Back in Arizona!!

Friday was Sheila's surprise 50th birthday party, and although I arrived a bit late to see the initial surprise and waterworks, there was a secondary surprise when I showed up as well! Sheila's been coaching there nearly 25 years, so there was a great mix of players from all the teams she's coached over the years... just like one big family :)


Saturday we met and hiked up Squaw Peak, then headed to the courts to watch the match vs USC... in the evening we went to Macayo's for dinner and then headed out for a drink afterwards. Sunday we watched ASU beat UCLA which was a really good win, and in the afternoon I headed to REI and Arizona Mills for some bargain shopping! I stayed with Megan & Cindy, and spent time enjoying the sunshine and rekindling some good old memories - running up A-mountain (a good memory?!), drinking kiltlifters at 4Peaks, eating Pizooki at Oregano's, and spending a fortune in REI.




I also caught up with Adria whose just had a baby (Emmy, 5 weeks old!), but unfortunately missed out on seeing Dora & Paulie who were away for the weekend. Megan's parents arrived the night before I left though, and it was really great to see them again as well.

Overall it was a great trip - it's hard to believe it's been nearly 4 years since I was last there! It was just like old times, and despite being far too short a visit I had a fantastic time - really enjoyed seeing everyone again and I'm SO glad I went out there. click here to see all the pics!

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Ann’s visit + Spontaneous Decision!

Last week we had Dr.Ann Quinn visiting our set-up of tennis in Scotland. Ann is Head of Sports Science at the LTA (and therefore my boss as strength & conditioning is within the sports science department!). The main aim of the visit was for her to get an idea of the overall structure, geographical positioning of facilities and players, and see some of the logistical difficulties we face in terms of training and competition. We were then looking at how best to support the individual priority players from a strength & conditioning perspective, and to secure/fortify the physical programmes at each of the Performance Centres.

On Tuesday I picked her up in Newcastle and we visited the Northumberland HPC (High Performance Centre) which has now become a part of my role remit. Next we drove up to Edinburgh and had a brief meeting with Dave Clark (Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Scottish Institute of Sport) and Ellinore Lightbody (National Coach for Scotland). On Wednesday we visited the East Area Institute of Sport (ESIS) gym which some of our players train at, and then spent time at Craiglockhart Tennis Centre and Tennis Scotland. Thursday we met with Judy up at Stirling, discussing how we think I can best help player development from a strength & conditioning perspective (through working directly with players, and also through coach education). After that we had a meeting with the Scottish Institute of Sport personnel, which began with overviews of the Institute and LTA visions, and provoked good discussions on how both parties can best work together to promote the development of Scottish tennis. Finally we looked around the facility at Stirling (which is our National Tennis Centre), before I took her to the airport for her flight back to London! It was a very productive few days - Ann now has a much better idea of how things are being structured in Scotland, and I have a more clearly defined role in terms of my position as LTA strength & conditioning manager for Scotland!

The most exciting part of the 3 days for me was when Ann insisted (on Wednesday evening) that I book a last-minute flight to go out to Tempe for Sheila’s surprise 50th and the Arizona State Women’s Tennis reunion. I had really wanted to go, but had decided just before Christmas that with her visit, a ‘compulsary’ trip to London on Friday, and meetings/arrangements next week already in place I really couldn’t afford to go for just a few short days. However, with her slight persuasion – “life is to be lived…sometimes you only have one opportunity” and of course my personal favourite, “you only regret the things you don’t do” - plus Ellinore backing her up with comments such as “come on maz, I bet you can cover all of the work you have in your diary over the next week”! – I went home that evening and managed to find a very reasonable last minute deal for Friday morning and immediately grabbed it!

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Lairig Ghru & Lairig an Laoigh

Bet you can’t pronounce that correctly :) Basically, these are the two mountain passes that connect Braemar to Aviemore in the Cairngorms. Having done masses of hill-walking and scrambling all around that area, I’ve always wanted to ‘connect the dots’ and complete these two walks which are both 22-25 miles in length. I started at Linn of Dee - just me, my mp3 player, boots & backpack! I had 2 days of fantastic weather and superb views, and despite being by myself I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.







Apart from having to completely strap both feet to pad out the developing blisters, and the slightly cold camping spot, which I found out later was ~ -10C. I think I might have drifted off for an hour or so, but spent most of the night doing sit-ups, rolling back and forward, stamping my feet and rubbing my hands to try and stay remotely warm… My boots and water bottle were frozen in the morning, and packing up the tent/sleeping bag etc was a serious challenge with hands and feet that I wasn’t sure belonged to me anymore.



Running around my campspot, smacking my gloved hands together and jumping up and down eventually enabled me to pull out the tent pegs, roll up my gear and stamp my feet into my boots to start walking again. At first I felt like I was dragging clubs around on the bottom of my legs, but after half an hour the tears pricking and intense fiery feeling told me my feet were starting to defrost!


Once up on the saddle above Loch Avon and in the sun, it was all far behind me and the rest of the walk/run (walking any declines is just boring!) was really nice. Back to Braemar in plenty of time before going out for a lovely dinner with mum, dad, Gavin & Jen at The Gathering Place for an early birthday dinner.

Saturday was a lazy day – went into Ballater, met the lady who’s doing the bouquets for G&J’s wedding, discussed various other wedding plans, and then I had to head back down the road because I had a coaching course on Sunday at Ratho. Parts of the course were pretty interesting, but probably the best bit was getting to do a bit of bouldering, abseiling and the Ariel Assault Course at the end of the day…fun stuff! My actual birthday (Monday) wasn’t so exciting because I was working all day, but I’d had a really nice few days so can’t complain, and did an extra spin class to celebrate (!)

Click here to see more pictures from my trip!

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