Winter Training for UK athlete Meghan Beesley
By Meghan Beesley, UK athlete and 2012 Olympics hopeful, supported by LDC.
Winter training is going really well for me this year! It’s the first time I have not been held back by any injuries or rehab so I am feeling fitter than ever.
In September we all have a nice break from training. This is the time of the year where I can do as please and eat what I want without feeling guilty! This year I went to Rhodes with my friend Abi! We met some good friends there who were nice, and I came back with a great tan.
Then it is back into hard training which is always a shock. During October and the start of November I did mostly general fitness which included longer runs (such as 30 minutes), circuits, grass running (which is interval training of between 1 and 3 minutes) and Fartlek (running on a muddy field for about 90 minutes doing different speeds). This is the first year in a while I have been able to complete all these training sessions so actually enjoyed it for the first time ever.
Over the past 6 weeks we have started doing some Hurdles technical work (which always breaks up training as this is fun) and our lactic tolerance sessions which is very important for 400m running. These lactic sessions are usually between 200m and 400m, and an example of this would be 2 sets of 3x300m. This is the big sessions we do in the week and everyone gets very nervous for this as we have target times given to us by Coach Dakin.
This time last year we were really struggling with the weather and the track had been iced over for weeks but so far the weather has been kind to us. So hopefully January will be as nice as this year I am not going warm weather training.
I am looking forward to Christmas as we do have slightly easier sessions for the week between Christmas and New Year although we don’t have an actual break. This year as Christmas Day off as it’s a Sunday, but our group always have a Sunday off every week. Not sure what happens next year as its Tuesday.
Only another month and the indoor season will have started which I am really looking forward to as I had to miss it last year. I will be sharpening up my hurdling and concentrating on sprint hurdles. My first race will be at Loughborough, it is always nice to compete on my home track.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Editors Note: Supported by LDC Meghan Beesley is a promising 400m hurdles and 4 x 400m relay runner. She has represented England, most recently at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi where with the relay team she earned a silver medal, and with training is aiming to be part of the Great Britain team at the London 2012 Olympics.
