This month I’m very happy to report that I officially feel like I am back on the up after the operation! There is still a lot of hard work to be done but it has begun. I officially started my 400m training – it has been a huge shock to my body! I knew it was going to be harder than training for the shorter sprints but I underestimated it. It takes a totally new level of mental strength and determination to get through the sessions. I am very lucky to have an amazing coach and training group, especially Matt my 400m training partner, to help me get used to the new training. It has highlighted how important it is to have a strong coach and training partners.
This month I have completed a 3 week block of very hard training; including distances I have never run before like 500m!! I was in greater shock to find out I had more than one per session plus several 200m! This has included getting back into racing. I have done three local pre season races. The first competition, I did the 60m just to ease myself back into racing. It felt amazing to be back!! Although it is frustrating to be behind people that I used to be ahead of – but this I have to make positive and use it as motivation. In the second competition I did the 60m again followed by my first 300m. I had never run a competitive 300m before so had little idea of how a race pace 300m was actually going to feel – the last 80m were incredibly long! At the end and for about 30 minutes after I was seeing double! I was beaten into 2nd place by just 0.03 of a second. I was pushing sooo hard but my legs just couldn’t go that bit faster. I took the experience of the 300m and put it to good use in the next competition – I knocked 1 second off my time from the week before and won. I was determined that no one was going to beat me this time!
At the start of the month I had a few days off uni after exams, which were very quickly filled by various jobs that I had been putting off doing during exams. They passed far too quickly! Uni is now back to normal, but this semester I have more lectures which is creating an extra challenge to balance things. Due to my lecture schedule I have what I have now nick-named “Crazy Wednesdays”. I need to have started my training session at 8am at the track, then I go straight to uni for a lecture 10 – 11 then stop off at home to eat. By 2 I’m in the gym for a weights session then back to uni for another lecture from 5 – 7. I must say it is a challenge to stay awake during that lecture!!
Of course as it was February there was Valentine’s Day too. My boyfriend has a tough job being patient with all my training and uni commitments. A prime example was Valentine’s itself. It was on a Thursday, I had uni during the day and training in the evening so I popped over to his in the evening for a brief while. He suggested we went out on Friday to celebrate but as I had a competition on the Saturday I couldn’t so we had to wait until Saturday evening. When we finally got round to celebrating it was lovely to spend some quality time together.
The weather was very cold at the start of the month but I’m happy to say in the last week it has started to warm up. In the sun it’s quite hot but as soon as you go in the shade its cold and the wind is cold too. Of course, the evenings are still cold once the sun has set. I have managed to find a spare couple of hours to make the most of the sun out and about with friends. We had a lovely picnic for one friend’s birthday.
