On the brink of the outdoor season, it feels as though this may be the calm before the storm of competition.

Next Saturday, the Southern Athletics League begins once more. This time, I will compete 100m + 400m hurdles, 100m (flat), triple jump, high jump and 4x100m relay. It’s an exciting sensation- not having the faintest idea what effect a winter of training will have on my results.

Last weekend, I went to my home track in Inverness, where Arron challenged me to a  time-trial over 800m. Having done a parkrun just an hour before (encouraging my 7-year old niece around the course for a big PB of her own), I wasn’t optimistic. Nevertheless, I somehow ran 10 seconds quicker than my previous best. Given this rather surprising result, I cannot wait to see if the winter slog has had a similar effect on my sprints.

This week I also travelled back to London, joining Heathside for a training session. I had the pleasure of answering questions from newer athletes, preparing to compete in their first seasons. Being a voice of relative experience in competition is both bizarre and delightful.

Looking ahead to the Tetradecathlon World Championships, just 4 months away, I’ve just had a pootle on the multi-event calculator to see where improvements could translate into the most points. Terrifyingly, one of the biggest areas for improvement looks like it is the 800m. If I were to run it as I did in Inverness last week, it would give me an extra 140 points- or 240 more if I can take off another 10 seconds. Given how infrequently I train the dreaded middle-distances, perhaps it’s time to bite the bullet. That horrible, pukey, concrete-legged bullet.

*gulp*