Countdown continues 9 weeks

Friday - Woke up at 4 and despite my best efforts including listening to some guided meditation, I was not going back to sleep, so back to McDonalds it was for morning coffee! Feeling better in general though. It'll be a week tonight since we arrived here so should just about be over the jet lag by tomorrow. They do say it takes an day for every hour when travelling from west to east and I feel like I'm getting into the routine.

The sun came out in full force yesterday which always helps put things in a better light as well. The quality of training has been good so far and the Japanese players at the university are of a very good standard. They have been training for a competition this weekend. I've been making sure I do lots of recovery in between which should help ensure that the quality remains high throughout the length of the training block. I've been doing a circuit everyday so lots of cardio and speed exercises, but I'm beginning to hate tuck jumps with a passion! So I was happy yesterday when I had weights on my program instead. However, Sally soon pointed out that it was actually a weights circuit!

Sally has been getting all artistic and playing around with picture collages and I've been helping her start up her blog. iPads are definitely big kids toys! Its always useful to be able to connect to the WWW whilst travelling and training although I do make sure I disconnect regularly and give myself a break. I'm enjoying reading The Hunger Games at the moment and brought a book out with me called Mind Gym, a sports psychology book which I'm finding quite interesting. Watched another good film "The Way" (hang on, is there a theme here?!) about a father's journey along the road to Santiago in memory of his dead son. Reminded me about the Paoulo Cuello book.

Another full day of training ahead today but a quieter weekend after that. I'm looking forward to catching up on a bit of sleep and hopefully I'll get to explore Tokyo a bit, if my legs can keep carrying me upright!

10 weeks:- the Final Countdown

The Final Countdown: 10 weeks:-

After a successful British Open competition, followed by nomination to Team GB 2012 by the British Judo at -52kg, and then a pretty hectic 3 days getting organised and trying to squeeze in my training, it was that time again - Japan/Korea part 2. It was only 6 weeks since I was last out there so it was easier to pack and prepare. A lot less training stuff went in this time; it was really easy to wash things there; and a lot more food went in instead! This isn't because I don't like the food in Japan or Korea, I love it, but at this stage I have to be very controlled with my diet and sometimes it's easier when you don't have to think about the all the ins and outs of the nutritional side all the time. So in went plenty of porridge sachets and protein bars. Also some snack a jacks. I knew Sally, my Roomie out there, would be bringing the tea and coffee so didn't need that. In went my scales, my HR monitor, skipping rope, foam roller and elastics. Hmm I could see my 27kg limit fast approaching! Good job my hair straighteners are the mini variety.

On Thursday at the airport I invested in a Team GB mug as I remember craving a 'proper' size cup of tea last time. I also bought one for my friend Akina who I'm hoping to catch up with. The 9 o'clock flight was a good time for sleeping and with time differences we arrived at our hotel in Tokyo at 12.00 Friday night. Saturday was a good time for easing into the new time zone and we went into central Tokyo for a walk around and some bargain hunting in Ueno. Sunday me and Sal went to the gym and I did a circuit and a stretch. Then we went to buy a few things from the local shops - I got a flask, a chopping board (for making my salads up), and some chopsticks. I also got a few things for taking home: a bamboo sushi rolling mat, some packets of noodles and a tea strainer. We have a fridge in the room so I got some salad and sashimi- mmmmm good protein!

Monday saw me get stuck into some hard training with a gym circuit and our first judo session at the uni. I knew I had to ease myself in though so kept the judo short - just 90 mins as opposed to the usual 3 hours they do here! Watched a good film on Sal's computer - The Way Back - inspiring story of the human will to survive. Was drifting off about 11.30 so thought I was in for a good nights kip, but it didn't happen.

By Tuesday jet-lag was seriously catching up with me and 2 nights of barely any sleep started to show with some dark eyes and a bit more of a grump about me! In the morning, 4 of us (me, Sally, coach Kate and physio Sophia) headed off to the uni for a gym session. Whilst Sally was getting massive on the weights I did another tortuous circuit, sweated a lot, swore a bit and was a happy chappy when it was shower and lunch time! We ate at the uni and hung around for the session which was at 4. I was so tired by then but managed to get a decent session in with the help of some persuasive encouragement from Kate and the thought of udon noodles for dinner! Sally and I went out for food when we got back and I got some more salad and sashimi for the next couple of days. Fingers are feeling it already so iced them a bit and tried to ease some shoulder ache in the bath. Easier training day today (Wednesday) so time to do some video analysis and get a long physio session in. Think Ben is bring his electro acupuncture needles into the equation! The only place open for a coffee at 6.30am in McDonalds so sat in there, caught up on my training diaries and now back to the room to wake up Sally Ann. MORNING!!!!!!

British Open 2012

http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/home/documents/EurCup_Seniors_GBR_London_formsandoutlines_Published.pdf

Korean BBq

Final blog -Korea By Sophie cox and Sally Conway

Hello and welcome to the GB ladies final blog of our Asian tour.
It's Friday morning and I've woke up very sore and tired. 1 more session to go this afternoon. Then it's packing the bags up for one last time this trip ready for home.
We left Tokyo on Saturday to take a 2 hour flight to Seoul. All the team collected their bags and jumped on the bus. Of course there was time for some of us to grab a sneaky donut to take on our travels though.
After a two hour bus journey we made it to our hotel. We have been staying right in the Olympic Park, a legacy left over from the '88 games. It's pretty huge and you can walk round it and see the stadium and the the veledrome among other things and the "peace gates" at the entrance, quite inspiring! There are also loads of sculptures all around affording some interesting sights. When we arrived it was pretty late, so we dropped our bags off straight away and headed out for some good old proper Koren barbeque. We found a really authentic place and got given so much food! Lots of side dishes which most of us had even seen or tasted before, but to be honest there wasn't much we didn't try/like! The meat we tasted was lovely, really delicious and everyone was in good spirits.
Sunday, we all did our own thing, weather it was chilling in or around the hotel,or heading in to seoul for a bit of shopping and a look about. We all found it so much cheaper for food and shopping than TOkyo, so some of us have made some little purchases out here which is great. A bit of retail therapy...lovely!
So Monday it all kicked off again with a bang. A bus was put on for the GB team to take us ti Yong Yin University, which was about a 50 min journey.
We had to trek up a pretty steep hill to get to the uni which was hard work and was only going to get harder as the week went on. And I can tell you now,it's defiantly did!
Yong Yin uni is the biggest and strongest uni for judo in the whole of Korea. Most of the top team train there so we knew we were going to be in for a hard, final week, and that we'd all have to dig in. The number 1 Korean women team were in Japan, but this didn't effect how hard or how beneficial the training was for the women at all.
The session was started off with a bow, a stretch, and a couple of forward rolls,a little uchikomi and straight into 12x6min tachiwaza. No messing about in Korea! The session was completed in 2hours. But it was 2 hours of none stop fighting...perfect! :) this is what it was like for the rest of the sessions, usually with 5 newaza randoris to finish.
Blood, sweat and tears! It was all happening on the mat! But I think I talk on behalf of everyone when I say this but it has been a really great 4 weeks of randori, and we have all come away from this Asian tour with things we have improved, things that still need working on and some different ideas to take back home with us. The whole experience has been brilliant. And a great block of training for our European preparation.
We're all off out tonight for a team meal to celebrate Euan's birthday. (He doesn't know so shhhhh....) Were going to a steak house. Think everyone is going to enjoy it. It's really tasty!

Well that wraps the Asian trip up. I hope you have enjoyed keeping upto date with our blogs, and have got a little insight of what has been going on in the GB camp...untill next time, bye for now :-)

Asia Tour Week 3

end of week 3 and the Japan leg

It's the end of the third and final week in Japan and we all met this morning at 7 to get the bus to the airport. The last couple of weeks we've been training at Teikyo university which has a very good reputation for women's judo. It was usually a 15min bus journey to get there, some of us would tape up on the way or watch/listen to our i-pods. We were made very welcome at the dojo, and soon got into the routine. Quite a lot of the girls we knew from the last time we visited but there were a lot of new faces as well. There's normally about 50 girls on the mat and a whole range of weights, shapes and sizes and they all like to fight hard on the mat but are generally very friendly before and after training. By the end of the 3 weeks we were exchanging a few small gifts and getting lots of pictures. The sessions at the uni were between 3-3.5 hours long. They would start with a long stretch and warm up then we would go on to do 15 mins of newaza, then into Tachiwaza (randori). If you got given a red belt you were out in the front for 8x5mins and there was normally 3 sets of this. Most of the sessions followed this format but then on Thursday with two sessions left to go about 30 more high school girls turned up so the sessions got even longer! They were obviously a different standard to the uni girls but they were all fresh and raring to go. Physio Ben joined us on Wednesday and it was time to say bye bye to Physio Soph whose hard work really helped the team a lot. We were also joined by Coach Luke who seemed to be impressed with the work we were doing on the mat and helped spur us through the last couple of sessions. We had had coaches Billy and Go visit us from the boys side when there wasn't a clash of training times. Coach Kate was always keeping an eye out despite having a slight football injury!

We were all loving their old school, rocky style weights gym they have.  Nothing fancy just a proper working gym.

Packing up to leave was a little bit of a mission as some things seem to have been acquired over the course of these last three weeks so every nook and cranny of baggage space was being needed. Most people were lighter in another area though having gone through most of their porridge stores and protein bars, just enough left to take on to the next place. Korea here we come!

European and Olympic Preparation

Asia Tour part 2

Woke early this morning craving a cup of tea for some reason. Didn't want to make one in the room as it would disturb my roommate so got up and went for a little jog round the park whilst I waited for McDonalds to open. Got a gym session to look forward to a little later this morning and possibly some football in the park this afternoon. No judo today as the university we are training at have a rest day today. Yesterday was a total rest day (much needed!) for us and I did a recovery bike session in the gym followed by a shopping/eating trip in Tokyo central. I tried Unagi (eel) for the first time and loved it. "Good for power" our Japanese coach Go Tsuanda told me. Good to catch up with him and team mate Colin and find out the gossip from the boys camp. We followed up with a Starbucks coffee then spent a good couple of hours wondering around Harajuku. Faith was in good shopping form buying lots of little gifts for people back home. I didn't do very well but enjoyed just browsing although it was packed with people down there. Remembered it was mother's day back in the uk so scored some brownie points by skyping when we got back. This was after finding an amazing noodle shack for dinner time.

It's been one judo session a day this week with some weights and CV work fitted around. The sessions continue to be marathons - 3 hours long, 90% randori and it's as much a mental challenge; staying focused for that long; as it is physical. There's about 40 Japanese women on the mat, then the 7 of us, and we have been joined by 2 Swiss girls and a Austrian who are also training out here. The atmosphere is good and we are all fighting/training hard. I feel the team is giving each other plenty of support and it is motivational to see the girls pushing hard and being determined and that helps me get through those rough patches where occasionally I need a bit of a lift. Had a good team building football match at the beginning of last week which gave me an excellent ab work out due to plenty of hilarity. And laundry time was made into an experience as well with Sally managing to shrink her socks to the size of a one year olds. The Teikyo university girls have made us very welcome and it's great to meet up again with Akina who can to love and train in the UK with us for 6 months.

Highlights

Browsing the supermarkets looking for bargain gyozas and interesting Japanese treats.
Having an orange brûlée frappacino at Starbucks.
Laughing at the pictures on Facebook.
Making endless cups of tea in the room.
Eating Unagi.
Training with world champion Matsumoto.
Football in the park.

Lowlights

The cold.
The price of an orange brûlée frappacino.
Sore fingers.
Washing (clothes not me! I don't mind that so much and feel its better for my social acceptability if I do occasionally wash).
Tiredness - ok when I sleep well but not always the case.

Japan/Korea training week 1

We've just completed the first week of the 4 week long Asia tour so time for a quick recap. The women's team have been training at the National Training Centre where for the last 5 days their top women plus about 300 other judoka from various university teams have been training as well. Talk about throwing us in the deep end with a bunch of small but very nippy piranhas all trying to take chunks out of ya! And it has been very intense, each session 2 1/2 to 3 hours long, 95% randori (the other 5% warming up or cooling down.) everything is sore now; skin, fingers toes and muscles, joints; thankfully we have a couple of days off now whilst we move across Tokyo and station ourselves at the next training centre. Team physio Sophia has been doing a great job helping us keep on top of any grumbles and general maintenance. My left shoulder and elbow have started to niggle a bit and i have to keep on top of that plus some chronic wear and tear in my right elbow. I've done 3 gym sessions this week involving speed, power and core training but mostly focused on specific rehab/prehab. Recovery between sessions has been key but difficult as by the time you've stretched, showered and eaten you're generally ready to crash out. The food has been excellent (for those of us who like our food and are not picky anyway, not like coach Howey!) and most of our meals have been at the NTC where we eat in the Athletes section along with the other sports such as weightlifting, table tennis, wrestling and gymnastics. The hotel room also comes equipped with its own water boiler and fridge so it's easy to store drinks and snack and I've been drinking so much green tea it's coming out of my ears! Think of those anti-oxidants though....

Highlights
Strangling 2 people and arm locking 1 and holding down 8 in one newaza session (bearing in mind the previous one my total ippons were nill: they're hard to catch on the ground!)
Green tea hot chocolate.
Green tea ice cream.
Green tea and strawberry kit kat chunkys.
Green tea McVites digestives.
Hot coffee out of the vending machine.
Getting to use the amazing facilities at the NTC.
Catching up on some TV series, How I Met Your Mother and Homeland.
General banter with the team.
Coin washers and dryers in the hotel.
The the small but lovely deep bath tub in the room where I can wind down.
The food.
Last nights feast at Sizzlers.

Lowlights
Shin bruises; the Arnica cream has come in handy!
The rain: had to purchase an umbrella.
Taping - fingers and a thumb. It's just hard work getting it all off again!
Blood on my kit from a cut/graze under my chin where people have been trying to strangle me! Now having to soak the jacket in the sink to try and get it out.
Soreness.
Jet lag - they say it takes a day for every hour of time difference to get yourself fully into sync. We didn't have time to mess around though so have had to cope and some people have been struggling with their sleeping patterns. I've struggled a little bit but getting enough to keep the engine running.

Pre Japan

Mr Ling chillin before heading out on his first big adventure - will he look as fresh after a month in Asia?

Training Japan

Well day 5 and 5 training sessions in and am definitely feeling the burn. Been having some great randoris - about 300 girls on the mat which is amazing! So plenty of judo and plenty of noodles and rice! And green stuff, green tea coming out of my ears. Absolutely wiped out right now so time to stick some washing on then crash out and hopefully sleep all the way through having just about kicked the jet lag. Sayonara.