IAAF World Championships Adventure

Its almost over.

Beijing World Athletics Championships is something I have worked towards for many years. From the moment I didn't make the team for Moscow 2013, I vowed to never miss a championships again. Since then I haven't. All that was purely down to commitment. If you were to take a look at my training from the last two years it would be like I was different athlete. Thats because the dream of competing at these championships and not coming last was becoming a reality and there is still so much I can do to improve. That is the most exciting thing.

Lets get the important bit out of the way first... The race. Wow! My first World Championships. It felt like any other races, same faces, hot conditions but we were stood on the start line in the Bird Nest Stadium in Beijing. At no point did it over power me, nor did I feel out of place. I knew I deserved to be there and this was a massive opportunity. I started off and purposely went to the back, I knew it could be messy in the first few laps as we had to do the first kilometre inside the stadium. So I let that pan out, the pace was still quick enough, infact it was perfect. After 3 and half laps of the track we headed out of the stadium, this is when I planned to make an early move. I moved up half the field as we made our way out to the 1k loop on the road outside of the stadium. I felt terrible. I didn't feel comfortable, I felt sick and thought this was going to be a very long day!

As I settled though the pace was fast. But it felt easy. I started to not only feel good, but I felt great! I felt in the form of my life. I played it safe, till 5k hitting it in about 20:25, so not as safe as I thought, but it still felt so easy. I just kept pulling out the laps, on a course which I really loved as it felt so quick. I hit 10k in 40:44 and reassessed the situation, I checked all my indicators, legs - great, pace - strong, stomach - settled, temperature - ok, head - focused. I knew as I hit 12k that the K's were going to be tough at this point and they were. I dropped a little bit of pace, but nothing drastic I stayed calm and really pushed on. I made it to 14k still well under PB National record pace and started to believe that this could be a very special day. I gritted my teeth and pushed on.


Then nothing. My legs stopped turning, my drive disappeared and sharp pains just started shooting through my legs. I felt strong but the sun was beating down on my neck at this point. I felt energy disappearing from my body as I took each step. The wheels really did come off. I was so angry with my self that I pushed on and on. But I had nothing left. The sun allowed a fast 15k but the final 5k it punished me. I was relieved to finish. I was so distraught to see the time of 1:23:58. Well over 22mins for the final 5k.

Gutted, I lay on the track trying not to cry. I got up and knew I'd have to speak with the BBC but didn't want to. I just told my self see the positives.

I know now though that the pace was fast and the great thing was it felt so easy. I'm still young in the event and I plan to train harder than ever before going into the Olympic year. Soon I will be able to hold that pace, even in those conditions all the way to the end. I also clinched my third Olympic Games qualifying time, as well as going from ranked 42nd to finishing 24th! I also was the 8th European Athlete to finish, moving up 4 places from last years 12th at the Europeans in Zurich. So there were some positives and obvious development. It has shown just how far I have come, that I can finish 24th at Worlds and be disappointed.

It took me 4 days to recover before I was able to do much, so I have no doubt I gave it 100% on race day and would like to dedicate my first World Championships to my coach of 6 years Andi Drake who was unable to be here in Beijing. A very big thank you also needs to go to the man who put up with the teenage Tom and got me into race walking... Peter Selby Tonbridge AC race walking coach. The man deserves a knighthood for his dedication to me and the event.



I have been able to enjoy my self since. I started off at Beijing Zoo with Meghan Beesley, then did some sight seeing, risked my life on a scooter with Michael Rimmer and Kyle Langford at the Silk Street market and then headed to the Great Wall and Summer Palace with Laura Muir and Coach Andy Young.



















I also commentated on EuroSport on Friday and Saturday's morning sessions, talking walking during the Women's 20k and Men's 50k.




A lot of the time you don't have the opportunity to get to see much of the places you travel to. This time I was lucky enough to have an entire week to sight see and watch the awesome athletics!







 Overall I've experienced a lot. The race taught me so much to take into future championships. There are plenty of things for me to work on and hopefully the support from British Athletics will continue to grow so I continue to show my worth on the international stage.
I dreamt of making a World Championships and have done it, I'm now also only months away from fulfilling my Olympic dream assuming all goes to plan. However, these dreams have started to change and develop into ones of winning international races and medals. For the first time in my career the final pieces of the puzzle lay in front of me. I was able to see what the difference was between finishing 1st and finishing 24th. It will soon be time to head home and get back to Leeds, recover, and put together my plan to take me further up the field. The next two years are big in my development and by London World Championships in 2017 I see that as the start of many years of racing at the front of the pack fighting for medals.

I can't thank everyone enough for all your kind words, but 24th is not good enough and you can trust me when I say I will work harder and become better than I ever have before over this next winter.

My season isn't quite finished with another 20k on Sunday 6th September in the Isle of Man, followed by a return to China for the IAAF race walking tour, 4 days of racing!

Japan was a beautiful, China was... interesting, but 2016 will be outstanding.


#TomWalksFast

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World Athletics Championships - The final steps

One week to go!

An athlete trains their guts out week in week out to make a major championships. The pinnacle of their sport making those brutal winter sessions and long periods away from home all worth it. Always leave it in your hands, never allow a shred of doubt to enter any one's mind - you're good enough to compete against the best - end of!

- Watch my 'One Week To Go' video! -

For years I dreamt of making a World Championships and over the last 3 it has become more and more real. Now it is and I'm a week out from the biggest race of my life am I nervous? No, I'm just training and preparing as normal like it was any other meet. The emotions and anticipation have started to build as they would normally, can't say any less than its all going to plan.

Up here in Gifu, Japan I've had wonderful support from British Athletics support staff and other coaches as my personal coach was unable to make it out here to the altitude camp. Physio Cat has kept me in one piece, as well as the help in training which has been perfect!
I had brilliant company and drinks man Steve Cram on the bike with me a few times as well as the best pace maker on the track Captain Kate Spilsbury! - Kate did a great job on the track, it was just a shame how she tried to drive me and other athletes off the side of the mountain on numerous occasions, we can't all be perfect I guess!

As well as the support the team also really embraced race walking which as you all well know I have been fighting for a long time now to be closer to main stream athletics in the UK.








Jenny Meadows felt she could be a good walker, and decided to give it a go. She literally picked it up at the firs attempt and we battled it out in a race walk off!

Tom vs Jenny - Race Walk Off! 

Training at altitude can be tough but ensuring an easy start will allow you to fit into normal training soon enough and I was able to smash out some PB sessions up the mountain. It also helps to have such quality training partners in the GB team, well they weren't really training partners for me more just brilliant motivation to be training on the track at the same time as these guys tearing it up round the track. Race Walking couldn't have been more in the middle of British Athletics!

Charlie Grice post track session

Me and Mo after training

Great news is that the race looks like it will be on BBC 2 at 1:30am (UK time) on Sunday 23rd August. I'll have to put in a big performance and it is also the second day of the women's heptathlon and I hear we have a few talented athletes in that! 

Don't expect to hear much from me in in race week I like to keep to my self in the final few days as well as China have blocks on Facebook and Twitter (@TomBosworth) You can always keep an eye on my website, TomBosworth.com Make sure you use #TomWalksFast. 

Now is a perfect time to thank you all for your support in getting me this far. I am truly thankful and it would mean a lot less to be here without the support from my amazing Family and Friends as well as all the Athletics fans around the world. Thank you! 

I'm soon to be Beijing bound - let the next leg of my journey be a successful as this!

All the best from me on the volcano in the clouds.

#TomWalksFast

IAAF World Championships Preparation

It was a great day back in June after I won the 20k trial in Bedford for the World Championships in Beijing this summer. I had ticked all the boxes and gained automatic qualification to my first ever World Champs. It didn't feel real until I saw the Team Sheet with my name on it, it finally sunk in that I had reached the highest level of competition and was given this opportunity to represent my country.
Over the last few years I have moved on a significant amount, ticking off the Championships as I go, starting with Commonwealth Games, then European Championships and now World Championships, there is just one more to go, but that can wait till next summer.

The final few weeks training in Leeds went well, with a great final week full of quality walks and tempo sessions before I jumped on to plane to travel to the altitude camp in Japan.
Im coming to the end of the first week of training up the mountain and to say its been up and down is an understatement.
My self and Laura Weightman were the first competing athletes to head out along with the wonderful support staff and training partner for most of the runners, Adam Clarke. Nice little group of us who were quickly joined by others, with more coming in over the next week.
Finding flat places for me to train up the mountain was slightly trickier than first planned with one of my first sessions being one of the hilliest I've ever done! Up and down it most certainly was. We tried another loop the following evening, there seemed to be quite a bit of up and some very steep downs to that as well.
No need to panic though, as we soon started to find a few flat loops and I have been able to race walk some quality, yet cautious sessions. - as you can't go all out in training for the first few days at altitude, otherwise you'll end up a slightly exhausted athlete.

The views up here are stunning, the sky at night is full of stars, plus there is a huge telescope on top of the hotel which we all went up to have a little look at. Turned out we could see Saturn, it was stunning as we were able to see through the telescope Saturn's rings and a few of its moons, incredible!

The hotel staff and local sporting governing bodies, plus a few handy translators, have been fantastic. They have been happy to help with everything and have made sure we are well looked after and are so friendly. They did seem to get very excited when myself and Laura had a post session ice bath (paddling pool);

The last couple of days the clouds have lifted and there have been some totally stunning views from up here. We are able to see the slightly unnerving volcano behind us, as well as the beautiful mountains and views. It is times like these which you realise how lucky we are to get to travel the world and see these stunning places. 

                     

The top athletics track is hidden away on the 

mountain side and is a stunning place to train. Plenty of Japanese kids doing athletics in their summer holidays is a great sight to see. 

                    
I'm not a fan of a lot of training on the track, but with this back drop it certainly makes it slightly more enjoyable.






The travel and time difference made it a tough first few days, but no ones training suffered, it just meant the body didn't always want to sleep at night as it was still tuned into the time at home. That took a few days to pass and now everyone has settled in to Japanese time, which will be a big advantage when it comes to traveling into Beijing.

Big thanks to SOSRehydrate for supporting me with important tools in staying hydrated, which is key at altitude and has been crucial in helping to acclimatise.

Perks of the Job -


Thats where we are at as of the moment, time to put in some strong training over these final weeks before heading down and taking on the world on August 23rd.

Will update again once I've smashed out some quality sessions.
Sending my thanks to everyone for the kind words on my selection from somewhere up a mountain in the clouds.