and finally...

that last planned race of the season is upon me, a bmc 1500 meter race at exeter where the target for me is to run under 4:30. i'm back to training once a day now though as i have been carrying a few niggles in my legs particularly my hip flexors which at one point last week were quite painful to stand up on. if i run sub 4:30 then obviously i will have to raise the bar next year and hopefully aim for sub 4:20. been watching the london grand prix which i videoed last weekend and its nice finally to get through an athletics meeting without mention of dwain chambers and drugs cheats and finally be able to appreciate the many things that are good about our sport.british athletcs is in good shape now after a lean couple of years and there are two events where we could potentially take all three medals. the mens tripple jump with philips idowu, nathan douglas and larry achike all hitting 17 m plus form at the right time. the womens marathon is the other with our paula being the outstanding favourite along side mara yamouchi 2:25 pb and liz yelling 2:28. there are a few faster runners than those two but a lot will depend on how peoples bodies cope with the pollution and smog in beijing.

the mens 100 promises to be some thing special with 4 outstanding contenders in asafa powell, usain bolt tyson gay and xavier carter (if he decides to run) and if any of those slip up you have nesta carter, michael frater and kim collins to name but a few who are all capable of running 9.9 something. but soon the talking will be over and the walikng will start....

going to visit the new boy

a few weeks from august and the olympics, i am now planning my summer holidays, including a visit to scotland to visit ewan and kelli and their 3 month old son isaac. as ever its frustrating that the end comes at such an inconvenient point as i still feel like i am improving and i haven't reached the point where everything running-wise starts to become a bit of a chore...or at least not yet any way.

i just hope that i can hold on to it for long enough to be able to run sub 4:30 at exeter on tuesday. many of my training partners are starting to drop by the wayside with less to train for now that a lot of the major championships are done and dusted with only the big one left in beijing.

there is one bmc grand prix left but with there being qualification standards to attain i think i might be giving that one a miss. i will however be doing the training probably up until the point that the group breaks up for the summer and will quite probably be the first one back when the new season starts in late august, as i have to make sure i'm fit for the cardiff 10k on september 7th the north somerset relayson 14th september and the 20th of september is the midland road relays. important races even this early in the year so staying fit over the break is critical

dwain chambers....

....is it the right decision? please text me with your opinions...personally i think it was the right one. why? whereas at the world indoors they made a special case of victimising him by making one rule for him and one for the other drugs cheats in the team like carl myerscough, the life time olympic ban applied to all british athletes and personally i think there should be a longer ban and a life time olympic ban for ALL athletes of ALL nationalities. he has served his time yes and there is now no reason why he shouldn't be able to run again, but just not at the olympics. and what about the clean athletes that he has deprived of places in national squads is that fair? and while we're on the subject perhaps ian huntley might want to claim for 'restraint of trade' because he can't work any more. you just never know what doors it may have opened if they got the judgement wrong. people should be forgiven though and we shouldn't continually castigate dwain for succumbing to temptation-that can happen to any body as we're all human and the prizes and riches that were dangling in front of him would be tempting for any body.

went training last night and promptly wished i hadn't afterwards. ran like a fucking cart horse as usual...mike reckons i am running well, but i'm not quick enough for my liking. yes my recovery has got bettter but the 800 speed just isn't there and probably never will be again. three 800's followed by one 400 at the end of the session. its a lot harder than it sounds because you're running them at 1500 meter pace which takes its toll on your legs come the end of the evening. for some reason i find it very hard to look at what i run on the track in a positive light. maybe its because i'm just better on the cross country and road, which incidently i have always thought anyway, but surely even a pb deserves some recognition from my self, but i just think a pb at my speed shows that i was shit in the first place

reaching a peak

i feel like i have reached a peak of fitness very quickly this year. on with only two weeks of the season remaining (maybe a bit more depending on how i feel) i ran 4:38 again for 1500 meters on sunday despite feeling sick due to the heat and tired due to having run twice the day before. that was at yate track, where my record over the past few years shows that i consistently run between 5-10 seconds slower than what i would do at exeter at the same season. the sub 4:30 clocking that has almost become a bit of a psychological barrier over the last couple of years is surely getting closer. i was looking for another race between now and exeter but having checked the timetable for the only meeting i know of, cheltenham next wednesday, the only distance race they have on is a 1000 meter race. i haven't totally ruled it out as it may be quite useful as a training exercise, so watch this space. its just frustrating when you get really fit that there's a lack of suitable races.

this summer i have kept the mileage reasonably high around about 50-60 per week. this has meant often having to squeeze a run in after workbefore lunch, which is tiring and frankly some times it makes you feel like running is all you do. but thats the last thing you think of when you run a pb or you are stood on the start line waiting for the gun to go and battle to commence. its what all the hard woks about