Challenge Cup final and a cheeky trip to London

Its been a really exciting week, although I haven't managed to get in as much training as I would have liked, I've managed to substitute for other things and my motivation hasn't been lacking!

A good friend of mine is making 2012 his year of sport, inspired by the Olympics and Paralympics being held in London, he set out to get to as many sports events as he possibly could throughout the year and take a secondment from his lovely girlfriend and make this year all about sport! You can catch up on his adventures here http://coxysyearofsport.blogspot.co.uk/. 

He managed to get to the six nations, Heineken cup, Tour de France, Olympics, Paralympics, SPL matches, The Crucible and even Silverstone for the Formula 1 to name a few. I have no idea how he managed to afford all this but he has done it and I don't think he will be allowed to go to another sports event till at least the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Me, Coxy and Shadow at Wembley Challenge Cup Final

Overall he has manged to hit 52 events (probably more now) over 30 sports in 17 Cities in 6 countries and shockingly he has only managed to rack up 9 wins for the individuals or teams he has supported. Maybe he is bad luck! Why am I telling you about this you may ask? Well Sport wouldn't be as much fun to watch if you went on your own and Coxy has got friends to join him for each of the events he went to and I was lucky enough to be the  friend who was chosen to chaperon him to the Challenge Cup along with Mark (shadow). Who will always now have a special place in my heart for taking us to possibly the best south indian curry place in Wembley - it was phenomenal!

This meant a break from training (or so I thought), a nice relaxing time down in the capital and a cheeky trip to Wembley. I mentioned to Alex (S&C) that I was heading away and back on the Monday the following week and on that comment, he prescribed my London programme to do at home whilst I was away. What a nice guy! It was interesting getting this new body weight programme done in my cousins living room but I still managed to get a good sweat on. I even managed to get a little flexibility session is a quiet corner of Gatwick Airport before heading home.The things you do!

I was still a little stretched for cash as most people are the week before payday when I headed to London but I was adamant that I could spend a ridiculously small amount of cash and get away with it. I pretty much did that by not taking any public transport and walked everywhere as much as possible. I worked out that I walked atleast 16 Miles over the course of the weekend. Pretty mad when you consider I was only cruising about the London tourist sights.

Challenge Cup Final at Wembley - Warrington vs. Leeds

The Challenge Cup Final itself was pretty good. 79,000 people almost filled Wembley and we took our seats next to Zeus and Odin up high and watched as the ant like figures of Leeds and Warrington fought it out for 80 minutes. Adrian Morley still looked huge. Warrington came good in the end but not before the lighting and thunder hit. It sounded like a bomb had gone off somewhere distant as the Thunder echoed around the stadium. The storm lasted all of 20 minutes and that's a good thing about being up high, not getting wet!

The exciting #mission2014 developments came on Friday whilst I was away, I mentioned in my last blog post that Mike Cavanagh was coming into ENGAGE to do some coaching, he is in on Monday lunchtimes which is awesome and even better we are actually getting a wrestling mat at ENGAGE which is going to be phenomenal for training. I can't wait to get into training properly and start grappling and wrestling. Unfortunately, I'm missing the 1st session because I'm away but come the second week in September, I'm all over it. Actually, I am thinking about setting up a community club properly and getting a coaching badge to help run on a day over the weekend. I'm pretty sure we would be the only pure wrestling club in Edinburgh and the East if we were to do it.

I was doing a little bit of work with Jig on Tuesday at the throws training, we did some ground work stuff, Bear joined for some punishment and Jig worked us pretty hard which is always good (maybe not for the bear). No dropping on heads this week but there was an accidental bollock in the face moment, its all character building! I'm swopping in Training next week for a trip to Alton Towers, so i'll have to make it up somewhere.

Finally, back to my training I'm away next week to Emma's grandparents 60th Wedding Anniversary which is a pretty awesome accomplishment. Alex very kindly has prescribed me some training to do for the next two weeks whilst he ventures off to France on his motorbike. There is a lot of running in this block and back to the circuits and the dreaded wattbike tabata intervals, which may kill me off. I should be starting to look that little bit fitter come two weeks time. The key for me is to try and maintain a little weight! 

It's the Scottish Wrestling Open Championships next week, I elected not to enter this year, simply because I don't feel I have done enough wrestling yet to warrant a decent competition but next year! I will hopefully be Scottish Champion and well on my way to qualification for Glasgow 2014!

As always, thanks for taking time to read the blog, feel free to share it around and again as always you can catch me on twitter @shocksjr #mission2014

Oh and if you are interested in Wrestling in Edinburgh, drop me a line, I'm starting to collate a database of interested people:
mikewallacewrestling@hotmail.co.uk