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Running Aimlessly Down Under - From 54 to 53 sec 400m
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Round 8 took us to Albert Park's new Lakeside Stadium track, arguably the best of the 12 AV Shield rounds. Due to the Zatopek being on Saturday (one of the highlights of the Australian athletics calender) all grassroots competitions were moved to Thursday evening for this round of the Shield. So, a meet under floodlights, in a brand new stadium on a brand new blue track with the excellent warm up track facilities. It's hard not to be a bit excited about that, even if I have already raced there about 4-5 times now.
The weather was perfect. It was low 20's. It felt like we were in a living room. A perfect night for athletics. The problem is that with the track being beside the lake it can get windy and usually a headwind. But for an 800m, if I wasn't going to run it this time then I'd never do it. It's probably the one chance I would get to run it without burning sun and suffocating heat.
200m:
They were running behind schedule which sort of messed up my warm up. I had warmed up too early, ended up sitting down, and then sort had to re-warm back up again, which was not ideal.
For my heat I went in the "sub 27" heat, although the reality is never the case. I was in lane 7 and I knew nothing about the guys in 3-6. The guy on the outside from the newly formed Yarra Ranges AC I got chatting to. He said he ran 53 for 400m the week before but was considering just going easy in the 200m at around 25 or 26 to preserve himself for the 800 (he ended up running a 2:07).
Gun went off and I didn't feel I powered out as well as I had in the previous race. I drived hard keeping my head down, and getting the knees up, but everybody on my inside was passing me as I could see with my side vision. I lifted my head to find myself well down, as the guy in lane 8 was storming clear of the field. Clearly he decided to abandon his previous plan of running easy. As I came around the bend I felt a strong gust of wind in my face, which came at the worst time, as you are trying to build up momentum. Entering the straight I was so far down on the field, but started reeling them in in over the second half of the race as I finished strongly. The gap was way too much to make up though, and as I hit the last 20m I felt a mini-lactic acid build up. Had never experienced that in a 200 before. I finished in last of the 6 runners, about 4m down on the next runner.
Had no idea how fast I ran. I felt I worked damn hard and afterwards I felt exhausted, more so than usual after a 200m, but technically I felt I didn't execute the race as well as I could. It was rather messy at times, but maybe I think this because I ran in a race which turned out to be a small bit fast for me so I always felt like I was chasing.
Result popped up as 26.50 seconds, which is 0.18 slower than my PB, and 0.01 faster than my previous next best time. Initially I was disappointed, but when I saw the wind reading I felt a lot happier. I had a -1.3 headwind. Adjusting my time using the adjustment calculator it comes to 26.36, while doing likewise for my PB it comes to 26.34, so my performance was right on my PB.
Before I found out the wind reading I was telling the coach I was a little disappointed and that I didn't execute it that great. He said that it is not easy to run well in the evening time if you've been working all day. I said to him that I had PB'ed at the State Champs 400m last year after a long day of work. He said that that's different, and it is a big occasion. He's probably right. I had a stressful day at work, and felt a little drained, but I don't want to be making excuses. The State Champs could be an evening race so I will need to be on my A-game on that occasion and will need to manage this challenge.
800m:
Initially after the 200m I lost all enthusiasm for the event. I was feeling exhausted, but slowly my energy came back and took my place in what turned out to be the 3rd slowest heat. There were 12 in the race and I got chatting to the lad who shared lane 7 with me. He said he had never ran an 800 in his life but is a 54 second 400m runner.
Gun went off and I settled into a comfortable pace, and entered the backstraight in 3rd place, with my lane mate moving ahead, with a 14-15 year old trying to stick with him. Another lad then went past me and a gap opened up between the first 2, and the 2 of us. First 200m was around 35 and after that I didn't bother looking at the watch.Coming into the home straight I noticed that there was a gap back to 5th place behind me, but 3rd place had forged a bit ahead of me. As I hit the bell the guy announced out "73...74". I had gone out very conservatively, and was now ready to kick on, and use my sprint speed to move up closer to the leaders. I upped the pace on the backstraight and with 250m to go went past the guy in 3rd place like he was standing still and ended up taking 5 seconds out of him. I now had my sights on trying to catch the leaders, but the guy who was in my lane was now pushing well clear and won in 2:17. The younger chap was now suffering badly for trying to stick with him. I entered the home straight and he was about 20m ahead of me. I unleashed a kick, and was finishing like a train. This was the fastest I had ever finished an 800m. My left calf started to feel a bit tight with the change in pace. I reeling him in very quickly, but I ran out of track and finished half a second down on him, to come 3rd in 2:28.4. This was a season's best by 0.8 seconds and was just 0.8 seconds off my PB from last season. However given the fact I was wearing racing flats, as opposed to sprint spikes last year, I think the reality is that it was a PB run, even if the figures don't say so officially.
I was happy with my run, and in a twisted way really enjoyed it. It's fun being competitive in races like that. It wasn't a strong standard lets be honest, but it was well ahead of the quality of opposition I was up against 2 weeks ago. There's a good chance that will be it for me this season as far as 800m is concerned. Don't really want to be messing around with 800s after Christmas as we approach the business end of the season. Including the graded meets in August this is the 4th one I have done now, and have only skipped one (although went a bit easy in another one).
Shot Putt:
I decided to have another shot at this for a bit of fun. First throw was 5.97m, my 3rd best ever, 5cm down on 2 weeks ago, and 54cm down on my best. The second throw was only 5.62 and the final one 5.61 I think. However my scream could be heard from the other end of the stadium so was pleased with that, worthy of a half a metre bonus surely.
Just one more track meet left before the Christmas break. Round 9 takes us back to Box Hill next week where I will again run a 100 and 400, and maybe a 4x1. Looking forward to the Christmas break and just focusing on training and having 3 weeks off racing. Bit tired from all the racing, and need to get myself rejuvenated for the big second half of the season.0 -
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56.28 seconds for 400m today at the High Velocity meet in Geelong, a PB by almost 2 seconds! In absolute disbelief! Knew I was in shape to run a low 57, and maybe even sneak under 57, but never expected this! Now just 0.29 seconds off the target I set back last April and there's still a whole half season to go.
I'll write up a report on today soon, once I've calmed down a bit!0 -
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PaullBradyy wrote: »
I think this deserves a late entry to performance of the year.
Haha thanks. I don't think I'd be allowed in there though. 0 -
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The original plan for this weekend was to compete in Round 9 of the AV Shield at Box Hill on Saturday and do my usual 100 and 400 combo, with a possible relay thrown in. However the weather forecast looked dreadful for Saturday with thunderstorms and heavy rain being the order of the day. With this in mind, and the more promising looking forecast for Geelong on Sunday, I decided to give the Shield a miss (the first round I have missed so far this season) and run my very first High Velocity Club meet instead.
As it turned out the weather ended up being lovely on Saturday (weathermen must be the only people who don't get fired for being wrong over 50% of the time!!), but it was too late to change my mind so I stuck with my plan for Geelong. To be honest I was pretty happy to run on Sunday. I hadn't run a single 400m fresh all season so far. Every 400m was run at the very end of the day, having run a 100m, and in some cases a relay also, beforehand. It's a killer waiting all day for a 400m. I thought that by doing High Velocity it would shake things up a bit and bring a bit of variety to my season. New meet. New track. New competitors.
High Velocity Club are one of 4 specialist groups affiliated with Athletics Victoria who run 6 specialised meets throughout the season for sprints, hurdles, long jump and triple jump. The other 3 specialist groups are:
- Vic Milers Club - 800m-3000m
- Rare Air Club - High Jump and Pole Vault
- AV Throwers - all the throws
The High Velocity club meets are more of an elite type setup. Only the top 24 applicants in any of the track events are provided a lane, and it is based on times. Of course the reality is than only one of the 6 meets (the one just before the state champs) will fill up, so I had no bother getting a lane with my 58.01 PB.
The meet took place at a new track for me, the John Landy Athletic Field, named after the great John Landy, the second man in history to run sub 4 for the mile, holder of the world mile record for 3 years with a 3:58.0 and Olympic Bronze medalist in 1956 behind Ronnie Delany. The track is the venue for the Victorian Country Championships on Australia Day weekend so this meet would give me a chance to get a good run out on the track before what will be one of the biggest events of the season for me, and familiarise myself with the area. The track was beautiful. It was like walking on carpet. It was only relayed a couple of years ago.
400m:
Since running my breakthrough 400 of 58.01 at the end of October I had become very consistent with 58.17 and 58.18 in my last 2 races. Despite the consistency I felt that I wasn't doing myself justice and that I was in much better shape than that from the times I was running in training. However after a 41.6 in flats for 300m on Tuesday I was feeling confident that I could run 57 for the first time.
I was incredibly nervous ahead of this race. In one way it was great to be down in Geelong on my own where I knew nobody (except one of my decathlon buddies who was running the hurdles and long jump), but this also meant I didn't have anything to distract me from my race before I started my warm up.
The weather was partly cloudy/ partly sunny. One of those jumpers off, jumpers back on every 5 minutes type of days. The wind was very strong though, and was sort of appearing in random gusts. My thinking was that this wouldn't be a huge issue for 400m as long as it stayed in the one direction and didn't swirl half way during my race.
Despite my nerves I wasn't particularly intimidated by the opposition. The first time I ever ran in a race like this was at the Essendon Track Classic back in February where I ran 59.86 and felt like a lost little puppy among all those finely tuned sprinters. However after that I raced the State Championships against the same type of opposition and I smashed my PB in it, so I figured I'm now experienced in running races out of my depth, and in fact it can be a good thing as it means you have to 100% focus on yourself only. And besides I was in much better shape now so there really was no need to be intimidated. I knew I'd probably come last but that didn't bother me.
There were 6 in the race. I was drawn in lane 6, with lanes 5 and 8 vacant. The gun went off and I got out well. Felt a huge gust of wind in my face for the opening 50m or so of the race. Kept the head down for the first 40m, and when I lifted it I noticed the guy in lane 4 come right up on me. No panic there though. The guy is a 49 second runner. I eased into cruise mode after about 60m and tried to maintain this down the backstraight. However I think I got caught up a bit in the pace of the race and certainly moved quicker from 100m to 200m than I would have expected. The guy in lane 7 had moved a bit away from me but I could still see him clearly which was a positive. With 200m to go I kicked on. I felt like I was moving hard by this stage and it could be difficult to maintain this in the closing stages. With about 140m to go I noticed the lad in lane 1 finally come up on me. I had somebody close to me who I could chase. At this point I again noticed the wind in my face briefly. I entered the home straight and I was hurting bad. I could see a fair few of them in front of me. Well ahead, but not so far ahead that I couldn't see them like last season. The lactic acid was no killing me. I pushed as hard as I could through it. I was losing a bit of ground on the guys ahead of me, paying for going out a bit too quick, but I worked incredibly hard to push through it, trying to maintain my form as best I could (which wasn't particularly well). I crossed the finish line about 10m behind the guy in lane 1 and I had no idea how fast I had run.
I felt exhausted afterwards as you would expect, but my head felt like it wanted to explode. A sudden headache of sorts. This was a new sensation. I waited beside the results screen only half conscious hoping a 57 would appear for my result. They didn't list names, only places and times. The 6th place runner was given 56.28 and I was thinking this could be a good omen for me and I could sneak through with a high 57. However my result was not popping up. Then after a few seconds the penny dropped. Hang on...1...2...3...4...5...6, there's 6 on that list!! There was only 6 in the race right?? F*CK, that's MY time there! I didn't cop it at all. I had just run 56.28 seconds, a PB by 1.73 seconds, completely bypassing the 57s and the high 56s and shooting me right on the verge of the 55 range, my goal for the season!
I didn't believe it. There had to be some sort of mistake. But the officials insured me that I ran that time, and they were quite enjoying my reaction to my result. He then personally verified the result for me on the photo finish screen and printed me a copy of the results in case I still didn't believe him.
After taking a step back to think about it all, it was no surprise I ran that time. I was way closer to the fast guys than I was last year. The guy in lane 1 was a high 54 second runner and that is exactly what he ran again today. Being 10m off him obviously equals a low 56. I don't know why I doubted myself so much in the immediate aftermath.
The race was won in 49.09, with the rest of the field running 49.26, 50.39, 51.89, 52.86 and 54.98.
This race has given me huge confidence going into the second half of the season, and in particular ahead of the Vic Country Championships which will take place on that very same track.
So that's the last race of 2012. Lots more to come this season but it has been a great year. I entered the year with a 60.35 PB and have taken over 4 seconds off that time in the last 12 months. I'll come back later with a mini review of the season to date at a later stage and the plans for the second half of the season.0 -
Pisco Sour wrote: »56.28 seconds for 400m today at the High Velocity meet in Geelong, a PB by almost 2 seconds! In absolute disbelief! Knew I was in shape to run a low 57, and maybe even sneak under 57, but never expected this! Now just 0.29 seconds off the target I set back last April and there's still a whole half season to go.
I'll write up a report on today soon, once I've calmed down a bit!
What can I say, thats just incredible but not unbelieveable. Super performance there Pisco, very well done and congrats!
Here is what I am thinking about a 2 second PB, you have just proved me right with regard to the power aspect of your training in the gym, there is the gain above that I was telling you would happen
Keep up the good work and reading that has got me excited, I want to get back to the track now!0 -
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What can I say, thats just incredible but not unbelieveable. Super performance there Pisco, very well done and congrats!
Here is what I am thinking about a 2 second PB, you have just proved me right with regard to the power aspect of your training in the gym, there is the gain above that I was telling you would happen
Keep up the good work and reading that has got me excited, I want to get back to the track now!
Yep 100% correct. Fully agree.
That along with all the work on my form of course.0 -
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Kurt Godel wrote: »I know a lot think you're always trolling, but I think you actually care about this forum and are stirring things to stop the 5 hour marathons taking over. In any case, very impressive progress from you in your 400's on 2012, best of luck for the new year. And don't go learning manners or anything, a bit of passion one way or the other is a good thing to see around here. Merry feckin' Xmas to you too pisco sour:)
Same to you by the way. Your input to this forum is excellent and we can't lose you to the Tri forum so try stick around here a bit more. Otherwise I'm fighting a losing battle. 0 -
Had a read back over my first few posts on this log and came across this gem from below, my first ever 400m race, 21 months ago. Pure amateur preparations it has to be said. Looking back at it what was I thinking!Pisco Sour wrote: »Ok so today was a great day in my running career (I use that word in the loosest sense of the word of course!!).
A quick summary of the races I had done up to today. After Christmas there was 4 AV Shield meets left in the summer track season. At the first of those I ran a PB for 200m with a time of 28.2 seconds, jumped 4.17m for long jump and ran 2.44 for 800m. The next weekend at the 2nd of the meets I was badly injured and ran an appalling time over 100m of 15.5 seconds and had to sacrifice the 400m then. I was gutted. I sat out the 3rd meet to be ready for the 4th but unforeseen circumstances (flood damage) got in the way of me being motivated to attend that meet.
After the AV Shield was finished there was 3 extra meets put on for some extra competition between some of the clubs. No points at stake, just a more laid back event. I missed the first of these as I had already planned a trip through the great ocean road that weekend so today was to be my first track meet in what felt like an age.
As per my previous post I picked up an injury on tuesday night. I spent the rest of the week recovering and on friday lunchtime I tested it out by doing a few strides. I passed the test and felt fine so I decided I'd give this meet a go.
However some friends who I had not seen in 2 years were in town so I decided to go out for a few alcoholic beverages. Double whiskey, a few beers, and an irish car bomb. Not good preparation but I made sure to drink plenty of water during the evening and get plenty of sleep to minimise the damage.
Woke up this morning, a little hungover but not too bad at all. Downed about 2-3 litres of water over the course of a few hours and I was completely fine. A bigger worry was the fact that my legs were stiff and shins were hurting a bit. I may have pushed myself yesterday a bit more than I should have.
Today there was 200m and 400m races on. I faced a dilemma: whether to do them both or to focus solely on the 400m. I had already registered a good PB this summer in the 200m and as the 400m was after the 200m I felt that if I wanted to focus on the 4 I had to sacrifice the 2.
Getting to the start line I did not know what to expect. My previous best was 66.2 seconds so I raced in the 65-70 second heat. As it turned out I was running against 5 women, but they were all quick and would provide a very good challenge.
As it turns out the race went perfectly. I paced myself well. Went off hard, settled after 50 metres. I was in lane 3 and my clubmate in lane 2 ate up the stagger really quickly. I knew from training that I was much faster than her so being innexperienced at racing the distance I wasnt sure whether she had gone off too fast or I had started too slow. Anyway I just shut it out and ran my own race and by the 200m mark I had passed her again as she died a slow death. Coming into the homestraight there was 2 ahead of me, but I felt great and with 60-70 metres to go I knew the race was mine, and went passed them with about 30-40 metres left and won comfortable by about 0.8 of a second. I was thrilled with the victory. Yes they were women but they were of my level so winning felt good. Then I was told the time. I couldnt believe it. 63.9 seconds, an enormous PB. I was in shock!! Did not think I was in the shape to run that quickly. The slowest of the 6 of us ran 68 seconds so it was a good competitive race.
One of my coaches said I ran the race perfectly, paced myself just right. The other coach said that he thinks I should have an extra beer or two next weekend before the final track meet as it appears to have done me good
To be honest today was probably the best I have ever ran a race, of any distance. It went perfectly and on the day I couldt have done any better. A great feeling!
So next weekend is the final track meet of the season. The events that concern me next weekend are the 100m and the 800m. Provided the 100m is first then i'll do both events but if the 800m is first then I will skip it as the 100m is priority. After my disaster a month or so back when I was injured I have unfinished business over the event. If I get a slight breeze behind me and am fit I know I am capable of going sub 13 seconds.0 -
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I got back from Mildura earlier than expected so decided to sneak in a quick hill session on a hill near me. The last time I ran on that hill was back in August a few days after arriving back here from Ireland. On that occasion I did 6x150m and my times were as follows:Pisco Sour wrote: »30-30-30-31-31-31
Today I did 4x150m with 3 minute recoveries and my times were:
27.3 - 27.1 - 27.6 - 27.8
That's a huge chunk taken off. It's nice when you see progress staring right at you like that.
I had felt a bit guility about taking 3 days off, so now I can enjoy my pints tonight and my day of eating like a pig and drinking like a fish tomorrow guilt free.0 -
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