The most important event this month was my 21st birthday!!! I can’t believe I’m 21 already – and I’m now meant to be a fully grown up adult! I actually turned 21 whilst on a plane back to Malta! I had a lovely relaxed day with my parents and Grad who were over in Malta for a holiday. I had a birthday party later in the week at a beach bar where I used to work. It had the usual pre party dilemmas including no music and the writing being wrong on the cake but in the end everything came together and it was a great night. The only thing was there was a huge thunderstorm just as the party was due to start so some people didn’t make it due to the flooded roads – the only bad weather we had for 2 weeks! Typical!
Whilst my family were over with me I had a couple of relaxed weeks which was good. But I did have to spend a fair bit of time catching up on my missed uni work – this gave my dad the ideal opportunity to do all the odd jobs around my apartment! It was my physio’s wedding whilst they were here too and as my parents know his parents they were also invited. It was our first Maltese wedding – it was very different from a typical English wedding but great fun!
Once uni started back I have been very busy as usual. With geography we have been on a number of fieldworks which are great fun and a source of entertainment – I hadn’t laughed so much in along time. Some of them have been more like outdoor pursuit trips with ladders, climbing over rocks and under trees. However, they come with the assignments which take up a lot of time to collect the relevant information. And of course keep me inside at my laptop rather than being outdoors enjoying the start of the Summer sun! In contrast we had a psychology trip to the cinema to watch “We Need to Talk About Kevin” followed by a debate.
Training has been going very well this month Since the surgeon telling me I can start some track work as I can’t do much more damage I have gradually increased. I am currently doing track work every other day and on the days between I’m in the pool or the gym. It’s great to be back on the track – I was getting very down and frustrated not being able to run. I’m balancing the amount of pain that I can train with: this means some days it’ll be bad and I have to change the planned track session to a pool session as these involve no impact. It’s a bit like being on a mini roller coaster – one day up and the next down. Training more at the track means I have been able to work more with my group properly since changing coach – it makes such a difference having a supportive network of training partners and of course we are always up for a laugh.
My coach is good friends with an Italian coach, who was the national sprint coach for the Beijing Olympics, and the group paid for him to come over for a week to work with us. It was great to work with him and gain another set of eyes to watch and coach us. We focused a lot on technique on running and the specific leg movement which I had never done before.I learnt a lot and am continuing to work on it with Mario. My Italian vocab increased from 2 words to maybe 10 at the most –I think it’s something I’m going to have to spend a bit of time learning the basics. It was a challenge for Mario switching between all 3 languages and training himself!
Regarding my ankle I have received a date for the scan at the start of next month. So I’ll travel back for a couple of days to get it done and then wait for the results. . . .
