It has been a long, long time since my
last blog but University exams have been slowly destroying my life.
However, the good news is – these are now OVER. Goodbye University
– Hello big,bad world – well, the athletics world for now. I never ever want to see a number again – unless it's winning lottery
numbers. Over the past three months there have been some major
changes, one being that I no longer have a home – which is why I
have been country-hopping for the past two months! I spent a month
training out in Portugal with my Dundee-based training group followed
by a month spell in Font-Romeu with UK Athletics. This was my first
ever trip to Font so I would like to take the opportunity to thank
London Marathon for their support on this camp!
On my return from Kenya, I decided last
minute to test myself over a 3000m indoors at the Birmingham Grand
Prix. Unsure as to how the altitude would affect me, I was very wary
about how I would feel! Luckily for me, I reacted really well and
came away with a new PB. As I was only a few seconds off the European
Indoor Championships Qualifying time – I decided to accept an
invite to race another 3000m Indoor at the Stockholm GP. I came away
with another PB, this time a big chunk off my outdoor time – 8.49
and a second place behind Dibaba. To be fair though, she was so far
ahead I could only just see her perky little bum metres ahead in the
distance! It was clear that altitude training definitely works for
me, so when I was given the opportunity to head out to Font-Rome in
April, I jumped at the chance.
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| Birmingham Indoors GP |
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| Sweden GP |
Font-Romeu is a lot lower than Kenya at
around 5000ft – so technically steady runs should be easier than
out in Kenya. However, the first few sessions I was seriously
struggling! Panting like a dog on a hot day, I was in a bad place. I
did manage my first ever session over barriers (I realise this is bad
– as I am meant to be a steeplechaser) but things actually went
really well. Out in Portugal, training had hit a bit of a stand-still
so I was glad things were starting to turn around by the time I was
out in Font. I was slightly embarrassed to do my session in front of
the French Olympic steeplechaser Tahri – he was probably cringing
thinking what the hell is that girl doing. My technique is an
acquired taste.... haha, but it has improved hugely! The only thing I
haven't done since the Olympics is the water-jump. There have been
numerous reasons as to why this has happened but every time we aim to
do a few run overs after sessions etc. there always seems to be a
bigger reason not too – whether that be bad weather or a slight
niggle – I just want to limit my chances of getting injured before
starting, what should be, a great season for me!
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| Font-Romeu's snow storm! |
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| Death by the track... at 5000ft! |
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| Font-Romeu Lake |
The scenery out in Font is genuinely
unbelievable - although I was ready to end my life when the
temperature dropped so rapidly. One day I was out sunbathing in a
bikini – the next day, I wake up to 10ft of snow, in minutes. Some
of the athletes retreated to the underground car park and did their
long sunday runs around a 75second circle – luckily for me, I
managed to find a 2mile loop at the lake - of which a snow-plough had
just cleared the way. God clearly thought we were too lucky though
and decided to start a snow storm, which then meant the next few hours
were spent trapped in the car, at the bottom of the mountain. One of
the coaches decided to try and get wheel spikes for the car but the
service station had run out of them! Luckily for us – they
certainly hadn’t ran out of pain au chocolats and take-away pizzas.
Our snow adventure was complete.
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| Preparing to run in the snow storm... |
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| Made it to the top! 6mile hill session! |
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| Myseld and Dean.. frozen to death |
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| Pizza in the bath after a TOUGH, SNOWY day... |
Another last minute decision to race
the Loughborough International was made after a few decent sessions
at sea-level.
My first race of the season – 1500m
went really well. I managed to knock off two seconds from my personal
best to record a 4.09. It also meant I clocked a Scottish
Commonwealth Games Standard for 2014 – which is always a bonus! For
hours and hours prior to the race, my mum had told myself and Morag
(my good friend and training partner from Dundee) that we were both
in sub 4.10 shape – and that in order to hit those times we needed
to run a 66 first lap. She was constantly banging on and on about
this, so when we both heard 68... our hearts dropped! I knew we were
in for a bollocking unless we got a move on! Luckily, my legs felt
great and so I managed to kick on over the last lap and drag my time
back down to a 4.09. It's a far cry from my 4.26 opener last year so
hopefully that's a sign of what is to come this season! The weather
was perfect though, which is a first for the UK!
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| Final 100m |
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| Myself and Morag - 1500m, Lough |
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| Training in Loughborough |
Not going to lie, it wasn't the most
exciting few days of my life! I spent three days in Loughborough
before heading down to London for the Olympic Garden Party at
Buckingham Palace! But in the space of those three long, long,
looooong, boring days... I watched a disgusting amount of 'car-crash
TV'. More specifically, (and I apologise in advance.. I am cooler
than this, I promise), 5 episodes of Britain’s Got Talent, 2
episodes of The Voice, 1 episode of The Valleys, 1 episode of Made in
Chelsea (this doesn’t count as it's amazing) aaaaaand 2 episodes of
The Apprentice. I did dispute, internally in my head, as to whether I
should admit to this or not... Probably not.
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| Ready for the Garden Party! |
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| Hey Queenie! |
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| Landaaaaan! |
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| Buckingham Palace |
The Garden Party at Buckingham Palace
was thankfully a lot more exciting. Obviously, I was slightly upset
that my chance to become royalty quickly vanished at the no-show of
Prince Harry but the sight of the Queen and Kate Middleton, got me
through such a tough time. It was pretty sweet getting the
opportunity to walk through Buckingham Palace towards the gardens –
although by the grand scale of it, it's not quite a 'garden', more a
huge park! It was all quite a posh occasion – of which all of Team
GB were meant to be in their matching 'Official Next Formalwear'. Not
Eilish though, as usual, I couldn't find my GB dress! So it was a
last minute scurry around my wardrobe to find a 'summer dress'. I
also then realised, I had no shoes other than my trainers – cue my
boyfriend's amazing sister, Katie – I had a lovely pair of flat
shoes. Then... I realised I didn't have any black tights, which meant
I spent the full two hours annoying my boyfriend asking if my dress
was too short, if it had moved or if my bum was exposed. Queenie
would not have been happy with me. This was all topped off by the
fact, I also didn't have a hat! I think I can forget about marrying
into royalty anytime soon...
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| Central Park |
The next race of my summer season, my
first 3000m steeplechase of the year, was at the New York Diamond
League. I was pretty excited about the opportunity of heading to New
York again and especially, for my first ever track race in America.
Unfortunately it didn’t go as well as I had hoped – although it
wasn’t a disaster. The weather was pretty horrific – strong
winds, brisk temperatures topped off by torrential rain – it was
like being back in Scotland! The pace was set for the top africans at
3.05 for the first K – which would have been perfect for me to just
sit at the back of the pack. However, it was much, much slower right from the
gun which meant that the whole field was very bunched. I ran
consistent, consistently slow... but managed to pick up the last K by
quite a bit to record 9.45. To be honest, I shouldn't really be
disappointed as it's my quickest ever opener in the steeplechase and
my 3
rd fastest time ever – but I really was. I was so
angry at myself, as I know I am in much better shape than that! My
hurdling has improved greatly from last year and my fitness is a
world apart compared to 2012 – however my water jump is still
letting me down. This is something I will definitely start to work on
and develop over the next few years. The main thing for me is that
i'm healthy and injury free. I've had one good race, one mediocre
race, two commonwealth qualifying times and a World Championship B
time – only 2 seconds off the A standard - and its only May. So...
I really shouldn't be complaining - although I am never happy and
always looking for better!
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| Ichann Stadium, NY |
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| Living the high life... Shreddies in a cup. Playa. |
New york is amazing though – I wish I
could go out at some point for a holiday rather than for racing! As
an athlete you never actually get to witness the city or go
sightseeing – my sights involved... a bus, a hotel room and a
restaurant. That's a slight lie – this time I had a good few hours
before my flight home and so spent a couple of hours running along
5
th Avenue...but shopping this time!
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| Miniature cupcakes from Baked by Melissa, NY |
It was also pretty cool getting to
watch Tyson Gay and David Rudisha warming up after I had finished
running. Both athletes, I have never actually had the chance to see
in real-life – they are raaaaapid. Another favourite was Blanka
Vlasic – I always get ripped for saying this – but she is
unbelievable looking! I was too shy/depressed to ask for any pictures
so your just going to have to take my word on those hard-earned facts
I have produced for you guys!
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| Scraping my hair back for a 7.5 hour flight... creating my 5head. |
My final investment before I left New
York was a disgusting amount of Twizzlers. I think it might be
classed as a serious addiction – so much so, that when I run out, I
order them online at ridiculous prices! I'm determined to start a
petition to get them brought out in UK supermarkets – they will
genuinely enrich lives... and save me some pennies. :)
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| The best 'candy' in the world. |
What's next? Well... it's now a waiting
game to see what races I can get myself into. Fingers crossed –
Rome Diamond League! If not, I will be doing a small 1500m race in
the Netherlands followed by the 3000m SC at the Birmingham Diamond
League at the end of June!
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| Back to training at Caird Park, Dundee |
It's been a long time since I last
wrote on here – hence this novel -
eeek. Good riddance for another few months! :D
