At Team East Lothian Athletics Club the coaching team believes that it takes consistency in training for an athlete to improve and reach optimal levels of performance. And to consistently train, athletes need to avoid injury. And one of the key steps that can be taken to avoid injury is a long-term focus on physical literacy and strength and conditioning. That’s why every performance athlete at Team East Lothian is scheduled at least one session of physical literacy and strength and conditioning each week. The struggle with that is finding a venue with sufficient space, equipment, and shelter to allow that to happen, particularly during the long dark Scottish winters.

Team East Lothian has been in discussion with East Lothian Council and EnjoyLeisure for many years about allowing the club to develop an indoor facility for athletics training to complement the Athletics Arena at Meadowmill. But we’ve yet to find a way to make it happen. So when Paddy Burns from 4J Studios, important supporters of Team East Lothian AC, offered their support in the development of a temporary solution, the search started for a suitable site. After positive discussions with the Hallhill Community Development and Heritage Trust, and design work from Chris Rhodes, who handily is both an architect and a Team East Lothian trustee, a project started to take shape.

The result is two 12-metre shipping containers positioned on either side of a 10-metre by 12-metre rubber-matted exercise area, covered in a canopy that protects the area from the worse of the Scottish weather. And why two shipping containers? Well, one is fitted out as a free weights olympic lifting gym, while the other is the storage area for an array of specialist exercise equipment including exercise bikes, rowing machines, ski machines, hurdles, plyometric boxes, medicine balls, etc. Everything required to deliver high-quality training for high-performance athletes.

And some of the journey involved in making it happen…