It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog, so I thought I would give you an update on what I’ve done and how things are going. During the lockdown, the focus of my training had a big change. Rather than doing a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic sessions, my training switched to almost entirely aerobic work. This meant that my mileage increased and my aim was to build a solid aerobic base that I could build on over Winter and use during next year. Alongside this training, my club, Team Bodyworks held weekly zoom calls. These were very beneficial as not only did it give us a chance to catch up with the rest of the squad, it also gave us key opportunities to learn as many of the calls had guests on. These guests included professionals, ex-professionals, and leaders in select fields. One of the best talks I think we had came from Andy Jameson, an Olympic medallist in swimming and now a leader in major banking firms whilst also being a sports commentator and commentating on 8 Olympic Games so far. He talked to us about the benefits of visualisation and having coping strategies.
During the easing of the lockdown, I started doing a few time trials and some testing to see where my fitness was and to see what needed improving. I was surprised at how in shape I was and i produced a few PB’s and found myself not far off PB’s. The first time trial I did was the England Athletics virtual 5km Champs. This was a tough race, and I messed my up my pacing, going out too hard. I finished with 15:19, which was a considerable amount of time off my PB, but I wasn’t expecting to run fast considering the type of training I had been doing. A week after this I also did a 1500m TT this time on the track. Again my pacing was off and it was quite a windy day, but I recorded another PB of 4.08. Nothing special but again considering the circumstances I was quite pleased with the time.
After these TTs, my training changed a little and I started adding a few small sessions in, nothing major, but it was nice to start going hard again, even if the reps were just short.
The next time trial I had was a 3km on the road. I was feeling in much better shape for this one after doing a few sessions and was looking forward to it. I ran quite well and only faded in the final few hundred meters, recording a time of 8.38 which was a big PB.
Around this time I also received news that races in France were going ahead and that there would be no more high level racing in the UK. This news was a bit annoying, but I was happy I would at least be able to get some high-level races in this year, even if they were in France.
I will write about how these went in my next blog!
I will be heading back to Eastbourne soon, and I can’t wait to be back training with the squad, it has been very missed!
I currently don’t have any more races planned, so at the moment I am just looking forward to getting back into some tough sessions and hopefully some cross races soon.
Thanks, Hamish