Calm before the Storm

Having had a pretty hectic couple of weeks at work, I managed to book in for some much needed annual leave. I decided that the best thing to do was to catch up with the family, so took the wee man and the wife up north to Pittenweem (my home town) for a couple of nights before heading further north to catch up with my in laws. This of course is my relaxing time before hitting the gym and training next week, not that i've gone OTT. Just the calm before the storm.

I'm a little bit relieved this week to be honest, I came away with a niggling pain in my knee after playing my final game for the eagles against Aberdeen and it wasn't getting any better last week with a lot of running around and walking but this week it's been no issue and probably just needed a break. I'm hoping that I'll be a able to strengthen it over the next couple of months anyway to reduce the risk of injury.

Pittenweem for those of you who don't know it, is a small fishing town in the East Neuk of Fife. It's a beautiful little spot and somewhere when you live there take for granted but always nice to come home. My mum was reluctant to move here about 25 years ago because she thought it was called (and I quote) "Piss and Wee". Muppet.

Pittenweem from the West Braes

Many a good time in Pittenweem. I went to school about a mile away in Anstruther at Waid Academy which is only a small school considering its catchment area but met some good friends.

Emma and I took the little guy for a long walk around the town yesterday. It was a beautiful day and well worth a walk. The place looks fantastic, looks like its been tarted up for the Pittenweem Arts Festival and it was great to donder around. 

Fishing at the weem

Cameron enjoyed a long walk of a short pier, I was crapping it about having to jump in after him if he plummeted off the edge but we got away with it and decided to keep him in his buggy.

Even though I'm hanging out on holiday, I'm still getting myself in the zone for whats happening next week and still really looking forward to it. In fact I could say that I've been wrestling all week with Cameron, every time I try to change a nappy I have to get him in some sort of hold to pin him down.

Last night, was BBQ night at the Wallace household, my dad has bought a new charcoal BBQ which I like to think is from my input in thinking that gas takes the fun out of it and charcoal and building fire is manly! That said we struggled to get it lit last night, had to use "Easy Start" (the stuff that could start a diesel truck) to get it going. I class myself as a bit of a BBQ pro, but last night I lost down a sausage and a bit of chicken off the grill into the charcoal - devastating for a BBQ chef of my calibre. Not that anyone noticed! I say I'm a pro but my timing was a little off last time I had one with the bear and it ended up being a twilight BBQ.

A couple of interesting potential developments this week on the Wrestling side of things as well. I had a chat with Neil Gibson (360 Conditioning) who said he would take a look at the S&C programme and see if he had any comment. Neil is very experienced in this field, is a sports scientist by trade and i'm usually happy to take his word as gospel on these issues. Hopefully Alex and I will be able tie up with him before Monday. 

The second one was on twitter, Jim Whitehouse, a mate from uni said he was going to have a chat with the Bank of Scotland about their local heroes programme for emerging sporting talent. We shall see what comes of that, but because I haven't started competing yet and the Scottish Wrestling haven't really heard of me yet I would be surprised if anything actually came of it but you never know. That said, the funding would be mega useful, the nutrition plan isn't cheap and i'm going to start heading through to Glasgow for training which will be costly.

Unfortunately for me, there aren't any wrestling clubs local to Edinburgh, but Steve Riley, a friend of mine and a former RL player I used to coach suggested I check out the grip house in Glasgow to do some training, which I will do. 

Final development this week is that I signed up to Scottish Wrestling and am going to venture along to the AGM to scope the lay of the land and then head along to the Scottish Championships on the 8th September and see what competition I have for Glasgow 2014. I'm confident I can do this and there is nothing more important than self belief.

The family and I are off to Aberdeen this afternoon for a couple of nights before hitting my last proper BBQ before training on Monday! 5 Days to go before the real stuff starts and I can this Blog will get a bit more interesting.

#mission2014 #5daystogo #startthecountdown