I only had 5 days turn round before my next race, this meant that there wasn’t much time for any training so it was a very easy week leading into the Greater Manchester Championships. This was a step up in standard from the first race. The people I would be running against would all be much younger than me, anywhere from 18, and so all running very quick times. Normally I wouldn’t get fazed by this but for some reason I got very negative during warm up and it seemed to affect me mentally. Both races went ok but could have been so much better if I had stayed focussed and positive. It feels like I am beginning all over again and making silly mistakes that I would never have made a few years ago.

Having said all the above I ran faster than last week so ended the day feeling positive!!

Times

100m – 11.71sec.

200m – 24.00sec.

After these races I had ten days before the next race, so got three good sessions completed on the track, however during the last one I started feeling some tightness and pain in my right knee that is a bit worrying but decided to race without getting it checked out, silly boy!!

The next race was an Open Meeting at my training track in Trafford. Felt really good and very positive going into the 100m, but as always with open meetings they were along way behind the timetable. By the time I settled into my blocks I had almost cooled down and just didn’t react to the gun. The 200m was really good I got a great start and ran a really good bend but then as I hit the straight my knee started to tighten up and by the time I got to the last 20m I was slowing right down. Happy with these times considering…

Times

100m – 11.91sec.

200m – 24.16sec.