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