Thursday 20 January 2011

the beginning

This is my first blog so I will begin with a small introduction. I am the oldest athlete from a strong and upcoming group of runners coached by Tim and Pauline Ash based in Norwich, in the East of England. I am very proud to be a part of that group, and I expect that over time we will continue to grow stronger. 
I am currently studying at St Mary’s university in Twickenham, and spend my time training with the group coached by Mick Woods, Mick has a good relationship with my coach in Norwich and watches over myself and the other Norwich athletes whilst we are at St Mary’s setting our sessions and helping out wherever possible. I am sure most people are aware of the strength of the athletes based at St Mary’s both in Mick’s and Craig’s training groups.
Before coming to St Mary’s I considered myself to be an 800m athlete, and through the years I progressed at quite a fast rate; within 5 years I moved from a time of 2.11 to 1.51, but I grew stale and in the seasons following that summer whenever I had finally got my body into PB shape it broke down before I had the opportunity to perform at the same level.
Since my arrival at St Mary’s, my stamina base has grown & I have toyed with the longer distances, moving forwards from a PB of 33.10 to 31:50 over 10km. And managing a 77th placing at the senior inter-counties when I had never even managed to finish in the top 100 as a junior athlete. I am currently on the comeback from a torn calf muscle which has troubled me since the national 6 stage road relays in early October. In order to maintain the fitness I had gained prior to my injury I have had no choice but to get in the pool.  When I got back home for the Christmas break I was fortunate enough to have a friend who owned a cross trainer, I went to his house to train on it every other day in between my runs to allow me to maintain my fitness levels. This has allowed me to recover from my injury and now I am near enough back into full training.
My current goal is to hit the next couple of weeks very hard, putting my body on the line and making sure I am in shape to be of use to St Mary’s when we head out to Birmingham for the BUCS cross country championships in early February.