Hello again. It’s the end of 2020! It’s been a year of spending lots of time learning and working out at home! I never thought it would be like that. I only got to do one competition this year. It’s been crazy and strange, as normally I am in the gym or at school most of the time, but I’ve been able to be with my family much more which has actually been quite nice! Here’s my blog about December in the gym, and how I’m looking forward to 2021.
Sunday 29 November 2020. It was a fancy dress gym zoom training day today. Haha. Captain America for me!
Tuesday 1 December – Tonight I was watching ‘I’m a celebrity get me out of here’. Sir Mo Farah told a story about one of his European Championships. He was racing on the track and then somehow fell and somersulted onto the ground. He got up quickly and carried on running. Suddenly he realised that he was going the wrong way around the track! This made me laugh so much. I could not stop giggling. He is one of my Olympic idols, and an incredible athlete. He is human too! It was so funny.
We now know that The British Gymnastics Championships is not going to happen in March now. It’s been postponed to a later time in the year, which is to be arranged.
Thursday 3 December. It was back to the gym after national lockdown number 2! Training 5-9pm. The same procedures as before were in place to make sure we are doing the right thing for Covid safety.
I was really tired after training and my calf felt tight.
Friday. My body aches all over! Arghh. Training 10am at the gym. There was no way I could do the full seven hours of training today.
Saturday. I can hardly move 😂 oooh hooray a day off will help!
Sun 12-5pm
Monday 7 December 4.30-8.30pm I did my flic tucks again on the high beam, four giant fulls on bars, double backs on floor and other things. I left the gym feeling really happy, but it was freezingly cold and dark!
Tues 4-8.30pm
Weds off
Thurs 5-9pm
Fri 1.30-7.30pm
These were all good days in the gym. Things are working out.
Sat ahh a day off
Sunday 13 December 2020. Gym 12pm -. Today was not a good day. I was doing a shoot on bars and going from high bar to low bar into handstand (a release and catch) but when I caught the bar I somehow bent my right thumb back. OWWWW. It was so painful. 😢 My thumb looked in a very weird position. We iced it at gym and my Mum came and took me to A&E at hospital. After an Xray they said I had to have my thumb moved back so that it could be straight and that I had fractured it. I was scared but had gas and air to help the pain while they grabbed my broken thumb and put it back in line. The gas and air made me feel all dreamy. Haha! I was so hungry as I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We left the hospital at 6.30pm. It’s going to take 6 weeks to mend my thumb. Huh!
Monday 14 Dec. My thumb was still quite painful. I went to school. After school I had to go back to the hospital and attend the fracture clinic. All the doctors were funny and trying to make me laugh and were talking all the time! Dave was Welsh and made jokes about me and England Squad!!! I think you can probably guess?! 😂
They needed to Xray it again to see if it was realigned properly. Instead of going to the Xray department they could use a portable machine and do it in the little room I was in. It was amazing! I had to put my arm in a really awkward position to get the right pictures but it came up on the screen straight away. Wow.
The consultant asked me if I was happy with what it looked like. It’s much better than it was, not perfect, but I guess what is perfect?! 😂
They then plastered my wrist and the main part of my hand leaving the top of my thumb and fingers. I learnt that it was just above the IPJ joint. They kept testing me on the name, and it was quite funny. I have looked up the definition. ‘The interphalangeal joints of the hand are the hinge joints between the phalanges of the fingers that provide flexion towards the palm of the hand. There are two sets in each finger (except in the thumb, which has only one joint)’.
Tuesday. My friends started to write on my cast. It’s quite cool. My thumb is getting black and is still very swollen.
I went to gym at 4pm and stayed the whole four and half hour session! I did conditioning and leaps. I need to keep my body fit and strong and flexible. I have had lots of big growth spurts this year so my body has changed so much. It’s probably good that it’s happened this year.
Weds off
Thurs 17th December my hand is starting to smell! It is making me feel sick. Uh! It was Kelly’s birthday today. Gym 5-9pm. I am tired. Apart from a little bit of floor beam, leaps etc, it is all conditioning and stretching. It can be quite frustrating and gets a bit boring for four hours, but I know I need to do it!
Friday. I went to school for the morning as it was our last day of term. Then gym 1.30-5pm. More conditioning and leaps and stretching!
Sat off. I got my ears pierced! I have been wanting to get them pierced and I thought that this would be a really good time to try again. Last year when I had it done in the summer it didn’t work out for me. The holes closed up because of taking the earrings out for hours due to gym training. But now I have a broken thumb and with the Christmas break it might work. It made me happy anyway.
Sun 20th Dec. There was a complete rainbow at the gym car park 🌈 Mum couldn’t quite get it all on the photo. Maybe that’s a lucky sign?! Today was going to be good. I hoped. 10-3pm Our Secret Santa day! I did games and then conditioning while my other friends were on the pieces. It was a fun day. The five hours went quickly. Time flies when you are having fun 😂 👍
I came home with two medals and a Trophy. 🏆 Yay!!!! 1st for the longest handstand hold of 2 minutes\ this year and second for my straddle levers of 13, which I’m happy with. It’s nice to actually have some medals to hang up again!
Mon 10-2pm more conditioning.
Tues 9-1. I tried going upside down today, obviously without using my hands. Oh my days, it felt so nice to be doing this. ☺ I am an elite gymnast after all!
Happy Christmas!
Tuesday 29 December. After six days of holiday time it’s the day to get back to the gym. It’s been such a different kind of Christmas. Normally we would have two Christmas days with all my Mum’s family and then all my Dad’s family, having sleep overs with cousins and there would be many of us. This year because it has been the coronavirus we’ve just spent Christmas as the five of us. Luckily we’ve had great winter beach walks and really cool sandboarding days. (I had to strap up my hand with a strong plastic bag!) It’s been fun and we are so lucky to have amazing beaches and countryside where we live.
Tues 29 December. Back to gym! My Mum has to help me put my hair in a ponytail as I can’t do it because of my hand. It’s been years since my Mum had to do that! Training 2-6pm I was quite excited to go back. It was a hard conditioning session. I felt so tired. I also accidentally hit my hand and thumb today which hurt.
Weds 30 Dec 10-2pm. It was a good day today.
Boris Johnson gave a Government announcement about Covid. It’s not good news. The situation is much worse. We are going into Tier 3 and most of the country is going into Tier 4 and then people have to stay at home. School isn’t going to start back as in school lessons until 18th Jan. We will have to do online learning for two weeks, and British Gymnastics has said that secondary school kids that aren’t going into school can’t go to gym. It’s not that great. That means more fitness and training at home for me! Oh well. We have to do what we can. I’ll be able to go back into the gym on 18 January, and hopefully my cast will be off by then.
31 December. It’s New Year’s Eve! Last day of 2020. We couldn’t spend it with our families or friends, but we still had fun, played games and did crazy singing and makeup at home.
I have so many lovely memories of 2020, but I think this is one of my favourite photos.
I think it is good to look back on my competition from March, which was quite a small competition but gave me a run up to the big English and British Championships (which were supposed to be in April but got cancelled) and to watch the videos of my pieces. Here’s my floor routine. It reminds me why I do what I do, and why it’s all worth the hard work and keeping moving forwards. Sometimes it’s hard to keep going but I still want to keep motivated as I love gymnastics.
Now I’m looking ahead to 2021. I think as a country we are still going to find things difficult for a while because of the virus spread but I am hopeful that things will get better and I’ll have gymnastics opportunities again this year. I’ll keep my mind on that!
I’ve been writing my blogs for 4 years now, which is crazy! Thank you for following me on my elite gymnastics journey.
Fliss x
Felicity Ayres 