Mark English trains in South Africa and meets a furry competitor

With the sun on your back, a chance to meet the fastest animal on the planet and gruelling sessions away from the snow, it's no wonder Europe's top runners are in South Africa plotting Rio domination.

Having already qualified for this summer's Olympics, 800m star Mark English can spend his energies honing his running skills, endurance and mental strength.

Ireland may be home for the 22-year-old Sky Academy Sports Scholar, but the radar is firmly placed on Brazil. A few weeks overseas training and mixing with team-mates is the perfect antidote for the pressures to come.

Here are Mark's latest words on his athletics preparation...

"In summer, the song sings itself."

During December and January, athletes all over Europe flock to South Africa like a flight of swallows. And as the quote from American poet William Carlos Williams implies, it's because everything flows so smoothly down here in Stellenbosch.

Devoid of cold and rainy weather at this time of year, it provides the perfect environment to rejuvenate athletes for an Olympic year. Add in the fact that athletes are omnipresent in this small town and you really feel like you're at a championship.

The training here is tough and I'm training on average in 10-day cycles before taking a day to recover. So what does a typical day involve here?

Mondays for example go a bit like this. I wake at 8:30am, eat some porridge and eggs, then run an easy five miles. After my run I usually go to town for some lunch and coffee. In the evening I would go to the gym to do a strength work-out.

Luckily, we are staying in a living house with a pool, so I can splash around and also do drills in the evenings - something I find great for recovery. Flexibility is something I've always struggled with and I've been working hard at that every evening.

On lighter days, we try to visit as many places as possible! I've been harping on about going shark diving for the last month but unfortunately there had been no great whites spotted for over a week here, which my mother will be best pleased about (fingers crossed they come back during the end of my trip!).

Instead we decided to visit a cheetah outreach centre. I'm usually very much against the confinement of these animals, but was happy to pay money to this non-profit organisation that caters for cheetahs born in unfortunate circumstances.

I was fascinated by the length of their tendons - it's easy to see how they can reach 0-60mph quicker than a Porsche Carrera GT! But I hear their short bursts usually only reach a maximum distance of 500m, so just maybe I might stand a chance of beating them over 1500m!

Other ways we've spent our spare time have included visiting the Cape of Good Hope.

It was my second time visiting it but it felt like my first. Standing on the rocks looking out over the ocean reminded me of that final scene from The Shawshank Redemption, when Andy Dufrense (played by Tim Robbins) is scrubbing down his boat with the Pacific Ocean glistening in the background.

Red (Morgan Freeman) approaches the boat, and both are smiling, no words are needed. Similarly, standing there and appreciating the timeless unspoilt beauty of nature around us was more than enough.

But we're here first and foremost to train. And going into the final stretch of our trip, I will be doing a specific period of training aimed at allowing me to run a few indoor races. So the goal is to gain more specific fitness whilst also staying in touch with racing.

This is all devised by my coach as part of a periodised plan to see me peak for the Olympics in Rio. So far so good and we've managed to strike that balance between speed and endurance which underpins any ideal 800m training plan.

I've noticed an increased ability to perform certain speed endurance sessions and I am extremely excited to race! That first race will be in Dusseldorf on February 3 and is likely to be fast; the race has been won in 1:45 and 1:46 over the past two years, so here's hoping the trend continues and I can smash out a quick time!

As I finish writing this, it's time for another track session. I'm now running at race pace in my training sessions and looking for that flow all athletes seek. But it's summer here and with 30 degrees sun on my back, what else would I be doing?

WHAT'S COMING UP FOR OUR SCHOLARS...

JAN 16 - MARCH 5: Siobhan O'Connor, Australia

JAN 23 - FEB 1: Savannah Marshall, training camp in USA

JAN: Lucy Garner, in Australia for start of season

FEB 3-5: Jack Bateson, Bocskai tournament in Hungary

FEB 3: Mark English, racing in Dusseldorf