An overdue update

So...it has been two months, unbelievably, since I last updated this blog...perhaps the 'quickest' two months of my life. As expected time seems to speed up, it is now 2012, Olympic year, and life is certainly very busy.  The World Cup season has started and we are nearing the end of the qualifying tournaments.  This blog is going to take the form of a diary so that you can see what I've been up to in the run-in to February.  

December

After returning from a good result in France it was back to training ahead of the UK National Championships.  The Nationals, happening in December as opposed to their usual summer date were a well run event and the Finals Hall was particularly impressive.  So too was my fencing in the poules as I came through what was a tricky group, recording several 5-0 victories as I had in St Jean, to be seeded #1 for the direct elimination stages.  I was given a bye through the first round and then beat club-mate Joe Nickel 15-0 in the last 32.  Unfortunately I started slowly in the next round and was edged out in the last 16, a great disappointment considering how well I had fenced previously.  I believe that the staging of this event at this period in the calendar is much better for the elite athletes as it fits with our periodisation, rather than occuring in the summer off-season; however the attendance at the competition was a little disappointing presumably because of the festivities around Christmas.  

There was no rest after the Nationals as later that week I was off to Grantham, back to the army barracks to eat army food in the cold for a five day preparation camp ahead of the new season.  The camp went really well as I continued my good form and continued to develop some new things I have been working on.  On returning home I did not rest until I had a couple of days away over New Year with friends, which was a short refreshing break before the jet-set began again in earnest.  

January

During January I was lucky enough to spend a week and a half at INSEP, the French National Training Facility, training with their centralised and funded squad of c.15 athletes.  It was a fantastic sparring opportunity and has really assisted my development.  Coupled with the first week I spent there, I competed in Strasbourg, a joint French and German ranking competition, in which five members of the world's top 16 were competing.  Again, I fenced well, losing two in the first round poules to Lopez (FRA) and Apithy (BEN) and continued this in the direct elimination fighting my way into the last 32.  There I fenced Lamboley (FRA) a finalist in last year's Budapest Grand Prix and a quality opponent.  Unfortunately for me, I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and when tired, got stuck and lost 14-15 from being in a winning position of 11-4.  Although the loss was a shock, I was pleased with how I fenced overall and just needed to get over the line.  Later in the month I returned to INSEP for half a week training with the German as well as French teams.  

February

The month has started with the annual trip to Plovdiv, Bulgaria.  In all honesty the competition passed me by.  I think the stress of the occasion got to me slightly and I didn't perform.  Certainly I did not fence to the levels I expect of myself and watching my performance back on video was like watching someone else.  However, there were good lessons to learn, which I have done and I have now moved on and am looking forward to heading out to Padua, Italy tomorrow for the next World Cup.  We are now away every other week so there is not much time to adapt and reflect, instead a constant switch of focus is required.  Of course leaving Bulgaria is never easy (see my blog here) and again it was not this year as we were snowed in at Sofia Airport and had to stay an extra night. Also, whoever decided to schedule a World Cup competition on the outskirts of Venice on Valentine's weekend needs their brain checked, but these complications occur in life.  What I need to do now is put the distractions aside, focus and get the job done.  Here goes....

And so it begins...

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.