Making sacrfices

The year seems to be flying before my eyes so quickly my head is spinning.
The past month I made a commitment to push myself hard through our pre season training, aiming for 5 Taekwondo sessions and two gym sessions a week. The first week is always the hardest then it just becomes a routine and you eventually get used to the aches and pains.

I have a number of reasons for this high level of motivation the most significant being that the Para World Championships will be on again mid next year. Though a date hasn't been set yet, I'm expecting it will be around a similar time to the last two competitions which will be in June. That gives me approximately 6 months to prepare and I cant seem to get that out of my mind.

So my training right now is on pre season which for us means building our strength and fitness. Lots of high intensity cardio drills, foot work and combination kicks. Because the rules are different in the Para championships, most importantly NO head kicks, I am already consciously aiming to just score on the body. This is definitely not my preference because it reduces the areas you can attack and score on your opponent (ie no 3 or 4 point head kicks!!) and I believe this disadvantages me more so because I feel it is one of my strengths.
Unfortunately those are the current rules so I must adjust to suit. But in that lies an opportunity for me to develop two techniques which I have not used of late. 1. turn back kick and 2. turning round house kick.

Is it to early to be thinking so far ahead? That I am unsure of though what I am sure of is the time will fly. On the 3rd December I will be leaving to travel the USA for 3 weeks, then it will be Christmas and the holiday break from training. By the time we get back I will have maybe 1 months training and then I have to go back to China for work. Im expecting to be back early in March but one thing I've learnt from my employment is nothing ever seems to run on time!

So I have plenty of motivation and drive at present and part of that comes from knowing that soon I can take a break when I travel over seas. When you think of it like that, train really hard for 1-2 months then reward yourself with a holiday it makes it easier to make those sacrifices now. That and of course because I want to defend my title!