At the end of last year I decided that it was time to move out of the athlete bubble (Clive U) and get a house. I moved in with James Bowness, Tommy Carroll, Ollie Crux and a girl not involved in athletics called Caragh. Though the house has its ups and downs, I feel it has been good for me to get away from the big brother house that is Clive U.
Having not moved forward on the track, I decided that it was time for a change. So at the end of another disappointing summer, I decided to move across to Craig Winrow’s group. When I first moved across to Craig’s group I was incredibly out shape, and rather than doing my usual thing of running myself into the ground until I broke. It was decided that I would gradually build up the intensity and volume of the training so that my body could adapt to it without falling apart. I have really enjoyed training with the new group, we have gained a lot of new fresher’s that have become great training partners, we work together a lot pushing each other along. I have not been ill since September, and touch wood I haven’t had any serious injuries other than minor niggles that I have been able to mother whilst still training.
As the winter went on, I slowly became stronger and faster, and competing in low key events such as park runs, I found myself making huge improvements over short periods of time. I recently competed in the southern indoors at lee valley park and though I am disappointed to have only managed 6th place in the final, I ran a PB of 3.56 in the heat and was very competitive in the final.
I have the BUCS cross country coming up next weekend, I will not be going out in Camden the night before this year. I look forward to getting involved and giving the youngsters hell!
