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“You’ve Got to have Faith”

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Getting through Winter training As I become more and more experienced when it comes to winter training, the more I realise the most important thing in getting you to the other side in one piece is confidence. This especially comes to the fore when you train in a group like ours, with other quality athletes, a few of which are hoping to reach next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing. When there is excellence like that around you have to realise you are not going to be in front on every rep or the strongest in the gym. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. I think the importance of self-belief cannot be exaggerated. Oftentimes, the mind is the limiting factor. If you don’t believe you can do something then, more often than not, you will never even come close. In the winter you have got to really take in the big picture. Even when you are feeling slow and sluggish, doing hard and long reps, you have to stay confident that you will be in good condition by the time the summer season comes around.

I am coming to the end of a very successful stint in my Scottish training base. I have been training very well and all indications are that I am up on last winter. I had a very good session last Sunday with the 400m lads. It was a session that was in between what I would be good at and what they are best at, so it really became survival of the fittest! It really is a huge bonus having both Paul McKee and Brian Doyle around this winter and they are helping me to really get every last bit out of myself so far. People often find it hard to grasp when you tell them that the sessions you hurt the most at are the ones that you “enjoy” the most. The challenge is to try to keep the quality of the training up while still getting a large volume of work in. It’s achieving this balance that has really allowed me to make big strides in recent times.

Before I came over to Scotland I went to an Olympic Council of Ireland conference in Howth. It was good because it was another reminder of what the ultimate goal of all the hard work is. It is not often you get a reminder like this in the middle of the winter and it does help, even sub-consciously, to refocus the mind slightly on training. It really does sound like China will put on some show for us all next August. No expense has been spared as the Beijingers get ready to show the world how they are now part of one of the powerful and influential countries in the modern world. The Olympic Stadium looks like an unbelievable piece of architecture and athletics will have a great arena in order to display its wares next August.

Well, I head home tomorrow for Christmas. This is always a frustrating but necessary time of year for us athletes. While everyone else is on holiday mode, for me it is just another week of training. In fact, this year Christmas week is a very important training period as it is the 5th week of my 2nd phase. This means that my volume and intensity is at its highest that week before I take an easy week the way after. That is just the way the calendar works out but it’s fine. Stuart does change the schedule to give us Christmas Day off which is nice as it is really a day I like to spend at home, putting the feet up and spending time with my family.

Hopefully the weather doesn’t take too much of a nosedive over the next few weeks as that can be a recipe for disaster. This time of year is a dangerous one for developing injuries as it is very hard to keep warm. It is particularly important when you are starting to put a bit more quality in and you are slightly more on the edge. It has been bitterly cold over in Scotland for the last week but luckily we have heated indoor facilities where we can warm-up and go if we have breaks. In Galway we have a new shelter but it doesn’t compare to what is available in Scotland. My next diary entry will probably be from South Africa. We leave for a 3 week training camp on January 8th. I’m sure I will tell you all about it then. Will be great to get away somewhere warm for a few weeks…I suppose full-time training has some perks!
This especially comes to the fore when you train in a group like ours, with other quality athletes, a few of which are hoping to reach next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing. When there is excellence like that around you have to realise you are not going to be in front on every rep or the strongest in the gym. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. I think the importance of self-belief cannot be exaggerated. Oftentimes, the mind is the limiting factor. If you don’t believe you can do something then, more often than not, you will never even come close. In the winter you have got to really take in the big picture. Even when you are feeling slow and sluggish, doing hard and long reps, you have to stay confident that you will be in good condition by the time the summer season comes around.

I am coming to the end of a very successful stint in my Scottish training base. I have been training very well and all indications are that I am up on last winter. I had a very good session last Sunday with the 400m lads. It was a session that was in between what I would be good at and what they are best at, so it really became survival of the fittest! It really is a huge bonus having both Paul McKee and Brian Doyle around this winter and they are helping me to really get every last bit out of myself so far. People often find it hard to grasp when you tell them that the sessions you hurt the most at are the ones that you “enjoy” the most. The challenge is to try to keep the quality of the training up while still getting a large volume of work in. It’s achieving this balance that has really allowed me to make big strides in recent times.

Before I came over to Scotland I went to an Olympic Council of Ireland conference in Howth. It was good because it was another reminder of what the ultimate goal of all the hard work is. It is not often you get a reminder like this in the middle of the winter and it does help, even sub-consciously, to refocus the mind slightly on training. It really does sound like China will put on some show for us all next August. No expense has been spared as the Beijingers get ready to show the world how they are now part of one of the powerful and influential countries in the modern world. The Olympic Stadium looks like an unbelievable piece of architecture and athletics will have a great arena in order to display its wares next August.

Well, I head home tomorrow for Christmas. This is always a frustrating but necessary time of year for us athletes. While everyone else is on holiday mode, for me it is just another week of training. In fact, this year Christmas week is a very important training period as it is the 5th week of my 2nd phase. This means that my volume and intensity is at its highest that week before I take an easy week the way after. That is just the way the calendar works out but it’s fine. Stuart does change the schedule to give us Christmas Day off which is nice as it is really a day I like to spend at home, putting the feet up and spending time with my family.

Hopefully the weather doesn’t take too much of a nosedive over the next few weeks as that can be a recipe for disaster. This time of year is a dangerous one for developing injuries as it is very hard to keep warm. It is particularly important when you are starting to put a bit more quality in and you are slightly more on the edge. It has been bitterly cold over in Scotland for the last week but luckily we have heated indoor facilities where we can warm-up and go if we have breaks. In Galway we have a new shelter but it doesn’t compare to what is available in Scotland. My next diary entry will probably be from South Africa. We leave for a 3 week training camp on January 8th. I’m sure I will tell you all about it then. Will be great to get away somewhere warm for a few weeks…I suppose full-time training has some perks!