Just where has the month of June gone?
I cant believe its been 3 weeks since my last blog, but then, its been so busy that I know I've just not had 5 minutes to sit down and throw down some thoughts onto a blog.
I suppose the best place to start is with my first step on the coaching ladder. It's something that I'm planning to do after I leave school and head onto College to do HND in Sports Coaching and Development which will hopefully lead me onto a degree course after my initial 2 years.
It's only now that I've turned 16 that I can now take part in Snowsport Scotland's coach training programme. In early June, I took a 2 day NPC L1 rollerski coaching course and thankfully passed. I'm now allowed to be a supervised coach for certain roller ski lessons. Still got a bit of work to do in terms of getting my coaching hours under my belt but as I'm now working at the Nordic Ski Centre in Huntly, I can do that quite quickly. Then it's onto level 2 in the next 12 months.
On top of that, it's been training as usual. I've been building up to some of the roller ski races as part of the GB Championships and last weekend were 2 races at Cairngorm. The first one is a sprint race where you basically have to go as fast as you can for 12 laps of a circuit, the 2nd race is an horrendous hill climb where you literally have to roller ski up the Cairngorm. The climb is torture and it never seems to end. I came 2nd in both races, which I'm a little disappointed with but still put in a good effort, especially on the hill climb.
The weather was fantastic, and perhaps a little too hot as I think I overdid it in the sun as it knocked me back for 6 on the Sunday after the race and I'm still recovering.
This coming week, I finally get to meet my fellow selected panelists for the first time for the Sportscotland Sports Panel up in Glenmore Lodge. I'm really looking forward to it and cant wait to meet them. Already its been great to chat with some of them on social media and start to get to know them and the sport that they're involved with. I'll update you after the weekend.