Educating Essex.

Training has been going on well, despite the cold and gloomy weather. I'm really grateful to my coach, Ken Day, for turning out to help me 6 days a week. He is so dedicated and I appreciate him. In these increasingly cold evenings I have been finding that my toes and fingertips have been freezing during training. However, I have discovered some excellent inner gloves made by Karrimor so I have solved the fingertip problem. Working on the toe problem.

Yesterday I went to Harlow Leisurezone to do my strength and conditioning work and it was great to work with John Campbell again. John is one of those instructors who pushes you to your limits, which is exactly what I need. Put it this way, after a session with John you know you have worked!

I have been watching 'Educating Essex' on Channel 4 with great interest because Passmores School is literally just around the corner from my house. A few years ago I was invited to the school to present awards to the children and I found everyone involved really friendly. There was a real family atmosphere to the school that I liked and the Head, Mr Goddard, went out of his way to support me. As a trained teacher myself, albeit one who has only ever taught in Kenya, I found the behaviour of the staff and students very interesting to observe. In Kenya there was nothing like detentions and counselling when a student makes a mistake, it was just a matter of how many strokes of the cane were dished out! In Kenya everyone believes in; 'Spare the rod, spoil the child'. If you were thrashed at school you would be thrashed again at home by your parents for disrespecting the teacher. How different things are here. I really admired the way Mr Drew dealt with the students. To me he is an excellent teacher who really cares about the students he teaches and there didn't seem to be any problem he couldn't deal with. He was just so calm and never seemed to lose his temper even when provoked. Mr Goddard, the Head, was equally impressive in the way he went about his work and who could imagine seeing such a powerful man crying on national television. I really admired that because he showed a very positive side of his character in that incident and he should be seen as a role model by other professional people. The students who featured in the series, in spite of all their problems, will look back at themselves and it will make them better people.

Team Essex Ambassador Artists.

The first thing I really need to say is apologies for not making more regular updates to this blog and I promise to try and make more regular entries from today. Anyway, I've had a fairly hectic time since my last entry but it has all been positive stuff so I shall attempt to backdate a bit.
Harlow Primary Schools Athletics Championships.
I was invited to attend this event which was held at Mark Hall Sports College, Harlow, to present prizes and encourage the pupils attending. It was an absolutely foul day, with torrential rain the whole time, but the youngsters were determined to compete. The children bravely fought through the rain but it was really difficult as the rain was making huge puddles on the track. They splashed on and I was inspired by their grit and determination. Unfortunately, the weather won, and the event had to be cancelled but I still had the opportunity to see all the events that were held in the Sports hall, and meet and speak to a lot of children. They were full of questions which I did my best to answer.
Journey to the Podium - 'Adopt an Artist Scheme'.
In September I attended a meeting in Chelmsford whose aim was to pair up artists with athletes so a work of art can be produced. The artists have been briefed to work with their athlete to develop an art work that either captures them, the essence of their personalities or their chosen sport. I have been paired up with Elaine Tribley, who is a painter and graphic artist. We have met and are both very excited about the project and looking forward to taking this journey together. It was very interesting when we met at my local track and chatted whilst I was doing my training. She was really interested about every aspect of my sport, wheelchair racing, and wanted to know everything about my chair. We joked about her trying to get into my racing chair. Perhaps at the end of our journey I'll let her have a go, and I'll take the pictures!
Back to the office - TRAINING!
Training has been going really well as I work towards peak fitness to prepare myself for next season. Training never stops because as an athlete you need to be constantly trying to improve, and the only way to do that is by training. Just like anyone else, illness can interfere but you have to ride over it. I'm back doing over 50km a week plus some strength and conditioning in the gym. I'm also trying to learn how to swim because this will be good for my upper body strength, as well as being good therapy. It will also help me to raise some money for charity!
Harlow Sports Awards 2009.
I attended this event last night at Harlow Playhouse and it was good to be amongst so many talented athletes, a couple of whom I mentor and who were up for awards. I was nominated for Sports Personality of the Year. I got a nice certificate for being a finalist. At least I got the chance to 'glam up' and look like a woman instead of a sweat drenched athlete in sports gear.
I'll be back!