I know what you're thinking, and the answer's NO! The title of the blog dosen't have any relation to the BUCS afterparty, despite what you may or may not have heard. I'm in fact talking about my running at the moment. Before BUCS I would happily bounce along and feel good running, but since the race I've felt even better. Going out for a run is feeling, for the first time in a long time, enjoyable. I suppose the race confirmed to me that I'm in good shape and calms the mind. I wasn't doubting anything Steve was doing, but to have tangible evidence things are going well is nice.

I'm now looking very much forward to the defense of my National Junior Cross title in a couple of weeks time. Not only that, it is my final race in the junior mens category, scary stuff! Originally this was going to be my final cross-country race before the track season, but after BUCS I was given a booklet to fill out about doing the World Student Cross in Canada. They are planning to take a team of 6 and I don't know about the rest of the guys but this is something I am very interested in doing. To go there to race would be a great experience and one I don't want to miss. But that's not until April and I don't have any races pencilled in for March. Some of you are probably sitting there and thinking "but the Inter-counties is in March...". Even though it is on my doorstep I won't be making an appearance. People have said to me to do it because if my run at BUCS, but Steve said a long time ago that I was going to give it a miss this year and despite my run in Stirling, I'm sticking to his decision. The reasoning behind this is in a previous blog, probably around December time. But we were talking and I wouldn't mind hitting the road scene for the first time in my career (if that's what you can call it). He dosen't want me running any 10k's yet but a few quick 5k's would be nice. Seeing as it is my first year of many (I hope!) as a senior I see no harm in trying out new things and testing the waters a bit. I was really set on going to Armagh this year but unfortunately it's two days before the National, so I'll have to wait. If anyone knows of any quick courses with races in March give me a shout because I haven't got a clue about any.

One thing making sessions more enjoyable is the return of Phil Nicholls. Since Steve took him on I haven't been able to run with him much because of conflicting race schedules. But Coach has been nice enough to give us a couple of weeks off racing so we can get some hard sessions in together. This brings me nicely onto replying to the comment left on the last blog from "the stag" (Pete Whitehouse?). He/she asked if I find it tough training in with Steve and Nicholls. To be honest at the moment I'm finding it ok. I did a session with Nicholls a good few weeks ago now and towards the end it was really hard work, he just wouldn't slow down! I managed to hang onto him but stuff like that is good for me. It keeps me on my toes and trying to run with someone faster than you is a good way to improve. I've been doing sessions with Steve since I was 16. I started off by doing only half his sessions and over a few years have moved up to completing them. But since day 1 running with him has always felt comfortable, and it remains that way. Coach says having the three of us together is good because Phil likes taking out the long reps which helps us and I have the speed to take out the shorter ones which helps them, while Steve gets a free ride the whole time. We work well together and unlike some groups, we never feel like we are in a competitive situation in training, it's just fast relaxed running working off each other.

I would like to end by saying goodbye and thank you to Neil Speaight. I think most will agree it's been good reading up on what a sub-3:40 1500m runner does and the input will definitely be missed.   

Take it easy,

Gooooooooooooolab xxx