the winter is over

and the summer is now upon us-or so it seems. my period of winter training is now officially over and the first race of the season will quite probably be a 3000m track race at bath university on the 26th. wouldn't it be fantastically good to open up with a pb? the aim has got to be to break 10 minutes. it feels like i'm taking a wild stab in the dark as it is sooo long since i raced a 3000m-nearly 2 years i do believe. there is the small matter of a lactate threshold/vo2 max test to complete 2 days before the race but i am hoping to get that brought forward so i have enough time to recover. at this stage of the season, provided i don't get selected for the national road relays on the same day instead, i will probably train on the thursday evening as well, but maybe not do the full session. we're doing horfield common hills tonight on the grass. a session that involves doing lots of short reps, in sets of 5 or 6 and usually totalling between 18 and 24 in number. it was at this stage last year that rob whalleys summer was completely wrecked by injury that was basically caused by running too fast too soon. we had to help him to his car after the session and didn't see him at training again until about october time, so i'll be wary of that tonight as running on grass can have that effect on your calves.

finally congratulations are due to ewan and kelli who gave birth yesterday to a baby boy isaac