22nd of March – 2nd of May

I have being away from Ireland for the past 6 weeks in Portugal. I decided after my last trip to the states in November (where I spent 12 days training), that if I was going to go warm weather training that I would make a considerable effort to stay as long as possible. After looking at a few options I decided on Monte Gordo in the south of Portugal.

Good points
1. No distractions
2. Facilities and location are second to none.
3. Costs are low.
4. Very close to home in case it’s needed

Bad Points
1. No Distractions

I started my trip with good weather and in good spirits. Paul Opperman and Fiona O’Freill, fellow Irish sprinters, were over for the first two weeks and this was a huge help to me in terms of training and on a personal level having someone in the evenings for cooking and getting away from the track.

Brian Murphy, my fellow project400 member, was out on two occasions during my stay, first for 19 days and then again for 10 days a week later, As myself and Brian have the same Coach (John Coughlan) it was really good to have the opportunity to train with him. We live 150 miles apart at home so intense training in Ireland is just not an option for us. I was joined by another friend and training partner Ray Lennon for 3 weeks, so I was never bored out there.

So what is the life of an athlete on a warm weather training trip like? Well to give you an idea this is the schedule that most of my days took. Normally, the day would start around 9am with breakfast. After this, I would head to the track for about 10.30am and would finish training around 1.30-2pm. (I should note that it wasn’t that we did much more training here than we would do at home but we could do the extra bit of stretching and recovery work that our schedules at home often don’t permit.).

I would go for some physio/massage most afternoons at around 4 and would only have time to grab a recovery snack after this before heading back to the track for my evening workout. My physiotherapist was a Portuguese man called David, who was a very interesting character and I think I had paid for a few instalments on his car loan by the time I had left. He is a good physio and gave me an extra confidence in what I was doing. He had some great sayings.”I think this so” Make strong” and he worked hard on me and kept me in one piece for my entire trip, which any sprinter knows is no easy task.

In the evening I chilled out at the Apartment, which felt more like a home after a while. The staff in the hotel couldn’t have been any nicer. My diet also changed while there as I was nearly overweight going over and I had to make some drastic changes to lose some of these excess pounds. I brought my diet right back to the basics and it really helped to shed the excess pounds. The most annoying thing at mealtimes was waiting for the others to be finished their starters before we were served the main course, I was lucky to have any fingers left by the time we were finished.

Going over, I was worried that I would get bored by the lack of distractions. At home, I work full time and train in the evenings so it is rare to have a quiet moment to myself. However, the days in MonteGordo were pretty full and any extra time I had was spent recovering. We also chilled out from time to time in the local hot spot Bar 42. It’s not really a pub but more like an internet café and as long as you are drinking juice or water they left us be. It was also the best place in town for meeting people and having a chat and this kept me sane off the track. I could go down and mingle with other athletes from across Europe who were also doing their warm weather training here and it was a great opportunity to learn a bit about their approaches to training. Seeing the way in which other nations train can sometimes be a great eye-opener and from chatting to a few of the coach’s I have learnt a few new tricks to apply to my own training.

Over-all warm weather training is not about doubling your training just because you can, it’s about getting the sessions in and the little extras that just get left out at home because of time restrictions. I have seen some groups who went from training 4 times a week to training 10 times a week, they have a great first week but by the middle of the second week, they’re complaining of shin splints and other over-use injuries. So remember, just because you might have the time doesn’t mean you have to over-train.

Over-all it was a great 6 weeks and I had some very good training sessions. I really kicked it up another gear. The season is here now and it’s starting to come together, a few little niggles but we all have them.

Chat soon,

Gordon Kennedy

Gordon’s race schedule is as follows, keep an eye out for news and reports over the coming weeks.

Races Coming up:

I really love that quote. It is not a famous quote but it’s a good one. It comes from Len Bosack, the founder of Cisco Systems. In the early 1980s he and his wife helped invent the router at Cisco Systems. Without the router the Internet as we know it would not be possible.

Len was a workaholic and when asked about his work ethic he said “Commitment starts at 100 hours a week”. According to him, if you are committed to something then 100 hours per week is the minimal outlay of human effort required to show commitment.

The media tend to overuse the word “commitment” in relation to sport. Commitment is mainly referred to in relation to putting in the training sessions but to me commitment is much more that. I like to refer commitment in the Bosack sense of the word.

When you take sleep out of the week, the athlete is awake for just over 100 hours a week and for those hours they must live each hour committed to the sport. People think that international athletes train about 40 hours a week, but the reality is closer to between 15 and 20. Most athletes will tell you that training is the easy part, it’s the other 80-90 hours in the week that are the hard part.

Staying out late, having a few beers, eating what you like are all luxuries that the athlete misses out on. Personally I could train for hours without feeling I am missing out on anything. It’s only when I have to scan the menu for the healthy option, miss out on going out with my friends, or have to refuse playing other sports for risk of injury that I feel the trade-off of choosing to compete at a high level. These are the times when it is difficult and this is what requires commitment. Lifting weights and running track sessions are things that I enjoy.

What makes athletics great that it is in essence performance with zero margin for error. Turning up at the track at 98% is not an option. Being at 98% is the equivalent of finishing 8m back at the end of a 400m race. With athletics there is no where to hide, and no amount of passion, will, or determination will make up for a lack of preparation. To quote another athlete, former marathoner Juma Ikangaa:

“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare”

Just another 3 months or so of preparation to go!

- Brian Murphy