It’s been a while since I last had a diary entry. I guess one of the main reasons for this is that there is not a whole pile happening except that I have been keeping the head down and training hard. Things have been going very well indeed and all aspects of training are up. The emphasis has been on really putting some more strength-work in while not neglecting the important speed endurance sessions. When I got back into the meat of this training phase the advantage of doing the races indoors at the end of February really became apparent. The extra little bit of speed now really helped me in the tougher and longer sessions. This might seem like a contradiction but the truth was that I still wasn’t very far from the strength-work I had done in South Africa.
The indoor season was short enough that I could just continue on from where I left off. We had planned the whole thing with a lot of precision and I think we got the right balance when looking back.
When I last wrote an entry 4 weeks ago I was in the middle of a trip to Scotland and that went well. I came back to Ireland then for about a week. It was then that I hit my only real speed-bump of the last few months – a bit of a head cold. It was grand though and I only really missed out on a day or two of training. I did my best to rest up and got over it pretty quickly. Then I returned to Scotland via Dublin to get 10 more days of training. It involved two really good 400m-type sessions with Brian on both Sundays as well as a great speed endurance session with Allan and Nick. I also did some good weights sessions and a technique session working on my bend running.
It was really evident from this trip the advantages I get from training with both short sprinters and the 400m guys. It means that I have someone to train with in every session which keeps the intensity up all the time I am over here.
I spent much of last week in Dublin (as my girlfriend lives and works there) and got some good sessions in Irishtown and Santry. My car decided to break down as ever (it’s the bane of my life at the moment and needs to be given an honourable retirement!) so I experienced the joys of getting around our capital city on the buses. It’s a very difficult place to train unless you are a fulltime athlete as the rush hour traffic just means getting to training for most people is a real undertaking! I just thank my lucky stars that I have been given this great opportunity to train without trying to fit it around a nine-to-five. I got back to Galway briefly last weekend before heading over here again for some more torture!
This was a tough week…plain and simple! It is the last week in a very long extended phase beginning the minute the indoors were finished, and I knew that it would be about survival this week. My weights are at their heaviest and I hit a really good personal best in hang clean for 5×5 that I was pleased with. Other lifts in the gym were good, from the heavy stuff like squat to the lighter, technical stuff. I’ve put on a bit of muscle in the last few weeks, especially in my legs, which should help to make me more powerful and robust this summer.
On Tuesday I had a tough one. Up until then I was delighted with how fresh I still felt and was amazed at how much better I was handling the training than last year. I trained with Allan and Nick and it went well. Allan’s strength in some of these sessions is fantastic so it was a real test and I did pretty well. I was quite tired after and still had a bit of the session in the legs today. Today still went well, but we had to tone it back ever so slightly as I was not too far from that invisible line that you shouldn’t cross.
So, I have a precious day off tomorrow and then an easy week of weights starts on Saturday. I have one more hard track session on Sunday, probably with Brian, and then I go back home for some R&R for the week. It will be a week where we ease back on the volume and work on more technical stuff. We will bring the pace up slightly in order to get a feel for what is coming after.
On Monday week we all head to Portugal as part of an Irish Athletics training camp for two weeks. I look forward to getting a bit of sun but most of all I look forward to it because it spells the beginning of the final countdown to the start of my season in early June!
Paul Hession When I got back into the meat of this training phase the advantage of doing the races indoors at the end of February really became apparent. The extra little bit of speed now really helped me in the tougher and longer sessions. This might seem like a contradiction but the truth was that I still wasn’t very far from the strength-work I had done in South Africa.
The indoor season was short enough that I could just continue on from where I left off. We had planned the whole thing with a lot of precision and I think we got the right balance when looking back.
When I last wrote an entry 4 weeks ago I was in the middle of a trip to Scotland and that went well. I came back to Ireland then for about a week. It was then that I hit my only real speed-bump of the last few months – a bit of a head cold. It was grand though and I only really missed out on a day or two of training. I did my best to rest up and got over it pretty quickly. Then I returned to Scotland via Dublin to get 10 more days of training. It involved two really good 400m-type sessions with Brian on both Sundays as well as a great speed endurance session with Allan and Nick. I also did some good weights sessions and a technique session working on my bend running.
It was really evident from this trip the advantages I get from training with both short sprinters and the 400m guys. It means that I have someone to train with in every session which keeps the intensity up all the time I am over here.
I spent much of last week in Dublin (as my girlfriend lives and works there) and got some good sessions in Irishtown and Santry. My car decided to break down as ever (it’s the bane of my life at the moment and needs to be given an honourable retirement!) so I experienced the joys of getting around our capital city on the buses. It’s a very difficult place to train unless you are a fulltime athlete as the rush hour traffic just means getting to training for most people is a real undertaking! I just thank my lucky stars that I have been given this great opportunity to train without trying to fit it around a nine-to-five. I got back to Galway briefly last weekend before heading over here again for some more torture!
This was a tough week…plain and simple! It is the last week in a very long extended phase beginning the minute the indoors were finished, and I knew that it would be about survival this week. My weights are at their heaviest and I hit a really good personal best in hang clean for 5×5 that I was pleased with. Other lifts in the gym were good, from the heavy stuff like squat to the lighter, technical stuff. I’ve put on a bit of muscle in the last few weeks, especially in my legs, which should help to make me more powerful and robust this summer.
On Tuesday I had a tough one. Up until then I was delighted with how fresh I still felt and was amazed at how much better I was handling the training than last year. I trained with Allan and Nick and it went well. Allan’s strength in some of these sessions is fantastic so it was a real test and I did pretty well. I was quite tired after and still had a bit of the session in the legs today. Today still went well, but we had to tone it back ever so slightly as I was not too far from that invisible line that you shouldn’t cross.
So, I have a precious day off tomorrow and then an easy week of weights starts on Saturday. I have one more hard track session on Sunday, probably with Brian, and then I go back home for some R&R for the week. It will be a week where we ease back on the volume and work on more technical stuff. We will bring the pace up slightly in order to get a feel for what is coming after.
On Monday week we all head to Portugal as part of an Irish Athletics training camp for two weeks. I look forward to getting a bit of sun but most of all I look forward to it because it spells the beginning of the final countdown to the start of my season in early June!
Paul Hession