Hollie’s diary – Everything moving in the right direction

Training has been going really well this month. Once I got back from Madrid I got stuck right into it! I raced a 5km on the track on Saturday 13th and ran a p.b of 16.25. What's quite exciting is that I ran a 17.43 in March, a 16.53 in April and have now dropped it again by another 30 seconds, things are definitely moving in the right direction. What's also pretty exciting is that I ran the Junior European Athletics qualifying time, the time was 16.40 – so I was 15 seconds inside it! I love being competitive in the running world too, but you need to be if you want to compete at the top in triathlon!

My first year of University is now complete! I can't believe how quick my first year has gone, time has really flown by! I was packing up some bits from my room in halls and can clearly picture  the day I moved in.  I was out and about somewhere yesterday when I saw a poster saying 'life is like an ice cream – enjoy it before it melts', I couldn't agree with that more. Looking back at how quick time flies by, we can't afford to waste time and we can't afford to not to be happy. I can look back at my first year of uni and say I really did enjoy it and made the most out of it! I've made so many great new friends, developed a new found passion for Business studies and have set my self up in one of the best places in the world to train. I can't wait for many more years in Loughborough!

I've captured a few of my favourite training sessions on my favourite Garmin Devices! Thursday 25th June shows my favouite track session, taken on my Forerunner 405. The session is 20 x 400m the first 16 are off 1min50sec and I have to descend in blocks of four hitting 84, 82, 80, 78. It's a real endurance session, little rest but still running pretty fast. I like running with my Forerunner 305 as the lap function is easy to use, keeping track of how many I have done and what time and speed I am running my 400m's in! I upload all the data after my training session and my coach and I go over it. We evaluate the session and set goals for the next time I will run it.

I use my Edge 705 every bike ride. The 16th June shows an easy 2hour spin around my favourtie roads around Loughborough. I like to put a few hills in the ride, just to mix it up and keep in interesting! I always keep my easy around between 150 and 180 watts. There are a number of villages around Loughborough and you can make up some great rides!