It's Great To Be Back Home

7 February 2007

I arrived back in Sydney from LA on the 2nd of February. The flight was good but I left with a bitter-sweet taste because I didn't really want to leave LA because training was fantastic. We've got a new group of guys and our camaraderie is really strong. So training is better than ever with a new breed of guys coming through. What's really cool is John made me and Leonard Scott the leaders of the HSI group. So whilst that was nice to be recognised it was great to come home to Australia.

Having said that it was a bit upsetting because I knew I was coming home to race when I knew I should really be training for World Champs later this year. My manager had asked for an exemption from the selection trials and I'd still come and run but Athletics Australia didn't agree so here I am. They need me to help them promote athletics in Australia so I'm not going to get mad about it. It's just a bit frustrating because if my preparation wasn't interrupted I could have had another month to get ready for the American and European seasons. It would be easier but it doesn't matter I'll just work ten times harder to make sure I'm ready to go.

So when I got home it was nice because it was really warm. In LA it was really fresh so when I got off the plane in Sydney it really hit me. And this last week in training the heat has really knocked me about. That combined with the time difference and the change in food I've struggled a bit but everything's ok now and I'll be right in a couple of weeks. I'm running really well and I know I'll be ok for my Australian races.

This year there's only two races I care about - the Australian title and the World Champs. I don't care much about the other races so as long as I can win those two I'll be really happy. So at the moment nothings really changed in regard to training. I'm still doing the hard work I was doing in LA so there will be no taper at all. Running is all about a routine and once you take your body out of that routine you have a problem. You also don't want to kill yourself as well so I don't over do it because it takes too long to recover. I'm really healthy at the moment so I'm very happy.

I'm not sure what I'll run in Sydney on the 17th of February but most likely it will be the 400. Because I'm still training there's no obvious plan. I've got a 200 in a club meet this weekend so we'll just have to see how I go before I work out what races I'm going to do before the Australian titles on March 9 in Brisbane.

Until next time, take care.
John