“You’re playing Frisbee again?!”
“You’re playing Frisbee again?!” is a question I get asked a lot by family, friends & colleagues. It seems like it takes up my life at times, but I wouldn’t change it for the world - the World Championships, in fact.
(For those that have never heard of Ultimate, click here for a little background reading!)
Ever since my team (Nice Bristols) found out we had qualified for the World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC) in Cincinnati OH, training has taken over my life. Most of my lunchtimes for the last 9 months have been spent in the gym, followed by training in Bristol twice a week and additional conditioning and agility sessions in between. Then there are the weekend training sessions and tournaments, and countless evenings of foam rolling and stretching. This is all while trying to balance a busy working life and attempting to cling on to the threads of my social life after Ultimate and work come first! Luckily work have been very accommodating, allowing me to adjust my working pattern to fit around my training, and having regular catch-ups to check my internal workload and training/gym sessions don’t overload me!
Injuries suck. But it’s just a part of life that most athletes have to deal with at some point during their sporting career. And apparently this was my time. It was after my first tournament of the season in mid-March that I started to get pain in my feet, and a few weeks later, after various hospital visits and scans, I was told I had stress injuries to both heel bones.
“Rest” - the word every athlete dreads.
I was unable to walk pain free for 8 weeks, let alone consider training or getting to the gym. Nobody could tell me how long it would take to improve - I was told it would just be a case of pain management and taking each day as it came. April and May came and went with little improvement, but June started to show some significant improvements.
“The return is one of the hardest shots to make when you come back from injury” - Lindsay Davenport
It’s now July and the World Championships starts on 14th July. My feet have greatly improved over the last month, and I am now able to train and play, and have been back in the gym most lunchtimes. I can’t describe how much of a relief this is to me; that all my time spent on recovery and rehab has paid off. My fitness is not where it should be, but large squad = plenty of rest!
T - minus 1 week until I leave for the USA. I’ll be arriving a few days beforehand to acclimatise, get over the jet lag and get some light training sessions in before the opening ceremony on 14th July. The last couple of weeks have been my busiest, trying to fit training around work, and (as if I wasn’t busy enough!) two JDD revision courses in Milton Keynes. Luckily the schedule and facilities of the courses have meant I have still been able to train, but it’s left me very little time for last minute preparation and packing!! Most trainee patent attorneys would now be starting to study for October exams. Instead, I’m off to spend 3 weeks away from work, chasing a Frisbee around a field (although I will be bringing my revision notes with me for any spare time I get). August is going to be hectic - I’ll have 3 weeks’ of emails to catch up on, as well as exam revision to begin, and the usual work deadlines to be met. Luckily all this training, balancing of work deadlines and time away for revision courses has refined my organisational skills and ability to juggle many tasks at once!!
These last few months have been a rollercoaster of emotions. Even after all the rehab and training I’ve done, it still doesn’t seem real that I’m heading to the World Championships! It may well not hit me until it’s over, but I know one thing for sure: it’s going to be one hell of a ride!!
