Yesterday I ran in the 3k at British Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham, my first race of this type and I have to say I really enjoyed the whole experience of it. To be mixing it with some of the worlds best seeing how they warm up, how they prepare and how they relax before events is something you can really learn from. The highlight of my day wasn't my race, it was being wished good luck from world champ and Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat! Then to see Speaighty nearly beat him I nearly fell of my chair!

It'll leave the ins and outs of my race for the race report. However I've come away with a massive personal best and got well under my aim for the indoor season however I'm still not satisfied. Back in the first week in January Nuttall said to me i'll run under 8:04 and I'll be honest, I laughed at him! I thought there's noway in 6 weeks i'll be in shape to run that time as I knew how hard i'd worked 2 seasons ago to run that fast. That went to the back of my mind and I just got on with the training that was set and every week I kept knocking in great sessions.

Cue the UK Champs last week- I was bitterly disappointed with my own performance as I knew there was so much more in me, but I couldn't have got it out that day. I had to work too hard early on and this lead to me being too tired in the latter stages. I put this down to lack of sharpness as I hadn't done any speedwork and hadn't raced, so in hindsight 8:08 wasn't too bad. 

On gone Tuesday we did a session that we did a few weeks back, 8x400, 8x300. The 400s were the same but John said to have a longer recovery between the 300s so we could wind them up to under 1500m pace rather than just over it. This went well and I felt a little more sharp having got my legs turning again.

I went into the Grand Prix knowing I just had to go out there and do something I hadn't done before. I thought to myself a bad run would be 8:08 and a good run would be under 8. It was all about getting that first km right.

In the end I finished with 8:00.14, very frustrating I know but I think with another race I could get under that barrier. I think the worst possible thing was I looked at the clock at 200m to go and simply just didn't kick hard enough. Oh well, the sub 8 minute clocking will have to come on the outdoors this year where I can now look to the lower end of 7:50s once the training begins to wind up later in the year.

I've come away from the race knowing there is more to come which is a great thing. This feeling gives me a hunger for training and racing and is a great feeling to have as it's what keeps me motivated day in day out. So on that note, I'm off to do my long run, hopefully the legs have the same hunger as I do today!!