Once again I’m on the plane back to America. The last time I was flying to albuquerque I was unsure what to expect when competing in he NCAA and how I would enjoy New Mexico. After the first semester I now know the standard of athletes here and realise there is still a lot of work to do.
Unfortunately my Christmas break was full of niggles and illness meaning I could not compete and not fully follow the training schedule I had been set. I had picked up a chest infection a few days before I left for Scotland. I managed to get antibiotics which shifted the infection pretty quickly however it meant I had to have a week of easy runs and no sessions. After the easy week I managed a good hill session followed by a good track session a few days later. I was starting to get fit again and went 10miles on Christmas Day but picked up a knee pain on the last mile. The pain came and went daily but resulted in a few days of pool training or complete rest. Thankfully the pain left and didn’t come back meaning I could get a few more runs around the local trails before I left again.
The biggest disappointment was not being able to compete in the portobello promathon (4miles) on New Year’s Day. I have ran the race every year for 6 years and I’ve always found its a good way of revealing form before going into the indoor season. Having ran 10 mile tempos at 5:16 pace at 5000ft altitude I was looking forward to racing flat out over 4 miles and running quick. The knee pain meant this wasn’t possible and I ended up resting instead. Overall the Christmas break might not have been great for training but it was great getting to see friends and family again.
Once I’m back in albuquerque I will have roughly 3-4 weeks to get fully ready for the indoor season. Last January I ran a pb of 3:46 indoors so the main aim this indoors is to get that time down more and get closer to the commonwealth games 1500m qualifying time (3:42.2)
