Julz Adeniran

I.am.over.the.moon… to finally be back competing again, it seemed like an eternity since the last time I stood behind a white line and took my clothes off under the orders of a man with a gun in his hand. The patient wait was finally over about a fortnight ago as the Birmingham Games in the National Indoor Arena marked my long awaited return to competition.

As diligent and disciplined as an athlete ensures their rehabilitation programme is carried out, I don’t think you’re ever completely convinced that everything is ‘back to normal’ until you’ve been ‘battle-tested’. Which hopefully provides some kind of perspective for the confused onlookers in the Birmingham crowd, who, judging by my reaction to crossing the line in 1^st place, probably thought I had mistaken my preliminary heat for an Olympic Final!?! To be fair, after the best part of a year spent in rehab, the overwhelming sense of accomplishment and relief you feel when you cross the finish line (with all your limbs still safely attached) isn’t something I’d anticipated.

It was a real boost, to not only race through the rounds without so much as a hitch, but to also go on to place 2^nd in a very competitive final. With it being only a few weeks since I had been allowed to start hurdling again and having missed so much of last year I had little expectations of my first race back. Off the back of such a promising performance I’ll admit I did dare to think ahead of what could be possible over the weeks that were to follow, at the UK Indoor Championships and British Indoor Grand Prix…

…“Not so fast!” it yelled.

>>> Okay, so for those of you unfamiliar with the sound of that voice, it was ‘Sods Law’ – whilst I’m not usually one to join in with those bashing the government of the day, I’ll happily go on record and say it’s not a great law, probably one of the worst I’ve come across. Who the Scrooge was that helped enact it? I don’t know. Why any parliament would give it a thumbs up? I’m not sure. But if you don’t already know, ‘Sods Law’ smugly proclaims: “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”.<<<

And a fortnight before the Birmingham Games I fell victim to this ruling – within the space of 4 hours I went from having a headache and feeling a little queasy –> to waking up in A&E with tubes stuck up my veins and suspected Pneumonia flipping me the middle finger. Less than ideal race preparation you might say. And predictably, leaving hospital full to the brim with anti-biotics and pushing my body (and my luck) to still attempt to race at the Birmingham Games [primarily so I could at least test-out my knee before the Outdoor season] only hastened my return to hospital the following week:

A word of advice: listen to your doctor

Fast forward 2 weeks of bittersweet bed-rest. The bad news is that I was forced to miss the UK Indoor Champs and the Grand Prix, but the very good news is I now have a clean bill of health and a proven pair of race-ready legs! Spring training is about to begin ahead of the 2013 Outdoor season in May and I’m more keen than ever to get back into the blocks under starter’s orders!

All that I’ve learnt over the last 12 months summed up in one highly scientific annotation!

@JulzAdeniran

Unsurprisingly my initial reaction upon learning my fate for the summer included lyrics slightly more explicit than “No, No, No”. But… having bide my time, I’m ecstatic to share that injury is no more *cue trumpet fanfare*! I have officially been given the green light to resume full training, some 8 months after the freak accident that ruled me out of Olympic contention.

As I’ve probably mentioned before, if injury is the worst thing about being a professional sportsman, then rehab is a close and cumbersome second! Admittedly it has been a challenging period to say the least, of course not helped by the year of its timing, but I am proud to have faced up to what can often be a harsh reality of professional sport. It would be remiss not to acknowledge that my rehabilitation back to full fitness has been a massive team effort; it took the time and effort of 4 physiotherapists, 3 coaches, 2 sports doctors, 2 consultants, as well as my sponsors and numerous friends & family. In fact, there are a bus load of people I must thank, but I’ll save you the Oscar speech for another time perhaps.

‘Opportunity through adversity’ has been the mantra that has seen me through this past year and a diamond in the rough that has surfaced is my partnering up with a new sponsor, HFS Clinics, a fantastic sports medical group based on Harley St and other London locations. Their expert team of practitioners will be helping me to stay in one piece along the ‘road to Rio’! If you have an ache, pain or sprain I couldn’t recommend their services highly enough! (click on the logo to check out their site).

Before the clocks bring in another year, I just wanted to say a Happy Belated Birthday to my BLOG: ‘Patiently Waiting for a Track to Explode On’. I’ve only just realised that I committed to starting and keeping it going well over a year ago now – how time flies when you’re having fun! I’ll be the first to say that there is nothing more annoying than stumbling across a narcissistic open diary of a wannabe track & field star, only to find that it’s only ever updated once in a blue moon. So thank you all for continuing to read my ramblings and share this journey with me, it’s been an interesting year hey! As long as you’re still reading I’ll keep musing from my soapbox – at regular intervals – promise!

As a side note, if you haven’t got a BLOG of your own I’d seriously suggest you think about getting one, I mean they’re great – kinda like an ever faithful and patient friend, who never judges you or steals the quilt from you in the middle of the night, but has no flees and doesn’t need feeding. Even better than a Tamagotchi. Think about it.

Happy New Year!!!

@JulzAdeniran

7 simple words. Not only is this the title of my latest overly righteous self-help novel (strategically deployed to keep me from quickly getting bored, falling asleep and drowning whilst in the bath), but it’s also a question I try to keep in mind from day to day. The rationale being: where there exists only a short window of opportunity, if something isn’t contributing to helping you reach your goal (in my case: ‘to become the most electrifying man over small fences!’™) then it’s probably either a) using up the time of something that could be OR b) working against you achieving your goal.

Now it’s usually around this time of year that most athletes pander to this theory, reflecting on their previous 12 months, as the deadline for the ‘British athletics transfer window’ looms. Inevitably, one finds themself awkwardly standing in front of a bedroom mirror, prompted to ask:

“What did I do not so well/very well this season?”…“What do I need to do differently/the same to perform better next season?”.

In my own attempt to respond to the above questions, the first light bulb to spark (inside my ironically ‘go-faster’ shaped cranium) hastened to advise that next year it would probably be for the better if I made an effort to GO OVER the first hurdle during races. Instead, of attempting to go through it… whilst trying in vain to pull-off a ‘forward-somersault-one-and-a-half-twist’ as the track surface hurries to greet your face! – if nothing else it’s hoped this might help prevent the recurrence of a rather inconvenient 6 months of REHAB. Oh and missing out on any more minor summer sports tournaments.

Sound advice. I’m sure you’ll agree.

A less obvious but equally useful suggestion, to rack up the Knots, has been to rethink a nomadic weekly commute which has seen me drive/train/bus/tube/sleep-walk between Birmingham, London, Loughborough and my family home in Cambridgeshire, for training sessions etc this past year. Admittedly this was a short-term solution warranted by the enormous, sweet, organic carrot that was ‘London 2012’. However, spending a maximum of 2-3 days per week in each of these locations (so that I could work with chosen coaches/facilities/training partners/medical staff, in the months leading up to the Games) has a Titanic effect on the boat, whatever the justification.

Navigating motorways, dashing down train platforms and being ‘that guy’ – you know, the idiot who gets in everyone’s way, struggling up the stairs at Euston Station as he drags his life contents behind him in an obnoxious tourist-sized wheelie case. (Turns out this is even more annoying when, you, are that idiot). Aside from the physical and mental fatigue, all the above is at odds with aiding recovery from training sessions. Plus, the hours upon hours of travelling/travel planning eats up valuable time that could be spent working a part-time job, or better still, playing FIFA. 

So, as rumour has it, I’ve decided to set sail to a single, fixed training base and have dropped my anchor in London – cheap and cheerful I hear you say (!). Not a decision I’ve captained lightly, but if the goal is Gold the motto is: ‘by any means possible’!!! (Disclaimer: minus the Lance Armstrong interpretation of this phrase).

Truth be told, in its current disrepair the boat would be more likely to medal at the next Paralympics, but, as rehab draws to a conclusion over the next few months I am assured that in good time this soon to be super-yacht will be going much faster than you remember!

Thank you for all of your support and well wishes!

@JulzAdeniran

There doesn’t seem to have been a blog written in recent weeks that hasn’t touched on the spectacle that was the Olympics Games, and who I am to beg to differ – What. An. Incredible. Fortnight, over 7 years in the making! Despite the months of skepticism and scaremongering, I think I speak for all when I say, I knew, it was going to be a very special two weeks the moment I saw Her Majesty abseil out of a helicopter with James Bond! The ‘Jubilympics’ have so far made for a pretty memorable summer – apparently there’s never been a better time to be British (in which case even Andy Murry’s medal should count towards our tally) – and so let’s look forward to witnessing the sporting heroics of our pièce de résistance, The Paralympic Games! Very best of luck to all of our athletes competing over the next 11 days and in particular to a good friend of mine @Deano_Miller who goes for a medal in the 1500m on Monday evening – let’s ‘ave it Deano!!!

So, what was it like to sit back and watch from the wings, an event I’d dreamt about being part of for the best part of a decade? In a word… Inspiring. (Okay so I wouldn’t be human if this was the complete truth, but it was mostly… honest!)

It’s hard to pick out any one performance above another, but Greg Rutherford’s Gold Medal in the Long Jump particularly struck a chord with me. Here’s a guy who I’ve sat across the table from the nights before our club’s Saturday league fixtures (the very grassroots of British athletics), bantering about one day hitting the big-time, daring to dream… A guy who has always heralded praise and showed immense promise but who has equally so often been thwarted by injury and denied by surgery – memorably described as “fragile” by the commentary team during the qualification round. Well I for one was ecstatic to see “fragile” Greg prove that dreams do come true, it’s as if his fairy-tale win was written in the script. In fact that whole evening was nothing short of sensational, ‘Super Saturday’ as it’s since been coined – if ever a moment of doubt has crept into my head during these last few months, in between glancing begrudgingly at my swollen knee, this was all the inspiration I could have asked for in urging me to get back on the roller-coaster in pursuit of my own Olympic dream, hopefully lying in wait at the end of another 4 year cycle!

However, I think it’s equally important to acknowledge the other side of the pillow, illustrated no better than by ‘Terrible Tuesday’ a mere 72 hours later, which saw the track and the in-field littered with fallen soldiers. As World Champions, former World Record Holders and numerous nailed-on medal favourites such as Phillips Idowu, Liu Xiang and Goldie Sayers all lay victim to the injury lottery, a harsh and at times very cruelly timed reality of elite sport (as I’m learning): 

Paula Radcliffe: “My sport is a beautiful sport, the downside is that it can break your heart and spirit many times over”

— Telegraph Sport (@TelegraphSport) July 29, 2012

Aside from cheering on Team GB, I’ve tried to make a positive difference with the extra time I’ve been landed with this summer. I’ve put myself, as well as my story, to good use by assisting a number of youth projects that I’m passionate about seeing succeed. Amongst others, supporting Sport England’s Summer School Games launches and mentoring several groups of 16 year olds as part of the government’s National Citizen Service has been particularly fun, as well as hugely rewarding and a welcome distraction from my sometimes tormentuous rehab programme.

Without wanting to hyperbolise for effect or sound too over dramatic, rehabilitation from such a severe injury has been by far the hardest challenge I’ve ever faced, mentally as much as physically. The painstaking process of building back up strength, mobility, function of the knee and learning to walk properly again before even dreaming of one day going over a hurdle again. Dealing with the self-remonstrating, the grieving, the frustration; all whilst you try and motivate yourself to do one-legged balances and lengths in the pool all summer, whist watching your rivals run PB (Personal Best) after PB on television. I guess it’s almost felt like seeing out a prison sentence, with only one way out and no way to hasten the necessary steps… (potential for a screenplay here, right!?) 

If injury is the worst thing about sport, rehab must come a close second… #boring #painful #monotonous #lonely #frustrating

— Julz (@JulzAdeniran) August 22, 2012

…I’ve had upbeat days and I’ve had my fair share of down ones too (just ask my girlfriend Jemima!), but as a good friend recently shared with me: “failure can’t cope with persistence”. I know if I can come back from a setback as big as this one then there is little else to fear, nothing more to lose and few on the start line who will have amassed hunger comparable to my own. 3 long months have now passed since the freak accident and now more than ever the tough need to get going! 

@JulzAdeniran

Apologies it’s taken so long for an update peeps, truth is it’s been quite difficult to come to terms with, yet alone put into words, how the last 6 weeks have played out…

Not long after my last update I learnt what no athlete wishes to learn 4 weeks before Olympic Trials for a home Games that they’ve been working towards for years. In a small treatment cubicle in North Birmingham, on a damp Thursday morning, physio Mike translated the results of a ‘precautionary’ MRI scan; and in no uncertain terms my worst fears were confirmed.

“I’m afraid it’s not good news, you’ve suffered a serious injury. Your cruciate ligament has ruptured”

I reached to repeatedly hit the ‘rewind button’. Nothing happened. So instead I sat patiently and waited for the “but”. It never came.

In an irreversible instant you’re forced to accept that a dream you’ve clinged to for years is no longer attainable and that the foreseeable future will be a drastically different picture to the one crayoned in your head. Not to mention, as Mike would go on to warn, having to entertain the possibility that you may never be able to return to hurdling and doing what you love to do… Woah, Woah, Woah, hold on just a minute!!!

Did I cry? Obviously not, but thank you for inquiring – it was just a bit of hayfever.

Although, it has taken a while to contend with the shock of it all. Had I been stretchered off the Belgian track after falling I think I would have been more prepared for news of this kind. But having got up straight away, in only mild discomfort, dusted myself off – even opting to walk back to the hotel instead of waiting for the shuttle – I was more annoyed at the time (about the wasted trip and the fact I’d have to wait a whole four days for my next shot at the Olympic A standard) than I was concerned about any serious damage. At worst I thought I’d perhaps bruised the knee cap and that it might be sore for a week or two. But alas, the first time I’ve ever fallen in a race in 9 years of hurdling has brought about one of the worst injuries anyone can suffer in a non-contact sport. What are the chances?!

An unashamedly cruel ending to what has otherwise been a very promising year so far *cue miniature violin solo* but in all seriousness I’m determined to seize opportunity through adversity. The good news is that I don’t require surgery, the remainder of 2012 will consist of rehab, rehab and plenty more rehab but I have a great team around me, a sound rehabilitation program, and I’ll be using the extra time to focus on other aspects of my regime and lifestyle that limited time would normally neglect.

Philosophical snapback on for just a moment: As I’m quickly learning, life as a professional athlete is one hell of an emotional rollercoaster, the highs are high, sudden twists and turns come unannounced and the lows when they come – which they will – are very… very low! Such wouldn’t be as agonising, if ‘progression’ and ‘just reward’ were uniform products of ‘hard-work’ and ‘talent’. Unfortunately the deeper you look the more you realise it’s not always that straightforward. Opportunity, personality and serendipity seem to have as much a steer on ‘success’ as hard work and talent do. Therefore stepping onto the rollercoaster without any guarantee that your hard-work, single minded focus and natural talent will necessarily take you to the heights you so desire is a tough thing to do.

That said my quest remains undeterred, if not a little more challenging. Funding is now going to be THE major hurdle over the next 12-24 months in the lead up to our home Commonwealth Games, but this experience is only stoking my fire. I still firmly believe that hard work and sacrifice do pay off – but I’ll never again forget to read the asterixed small print that details: ‘but not necessarily at a time of your choosing’.

To all injured athletes who can’t or are forced to go the the trials this weekend.” in order to be something, you must go through something

— Linford Christie (@ChristieLinford) June 20, 2012

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me this year, our time will come! Special thanks to my family and friends, who continue to be an immense help throughout this setback, and to my sponsor Blue Mountain Water for sticking by me through thick and thin. A final thanks to Quentin Cooper (BBC Radio 4 broadcaster, friend and all-round extraordinary person) for inspiring the title of this blog in an exchange of emails a couple of days after the MRI scan results – it made me beam with laughter at a time I just wanted to cry, a sentiment which pretty much sums up the fine line we tread in professional sport.

@JulzAdeniran

I’ll be the first to say, it’s much easier to blog and share news when things are going well, but I have to admit at the moment ‘Lady Luck’ doesn’t appear to have my name in her good books. Where to start… so I’m currently sat on a train on the way back from Manchester Airport, with my heavily bandaged right leg elevated on the seat opposite, wincing every time my t-shirt & trousers take turns in rubbing against the fresh grazes and wounds that decorate my body… Not exactly the glorious description I had hoped to detail, following my first competition of the season on the European Circuit. I’ll save you the gory details, but yesterday’s race saw me fall hard at the first hurdle (I can assure you no pun is indented here) leaving me with a right knee now the size of a large pineapple and a heavily bruised ego, amongst other scrapes. Other than a wasted opportunity to stalk down the Olympic A qualification time, after an almost equally disastrous run during the heats earlier on that evening, yesterday’s tumble in the final (the first time I’ve ever fallen in a race) is the fourth consecutive race of my Outdoor season so far to be marred by incident, misfortune or mistake. Admittedly such a terrible start to a season is a new and unusual experience for me, a test of character perhaps (?); either way it’s a stark contrast to previous seasons and my Indoor season only a few months ago, where my first four races of the season brought four new Personal Best times.

Such is all the more frustrating as training sessions prior and in-between recent competitions have been going from strength to strength, with my touchdown times and time-trial runs indicating that, times my friend were about to tumble! After careful analysis with my coaches, indifferent to recent results I think I have actually brought my form in training to the various start lines with me; but an over-eagerness to translate training times into race performances is at least partly to blame for these uncharacteristic results. Put simply, I’ve been trying too hard, instead of being patient and just letting everything flow as I did during the Indoor season. And we all know what happens when you try too hard in the hurdles, to give it its Latin term or binomial nomenclature: ‘CRASH, BANG, WALLOP’!!!

Now they say hindsight is a wonderful thing. Why? I do not know. Personally I find it arrogant with its delayed intuition and “I told you so/You should have known” wisdom. Well cheers for the memo hindsight, as with my knee now a spitting image of a purple bowling ball I won’t be afforded the opportunity to make amends at the Loughborough International this weekend. What’s more, with the Olympic trials just 5 weeks away and the European Championships selection date only 4 weeks away timing of this accident could not be worse. Going forward, I have an MRI scan (“to add bankruptcy to injury”) on Monday and I’m just praying my run of bad luck has come to an end and that fingers crossed it’s nothing too serious…! In the meantime I’ve just got to stay positive and keep believing.

Please keep me in your prayers,

@JulzAdeniran

First and foremost I must sincerely thank all of 32 benefactors who so kindly sponsored my Warm Weather Training Camp this year, enabling me to fund two weeks of quality training over Easter! Much obliged: Alex Keal, Andrea Ellington, Andy Annett, Barrie Kane, Becca Stott, Ben Rowland-Jones, Carla Bradley, Chidi Umeano, Chris Long, Dimeji Alli, Elaine Snell, Elizabeth Morgan, Emergn, Enitan Kane, Ian Simpson, Ian Watson, Jemima Stevens, Jessica O’Carroll, Jessica Spry-Leverton, Katherine East, Leon McRae, Lucy Williams, Martin Stevens, Patrick Medley, Rishi Vasanthan, Sally Brooks, Sam Leiper, Tom Flathers, Vicky Barber, Wendy Lyotier, Will Barrington, Will Kier. It’s the continued support of family, friends and supporters that enables me to chase my dream and for this I am especially grateful!

It’s customary for British athletes to leave UK shores in search of warmer climates over Easter but because of School/University exams I’ve never been able to go ‘Warm Weather Training’; so it was great to finally put to bed memories of being taunted during revision periods of recent years, by facebook photos of athlete friends posing in California/South Africa/Portugal et al. So with a skip in my step, under the guidance of coach Tony Jarrett, I ventured off full of glee for a fortnight in the Italian town of Naples, along with my training partners Gianni ‘Squalo’ Frankis, Gary ‘Milfhunter’ Wilson, Joseph ‘Five Start Flow’ Hylton, Holly Thomas and Gloria Alabi. I’m not gonna lie, I did harbour hopes of throwing on the Ray-Bans between sessions and perhaps checking out Pompeii, maybe visiting Mt. Vesuvius and possibly even chilling out at the beach some of the time. How naive I was… reeled in like a contestant on Channel 4’s ‘Tool Academy’, these two weeks were a far cry from a vacation – Tony may as well have pinned up ‘Welcome to Boot Camp’ banners in our rooms on arrival!

Admittedly, training was a new kind of tough, the intensity along with the weather meant it was that much more draining and left little energy for much else other than refuelling. Double training days were a standard affair and by day 10 I was literally hanging in there to make it to the end – I haven’t napped so much since I was in Kindergarten! Although, the constant laughs & jokes of the group helped us all get through it and thankfully we got a timely day-off on the Bank Holiday Monday, which we spent that relaxing in the Italian countryside with our new Azzurri friends (above). All in all my first Warm Weather training experience was a big success, having a concentrated period of focused training with fair weather and none of the distractions of domestic life is undoubtedly of great benefit to an athlete. If I could afford to I’d definitely do as many funded athletes do and train abroad for periods of the winter. Now back in England, I can’t wait to get the season underway, the camp has set me up well for the start of the Outdoors and I draw a lot of confidence from the quality and quantity of training I’ve been able to put in.

Thanks again to all those who sponsored me! (If anyone reading this missed the deadline on the crowd-funding page and would still like to help, there is now a Paypal ‘donate’ button on my Sponsor Me page). 

@JulzAdeniran

So it’s been a fair few weeks now since the aftermath of the Aviva Indoor Grand Prix/my last update, and much has happened in the meantime… Following on from a short but successful indoor campaign we’ve wasted no time at all in getting back on the horse and back to the grind! The Indoor competitions have served as ample guidance for the areas we’ve needed to work on in preparation for the upcoming summer season – the business end of the year! Plus, the string of personal bests has provided some confirmation that the new training regime I started back in October is working well and capable of producing the type of results necessary to secure a place on the Olympic team. In athletics you often train 3 or 4 consecutive months at a time (toiling daily for that extra centremetre or fractions of a second) before having the opportunity to test yourself in competition – be it over a 13 second run, a leap over a bar, or a hop, skip and jump into a sandpit. So it’s always good to know that the ‘end product’ is benefiting down-the-line, and such is no better indicated than by a new Personal Best performance during competition.

Training since the Indoors has been pretty unforgiving to be honest; no sooner than 3 days after starring at the Grand Prix was I reduced to all-fours on the infield of the Lea Valley track, mid-way through a session ‘watering the grass’, as coach Jarrett has so kindly coined it – needless to say this hasn’t been last time that I’ve taken it upon myself to assist the groundskeeper! Focus over the last 6 weeks has moved away from the Indoor appetizer of 5 hurdles to the main course: the 10 high-hurdles, spread over 110 metres that Outdoor races plant in your way. There’s been greater emphasis on speed-endurance and holding technique under fatigue, so sessions on the track and in the gym have tended to include longer recoveries but higher intensity work. So far so good though, a nasty chest infection and a few niggles have threatened to throw us off course but despite these speed bumps progress has been very promising, and compared to this time last year it’s fair to say I’m now a completely different athlete! So only 4 weeks remain until my first Outdoor competition of this Olympic year, I’m really pleased with where I’m at and I now can’t wait to fly out with the rest of the squad to a Warm Weather Training Camp in Italy, to add some polish before my season debut!

Aside from training, the latest chapter in my hunt for sponsorship has kept me especially busy over these past 6 weeks. This month in particular I’ve attended numerous events and networking opportunities, meeting some really incredible and accomplished people along the way. It’s extremely touching to meet people, strangers in fact, who express admiration for my quest and want to help in what ways they can. I really am grateful to all those who reach out to provide support and assistance at I time when I need it most, whether it be some kind advice, a sponsorship donation, an out-of-the-blue facebook message suggestion or independent enquiries on my behalf amongst personal networks. I very much appreciate all of your efforts and these gestures certainly do motivate me to keep working hard; spurring me on even more to prove that your belief is indeed well placed! So a big thank you to all these individuals reading this (you know who you are!) and to these organisations: the Adam Gibbons Sports Foundation, Blue Mountain Water, OO Club, Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers A.C. and The Crowland Show… As the saying goes: “if you’re absent during my struggle, don’t expect to be present during my success”.

However it hasn’t all been hard work and no play, catching up with friends from school and University is a rare treat that I’ve been able to do a little bit of recently. Likewise it’s been cool to get involved with some of my affiliate’s projects, in particular being a part of Dame Kelly Holmes’ ‘Team Day’ for her trust at Reading’s Majewski Stadium was a whole lot of fun. It’s great to support the fantastic work that the charity does and working alongside other talented sportsmen and sportswomen in doing so, like Jenna Downing and Sam Brearey, is inspiring in itself! Doing a Spring Collection photo shoot for Rampant Sporting was also great fun, especially with Lucy Boggis, a.k.a Gladiator – Tempest, on hand to show me how it’s done (a really talented heptathlete and long-time friend who was a teammate on my very first international team back in 2005!). On that note a big shout-out to up and coming sports photographer Tom Flathers who produced some fantastic pictures, some of which you can see in my gallery, when he photo-diarised one of my recent training sessions over at Loughborough University (the first picture above is taken from his work) – watch this space!

I’ve also managed to squeeze in a few school visits this month, including a practical session I held at Mary Webb School in Shrewsbury; I have to say hats off to teachers, as managing 95 12 year olds for half a day was arguably more exhausting than any training session ever could be! I always enjoy going into schools, serving as a positive role model to pupils in this way is a real privilege and having benefited greatly from sport through primary, further and higher education it’s great to coach and share my experiences with youngsters. However the end of my session coincided with the arrival of Derek Redmond, after meeting him he went on to deliver a fantastic presentation to the entire school, so on this visit it was me who left at the end of the day feeling inspired! I’m looking forward to doing more visits over the coming months where time allows and to working with the government’s National Citizen Service initiative this summer on behalf of the charity I support (do drop me a line if you are at all interested in the services I offer to schools and organisations). So I’m off to a training camp in the south of Italy next week, just as it seems the good weather in the UK is about to turn – but don’t hate me too much somehow I don’t think sun bathing, sightseeing and gelato feature highly on the itinerary!

Until next time,

~ Julz ~

Following my performance at the UK Indoor Championships last weekend I’ve merited an invite to the world renown Aviva Indoor Grand Prix, to be staged at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham this Saturday. This is a fantastic opportunity to take on many of the world’s best hurdlers, not to mention the two fastest hurdlers of all-time Liu Xiang and Dayron Robles – a pair of Olympic Champions, the former and the reigning World Record holder, respectively. As a Birmingham born and part-time based athlete I can’t wait to get out onto the track and compete in front of the 10,000+ home crowd inside the sold-out arena. I bumped into Liu during my training session yesterday and I’m pretty sure I could smell fear, so we’ll have to see if I can get the measure of him!

Not one to be missed, be sure to tune into BBC1 at 2pm this Saturday for the heats of the 60m Hurdles.

For King and country!

~ Julz ~

*************  UPDATE  *************

Another Personal Best (PB) performance! Drawn in the second of two heats, alongside Dayron Robles and a whole host of World and European medallists, I got off to a great start and kept my composure to cross the line in 7.71s, to make it five PBs in five competitions this year! 

So that’s a wrap on Indoors, it’s back to heavy training this week and the quest for Olympic qualification this summer, as well as the sponsorship that will help enable this. I’ll be doing my utmost in between now and then to leave no stone unturned, there are 8 grueling training weeks until the Outdoor season begins, so every day counts. I really hope to be able to spend a few of these weeks putting in some quality training at a purpose built Warm Weather Olympic Training Camp in Italy, which will be led by esteemed Olympic 110m Hurdler Tony Jarrett, if I can raise the £1,400 needed for this.

If anyone reading this would like to help, you can do and out more: HERE.

Many thanks for your support!

~ Julz ~

February 12^th, one of two dates in 2012 that’s pinned up on my wall. Sunday gone marked the focal point of my indoor season, the first of this year’s UK Championships; a twice annual event (indoors & outdoors) where Britain’s best athletes, as well as coaches and the powers that be, descend upon a given city to face-off, all with the same aim, to be crowned UK Champion. Whilst the outdoor championships bear greater significance, athletics being primarily an outdoor sport, unlike other disciplines hurdlers rarely sit-out the indoor season. So these championships are historically as competitive as the outdoor equivalent in the hurdle events and Sunday was no different. The 28 athletes who had achieved the national standard and succeeded in keeping their bodies in one piece, made the trip up to Sheffield and lined up for the heats on the Sunday morning. The atmosphere at the UK Championships is like no other, there’s an unmistakable and unavoidable tension in the air. As the biggest domestic meeting of the year, all eyes are fixed on proceedings, prior achievements count for little and every athlete wants to pull out their best performance to date at a time when it matters most.

Qualification requirements for the final were the 1^st placed athletes from each of the four heats to be joined by the four overall fastest runners-up. I was drawn in the second heat and in the lane alongside the athlete ranked 3^rd in the UK. Following a decent start I was able to put together a fairly good but comfortable race and come away with the win, sealing automatic qualification in a new Personal Best time of 7.74s, the second fastest time of the day from all the heats.

Fast forward a couple of hours and the stage all was set for the final, at the first attempt “on your marks… SET…” the starter’s gun sounded twice… indicating that someone had recorded a false start – every athletes’ worst nightmare! It usually takes a minute or so for the officials to check the computers (which are wired up to the pressure sensitive starting blocks) and reveal exactly which competitor was judged to have ‘jumped the gun’ – this makes for an extremely nerve racking 60 seconds as even if it’s blatantly obvious that it wasn’t you, your mind still wonders! The athlete in lane 5 was subsequently disqualified as we resumed to our blocks, the silent pause before the set command once again came on cue… only for a ‘faulty start’ to be called as tension started to pile upon tension. At the third time of asking we got away cleanly and I got a great start, taking an early lead I touched down off the first hurdle in pole position – before disaster struck – after an adrenaline induced rocket start I cleared the first barrier and approached the second moving faster than I ever have before, maybe surprising myself in doing and I didn’t react quickly enough to the second hurdle, leading to an almighty crash!!! Now hitting hurdles isn’t anything new, indeed if you watch the last two world record races you’ll notice that the winners make contact with numerous hurdles, but, there are just as many different ways to hit a hurdle as there are to skin a cat! I hit hurdle 2 with my lead leg (the ultimate sin!) before also hitting it with my trail knee and ankle as they came through – this was what prompted the impromptu ‘karate kid crane kick’ impression, that those of you who watched the race live on Channel 4 may have clocked, as I attempted to regain balance. One positive that did come out of this erm ‘altercation’ was that where as in previous years such a collision would have sent me to the deck or at the least seen me trail home in last place, the strength gains from my first winter of full-time training showed through as I was able to pull off this ‘Cirque-du-Soleil’ manoeuvre and somehow keep on going.

Albeit with momentum stunted and the race for gold now gone, I managed to somehow regain rhythm and with a late burst and dip of desperation secured 3^rd place and the bronze medal, not surprisingly in my slowest time since my first race of the season, 7.84s. On review, it would be all too easy to focus on what the outcome of the final might have been but for my mistake, but just like not false starting clearing all the hurdles is part of the challenge, and there are a lot of positives to take away that warrant attention more. I’m extremely pleased to win my first ever Senior UK Championship medal and to walk away from the championships with a new Personal Best, both of which were goals set at the start of winter training. Having finished 4^th here last year in 7.86s – with a UK ranking of 5^th, it’s great to have improved upon this with a 3^rd place finish this year and a 7.74s PB, consolidating a current UK ranking of 4^th – in the words of Al Pacino (Any Given Sunday) “Inch by Inch”!

~ Julz ~