Zola Budd’s iconic mile record is in my sights...
THE BRITISH mile record is a really iconic mark and I’m going to try to make it mine at the Anniversary Games at the Olympic Stadium tomorrow. Zola Budd still holds it after running 4min 17.57sec in Zurich in 1985. It wouldn’t surprise me if she did it barefoot as she often raced without shoes but I wasn’t even born then!
I was quite close to it last year so I’m hoping I can get it this time. It will also be quite a battle just for the win with the likes of Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, one of the all-time great distance runners, in the field. We have had some fantastic battles and I expect tomorrow to be more of the same.
WINNING the 1,500 metres and breaking Dame Kelly Holmes’s British record at the Anniversary Games last year was one of the highlights of my career so far. You couldn’t hear anything because the crowd was going berserk. It was one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever raced in. People see me grimacing and think I’m in pain — which I am — but I can just keep it going. I have quite a high pain threshold!
IT WAS strange watching last weekend’s British Championships from afar. I was very disappointed not to be there because I have certainly enjoyed winning British titles these past few years. But common sense dictates I shouldn’t dive straight back into my first race after injury with a 5,000m on the track.
THE INJURY I suffered was a strange one. At the beginning of May I started feeling stiffness in my left foot — not pain, just a tightness. I was able to train as normal but the tightness when I ran wasn’t going away.
We were at an altitude training camp in Flagstaff in Arizona and on my rest days I still managed to visit Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and the Grand Canyon. So it’s fair to say the foot wasn’t holding me back that much! The Grand Canyon in particular was truly an amazing sight.
AT THE end of the camp we headed west to Oregon and the Eugene Diamond League event where we were more concerned with my hay fever before the race. Despite my sneezing I finished third in the 1500m behind Olympic gold and silver medallists, the latter just out-dipping me on the line.
On returning to the UK I had a scan on my foot to find the cause of the tightness. To my surprise the various scans showed a healing intracortical stress fracture of the second metatarsal. In simple terms, I had damaged a small bone in my left foot but it was already healing, suggesting it had happened weeks, maybe months, earlier.
Considering I had done a track session immediately after the foot scan and a fivemile run the following morning before I got the results this all came as quite a surprise. I told you I have a high pain threshold!
IT WAS a setback but I knew if I had a couple of weeks’ rest I could continue my season as planned. Still, I’m not sure two sessions a day aqua-jogging and swimming in the pool really counts as time off.
Throw in the gym work and I actually may have completed more training sessions than I would have done if training normally that fortnight.
Having finished my vet placements for the year, as part of my university course, it should have been a chance to catch up with friends and family in Glasgow. We like walking on the beach with the dogs or heading into town to eat. But I’d say I had less time than if I had been training as normal.
I WAS slightly apprehensive about testing my foot when I started running again on June 15 but I didn’t need to worry. I ran for only 20 minutes that first day back, but I was straight back into normal pace of around 5min 50sec per mile.
By the following Wednesday I was back on the track, and three days later I was up to doing a full quota of 15x300m, which actually turned out to be one of the fastest times I have ever done that session. That was very reassuring.
I TRAIN on the track with a group of other athletes, mainly with the boys nowadays! The rest of the week I go for runs by myself. I tried to listen to music but it was all a bit of a faff — I like to be aware of what’s around me.
I’m quite good at zoning out and daydreaming. I love that feeling of just being with your own thoughts and it gives you the opportunity to work things out as you’re running, get rid of any stresses and get into a rhythm. On my return to training things were going so well that my coach, Andy (Young), agreed to bring forward by a few days my next race to the Lausanne Diamond League on Thursday night, where I ran in the 800m.
I had to use it as a bit of a rust-buster before I head straight to London for the Anniversary Games, but I ended up running a new personal best of 1min 58.69sec to join the sub-two minutes club. I was absolutely delighted and it showed I’m back on track for where I need to be.
HOPEFULLY, tomorrow will be a good dress rehearsal for the World Championships in London next month.
The schedule at the worlds is perfect for me — the 1500m is completely finished before the 5,000m starts, so I’m still planning to double up and go for two medals. It’s going to be great.