Come September, come the start of the new domestic fencing season. It hardly seems a year ago that I was in this same position. tempus fugit. The difference being that this time one year ago I was preparing to head out, in a little over a week's time, to Melbourne for the Commonwealth Fencing Championships, whereas today I am fully focussed on qualifying for London 2012. Last year I used the start of the domestic season to prepare for winning Commonwealth gold, this time I am training through and looking to use my events as stepping stones, preparing me for the second half of the Olympic Qualifying phase in February. This is all pre-season for then.
Pre-season started in August, not the summer holidays, as I might have called it at school or university, but in fact a period of time spent working hard, reforming and refining technique, and getting stronger and fitter. This included a trip to the Grantham home of the Royal Logistics Core. Most of the elite fencers in the UK will have, at some time or other, been to Grantham. For someone who has never been it is perhaps difficult to imagine, but I shall try and describe it to you. Grantham is an army base, somewhere in Lincolnshire. Normally it is deserted, check. Food is military, check - lots of carbohydrates, little meat, and at odd times, 7.30, 12.30 and 5. Exercise is scheduled for about 9 hours a day, check. S&C run by army PTIs, check. Rooms of 20 in bunk beds, check. Snowing - well, it was summer so it was raining instead. In Grantham one trains, eats and sleeps. I certainly did not achieve anything else that week. There is also a man called Leo, who collects urine samples before and after every training session (at least three sessions a day), collects blood lactates from a cut in your ear during training sessions, and this year monitored your resting heart rate at the beginning of each day as well as during the sessions. This year it was also a lot of fun!
September holds two of the biggest competitions of the year, the Hamlet Open and the Bristol Open, on the second and third weekends of the season. With my summer training block behind me I went into the competitions feeling strong and confident, despite not looking to peak at this time. And the results were good. 3rd at Hamlet. 2nd at Bristol. In the space of those events I only lost to one person, my training partner, and Beijing Olympian Alex O'Connell, to whom I lost in the semi-final at Hamlet and final at Bristol. The signs are looking good. I was particularly happy to back up a strong showing at Hamlet with my performance at Bristol and so in the flash of an eye my domestic season has started, and also finished. Now it is back to the training salle and back to preparing for February.
I was disappointed with how things turned out last year when I failed to build upon winning the Commonwealths and really underperformed. Subsequently I have missed out upon selection for the World Championships. The only thing I can do is keep my head down, keep working hard, keep pushing myself, let my results do the talking and push myself forwards for selection for the greatest show on earth - London 2012.
