Kat Holmes is used to being asked how she pulled off the near-impossible feat of qualifying for the Olympics while simultaneously attending medical school."I almost don't know," says Holmes, who spoke with CNBC Make It while promoting her partnership with the fitness coaching appHolmes, who also graduated magna cum laude from Princeton with a degree in neuroscience, had a schedule that was packed to the brim.
"I wasn't sleeping on the plane, I was studying. I'd go compete, study between each of my bouts, go right from the competition to the airport, fly back and go right from the airport to class," she says."It was awful, really."But Holmes says she pushed forward because her goals were clear: she wanted to make the 2024 Olympic team and she wanted to be a doctor. So when things got difficult, she took them one at at time.
I recognize those a bit earlier and I say"Oh, okay, I'm pushing a bit too hard." I'm better at knowing what I need to do in order to refresh myself or combat that. Sometimes I need to take a week off. I never take a week off of training, but maybe I need to take a week off of fencing, specifically. Maybe I need to do other types of cross training. Maybe it's as simple as needing to go out with friends for a night.
I remember in high school they gave us these school planners and made us write down all of our homework and stuff. I actually still buy a paper planner every year and I write everything I need to do for the week in there. I sit down and I write every single due date as far into the future as I can. When I'm done, I cross it off and I know I don't have to deal with it.