Hi, i'm Jonny Hopkins. I actually blog for runnerslife (www.runnerslife.co.uk) I thought I would start posting my blogs here too...

I won't be opening up my track season until the end of April at the Penn Relays where I will run the 5000m and have my first crack at the 14.25 European Junior standard. As you have probably seen the guys out in the states are already racing. I actually picked up another infection in my foot which hospitalized me for 4 days. Work and getting back into training has been crazy since I have been out and thats why I haven't managed to blog for so long!
    
Anyway, just before the infection training was going well. I averaged 5.05 (5.12/5.11/5.02/5.00/4.58) and 5.03 (5.09/5.05/5.05/4.58/4.57) for my two recent 5 mile tempos. Also some of my track sessions were 14x 400m off 75 sec jog recovery averaging 64 (with a 60 last rep) and 6x 1k off 2 mins (2.50/50/50/50/51/49). So I was getting into very good shape before the illness and had originally planned to open up my season with a 1500m race and then go to Mt. Sac and run the 5000m.

Last week was my first week back running and I hit around 70 miles of easy running to get some mileage in my legs after the lay off. Today I did my first workout back and it was just a very easy, faster than tempo pace session. I did 4x 1 mile off 2 minutes (4.57/53/51/51). It was the fastest my legs have gone for a while and just nice to be out on the track with the guys running again. My next workout is a 5 mile tempo on Friday which I will blog about in my weekend post.

Obviously I am very disappointed with the start I have had to my summer season, but I am back on track and all I can do is get a good few weeks of training behind me before I race at Penn. The race at Penn is on the Thursday night and I then plan to run a 1500m before running the 5000m at the Big East Championships.

My Targets for the outdoor season will be:

Minor Targets

• Improve 1500m personal best.
• Run well at Big East Championships.
• Improve 5000m personal best.

Major Targets

• Qualify for Regionals or first round of NCAA in the 5000m.
• Qualify for the European Juniors in the 5000m.

Thanks,

Jonny.