Asda Athletes

This summer I went on holiday to do some training at Bourg in France. The first session we did was just a getting to know the course session, so we basically just played around. It was really fun!!

The next morning we set a course and got on the water to do progs, then the ‘real fun’ began. To cut a long story short I dislocated my shoulder :(

It was VERY painful! After an eventful trip the the village hospital I was left not being able to paddle and having to watch everyone else paddle instead.

Now back in Britain I’ve started physio and I’m working towards getting the strength and stability back into my shoulder so i can hit the water again as soon as possible!
For the moment I’m getting back into school and waiting out until i can paddle again, also I’m going into ASDA on thursday to help with the Tickle Pink raffle, BRING ON THE CRAZY PINK CLOTHES!

(the picture is of the one session before doing my shoulder in)

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Due to the ‘lovely’ British weather we’ve been having recently the course where I normally train at is flooded to the point where NO-ONE can paddle on it. This has resulted in me having to train on the flat which is ok….for one session, I now have to take my training to different venues, I’m hoping to go to either Bala in Wales or Teeside.

All that’s left to do is pray we don’t have too much more rain and I can get back on Hpp soon.

For the half term I stayed down in Nottingham and trained all week. From Monday to Thursday I was with the England training squad.

Monday was two white water sessions and a session on the flat at lunch.

Tuesday was a white water session, gym, then another white water. Over the summer break I’m increasing the amount of weights I do with less reps of them, this will increase my strength before the racing starts again .

Wednesday was just a two session day, both on the white water.

Thursday was a day full of physical sessions. First i had speed progs, then a 5k run, then into the gym and finally a loops session. needless to say i was shattered after that day.

As for friday the england camp was over, but i had one last day of training with my coach. Due to heavy rain the course was closed to the public because of flooding, but tat meant that it was nice and empty for me! I did a normal white water session in the morning and another physical session in the afternoon.

At the weekend I was told to only do one session per day, saturday I did a progs session, but Sunday saw the course so flooded that noone could get on it so I had to resort to a flat session.

This weekend was the first of the summer England camps at Nottingham. It was the first time I’ve paddled there in about two weeks due to the rain flooding the course out.

To begin with on saturday we had a psychology talk in which we covered goals, commitment to training and how to cope with good and poor race results. We then went onto the white water for a paddling session, after this we went into the gym with a proffessional strength and conditioning coach, we just went over the different lifts we do in our program and made sure we are doing them right. our last session was another paddling session on the white water.

On sunday we started off by creating a racing atmosphere. we set up a start list, we all wore our bibs and we had timing and video reveiw. This really helped to keep me in check with what racing feels like in this long summer break. We then had a prehab session with big foam rollers, some of it was a little painful, but I think it will be really useful for future use. Our last session was a white water paddle and after that a wrap up.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the camps and the England race I have next weekend.

I went into my ASDA on Monday to raise my profile with staff and customers. I took in a few photo’s, some medals and my boat. It was one of the oddest things I’ve done in my life, walking into ASDA with a canoe on my shoulder, I got a few weird looks.

It was surprising how many people came up to me saying they had done canoeing in the past or had known people who had. I raised £36 which will go with the rest of my money towards a new boat, I can’t wait to go in and help again.