Hi again,
It’s not every week you can say you have met the Queen, but hey, that’s where I’m starting my latest blog.
To be honest, I’m never overly impressed by meeting famous people and I’m not into the whole celebrity culture but I am, on the quiet, a little bit of a monarchist, so to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace last week was a great thrill.
I was invited along to the reception thrown for the Beijing Olympians and although I missed the last one four years ago in Athens, I was determined not to miss out this time.
They were a lot of track and field athletes at the reception in a great big hall, and Dave Collins (the former performance director of UK Athletics) introduced me to the Queen. I talked with her for about a minute, although don’t ask me what about other than I muttered something about what a great privilege it was to be there! It was also nice to wear the Team GB suits, which we were given with our Olympic pack, for the first time.
Anyway, as for the rest of my life, well, it is nothing much more interesting than stepping up the training. I’m currently hitting one session very hard before having an easier session the following day. Mind you, it is not always easy getting back into training after a post-season break. The sessions at the time are fine but it is just the next day your whole body stiffens up and you struggle to get down the stairs. On sunday my wife and I were due to go to a museum but because my body was so tired from the training we decided just to go for a walk and a pub lunch instead. It is certainly fortunate Lucia is easy-going and understands what it is like to live with an international athlete!
Life with my new coach Frank Attoh has also been interesting. I am a northern lad and the attitude with my old coach Peter Stanley was we were both from the north, we trained harder than those from the south.
But as I’ve discovered since I’ve been down here with Frank he also a similarly hard, tough attitude to training. He’s been on my back a bit more than perhaps I’ve been used to, and we already carry out one killer session every sunday. We go hill training near Barnet Copthall Stadium where I’ll probably sprint six times up a hill for about 20 seconds before running down in about 12! It is my endurance work and while I accept, as a long jumper, I might only have to train like this for a couple of months of the year I fully respect the endurance athletes who have to train like this for about 11!
Til the next time
Chris