TRAINING DIARY

Thursday July 26

Brazil Here I Come!

Today I leave for Brazil so don’t be alarmed if there is no update for a day or two. I will try and get some details through to my wonderful wife Lisa who will hopefully put some stuff up as it happens.

Today I ran a 600 400 and 300 at about 85 percent. My 600 was run in 1.26 with eight minutes recovery then a 55 second 400 followed by a 300 in 43. The weather was cool and windy and the legs struggled to really get going in the early morning cool air. However once again the lungs felt good and I am feeling pretty good and confident going into next weeks world champs.

The Stats

Km’s Run: 11
Weather: Cool breezy and 16
On this Day: This time a year ago I ran a 1.54.90 finishing 2nd in a lower grade BMC meet in Watford London.


Wednesday July 25

Easy Day In Hyde Park

Today’s training was nice and cruisy with an easy 44 minute run featuring a lap of the four mile Hyde Park in 25.34. Although the legs were still a little tight my pace reflected the good aerobic shape I am in. Will be interesting to see how I fare tomorrow with the track workout.

The Stats

Km’s run: 11
Weather: Coudy bit of rain 17 degrees
On this Day: In 2005 Nick Buck my training partner and I muscled out 10 by 2 minutes on a muddy Prince of Wales Park in Newtown during a mid week lunch hour. Good stuff!


Tuesday July 24

Sun In London, with Attitude!

Today the sun has been shining and it assisted in affording me the luxury of having a nice easy 40 minute jog through Regent’s Park and the surrounding suberb of St Johns Wood. It was lovely! This was followed later in the afternoon by a nice relaxing 5k jog with Lisa once again through Regents Park.

This morning the TVNZ show Attitude paid Lisa and I a visit and did a bit of a story on life in London and in particular my new job as an Athlete Mentor. Good stuff!

The Stats

Km’s run: 15
Weather: Fine sunny bit of a breeze 22 degrees.
On this day: It was this time three years ago in 2004 where I opened my Athens campaign with a 1.57 800m effort at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast. Heading out in 27 for the first 200 I tied up quite a bit in the second lap.


Monday July 23

Blog Up and Running Again!

Today I did some speed work at Paddington Recreation ground. This consisted of 15 minutes warm up followed by some drills and 3 X 80 and 3 X 120s. The legs didn’t feel that quick. However a massage this afternoon has loosened them up nicely and I am looking forward to having a couple of easy days before a workout on Thursday before I leave for Brazil.

The Stats

Km’s run: 8
Weather: Cool and overcast 17 degrees.
On this Day: A whooping training load on this day in 2005. The middle of winter and a cool Saturday morning 7.15am Nick Buck, Ben Revell and myself did 10 by 1200m cross country intervals at a park in Khandallah. Averaging 4.12 per rep with two minutes recovery the session totaled 17km. This was backed up with an easy half hour in the afternoon.


The last three Weeks!

Well I have not been too methodical in my recording of the training diary over the last three weeks so I will now give you a quick run down and a glimpse of the highlights from the last three weeks.

July 5:
Had a great 5 by 1k session with 60 seconds between each rep I hammered out 2.58 2.58 2.57 2.56 and 2.51 and felt great throughout

July 8:
I did a tempo of 2 mile (8 laps) in 10.07 followed by four 200s in 27/28 but felt pretty good.

July 11:
I had my first race a 1500 BMC event in Watford, north of London. I was aiming to get a solid run in as it was the first track race for over four months. I ran 3.55.16 to finish around 10th in a field of 17, my splits were solid 62, 63, 63 and finished in 47 for the last 300 so a five out of ten pass mark.

July 15: Lisa and I traveled to Belgium for the meet in Gent. It was a beautifully warm day in Gent and I ran in the B string 1500. It was the same meet that I broke the World record in last year. However the same result wasn’t forth coming. I ran 3.54.85 which was a slight improvement on Wednesday so things are starting to head in the right direction.

July 21: Raced a 3k in Birmingham. My time was 8.32.31 which was three seconds off my best. I headed out quick and at 2k was on track for a good solid personal best. However it was not to be and a faded quite a bit down the stretch. I was originally entered in the B race but after taking six hours to get to the track (should of taken two!) due to the flooding and train delays I was granted entry into the A race.


Wednesday July 4

Prendo Back In Action

Almost ten months to day since I last logged an entry into the Running Vision blog I am back! It has been an interesting and eventful last ten months to say the least. The focus of the site is on my running and that has progressed soundly throughout the period but also in my personal life I have evolved and am now a married man. I married my partner Lisa at the end of March in Wellington in what was a fantastic and memorable occasion.

I now find myself in London. I have been given the opportunity to work for a Sport England funded initiative called Respect Athlete Mentor Programme. I will be an Athlete Mentor to around ten groups of young people over the next nine months which is an extremely exciting prospect. At this stage I am just going through the training and planning stages but come August/September I anticipate things to get pretty busy.

Running is going soundly. The summer ended with a five out of ten pass mark. I finished 7th at Nationals over 1500m and my season best was 3.52 which I did twice. No PB’s so a little frustrating from time to time. Since March and the end of the summer season I have had a break, got back into base build up, had a couple of niggles and illness as well as moved. This has been intertwined with two cross country races back in New Zealand with mixed results.

After three weeks in London I feel settled and the comfy start to the job means I am able to focus quite intently on training which is good. Last week I was struck down with a nasty stomach bug but I have been back up and going for the last week now and am starting to feel myself regaining some much needed form.

I will continue with my daily updates although they may only be logged every few days. I am off to Brazil at the end of the month for the IBSA World champs where I am running the 1500 and 5000 so there maybe a couple of weeks without the blog but we will see how easy it is to access the net over there.

So back to normal transition!!

Today I have had a nice speed day which involved a 16 minute warm up to Paddington rec ground a warm up and some drills followed by 10 by 50 metre strides/sprints. I was going to do some bounding and hops however with the rain pouring down this was not possible as the field was soaked and the track slippery. The weather has been a nightmare here since we arrived. It has rained everyday at some stage since we came here on June 13, awful!!

The days training was completed with a nice jog around parts of Regents Park with my wife Lisa.

The Stats

Kms run: 14
Weather: Mainly mild but a few heavy showers 20 degrees
On this day: Today I cast my mind back to 2004 when in my build up to the Athens Paralympic Games I struggled through a 5 by 300 metre work out on a muddy bottom field at Wellington College.