So – another blog post.
Over the past few weeks I have attended a training camp in Germany, competed in Prague, and taken a week of rest in a small town in Yorkshire. I resumed hard training again a week ago, starting six weeks intense build-up to the Oceania Championships in Tahiti.
The training camp went well, although I turned up to the last session to find only the Greek men. The session ended up being cancelled, unfortunately training camps tend to die out a bit later in the week. I flew straight to Prague on the Friday, made weight well, and fought well. My opponent was from Kazakhstan, and I had lost to her last year very quickly. This time I had analysed videos of her fighting, and had devised a plan. I successfully executed my plan and stopped her getting a grip she could throw with, for the most part. The fight was very close, unfortunately she scored two yukos. I lost, but I fought well, and was dominating the latter half of the fight. I see a great improvement in my judo since I came to Camberley.
I flew back into Heathrow on the Sunday, and on Monday I got the bus and train up to Yorkshire, to pretty much literally sleep for a week. I had competed in three world cups and participated in one training camp over a very short period (thanks to enVirtua for making this happen!), so this rest was essential to prepare me for my next training cycle.
The following Monday I resumed training, starting with 30 minutes rowing and 30 minutes nagekomi early in the morning, as extra training with my fellow foreigner Irish Ian. Normal training started at 10, and we had weights followed by intense running. The rest of the week continued in this fashion, lots of hard training, following an individual plan specifically designed to prepare me for the OJUs.
I spent the weekend at Camberley, but three of my clubmates participated in the Swiss Open, with Sophie brining back a gold medal – well done! On Sunday was the junior English Open, and two Camberley fighters reached finals, with Jess winning gold and Lasha winning silver. It is great to have my training partners doing well, it is easier to succeed when people around you are succeeding.
This week is quite special for me, on Thursday I have my oral exam for my PhD. For the past three and a half years I have been undertaking research in the Computer Science department at the University of Bath, into areas of pure mathematics. In January I submitted my thesis, and on Thursday I have to defend my thesis to internal (from Bath) and external (from France) examiners. I will start by giving a 30 minute presentation on my work, and then be asked questions until the examiners are happy I have made an original contribution to knowledge. This could take hours! I am very nervous, this is the culmination of more that 6 years at University, and if I pass I will hold the title of Doctor of Philosophy. I have been doing a lot of preparation over the past while, and have now got to the stage of over-thinking and seeing mistakes where there are none! (I actually thought writing this blog post might give me a bit of a break and bring me back into the real world for long enough to allow me to re-enter mathematical reality.) After I have passed (assuming I will), I may write more details of my research in another blog, if anyone’s interested, and post my thesis online, but currently I want to put all my mathematical energies into passing!
I have my exam on Thursday, and on Friday I’m driving up to Sheffield to represent Bath in the British Universities Judo Championships. I have participated in this twice before, missed it last year, and hope to win a gold medal the year, the final that I’m eligible. It is a great competition, with kyu (lower grade) divisions, and dan (higher grade) divisions which often have good international competitors. I’m not concentrating on this as a performance competition, I am fighting up a weight class and not peaking for it as I am putting most of my energy into maths this week, but it should be a good experience. The team event on Sunday is always fun!
Back to maths…
Go Mahana!