Asda Athletes

Here’s a photo from my second store visit to Asda Colchester!

The photo above is my current view from my hospital bed!

I took the decision at the end of the season to have surgery on both my ankles and the operation was on Monday. For four years I’ve had problems with my plantaris tendon and achilles on both my legs. The plantaris runs from the calf muscle towards the heel. Last year I considered getting an operation but it was a risk with London 2012 coming up. Now it’s a new Olympic cycle, so I want to do everything I can to be in the best physical shape. The surgery will hopefully correct the underlying causes of the injuries that have held me back the last few years. Hopefully by mid-November I’ll be running again, but before then I have to rest and then do lots of rehab exercises.

Lying in bed has proved to me just how much I love running. I miss it ALOT and it’s only been a few days. I’d usually have an end of season break now anyway, so I am only loosing about a month of training and will be able to start fitness work on a bike soon. All the time off though has given me an opportunity to plan for the next year of training, which is really exciting as I am trying to move to London to take my training to the next level.

It’s been too long since I last blogged.

After the highs of my race in Geneva I was faced with the most disappointing few weeks of my career when I missed out on Olympic selection by one place. The top 6 400m runners were picked for the 4×400m relay, and I was ranked 7th. As I’m not as experienced as the others I probably would have had to run a lot faster than the people just above me in the rankings, but I gave it my best shot. I resigned from my job so I could concentrate fully on competition but in my next race after Geneva I aggravated a long-standing injury which meant I wasn’t able to continue my good form. I didn’t feel good in warm up and it was very cold which meant I probably should have listened to my body, but I was so excited after running my PB I got carried away. All painful, but useful lessons to learn. It all helps to make you a better athlete and to learn about the elements of top-level sport which you can’t train for.

But I’m not disappointed after looking back at things. It’s been a great season. I’ve run a big PB and consistently run faster than ever before. It’s just a shame to feel like there was more in the tank but my body let me down. I really wanted to back my PB time up.

Now I’m just planning how to sort my injuries out once and for all, so I’ll be back stronger than ever next year. But as I am too injured to train or race life is very boring! I’m currently looking for a sponsor to help me become a full-time athlete next year so I am sending hundreds of letter off for that. It’s difficult to be without training as it is what structures everything I do normally. I am trying to enjoy the break but I get grumpy very easily when I don’t run for extended periods of time.

I’ve also been updating my other website with all the work I’ve been doing for London 2012 around training. You can view it at louispersent.virb.com. I was lucky enough to go and watch the last night of athletics and see Mo Farah win his second gold. It was all the inspiration I could ever ask for.

Just got back from a race in Geneva where I ran a massive personal best of 45.77s, improving on my previous mark by a huge 0.79s. Very happy, but not surprised. Felt like training had gone really well this winter but you never know for sure til you step on track and run a great race. I’ve had a three year plateau for various reasons. Now I feel like I’m moving forward again and have an Olympic B Standard to my name.

The conditions were great but I was in lane 8, on the outside, so I didn’t have anyone to chase and had to run blind all the way. But my coach told me to work on some things differently in this race so I had some new technical things to work on and I think that kept me relaxed. It’s the second race of the outdoor season and my race two weeks ago wasn’t great. I was really rusty and was ill the next week and just had to get rid of the cobwebs.

The last few years 45.7 has made Olympic and World Championship relay squads. This year will be different as everyone has worked that bit harder over the winter because of London 2012. But i’m in with a shout and now just need to keep working hard and staying confident.

Here’s a video – if you select ‘400m homme, série 2, AtleticaGenève 2012’

Thanks again to Asda for all the support!

Opened my season up with a 100m personal best. First time I’ve done one for a few years and nice to sneak under 11s for the first time, but won’t be planning on doing another any time soon – all over way too quickly for me! My start was awful though, but now I just need to work on my start/acceleration and translate my improved top-end speed to my event, the 400, when I have my first race in a few weeks.