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Jon Pepper's blog 08.04.09

I'm currently at home spending my Easter holiday working on my dissertation after finishing the term in a rather frustrating manner from a sporting perspective. I picked up an achilles niggle at the end of February which has been grumbling ever since and has stopped me from training properly. Thankfully, after a few days off here a few flare ups and some extra rest on top of that, I am back running to some extent as well as regular circuit training sessions as it's easier on the leg and allows me to work really hard to kick start my training (I feel well out of shape!). I suppose I could see the bright side and say that the injury has given me more time to spend on academic work, but unfortunately I just don't work like that - I feel I need to be training to be able to work well. If I'm frustrated by training then I find it harder to knuckle down and work. It's a strange one, but I suppose training does offer a real outlet of the restless energy caused by sitting in a chair all day!

My training at this time is aiming towards running well over 5000m on the track, as would love to rewrite my PB's from 1500m - 5000m and perhaps a steeplechase as well. The main championship aim is the European U23 trials at the end of June, and hopefully the World Trials which are the middle of July. Running the European champs would be great, but I am more concerned about developing myself for the long-term as a senior athlete rather than making silly mistakes in trying to push hard for an international vest at U23 level, as I found out in 2007 when I re-injured myself in trying to qualify for the same championships at U20 level. The summer is going to be very busy until the end of May, as I will be doing my finals in Sport & Exercise Sciences, but thankfully most of the more important competitions are in June or July so I will be free of revision by then. The only downfall with the racing calendar is that the BUCS Track & Field champs are really early (2nd May) and will be my first race of the season. It's looking unlikely that I'll be running that well so soon due to the achilles, but i'm hoping to go and give it a good shot and try and score some points for Brum!

I've been looking ahead to next year as any good final year student should be, and the most likely job which I think I will take is to work in a primary school as a teaching assistant for the upcoming year. I'm interested in teaching long-term, but whilst wanting to maintain a high level of training along with being wary of rushing straight into a PGCE, I thought it would be the perfect way to gain some experience in a school and work hard on progressing as an athlete. I have recently spotted a job at a school back home which I am going to apply for, which makes the whole thing seem much more real. No longer being a student will be strange...but, exciting times!