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Every time I go out and race it's a goal to go out and run faster than I've done before.

Experience has taught me how important it is to just keep going, focusing on running fast and relaxed. Eventually it passes and the flow returns. It's part of racing.

I'm supposed to relax and concentrate on the image of myself out there skating my race.

I'm a competitor. I really enjoyed the race more than just going out and running to run.

For me, I always think about keeping my upper body relaxed, my hips level, and my right side down on the turn. If I work on nailing those three things at every practice, I hope that by the time I get into a race situation I can stay completely focused on the task at hand, and the rest will happen naturally.

There is always the excitement of running races.

When I have an easy run, I like to listen to music and relax. When I have to train hard, I try to simulate race conditions, and in a race, you can't listen to music.

That's what has always been good about track. The goal is very clearly defined: Try to win. Get the gold medal. And I'm able to put my energy toward that.

And I guess the thing that I really sort of rely on in me is that I love racing and I love competing and so I know that you know when the time comes and the pressure's on and I have to swim well, I'm sort of able to pull it out and sort of get the best out of myself.

I'm going into my first Olympics, whereas people I'm racing against are going into their third and fourth and probably last Olympics. So there's more pressure on them to perform. I've still got a whole future ahead of me. I am not even the Olympic champ.