Today was my first day at Heathside Athletics Club, and what a day to choose.

As I approached the track with my hot-water bottle tucked into my pants, there was a good inch of untouched snow covering the track. By the time I’d got in and chatted to a coach, the kids had begun work on an enormous snowman, which also served to help clear the track.

Meanwhile, I took the opportunity of their absence to get a bit of 1:1 training inside, from hurdles coach, Chris Dissanyake. At first walking over, then hurdling over foam triangles, I found it fun to learn the technique of hurdling, without being too physically exerted. I feel this may be short lived.

When the rest of the seniors arrived, an hour or so later, we did some ‘bounding practice’- standing long jumps, and then two-footed jumps over the foam hurdles- meanwhile the male athletes were nimbly hopping over what I was struggled to clear with both feet.

Finally, whilst somehow avoiding the hill sprints which the rest of the group went off to do, I worked with long-jump coach, Mark Lawrence; mainly working on the technique of the last few steps before take-off. He found that if nothing else, I am extremely accustomed to landing on my arse on a crash mat.

“So you’ve never done… you don’t have a recorded distance for your jump?”