its now or never...

was thinking last night, there's not that much left for me to do this winter before we move in to the summer season and short fast painful track sessions. i haven't done a 10k pb, i haven't broken 17:30 for 5k or 29:00 for 5 miles. i should make quite a big improvement to myhalf marathon time when i tackle the nationwide bath half marathon in 4 weeks time. thats SHOULD and will remain that way right up until the point that its done because experience tells me that especially with the longer distances, that there is a lot that can go wrong and when it goes wrong, thats it, its very hard to retrieve the situation.

i may try one of the hove park saturday morning 5k's or the easter bunny 10k on easter monday. thats one that will always hold special memories for me as it is where i first broke 40 minutes two years ago and it is generally reckoned to be quite a fast course apart from the one climb between 3 and 4k (I think thats where it was any way).

i'm just about to go and check out some dates for track and field meetings next summer so i can get the time off work. time is limited so i must be off.

bye for now

pete

well said ryan

local sprint sensation ryan scott summed up the mood of the athletics fraternity perfectly in todays edition of the evening post when he stated "hopefully everybody can beat dwain". nothing personal dwain but you cheated, and in doing that you have deprived honest hard working athletes like ryan out of not only an income but international places and championships as well. if he came last that would save all the furore over whether or not he goes to the world championships. thats what my heart says any way, but my head says that dwain chambers will not go away that quietly and he certainly wont come last. mores the tragedy because he was such a naturally talented sprinter. maybe though that was what tipped him over the edge in the first place, being that close to world championship gold but not actually being good enough. not that i am in any way trying to condone what he did and he should be banned because he was not available for drugs tests while he was with nfl europe

maybe one day i'll be available for the world championships? it doesn't hurt to have dreams and you certainly don't know whats around the corner in this sport? hard work and dedication can take you a long way in athletics as long as you listen to the right people and you can identify the events that you're suited to and a whole load of other ifs and buts.....

a rare restful moment

tonight i will be skipping the session with mikes group in order to just do a steady run around portishead, then i will be playing squash afterwards. this is all in aid of ensuring that i am completely fresh for the race in cardiff on saturday (i've just looked at the maps on the net the park is right by the millenium stadium) i don't know which bright spark thought of that but it does sound like a recipie for people getting in the way and generally being a bit of a nuisance. never mind i've entered now so i might as well make the most of the opportunity.

my final hard day before the event was yesterday. i ran twice, 4 miles in the morning, 6 in the evening, with a gym session in between times. going by the times i ran at aztec west on tuesday i think it would be worth having a crack at 36:30. thats 3:39 per kilometer, well within my capbilities. my long term goal for 10k is to get down to under 35:00 then i will reassess my progress with a view to either going even faster still or having a crack at the marathon, but thats a long time off. i have always said that i will not go for the marathon until i have got what i think i can from the middle distances and shorter long distances because once you have made that step up you lose all the speed you have developed running on the track and cross country very quickly, even though it is very important to have that back ground if you want to be a successful marathon runner. some people have tried to coax me in to doing one now but if you look at all the great athletes of now and past they all bided their time and waited for the right moment before they tackled the big 26.2 miles, and you can justify it by the times they ran and the records they broke

drug cheats rear their ugly head again

dwain chambers just doesn't seem to want to go quietly does he? uka have after what i gather was intense leagal pressure relented on their vow to stop dwain chambers from competing in the world indoor trials. the arguments seem to centre on whether or not he kept the testing authorities notified of his whereabouts during his year out of the sport when he competed for nfl europe. each side seems to blame the other for what is going on saying it was the other that took him off the drugs test registration list. the rules say you have to be registered for 12 months before you can compete in a gb vest. legally i think the law is on the side of dwain chambers, because he has served his ban and he wasn't competing during the 12 months that he was off the register. however morally i think it is wrong that dwain chambers should ever be allowed to compete again let alone in a gb vest because not only has he been caught taking drugs but he has taken the piss out of the sport saying that it had slapped him in the face etc etc. some were inclined to be sympathetic to him because it seemed that he had innocently taken a substance thinking that it was legal and it wasn't. i believed him on that but not now!

last night saw a return to aztec west for the first time in two months and it was the windiest i have ever known. i still managed times of 5:42, 5:33, 5:35 and 5:37 despite running the first half of the course in to a headwind. not many were there last night and as seems the norm now i was heading the 2nd group, behind rob and craig and a few other youngsters. i just hope i have a bit lfeft for saturday!

a dilemna...

as i was reading the report from the previous vo2 max test i did, i realised that this summer i have a dilemna to think about with regards to my training. do i bring it nore in to line with the events i train for in the winter or do i opt for the extra speed. at the moment i am more inclined to think that by bringing it into line with what i do in the summer my running will benefit more. so that means that 800 and 400 meter races will be out the window and that 100 meter pb hopefully wont be being revised this summer. the reason why i have raised this issue is that if i incorporated more structure and specificity in to my training it will benefit more and i will become a better runner for it. this will mean having to curb my natural instincts and rather than just running how i feel it will mean having to follow a structured programme of sessions. another reason why i am bringing up the old horse chestnut of what distances i am best suited to again is because of the one real problem i suffer from as an athlete-speed endurance. looking back at my training history over the past couple of years it has become quite apparent that what i have done in the winter and what i have done in the summer are poles apart in terms af the physiological demands that they have placed on me and my running has suffered as a result. the only way for me to improve speed endurance is for me to do sessions that concentrate on running fast for long periods of time as opposed to just fast or endurance related training. i shall certainly be consulting mike about this and about what distaances he thinks i should be training for when we meet tonight at aztec west, for our mile reps session and see what his recommendations (or observations as he likes to call them) are on this issue, which is some thing that fundamentally needs to be addressed if i am to maximise my potentioal as a distance runner

tonight will be the last session before the race on saturday, a 10k around bute park in cardiff, not sure what the course is like but the could be some problems with transport because of the wales v scotland match at the milleniums stadium, some thing that i comletely overlooked when i booked my race entry. the main problem is that they often put queing systems in place at temple meads station in bristol when there are events at the millenium stadium and it wouldn't be an ideal situation if this were to interfere with my travle arrangements. but for the moment i just wanna get tonight out of the way

back in the swing

iwas feeling tired and demotivated this week. coming off a few weeks of heavy mileage, reducing in time for the cardiff bute park 10k next saturday morning. i feel as though a pb is in the offing for this, providing that i can hold my self back in training over the last couple of days before the race.

my previous race was a bridge inn 5k where i ran 17:40 ish, don't know exactly what my time was as i accidently re set my watch crossing the line. i tried to post here about it on tuesday but the computer played up and that was that it wouldn't (and still wont)let me publish. the conditions on tuesday night were very windy with the worst of it being in your face up the slope. disappointed really as i thought that i was in shape to have a crack at my pb, 17:33. you will have missed my comments on my tuesday about the forth coming year for athletics. the jist of it is that the majority of our medal prospects are on the females sidewith there being the potential to take all three medals in the marathon, but paula being athsmatic could struggle with the pollution and humidity in beijing unless she wears one of those pollution masks. jo pavey will be in the mix in the 10,000 and the 5,000 if she recovers in time, whilst there are some promising girls in the 800. mo farah is the singular british hope for male distance runners with any chance of getting a medal this year such is the way standards have dtropped in the past 20 years.