Setting Up for a Big Week

It’s race week again already! There’s nothing better than racing, it makes the winter training worth it.

Having already qualified twice for the European Championships, Zurich in August, I can enjoy racing the 20k trial this weekend in York.

I watched the boxing on Saturday night, it got me pumped up that’s for sure! Shows what experience does for an athlete. That’s exactly what will put me in a good position for Sunday’s race.

Another strong time will put me in contention for funding at the end of the year, but in the meantime it will show my continued development this year as one of the best walkers in the world.

This race is a little different. Usually there’s a long flight, staying in a hotel with different foods and cultures. My last race was the IAAF World Cup in Taicang, China. This one is 40 minutes up the road from Leeds in York.

I’m treating it as important as any other, because it is. For me it’s important to get my head into race mode in the days before. Focus on my strategy, kilometre splits and how to deal with different possibilities during the race.

If I finish in the top two Brits on Sunday, I would have ticked every box required for selection for Zurich in August. (1:23:00 Qualifying time and top 2 in the trial).

It will be my first major championship since the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Don’t get me started on this year’s Commonwealths in Glasgow.

They decided to include athletics but discriminate against walkers by not including the walks, despite race walking being an athletic event… and they go about talking about ‘inclusion’.

More importantly for me is the European Athletics champs and that has been the target since August last year when I missed out on making the team for the World Athletics Champs in Moscow.

That just made me stronger and more determined and I believe it had a huge hand in making this season such a success. Third fastest Brit in all time over 20k and fastest in over 20 years speaks for itself.

Some people may just give up, that’s not me and I love proving people wrong and most importantly the love of athletics keeps me going.

Training this week will be slightly less than usual but not by much due to the importance of getting a big block of work done over the next month.

I have some track races to look forward to and plenty of British records to target also. The 10,000m race walk in Bedford at the end of June, followed by the 5000m in Birmingham, which is also the European trials for the other athletic events. (Will be shown on BBC).

This has been such a great season so far, made possible by sponsors and England and British Athletics. All I need to do is continue to train hard!

The right man won the boxing… the right man will succeed in York on Sunday.

#TomWalksFast