Nike Grand Prix, Manchester

It’s great this summer (is that what they call it!?) to have the qualifying times to enter these Grand Prix meetings for the entirety of the season, as last year I only dipped under the four minute barrier by July. The first of five endurance Grand Prix’s was held at SportCity in Manchester, in the grounds of the home of Manchester City. Sadly the atmosphere wasn’t quite at the levels of last Sunday in the Etihad Stadium; but nevertheless there was an evening of top endurances races on show over 800m, 1500m and 5000m.

Training building up to the race has been solid, although I have only really had a four day period once recovered from BUCS to really put some quality work in before tapering down. This included a 10 min tempo and 6 x 1 min Hill Sprints, and also a shorter session Tuesday 800,400,200 x2 to try and replicate race pace off of more substantial recoveries than usual. I then had a few easier days leading up to Saturday night.

The perfect inspiration for a fast time was witnessing the A elite 1500m prior to warming up. This was won comprehensively by Ross Murray, who smashed the Grand Prix record with 3:36.6 and an Olympic B standard with a 56 last lap from the Geordie!!

Settling into the group (© Darkstar Photography)

My heat was paced to 2:01 (60.5 per lap) through 800m and I tried to sit in the group and not chase the pacemaker too much. This worked well for me as I felt really smooth and controlled, but the gap to the pacemaker was bigger than I wanted and we went through in around 2:04, a little adrift of the set pace. From the bell I tried to hold my position as much as I could, but felt like i’d lost concentration from 400 to 150 to go. I did though, manage to find a little kick over the last 80m to move from 6th into second place, and to run a solid PB by 2.02 seconds of 3:52.20.

A link to the video of the race can be seen here - http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/249346-2012-British-Milers-Club-Manchester-Grand-Prix/video/635736-1500m-E-mens

Driving for home (© Darkstar Photography)

I felt before (and how training has been), I was on for a quicker time but the race wasn’t quite as quick as expected and the conditions were blustery and cold, far from ideal for fast times. I cannot be too despondent though, as in May last year, my PB over 1500m was 4:09!

Finding a little bit more! (© Darkstar Photography)

Another real solid step in the right direction towards some bigger times this season. I am on the track again in seven days time, making my debut over 5000m in the British Athletics League.

BUCS Championships, The Olympic Stadium

The thought of racing in the Olympic Stadium last summer was always something to aim at on the calendar, and the experience was something that will sit highly in my short Athletics career. Training and build up to the British University and College Championships has been positive, and after a couple of decent track workouts I knew I had given myself the best chance possible to go and compete with the best in the nation. It was a shame that such a prestigious championship is the first race of the season for many, and I think most would have liked a couple more weeks to have been fully prepared!

The Olympic Stadium under lights

The 1500m heats were held at 11am on the Saturday morning (the earliest track race i’ve ever done!!), so I travelled to London on the Friday night to get a little jog in and rest up for the next morning. The procedure from arriving at Olympic Park to standing on the start line was completely different to I have experienced before, and new for the majority of athletes competing too. On arrival we had to pass through ‘airport style’ security to enter Olympic Park and then a 15 minute walk across the park to reach the warm up track. This 400m, eight lane track, with throwing, jumping and hurdling facilities, is situated a 10 minute (one minute in a golf buggy when the Olympics swing round) walk from the stadium, where we had to walk up to compete. The draw of heats was announced an hour before the start of the first heat, meaning if you were in the first heat you would have 15 minutes to be warmed up, and ready to race.  Luckily I was drawn in heat three and had time to prepare.

The ‘walk of silence’ tunnel from the warm up track to the under reaches of the Olympic Stadium

The first call room on the warm up track you had to enter 45 minutes prior to the start of your event. Everything you have with you had to be checked and verified by the officials. Once this process was complete you took on the ‘walk of silence’. This was down the tunnel which took you underneath the stadium to a second call room and 80m straight to put together your final preparations for the race. This room seemed to have been completely sound proofed, and you could hear a pin drop! This will be very surreal come the Olympics when athletes will be stepping out in front of 80,000 spectators from this room.

The final (sound proof) warm-up area under the stadium

The slow opening pace kept the group tightly packed for the majority of the heat.  (courtesy of ©AEphotos.co.uk)

Once the final checks and numbers had been pinned, each athlete was assigned a ‘mascot’ with a box, who would walk out behind you to leave you kit with whilst the race was on.

My heat did have a large range of PB’s (from 3:43 to 4.45) so I really didn’t know what to expect from the gun. Nobody really had the courage (don’t blame them) to take it on in the opening 800m, and we crawled through in 2:23. The race did then start to open up from the bell and the numbers did start to dwindle into the last 400m. I let a group of three ahead of me make a few metres, but just focussed on kicking away in the last 150m, as I knew the pace was there to use. Luckily this worked to my advance and I came through comfortable in 2nd out of the 15 finishers in 4.05. Albeit a very slow time, the final lap worked out to be 56 seconds and comfortably through to the semi-finals.

Relief… through the heats comfortably (courtesy of ©AEphotos.co.uk)

Cold conditions greeted athletes throughout the weekend, and this was very much the same on semi-finals day. I was drawn in the first of two semi-finals, and focussed on enjoying being part of the top 24 of the nations 1500m runners. The opening pace was again through in a fairly pedestrian 68, but after 600m the pace began to explode. The leaders took the last 800m through in 1:54, which was an astronomical change of pace, and something i’ve never really experienced  in a race before. I ended up in 9th, in 3.58 which was a little frustrating but certainly something to build on in my next few years at University. I now know what to expect at Championship races, and look forward to my next go at working through the rounds.

I have now taken a few easy days, before a session Saturday, and a part ‘tune up’ session on Tuesday night. My next race will also be over 1500m, at the Nike British Grand Prix in SportCity, Manchester where I will hopefully be placed in a good quality race to work towards a new personal best over the distance.

Track Preparation

After having a week of easy running following the Home Countries International where I knew I wasn’t fully over my chest infection that messed with the final few weeks of the winter season I felt healthy and ready to start building up towards the track season.

My first week back to proper training started well with a decent 50 minute run (with 10 x 1 min sprints in) and mile reps which were all at a decent level, despite having a month or so of disrupted training. It came to my Saturday session where I was jogging down to the park when I turned my ankle awkwardly coming off a kerb. It didn’t seem too bad initially, but walked back and iced it up.

The next morning it has ballooned up very black and meant I wouldn’t be able to run on it for some time. After a weekend of letting the pain and bruising settle, I made my debut aqua jogging in the pool. It is an excellent workout, which takes the weight and impact off your legs, but you seem to still get the same intensity of workout you’d expect on land. The speed you actually move in the pool is sluggish, and at times I was flat out to try and keep up with elderly swimmers paddling around! The aqua jogging lasted eight days, and twice a day for four of the days, until the physiotherapist finally gave me the all clear to start training again.

A flotation belt used to Aqua Jog.

I eased back into my training on land, by having four days of just easy running twice a day, also to just try and build a little endurance base. I then spent a week away in Portugal on training camp, which was the perfect way to focus on everything with no distractions or commitments. Our group back home in Bristol have come to the same sports resort in the Algarve for the past few years, just due to the accessibility of everything (track, cross-country course, gym, swimming pool) within a five minute walk, and the weather ain’t too bad either! It was great to be in a resort surrounded by performance athletes from across Europe.

The Algarve coastline made a welcome sight to wake up to!

The hours spent out on your own can sometimes become a bit monotonous, so it’s great to be in an environment where everyone is working towards a similar goal. The added bonus from a student perspective was all you could eat food in the resort, can’t beat that! My first session on land, since I believe early March was 800’s and 600’s on the track. I was expecting much worse than 2.17, 2.15 and 2.14 for the 8’s, which actually felt pretty smooth. I’m not sure what the 6’s were at, but they were much swifter than the 800’s. I then did a steady run on the Thursday, which was 30 minutes at 5:20 pace with 10 minutes easy either side of it and 9 x 30 second hills afterwards.

The cross-country course used for World and European Championships in years gone by was barely five minutes away and provided a perfect easy running venue.

I returned from Portugal to a weekend sprint hills session and a long run before heading back to University. It had been my first full 70 mile week (11 runs/session), with two sessions and a threshold for over a month, and hopefully this consistently can continue throughout the year.

This week has again been a resounding success, with a 600/300m session, ran at 1500m pace, and then same short sprints afterwards. Thursday was a bit of tempo work, and just some strides to get ready for my first outing on the track this weekend.

The preparation for this track season has been slightly disjointed, but hopefully the successes of the winter and the solid endurance base i’ve built should come in handy. I’m heading to Reading tomorrow, to race for my University in a varsity against Reading over 1500m, a perfect little tester for how everything’s going.

Winter Season Review Part 2

The ‘business’ half of the winter is what the first half of the season builds up towards, and includes the majority of the winters Championships.

I started 2012 with a 3000m indoors, as a bit of a fitness test and some sharpness.

8th Jan - Cardiff Indoor Grand Prix 3000m – 8:53, 2nd/10 – This was a tough test, running pretty much 14 of the 15 laps by myself. I didn’t feel like I could get moving as freely and fast as expected, but in early January things could be much worse. Less than 6 months ago this would have been a PB by over 20 seconds, so I can’t be too displeased, back to the cross-country!

28th Jan – Midland Cross-Country Championships – 6th/62 – Nottingham’s Wollaton Park was an ideal location for The Midlands, and I was delighted with my first top 10 placing at this Championship. I went through some rough patches through the race but came on strong in the last of three laps, and was under 5 seconds off 4th and 5th in a blanket finish. We also easily took the team title with 4 inside the top 20. My best day on the mud and hills!

4th Feb – BUCS Cross-Country Championships – 25th/318 – With this being my first British Universities Championships I wasn’t really expecting much, and didn’t go into the race with any specific aims. I was surprised to find myself inside the top 20 feeling relaxed and controlled on the first of four laps of a snowy and frozen Bute Park in Cardiff. I drifted slightly but it was a pleasing start to uni cross-country with Oxford Brookes and a position to build on next year. Time’s are never normally spoken about in cross-country, but with athletes Garmin’s showing the course at very near to 10km, I was surprised with 31:55!

A snowy start to the BUCS Championships

9th Feb – Armagh International 5km – 22nd/68 14:42 – Quite frankly one of the best races on the UK circuit. The hospitality, quality and environment this road 5km is held is special and I strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a fast elite 5km. The course is five 1km laps of ‘The Mall’ in Armagh and I’ve never felt so good going through 3km in just over 8:40, surprisingly quicker than my indoors run four weeks prior. I moved through nicely and also pulled out a strong finish to run another massive PB and my first sub-15 clocking. Such is the quality of this event, last place out of 68 finishers ran 16:30!

25th Feb – National Cross-Country Championships – 16th/196 – The ‘blue ribbon’ event of the season, The Nationals brings together every club in England, this year held on London’s Parliament Hill in Hampsted Heath. The race starts up the traditional long, steep climb and feeling good off the top of their, I knew things were going to go well. I felt good around the 10km course and finished strongly to hold onto 16th, to finish off the domestic season on the country strongly.

'The National' start at Parliament Hills

18th Mar – Home Countries International – 26th/32 – Selection for this race was in the back of my mind at The Nationals, so I was delighted to get the call to run for the Midlands after the race in London. Unfortunately preparation for the race was not ideal and I felt out of energy and sharpness pretty much from the word go. I took 4 days after the Nationals which was planned, but then fell ill with a virus and chest infection, meaning I only had one real week of training before this. Looking back I probably shouldn’t have raced, but it was a nice way to bow out of the Under-20 age group and it only spurs me on to get into representative races in the future and show my true ability.

A pleasing winter where I’ve moved forward on all terrains and surfaces – time for some track!!

Winter Season Review Part 1

I thought I should have a little look back at this winter and how it has progressed. It has by far exceeded expectations, and hopefully the strength and endurance built up can help towards the track this summer. I have found being at University ideal for training hard; giving me the time and space I’ve needed. Also to have time to do the little things like eat healthily, stretch properly etc. that hopefully (or I like to think so) help towards progression.

Also the group I have linked up with at Oxford University a number of times a week for sessions and steady runs have a wealth of ability, boasting an endless list of regional and national vests amongst them, I was lucky enough to work with such a great group through the winter months.

The season starting way back in the sun of Sutton Coldfield in September…

24th Sep - Midland Road Relays – Leg 1, 5th/102 – This was to be my final race for Westbury Harriers, after an amazing nine years with the club. I felt in great shape through September and was itching to get a race under my belt after some real quality sessions. After my first week of University I was a bit sceptical with how things would go, but ran 18.08 for the 5.8k course, smashing over a minute off times previous for the course, an ideal start! Our team ended up 9th, out of 70+. A great performance.

9th Oct – Gwent League – 2nd/52 – My first cross-country was held in the mud and rain of Newbridge Field, Bridgend, and my first taste of being at the front of a very decent standard race. I tried to settle as much as possible in a group, aiming to kick away in the final twists and turns on the smaller lap. I didn’t quite save enough for the final 200m, and ended up 2nd, but was pleased with my first one, always learning!

5th Nov - English National Cross-Country Relays – 4th/55 – This was to be my first taste of team competition with Bristol & West. I had done real good chunks of endurance leading up to the relays, and found the ultra-fast 3km loop a real shock to the legs. I was moving well in the opening half, but couldn’t hold onto the quality until the end. Nevertheless I was pleased with 9.17 over 3km of mud and hills, and Charlie clawed us back to 4th with a blistering run. Maybe an idea next year to put some quicker stuff in to deal with the shortness of this race.

13th Nov – UK Cross Challenge – 7th/24 – It was great to have a premier UK cross-country even in my own City. Was pleased with the outcome on a really tough course in Ashton Court. The grass was very long and the hills were even longer, finished strongly though and held onto 7th, another massive step on the uneven surfaces.

26th Nov – European Trials – 34th/110 – It was a bit frustrating starting my first week of full time Christmas work, and juggled uni work the week before this, so was pretty shattered going into the race. I couldn’t get my legs going as well as i’d have liked, but a run I would have been delighted with a year ago. A fairly solid run on the flat but heavy going in Liverpool.

26th Dec – Clevedon Boxing Day – 5th/757 – I had a little scare a week before this one, tweaking an ankle ligament, but with strapping on it held up fine. Delighted with 5th in a fairly big race and a sub-20 minutes clocking for 4 miles.

31st Dec – Nos Galan 5km – 17th/152 – It’s becoming tradition to ring in the new year with this elite 5km. Annoyingly the conditions weren’t ideal, with wind and rain providing tough going throughout. Although I was pleased with a two  second PB of 15:21 on a tricky lapped course.

Home Countries Cross-Country International

The Home Countries brings together the best four runners from each region (North, Midlands, South) in England and nationals teams from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. I was hugely grateful to be part of this event, and it’s an ideal end to a great season.

Preparation the last three weeks has unfortunately not been ideal, which has been frustrating considering how successful the season has been thus far. The training diary for the last 21 days looks a bit like this -

• 26th Feb – 1st Mar – Planned Rest Period
• 2nd Mar – 40 Easy
• 3rd Mar – half a tempo session, felt awful, stopped early.
• 4th Mar – 10th Mar – Chest Infection/Cold – Completely Rested.
• 11th Mar – 40 Easy
• 12th Mar – am 30 Easy / pm 30 Steady
• 13th Mar – 50 Easy
• 14th Mar - 6 x 2 mins – felt rough running at pace / 30 Easy pm
• 15th Mar – 40 Easy
• 16th Mar – 30 Easy + Strides
• 17th Mar – 15 Easy
• 18th Mar – RACE – Home Countries

We set out on Saturday morning from Birmingham with the Midland Counties team, for the long bus journey to Glasgow, which took the best part of seven hours. Luckily we had a really great team camaraderie and spirit, so the journey didn’t seem half as long as it probably should have. The race itself was the following morning at 10.30am, I believe this could be the earliest I have ever raced before! We managed a short jog around the course the evening before, with the going very soft and boggy, a bit of a change to the dry courses we’ve been greeted with nearly all season.

I felt good warming up, and was looking forward to being confident going with the pace early on and just seeing what happens. It was a shame this never materialised, and 2-3 minutes into the race, I could tell things weren’t right, and I just couldn’t get my foot pace moving well. It was a real slog from start to finish, to get around the 7.1km course and I reached the finish in almost 25 minutes, a poor run. Our team however won a silver medal, beating the likes of Wales and Scotland, which was a fantastic achievement, and shows the strength and depth the Midlands region currently has.

I fully appreciate and am grateful for the last twelve months, and to even be on the start line in Glasgow over a year ago would have been a silly pipe-dream. I think having a bad run can sometimes be a good thing, helping to spur yourself on to better quality training, and better races in the future. It is very easy to take a detrimental approach to a poor race, but I’m only interested in taking the positives.

As the winter season comes to a close, I will write a mini review in the next few days of how the season has gone. I am now taking a few easy days, before starting to prepare fully for the track season.

International Cross-Country Selection

Today I got the call to race in the Home Countries Cross-Country International, which this year will be held in Glasgow on the 18th March. The event is between North England v. Midlands v. South England v. Wales v. Scotland v. Northern Ireland, and I guess brings together the best four athletes from each area/country.

My progression on the track and road is something that I think has been coming for some time, but my development over the cross-country has been really pleasing and this should round off a largely successful season.

English National Review

The ‘Nationals’ is seen to be the pinnacle of most teams and individuals winter season(s), and there is no better venue than the apparent traditional home of cross-country running, Parliament Hills Fields in London.

We were greeted by perfect sunshine and balmy temperatures in the capital for the afternoons proceedings. I haven’t done an English National for the last few years, and I really did miss the camaraderie and uniqueness that comes with every club in the country coming together to compete.

Build up to the nationals has been great, but not without its problems. The week before I managed to get 75 miles in, which felt really strong and my ankle problem seems to be fading away more and more each day. This week I tapered, and just did a part session and a few easy runs. I unfortunately formed a large blister from my spikes on my heel, that seemed to open up every time I used them. This meant I had a new pair of spikes with just two days to break in before race day, but they held up OK and didn’t cause any problems during the race luckily.

The first of many, many hills!

The Junior men’s race was 10km in distance and took in two laps of the course, starting up the traditional long, steep incline. I tried to stay as steady as possible up the hill, but still trying to latch onto a decent starting position. Luckily nothing started too fast and I was able to sit in with the leading group of 20 or so and begin to work through the course. Parliament Hills is one of the  hilliest courses around and the steep inclines really break the rhythm up. I believe I was around 15th at halfway and felt pretty good handling the pace. The going around the course was excellent, although small patches were really boggy which messed with the rhythm. Through the last few km I tried to slowly wind the pace up and held my finishing position in the last 2km or so after quite a battling sprint finish. Overall, I was delighted with 16th place out of 250 finishers, my first top 20 in a national cross-country competition and on a course that years ago I would have quite frankly, flopped! With regards to the team proceedings, we had the makings of a podium finish, but unfortunately with a drop out we fell just five points away from the medals with training partner Charlie Maclean having the race of his season with 3rd, Rhys Park in 18th and Matt Deacon 109th.

Into the second lap..

Another hugely positive step forward in the mud, and I am now having a mini-break before getting another solid block of training in.

Full Highlights of the race can be seen here - http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/248314-2012-National-Cross-Country-Championships/video/612122-National-XC-2012-Junior-Men

And for any statto’s, you can sift through the race results here - http://www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk/images/nationals12/results/JM.pdf

The greatest site in the sport! 1700 men charging up a hill in front of the London skyline.

Armagh International 5km

The Armagh 5km was something I looked forward to returning to, ever since my first run in Northern Ireland last February. The event brings together arguably the best road 5km to be found anywhere on the continent, with Finland, Poland, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England and the USA all sending National teams to the event. The uniqueness of the event is a lapped course as oppose to a single road 5km loop.

The city centre, or ‘The Mall’ in Armagh played host to the 22nd Armagh International Road Race. The course follows the road around the oval shaped mall, decorated with festive lights and big crowds. Each lap is roughly 1km, so four and three quarter laps made up the 5km distance.

The start of the Armagh International 5km

I guess I came into this race with an open mind, seeing as I had ran two hard cross-country races the past two weekends, but I knew the fitness was there to run a big time, and had eased down training to prepare professionally.

With last year’s crazily fast start in the back of my mind, I tried to just constantly think about staying relaxed at pace in the opening five minutes of running. I believe I went through the first 1km in 2:51, which at the time didn’t feel too crazy. The aim was then to just keep the rhythm constant and try not to fall off the pace. My training partner back at home Charlie Maclean was in fantastic shape going into the race, and I tried to sit in behind him, and we moved through 3km in 8:40.

I'm slightly hidden on the far left ,but a mid-race action shot.

My penultimate lap felt quite rough, and I just focussed on staying with the pace, I wasn’t really aware of what position I was in, or what sort of time I was going to end up with. As with the majority of races the last lap “took care of itself” as they say, and I came through really strongly over the final 200m, to finish in 22nd out of 68 finishers. I would have been over the moon to break 15 minutes, but to run 14:42 was pretty astounding and likewise Charlie running 14:29 mean’t a highly successful night. This was my first PB of 2012, taking a whole 40 seconds chunk off of my PB. Such was the depth of the field, the first 40 finishers ran under 15 minutes, a feat that probably won’t be matched in any other European road 5km this year.

Full results can be seen here - http://www.armaghroadrace.com/results/2012/Mens5000.pdf

Once again Armagh delivered first class hospitality and quality, and I will no doubt be returning in 12 months time.

I now have a few easier days, before another big training week next week, leading towards the National Cross-Country Championships.

BUCS Cross-Country Champs Review

My inaugural British Universities and Colleges Cross-Country Championships, was held over the Severn Bridge in Cardiff. Our small University team headed over in blizzard conditions at the crack of dawn Saturday morning. The men’s A race (Top six athletes from each institution), was the first race of the day, being allegedly 10.6km in length.

The atmosphere in below freezing conditions was very unique, with most teams covered in native paints and horns, hooters etc. dotted around the course.  The underfoot conditions were completely frozen, with much of the race being ran in heavy snowfall. Apart from a few rutted areas it made for a largely flat and fast race around Blackweir Fields. I didn’t really know what would be a good target going into the race, as being first year at university there would still be a lot of development to make in the event through years to come.

The charge of the light brigade! - I'm just left of centre

The roar from the gun was electric and I got off really well, settling in comfortably behind the lead group of 15 or so in the opening stages. With over 350 on the start line I decided to get away fast to avoid any issues on the first few twists and turns. The course followed the same path as the regular Cross Challenge, the only difference being the start and finish located at the other end of the field. I’ve always found in big cross-country races if you can get yourself into a commanding position from the gun, you rarely gain or lose many places unless you really fall apart. I believe I was around 21^st at halfway and felt pretty good plugging away at what felt like a pretty brisk pace. As with last week, I lost a couple of places in the final half mile of the race, and finished up in 25^th place, out of 318 finishers. I did at one point think I’d beaten James Thie (World Indoors 4^th place and 3.37 guy), until he dug out yet another big finish and took me with barely 10m remaining. I mentioned ‘allegedly 10.6km’ above as my time was 31.55, and a few guy’s Garmin’s said the distance was around 10.1km, so still a fairly respectful road 10km time, but certainly not the distance suggested.

Action shot mid-race

Overall though, another step in the right direction on the cross-country, and a nice debut for my University in tricky conditions. The team we had at Oxford Brookes wasn’t the strongest possible and we ended up 30^th out of 53 teams, which is still a fine achievement in Great Britain. The guy’s I do the majority of my work with at Oxford Uni, were defending bronze medallists, but this time ended up in 9^th place with their four scorers, the highest being Tom Frith in 38^th.

A highlights video of the race can be seen here – http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/247912-2012-BUCS-Cross-Country-Championship/video/596500-2012-BUCS-Cross-Country-Championships-Mens-Long-Race

I have had a few easy days leading up to the Armagh International 5km, which I fly out to Wednesday evening.