The past three weeks of training out here in Albuquerque has been a significant stretch of training for me and I can't wait for the indoor season to start. Tuesday's workout gave me an encouraging indicator of where my aerobic endurance is at. The session was scheduled to be 800m reps but as Chris Barnicle was going to be doing 600m reps I decided to jump in with him and take advantage of the company. As Barnicle has ran 13.36 for 5km, 28.10 for 10km, and a 62.43 half-marathon I knew that running 10 times 600m's with 2minutes recovery was going to be a bit of a stretch for me. Gladly I was able to muscle my way through most of the session. On the first rep we went through 400m in 61 and I remembering thinking to myself "be ready to crawl off the track after this session". After 8 reps I was on the edge so I decided to pace Barnicle through 400m for the 9th as that would give me a little extra recovery to complete the full 600m on the 10th rep.

Despite not doing the entire session I gained plenty positives from that session. In Indianapolis I've done a similar session and haven't been able to run the same average, so knocking that out at 5,000ft I was delighted.

This Thursday I'm flying back to Indianapolis to get ready for my first race of 2012. I've entered the 800 and the mile but I'm leaning towards racing the mile. I'd like to see where I'm at over a mile and what I need to do in preparation for this fast mile being paced on the 28th of January. Similar to my last indoor race about 3weeks ago I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to run as I've been doing a bunch of strength based sessions and not many race specific workouts. That being said it would be nice to get as close to or possibly dip under the World Indoor Qualifying time but we'll just need to wait and see. I have no idea who is going to be in the race and doubt there will be a pacemaker so I may need to just time trial it on my own.

Even though I've enjoyed my time in New Mexico I can't wait to fly back to Indy. It will be good to see what sort of shape all the Butler guys are after their Christmas breaks. My training group should be packed with Harry Ellis, Ross Clarke, Rob Mullett, Tom Curr and Andrew Sherman all rounding into form for indoors starting. January will be a busy month for me as I'm planning on racing the mile on the 7th, the 3km (or maybe an 800m) on the 21st, and another mile on the 28th. With a number of fast paced races scheduled, this last week marks the last real intensive block of training.

January should be very enjoyable for me because not only will I be racing in some quality fields but I will also be able to cheer on the whole Butler team as they will be at the same competitions as me. To still feel apart of the team atmosphere is great for me.

I'm particulary intrigued to see Katie Clarke and Kirsty Legg race during this indoor season as both of them red-shirted their cross country seasons in preparation for Indoors. They have been knocking out some crazy milage and putting me to shame on the long runs occasionally. So it will be awesome to see how they tackle the opening races of the season in Bloomington, Indiana. Fingers crossed for some NCAA qualifying marks to be hit by as many of the Bulldogs as possible.