Obviously, the competitor in you, you want to be in the top three every time in the pool.

I have kids. Unbeknownst to them, they are quick to snap me back to reality when I start feeling the pressure of being an athlete! It's a breath of fresh air to have two people to focus on; their happiness erases all the pressures I have on myself.

When people say that kids change your life, it's no small feat what they do. I've stressed about competition my whole life, but the minute I held my son Blaise in my arms for the first time, those stresses diminished.

I concentrate on preparing to swim my race and let the other swimmers think about me, not me about them.

Life is all about balance: sprinting hard and fast, breathing deep and slow. Working out with my coaches, playing with my kids. Eating whole foods for fuel, enjoying a glass of wine with friends.

Like anyone, I stress and get hard on myself from time to time, but it's minute compared to the pressure I used to put on myself to perform and succeed. To my kids' credit, they've probably helped me the most here: I'm more worried about what they're doing than what I'm doing!

My training centered on aerobic development, meaning I'd swim longer with less intensity during the majority of my practices. As I got older, I began more weight training, and my workouts went from long at a lower intensity to shorter and more intense.