Another Week Under the Belt

So, as the blog title suggests I am still in one piece (*touches wood*). Since Portugal training has been virtually non-existent and this is very frustrating as I believe I was in pretty decent shape. The lastest in my long list of injuries started on the day of the Inter-Counties. I did a tempo early that morning with James Fairbourn and it went pretty well. At this point I was still on the comeback from tearing my calf. I had no immediate reaction until I stepped out of the car at the Inter-Counties and my Achilles just felt really tight and sore. However like the idiot I am, I still ran around all afternoon cheering people on and just hoping it was just a bit tight. Well it wasn’t and so I didn’t run for a while, but then was back bit part running when we left for Portugal. This trend continued in Portugal where I would run for 2-3days and then take a day or two off to try and let it settle again. This is obviously not clever, but I was out there to train and so this is what I set out to do. I thought I had turned the corner and managed a solid session with Pete Street, Nathan Bibby and Kris Bibby consisting of 1k, 800, 600, 4x400m.

However 2 days later the problem was back and worse than ever. The pain wasn’t directly on my Achilles and most the time didn’t really affect my Achilles. The pain was more to the base of my heel, just on the outside of my left Achilles. So anyway I didn’t run for about 4 weeks and then finally Cat Riley got to the bottom of the problem the first time I saw her. It turned out the Sub-Talor Joint in my foot was completely locked up, and so when my foot landed the force was not being distributed evenly therefore causing me problems. A couple of sessions loosening off my calf, soleus and peronial tendon, and mobilizing the joint in my foot got me back running. Since then I have come back very sensibly, running every other day for 10 days or so and then increasing the number and length of my runs. Saturday saw my first proper track session, done at home with Tom Cornthwaite. The weather was horrible but I was glad to be just back running on the track! I did 6x300m off 100m jog and I haven’t felt lactic like it for 3 years!! It really was a shock to the system! In the evening I watched the Grand Prix at Sportscity and it was great to see a lot of good friends running well. I can’t really mention everyone but want to mention Alex Hains’ run! He has missed 2 years of running since coming back from America, and in his first season back went out and ran  13.57!! Great job Hainsy!

The past week hasn’t been much fun apart from the return to proper running, as I have been revising hard. I went home Wednesday to Saturday to see my family and managed to get myself a job for the summer, which is very handy! Last night I went out for a couple of casual drinks with all the Loughborough boys, which was a welcome break from revision. However I am back on it today, and so will have to end today’s blog here. Until next time.....

Back by popular demand/return from injury!

Many people were (rightly) saddened by the abrupt end to my blogging when I was out in Portugal. I can only apologise for this, and have no excuse other than sheer laziness.  I shall start by summing up the whole trip in a word; amazing! I can honestly say I had the time of my life for the 3 and a half weeks I was out there and would jump at the chance to go back. I met some really cool people out there and pretty much just had a ball. The training was also going fairly well until the last week when I didn’t run a step. This trend unfortunately continued for the best part of 3 weeks after my return, but I will go into that at a later date....

Highlights of the trip:

• Death Day has to be up there... copious amounts of chocolate after being without it for a month was pretty dreamy!
  
• BIG Saturday night out! If I say 7 very close mates all arrived home to the same house at completely different times, each with their own story to tell of the nights proceedings, then that should sum up how good a night it was! (and that’s not to mention some of us running at 6.30am pre-sleep!)

• Gayhouse. Our house was given this label for some unknown reason, but unfortunately we failed to live up to our reputation!
  

• Karaoke sessions in Rui’s Bar never went unloved.
  
  
• Horrible tanning sessions.
  

• And Mariani getting himself a girlfriend!!!

Since returning home, I have been pretty snowed under with 3 pieces of coursework to start and finish, and now my first exam tomorrow! Any excuse to get out of revision! I shall try and be more regular with my updates from now on, and will try and write later in the week detailing my latest in a long line of comebacks!

Until then xx

GayHouse

Day 6 - Death Day

Finally the arrival of Easter Sunday, and the end of lent. Pete Street and I had already agreed to go for Chocolate Fudge Cake after our run and I couldn’t wait. I saw Leslie and Tom this morning before my run, and they loosened off my IT band and Peronial, and then I set off with the lads. My IT-Band hurt for the whole hour I ran, but it was a welcome relief from pain in my Achilles area. I stretched and iced as soon as I got back before getting changed and going to Bar O Cafe for our fudge cake! Boy it was good and I even had a bar of Milka afterwards. Pete and I decided that we weren’t craving that badly as it has been so long, and so are pretty much going to go back on the same diet, although not quite as strict. I absolutely love chocolate, but I get addicted and eat way too much, so if I’m trying to keep my weight down its probably best I don’t have any at all! The rest of the afternoon was spent tanning it up and socialising around the pool. At around 6, Kate Hindle, Lucy Dowsett, Becky Gough and I did a bit of core and stretching on the grass by the pool. I really had to man up, as girls are always so much better at core!

I got back to the villa at 5.30, and had to get ready in 30mins (which is quick for me) as me and my brother were meeting my parents for a meal. They came out here yesterday, and are staying in a gorgeous hotel right on the beach. It was a good half an hour walk down to the hotel, but it was really nice to see them! We got the extra surprise of a HUGE Easter egg in the hotel foyer that you could help yourself to! After a catch up and a drink in their room, we wandered into the Marina to find somewhere to eat. My parents had been given a recommendation and so we tried it out. The restaurant  was called the Abroa, and the fish steaks I had were very good. We then went for an ice cream, no prizes for guessing I went for chocolate! Chris and I then walked home, and I ate the mini-eggs and crème egg my mum had brought out for me! Today really was a death day!

Day 5 - BBQ

Today saw the second session of our trip. With the Gandyman now out here in Portugal it would definitely be a session where people would try to impress, with BUCS looming on the horizon, and George only being here for a week. Those of us doing the 5k session started at 10, with a 2k rep at 5k pace, just like on Tuesday. 10 minutes later the main session started, which was 700, 200, 600, 200, 500, 200, 400 all off 90sec recovery, with the reps getting faster throughout the session. Unfortunately for me, my heel wasn’t feeling too great, and so I had to stop after the 2k. I was pretty down about this, but George said not to worry about it and just get ready for Tuesday (the next session). I stayed around and stretched whilst the rest of the guys did the session, Emery in particular running very well. The track was rammed this morning, with around 7+ groups training on it, as it closes at 12 on a Saturday. At 10 a few of John Nuttall’s group and some of the Liverpool lads were doing a huge volume session, whilst we also saw Phil Nicholls doing what looked like 400’s and Ben Moreau doing some longer reps. At 11 Liz McColgan’s group were doing 800’s and a small but high quality group from Blackburn (my brother, Alison Leonard, Karl Billington and Anthony Hauserman) were doing 300’s.

As soon as I got back, I went to see Leslie and Tom for a bit of ‘emergency treatment’ to see if they could sort my heel out. There weren’t massaging today as it is their rest day, so I was very lucky that they agreed to take a quick look at me. Between them they loosened off my IT-Band and Peronial Tendon, and this really seemed to help the pain in my heel straight away. I cannot say how thankful I was and I really do owe them one! After the treatment I got lunch whilst watching the United-Chelsea game. This was always going to be horribly tense as Mariani is a Chelsea fan, and Fairbourn a big United fan (oh and Griff pretends he’s a big United fan!). We all know the result, but it didn’t quite kill the atmosphere in the villa as much as I anticipated for...

Earlier on in the week we were invited to the 9 person L’boro villa down by the track for a BBQ. We couldn’t pass up on this offer, and so rocked up at 6pm with all our food. Everyone who has come away with L’boro was there, and despite the wait for food (obviously going to happen when catering for over 30 people) it was good. I smashed 2 burgers and a couple of sausages along with a bit of the pasta that Besty and the girls had laid on! This was most definitely the most full I have been since coming out here! Our house left quite early however, as we wanted to go down to the Marina. We watched the David Haye fight in Figo’s bar, with a large Liverpool AC contingency, before heading on to Rui’s Karaoke bar again. The DJ tonight was awful, which ruined it, as he had the wrong backing tracks playing and all sorts. The company was great but it really was a shambles which got worse when a John Smiths shandy set me back 5 euro’s 50! Never again!

Day 4 – “a successful track season would now just be an added bonus!”

After a relatively late night last night, most of our house chose to lie in. Fairbourn was out early for an easy run, but personally I didn’t get up until 10am. With no running today, I was in no rush to really do anything. After breakfast we went to the bar for a coffee but not being a coffee drinker I soon hit the pool for an hour to catch some more rays. We had lunch just after 1pm, and then headed down to the beach. The beach is about a 15 minute walk away, and a massive group had already set off down there when we left. Emery, Griff, Mariani and I walked down to the beach with Nathan Bibby and a group of girls from Birmingham. I knew half of them before the trip, and met a few of the others by the pool yesterday, but the lads didn’t know any of them, so it was good to just get to meet some new people and socialise. When we arrived at the beach, we messed about with a Nerf and football for a bit and I had a cheeky dip in the sea. Things then got a bit more serious with a mass rounder’s game. It must have been about 15-a-side, with groups from Preston/Blackburn, Loughborough and Birmingham all involved! This was a great laugh and of course, I was on the winning team! As Pete Street and I discussed afterwards, a successful track season would now just be an added bonus!

Mariani and his little friend!

Mariani and I left the beach at 4.40, just before the rest, as we had to get to the supermarket as we were on cooking duty tonight. We were worried it closed at 5 being Good Friday, but it didn’t actually close till 8, which was annoying as we could have squeezed in a little more tanning time! Anyway we purchased just over 1kg of diced beef, some veg, soy sauce and rice. As you can probably guess we decided to make a Stir-Fry. The others arrived back just after us, and I then went to the pool (or as Shane just corrected me, tanning salon) with Fairbourn in order to stretch to try and improve and yesterday’s diagnosed horrendous flexibility. Once that was done, Mariani and I started to prepare the evening meal. The meal turned out ok and there was enough to go round, which was our biggest worry, having never cooked for 7 people before. The rest of the evening was very uneventful, as I think we all just wanted to get to bed in anticipation of tomorrow morning’s session.

Day 3 – “key tanning day!”

As I said in my blog yesterday, today would see the earliest start on the trip so far, as we all decided to run together at 8am. This was a relative luxury though, as I run before 7 sometimes when in Loughborough. I therefore woke up at 7.35 in order to allow time to foam roll and stretch before the run given the state of my Achilles yesterday. This really didn’t help that much though. Emery didn’t get up as stated, sticking to his guns that he never runs on a Thursday morning! Despite the beautiful run around the Golf Course, my Achilles just didn’t feel right, and so I just did 30mins with Mariani, whilst Seb, Fairbourn, Shane and Dave Howe continued and got an hour in.

The weather was gorgeous today and so this became my key tanning day! I hit the pool at around 10am with Griff, whilst the rest went for a coffee. They then joined us an hour or two later. Most the girls in our group were sunbathing too, and even Dolly (Alistair Donaldson) joined us mid-morning! Dolly is George’s new assistant coach, and being the 1^st of April, he got well and truly fooled! At present Dolly is living in the UKA endurance house in Loughborough whilst he finds his own place. Becky Lyne is still there, as she is going to Fount Romeu next week, and she called Alistair telling him his car had been broken in too! Becky is usually quite sensible, and so Dolly bought this for a few hours!!! He was literally crapping himself!

Anyway at we all went back to the villa to have lunch at around 1pm, and get a break from the sun. However I was back out there at 2, in order to make the most of this key tanning day before my massage at 4.35. Heather see’s Leslie, when she comes to Loughborough every fortnight, and she always says how good she is. Her assistant Tom has come out to Portugal with her this year and he was massaging me. I said to a couple of the guys before I went that I wanted a lot of pain to try and sort my legs out! Well I got just that. Tom tried to loosen everything off, in order to relieve the strain on my Achilles. We established that I am tight absolutely everywhere up my left side, probably the reason my Achilles is so sore. Having never had my IT Bands or Glutes massaged before I knew this would be bad, as I knew they were tight. Let’s just say it really was not pleasant!! Tom then stretched me off, and I really did feel so much better straight away. I have booked another session on Wednesday to pretty much just do the same thing.

 Today was Shane’s Birthday and so we all decided to head down to the Marina for a meal. We all got ready and set off down there at just after 7. The place we ate did a carvery, however I went for a Steak and Guinness pie. After the meal we watched the Liverpool game in “Rui’s Sports Bar”, and after the game we got involved in some Karaoke. There was no way I was going to have a go, but Shane and Seb did an interesting Roxanne cover, whilst George/Gandy/G-man/GG got involved with a bit of Elvis! Sensible Emery and I headed back at just before midnight leaving just Shane and Seb to carry on singing, as the others had already gone back. Hopefully tomorrow’s weather will be as good as today, so I can once again optimize my tanning time on rest day.

N.B – I have been trying my best to take lots of pictures but I forgot to bring my usb cable. I am hoping to get hold of one on Saturday so that I can add my pictures to the blog....

Day 2

Last night we agreed to meet some of the lads from Preston at 10am outside the supermarket for our morning run. Wednesday usually means a medium to long run and today was no different, just in the much more pleasant Portuguese climate. Myself, Mariani and Emery met with Pete Street, Nathan Bibby, Stephen Bennett and a few more the Preston gang and set out on our way to the cross country course at Alfamar. I believe this was used for the World Cross in the 90’s?! Anyway we met another large group from Loughborough and Liverpool on route and so a huge group of around 40 of us made our way along the trails to the cross country course. The run was very pleasant and I ended up doing 55mins with just mild discomfort in the heel area when I stopped. When I got back, Bennett showed me where to sign up for a massage with Leslie (the OCWK masseuse) and then we stretched by the pool, before icing our legs. I then went back to villa, showered and had brunch consisting of museli, a banana and two marmalade rolls. I am trying really hard when I am out here to lose some weight, as I am currently close to half a stone over racing weight. The weight should come off naturally in the heat, but I am being careful to eat enough but not too much in order to help this process along. So far I think I have found a nice balance.

Last night I labelled today as a key tanning day, but unfortunately the weather was a bit overcast, and so sun-bathing wasn’t a great option... So instead Fairbourn and I went down to the bar and used the internet for a couple of hours. We then spent the rest of the afternoon playing Chinese Poker and Fifa. In Seb’s case he spent most of the afternoon playing Championship Manager on his Ipod Touch, presumably trying to broaden his football knowledge! At 5pm most of us trained again, with Shane doing another 60mins, Fairbourn 45 and Emery 20 whilst Seb and Mariani did nothing. When Emery got back, Griff and I joined him to do some core and stretching out on the grass. Shane cooked for us tonight, and came up with a little surprise. For everyone else the chocolate cake he made for desert was a pleasant surprise, but not so much for me! I have given up basically all nice things for lent, Chocolate, Cake, Sweets and Biscuits..... All I can say is I cannot wait for Sunday! Anyway he made a tuna, pasta and sweet corn dish in a creamy onion sauce, which went down a treat. I finished it off with a coconut yoghurt, whilst everyone else smashed the chocolate cake! We then went back to the bar to watch the Arsenal game, which wasn’t actually on (it was the Inter game instead) so we just used the internet and debated over whether Phil Hinch should have been picked for the World Cross. Whilst we were there I had a chat with Heather (my girlfriend) on Skype and she seemed pleased to hear from me!

Sensible Emery 'ladding' it up!

We got back to catch the last 5 minutes of the Arsenal game and then played a little more Chinese Poker. During the game, when discussing the hierarchy of Queen’s, Seb came out with the quote of the day; “That’s like saying the Queen of England is more important than the Queen of Scotland”. On that note we all hit the sack, in anticipation of tomorrow morning’s 8am run. I am hopeful we can run on the golf course, whilst Emery insists he will not be out of bed to join us! We shall see....

Day 1

So Day 1 started with a nice lie in, after the late night arrival last night. I was the only athlete ‘dedicated’ enough to get out the door for a morning run. I just did a very casual 15mins in order to get my bearings, but mainly to test my Achilles before the session in the evening. On Sunday, my Achilles insertion really started to hurt after 60mins but I was 10mins away from the house and so had to carry on running. It was very sore after that, but luckily I had a rest day scheduled the day after. Anyway my heel/Achilles insertion area felt fine, and so I was optimistic about the session in the evening. It was nice to bump into a few familiar faces while I was out, including Andy Bibby, Laura Park and Ricky Soos.

After getting back to the apartment, grabbing some breakfast and a quick shower, we all headed out for a wander around Vilamoura. We paid the track a quick visit, along with the marina and the supermarket. We got all the essentials from the supermarket and decided we would cook in two’s to minimize the amount of time we would each spend in the kitchen. Emery and Griff decided they would cook first, and so used the communal funds to buy the evening meal.

We got back to apartment around 1pm and had lunch. We then got a knock on the door, and Shane Kerr, our 7^th housemate arrived. He thought his flight from Belfast was yesterday, but it turned out to be today so he arrived a day late! Anyway it had been a while since we had all seen him (as he graduated in the summer) and so it was good to have a catch up.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing about as we had our first session at 5pm. We warmed up at 4.30, by running the scenic route to the track and then did the usual stretches, drills and strides. There were two sessions from which we had the choice and these consisted of:

1500m Group: 1200m (10mins recovery to jog to the hills) 4 sets of a 30sec hill, a 40sec hill and a 20sec hill all off a jog recovery. There was then a further 10mins to jog back to the track before 2x600m off a 200m jog.

5k Group: Virtually the same session but just a 2k rep to start instead of 1200m and then a 1200m rep to finish, in place of the 600’s.

Unfortunately Griff is struggling with a sore Achilles, and so just went for a 15min jog. Seb and I are also coming back from injury, and so we did a slightly different session, 2k (5mins recov) 2x800m (2mins recovery) and then 2x200m strides. We were just easing into running on the track again, hence the very light session! Everyone seemed to have a good first session out here, and from a personal point of view I was pretty pleased I could run 5.56 for the 2k without pushing, so I must still be reasonably fit.

The evening was a very chilled out affair. After we had all showered, we all ate a great first meal of Spag Bol, prepared by Emery and Griff. We then went to the bar 100m from our door, and watched the United game on TV. Fairbourn threw his toys out the pram when Ollic coasted past the United defence to put them in the lead, which was quite an amusing end to the day!

Off to Portugal....

So, the 29^th March was the day we set off to Portugal for our 3 and a half week warm weather training stint. A large Loughborough contingency is descending on Loughborough this Easter, with the main group of us travelling from Gatwick. Andrew Mariani, James Griffiths and myself took a train from Loughborough, however upon arriving at Gatwick we were greeted with huge queues for EasyJet check in.... The rest of the group travelling on our flight had already checked in and gone through the usual security checks, and after just over 2 hours of queuing we finally joined them. Surprise, surprise our flight was also delayed, and after sitting around in a bar for a couple of hours we finally boarded the plane and departed for Faro. The flight went by quite quickly with numerous games of Chinese Poker, mostly won by Stephen Emery, who used all his wisdom that comes with old age! The other highlight of the plane journey (apart from screaming babies) was the drawing of our rooms in the villa. This was a very tense ordeal that we managed to draw out over an unnecessarily long period of time. With the room partnerships already sorted, Mariani drew the highest card, a measly 10, but that was enough to secure us the en-suite room! This turned out to be far and away the best room, with a walk in wardrobe and balcony to go with the beauty of not having to share a bathroom with 4 others.

When we finally arrived at the airport, we found that James Fairbourn had waited for us. His BA flight was 20 minutes before our flight, but then with our huge delay, we thought he might have just set off to the villa without us. So at this point, the 8 of us got 2 taxis to the Old Village in Vilamoura, where we are staying.

Now seems an appropriate time to introduce everyone:

Andrew Mariani               Woodford Green 1500m runner, who is my housemate in L’boro.
Seb Foy                           Another of my housemates, who is a XC specialist from Cheltenham.
James Fairbourn               Belgrave 5k man, who has prolonged his stay in L’boro by doing a Masters.
Stephen Emery                 Technically a fresher at 22, the Cov Godiva transferee has a great range.
James Griffiths                  800m runner from Vale Royal who is in his 3^rd year at L’boro.
Blue Haywood                   Steeplechaser, Mountain and XC runner, and Lufbra fresher.
Jess Burns                           Another fresher, who is an 8/15 runner from Plymouth.
*Shane Kerr                       Ex Lufbra student who has been working in Paris.

* Shane actually joined us a day late, after flying in from Belfast! He turned up at the airport on Monday, but then realised his flight was actually for Tuesday, so went home again!!!!

The rest of the Lufbra group consists of (in no particular order): Stevie Stockton, Jordan Kinney, Charlotte Best, Danni Christmas, Charlotte Wickham, Ben Green, Chris Parr, Rob Hodges, Ed Womersley, Luke Sebit-Berridge, David McQuarie, James Dean, Chris Warburton, Gary Bradbury, Matt Sullivan, Tom Gayle, Ryan McLeod, Lewis Moses and Pete Street, Nathan Bibby and Stephen Bennett who have travelled out here with Preston Harriers.

Back to the journey, we finally arrived in the Old Village at 1am, but had one other problem, we had no key and didn’t know which villa we were staying in!!! We finally got in touch with Alistair Donaldson (UKA assistant coach), who got out of bed and brought us our key and between us we finally found out which villa the key was actually for. Great organisation! After some quick un-packing we finally got to bed at quarter to two!

Right that’s enough for now, I will try and get daily blogs up as frequently as possible.

Hope you enjoy the read,

Pete

Portugal

So I sit here, with the rain lashing down outside my window. As depressing as this is, it doesn’t bother me too much! Why you may ask? Well on Monday I will be in sunny (hopefully) Portugal for a full three and a half weeks!!! I cannot wait.

Since my last blog I have had yet another setback, in the form of an inflamed Achilles insertion, which forced me to take a few days off and then come back very slowly. However I am on the mend now! I saw the physio for the 2^nd and hopefully final time this afternoon and got pretty much the all clear. I have been running for 30-40mins a day, and so am not loosing anything, and yesterday I even did a big bike session with the triathletes. So it’s just a case of easing back into faster running now, either on Saturday or on Tuesday when I’m out in Portugal. I’m just praying for some solid and consistent training and then hopefully I will be running at BUCS (British University Champs) on the 1^st May.

Whilst in Portugal, we are staying in the Old Village in Vilamoura, and I know there are a lot of other British athletes staying in the area, which should be great for training! My brother is also going to be out there with a big group from Blackburn and Preston, which should be good.

I am going to try and get very frequent blogs up while I’m out there, and may even try and get a pre-trip blog up before we go! Let’s hope the next few weeks are both sunny and successful wherever you are training!

Daily Exercise Routine

After seeing the physio yesterday and agreeing I could be more pro-active as far as conditioning is concerned, I decided to act upon what we had said. My lower legs could be better conditioned as could my glutes, and this will hopefully help reduce the number of 'niggly' injuries I keep picking up. I shall now try and carry out the following routine everyday, as after all it only takes about 30mins!!!

Daily Exercise Routine

Foam roll calves for 2mins per leg

Calf stretch against doorframe
Soleus stretch against doorframe
30 press ups
15 calf raises
30 sit ups
15 heel drops
15 single leg squats
Ankle rotations
Shin stretch

30 press ups
30 sit ups
Calf stretch against doorframe
Soleus stretch against doorframe
Mo Farah core circuit
20 eccentric press ups
Heel raise held
Glute exercise lifting leg
Glute exercise swirling leg

Mo Farah core
15 heel drops
Hamstring stretch
Quad stretch
Hip Flexor stretch
Calf stretch against doorframe
Soleus stretch against doorframe
Hamstring stretch
Quad stretch
Hip Flexor stretch

N.B – All stretches 30secs per leg

No news is bad news!

So as usual, I have had a number of problems which have interrupted my training and racing, and as always, I lost motivation to write on here. But as you have probably guessed (since I am writing again) things are back on track. I have been running for 14 days, and touch wood, haven’t run into any problems. I did my first session on Tuesday, which consisted of a 20min tempo (5.18’s) and then 8 x 40sec hill @ 3k pace, 30sec hill @ 1500m pace. The two hills were of differing gradients, the first one slightly gentler. The recoveries were a slow jog down to the bottom of the next hill. Surprisingly the session went pretty well, but the main thing was I came away in one piece.

Just so you know, I tore my calf the week before the Northerns, but still tried to race, which ended in me dropping out, and in turn led to me missing the National. This was what my whole winter had been built towards so it was a big blow, especially as it would have been my last ever junior race.... However I did keep fit in the mean time, with lots of cycling, aqua jogging, and conditioning.

I will try and give you another update next week, with some more exciting news, and hopefully I will still be in one piece!

Thanks for reading,

Pete

Lancashire Cross Country Championships

The picture above pretty much sums it up!!! Cannot believe the race went ahead, however it did and full credit to the marshalls, course builders etc!!

I finished 8th, which was a steady run, considering the time I've had off over the last 6 weeks with illness. Would have liked to have made the top 5 or 6 ideally, but it wasn't to be. It will be touch and go if I make the Inter-Counties team with the likes of Ben Lindsay and Anthony Ford to come in, but I'm not really fussed as I'm 75% sure I won't run anyway!

Lets hope I can get my head down and put in some solid training now in the build up to the Northerns and then the National! Until then.....

2010

Well it’s here, 2010, the start of a New Year and a new decade! How exciting and with it came buckets more snow! Let’s hope 2010 is a successful one, not just for me, but for you guys too! To bring in the New Year, I have made a few changes to the blog, mainly just making it more aesthetically pleasing! I hope you like it!!

Training has re-started today, with a 30 minute jog, and I feel I am finally over this chest infection (touches wood!). I’m looking forward to getting back into full training over the next few days. My New Year’s Resolution this year is to have to the perfect diet and get really lean. This means absolutely no death until after the National! Death is what we (my housemates and running friends) call any kind of unhealthy food! I really want to put 2009 behind me, and hit my targets for 2010. These start on the cross, where I am targeting 3 big races. The first is the Northerns on 23^rd January, at my home course, Witton Park. My next big race is for Loughborough, at the BUCS XC Champs up in Stirling, Scotland. Finally I hope to produce my best performance at the National XC Champs, at Roundhay Park in Leeds. This is my last ever race as a junior and I hope to make it one to remember!

In the mean time, this next week is one of serious revision, as my University exams are getting dangerously close, and a return to running! I’ll report back after the Lancashire Cross Country Champs a week tomorrow. Let’s hope I can put in a half decent performance and get picked to run for Lancs in the Senior Men’s Race at the Inter-Counties.

Happy New Year,

Pete