Progress Report: Scotland 2015

Its been cold, its been snowy. Everything has frozen (kit, boat bag, straps, lake, poles, hair etc.) and defrosted again. Actually, today is the first day I've felt like summer might be approaching - cautiously, timidly, but definitely on it's way! Winter training is hard no matter what country you live in. This time of year is for pushing your body to its limits, to get as strong as you possibly can before the season starts. Naturally, that means a lot of pretty disgusting sessions. Lactic tolerance, testing, threshold, Vo2 Max, running, strength and conditioning... Sometimes it feels like the DOMS are permanent, like you're never going to make a movement undefined by pain again. But while January and February are the two hardest months of training in the year, they also signal the start of a new season. You are so nearly at the end of the pain fest of winter training, ready to dive back into racing with enthusiastic relief. Thats what it feels like to me, anyway! Thats not to say winter training can't be FUN. I've had a healthy dose of surf sessions, play tech and speedy progs. In fact, I've started working in a project recently to film some of the fun sessions I have in Scotland. Tully being a good height is often a fortuitous occurrence - namely, it doesn't happen when you want it to. But somehow, on the day of filming, it managed to be just the right height for a long surf session. Unfortunately a good height for surfing isn't always the perfect height for 'gates training' - the Tay is a massively wide, physical river. You need to sprint basically everywhere. So half runs were HARD; having had my yellow fever injection the previous week, I was also feeling the effects of a fairly serious vaccine. The session actually turned out far more productive than I deserved, getting away with surfing across the river rather than the compulsory long sprints, being allowed (finally) to roll out the sweep upstreams. 

This winter has been different for me, compared to past winters. The emphasis has been on explosive strength and technique. We have built a training program that focusses almost exclusively on my core and upper body, with some running and swimming for general maintenance. I love it; but the changes are showing. T-Shirts are basically no longer an option (negative) but I feel stronger than I've ever felt (positive) as well as having lost a couple of jeans sizes (possibly due to lack of squatting, positive) and developed a much stronger base level fitness (positive). Although I do have possibly the vein-iest arms known to womenkind (negative?) and need to wait for gym-pump to go away before I try getting back into anything that isn't a vest top. That's okay - I'm getting my body perfect for my sport. I love the numbers game as much as any other athlete, being able to count your progression in kilos and reps. I can feel it on the water too; being stronger doesn't necessarily make you faster, but it gives you better command over your own body. Having control is the key to slalom, and where better to start controlling than your own body? Just now we are preparing to end the February block of training with a long Lee Valley camp. Definitely my favourite venue for training in Britain, I can't wait for the camp! But now is the time to prepare, and enjoy preparing.