World Champs...making the final!

It's been a while...sorry! I am currently working on my website and should have it up and running by the end of the week.

Following on from my last blog in Daegu...

My pre-meet went really well at the track in the village the day before my race. It always helps to feel good the day before, and it got me really excited about the race.

I felt really good going into the heats, my warm-up went well and I knew what I need to do to make the final. I was 100% focused on making the final and really believed I would. 

I ran with confidence and stayed wide to keep myself at the front. 5 of us broke away but only 4 would qualify. Apart from getting a stitch with 600m to go, I felt great. I knew at the bell lap that my time would be good enough for a spot in the final, and I ended up less than a second off an automatic top 4 spot in my race. 

Going into the final I really believed I could be top 8, which would have gained me automatic selection for London 2012. However things just didn't go well on the day. 

The final is still a mystery to me! 50m into the race one of the Ethiopian's fell and I had to jump over her, which caused a gap from me and the rest of the field. From that point onwards I was never in the race and simply ran. Finishing 14th was not my goal, nor was running my slowest time of the season. 

I still had a week left in the village before retuning to England. Which meant another week of terrible food in the dining hall! I have never eaten so much pineapple in the space of 2-weeks in my life! Luckily I had fabulous room mates.

Since I was the first one to arrive in our apartment I managed to shotgun the ensuite! Hannah was pretty happy when she arrived. Our bathroom was the official ice-bath room! Holly Bleasdale wasn't having any of it though!

I took a day off following the race and then continued my training as normal. My coach and I were undecided on wether we would run anymore races following Daegu. 

Thankfully my roomie Hannah England won the silver medal in the 1500m 2 days later which lifted the mood! Being so close to someone who has just won a medal and seeing how exciting it all is, really made me want that success too. I couldn't resist a track invasion!!!

During the training camp in Ulsan my brother and his wife had a little boy, Jacob. He is the first baby amongst my brother, sister and I and was supposed to be born before I left. So I stayed home for a couple of days to see him before returning to the US of A. 

I was away for 3-months from husband and dog Duke, so it was great to back together again. 

My last race of the season was the 5th Avenue mile in New York City. It is the second time I have ran this event, my last outing being back in 2009. The event is organized by NYRR and is one of the most enjoyable events of the summer racing season. 

The entry list was one of the strongest ever, including eight olympians and four 2011 world championship finalists. Headlining the women's race, Gold and Silver medalists in the 1500m Jenny Simpson and Hannah England, 4:00 flat runner Morgan Uceny and the versatile 5000m Silver medalist Sally Kipyego. 

The race went out pretty steady and I was in the middle of the pack until about 600m in. The race goes uphill from 400m-800m and I didn't quite push hard enough which caused me to loose contact and the field began to string out. At around 1km I found myself reeling people in and I managed to gain a top 10 finish in a time of 4:31.7, only 1 second off my track PR (or PB, depending if you are British or American!)

Last week I had my first session with Sports Psychologist Stan Beecham. I first met Stan at Zap Fitness in Boone, North Carolina whilst I was attending a pre season camp with Florida State University. 

My coach and I decided my psychology during races is an aspect of training we needed to address. Both physical and psychological capabilities contribute to good performance and it is important to understand that on race day 50% of performance comes from both mental and preparatory decisions.

Training this year has gone very well and we  both feel I should be running a lot faster. So we are excited to see how this can help us with getting my times down going into London. 

Today was my first day back from a short break. I felt really fresh and I'm really looking to getting back into some hard winter training. 

Thanks to a local elite runner I have use of an altitude tent. I was really happy with my response from training in Font Romeu this year, so being able to sleep at altitude every night is something I hope to really benefit from. Thankfully we have Air Conditioning so it doesn't get hot in the tent at all.
I intend to attend camps in Kenya and Font Romeu this year in preparation for the track season, so this will help a great deal in my transition to sleeping and training at altitude. 

Until next time...