As I write this, I am just over half way through the agonizing wait for the start of the Finals of the 2011 GT Academy in association with Nissan and Sony. It is 17 days since the National Finals for the UK finished, and 13 days until the start of the Race Camp, which begins with a flight out to Paris on the morning of the 10th June 2011. This date is now permanently etched in my brain as the start of what will be the most important week in my life to date...
My preparations so far have mainly involved fitness, and will continue to do so until the last possible moment. As anyone who knows me will tell you, for the last ten years, pretty much the most strenuous exercise I have undertaken on a regular basis was walking the dog, so when I began this journey, I knew I had to work harder than anyone else in the competition.
Since as early as a month before the National Finals I had begun trying to get myself back in shape. As soon as it was announced that the fitness tests would begin in the national finals (to ensure a high calibre of finalist at the Race Camp) I had begun running on a daily basis and trying to improve my overall fitness. At this point I was able to run around a mile (sometimes less) before I was forced to stop running and walk for a while to recover. It was by far my worst discipline at the Nationals, and was the one thing that could so easily have cost me a place at Race Camp. Not good...
At this point, I sought help from a few friends of mine who know their stuff when it comes to fitness. One in particular, a colleague of mine, Joe, who has been a gym fanatic for the last five years, was able to help me build a program that would improve all aspects of my strength and fitness, the guy is a legend. He has spent a lot of time researching for my specific needs and has put a lot of time into helping me, and for that I cannot thank him enough. Since then, I have continued running almost every day and also been visiting the gym at least every other day, and my fitness is improving visibly on a daily basis. This has helped my confidence in my own ability to push myself a huge amount and I will not be forgetting his input in a hurry. My question to myself is, how hard can I push myself before D-Day....
Next on the list is to visit some friends of mine who work in TV and other media to see if they can help me with my interview technique and general responses when put under pressure. It’ll be interesting to see how this one pans out.
Anyway, for now, onwards and upwards...and back to the gym :-)
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