Back To Reality
I'm now starting my sixth week back at training and I can tell you one thing for free - it hurts!! I had a month off at the end of the season which is longer than usual but I really needed it, as I was completely drained both physically and mentally. It did make getting back into training after so much time off really hard though! A lot of athletes struggle to take time off and are always in a rush to get back to the track, but I really enjoyed not being an athlete for a while and not having to think about the next session!
Reality didn't really set in for quite a long time after the Games. I did quite a bit of travelling to competitions in Europe and back to Scotland at the end of the season, so it was a long time before I was back in Loughborough and had to do the first supermarket run! I then spent a week walking in Chamonix with my parents and a week in Lanzarote with Pete, so it's taken quite a while to settle back down into a routine. I'm also now working part-time for Snowsport England which has been a really positive change for me. Last year I found it really tough to spend my day resting, just waiting for a session in the evening, and often felt really tired - even though I hadn't done anything! Now I'm getting to exercise my brain a bit, while still resting my body before training, which I'm really enjoying. It's been very interesting to step on the otherside of the fence and be involved in a National Governing Body - it really makes you appreciate how hard everyone works behind the scenes to enable sport to happen.
I've been starting to get impatient again with training and I'm having to force myself back into the mentality of the winter season! My distances are creeping back up again though and I'm particularly enjoying throwing the 6kg and 2kg at the moment. Technically, I feel like I'm starting off in a better place than I did last winter, which is always the aim, so I can't really complain too much! There are a few new additions to the training squad this year as well - and they haven't run away again yet! It's been nice to see some new faces and I've even started doing some coaching to help out with the additional numbers. After my session on a Thursday, I work with some of John's younger athletes and am really enjoying seeing them progress. Although I've coached complete beginners plenty of times, it's very different to work with people who have already been throwing for a few years. It's also very different to feel something go wrong in your own throwing and know how to fix it and to see something in someone else's throw and know what to do!! So far they seem to be happy enough with Coach Perkins though - maybe I need to make them work harder!
I can't believe we're already into November and all the Christmas adverts are coming out yet again! So much has happened since the Commonwealth Games and yet I've still got a long way to go before the 2015 season. At the moment, it's just nice to be enjoying training with a little less of the stress that was attached to last year and here's hoping the rest of the winter will keep going well!