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Staffordshire athletes blog their paths to London 2012 |
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As the start date of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games gets closer and closer a few Staffordshire athletes, who are aiming for selection to a GB Team, provide a monthly blog to track their progress over the next 7 months. So read on to hear about their quest and amazing sporting experiences...
I have started to travel down to Lee Valley, the home of the London 2012 Olympic course, for a few sessions prior to the New Year to get a feel for the water again. In the New Year I will be travelling down for a couple of days each week to access the facilities ahead of the Olympic selections in April 2012.
We have also had pool testing where we test various things such as acceleration, top speed as well as lactic build up after hard physical efforts. We do these tests in the swimming pool because we know that every time we go there the conditions will be the same and we can't always guarantee this outside.
I will keep training until the 22nd December in Nottingham and then I will travel home for Christmas, spend some quality time with my family, before I head out to Germany on the 26th for some cross country skiing to fill up my “compulsory rest”!
If you haven’t already then pop over to my new website www.joe-clarke.co.uk and have a look around!
To find out more visit www.joe-clarke.co.uk
December's Blog... Posted: 13 December 2011
In the last few weeks, the temperature has dropped a lot, and it's not very nice riding outside for hours when it’s hailing and raining, and when all you have for warmth is a few layers of lycra...
After Christmas, my next race is the Bremen Six Day. This is a race in Germany and is a very popular format of racing on the continent. As the name suggests, it is six consecutive days of racing. The twist is that the event is primarily for the entertainment of the crowds, rather than serious competition, so the racing will start at about 10pm each night, and finish at approximately 3am. This gives it more of a party atmosphere, and Euro pop music and plenty of German beer feature heavily in the night’s events, although not for the riders!
I’m really looking forward to this race as I’ve never done one before, and it should give me the opportunity to experience a lot of high-quality racing, while in a less pressured atmosphere than usual. That GCSE German will come in handy!
For more information visit:
Mark Fosbrook - GB Wheelchair Basketball December's Blog... Posted: 15 December 2011
I played. We then had one day off (which I had to work) then we were straight back to another training camp at Lilleshall. This was then finished off with another game at the weekend.
Hopefully from this you will see that we have been training hard and are now looking forward to our well deserved Christmas Break. Although it is classed as a break the only break we get is that we don't have any camps or High Performance Centre sessions. We are still expected to undertake our own training.
Christmas this year will be a tough one for me with Christmas Day marking one year since I found out my daughter Lily was going to be Stillborn. As you can imagine we are not going to be celebrating this year and my wife and I are going to spend it hidden away playing Lego Harry Potter. However apart from Christmas Day I plan to be training hard. This means that I am planning on hitting the gym everyday and having a good spell of CV and weights work under my belt for the New Year.
Well we are finally approaching 2012. In a few weeks time we will be saying the Paralympics are this year. That seems scary but also hugely exciting. I know I need to keep my head down and work hard to try and prove I deserve a spot in the Team.
Hope you all have a Great Christmas.
Check out what Fossy's been up to - view the excerpt from the full length film, ‘Staffordshire’s Olympic Spirit’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-C5p_Eyq5M&feature=related
To find out more visit
Claire Nixon - Water Polo December's Blog...
We’ve started wrestling as part of our land work, which is helping us hold and break the grip of the other teams. It’s fun, although you do need a lot of co-ordination to do it!
At national league this weekend, we played London Otter and Liverpool in Loughborough. Both games were competitive with only a couple of goals separating the winning and losing teams.
Read more about Claire in her previous blogs
December's Blog...
Luckily this winter has been different for 2 reasons 1) no snow 2) I no longer need to do any walking as I now live and train on a course with a conveyor belt unlike Nottingham! So I'm really enjoying my training.
Training is going well, lifting heavier then ever and producing more consistently fast runs on the whitewater. Being completely honest, I'm buzzing. 2012 is going to be massive but I feel the work I've done over the last few months has put me exactly where I want to be.
I'm now in my last heavy block before Christmas, planning a 4-day break over Christmas to recover well. Lots of people talk about training on Christmas day because others won't be, but if you plan your training well then why not make it time off so you can be human for a few days!
I also received my latest canoe which I will be using for the 2012 season, it looks stunning and I will be fitting it out for my skinny legs over the Christmas break.
Read more about Mark in his previous blogs
Emma Wilkins - Swimming
December's Blog...
Our training programme was based at Pine Crest, an all-faith college preparatory school, the facilities were absolutely fantastic, I just couldn’t believe it was a school.
The training in Florida was intense, we followed a two day cycle, training two swimming sessions on the first day followed by one the next, but that wasn’t all I did. My weekly meterage increased up to 65,000m (40 miles 684 yards) which is significantly higher than my standard programme. As I said, some days we only had one pool session but it didn’t stop there, oh no…. firstly we would complete 1hr 30mins of weight training, 2hrs 30mins of swimming followed by a 30min run back to our Motel, this was tough particularly in the warm weather.
I really enjoyed training in an outdoor pool, the fresh air, warmth of the sun and the beautiful scenery, so different from the typical British indoor pool environment.
Whilst out in Florida I only had two rest days during a 21 day programme, rest days are so very important in the recovery phase. On the first day we went Christmas shopping and on the second day the team went sailing on a Catamaran, such good fun. We also visited the International Swimming Hall of Fame, this is a shrine dedicated to the history, memory and recognition of famous swimmers, divers, water polo players, synchronized swimmers and persons involved in life saving activities throughout the world. The Museum, Library and Archives contain the world's largest collection of aquatic memorabilia and the single largest source of aquatic books, manuscripts and literature.
Since then the flag has been flown at every Olympic Event since.
I returned back to the UK on the 7th December, being so use to 25deg wearing summer tops and shorts, I made sure I was well prepared when I disembarked, wearing my hat and gloves, oh it was so cold. Now back training at Loughborough, I feel as though I have banked a really good solid block of intense winter training ready for my next phase.
This weekend 17th/18th December 2011, I am competing at a long course meet which is being held at the International Pool in Corby, this will be my first long course meet of the season. Fingers and toes crossed I am looking forward to turning the hard work into good results.
Christmas fast approaching….but no, mince pies and chocolate for me! I only take three days off over the Christmas break and on these days I will still take some form of exercise.
Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and so looking forward to 2012 .. let’s hope it’s going to be a successful year for all. You can see more of Emma by viewing an excerpt from the full length film, ‘Staffordshire’s Olympic Spirit’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-QzV3wgJiI
You can follow Emma on:- Twitter: @emmawilkins1991 http://www.facebook.com/thegamesandme Read more about Emma in her previous blogs
Adam Burgess - Canoe Slalom (C1 and C2) . Read more about Adam in his previous blogs
To find out more visit: http://www.rosscoperunning.co.uk/ twitter@rosscoperunning
Jacqui Slack - Elite Triathlete
To find out more visit:
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