tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34169137618072488952024-03-05T06:46:53.041+00:00Rio 2016Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12217638515630941721noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-44529625244582705002016-03-23T21:15:00.000+00:002016-03-23T21:15:00.031+00:00From indoor to outdoorSunday marked the end of my indoor season. I competed in 5 competitions in the end, all of which taught me something and will help me prepare for the upcoming 100m races I have. My body has held up pretty well and I've managed to come through the last three months injury free, which is a really positive step. My body is slowly getting used to the training - the operative word being slowly. But I'm not complaining - every day feels like a step forward. I've managed to do dips and pull ups in the gym for the first time in 18 months without being in pain - win. I'm back under 87kg - win. My left leg is now as strong as my right leg again - BIG win. Taken in isolation, these are small things. But when added together, they amount to proper progress. It's this combination of small things that gives me hope.
The last race of the indoor season was the Middlesex County Championships, where the standard was pretty high. Watching back video footage of my race, I can see that my flexibility still needs some work, especially my in my hips and lower back. Equally, however, there were some good points - my shoulders were relaxed, I was driving with my arms and I didn't panic when I felt people move away from me.
I've now got two weeks to get my body in the shape I need to make me competitive over my preferred distance of 100m. Lots of stretching and gym work are on the cards, and the clocks going forward means I've got sunny evenings to look forward to on the track. It's hard to get that instant real time feedback in my sessions now that I'm not with my coach any more, and not having an elite athlete as a training partner means I'm not pitted against someone better than me whenever I train, so I don't learn as much. However, I was fortunate enough to learn so much from them both in the time we worked together as a group, and I still apply this every time I train. Without this bank of knowledge I think trying to make my comeback would have been much harder.
Looking at my times, I'm currently running at 95% of the speed that I used to. That might sound pretty close, but in a sport where a hundredth of a second is the difference between winning and losing, it's a long way away. If I can get to 98% of my previous speed by the end of August I'll be happy and I'll have a solid platform to build from through the long winter months.
I'll be updating again in a few weeks when I've done my first few outdoor races, hopefully to provide some good news. In the meantime, thanks for your continued support!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12217638515630941721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-77495206798787744302016-01-12T12:31:00.000+00:002016-01-12T12:33:25.015+00:00The comeback starts here ...Feels a bit strange starting this blog again, but I’m going to give it a go. This blog began back in 2012 when I decided to get back into my athletics and see how much progress I could make over a 4 year cycle, and how close I could get to the Olympics in Rio in 2016. A lot has happened since then. I spent two years training up to 3 hours a day, 6 days a week, and transformed my mind and body into that of a sprinter. I lived like a monk and made a number of sacrifices to try and get as close as possible to my dream. I made good progress, taking 0.8seconds off my 100m time and a massive 2.2seconds off my 200m time. Things were definitely going in the right direction. Then there was a bit of a hiccup; one car accident, a broken neck and collarbone, a shattered femur which required a titanium support which I’ll live with for the rest of my life, and 11 months of rehab.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp4l70u8-tAPLt1SSJqkqgNCzpI_O07x0un71MZFP9Ct4H_bpBC9wKGGaXOFurJo_mdJsGvVxvR2TIobWu1U66wS-y56QCselthD4qxBBUYmE6T3lFJpCcQQ4KeqKP64ooAb5rsxpSiUM/s1600/IMG_20150217_151824.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp4l70u8-tAPLt1SSJqkqgNCzpI_O07x0un71MZFP9Ct4H_bpBC9wKGGaXOFurJo_mdJsGvVxvR2TIobWu1U66wS-y56QCselthD4qxBBUYmE6T3lFJpCcQQ4KeqKP64ooAb5rsxpSiUM/s320/IMG_20150217_151824.jpg" /></a></div>
I still have regular trips to the physio and need massages to break down the extensive scar tissue. Through a lot of strengthening work in the gym, low impact recovery sessions on the bike and in the pool, and some pretty uncomfortable sessions on the foam roller and stretching, I’m got my body back to a decent shape (round is a shape, right?) I was told by the consultant at Coventry hospital that I’ll never be as fast as I was; that suffering an injury like this has massive repercussions for your power and explosiveness, and I should just be happy that my leg wasn’t amputated. Well, I’m OBVIOUSLY thankful that I’ve still got two legs, and that breaking my neck didn’t paralyse me, or even kill me. I’ll be forever grateful for that. But at the same time, I can still remember how I felt when he said those words, he seemed so certain. All I felt was pissed off; I was just thinking “you don’t know me; I can’t wait to come back here and prove you wrong.” Fast forward 12 months and here we are: January 2016, just seven months away from the Olympics. I know that getting there is as close to impossible as I’ll ever be willing to admit now; perhaps it always was. But I have to believe that I can get back to where I was before, at least. So the journey begins all over again.
I’ve lined up 5 competitions over the next 10 weeks, cut out the booze and sweet treats (the latter being much harder than the former!) and I’m going to try and get my body back to the point where I can perform at a level I feel I am competitive at a standard I feel happy with. And if I can get to being even 0.01s quicker than I was I will run back to that hospital and find that consultant! Here goes nothing …
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiejVXbZUXlA06-6oHLWMK4lHVNPfcXuFTtLr0utTLQOYDO77yf5SE2uIXVoyPckhJ7tYM5aFMBG3dym2T1L6U0WaeHyxZPA5Bk5tohKQfB9_v2OvJiahU4BsqygDexs-TjMX2M8XqbE4/s1600/IMG_20150525_202809.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiejVXbZUXlA06-6oHLWMK4lHVNPfcXuFTtLr0utTLQOYDO77yf5SE2uIXVoyPckhJ7tYM5aFMBG3dym2T1L6U0WaeHyxZPA5Bk5tohKQfB9_v2OvJiahU4BsqygDexs-TjMX2M8XqbE4/s320/IMG_20150525_202809.jpg" Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12217638515630941721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-2506511402017018452014-07-14T12:01:00.000+01:002014-07-14T12:01:53.585+01:00All in, or nothingI’ve now gone past the half-way point of my season, so it seems like a good time to reflect on where I am, and what progress has been made. It’s been an intense period of learning, with some real highs balanced out by some fairly extreme lows. My times have been coming down consistently over the course of the season, and I am able to replicate a level of performance which proves I have made some really good progress. The two big competitions that I had were something of a mixed bag. The first, the Middlesex County Championships (MCC) in May, didn’t go to plan. The conditions were absolutely horrendous, with a huge headwind, driving rain and low temperatures. I was also seeded into the fastest heat of the day, and was certainly given a harsh reality check by the experience. However, I tried to focus my frustration and disappointment and turn it into a positive, by using it as my motivation to increase the intensity of my training ever further. I had a month between the MCC and the South of England Championships (SEC) in June. Whilst I felt that my training was going really well, in the two open competitions I took part in I didn’t reach what I felt was an acceptable level of performance considering all my hard work. Consequently, with one week to go to the SEC, I assessed every aspect of my preparation, and decided that it was my diet that was letting me down. With a few tweaks to what I ate and when, I felt more energetic, and felt like my muscular endurance was better in training. The SEC ran over two days, with the 100m on the Saturday and the 200m on the Sunday. It was the top 4 into the semi-final for the 100m, and the top 3 for the 200m. I finished 5th in a new personal best in the 100, but despite running another personal best in the 200, finished last. The 200m was a pretty chastening experience, as I didn’t even feel remotely competitive. Without a competition for another month, I was left with the opportunity to really think about what I’m doing and what I’m seeking to achieve. In truth, in the darkest moments, I felt that I had nothing left to give, and that after committing so resolutely to something I care about for nearly 2 years, that I might be best served by stepping away from it all for the sake of my sanity. But truth be told, I think that was determined by my looking at how far I have to go, rather than how far I have already come. When I looked at my performances at the SEC in 2013, I had finished last in both my races, and in considerably slower times, so the improvement made was evident, and I also now have the confidence to know that I can produce my best when the pressure is on and it really matters. With 5 more competitions between now and the end of August, I have the opportunity to try and bring my times down even more, and finish the season on a real high by running in front of my family in Newcastle, who haven’t had the chance to see me run yet. I am also now the only member of my training group, after Montell decided to move on. I was sad to see her go, and will miss both the fun side to our sessions as well as the competitiveness that training with an elite athlete brought, but it does at least mean that the focus of every session is entirely on me now, and I’m optimistic that this extra attention will allow me to develop my technique even quicker. I guess one final thing I’d like to mention is a message I received from someone that I used to go to school with over Facebook the other day. They mentioned that they’d been keeping an eye on my progress, and hoped that I was still sticking to my dream. This message really touched me, and has provided me with an extra motivation for the next two months, so, thank you, sincerely. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12217638515630941721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-74218719896351720792014-04-15T12:30:00.001+01:002014-04-15T12:30:56.463+01:00An explosive startAfter picking up an injury just days after running a personal best over 60m at Newham, I've been through a few ups and downs over the past 2 months. I had to have extensive physio and a steroid injection to relieve the pain from a trapped nerve in my hip. Being off my feet for a week set me back quite a bit, and I had to work carefully with my coach to ensure that I trained appropriately so as not to aggravate the injury any further. One positive to take from the experience was, however, that it gave me the time and space to start to assimilate some of the information that I've been trying to take on board in the past 6 months or so. It's been a steep learning curve and requires so much focus and dedication to learning every day that it can be quite an exhausting process, especially when balanced with a demanding full time job. I try to constantly educate myself around what's required of an elite athlete, be that in terms of recovery, training, diet, technique; immersing myself has been an intense process but one that i'm really enjoying! Ultimately, though, the physio and my coach managed my rehab really well and I focused on strengthening key areas so that I'm more balanced (both literally and figuratively) and my training has improved as a result. I've been training at full intensity for around 3 weeks now, focusing predominantly on speed work rather than any heavy lifting or overloading myself. In testing, I've been getting quicker every session, and feel as though I'm becoming increasingly competitive within my training group. As a result, I decided to open my season at Mile End in an open meeting last night. I ran a personal best, which I was pleased about, but there were quite a few things that I didn't feel happy about so I'm not getting too excited yet. I'm only really interested in my times coming down, rather than where I come in races, and I know that I can execute my race much better than I did last night, so there should be plenty more to come on that front. Hopefully, by increasing my race experience over the course of this season, and then tailoring my training around what goes well / doesn't go well, I'll be in a vastly improved position come the end of this season. I'm still convinced that the key to my success lies in improving my start, as that gives me the platform to perform for the rest of the race, and increasing my explosiveness in this area is my main priority in the coming weeks. I've got a demanding number of competitions over the next 4 months, with the first big one being the Middlesex County Championships at the end of May, followed by the South of England Championships in July. If anyone fancies coming down to watch just let me know and I'll send over the details, would love to have your support!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12217638515630941721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-73406645736754017392014-01-20T16:27:00.001+00:002014-01-20T16:27:21.180+00:00That familiar feelingThis past weekend saw me compete for the first time this season at the Southern England Championships at Lee Valley. I’d picked up a minor injury a week before the big day, but after a good physio session I was feeling much better, and had a really positive final training session two days before the event.
The two weeks leading up to the day were quite intense, with some really difficult sessions focussing on very specific mechanical issues with my running. I try as hard as I can not to get frustrated when things aren’t going as I’d like, but am often my own harshest critic, and was close to letting this frustration get the better of me on a couple of occasions. I lost just over 4kg in those two weeks through a combination of training and stringently adhering to a diet high in protein and green vegetables and low in carbs. It quickly becomes very boring, but the discipline of it helps with the focus that’s necessary across the other factors that have a role in maximising my performance.
I ultimately finished 5th in my race at the Southern Championships, and looking back I feel quite disappointed with my overall performance. I’d had sufficient rest, eaten well, and was relaxed when it came to competing. However, I felt my performance lacked the explosiveness that I craved, and that it wasn’t a performance which was a reflection of the hard work and dedication that had gone into my preparation. I’m moving much better than I was last season, and now feel as though I exert less effort to move more quickly and more efficiently.
However, when I came to racing, whilst I was making the right movements, I never truly hit top gear, and it had the sensation of being more like a training run rather than potentially the biggest indoor competition of the season. Having been timed as being quicker in trainers in training than I was in spikes in competition, I know that there is enormous room for improvement. The top three from the final in the 60m are now all ranked in the top 20 in the world, so I at least know that the standard was sufficiently high to be a genuine barometer of my progress and a stark indication of how far I still need to go.
My pursuit for some financial support for everything through sponsorship has lead me to a couple of potential leads, but nothing really concrete yet. I’m optimistic that I can get something sorted this season to allow me to be more professional in my approach, chiefly around physiotherapy and massages to aid my recovery. Whilst I’m much improved in this area compared to this point a year ago, I’m still a long way away from the level achieved by the really elite athletes.
I’ll continue to learn from those around me as much as I can, and draw upon their greater experience to aid my own progress. As my training partner says: “training is the opposite of hoping”; I won’t hope for greater progress, but dedicate myself more fully to the certainty that I can achieve anything if I totally commit myself to my ambition.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12217638515630941721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-89548525444488225512013-11-05T11:27:00.001+00:002013-11-05T11:27:25.550+00:00Learning to 'live in uncomfortable'<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s been quite a while since my last post, and a lot of
water has passed under the bridge since then. Following a successful first
season, I took what I felt to be a well-earned break! After 10 months of being
more disciplined than I ever have been before, and for large periods of time
living like a monk, I was more than ready to let my hair down. Never have 30
days passed so quickly! After eating like a king and drinking like a fish,
book-ended by a stag do in Ibiza and a wedding in Italy, the first session back
was borderline inhumane. I’ve now been back in training for a month, and the intensity
is really starting to ramp up. The sessions are longer, harder, and more
focussed, than anything I’ve done before, and I walk away from each session
convinced it’s the hardest session I’ve ever done; that is, until the next one!
I think only now do I truly understand the demands of being an athlete, and
getting home and barely having the energy to get to the top of the stairs
before I crawl into bed is becoming a familiar sensation. What I’ve discovered
is that previously, too often I found a way to cheat, to make things that
little bit easier for myself, so that whilst I was still working hard, it wasn’t
quite the limit of my ability. No more! My coach told me that I needed to learn
to ‘live in uncomfortable’, that I’ll never find it easy, as it will always be
progressing to a higher standard and a more demanding schedule.
Philosophically, it’s quite a hard message to assimilate, to truly believe that
you’re ready to hurt that much for that long, and then go back and do it all
over again the next day. It means that I’m concentrating increasingly on
accepting the pain is going to come, and pushing through it. I’m fairly certain
that everyone has a mental or physical limit, but I wonder how many people ever
find it. I know I’m certainly not there yet; when doing six 150m runs last
week, I fell to my knees, seeing spots after doing the fifth run, convinced
that I couldn’t take another step. But, after barked encouragement/admonishment
from my coach, I was back up on my feet and finishing the last run, although
there was something of the outer body experience about it! I know that if I’d
been on my own, I would have stopped before that last run, and having someone
there to remind you what you said you wanted to achieve, and knowing what it is
you need to do to get there, is an enormous help. The indoor season starts
again exactly 2 months today, and I’m really looking forward to measuring the
improvements that I feel I’ve made so far this winter. By then I’m hoping to be
about 5kg lighter, and have a much more polished and fluid running style. I’ll
hopefully find the time for another update before then, but in the meantime,
the likelihood is I’ll be bent over, drenched in sweat, hopefully progressing
and living up to my potential. <o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12217638515630941721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-53326049946159163952013-07-15T13:48:00.000+01:002013-07-15T13:48:04.309+01:00Fallen IdolsIn light of the revelations surrounding Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell et al over the last 24 hours, I’ve reflected a lot on what drives people to take drugs and cheat. Ultimately, I think it can be boiled down into three main areas: greed, peer pressure and desperation. Obviously, if you are outperforming everyone else, you are going to be seen as an ideal candidate for a commercial sponsorship, and will be paid ever increasing amounts to appear at the most prestigious events. I don’t think it’s just the athletes themselves who are responsible in this instance though, but rather the sponsors too, who undoubtedly put pressure on the people they sponsor to perform by handing out huge performance related bonuses. If you know that you’ll get £100k for winning a race, the likelihood is that you’re going to do whatever you can to do so, including pushing the boundaries of legality. This desire to be the best can clearly overcome your rational, naturally competitive self, and drive you to the depths of performance enhancing drugs. In terms of peer pressure, if you see those around you taking drugs, and feel that you aren’t able to perform to the equivalent standard, then I can see how athletes could be tempted to try it themselves, especially if the athletes that they train with are managing to go undetected. This was the argument that Lance Armstrong put forward, and is one I have a really hard time accepting. People get into sport because they love it, and they enjoy being good at what they do. As soon as you feel that you have to do something illegal to ‘enjoy’ your sport, I think you’ve forgotten the reason you started doing it in the first place. In terms of desperation, I think that this is where Powell and Gay might fit in. I know that they have both released statements saying that they never willingly doped, but they ingested supplements that they didn’t know the details of, and they have to be held accountable for that. Both athletes have struggled with injuries over the past 12-18 months, so to see them make such scintillating comebacks in recent weeks was truly heartening. It seemed to demonstrate a great mental strength and belief that they could work hard and get back to the top of their profession. However, in light of the revelations, I can’t help but feel that the whole situation reeks of a slight desperation or helplessness. After being injured for so long, and not being able to reproduce what you know you were once capable of, I can see how people could waver. Yet individual events are renowned for having athletes capable of displaying phenomenal mental strength, as so much of what they do and achieve is a result of individual effort, from time spent alone, and a relentless focus on personal perfection. At the end of the day, every sport has people that dope, and it just happens to be the case that athletics, along with cycling, apply the most rigorous standards. It’s a shame that two of the fastest people that have ever lived have turned out to be cheats, but in the long term it’s in the best interests of the sport that they no longer compete, and that we know we are watching a true, honest and reliable show of dedication and elite performance, rather than there being a question mark over anyone.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcrqFoWV5BOshEtxGvJhybTVCqW5t98tBRnY5GpkVORVAYgVHbRHqO7qF18z987opVWRtNbNTAscP3QgOfLhwhMomxLmyFpOJcT_KbqEglfSljppA_r0u_qB7sa_KKi-SvkNXgMikwJz2Y/s1600/_68727236_tyson-gay-asafa-powell-getty2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcrqFoWV5BOshEtxGvJhybTVCqW5t98tBRnY5GpkVORVAYgVHbRHqO7qF18z987opVWRtNbNTAscP3QgOfLhwhMomxLmyFpOJcT_KbqEglfSljppA_r0u_qB7sa_KKi-SvkNXgMikwJz2Y/s320/_68727236_tyson-gay-asafa-powell-getty2.jpg" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-79794439597262877832013-07-07T23:24:00.001+01:002013-07-07T23:24:19.740+01:00Hamstrung by injuryIt's been an up and down few weeks, with my first real taste of injury since I started training seriously. Following a holiday, I competed the following day over 100m and 200m and began to feel some real tightness in my hamstring. I put the slower than usual performances down to the lack of training and decided to push on through the pain barrier a bit in the hope that my body would rapidly adapt to the intensity of the training again quickly, and that it'd prove to be nothing more than a niggle. However, after competing in an open meeting at Lee Valley, I began to realise that the injury was more serious than I initially feared. I didn't feel like I had the usual explosive power out of the blocks, and that my leg left wasn't in a fit state to properly drive me forward. In spite of this, the following weekend was the biggest competition of the season for me, the South East England Championships, and I didn't want to miss it. Following some intense stretching a number of hot baths and some industrial strength ibuprofen, I turned up in Watford hoping that my body held together. After a really good warm in my trainers, I wasn't in any discomfort, and believed that by some miracle turn of events that my hamstring had rapidly healed. However, as soon as I put my spikes on I began to realise that this was quite naive, and that I was seriously struggling. After limping through my 100m on the Saturday, I spent the afternoon and evening trying to patch myself together to get through my 200m the following day. This proved to be the straw that broke the camels back, and with around 50m to go my hamstring completely seized up. My momentum took me over the line, and I had to be helped off the track by St Johns ambulance, which was pretty hard to swallow! By some bizarre turn of events, the run actually turned out too be a new pb for my 200m, but I knew that I needed to have some physio and let it heal properly. After a week of no running, weights, stretches and a sports massage, I returned to training, and the hamstring felt strong again. During this time, I had agreed to work with a new coach in addition to what I was doing already. He works with elite athletes, including a couple of GB sprinters, and I'm feeling pretty lucky to have the chance to have someone give me such rapid, specific and high level feedback on my technique in training. I'm confident that this will help take me to the next level, and push me closer to my goal. Following my first session with him, I completed the week by training at my club as usual, and competed yesterday at the BOXD OFF international in Bromley. The weather was absolutely glorious, and I felt confident that it was a day for good times. Sadly, I had managed to get slightly lost on the way to the track, and so couldn't get in as thorough a warm up as I would normally like. This, coupled with a strong headwind, meant that my 100m time was far from my best, and I was dissatisfied with my race. However, the 200m offered me the opportunity to almost immediately atone for my performance, and thankfully I did, running a new pb and taking off a further 0.14s off my time. This means I've now taken over 2 seconds off my 200m time in 10 months, and this was one of my early season goals. I'm hopeful that I can continue to bring this time down even further between now and the end of the season, and that I'll be well set for when winter training starts again in 8 weeks. Between now and then I've 3 more races, including finishing my season in Liverpool, so I'll keep working hard and hope that I can go out on a high on my home turf. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-85454958148586283192013-04-28T10:50:00.001+01:002013-04-28T11:01:02.083+01:00Personal bestI've competed in 3 competitions since my last post, and I'm feeling pleased with my progress. In my race at Parliament Hill, I managed to finish 1st in my race in a new pb over 100m, which, considering that the weather was awful (driving rain, wind, freezing cold), felt like a decent achievement. Last Saturday I travelled over to Woodford in Essex to compete in a 200m race. The conditions were absolutely perfect and I felt like I'd prepared reasonably well for the event. I won the race in a new personal best, but still wasn't satisfied with my performance. I got out the blocks so well at the start that I'd almost passed the guy on the outside of me within 5 strides, and started to pull up, thinking I'd false started. It took another few strides to realise that I hadn't, and I had to accelerate all over again. It gave me confidence however, that if I can hold people off on the bend, I've got more than enough power to blow them away in the straight. All the work doing Olympic lifts feels as if its paying off as I feel much more explosive now, and as if I've got greater endurance too. The event yesterday out in Uxbridge was my first league meeting, when the entire club attends and competes over the full range of events. I ran in the 100m, where I finished third, beating my previous personal best, and won comfortably over 200m. The standard was as good as I've competed against so far, so I feel really pleased that I'm competitive even at this early stage of the season. It's been hard over the last couple of weeks to feel like I'm training properly of preparing as best as I can due to needing to travel quite a bit for work, so I'm constantly having to adapt my training around this. I've managed to arrange the use of a gym in Manchester thanks to a friend helping me out, and found a track that I can train at one night a week if I need to. It's been a difficult process, as after working so hard to get to where I am after 8 months, it feels like I'm putting further progress at risk, so I hope that I'm able to find a balance. In the meantime, I'm going to do everything I can to keep my times coming down, and hope that come the next time I compete on May 18th I'm in good shape and have plenty more top quality training under my belt. I'm looking to get another session or two with Rikki Fifton up at Lee Valley as I always feel like I push on really well after these. I feel pretty fortunate to be able to train with people like Rikki and Nathan (my coach) at London Heathside, as they are encouraging but push me hard in training to make sure I'm constantly improving. Over time, my times will start going down more slowly, and I'll be relying on their expertise to help me with increasingly technical improvements to make me a more complete sprinter. It's a challenge I'm already looking forward to. <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyWNLN3RQ7SAmUYa-Z6DVA-qUg7q6DV-Q3urT_H8t25tbOM_PGzcCexcJZx5yeVNHJNLQzykqSdQ_momvLaqBwJvcECb8NBD71Z9ACufiGb8XGn0QLWJ4JpQHPUZfCJnUBoD5A1c1gEmXw/s640/blogger-image--1369105530.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyWNLN3RQ7SAmUYa-Z6DVA-qUg7q6DV-Q3urT_H8t25tbOM_PGzcCexcJZx5yeVNHJNLQzykqSdQ_momvLaqBwJvcECb8NBD71Z9ACufiGb8XGn0QLWJ4JpQHPUZfCJnUBoD5A1c1gEmXw/s640/blogger-image--1369105530.jpg" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-10635872761845749362013-04-07T21:34:00.002+01:002013-04-07T21:34:51.273+01:00The great outdoorsFollowing the first national competition I took part in in Birmingham, I took what I felt was a well deserved week off after a pretty gruelling 3 months of preparation and competition. During this time I went to Manchester to see my friend Ben Cartwright who is a personal trainer and S&C coach to do a movement analysis which would allow me to understand any imbalances in my movements and build in exercises and some pre-hab work into my routine to correct any defects. I also did my first hot yoga session which was pretty interesting. I've now tried hatha, ashtanga and hot yoga, and I'm going to progressively increase the amount I do, as I find it really helps with my recovery as well as improving my flexibility and core strength. After returning to London, I picked up where I'd left off and started working hard again immediately. When I joined a new gym close to the office so that I could go before I started work, a free personal training session was thrown in, which I decided to take up first thing back to really get me going again. After the session in Manchester I was already feeling much more confident about my technique for my Olympic lifts, which I'd previously taught myself by watching YouTube videos. What I didn't count on was just how hard I would end up working, and after 1 and a half hours of intensive, explosive weight work I was well and truly shattered! Safe to say, the track session that evening wasn't the best I've ever done. After that initial shock, my body has (thankfully) quickly adapted to the training again, and I'm starting to feel pretty good. After training specifically for the 60m for 3 months, to get outside and start to do some proper speed work has been great, and I'm really looking forward to the coming months and (hopefully) watching my times come down. I've got about 12 competitions over the next 5 months, which is quite a lot, but I've discovered I prefer the rush of competing to simply working for ages and competing less frequently. It's a bigger mental ask this way, but I think in my first season back whilst I'm still learning so much it's probably the best way to get the requisite experience I'm going to need as I start to progress to higher standard competitions. My first race outdoors is on Wednesday at 7pm at Parliament Hill in Highgate and while I'm still short of 100% fit after my break, I'm looking forward to feeling that buzz and adrenaline rush from pitting myself against some seriously fast guys. When chatting to a friend the other day they asked if I get nervous before I race, but I honestly don't: if anything, I feel at my calmest when I'm in the blocks and about to start, as I know if I focus on executing the different parts of my race, that I'll be happy, regardless of what place I come. This season is all about times, not places, and I'm confident that my time is now.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-35402405361358157522013-03-18T13:30:00.002+00:002013-03-18T14:59:50.373+00:00Peaks and troughsSince the last entry, I've been building towards a competition on Sunday 24th March in Birmingham. This will be my first national competition and is a challenge I'm really relishing the thought of. I took my training up to twice a day for 2 weeks, and have slowly started tapering down now. This was a pretty exhausting period, both physically and mentally, and I have to say I'm glad to be coming out the other side of it. Getting up at the crack of dawn to get to the gym by 7.15am every morning to do weights or struggle through warrior pose in my yoga classes was one of the strongest tests of my commitment yet. I also ran in 2 competitions at Newham and Crystal Palace as warm ups for the Middlesex County Championships (MCC's) this last weekend. They provided a really good platform for measuring my improvement, and I'm now starting to see a real consistency to my times in all my races: the last 4 that I've run have seen a miniscule 0.02s cover the spread of performances. At the MCC's, I competed in the 200m on the Saturday and 60m on the Sunday. The standard across the two days gave me yet more evidence of the professionalism and commitment of athletes from across the country, and another indication of the standard that I need to achieve if I'm to reach my goals. Despite clocking a new pb in the 200m, shaving 1.69s off my previous best, I still came third in my heat and 6th overall, and missed out on a place in the final, which was the top 5 athletes competing. On the Sunday, I ran a decent race in the 60m but finished a disappointing last after being absolutely blown away in the fastest heat across the three county championships that were taking place on the day. Whilst I wasn't too disappointed with my own performance, I had been quietly hoping to run another personal best after my achievement the day before, and having missed it by 0.06s, still can't quite decide if I did myself justice. All in all, it has been a gruelling but successful few weeks, and I'm now confident that I'm starting to execute the different stages of my race more effectively. The competition in Birmingham on Sunday will see me compete in the 60m and the 100m for the first time, which means that I get to see where I'm at currently for what I consider to be 'my race'. I'm hoping to hit 10.75s for the 100m this season, and 23.0s for the 200m, and feel confident that I'm currently on track to achieve this. It's taken an astonishing amount of work to get this far, and it seems to be only the tip of the iceberg. I'll be taking a week off from training after Sunday before starting to prepare for the first big race of my outdoor season on April 27th in Uxbridge. If anyone is in London on April 10th or 13th, or in Oxford on the 24th, then drop me a line and I'll send you the details of where you can come to watch me race. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-13053512357290971442013-02-16T14:34:00.001+00:002013-02-16T14:34:14.355+00:00That winning feelingHaving now competed in 5 indoor competitions, I've got the luxury of a three week break before returning to the scene of my first victory in 3 weeks time. Getting that win has done wonders for my confidence, and means I'll be working even harder in training now in the hope of being able to keep bringing my time down. I've started filming my races so that I can analyse my performance afterwards and adjust my training to target the specific parts of my race where I feel I could have done better. Training before and after work again for the next few weeks will be tough after tapering my training down for the competitions, but if I can get under 7.5s this season I'll be pretty pleased and it'll all be worth it. The incorporation of a foam roller and theraband for stretching before and after races has definitely helped my recovery, and this coupled with not drinking and eating better (although still not perfectly!) means I can constantly feel my body adapting to the stresses and pressures of training. Having top international competitions on tv at the moment is great, as it provides a real time barometer for my own performance, and while I still obviously have a long way to go, I'm definitely gaining ground. I'm currently reading Usain Bolt's autobiography as well, and anyone who thinks he is a slacker is having a laugh! I'm hoping that by completely immersing myself in the psychology of what makes top athletes stand out and maintain dominance that I'll be able to adopt some of the same practices and that it'll help my performances improve. What strikes me most is the unwavering sense of self belief that the best sprinters have, and whilst I've never been short of self confidence, I think that the levels of surety that they demonstrate can only be achieved through winning and performing time and time again. With that in mind, I'm already looking forward to the 4 competitions I've got lined up for March. Here's to hoping that I can keep up this winning feeling myself. <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Wqh3beLdk7ypNSotUi5ga7mscr-0RbcOiVkC0pkdgSvFSLxr79meQSvd2a8jsMJIf2mSflCxi7Gwbvtw1MxJJqFGu-60FsrBuKeUDV4I4itSXfzh7XQeN2B7syryKgTNIUi8LDA2BX01/s640/blogger-image-1077953195.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Wqh3beLdk7ypNSotUi5ga7mscr-0RbcOiVkC0pkdgSvFSLxr79meQSvd2a8jsMJIf2mSflCxi7Gwbvtw1MxJJqFGu-60FsrBuKeUDV4I4itSXfzh7XQeN2B7syryKgTNIUi8LDA2BX01/s640/blogger-image-1077953195.jpg" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-49053914488477290252013-01-27T19:48:00.001+00:002013-01-27T19:48:06.886+00:00Competitive edgeThe competitions have started now and they're going to be coming thick and fast for the next two months. This past week I've competed at the Newham Indoor event and the London Indoor Games at Lee Valley. Both of these events have taught me a lot, and it's been a real eye opener to see the way in which so many athletes dedicate themselves and prepare for events. Having never competed at 60m before, it's a steep learning curve that I'm currently on, and there is plenty to take away from very aspect of the meet. As I've alluded to in previous posts, my start is the area of my race that needs the most work, and this has been brought to bear in both events so far. I've managed to make a steady improvement over the course of the two meets (0.03s reduction in my 60m time) which is pleasing, as the entire race is decided on such fine margins. I've got 5 more events around London and one in Birmingham over the next 7 weeks, so balancing my training with this is going to be essential. One thing I've noticed in particular is the condition the best guys are in. Despite losing a good bit of weight and toning up quite considerably, I still look and feel like a pudding next to the best sprinters. As such, I'm going to focus on stripping away the remaining fat so that I can be in the best possible shape for the 24th March when I compete in Birmingham. There is still a lot for me to learn in terms of technique, preparation, diet: basically every aspect of being a top athlete. Luckily, I'm hungry to learn and hopefully this appetite for improvement will stand me in good stead over the coming weeks and months. <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2mOXwabBiTG0ukvFsewq15LF_3OYFJ0A-KxX2YfB_cPuk73B0-gNaT_SbR46m4PbHYcGLAYxkCoUpKI8ZvFs92UYFifASh8_KbzbH6irvo0qLL0IH6MR-e6KftX9qIxSYatF6cBrpuWDF/s640/blogger-image--2062005457.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2mOXwabBiTG0ukvFsewq15LF_3OYFJ0A-KxX2YfB_cPuk73B0-gNaT_SbR46m4PbHYcGLAYxkCoUpKI8ZvFs92UYFifASh8_KbzbH6irvo0qLL0IH6MR-e6KftX9qIxSYatF6cBrpuWDF/s640/blogger-image--2062005457.jpg" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-50975914496714722122013-01-06T19:06:00.002+00:002013-01-06T19:06:57.515+00:00Down to businessAfter a 10 day rest over Christmas, I'm now fully back into the swing of training. The first session back was with Rikki Fifton up at Lee Valley, and it was gruelling; when it came to the plyometric exercises (bounding, jumping etc.) I was about as springy as a rhinoceros! We did some short sprints using block on Thursday which was really good, before doing endurance work in the form of 300m runs on Saturday and then an hour of core work with the medicine ball this morning.
The savage hills runs have come to an end (which is a blessing) and all the work will be track based now to ensure our speed and endurance is as good as possible for the start of the season.
I'm gong to really step up the training from now, upping it to 9 times a week for the next 2 weeks, as the following week sees me run in my first competition in the 60m indoor at Newham. I've got 8 indoor events between January 23rd and March 24th which should give me a pretty good indication of how much progress I've made whilst making it abundantly clear what I need to work on. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of running this distance as it's not one I've ever been timed at before, so the first time I do it I'm guaranteed a personal best!
There are also 5 outdoor events from April to August where I'm hoping to improve on my PB each time. I'm hoping that come August I'll be touching 10.75s and feeling fit. I'm down to 13st 10lb now, having started at 14st 4lb back in September, so I'm definitely getting there, but could probably still stand to lose another 4 or 5 pounds, which would see my power to weight ratio improve even further.
For now, I'm going to keep working hard and hope that I can reach the high standards that I've set for myself. It's far from easy but I'm really enjoying the hard work and dedication that it is requiring; fingers crossed the self discipline will be enough.
If anyone is around and would like to come and see me compete at any point just let me know and I'll give you the event details!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-72291732303382781802012-12-09T09:43:00.001+00:002012-12-10T08:58:05.057+00:00How bad do you want it?Training has really kicked on now, and I've completed three weeks of training 6 days a week. My body is adapting to the intensity of the training now, and after some much needed advice on my diet, I'm also eating much more nutritious food and feeling more energetic as a result. Allied with having stopped drinking alcohol almost three weeks ago, I'm becoming much healthier and if I can just phase out my desire to eat delicious cakes I'll really be flying! With the temperature dropping and the propensity for snow/ice to disrupt training, we've been doing a lot more gym and core work recently, which is proving to be really valuable. I've lost about 3 inches off my waist, and can feel my power to weight ratio increasing steadily. I also went up to Lee Valley on Wednesday and did a sprint circuit training session with Rikki Fifton, a British international sprinter. It was a really intense session, but he gave me some good tips on technique and running angles, which I'm hoping to build into my training more steadily. I've also signed up for 3 open invite indoor sessions between January to March. They are all over 60m, which I've never competed at before, so I'm pretty excited about gauging my improvement over the first half of my race, as this is where I feel I'm weakest. I've only got a few weeks to properly prepare for the first event, so will be really pushing on and working on the technical aspects of my start and drive phase in the run up to the New Year. January is going to see me increase the training to 9 times a week, before ultimately taking it up to 12 times a week towards the end of February. Balancing this with the demands of a full time job will be pretty exhausting, but I'm confident it can be done. Someone once said "most people don't run far enough on their first wind to realise they have a second". I've a feeling that come next April when the outdoor season starts, I'll be on my third or fourth. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-4152752229221752182012-11-25T15:11:00.000+00:002012-11-25T15:11:00.731+00:00The Power of 10There has been a bit of a lag in updating this due to my birthday last weekend, and a lot of training has taken place between the last update and now. This week was the first week I trained 6 times, having increased from 3 to 4 times last week. In addition, I've filled in and sent off a food diary to a friend who is a personal trainer, to get feedback and suggestions for how I can improve my diet. Nutrition is becoming increasingly important, as the step up in training means that I need to be getting the right fuel so I can recover quicker and train harder.
I'm starting to see the training I do as the equivalent of putting money away every month, with the competitions being the chance to cash in. I'm now officially a member of London Heathside athletics club, which means I'm eligible to compete from January in the indoor league, and then from April when the outdoor season starts. I've also signed up to a website called Power of 10, which allows you to track your performance over the course of a season, and ultimately between seasons.
We did our last 7x200m endurance session last week, switching to 150m, 300m, 450m, 300m, 150m session, which when done in trainers rather than spikes is pretty brutal. We are still doing the same shorter acceleration sessions on Thursdays, and I'm beginning to feel much more comfortable in these now which is pleasing. Whilst I'm far from technically perfect, I've come on leaps and bounds over the last 3 months, and I hope to continue on this upward trajectory over the next few weeks.
The weights sessions are already starting to pay off, as I feel like I'm exploding out of the blocks more, although my legs do feel noticeably more tired if I don't stretch properly. As a result, I'm going to start doing a session of pilates one morning a week, and hopefully try and get one sports massage a month to keep myself in the best shape possible.
In spite of the fact that I've upped the training to 6 days a week, I'm still not training at an Olympic level. I've been researching what other athletes do, and they generally train twice a day, 6 days a week. I don't think my body could handle that yet, as it is still adapting to the intensity of training that I'm doing, but I'm hopeful that come April I'll be in a position to step it up.
his is the best example I've found so far: http://www.harry-aa-official.com/library/client/documents/Training%20programs/GP%202009%20Block%203.pdf
I've also now set myself some intermediate goals, as although Rio is my ultimate target, there are other things I feel I need to aim for in the meantime to build up to that level of performance. As such, this season I'm aiming to set a new personal best and a new club record for London Heathside, whilst hitting the 10.75s mark, which would put me in the 'Target 100' group of UK Athletics. In 2014 there are the Commonwealth Games, which come just a couple of weeks before the European Championships, which a lot of elite athletes prefer to focus on, meaning that the door could open for someone like myself. 2015 is the World Championships in Beijing, before the April - August period of 2016 when the Olympic squad will be finalised. A long way to go between now and then, but I'm genuinely excited at what might lie ahead.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-7922995676484621492012-11-12T08:32:00.001+00:002012-11-12T08:32:16.661+00:00MotivationIt's been another gruelling week of training, but one where I feel like I've turned a bit of a corner. I cut out drinking almost entirely 2 weeks ago now, and I'm already feeling the positive benefit on my fitness. On Tuesday night, we did 7x200m sprints, which to date had been a recurring session of exquisite agony. This week, however, felt much easier, and I was able to push myself harder and faster than previous sessions. Thursday saw us focus on our starts again, and the acceleration phase of the race, with us doing 3x30m, 3x40m, 3x50m and 2x60m sprints. While this is still the weakest part of my race, it's an area I'm seeing rapid improvement in, most probably due to the distinct lack of quality I was demonstrating 9 weeks ago. Yesterday's session was meant to be 'light', which was a little misleading. We did circuit training, including press ups, sit ups, squats, single leg squats, and hyper extensions. We did 20 reps of each exercise with a 30 second rest, before repeating. This was then repeated in its entirety, before we did 8x80m sprints. Safe to say I was absolutely shattered by the end. <br />
<br />
Over the past week or two, I've started to do a lot of reading around motivation and sports psychology in an attempt to learn what separates the very best from the also-rans. There are some really fascinating examples of people overcoming adversity or people having no faith in their ability, and them going on to achieve great things. <br />
<br />
I think I'm both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. I think the majority of my motivation comes from my belief that I can do it. But, there are also two things people have said to me in the past which are always in the back of my mind. One is a family friend saying to me, as a 16 year old "you'll never be the athlete your Dad was"; the other, was when I was 20, and when I said I wanted to play professional football, replied "you'll never make it, no chance". While the second person was proved to be right, it was the instant dismissal that I recall so vividly, and that definitely focuses my mind when I'm feeling tired or lethargic at training. <br />
<br />
I read a quote from Michael Jordan this week, which was "I can deal with failure, everyone fails; it's not trying hard enough that I couldn't live with". And that's where I find myself: working hard, and determined to find out what I'm truly capable of. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-59132100739112274732012-11-04T16:26:00.001+00:002012-11-04T16:26:33.868+00:00Picking up the paceIt's been a difficult week in training, as we have predominantly focussed on the weakest part of my race: my start. On Tuesday, it was 8x60m sprints, focussing on getting to the end of the acceleration phase and into the drive. For whatever reason, I've never been particularly strong over the first 30m of a sprint, coming into my own in the second part of the race. Lining up against people who excel over 60m, consequently, was a challenge, both physically and mentally. There is always a fair bit of banter flying around in training and I guess I'm trying to make sure I remember to break down my race into its parts, rather than panicking if someone gets out faster than me and almost bypassing the acceleration phase of the race by getting upright too soon.
Thursday was another session which predominantly focussed on the early stages of a race, with the session including 3x30m, 3x40m, 3x50m, 2x60m and 2x80m. With minimal rest in between each run, it was a really tough session which was almost entirely anaerobic. By the end my frustration was starting to get the better of me, in part due to exhaustion and also due to being frustrated that my body seemed to be unwilling to do what my mind told it to. My coach was encouraging though, and said my technique was improving quickly, which was something to cling on to.
On Friday night, I watched documentary called Personal Best which tracked the careers of 3 British sprinters in the run up to this summer's Olympics. Watching them go through hell, training until they nearly collapsed, pushing their bodies to the absolute physical limit, was in equal measure inspiring and daunting. It certainly painted a rich picture of just how hard they're willing to work, and reminded me I've got a long way to go if I'm going to achieve my goal of going to Rio.
The session this morning was really good, exclusively working on our core with a range of medicine ball exercises for over an hour. I still need to shift about half a stone, and this, along with the weights sessions which will start this coming week, will help me achieve that. I've been pestering the coach to give me the weights routine for a while as I want to get a head start on everyone else, who won't be starting for another few weeks yet. So, starting this week, I'll be doing the following sessions:
Session 1:
Bench Press – 3x12
Squats – 3x12
Clean & Jerk – 3x12
(all at 50% of bodyweight)
Upright rows – 3x10
Pull overs – 3x10
Single leg hip raises – 3x10
Eccentric calf raises – 3x20
Sit ups – 3x20.
Session 2:
Bench Press – 3x12
Overhead squats – 3x12
Snatch pulls – 3x12
(all at 50% of bodyweight)
Seated dumbbell press – 3x10
Pull overs – 3x10
Single leg hip raises – 3x10
Eccentric calf raises – 3x20
Sit ups – 3x20.
I've got to do these for the next 4 weeks, before increasing the weight for the first three exercises of these sessions to 60% of my bodyweight, ultimately building up to 92.5% of bodyweight after 16 weeks. I have a feeling that I'm about to find out just how tough it's going to be to get to the top.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416913761807248895.post-46221941194685237672012-10-31T12:08:00.004+00:002012-10-31T20:38:49.488+00:00And so it begins ...As some of you may already know, I'm hoping to run in the 100m final in Rio in 2016. There were a number of factors that led me to this point, but it was chiefly borne out of frustration at my inability to get a ticket to the 100m final for the Olympics this summer. I appreciate that it seems unlikely, and frankly I'm not particularly surprised that most people's first reaction when I tell them is to laugh. Personally, I've got an unshakeable belief that I'll manage it. If I don't believe I'm going to do it, how can I expect anyone else to? Either way, I thought I'd write a blog of my experience of training, competing and hopefully success over the next four years.I started training again at the beginning of August with London Heathside at Finsbury Park. I'd not done any serious athletics training for 8 years, so was prepared for the worst. Buoyed by my unexpected 2nd place finish in a 200m race the week before, where I thought I was going to train but accidentally turned up to a comp, meant that my spirits were slightly buoyed, but I was determined to be pragmatic about how difficult this could be. This definitely turned out to be the right decision; after years of playing football, my technique was atrocious and I was relying entirely on natural pace. Judging by the rest of the people I'm training with, I'm alone in this - they'd just come off the back of a full season and appeared to be absolutely flying. After a gruelling first session, I woke up the next day and could barely walk as my calves were so painful. A sign of things to come ...Over the past 8 weeks, I've been training 3 times a week, for an hour and a half at a time. There are some pretty rapid individuals that I train with, and this along with the fact that my coach competed in the UK youth games when he was younger, and has been having coaching training from an Olympic coach, has meant my motivation levels have gone through the roof. After adjusting to the hill runs, anaerobic workouts, speed endurance and intensive technique building, I'm finally starting to feel like I'm getting somewhere. We did our season base lining the other week, and I ran 12.07 for the 100m. The coach thinks with continued conditioning and training, by the time the indoor season arrives in the new year, I'll have taken a second off this time. Personally, I'm hoping for more. I've broken 11 seconds in the past, and if I get my technique, and hopefully my start, right, I'm hoping to hit 10.7 this season.The Olympic qualifying time is 10.23 seconds (I think), so ultimately that's the first aim. If I can hit that time by the 2014 season, I'll be well on my way. However, just reaching that time doesn't guarantee selection, as there are some really talented sprinters out there already: Adam Gemili, Mark Lewis-Francis, Simeon Williamson, and Craig Pickering to name but a few. Also, if I'm going to be competing in the 100m final, I'm going to need to be going sub-10 seconds. Right now, this seems a long way away, but I'm confident that with the right coaching, and if I make the necessary lifestyle choices, that it's achievable. It's a lot of pressure that I've put on myself, both internally, and externally by telling people that this is what I'm aiming for. I'm only doing this for myself, but at the same time I'm aware of the need to be able to back up what I'm saying I'll do.There'll be updates intermittently as to how training and race preparation is coming along. Already looking forward to the next update!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0