Happy New Year! Welcome to my newly formed website and first ever blog post. Here I hope to give you a bit of an insight into what an athlete gets up to training towards the Olympics Games.
It's the first weekend in January and I’ve just finished my first full week of training after nearly 4 months out. It feels awesome to be back :)
After winning the Europeans in August, I had an operation to remove my appendix. 10 days after the initial procedure, I was sadly back in hospital for a second operation. I went from experiencing the real high, buzz and excitement of winning my first ever-major tournament to being bed bound for much longer than any athletes would like to be. It was a challenging period both mentally and physically. September and October were a bit of a blur and I was glad to see the back of them.
Heading into my first session in back January brought a mixture of emotions. Of course there was the very real excitement of being able to play hockey again and be part of the squad again. There was also a lot of anxiety inside me. Am I going to be fit enough? Will I get my form back? Have I missed too much being injured? All very normal thoughts for an athlete returning from injury.
Yes I’m not as sharp as I want to be. Yes my touch isn’t quite there. Yes it’s been tiring, uncomfortable at times. But that's top-level sport and I know it’s about managing my expectations when returning to one very talented training squad.
Bar the typical English winter weather, I've very much enjoyed my week, being outside and back on the pitch.
Last but not least, a huge thanks must be said to the incredible medical team Ive worked with at the EIS at Bisham Abbey. Helped me enter 2016 with my strength and confidence in my body back in tact ready to take on whatever comes my way. Bring on 2016 x