Disability Sport Wales
Chwaraeon Anabledd Cymru

BLOG 2. Caroline Matthews - The Long Road to Beijing

I cant believe how quickly the time is flying past…the GB Wheelchair Basketball team’s qualification for the Beijing is still recent enough to put a smile on my face – but almost two months has now passed since i returned home sporting that particular piece of metalwork!

I keep looking at the Beijing Paralympics Website – GULP – only 310 days to go….excuse me – I am just going to the gym!

Check the website out here:
en.beijing2008.cn/83/66/column211716683.shtml

Since I last wrote, training has really gone through the roof – and its only set to get more frequent and harder over the next 9 months.

For the last two weeks I have driven up to Stoke Mandeville (Aylesbury) for GB training on Monday night from 6 – 8pm. I am lucky that my boss has agreed to me leaving work at 3pm on a Monday (I have to make the time up elsewhere) but its still a mad rush to get to Aylesbury by 6pm.

That weekly GB training session is currently being run by Murray Treseder – the GB mens head coach – he’s brilliant coach, he’s always very constructive and the sessions are also physically very demanding and enjoyable….but still a three hundred mile round trip after you have been at work all day takes some real motivation!

As well as the osteo-arthritis in my knees, I also have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – which means a constant balancing act between training and not getting run down that i become ill….after all i have to stay at work to pay the bills!

This weekend the GB women have got a weekends training camp at Stoke Mandeville – it will be the first time the whole squad has got together since we came home from the Europeans and it will be really nice to catch up with all my friends.

Coach has warned us to bring “outdoor” clothes – and that can only mean one thing…..a 2 mile sprint (if we are lucky!) around the outdoor athletics track at 7am on Saturday morning…..I’m not sure whether to pray for rain or not????

Check out the Cardiff Celts website to find out more about wheelchair basketball and don’t forgot to come back in a couple of weeks for Caroline’s 3rd blog.
www.cardiffwheelchairbasketball.co.uk

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Keep updated with Caroline’s progress as she prepares for the Womens Wheelchair Basketball competition at ttthe Beijing Paralympics next year.

If you missed BLOG 1. please click here:
www.disabilitysportwales.org/news/caroline-matthews-the-long-road-to-beijing

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