2011 Draws to a Close…

It’s been a long hard year, so it is nice to finish it off with a bit of a break from training. Although I didn’t manage to medal at any major championship in either K1 or C2, it has probably been my best season across the two classes. In C2, David and I took 4th place at the Euro Champs, World Champs and the Olympic test event. Very annoying being so close, but we were happy with our consistency, topping the year off with a Bronze medal at Prague World Cup. My K1 results have certainly suffered since taking up C2 and I was determined to get myself back into the finals this year. I got off to the perfect start by taking 5th at the Euro Champs, less than a second from the medals. Another 5th at the Olympic test event backed up the Euro Champs result, frustratingly missing a medal by hitting the last gate! It would have been nice to finish the year off with another good result at the World Champs, but a single mistake was enough to drop me way down the results. But it was a promising season the year before the Olympics.

After a short break to give the body a break, and time to refresh the mind, it was back into hard training. The most significant thing for me, was a change of coach. It has been difficult to juggle 3 coaches across my K1, the C2 and David’s C1, so we requested a change and we are now coached by Mark Delaney across all 3 categories. For me, this was a complete change, and a big decision leading into the Olympics. But with the first phase of training now behind me, things are going really well. The mild weather has certainly helped, but the fresh eyes a new coach gives has also played an important part.

I’m now enjoying a break over the festive period, giving my 30 year old body a chance to recover, before upping the tempo and reducing the volume all the way into Olympic selection. To help with this quality training, David and I will be heading out to Australia for 4 weeks of warm weather training. Although the winter has been ‘relatively’ mild, it is always nice to have a change of scenario to keep the mind focused on the job at hand. For now, I’m enjoying my mothers home cooked meals and the Somerset countryside! Its nice to be somewhere that actually gets dark at night!!