Catching up on myself

Well, since being back from my winter training in Australia and the competitions in UAE, I have been crazy busy!

I'm just finding some time to catch up and see what I have been up to in the few weeks I have been back.

I was honoured to be invited to speak at The Queen's Club Patrons' Dinner in London along with World and Olympic Champion Christine Ohuruogu at the beginning of the month.  I had only been home a couple of days, so I really hoped that didn't show with my speech!

I then really enjoyed taking part in a panel discussion with some other inspiring women at the offices of KPMG in London and also attending the Womens Sport Trust photographic exhibition there to promote interest and awareness of women in sport, there was even a photo of me!

Other things that have been going on are meetings with some potential sponsors and I've taken part in something that is still top secret but was great fun. All will be revealed soon on that matter! 

I'm really grateful to to my team at 17 Management for keeping me organised and making sure I am where I am supposed to be when its busy like this.  Now it's a change of focus and back to the training.

#athletelife #sports #training #sponsors #motivationalspeaking

Ribbon Cutting at Fairburn Chase, Castleford

I am often asked along to events and openings, many of which I have to sadly decline due to my busy schedule of university and training. Fortunately, this week I was really honoured to be able to open Fairburn Chase in Castleford.

Fairburn Chase is a new purpose built specialist care facility, built to provide individualised physical disability care and enable younger adults with a physical disability, neurological conditions and complex health needs.

I had a really lovely time meeting some of the staff and those also being cared for at Fairburn.  It's really great to see a modern purpose built facility for disabled adults.  I even managed to cut the ribbon first go!

 

You can see the entire range of photos taken on the day at the link below.  There are some great ones, including me comparing my gold with the Mayor!

Fairburn Chase Official Opening Photos

Thanks so much to the team at Fairburn Chase for inviting me to open the facility and making me so welcome on the day.

www.fairburnchase.com

Warming up in Winter

The Christmas break seems a long time ago already as the start of the year has been all about getting ready for the long season ahead. 

I've just come back from a six weeks spell of training and competition overseas, where I spent four weeks training in the warm weather in Perth, Western Australia. As the temperatures were climbing to over 40c during the day, we were often up at 5am and training by 6am, covering distances up to 16 miles per session, with plenty of gym sessions thrown in between too. 

Perth is a great base for winter training, the weather is fantastic and there are miles and miles of cycle paths, so I can train safely. I did manage a little bit of down time, which gave me an opportunity to visit the city, the nearby port of Fremantle and some chill out time at the beach.

On the way back from Perth, I was lucky to be able to take an opportunity to visit Doha and look at the facilities and try out the track in advance of the IPC World Championships being held there in October.  The temperatures there will probably be similar to that I had been training in, so hopefully I will get accustomed to it.

It was then on to the UAE and some races in Dubai and Sharjah. Having come off a heavy block of winter training and done no speed work as yet, I was very pleased to win all of my eight races, over all distances. I'm hoping the experience I gained racing in these dry dusty conditions will be invaluable come the World Championships.