saturday in which she attempted to qualify for Dive School.

Monday, January 22, 2007, Day 1
Hello! I am so excited at the opportunity to share this week with you all as the Naval Academy's Women's Team prepares for our final dual meet of the season against The University of Pennsylvania! Although life here may seem monotonous with all the routines and daily obligations, there are always opportunities to mix things up. On Saturday, I participated in what we call a "screener." Voluntary screeners are held throughout the year and are anywhere from 5 to 48 hours long. They are extremely physical and require hundreds of push-ups and sit-ups, running, pull-ups and sometimes swimming. The Naval Academy uses the screeners to determine who gets to go to specialty schools over the summer to be qualified for certain tasks such as repelling from helicopters or parachuting from planes. The one I completed on Saturday was the Dive Screener. Out of my class (USNA Class of 2009) there were 27 midshipmen competing for three spots at Dive School. Dive School is a five-week long course in Hawaii, and at the conclusion of the school, each student graduates as a Navy certified scuba diver. This accomplishment is signified by the coveted "dive bubble" that graduates proudly wear on their uniforms. One other girl and several guys on our team did the screener with me. We really stuck together throughout the day to push each other to excel. The Midshipmen who served as instructors came largely from the swim team as well. It was so nice to know that guys who I hang out with around the Yard (campus) and on the weekends were the same people who were in my face yelling for me to do more push-ups. I knew that they weren't going to make me do anything that was impossible; although, they definitely pushed me to my limits. Doing the screener was an awesome chance for me to test myself in something other than academics or swimming!

While I had a great time on Saturday, I was still paying for it today. It took me three tries to roll over on my stomach to climb out of my rack (bed) this morning at 0525 for practice. I did make it over to the pool to get in just about 3,000 meters of loosen-up swimming. We practice and compete in a 25 meter pool. We started with 1000m warm-up, then moved onto a small kick set, and some breath control work. We finished with our favorite – 400m "social kick" with fins, but today we had to all be in the first three lanes together. We had some serious team bonding as we packed it in! This was a typical Monday morning for the team, where we usually focus on shaking off the weekend and preparing ourselves for the test set that afternoon. Although I could barely bring my arms out of the water or push off the walls, the swim really helped work out some of the kinks from Saturday. I'm just hoping to be fully recovered in time for UPenn.

After practice, I rushed to get ready so I could grab some tea on my way to class with a friend. Mondays are my most academically intense days. I start when my alarm goes off at 0525 and don't stop going until I finally sit down at my desk to begin homework around 1930. I hobbled around (my walk is a little funny since I'm so sore) to four classes this morning, went straight to lifting at 1205, ate lunch in my room, went to one more class at 1320, then headed back to the pool at 1430. This time, however, it wasn't to swim. I finished out my school day with my required PE class, Marine Corps Martial Arts, which is held in the wrestling room next to the pool. Today, we learned eye gouging, left and right jabs, and practiced some body hardening techniques. It's always fun to watch the guys get so into the punching and fighting. After that class, I stayed at the pool since practice starts right away at 1545. While the team stretched and chatted about this upcoming week, I went over and rode the bike for 15 minutes to loosen up my legs and keep the recovery going.

We got in at 1600 and continued with loosening up in preparation for the test set. We had another 1000m freestyle warm-up with drills, after which we did a breath control set, and a kick set. We did some pulling to finish our warm-up for the test set. Stephanie (Hebda), the girl who took the screener with me, and I swam this part of practice and then got out to go over and take a 15-minute ice bath. Sitting here now after swimming twice, lifting, and going to Martial Arts class, I can say the ice bath worked wonders on my arms and legs! I should be able to do full workouts with the team tomorrow!

While Steph and I were freezing at the trainers, the team did 8×100 kick on 2:30 all out. Our usual in-season kick test set is 8×200 on 4:00, but as Patriot League Championships near, we are focusing more on speed and intensity. The shorter distance helped accomplish that goal.

I finally made it to my room at 1930 for a hot shower, some dinner, and a little bit of homework. The best part about having a packed Monday is that Tuesday is a little bit lighter. I have two lab periods tomorrow morning, then the afternoon off!

Let's hope it only takes two tries to roll out of my rack tomorrow!

Go Navy!

Kelly

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