It seems a long while since I last wrote a blog and given that I haven't raced for over a year this blog seems almost fraudulent but I wanted to write an update, whether for my own cathartic reasons, or just in case people still enjoy reading what I write, or maybe for those who haven't yet come across my blog.
So...where am I? Well physically I'm in Atlanta with my family for another Christmas all together. For 12 years out of the past 14 we have come out to Atlanta to stay with my brother who lives here, and the other two, well he came home to us. We're five hours behind so my mother is busy slaving away in the kitchen making our Christmas dinner, my father is sitting out on the balcony looking out onto the sun shining down on Midtown Atlanta and Piedmont Park, and my brother and I are busy doing our own things - perfect time for me to update my blog and look back on 2015 and forward to 2016.
I'm 35 now, 36 in a month, and in some ways I am very mature, I finally know who I am and feel very settled and content with life. On the other hand, I still feel like a big kid, both my brother and I are single, and that means that we get spoilt rotten by our parents. I know that life isn't forever and that makes me very grateful for the time that I have with loved ones and I am grateful for the small things in life, the things that make the difference, such as getting to a destination safely, landing safely after a 10 hour flight with bad turbulence, or just having another Christmas all together.
On the training front well I'm always grateful for coming out here as it means I'm able to train more than I have been doing recently. This year has been another year filled with injury rehab whilst being consumed by my MSc dissertation. This first half of this year was horrific in terms of the time outlay my dissertation took and the impact it had on my free time. However, it is now done. I've had a provisional mark back for my dissertation and whilst I am far from happy with it, it does mean that I will pass my MSc. I hate the whole subjectivity of academia, where one person looks for their own style when they mark, rather than seeing something for what it is. I was particularly annoyed that the provisional marking has criticised things that I was told to do by my supervisors, one of whom marked it, but hey ho, research is not my forte, but being a clinician is, and that's why I do what I do, to help people face-to-face, not through writing research. I will have passed, I will graduate in July 2016, and that will be a trio of degrees, one at each level, and that's me done for academia!!!!!
On another front, I have been more active with my private work in the past few months, www.youcanyouwill.co.uk also on Facebook @ #youcanyouwill, and I have successfully held introductory workshops to psychology for performance to two clubs in the local area, whilst picking up a few private clients. This private work is my way of helping others overcome issues that I myself have had to overcome in the sporting arena - anxieties about race day, believing in yourself, setting realistic goals and motivating yourself to achieve them, etc. It's only a small venture outside my day job, but my passion is helping others become who they want to be so I love this work to the point that it doesn't feel like work!
On the training front...well I desperately need to get back into a routine next year. As much as I feel restricted by a "plan" it's the only way that I consistently swim and gym, alongside running and biking. There are some new swimming sessions starting within my tri club that I intend on doing and as much as my shoulder pain is still very much present from the off my hopes of a diagnosis fell flat so now i'm just getting on with it! It might mean that a 3.8k swim and a 112 mile bike ride are off the table (my arm hurts when I cycle longer than an hour too on top of feeling like a dead weight and painful when swimming), but I fully intend on racing sprint and olympic triathlons in 2016, even if the whole initial anxiety that sets in when I can't get a breath in the pool is still very much present! I've created a home gym in my garage, so whilst I don't have everything I would want, such as a leg press, and a lat pull down machine, it's more than adequate with my squat rack, trx, kettle bells, slam ball, and free space. I have no excuses for not going to the gym now, other than my own head or time working against me! I even dusted off my rollers recently, after a couple of years of them being tucked away so they are going to become a regular feature alongside polishing up the sufferfest dvds i bought a year or so back! I don't need a class to motivate me, I can do that myself, so to optimise time my cycle and gym work will be done at home most of the time.
The running front though is another issue...I've joined a separate running club...I love the commaradarie of my tri club on race day but I wasn't doing any sessions with the club and felt very out of touch with people other than through the Facebook page. Having not raced for over a year, and properly for two years, I felt almost like I was no longer a member. However, joining the new swimming sessions will definitely help with this. Running though...followers of my blog will know that running is my achilles heel. It's what I love best, but it's also what has kept me away from triathlon/duathlon for 2 of the past 4 years that I have been involved with the sport. This year I finally found the expert that has hit the nail on the head after shedloads of money spent trying to find the answer. James Dunne of Kinetic Revolution has found that my running technique was the cause of the problems I was having and he has taught me to run again using a technique that allows me to run injury free, and to run on consecutive days without issues with my calf and without the ITB issues I was also suffering with. It's saving me a fortune in sports massages, I'll give him that!! Alongside this, the unexpected beauty of visiting Battersea Park in London made the 7 hour round trip for a 1 to 2 hour session all the more worth it, but just to be running pain free and consistently was enough in itself! He won't mind me plugging his website here I'm sure ;) http://www.kinetic-revolution.com
So the fact that I'm running injury free, and have been sensible doing lots of base miles, building from going super slow to ensure I was working to a zone 2 heart rate, which is demoralising in terms of speed, but rewarding when the gains come, adding in some speed, and adding miles slowly, has meant that I've looked to 2016 to actually move on with my running. I've got friends in a local running club, a rival to my tri club in the county cross country season, who were trying to convince me to join their club. This club is on my doorstep, with a multitude of training sessions suiting all abilities and session types across the week at a time that suited me getting home from work. I also recently did a psychology workshop with them and the way they embraced me almost as one of their own was enough to seal the deal in terms of joining them. I am happy running solo, it's what I've always done bar a few runs, but I recognise that I need to meet more people, that I'm missing out on meeting hunky men that might be single ;), that running with others can push you more than you potentially can yourself, plus I get to experience some new routes. So, I've taken the plunge to join Run4All Neath and I'm sure excited about running sessions with them, even if it feels strange to think of myself running in different colours and under a different name in certain races. A race that I will certainly be running under the Run4All name is the Scott Snowdon Trails Marathon in July. It's a lifelong ambition to run a marathon but recent years have made me doubt whether that would be possible due to injury. I have successfully ran three half marathons in the past but this year my hopes of achieving a good for age time didn't materialise due to injury so next year I'm not hanging about, I'm going for the big one, a trail run culminating in a run up and down Snowdon mountain ;) If i'm going to do a marathon, why not choose one that will make crossing that finishing like all the more rewarding even if I am broken by the end of it!
Away from the training front...my full-time work is all set for at least one, if not two, new adventures. It's exciting but also daunting the potential changes afoot, but they are all career progression and taking me in the direction I have always wanted to go...additionally, the new friends I have made in work this year are magic, and I'd love for them to continue regardless of whatever direction my job goes in.
The final thing to reflect on for this year is how certain things have happened that have made me move on from things that had possibly been holding me back in the back of my mind. It's important to live for now, not the past, and I'm very much a different person from who I was a year ago in some respects, but definitely a different person from who I was five years ago and beyond. As such I'm super excited about seeing where 2016 takes me, the challenges afoot, the new friendships/relationships to be had, and to finally get back racing and continually setting myself new goals.
Merry Christmas everyone, may this post find you well, and I wish you all well for 2016...
