Laura Tomes USA Journal No. 1

NORMAN, Okla. - Senior volleyball player Laura Tomes led the Sooners to their best season in school history in 2006 as they advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 and finished with a final ranking of No. 12 in the country.

Now that Tomes has finished her collegiate career, she has begun a new journey with the U.S. Women's National Volleyball Training Team. Tomes was one of 11 members that were selected for the squad and has been training with the team since March 9. The team is training in the impressive Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Sioux City, Iowa native will periodically write a journal for SoonerSports.com describing her experiences in Colorado Springs. Below is Journal Entry No. 1.
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Hey everyone! I've been in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center for about two weeks now, and it has been such a great experience so far. The first week that I was here was a bit of a light week, which was perfect timing.

I was able to have time to adjust to the altitude and start to understand how everything works here. It's a lot of work, but it's so much fun to be around so many other great volleyball players and other athletes!

Volleyball Begins Spring Season | Tomes Added to USA Roster

It was hard to leave such a great place as OU. I've had so many awesome experiences and made some lasting relationships there. Including, but not limited to, my teammates, coaches, friends, and roommates. Speaking of which, I'd like to give a great big shout-out and good luck to the Women's Basketball team who is going into the Sweet 16 at the end of this week which is a part of why I was so blessed to spend my college years at OU. All of the teams represent our university so well. That is one of the reasons why it was so great to end my collegiate career in Hawaii at the Sweet 16, in the midst of one of the best seasons in the program's history!

Coach Restrepo and Coach Ojie actually visited me on Monday on their way back from a high school club tournament they are such great coaches! I was lucky to have Coach Restrepo as a head coach. In fact, it is because of my time at OU that I'm here now.

To tell you how I got here, there was a tryout that consisted of a little over 100 girls that were trying out for the National Team and the A2 team, which is a national team for players that still have remaining eligibility. The tryout lasted three days and was held at the Olympic Training Center near the end of February. There were so many talented and fun girls there, so I was especially excited to receive the opportunity to come here for the National Training Team. I got to Colorado Springs on March 9th, and jumped into workouts only a couple of hours after arriving. It was a conditioning workout, of course, which was a great way to get acclimated to the thinness of the air due to increased altitude!

I'm also sharing a room for the first time in my 22 years, which I was a little nervous about, but it's working out great. Lindsey Hunter, who was a setter for the University of Missouri and played on the National Team last year, is my roommate. We get along really well. She's pretty much in love with the Food Network, so I'm learning a lot of fun things to do once I have a kitchen again, as well as the different programs, the hosts of the shows, and anything else that you could learn from watching one channel. It's on our TV all the time!

This week, we started a five-week training block. This means that we are in a permanent state of two-a-days. We practice for five hours every Monday through Friday, one practice in the morning and one in the afternoon, followed by weight training three times a week and conditioning twice a week. On Saturdays we practice in the morning, and Sundays are off. I love being in the gym so much! I get to play great volleyball all the time; I don't think I could ask for any more at this point in my life.

However, our coaches like to make sure that we live out a balanced life as well. For example, I've had enough free time to keep up with my school work, family, and friends, and I've gotten to see my first movie in the IMAX, we saw 300. Courtney Thompson, who just ended her collegiate career setting for the University of Washington, Allison Anderson, a libero who just finished up at Boston College, and I went the other night. It actually took us two trips before we were able to get in we were precisely one minute late the first time, but it was worth it to see it there. The screen in there is huge, we felt like we were in the battle and fighting with the Spartans. We all have so much fun together!

Furthermore, they took us out of the gym on Tuesday to run/climb at a place called The Incline about 15 minutes from the training center. It's a trail-like spot in the mountains, and I'm told that it's a mile high. It was such a rewarding experience! For about the first third of the climb, our strength coach had us sprint intervals. At the high altitude and the steep incline, these were the toughest spring intervals I've ever ran (Did I mention that the name is The Incline? Because I'm pretty sure that we were climbing as straight up as is possible before you need to bust out the climbing tools.) My sprinting partner was Courtney and she is such a competitor! It was great - we got a really good workout in by pushing each other through the intervals. After that, we were able to walk up the rest of the way. I know that this sounds relatively easy, but I had to use my arms and legs sometimes in order to get to the next step. However, it was all worth it. I was so full of accomplishment once I got to the top! We all hung out at the top for a couple of minutes, basking in our victory, then took a couple of pictures before climbing back down.

Here's a funny story that I'll leave you with about the way back down the mountain. I was walking with Jill Davis, who was a libero for Cal. She's a great girl. We were talking and having a good time, then I completely wiped out twice! If anyone knows me, this probably isn't a big surprise, but it was steep and rocky and unstable promise. Jill was so funny, though! The first time she was really concerned, making sure that I was okay, but the second time, she just laughed at me. This kind of thing is, well, probably typical for me, and it is quite funny really. It also helps that aside from a few little scratches, I came out unharmed.

I'd like to wrap this up by saying that I miss everyone at OU, but I love it here. There's so many more experiences that I could share, but I'll leave you with that for now. I'll give everyone a little update again soon!

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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