Holiday Workouts

As Thanksgiving approaches, one of the things we've been discussing is training schedules. R's normal schedule is 3 days/week, 10 hours total. Occasionally we will throw in a Friday "Team Boost" or there are several competitions during the fall, obviously. Over Thanksgiving week, her schedule bumped to 5 days/week, 17 hours total.

Several people have asked why it's so much more, or when we will do our family events? My thoughts on those questions are this:

1. It takes two weeks to get "in shape" and just 3 DAYS to get out - the girls cannot afford to lose everything they've been working so hard for by taking a week off during competition season. Sure, you can have the best of intentions to work out at home, but it's not the same, and how many people really do that the way they should? And all that extra eating? We should probably all be putting these hours into the gym. 
2. Our gym would never ask us to skip a family holiday for practice. It just so happens that our family dinners fall on a) Thanksgiving, when there is no practice, or b) after practice (Saturday). If we happened to have family Thanksgiving on Sunday, we would probably do both. But since it works out nicely in our schedule, there's no reason to have to miss practice!
3. Thanksgiving week falls so late this year, just 2 weeks before the state competition, that it's great the girls can get some extra time in when they don't have to compete with school and other activities. 
4. The coaches know the girls' limits. I imagine there will be some fun games or activities or getting to work new skills sprinkled in throughout their workouts. I trust them completely to do what is right for my child in order to help her be her best and have fun doing it. 

We're thankful for the opportunity to do some extra work while spending time with great friends.