My life has been a bit hectic lately.

I was approached by one of the young athletes, Alyssa Conley, who I coached a couple of years ago.  It’s been a challenge as she was injured and unfit when I started with her a month ago. But she is such a mature athlete and so easy to coach. Alyssa is such a beautiful young runner with loads of potential in the sprints and maybe eventually the 400.  Her running style reminds me a lot of Marion Jones.

Alyssa is one of the top sprinters in South Africa and has already achieved great heights as a junior and I believe is capbable of even better performances as a senior.  Her best times are 11.85 and 23.83 and she finished in the finals of the world junior champs in 2008. Alyssa is turning 19 in April and has one more chance to qualify for the world juniors which will be held in Moncton, Canada from 20 – 25 June.

Even though I know her well enough, we have to guard against too much too soon at the risk of her getting injured again.  Once again, my feelings on too much training on the tartan, especially young athletes, has convinced me that it is a minefield for injuries.

After 3 weeks of training on a grass track at 60 – 75% effort and doing a free-standing weight training programme 3 x a week, we’ve produced some positive results. We can only but hope that she will get to a fitness level by 12/13 March when our junior provincial championships take place.  If Alyssa gets into the team to compete at the nationals on 8-10 April, she will have to run the qualifying times of 11.75 and 24.0 for the world junior champs, the 200m being her strongest event.

My running…well my youngest son is getting married this Saturday, so we have family up from Cape Town and of course all the socializing is not doing my training very good!  I hope to compete again next Saturday, 20 Feb in the 100 and 200, but I have my serious doubts about setting up any times just yet.

Alyssa Conley