After a while away I'm back and more focused than ever! It has been an unprecedented season due to the corona virus outbreak however I feel like I have come out of the other side stronger and in a better position than before!The last time I competed was way back in February at the indoor Senior British Championships in the 60m hurdles up in Glasgow. It was an interesting experience but I came away from it feeling very deflated and a bit lost with where my athletics career was going - it was a tough indoor season all round as I hadn't been able to train as much as usual due to settling in at university, keeping on top of my studies and socialising with new friends; as well as this I had a few injury problems.
A few weeks after this competition, in mid March, the UK went into lockdown and I realised I wasn't going to get any kind of outdoor season. This left me feeling very unmotivated for a while, however, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Myself and my coach had already made the decision previously that my main focus from now on was going to be on the 400m hurdles rather than the 110m hurdles and so the fact that there would be no outdoor season meant that I would have more time to train and get used to the event, ready to give it my best effort come the competition season in 2021. Furthermore, the fact that we were all on lockdown meant that suddenly I had a lot more free time and fewer other commitments to interfere with my training so I was able to really begin pushing myself in terms of the amount I was doing! I started going for at least 2 5km runs a week and carrying out daily home workouts to really improve my stamina and core stability, and thus when facilities did begin to open up and I could get back to training on the track I was already prepared and in good shape to be doing tough, technical sessions.
I have now been training with my group for the whole of summer and we're all ready to really take winter training by storm as the new university term is about to commence! I'm very excited and can't wait to see all this hard work pay off when I begin competing!