Final race of Indoor season

Finished off the indoor season with a good performance, winning the 1500m in the UWIC grand prix 3 in an indoor PB of 3.46.05. Chris Discombe did a perfect job as pacemaker, leading me through 400m in 1 minute and 800m in 2minutes. Then it was down to me and I was pleased with how I held it together. Indeed I actually went through the first 5 and a half laps in the same speed as I had done in the UK Indoor Championships, but instead of blowing up in the last 200m as I did then, I held it together to run a time that would have won my heat and thus qualified me automatically for the final.

And so some final thoughts on my trip to Kenya and following indoor season. Kenya itself was an incredible experience, and I put together a fantastic month of aerobic and strength base training. However, as this is the first time I have done either an altitude trip or an indoor season based on 1500m, a mistake was made in not giving myself enough time to do anaerobic conditioning between my trip to Kenya and my main target of the indoor season, the UK Indoors. This, and tactical naivety in my heat, led to a very disappointing Championships. However I am very pleased with how I have bounced back from my disappointment, with good performance both last week in the UKA City Challenge, and today in the UWIC grand prix. It would have been very interesting to see how I would have performed in the UK Indoor Champs had I been in the shape I was in today, having had five weeks of anaerobic work rather than just two following Kenya. However this will go down as a lesson learnt, and one which will be corrected for the outdoor season.

And so it is now time to move onto my next aerobic and strength training block, before giving myself enough time to work the different anaerobic systems before the big targets for the summer. Unfortunately I will not be returning to Kenya this spring/summer (though I definitely want to in the future) but I will make sure I pick up what I learnt over there and incorporate those factors into training in the coming months.

So this wraps up my blog from my training in Kenya and the following indoor season. Thanks for all of you who have followed and read the blog. I hope you have enjoyed it!

City Challenge success

After the disappointment in the UK Indoor Championships it was important to learn from my mistakes at that event, keep positive and confident and get a good performance in to boost moral before the end of the indoor season and the training block before the outdoor season. The City Challenge held in Cardiff, two weeks after the Championships, provided that opportunity, and I was pleased to put together my best performance of the indoor season and get the win. I sat in second behind the leader, not going wide as I had done in the UK Indoor Champs, and stayed patient, waiting till 300m to go to counter the move of Harry Harper and make my move in a more relaxed and gradual manner, thus meaning I was able to sustain the move to the end and not blow up. I didn't run quite as fast as at the Birmingham Indoor Games, one hundredth of a second slower in fact with 3.49.03, but felt great at the end and ran the right tactics to get the win which was the aim for the race. What was also very satisfying was my finish, which has been a weakness the last couple of seasons. A lot of work has been put into it over the winter and it was very pleasing to put together such a quick and relaxed final 200m, probably the quickest final 200 I have ever done in a 1500m.

The altitude training trip to Kenya, and the indoor season which has followed, has proved invaluable. I am still relatively inexperienced, this was my first real trip to altitude and first ever indoor season focusing on 1500m. However I have learnt a massive amount which will be incorporated into my training and racing in the future which will surely improve me. I am also still in great shape, and with a few alterations to correct for the mistakes I made in January and February (e.g. my tactics at the UK indoors) I will approach the outdoor season with great confidence.

Sheffield disappointment

Big disappointment in Sheffield, to be honest am completely gutted. Felt great when warming up, was very confident, but got my tactics wrong, and missed the final by one place. I believe I was good enough to get to final, but got too aggressive in race, ran too wide, attacked too early, and paid for it with one of the most horrible final 200m of my life. Guess got to learn lessons and take positives and will use pain to inspire me to better results in future races. However am definitely flat right now, and feel sorrow for my flat mates because am going to be well bad company for next few days.

Off to Sheffield

All the training has been done. The stamina, strength and speed base put down in Kenya, complimented by specific 1500m training and a couple of sharpening races on returning to England. And the last few days have been relaxing, making sure I am fresh for the big weekend, the UK Indoor Championships in Sheffield.

Now is time to get the train up to Sheffield. The heats themselves are tomorrow at 5.40pm, and then hopefully I will be in the final on Sunday at 2.55pm. I feel in great shape, and am very excited and focused about the upcoming races. Hopefully when I next post on this blog, I will be posting as a very happy athlete following a very successful weekend.

Link to race

Also, if anyone wants to watch my 1500m race, please follow the following link

http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/238365-2011-Birmingham-Games/video/449105-SM-1500m

Back in the UK

Getting settled back to life in the UK now, and so time to start up the blog again as I said I would. With only two weeks between returning from Eldoret and the UK Indoor Championships, the plan has been to get some sharpening work in following all the strength, stamina and speed work done in Kenya. This sharpening work started on the day after returning when I competed in the Welsh Indoor 3000m Championships (as a non-Welsh athlete). I decided to see how I felt following the journey, and as I felt good on waking up I decided to compete. This ended up being a great decision, as I felt great when warming up, and during the race. The first 2km felt very easy and so I decided to put in a strong final kilometre and test just what shape I was in. I pulled away from the field except for GB international Chris Warburton (one of my main rivals in the upcoming UK Indoors), who stuck with me and then managed to get ahead in the final 200m. However, without even considering the time and a comfy first first 2km, I ran a new PB, and felt fantastic just one day after a well over 24 hour journey. Just a bit of sharpening in the next two weeks and I will be exactly where I want to be.

And so in the week following I did a couple of speed sessions, including a visit to indoor 200m track with my coach Keith and fellow athlete Chris Dodd, mixed in with easy recovery runs. By the end of Tuesday I felt like I was flying, but then in the 2nd half of the week the reality of life back in the UK set in, as I had two PhD intervals, a formal one on Wednesday, and an informal interview with another potential supervisor who was visiting Bristol on Friday. These left me feeling mentally drained (even two interviews was a complete contrast compared to the complete relaxation following training in Kenya the previous month) and by the time the Birmingham Indoor Games game around on Saturday 5th February, my first 1500m of the season, I was feeling tired both mentally and physically. However I managed to pull myself around, and using front running tactics with an eye on the time as well as the position, managed to pull out the win and run 3.49.01mins, a respectable time, even if I was disappointed with it! However overall I was pleased. To have stayed confident beforehand, to have raced in the manner I wanted, and to get the win (including beating two potential rivals for next week) when feeling as I did beforehand was a good confidence boost before the big one next week. I also have a very relaxing, stress free week lined up next week (when not training), which should prove perfect preparation!

Last days in Kenya

I write this post from Nairobi airport, as I await my overnight flight to Amsterdam. I am sad to have left, I had an incredible month, but I am also incredibly excited about the upcoming indoor season. Indeed, I will be keeping this blog going through the next couple of months to track how my performances go following on from my training in Kenya.
Tuesday involved a hill session in the morning. Following a 30 minute warm up, the session started, and involved 5 long efforts with jog back down recovery, followed by 5 by long effort, jog to start of short effort, short effort, jog back to start of long effort. As is tradition with training in Kenya, the early efforts started steadily, but soon built up, and by the end of set 8 I knew just how hard I was training. I was very pleased with how I was running though, and dug in for the last couple of sets to complete a great season. I was exhausted, but it was just the warm down to go. Then I was told that the warm down would be 1 hour. I asked if the coaches were joking, but I knew they were not, the hard session in Kenya are very hard. So it was off for the longest warm down of my life. It felt like an eternity (and I was only crawling along) and I can safely say I will never complain about the run home from Coombe Dingle in Bristol after a session again (a mere 20-25 minutes). But eventually I got to finish, incredibly tired. As Coach Simba said, he had killed me twice! It was a very tough session, but as the Kenyans are brilliant at, following a very, very tough session is a period of extended, very easy recovery.
The next day, and my final training day, was a technical drills session. As I have stated previously I had been led to believe that Kenyans spent little time on technique and strenght work. This is fundementally not true, the way they do it is just different to that in the west. I am very excited to bring home some of the new ideas I have learnt and impliment them into training back in England.
And so finished an incredible month. The training was great, I am in great shape and met some amazing people. I guess one of the true tests for how successful the period has been will be the upcoming races, but if possible I would love to return before the outdoor track season. I believe this training can only have benefitted me.
So what is the secret of Kenyan running. The answer is there is no secret. There is a massive enthusiasm for the sport, and many many people compete. When you have this quantity of athletes you are sure to unearth some exceptional talent. Added to this is a tradition of success, and as everyone knows, success breds success. Athletics also provides a fantastic opportunity, and with so many people trying to achieve in order to improve their lives, it is no wonder that people are forced to strive to exceptional levels to achieve. As to the training, there are definite differences to Western training, but there are no secrets, and all training is based on very well established scientific principles. Training sessions are varied to overload the various elements of stamina, speed, strength and technique. Tough sessions are very tough, but are then given a significant periods of recovery. Indeed there is at least one complete rest day every week (how many of the top Western athletes can say they take this much recovery) and many afternoons are rests or at most incredibly easy recovery runs. Once you choose to be an athlete and join one of the training camps, the lifestyle is also one incredibly conducive for improving running. There are no stresses for the athletes, all they have to do is train, sleep, eat (food is cooked for them) and relax. The diet is incredibly natural and healthy, and bed times are strictly 10am. Also, it is true that the Kenyans get the opportunity to live an train at altitude. This is an advantage over many athletes, but is by no means unique, look at Font Ramau in France or Boulder in USA.
So there are no secrets, just a large number of logical factors that contribute to athletic excellence in Kenya. But what is more important is that the Kenyans, both athletes and coaches, do not want to keep their training secret. They want athletes from across the world to come over, to observe how the Kenyans train and to bring their own ideas which may be new to the Kenyans. They do not want the rest of the world to fear them either, but to rise to the challenge and compete against them. They enjoy being the best, but they want the rest of the world to put up more of a challenge. They find the fact that the world cross is now only takes place every two years very disappointing, and are worried that maybe in the future there will be one world championships for Africa and another for the rest of the world in distance events.
So there you go, I hope you enjoyed my waffle! and see you all very soon back in hot, sunny England!