Trials Invitation and a fat cat

The 2012 season has gone well for me so far.  Incredibly I seem to have cocooned myself from the usual sniffly January colds that make the rounds and have gotten through this first month injury free with some good training under my belt.  We did a 5k ergo on Saturday as part of the trials process, and although it was a personal best it is still a way off the senior girls.

I also got an email through last week to say that my performances this season have exempted me from the GB February Trials and given me a direct invitation to the Invitation-Only GB Rowing Team Trials in March, more commonly known within the rowing circles as the Olympic Trials!  This is pretty exciting and I am looking forward to getting out and racing in my lovely new JW Rihoy sponsored single.

Almost two weeks ago now I came home for a couple days to attend the Guernsey Sports Commission's annual awards evening.  It was a brilliant evening, congratulations to all involved and of course the award winners!  As one of the Rising Stars athletes I was asked to take part in a question and answer section on stage, midway through the award presentations.  Despite being fairly used to being interviewed I was really nervous about it.  I usually don't have an audience of a few hundred people!  Luckily the crowd was friendly and Dave Warr who questioned me was very good at putting me at ease.  Still, I'm positive I will not take up a career in public speaking.  Video can be seen here www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tSmgv_I0fw Dan, Sky Cycling Physio, on first, then I come in half way through.

At home my cat Simba continues to be a terror around the house.  He had been stealing food from the neighbours cats by getting into their houses by any means possible; cat flaps, windows, doors.  A neighbour brought him back to us one day, very upset because he had gotten in and eaten 3/4 of her freshly baked victoria sponge cake! He is a big cat anyway but with all the food stealing he had grown very fat.

So, he has now been house bound for a month in an attempt to slim him down.  Yesterday morning I awoke to find this in the kitchen:

In case you can't quite tell, that IS his diet cat food scattered all over the kitchen, not just some funky decorative tiles we have recently laid. Nightmare!

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year all!

Rowing news is sparse at the moment and training continues to be gruelling, although I did have a lovely Christmas with a couple fewer sessions than normal.

Because normal people don't frequent the gym over the Christmas period the gyms typically shut for a few days. I am very fortunate to be able to use the Fitness Factory whilst I am at home, and they do wonderful things for me like allow me to take the ergo (rowing machine) outside where it is cooler. Therefore I did a couple good ergo sessions in the car park hoping that nobody would swing round the corner too quickly and take me out!  I was also able to borrow a weights bar from Christmas eve until the 27th, when the gym re opened. Here Suki is just checking out the space that I swept up on the pergola for my weights circuit!

Despite being unable to go out on the river whilst I am at home in Guernsey, I am able to go for some incredibly picturesque runs.  It's one of my favourite ways to see the island as you can see so much of it in a short space of time. Much more than if you were walking anyway.  On Boxing Day I did my usual run, a 10k loop taking 40mins along the cliffs and then back along the lanes.  City runners, you must be jealous of this!!...

Christmas was a lovely relaxed family affair this year.  We had the obligatory Christmas Day walk and when we arrived at the top of Petit Port I somehow managed to convince the family that it would be a good idea to walk down to the beach and back. For those who don't know, there are 294 steps (I counted) down to the beach from the cliff path :) shaky legs when we reached the bottom!

As usual I got lots of thoughtful Christmas presents, but probably most useful was the amazon kindle. I know, I know it is much nicer to hold a real book, sniff the pages and bend the cover but at the speed I read and the amount of clothes I pack when I go away I just don't have space for lots of books! The kindle will be most useful when away on training camps or holidays but I am enjoying getting through a few books on it already.

I spent my New Years and a couple days before and after in the Lake District.  I've never been to that part of England before and although it rained straight through for four days we had an amazing time. Lots of walking in the rain and board games by the fire. Perfect!

Since I have been back at training in Henley the wind has been abominable so we have been on the ergos quite a lot, which is actually good preparation for our 5km ergo trial at the end of the month.  I'd forgotten how mind numbingly boring long ergos are. 12km yesterday, 16km today and 18km tomorrow. Better update the music on my ipod!