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:

On Monday Brian Murphy will return to Montegordo for another warm weather training stay, after a full week back in Ireland. This time however, Brian will be joined by his fellow project400 members, Paul McKee and Brian Doyle.

At Montegordo, they will rejoin Gordon Kennedy, who had stayed on while Brian flew home last week. However, they will not be the only Irish athletes this time at the renowned training facility, as the AAI have organized a special training camp and there will be many other athletes in attendance for the 2 week stay.

Among those expected to attend will be fellow project400 member David Gillick who will fly out later in the week as well as Paul Hession and many other stars of the Irish athletics team.

Stay tuned for even more reports, photos and stories from the training camp.

Training is going well here in Monte Gordo. Last week the weather got pretty nasty, gale force winds, torrential rain and cold temperatures. It was more a case of Weather Training rather than Warm Weather Training.

This week it has been much better and we haven’t had to splash through too many puddles. As I said earlier, the best thing about this place is the atmosphere of being surrounded by other athletes. Last Saturday we did a session with Chris Clarke from England. Chris is the current World Youths 400m Champion and definitely one to watch out for. We were doing 2 x 500’s and he was doing 2 x 450’s and as we were going through the 400 mark (c. 52s) at the same pace we decided to do the session together. For an 18 year old he can certainly run, and it’s always nice to train with someone new.

You pick up lots of bits of information training with other people. Yesterday I was doing weights in the gym and I noticed something shiny in my field of view. You can see from the photo, the girl on my right is doing cleans with shin guards on. They looked odd but I thought it was a pretty nifty idea. I have a tendency to cut my shin bones like I’m grating cheese so they might be a wise investment!

Training is starting to get quicker now and I’ve started booking flights for races in Europe. It certainly gives training a different edge when you can see the races coming into view. I’m opening up in Pavia on May 11th so it would be a nice to get the season going with a quick time.

Brian M

This is a bit of an overdue post considering that we haven’t added much to the site in the last month. Apologies. March was a case of keeping the head down and putting the training in. In my case I also had to take care of my work before I could head off warm weather training in April.

I arrived in Portugal last Wednesday to train with Gordon in Monte Gordo. Gordon had come over a week before me so he had the place sussed out for me which was very handy. As a place to train, it really is fantastic here. The weather is sooo much better than home, the facilities are top class and the buzz of being around other athletes never wears off. As resort towns go MonteG (as we like to call it) is very quiet but it suits the people that come here, namely athletes and old people. At the moment there is about 10 other Irish athletes so it’s great to have people to hang out with when we’re not training.

Anyways if we don’t give in to a case of Cabin Fever, we’ll add a few photos and maybe a video of our training over here (Gordon loves a good montage).

Cheers
Brian

With the sky clear we made it up table mountain in our second attempt. I don’t have a great head for heights so it was a challenge taking the cable car, but I’m very glad I did. The view was impressive, over looking Cape Town and Robben Island. We got some great photos which I’ll try and put on this site when I get home. (more…)

Last Wednesday was our rest day so we headed to table mountain. Unfortunately it was to cloudy to get the cable car and travel to the very top, but we will try again on monday. We had a nice day out in cape town and got some nice pictures. (more…)

Training well and hard in 25 degrees today, so that was nice. Today’s session was 4×300m, 10 minutes recovery. Myself and Paul Hession did this, and it was hard towards the end. Paul suprised me with his strength at the end, may be there is a possible 4×400m in him! not sure Stuart (coach) will agree to that though. (more…)

Just a quick note from Stellenbosch today as there was good news for project 400m. After talking to Kristoff Beyens, the Belgian 200m world semi finalist, I can confirm 2 new opportunites for 4×400m Olympic Qualification. (more…)

After flying from Dublin to Amsterdam at 6am on Tuesday morning with Paul Hession, we met up with our coach Stuart Hogg and Nick Smith and set off for Cape Town. We then had a 20 minute drive to Stellenbosch, better known for its vineyards (wineries) and got there at about 11.30pm.

Of course being the insomniac of the group I watched a film until about 1am before getting around 3 hours sleep. Luckily there was just a warm up for Wednesday’s training. Today we started training properly, we had weights and then some 50m sprints, which was very nice in the 30 degree heat, especially since just last Monday the track in Belfast was closed due to snow an ice!

Track session tomorrow so I’ll keep you posted!