East Invicta Update (First Weekend)

I have been continuing my hard training but have stepped it up even more since Club Champs. I set a target to do 13 hours swimming and 5 hours land training and I am pleased to say I completed it! I swam all week with drag pants on, well I would call them ‘drag shorts’ because they seem to be a lot bigger than everyone else’s. I think this is the most training I have done since my injury, I even trained Saturday morning before East Invicta's started.

I was not targeting East Invicta's and made sure I didn’t taper for it as I know there are much bigger competitions to focus on. Saying this I still managed to PB in every race, my times are shockingly declining very rapidly! I am so excited to see how I do next week in Arena league and in the second week of East Invicta's.

I will make sure to update you regularly as this is a very exciting season as I am going to achieve my national times.

Club Champs Update 2013

After the training camp I went back to training feeling more inspired for the new season than ever before. I am training harder than I thought possible to secure my place leading the lane once again.

The first real test of my training came in the form of Club Championships, I was itching to put my newfound skills and fitness to the test and see how many PB’s I could achieve.

I was very happy with my results as I reduced some of my times by as much as 10 seconds! The races I was most pleased with were the 50m backstroke, 100m backstroke and the 50m freestyle. By coincidence they were all in very quick succession to one another and I managed to win all of them, beating everyone in my club including some 20 year olds. This took some people by surprise as I had been injured for so long they didn’t think I would be ready to compete. 

I was extremely pleased because my training had paid off, my dad attended this gala as well. It’s the first gala he has attended in years and I am pleased I impressed him and made him proud. I am now really excited to see what the future holds for me and the path I should follow.

Better Than Before!

I have now returned to training feeling fully recovered after 6 months of physiotherapy and strengthening exercises.

I was suddenly catapulted up to Derbyshire last week on the 5th to embark on a Melanie Marshall swim camp. Mel is GB's most decorated female athlete ever at one-commonwealth games; she currently is head coach at the City of Derby swimming club.

The way Mel conducts swimming camps is exceptional, she really makes it enjoyable with music booming out the loud speakers. I found that the music really elevated the atmosphere and would go as far to say that it was the best swimming camp I have ever been to. 

I learnt a lot of different techniques and cemented in place old ones. I met both Rebecca Adlington and Ross Davenport and found their talks about their journey in the swimming world very interesting. A highlight of the camp was beating everyone in my swimming group (at least 50 people) at a reaction test. This made me stand out from the crowd and my competitiveness really shone through; Mel said I had fantastic reaction times. She put me up against Ross Davenport and I managed to beat him as well! I also did very well at the gala at the end of the week winning all my races and supporting my team.

If you would like to see a montage of the week please click this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLMsPDjhyOQ.  Here is a link to Mel’s page if you want to read a little more about the camp http://www.mmswiminspiration.co.uk/.

OUT OF ACTION

I have been to see Jav Mughal, who was recommended by my physiologist Ash Lawrence.

Jav is a world renowned sports physiotherapist and knee specialist. He has held the position of Head Physiotherapist at Gillingham FC and Watford FC. In May 2012, Jav was invited to lecture on knee injuries in Thessoliniki Greece to an international audience. Jav continues to lecture on Sports Injuries and spends a lot of time passing his knowledge on to physiotherapists and medics involved in sports. 

I went to see Jav because I was experiencing an increasing pain in both my knees. After several tests Jav quickly diagnosed me with patellar tendon tendinopathy, due to my rapid growth. Jav has given me various exercises for me to do 4 times a day and has also told me to massage my knees with ice cubes after every series of exercises. To my dismay he said it might take 6-12 weeks to fully repair, during this time I cannot kick while swimming and also I can’t push of the wall otherwise it could become a lifelong problem.

Unfortunately this means I had to pull out of Kent championships, which I was hoping to achieve several gold’s in this year, you can imagine how gutted I am.

I am sorry that this is a highly negative post but I am trying to look on the positives. I have been introduced to a brilliant physiotherapist that will help me in the future, I can take this time to improve my upper body strength and when I do come back to competing, I will come back with determination and vengeance my opponents wouldn’t know what hit them!