It's February. The month of love, slight depression (it's not Christmas, it's not spring, it's not even the New Year any more) and extreme bloody cold! It's always a funny time of year for me. It starts off on the 1st (funny that), with a day of remembrance for my dear father and cousin, both of whose birthday it would have been yesterday and usually carries on a bit dully for the remainder. It's also the month when love should be in the air, but everyone seems so darn cynical and anti-Valentine's that poor cupid has to turn on his fat little behind and find another, commercially viable venture.
Anyway, I for one intend February to be different this year. Instead of coming down with the requisite cold/flu/stomach bug, I have decided to go off on a cycling jaunt with the Boy for a week, to the windy, hilly lump of land of Lanzarote. Now, I'll clear it up straight away. No Club La Santa for this pair. Oh no no no. I booked us through Lloyds Airmiles thingy, on the phone with Julie, from Warrington (lives in between Manchester and Warrington, as my husband, he's a policeman you know, works in Manchester and it makes for an easier commute. Oh yes, well I think you should go to the Costa Teguise, my friend went there two years in a row. Or was it the Playa Blanca? Anyway, she had a really good time. I myself went there. Or was it Gran Canaria? Anyway, I've booked you your rooms now, oh damn this computer. It did this yesterday. We were all stuck here while the system went down. I had to rebook everything. Now, where we?...you get the picture) and the service and price were much better value. We get to just cycle, eat, sleep, cycle, eat, sleep for seven days. I'm not sure whether my poor bottom and lady bits will survive, but I do know that I will be availing myself of copious amounts of Assos cream!
Other than that things are going pretty well. I've been a bit up and down and was found out in my ergo test yesterday. I've had a slight temperature and background cold, but wasn't ill enough NOT to try, but probably wasn't 100%....had this been a trials test I would have sick noted it and been done with it. However, as I am my own little microsystem, we can make these decisions and see what happens. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it isn't so successful. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next one as I am doing some really great work on the erg and in the gym, and the knee problem that has plagued my training for over a year now seems to be getting under control trhanks to Dave Kershaw at Complete Physiotherapy (not without a lot of bruising, wincing, pain and grimacing though).
We've had a slight curveball chucked at us again, courtesy of African organisation. It seems that the All Africa Games might NOT be the African qualification event after all, and that FISA might be running its own event, not in September, but in November. In fact, I do not see this as a big issue, as I will be working towards the World Championships in Bled whatever, and so if I have to peak twice, with a two month gap in between, so be it. I'm learning to roll with the punches a little more and things can change on the day, or even within the hour. Pragmatism and flexibility are the watchwords.
One thing that I am changing again however is where I am basing myself. Having moved upstream to Henley and found a charming bunch of people who have welcomed me and made me feel very much part of proceedings, I find that the one thing I wasn't worried about has become the very thing which I find hardest to deal with. My conversations with JPM about moving up to HRC mainly surrounded my need for group training and a change of scene (although how different can it be, when I'm still on the same stretch of river?). As far as he was concerned it didn't matter where I put my boat on the water, as we would just liaise and that would be that. However I find that, as I am not spending a great deal of time on the water in the cold and wet weather and preferring to stay fit and strong in the gym, I do not get nearly as much contact with JPM as I would like and I am really struggling with that. Add to this the fact that I can go four days without seeing another soul when I'm training, and I am a lonely little bunny. So it's back to normal, and no harm done. No scullers or rowing clubs were harmed in the making of this decision. I think that I was struggling with life things at the time I moved, in particular as I am now a "Ms van Deventer" and I just sort of went "WAAAAAAH" and changed the most obvious thing. I think it has been a good exercise in gaining a bit of distance and clarity about what it is that I really need out of my training and general environment.
So, next time I get online for some verbal (textual) diarrhea I will have endured several hundred miles on my little Felt (the make, not the fabric) bicycle and had a bit of sun and break from the bleak winter drudgery, and Henley will look a little brighter. Oh oh oh. My German is happy. She has started her new job and is already being hailed as a superstar. I knew it all along.
Anyway, I for one intend February to be different this year. Instead of coming down with the requisite cold/flu/stomach bug, I have decided to go off on a cycling jaunt with the Boy for a week, to the windy, hilly lump of land of Lanzarote. Now, I'll clear it up straight away. No Club La Santa for this pair. Oh no no no. I booked us through Lloyds Airmiles thingy, on the phone with Julie, from Warrington (lives in between Manchester and Warrington, as my husband, he's a policeman you know, works in Manchester and it makes for an easier commute. Oh yes, well I think you should go to the Costa Teguise, my friend went there two years in a row. Or was it the Playa Blanca? Anyway, she had a really good time. I myself went there. Or was it Gran Canaria? Anyway, I've booked you your rooms now, oh damn this computer. It did this yesterday. We were all stuck here while the system went down. I had to rebook everything. Now, where we?...you get the picture) and the service and price were much better value. We get to just cycle, eat, sleep, cycle, eat, sleep for seven days. I'm not sure whether my poor bottom and lady bits will survive, but I do know that I will be availing myself of copious amounts of Assos cream!
Other than that things are going pretty well. I've been a bit up and down and was found out in my ergo test yesterday. I've had a slight temperature and background cold, but wasn't ill enough NOT to try, but probably wasn't 100%....had this been a trials test I would have sick noted it and been done with it. However, as I am my own little microsystem, we can make these decisions and see what happens. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it isn't so successful. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next one as I am doing some really great work on the erg and in the gym, and the knee problem that has plagued my training for over a year now seems to be getting under control trhanks to Dave Kershaw at Complete Physiotherapy (not without a lot of bruising, wincing, pain and grimacing though).
We've had a slight curveball chucked at us again, courtesy of African organisation. It seems that the All Africa Games might NOT be the African qualification event after all, and that FISA might be running its own event, not in September, but in November. In fact, I do not see this as a big issue, as I will be working towards the World Championships in Bled whatever, and so if I have to peak twice, with a two month gap in between, so be it. I'm learning to roll with the punches a little more and things can change on the day, or even within the hour. Pragmatism and flexibility are the watchwords.
One thing that I am changing again however is where I am basing myself. Having moved upstream to Henley and found a charming bunch of people who have welcomed me and made me feel very much part of proceedings, I find that the one thing I wasn't worried about has become the very thing which I find hardest to deal with. My conversations with JPM about moving up to HRC mainly surrounded my need for group training and a change of scene (although how different can it be, when I'm still on the same stretch of river?). As far as he was concerned it didn't matter where I put my boat on the water, as we would just liaise and that would be that. However I find that, as I am not spending a great deal of time on the water in the cold and wet weather and preferring to stay fit and strong in the gym, I do not get nearly as much contact with JPM as I would like and I am really struggling with that. Add to this the fact that I can go four days without seeing another soul when I'm training, and I am a lonely little bunny. So it's back to normal, and no harm done. No scullers or rowing clubs were harmed in the making of this decision. I think that I was struggling with life things at the time I moved, in particular as I am now a "Ms van Deventer" and I just sort of went "WAAAAAAH" and changed the most obvious thing. I think it has been a good exercise in gaining a bit of distance and clarity about what it is that I really need out of my training and general environment.
So, next time I get online for some verbal (textual) diarrhea I will have endured several hundred miles on my little Felt (the make, not the fabric) bicycle and had a bit of sun and break from the bleak winter drudgery, and Henley will look a little brighter. Oh oh oh. My German is happy. She has started her new job and is already being hailed as a superstar. I knew it all along.
