Preparation for London 2012 begins in London

It seemed fitting that my first training session of my two year cycle leading up to the London 2012 Olympics took place in London. Of course I was nowhere near the level of fitness or body weight I intend to be when I hope to line up for the 50km walk on Saturday August 11^th, but hopefully this was to be the start of what will be a challenging but hopefully rewarding journey.

With my younger brother Ronan living and working in London for the past two and a half years, it has become an annual ritual to take a trip over for a few days when on my end of season break. On the last weekend in September I headed over for a long weekend to catch up with my brother, including a few nights on the town, but I also took the opportunity to do a ‘recce’ on some of the Olympic facilities.

I visited St Mary’s University in Strawberry Hill, which is to be the Irish athletics team’s pre-games holding camp to have a look at the facilities. I had arranged to meet Craig Winrow, who is the Centre Co-ordinator of the St Mary’s High Performance Centre, to show me around. St Mary’s seems to be an ideal location away from the Olympic environment, with Bushy Park and Richmond Park nearby for training. They are also in the process of setting up an Altitude House something we are working on at the University of Limerick and something I will use in my final build-up for the Games. I also had a look at the Olympic Park site from the outside as I couldn’t get a pass to get in.

For Irish people, and particularly in my own case Leitrim people living in London, it will be an exciting opportunity to watch their own athletes competing in the biggest global sporting event. While in London I met up with Ballinamore man Paul D’Arcy who is based in London. Paul who has been a great supporter of mine for the past few years reminded me of the huge local interest among the Leitrim community in London. I am also been fortunate to have the support of London based Leitrim businessman Tony McGovern as I prepare for London.

So on the Monday morning with my end of season break finished, I resumed training with a 40 min run around Clapham Common near to where my brother lives. It was certainly a shock to the system, but I felt fully recovered and refreshed from a tough 2010 season and ready for the challenges 2011 will bring, and no doubt there will be many!

I hope you all like the design of my new-look website and stay posted for all my updates.