LEE MERRIEN headed a group of 30 seniors and juniors who popped to Herm for a day of intensive training before the start of a new cross-country season. Merrien, who is targeting a place in the British cross-country team this winter, said the day had proved very worthwhile.

‘The morning session was mostly technical stuff and the afternoon a good, hard workout under a hot sun,’ said the Channel Islands’ premier distance runner.

Merrien and Alan Rowe took charge of the day and took the mix of club members through the plyometric morning session.

Following a light lunch the group had an aerobic intervals session focused on aerobic strength endurance.

Herm’s common, hill paths and dunes proved ideal for the sessions and the visit ended with the thrill of spotting seals in the sea.

Although no dates have been arranged, the GIAAC endurance section are hoping to stage another training day outside the normal schedule sometime in the new year, perhaps in the build-up to the cross-country inter-insular and the Healthspan Easter Festival.

n Races four and five in the junior endurance section’s Nick Brett Property Multi-Terrain series have produced some unpredictable results at under-15 level.

Megan Stewart won over 800m, but Nicole Petit, third over two laps on the track, won the Delancey Park cross-country, with Emma Le Conte second.