January Sunshine!

Hello from Torrevieja!! 

I hear its snowing at home? - There was only so much of that I could take. 

Being outside in the snow, freezing my toes off just isn't for me and so I have teamed up with a couple of mates from Finland and walked off to Torrevieja in Spain. Made possible thanks to the public support from my Talent Backer campaign and British Athletics. 

I thought this next update would be another massive moan about Russian walkers, instead I have left that in the past as finally their disgraceful behaviour has been outed, I now put my trust in the IAAF to punish and send a clear cut message to all athletes and federations. That is all I have to say on the matter... for now. 

The only change I can make is through my performances. So far, 7 days into my training camp I have already broken some personal training records and feel in fine form for January. It's amazing what a few training partners and a lot of sunshine can do. Yet to get a tan, but watch this space, you never know. Most mornings we meet for training between 9 and 10am and walk up and down the beautifully flat roads some where between Torrevieja and Alicante. It is sunglasses weather for sure! 

I have set my self a few targets for this block of work, mainly reaching certain speeds in my long walks and targeting high overall weekly milage targets. Week 1 done, target distance... smashed! I am putting some of my training on the app Strava. You can see what kind of thing I am getting up to in my training sessions most mornings. 

Currently to pass the time here I am continuing my Modern Family box set marathon, as well as playing around with a lot of fitness apps. I do not train with my phone usually, but can easily link many of these apps through my Garmin watch. My next YouTube review show "Tom Talks.... Fitness Apps" will cover a number of different apps. Watch out for that in early February. Any suggestions of apps please do get in contact with your ideas. 

Now the important bit, racing! I will be racing over 3k at the British Indoor Champs in Sheffield in two weeks. This could be an awesome advert for up and coming talents of British walkers and do not feel like it will be an easy race, 3k is far off my speciality of 20k! 

Then throughout March I will be racing over 10k and 20k, both times hopefully getting those few extra seconds off my current PB's with both British Records set firmly in my sights. But the hard work needs to happen now, for the results to come in March, so I'm signing off now to go and sun bath... I mean go training! 

If you are training hard through the snow and rain back home then you get my respect, I realise how lucky I am to be here training in the sunshine. I plan to make the most of every second! Hope you do too. 

It Begins!

Sitting comfy in my IKEA chair, writing this blog, having just done the biggest week of training of the winter, having won the England Athletics indoor title this afternoon, makes me feel pretty proud of how the year has started.

Weather has been brutal but it's nearly time for me to head out to Spain and have a few weeks training in the warmer weather, before I come back to Leeds for the British Athletics Sainsburys indoor championships. Another 3k like today's race. 3k is a sprint for me, who specialises in 20k. My PB of 11:31, only the 5th fastest on the all time list. I can't quite push it like I can over 5k, 10k, 20k. Today's time of 11:52, was a bit slow, but I'm happy due to the massive week of training and a bit of a cold hindering my speed. 

These weeks are the key ones for most endurance athletes. I heard a great metaphor for why the winter months are key. Training through the winter is like baking a cake. The winter months are the sponge, no sponge then all the icing falls apart. The Icing represents your races, and they will fall apart if you haven't put the work in (sponge) through the winter. This time last year also included my biggest training block, so It was important to replicate this and tweak the areas of training that needed it. After a great Christmas period with my parents, along with a trip to Glasgow for Sports Personality of the Year, it's back to reality. It can't of gone better. I always worry I will never be able to race fast again, it's like a reacuring nightmare, so getting a solid race done early is reassuring. 

My new racing shoes this year will be Asics DS Racer 10, as it has become more of a racing flat again. I've been using them for a month now and it has a little less ankle support than the old Asics Tarthers which have since been stopped. But there's enough support for me in the sole, along with some flexibility so I can feel all the stride and all the push off in my toes. 

My other new toy for 2015 is my ithlete device. It measures my heart rate variability. Each morning I plug it into my iPad open the app, and for 55seconds it reads my heart rate. Basically it's a finger sensor that tells you how fatigued you are. Great if you are doing sport every day. App is cheap and the device is worth the investment. 

Hopefully the next couple of months will run smoothly and I'll be ready to race come March. I can't wait! 

That's all from me, keep baking that sponge!!