Saturday 7th July 2012
After travelling up to Ilkley in torrential rain yesterday we got a funny feeling it was going to be a repeat of last weeks washout but today the sun came out and tomorrow we might actually have a chance of getting on the grass – but I won’t be holding my breath!
Yesterday we trained for an hour and a half on the indoor courts so we didn’t need to overdo it today; we just needed to make sure Dave was happy with his level and was prepared for his first round match tomorrow. The day started with a good breakfast at the hotel before driving to the club and warming up at 10.30am. We then went outside onto the hard courts to go through Dave’s physical conditioning programme for the day which was a speed session. Dave completed the programme well despite being a little bored with the amount of rest that he had to have between each sprint – most of the sprints were under 5 seconds but he had to have a full 45 seconds so that he was fully recovered before the next one. The programme consisted of 48 short sprints which also involved changes of directions and reactions to my calls so it kept Dave guessing throughout.
After the session we went back into the gym to cool down, foam roll and stretch to make sure Dave doesn’t have any stiffness later in the day. We then had a good lunch at the club and relaxed while watching the Ladies Final at Wimbledon.
Later in the afternoon we went back on court and just had a light session to make sure Dave was happy with all areas of his game. We warmed up everything and then played some points at the end of the session to make sure Dave felt sharp and ready to go tomorrow.
From the court it was straight into the gym for both of us; Dave had his injury prevention and recovery work to go through while I was back on the running machine for another 1 hour run. I’ve now just clocked up 250 miles and have completed 37 of 98 training runs that I’ve got set before The Great North Run in September. This year I’m again running for Make-A-Wish Foundation UK to help children with life-threatening illnesses and I’m hoping to raise more than the £1,300 I did last year – if you are able to make a donation please see my JustGiving page: www.justgiving.com/robsGNR2012.
Once we’d completed our training for the day we went back to the hotel for an hour to relax and watch the start of the Wimbledon Men’s Doubles Final before we went out to a small Italian restaurant that we found last night. The food there was amazing and we’re very disappointed that it’ll be closed for the next two days!
We then headed to the club quickly to get the draw and order of play before returning to the hotel to watch Jonny Marray become the first British player to win a Men’s singles or doubles title in the last 76 years. I’ve played against Jonny in the past and I could think of a nicer guy to win the title; he’s had his setbacks over the years with injuries but he’s always kept going and is now a Wimbledon Champion!
Here’s the qualifying draw:
Schedule for tomorrow:
Dave Hodgetts (GBR) (UNR) vs Howard Scott (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd match after 1.30pm
