Allyson Felix and Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers with their LA Athlete of the Year awards (© Kirby Lee)
In her latest IAAF Online Diary, World 200m champion Allyson Felix talks about her latest award, photo shoots with her friends (and fellow athletes), Valentine's Day, and how her early season training is coming along.
(NB: Updated 26 Feb, 09:00 CET, to include mention of her 400m race at the US Indoor Championships this weekend.)
“Hello everyone,
“I was honoured as the L.A. Sportswoman of the Year last Friday (19 Feb.) at the J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live.
“I had a blast! I was honoured to be presented with my award by Joanna Hayes, who is a very close friend and someone who I truly admire.
“I won the award in 2007 but it is still very special to me because Los Angeles is filled with amazing talent and to be honored for my accomplishments was very humbling.
“I was really excited to meet the Sportsman of the Year, Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers who I am a very big fan of. I was also excited to see Andre Ethier of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Zenyatta's owner Jerry Moss.
“Zenyatta's historic win in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita was chosen as the No. 2 sports moment of the year behind the Lakers victory over Orlando in the NBA finals.
“I recently had a photo shoot that highlighted my training partners, Dawn Harper, Ginnie Powell and Joanna Hayes. We all had so much fun picking out clothes and taking pictures together. We are all really close and to get to do something we regularly don't do together was great.
“My Valentine’s Day was just a very relaxed day, just the way that I like it. I spent the morning at church, had dinner with my family and spent the rest of the day with my boyfriend Kenneth Ferguson. I'm not a huge fan of Valentines Day but it's always nice to be with the people I love.
“On the track, my strength program is going great. I am considerably stronger than I have ever been before and I'm already feeling stronger. We are focusing on my entire body, along with lots of plyometrics.
"Normally, I don't open my season until April but I've decided to run the 400m at the USATF Indoors (27-28 Feb) in Albuquerque since it is an off year. This was a great way to break up the monotony of constant training. Although I am training through the indoor season, it proves a great opportunity to measure where my training is at and allows me to have a little bit of fun competing."
“It's been exciting to watch Laverne Jones and Carmelita Jeter compete against each other in the 60m indoors. I'm looking forward to their race at World Indoors.”
Allyson