Hey all,

So since I'm currently reappearing on the scene it's probably best my blog on this website does too! Apologies for the lack of blogging recently, I guess I just wanted to keep my head down and have as little attention on me as possible while I got on with the mammoth task of making up for the past couple of years.

Not wanting to make myself sound like a complete disaster zone (who am I kidding....) I have another injury to report. This time not due to weakness or poor biomechanics, but my sheer stupidity. Thanks to dropping a nice heavy metal weight from about head height on my foot I managed to break my big toe. Trust me it hurt a lot! Although I do think I deserve some credit for finishing my weights session ( I had only been in for about 5mins when it happened) despite feeling like I was going to throw up...This of course has really affected my early season preparations (and b/day celebrations: I did it on my 20^th!) , exactly what I don't need right now. I broke my toe 3 weeks ago today and it has been a horrible, emotional  3 weeks since then. After 2 years of no competing and barely training I had finally put in a decent winter and was so excited and ready to race. Each time something like this happens it is getting much harder to pick myself up and get going from square one all over again. It's testing my mental strength but just need to put things into perspective and see that to be honest I have gone through much, much worse. It's just a big toe!  I have now had to pull out of 2 races and am desperately trying to get some level of fitness back for the Strathclyde ETU cup race in May. Swimming hasn't been a problem and is actually going fantastic right now, however cycling and running haven't been as simple. Last weekend the pain finally subdued enough to allow me to cycle and now I'm toying with the idea of starting running again. The problem is with a big toe there isn't a huge amount you can do. It has just been a long waiting game, waiting until the pain has gone and it's safe to pound the streets again. I'm bored of waiting. I'm going running today. Whether this is smart or not I'm not sure but I'm never going to know if I don't try eh?!  Luckily I have had a lot of support from the Scottish Institute, British Triathlon and my coach to get me back on my feet so thank you all, appreciate it. I haven't exactly been the easiest of customers to deal with!

Right enough of the melodramatics, what else have I been up to?? From December to mid February I was based in various locations over Spain for some tough blocks of winter training. My favourite stint by far being spending January in Aguilas with the triathlonscotland group. A certain athlete turning up at the wrong airport, insane amounts of ice cream, cybermen, jellyfish stings, being chased by wild dogs, sunshine and the odd bit of training were just a few of the highlights! I will definitely be spending my winter there again this year. I made a huge jump forward in those few weeks and was stronger, faster and fitter than I had been before. Then I broke my toe. Good one haha...

 Uni has been the same as usual really. Attending lectures when I can be bothered, leaving assignments till the last minute and dissecting up various organisms...God knows how I did it but after my winter exams I was encouraged by the head of our course to take up a biology academic scholarship! What he doesn't know is I was still up well past midnight the night before the exam having decided on going to a Fusion Triathlon Club run session instead of studing and having done no studying whatsoever during my stint in Aguilas. Not bad eh?!

So much more to report but don't think I have enough space! Hopefully now I'll be on this far more often now. Promise I won't be all triathlon chat either....Right lets go see if this toe works : )

xXx