September blog from Paralympian Libby Clegg

The summer holiday is over and I am gradually working back towards the serious winter training sessions. First lets cover a few fun things.

I had a trip to Cyprus with my boyfriend. Despite living together for a number of years this was actually the first time our calendars had worked to have a holiday away together. The schedules of two professional athletes are not the easiest thing in the world to combine.  It was very relaxing and we met some really great people. My one tip for Cyprus is that the Tomb of the Kings is very much a visual experience and there is not a great deal of information to take in. So not high on my recommendations.

I am also very excited to be appointed as a Scottish Ambassador for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. This role is all about trying to inspire my home nation, get people involved and backing Team Scotland. My other Scottish Ambassadors include Eilidh Child and Chris Hoy. At the launch event the photographer insisted on calling him Sir Chris despite repeated requests that Chris was just fine. It did raise a regular giggle among the three of us. Below is a picture from the photoshoot arranged by SSE - who are sponsoring the Commonwealth Games and the Scottish Team.

Pre-season training is underway. The training group is missing Richard Whitehead who is still working his way to Lands End by running a marathon each day. But we have now been joined by another Paralympian, Sally Brown from Northern Ireland. Sally is currently working on stepping up to become a 400m runner. It is great to have another girl part of the squad.

Even at this stage training is hard. We have had our first squad member pushing themselves to the point that they are sick. Never fun cleaning that up.

Our coach Keith has been pushing us. A few days it has been a struggle to walk the following morning. However, to make up for it Keith has been joining in some of our back to back sessions. These are when I run 60m, have a 10 second rest and go again until a set number of repetitions are completed. Keith managed to keep up…most of the time.

In October, I have my annual performance appraisal where I will have a series of meetings to look at what has gone well this year and what the targets are for next. I am pleased that I have managed to maintain the performance level from 2012.

And finally, a funny thing happened to me on the train the other day. I was chatting to a very nice guy. I always seem to strike up conversations with people on the train. He was telling me all about his family and I asked him if the next stop was Leicester. He said yes and I got off the train. However, even with my limited vision I could tell that it was not Leicester. Another passenger kindly told me I was in fact in Market Harborough station. At the same time my train buddy was sprinting along the carriage to get me back on the train having realised the mistake.  It provided us with a giggle for the rest of the journey.

If you have any questions, please post them on The Team Libby Facebook page.

I will be back in October to update you on some painful training sessions and a few company/school visits as a result of the monthly ESPC newsletter competition. These are always great fun and one of the perks of my job.