Running Aimlessly Down Under - From 54 to 53 sec 400m

Chivito550

Monday: Hills

Got back into training on Monday after 4 full days on the sidelines. Having been sick I expected my times to be a bit down on recent runs, especially considering the grass has got quite long and hasn't been cut for awhile. I surprised myself though.

40-60-40-60-40-60-40

40: 40 steep
60: 40 steep-20 flat

Times were:

7.6 - 11.2 - 7.5 - 11.3 - 7.7 - 11.4 - 7.6

Recoveries approximately 2 minutes.

Those 40m times are right on what I have run recently, and the 60m times are considerably faster than the last time I did those, which was admittedly a fair bit back now. So I didn't seem to lose anything despite being sick. Was about 17 degrees, no sun, dry, with a reasonable cross wind.

Tuesday: Massage

Wednesday: Had a small niggle Tuesday morning. Nothing to worry about. Got it ironed out during the massage but was told to not piss it off between now and Nationals. So I skipped the blocks which the training group were doing and did 5 x 80m from a rolling start, building up slowly to top speed. Lots of recovery in between. Did the first 3 on my own, and then the last 2 with the group.

Thursday: 10 minute hip flexibility work

So all the training has been done, and Nationals await. I'm not feeling too much pressure to be honest. I've already nailed PBs twice in both the 100 and the 200. Anything else for this season is a bonus. I've only trained 2 of the last 9 days (not including the hip flexibility work), but both sessions were good, and the forced rest may have done me good.

I've got the 200m tomorrow, then the 100m on Sunday. Frustratingly the 100m heats are at 3pm meaning I will miss somewhere between 45-60 minutes of the Ireland V France match. Trying to follow the first half will be a complete distraction so I will just have to make my peace with it and completely forget about it, until I cross the finish line, and then I'll run straight to the Clonliffe Harriers bar! Guinness can be my warm down!

Oregano_State

Best of luck man. I'm not racing this weekend but will be following the live stream. You've already had a great season, especially having had to recover from that injury.

Chivito550

25.37 (+2.1) in the 200m at Nationals today, my third fastest time ever, though a good 0.27 down on my PB. Happy enough to be honest. That wind reading is deceptive as it was blowing diagonally, so I probably had a minus 3 headwind for the first 50m of the race. Huge 30 minute delay in the programme which meant our warm ups seemed to go on forever. That sub 25 might have to wait until next season. Looking forward to the 100m tomorrow.

Chivito550

12.71 in the 100m at Nationals today into a -1.1 headwind on a wet track in damp conditions. Well down on the PB of 12.35 (+1.5) but adjusting both for wind, it's 0.14 down on my best. Solid run, just didn't quite have that extra bit today. Not a lot of racing opportunities left in July, but hopefully I can get a few more good races in to end a great season.

Chivito550

The biggest day in the athletics calendar, the National Championships. This would be my third appearance at our sport’s showpiece event. In 2014 I finally claimed that sub 55 for 400m, with a PB of 54.88, still without doubt the most memorable day in my running life. 12 months later, poor conditions inhibited my ability to run a quick time and I was left frustrated with a 56.65. The following day I scored myself a PB of 4.95m in the long jump. This time around, the events would be different, with the 200m heats on the Saturday, and the 100m heats on the Sunday.

Because of the European Championships this year, the whole season is out of whack, and Nationals are much earlier than normal, so the plan this year was to peak in June. This has gone completely to plan and I’ve managed PBs in both events. Anything I achieved at Nationals I would view as a bonus.

200m:

I arrived nice and early on Saturday, and chilled out for a bit before heading to start my warm up. The 200m was pencilled for 4:30pm, so with needing to be in the call room 20 minutes beforehand, I decided to start my warm up at 3:30pm. I was about 15 minutes into my warm up when I hear that they are running 15 minutes behind schedule, which then became 25 minutes later on. This was frustrating as I couldn’t exactly stop warming up at this point, and so had to extend my overall warm up considerably. Certainly not something you’d expect at a national championships. No point getting angry about it though, so instead just laughed at how ridiculous it all was.

Finally, after an eternity, we were called into the call room. I was drawn in heat 4 of 4, on the outside in lane 8, with 6 of us in the race. They gave us the usual stickers with our lane number to stick to the side of our shorts. I’m not sure who supplies these but I think they need to terminate that contract immediately. They are a complete waste of time and the first easy stride you do, they come flying off onto the track. I tried some sticky tape to stick it on more securely, but the sticky tape we were provided with was even more feeble and actually made the whole thing less secure rather than more secure. Eventually just before the start of the race I took it off and threw it quietly in the bin. No point telling them I’m not wearing it, or else they will try exercise authority on this stuff.

Conditions were not idea. It was about 15 or 16 degrees and felt a bit chilly. It was overcast, but dry. There was a following wind down the straight but a very strong diagonal one which was blowing strongly into our faces for the first 50m. I didn’t know all that much about the guys I was racing. One or two of the names were familiar and I knew these guys were quick. I was happy to be out in lane 8. It allowed me to just focus on my own race.

Gun went off and I got out well, driving hard and keeping as low as I could. As I came more upright I see the guy in lane 7 go by me. Then the entire field inside him swallowed me up almost all at once. I didn’t panic, floated from about 50m to 80m, before kicking on. Most of the competitors I couldn’t really see, except for the lads in lane 3 and 7 who were somewhat in my sights and I tried to hang as close to them as possible. I moved well until about 20-25m to go and then the lactic started to kick in and by the time I crossed the line I was absolutely spent, and about 12m or so down on the 2 lads closest to me.

I felt I ran very well and couldn’t have asked for much more from myself on the day. I wondered could I have PBed, but alas it was not to be. The time was 25.37 seconds with a +2.1 tailwind, my third fastest time ever, 0.27 down on my PB. While I had a tailwind down the straight, there is no doubt that the headwind in the first 50m or so must have been at least -3.0, as it was blowing straight into our faces at the start. This definitely was a factor in my time being a little down I believe. I was a bit frustrated with the conditions, but very happy with the actual run.

100m:

A good night’s sleep was had and it was back to Santry again for the 100m heats, scheduled for 3pm. When I found out this would clash with the Ireland match at 2pm I was very frustrated. However, I made my peace with it and the plan was to ignore the game completely until after my race and then head to the Clonliffe Bar to watch it. I started my warm up jog at 2pm, and as I pass by the 200m start line I hear a tremendous roar coming from the club house. I check my watch and see it is 2:01pm. I assumed they were just cheering the lads as the game kicked off. I thought I better check it out anyway. I go inside and see that we’ve been given a penalty. So I actually got to see the goal live. The place went apesh1t. For about 60 seconds I forgot I was racing in an hour, before getting myself together and heading on. Word travelled fast that Ireland were ahead. One of the guys who was in my heat the day before who was also running the 100m had brought his laptop , and tried frantically to get the game stream working. He got hold of the WiFi and so we had the game playing throughout our warm up. I got the warm up done perfectly, but it was such a distraction, though it couldn’t really be helped. Nearly every 2 minutes I’d check in on the game for 15 seconds or so. There was always a few people crowded around the screen. It certainly took a bit of the focus away from the race during this warm up time.

Call room time happened during half time in the match, and I was fortunate to be in the first of 5 heats, meaning I’d get almost all of the second half. I was drawn in lane 3, and there were 9 of us in the heat. In lane 6 in my heat was 4 time Paralympic Champion Jason Smyth, easily the most high profile athlete I have ever raced. This was pretty cool, even if I’d be about 15 metres behind him!

Conditions were not great. It was about 17 degrees, and definitely felt warmer than the previous day. But it was overcast, the air felt heavy, the track was wet from a good bit of rain earlier, and there was a headwind. This certainly wasn’t a day for a PB. However out in lane 9 was a lad from Mayo AC who I beat at Leinsters (12.35 to 12.43). All of a sudden I had the rare opportunity to beat somebody in a national championship heat, as the seeding usually doesn’t allow me to be in a heat with those closest to me in times.

I got out ok, and tried to drive hard and stay low. I started to lose contact very quickly on the field, and couldn’t really see the Mayo lad way out in lane 9. I caught him with my side vision later in the race, but he was certainly ahead of me. I closed a bit but I knew he got me. Overall I didn’t quite feel I had that small bit extra. Perhaps I was a bit tired and I felt a small bit tight after the previous day’s race. Maybe distracted from the match too. My time was 12.71 seconds into a -1.1 headwind. The Mayo AC lad ran 12.50. I was annoyed that he beat me initially, but he seemed to step it up big time from his performance in Tullamore.

I was 0.36 down on my PB that day, but when adjusting for zero wind I was only 0.14 down (12.46 to 12.60). In wet damp conditions that’s actually not too bad at all, given it was warm and dry in Tullamore. It was a solid run.

As soon as the race ended, I packed up my stuff and made my way to the bar for the rest of the match. I hadn’t sat down 3 minutes when everything started to go so badly wrong!

Overall I’m pleased with my runs, but I didn’t get any PBs. The conditions didn’t allow it on this occasion which I just have to accept.

The Nationals as a whole felt a bit weird this year. It felt very muted. The atmosphere suffered from the clash with the football, and overall it was hard to get as excited when spectating other events as I usually am. In an Olympic year this is disappointing. I personally think Nationals should have been late July, after the European Championships.

So that’s 5 meets in the bag this season (6 100m races, 5 200m races, and 1 4x100m relay), It’s hard to know how to approach the rest of the season to be honest. I’m taking a couple of days off, will training tomorrow, but overall having an easy week, and will do some training for the National Beer Mile on Sunday. On Tuesday I am off to Amsterdam for a week. I will try train over there but it probably won’t be great training. Then when I get back on the 11th, I have less than 3 weeks of the season left, with only a long trek for League Round 2, a couple of gradeds which don’t excite me much, and the Leixlip IMC left. That said, I don’t want to stop training now as that will only increase my off season, so I’ll train through with a view to doing League Round 2 and Leixlip.

Nationals 2016 lacked the highs of my first appearance 2 years previously, but it was a very enjoyable weekend nonetheless.

Chivito550

Videos of my races from the weekend are below:

200m race is 2 hours 13 minutes into this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BDnFRNA7c0

100m race is 3 hours 7 mins into this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv_UoQJEokY

Chivito550

Background:

Since 2012 I've become a regular beer miler. This year's event would be my 6th beer mile. I’ve always prepared well, and up until last year I performed respectively well on each occasion, but last year I got it so badly wrong.

1) - Parkville Beer Mile - Melbourne University - Sep 2012

9:20 with Hahn Super Dry, 4.6% and 330ml, under the required Kingston Rules criteria. I finished 15th out of 39 (top 39%).

2) Autumn Classic Beer Mile - Melbourne University - Apr 2013

8:19 with Hahn Super Dry, 4.6% and 330ml, under the required Kingston Rules criteria. I finished 10th out of 26 (top 39%). This remains my unofficial PB.

3) Parkville Beer Mile - Melbourne University - Sep 2013

8:27 with Coopers 62, 5.0% and 355ml, Kingston Rules approved beer. I finished 15th out of 40 (top 38%). This is my official PB.

4) Irish Beer Mile Championships - National Beer Mile Stadium - June 2014

9:07 with James Boags, 5.0% and 375ml, Kingston Rules approved beer. I finished 6th out of 13 (top 47%). I threw away about 15 seconds trying to twist off the caps that would not budge, rather than using a bottle opener. First ever run on the slower cinder surface too, so I reckoned I was in solid 8:40ish shape.

5) Irish Beer Mile Championships – National Beer Mile Stadium – June 2015

10:36 with Moosehead, 5.0% and 355ml, Kingston Rules approved beer. I finished 15th out of 23 (top 65%). I had raced earlier that day, taking in a lot of Powerade in the process. From the minute I finished that first beer, I knew I was toast, and slowed to a 24 hour pace ultra jog at one point. I had overtrained, and was incredibly disappointed.

This year I was determined to make amends.

Preparation:

The timing this year suited perfectly. With Nationals being early, the bulk of my racing took place in May and June. Things are now winding down, so I took an easy week training wise, which gave me more time to do beer mile sessions. Last year I tried to combine 400m training and beer mile training into my schedule and I bit off more than I could chew. This year I had ample recovery between beer sessions, as I took a down week from sprinting, training just 2 days during the week (Wednesday and Saturday).

Sunday evening I got lots of base mileage in, with a rough night on the sauce for Nationals after party.

Monday: Rest day

Tuesday I did a 4 x James Boags off 1 minute. The final beer was a death march. Confidence was rocked.

Wednesday I did the same session and the improvements were massive.

Thursday myself and my housemate did a beer + run session. I did 4 runs/ 3 beers, starting and finishing with a run. This went well, and I now felt ready to rock.

Friday was planned to be easy mileage on a work night out, but it surfaced out of control, did too many quick miles, and ended up on the piss with Stephen Hunt of all people (long story!) in House until about 3:30am.

Race Day:

I woke up feeling very rough. I managed to haul myself to training, where I was at my poorest form of the entire summer. My reactions were appalling, and I must have been 2 metres down on the other lads by the time I reacted to the coach shouting go for our 40m and 60m reps.

Stomach felt a bit dodgey but like a boxer frantically trying to make the weight pre-fight, I had time. I took in lots of water early in the day, a bit of food, then had my dinner eaten by 4:10pm, exactly 3 hours before the race would start. I hoped for 4 hours, but I had a few things to do in town and miscalculated my timing a small bit. After this I didn’t eat or drink any water. I wanted a fully empty stomach. I was now starting to feel very nervous, as myself and my housemate, who is not a runner at all, and who I coaxed into doing this event, in the promiss of female national championship glory.

Ask any tennis player stepping onto Centre Court at Wimbledon, any snooker player who enters the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, or a golfer who is about to tee off at St Andrews, it doesn’t matter how experienced they are, the nerves will kick in. As we rounded the corner into Kilbogget Park, and I saw the glowing cinder track in the far distance, I started to get the butterflies in the stomach. This is why we drink beer, and why we run, for moments like this.

As we got close to the track I could see a suspicious looking group of about 6 people huddled close together. This was becoming real now!

Conditions:

Dry, partially sunny, but mostly overcast, and very windy.

Beer:

I reverted back to James Boags, my beer from 2 years ago. Moosehead was awful stuff, so I was happy to drink a slightly bigger bottle (375ml), which would easilily be compensated by a much smoother taste. In addition, my beers were twisting off perfectly this year, so there would be no need to waste time with a bottle opener, though I had one with me just in case.

Race:

Timmaay brought down race numbers and pins and we got the registration into full swing. There were 16 competing in total, including 2 women. None of the top 3 from last year were competing, Cathal Dennehy being a very late withdrawal due to ill health, so the title race was blown wide open, and the bookies were starting to panic.

After the usual formalities it was time to get underway.

Beer 1: This one went down comfortably, without a need for a breathing break. This is always a quick one, and it came in at around 28 seconds. However I was behind a lot of the field at this point. Not to worry. This is a long race, and there’s no prizes for a fast opening beer.

Run 1: I didn’t go past anybody on this lap, and kept the run to a controlled jog pace. I struggled to get the burps out during the first 100m, and it took me longer than normal to feel back to normal. A few people went past me on this lap; KU and davedannon in particular. There was probably only 4-5 behind me as I entered the second beer, but I was happy with how I set up the rest of my race. I was around 2:10 when I picked up my second beer.

Beer 2: After the first beer which is one gulp, I revert to a different technique for beers 2, 3 and 4, of taking big fast gulps, quick breather and go again. Even one or two nice burps mid beer. I flew through this in around 40 seconds and off I went, feeling surprisingly better now than I did about 90 seconds earlier.

Run 2: At this point the field is starting to spread out. I’ve gone past a few people on the beer, Timmaay in particular. At this point I realise I forgot to take off my tracksuit bottoms before the race. A brief moment of frustration before I realised that when you are running this slowly it really doesn’t make any difference. I kept the jog controlled and as I came to the last 60m or so, about 3 or 4 went by me. No sweat though, I was ready for this third beer, and would overtake again. I was around 4:30 at the half way point.

Beer 3: Much like beer 2, I got through this at a steady, but unremarkable pace. I’m feeling strong, and I sunk it in about 40 seconds or so again (maybe a small bit more).

Run 3: At this point I have no idea where I am in the field, and am pretty much alone. I focused on keeping the head down and just getting through it. As any good coach would say, forget about what others are doing, just focus on your own race, your own technique and stay relaxed. The stomach was feeling much fuller now, but I was feeling strangely comfortable. I definitely dropped the pace a bit though as it was approximately 7 mins dead on the clock when I entered transition for the final time.

Beer 4: This one I really just had to go for. No long breaks. The quicker you drink, the quicker it is over. Don’t give the pain a chance to kick in or you’ll get stuck there for ages. This beer actually felt easier than the previous two. Perhaps this was psychological, knowing it was the last one. Beer was down in 40-45 seconds or so, and I was at about 7:45ish. A big last lap would be needed to get sub 9, but truth be told I wasn’t even thinking about that.

Run 4: I felt awful for the first 100m of this lap. I desperately tried to force the burps out. Davedannon cruised past me with 300m to go, and I didn’t have the spirit to try chase him down. I looked behind me to see what sort of gap I had to the next person and it was about 60m, so I thought I will just hold that position now and cruise home. Then low and behold with about 230m to go I got a second wind. Davedannon was about 10-15m in front of me, and visibly tiring. Cleanman was another 30-40m in front of him. I gradually upped the pace, closed on him and then with about 150m to go put on the after burners and went past davedannon as if he was standing still. He reacted though, and once the gap opened to about 5, it stayed at that, as he put up a good fight to reclaim that position lost. With 50m to go I am closing on Cleanman at an alarming rate. Then all of a sudden he looks around sees me, and kicks again, to comfortably stay ahead of me by 2 seconds.

I finished in 6th place with 9:01.99. My last lap was around 75 seconds or so, but the last 200m must have been close to around 32 seconds. I emptied the tank and immediately afterwards my stomach felt like lead, and I was certain I would spew, but fortunately this urge subsided after about a minute or so and then I was fine.

Reaction:

I’m absolutely delighted with this run. It was a bit down on my 8:27 PB, but that was on a proper track in spikes. This is a new Kilbogget PB, bettering my time from 2 years ago by 6 seconds, and 1:35 ahead of my disaster last year. Redemption tasted very sweet.

Aftermath:

The banter took over after and everyone was in flying form. CR7 very kindly brought down some local craft brew from Cork which served as prizes for the podium placers, which ultimately just got spread around the group. In fact effort of the day had to go to CR7 and his friend who came up from Cork especially for this event. Magnificent dedication. Huge congrats to DogSlySmile who took out the National title in a sprint finish with CR7. We all had a lot of craic with the post-race interviews, cool down beers, and the sun came out and we all chilled in the sunshine for awhile, before hitting Ryan’s on Camden St.

The beer mile is 100% the best thing that has come out of this forum. So much craic, and good natured fun, with a great crowd of people. I’ll be back for the 5th edition next year that’s for sure.

Chivito550

Time for an update since Nationals. I took an easy week after but also found that I had no real motivation to train given the bulk of the season is over now, and knowing I had a huge disruption to training ahead of me. The only two sessions I did were track sessions with the group.

Wednesday 29th June – Track

100-150-200-250-300 with 150-200-150-100 walk recoveries. Wore the distance spikes and ran the last two reps flat footed. Only timed the 300 at the end which was 48.5.

Saturday 2nd July – Track

Had a hangover from a work night out and still hadn’t got my bag of running gear back from a friend at who’s house I left it after Nationals, so not to drag it around with me at the after party. So I didn’t have my sprint spikes and had to do a speed session in distance spikes. I was absolutely shocking for the first 4 reps. My reactions were so slow and the other lads must have been 2m ahead of me each time I reacted to the coach shouting “go”. The last 2 reps were an improvement, but overall I was far from my best.

Generally I just can’t train for the sake of training. Once the main goal for the year is over, I find my motivation drops. That’s when it is time to go on and end of season break. This year however it’s too early to do that, so I’m sort of killing time a bit until the end of July.

Then I headed off to Amsterdam where, as expected, I didn’t do any training, except for the media race. Just far too busy to fit it in, and the motivation wasn’t there to fit it in.

Friday 8th July – OMEGA Media 800m – Amsterdam

This was my fourth attempt at the media race at a major championship. I was 19th in Moscow out of around 140, with 2:21. In Zurich I finished 10th of about 70 with 2:19, and in Beijing last year I recorded 2:20 to finish 14th out of about 120ish. I’ve never been close to my PB of 2:14 in these races. You’re usually completely out of routine. This year they seemed to keep the media race on the down low. Most journalists didn’t know about it. So there were only 4 heats, and some didn’t show up, meaning only 23 toed the line. I guess with the championships being only 5 days, and with everything being so packed, they probably didn’t want 2+ hours taken up with this. It certainly was by far the most low key media race I’ve ever done. No guest starters like Allen Johnson, Johann Blake or John Regis. But it was supremely organised by the Dutch, and we got the whole call room treatment.

Preparation was poor. I had done very little training since Nationals, then when sitting on a tram heading to the stadium earlier in the championships I realised I left my spikes at home. I tried to get a lend of some on the day but none of the few who brought a pair seemed keen to lend me some.

I did not real warm up. I was writing an article right up until 15 minutes before the time we were to be called. I wandered down to the call room and I see that they did out our race bibs with our names, exactly like the top athletes. Now, I actually started to feel nervous, almost as if I suddenly now had to do the bib justice. But there was a problem. I didn’t particularly want to run 800m, and no longer training for 400m, my aerobic fitness is not as good these days, and I knew I was less likely to be able to bluff an 800m, and in my head I didn’t really want the pain.

In my heat just 5 of the 8 showed up. There was a lad from Belgium who ran 2:12 in Zurich, and seemed the class of the field. There was an Estonian lad around 23, who used to be a decathlete. He told me he had a best of 6000 or so points. Some going. He also had pretty much the exact same 400m PB as me; 54.6 to 54.8, but he hasn't competed for a few years now. Then there was a lad from Lithuania, and a guy from Switzerland. They’d most likely be bringing up the rear.

We were all laughing and joking about in the call room, getting group photos of each other taken. Certainly not an attitude befitting of a European Championship call room. But it was all so official. They gave me a basket to put my stuff in, and wouldn’t let me bring anything outside to the track. I did a few stretches, drills on the spot, but that was about it. We got called out and before the start of our race we had about 4 minutes to do a few strides. I had my runners on and the track was wet. I knew the time would be slow, it always is at media races. I knew I had no hope of beating the Belgian, so went in with a fairly defeatist attitude of playing for second place, and doing enough to secure it.

As we stand on the line, the announcer starts to call out our names individually, with the camera mad sticking the camera in each of our races one by one, with our faces showing up on the big screen. I had a spur of the moment decision to pretend I was a boxer, playing up to the cameras. Why not. Can’t be taking this race too seriously!

Gun went off and away we go. But no. Another couple of guns went and we were called back. There must have been a false start, but they’d hardly DQ somebody from this banterfest. Instead they came out with the green card for a technical issue and showed it to the entire field. On one hand it was pretty unnecessary to do that, but it was absolutely awesome that they did. They were treating this like a real race.

Away we go at the second time of asking and myself and the Belgian are neck and neck over the first 100m, but he got hold of the inside lane. I sat behind him for a bit but realised this pace would be too hot to maintain so I left him off, which was a relief as the splashes spraying up into my face from his feet were starting to annoy me. I went through the first 200 in 34 seconds. It felt very heavy running such a short distance in runners on the track and it certainly didn’t help me feel particularly good. Around 300m in and I’m feeling a bit tired and mentally I switched off. From here on in I was keeping an eye on what was happening behind me. I hit the bell in I’m guessing 72 seconds but I can’t actually remember. My plan here on in was to just keep it at 90% and cruise home. However with 200m to go I notice the Estonian is closing on my at an alarming rate. Now I start to put the hammer down. However my kick wasn’t all that devastating. Perhaps I expended far more energy than the pace suggested. I dug in with 150m to go, and kept looking over my shoulder. I managed to hold the gap, and kept trying to surge all the way to the line. I was running scared at this point. I crossed the line in 2:26.73, and in the end comfortably did enough to hold him off by about 1.3 seconds, but it was closer than it should have been.

As I crossed the line, the mascot Adam was waiting for me. He had his hands up in the air and I gave him a “high 10”.

The time was dreadful but it doesn’t bother me at all. It would have been 2:24 had I got spikes, which is only 4 seconds down on previous years, which given the fact I don’t train for 400 anymore, and I didn’t fully commit, makes it not a total collapse. The event was more just a bit of craic, and getting to run inside the Olympic Stadium was a great experience. Overall I finished 9th out of the 23 runners, with a 1-2 for Ireland.

Myself and my fellow competitors in my race got some photos taken together on the track afterwards. Great to meet some new people from different countries.

There will be no media race in Rio. I guess with it being the Olympics, if they were to put on a media 800m, then other sports would want some of the action. Imagine a media Clean and Jerk, or a media 100m freestyle, a media synchronised swimming, media modern pentathlon, or perhaps the best of the lot, media Greco-Roman wrestling! So I guess I’ll have to wait until London next year for the next chapter of my media 800m career.

Regarding my season, I’m winding down. I’ll do a couple more races, but I’ll be honest, I’m not that bothered at this point. My season is pretty much done and it seems like I’m not the only person who feels like that since Nationals. I’ve had 16 days with pretty much no training since Nationals, so it is pretty hard to expect big results. I never really do graded meets, so now is the perfect time to do a couple of them for fun.

Chivito550

My first graded meet since doing the long jump at the end of last season, and my first meet in Irishtown for 2 years. I wasn't particularly prepared or psyched up for this one. Mentally my season is over, but I feel guilty about going on a break this early, so I'm sort of just ticking along half arsed. I'm delighted with my season, but the way this season worked out, once Nationals was over, and with so few meets left after that, and a busy trip to Amsterdam ahead of me, I just shut down mentally as soon as Nationals were over. I don't feel in the slightest bit bad about that. It's what happens when you gear your season around a few big races, and it can be very hard to re-focus.

Since Nationals I've done 2 sessions on the track, a media 800m race, and a core and bodyweight session last Tuesday, the day before I flew to Amsterdam, which I forgot to log in the previous post (Hip stretches, 3 x 12 pushups, 4 minute plank, 1 x 12 hip thrusts on each leg).

I decided to do this meet for a bit of fun. I didn't feel very fired up for it, but it would give me a chance to try a race post work in the evening with absolutely no pressure to perform, to see how I get on with it.

100m:

Despite registering online, signing in, and signing in for a second time with the bloke at the computer, they still managed to mess it all up and didn't assign me to any heat. This happened to 2 other lads, along with one guy who runs 14/15 seconds being put into the A race. I wanted to be in the C race, but all the C guys were put into a race now. So the 4 of us were put into a second C race. Two of the lads were very slow, but fortunately one lad who I raced at Leinsters and lost to by about 0.1 of a second or so, was also in the race.

Conditions weren't brilliant. Temperatures were around 14 or 15 degrees which is poor for this time of year. There was a headwind too, and the track itself is not a good one for sprinting on.

I was in lane 5, with the other lad in lane 4. I got out very poorly. I was very rusty from lack of training and my start was extremely laboured, and I lost a lot of ground on the other lad almost immediately. He stretched away until about 60m, and then after that I probably held the gap, but finished about 5-6m down on him, which was a massive defeat, given we were pretty neck and neck at the Leinsters. His time came up as 12.32, and I heard that the wind was -1.1. I thought I might have got into the 12.70s which would have been the type of result I'd have been happy with in the circumstances. However my result was 12.97 seconds into a -1.1 headwind. Adjusting this for 0 wind gives me 12.85, and adjusting my 12.35 (+1.5) to 0 wind gives me 12.46, so I'm the guts of 4 tenths down on my best. The cool temperatures and the track can explain a bit of that, but overall a poor run, and exactly what I deserved given 2 and a half weeks of drinking and no real training.

Javelin:

I thought I'd give this a go for the laugh given it wasn't scheduled until a good while after my 100. I rocked up, not having touched a javelin in 2 years. Anita White, national champion, who has done a couple of training sessions with our sprint group, sees me heading on over. I tell her I'm doing the javelin and haven't a notion what I'm doing. She laughs. No doubt I would be providing a bit of entertainment to the others. In total there were 3 other lads, and 5 women. I got chatting to a few of the girls and had splendid craic with them throughout the event. I don't think I've ever been part of an event so laid back.

I did a few practice throws, and Anita gave me some misplaced praise about how my throws seem to be getting better. I actually reckon I peaked during the practice throws, as come the actual competition I didn't feel as good.

I opted to wear my runners for this, as the others told me that sprint spikes might not be the greatest idea if I like having healthy Achilles.

My first throw I took a bit of a run up. Maybe 6-7 steps. Of course the run up is a bit pointless when you basically stop before throwing, which is what I think I did. They measure it at 17.53m. This is a PB by almost 3m on my 14.66m 2 years ago. I didn't believe that. It looked like about 12m to me, and I assumed the guys just read it wrong.

For my second attempt I took just 3 steps for my "run up". This one cae out at mid 16, and some of the others said my first one did look a bit longer, so I guess my first throw was correct after all.

I start chatting to Lindie Naughton who was watching on, and she started giving me some technical advice about how to hold the javelin, how to twist the hand when throwing etc. I tried to implement this advice on throw 3 and I flopped big time. The javelin landed flat and I was given a foul.

I reverted back to my old technique for throw 4 but the same thing happened! Foul!

For throw 5, I'm starting to struggle to recapture my earlier form and I launched it a miserable 11:xx. What I found odd was that despite the fact the tip of the javelin clearly hit the ground first, the guys said to me something along the lines of "even though that didn't stick, we'll measure it anyway because it hit a stone, stopping it from sticking". WTF. These blokes clearly hadn't a clue about the rules of javelin. The thing doesn't have to stick in the ground. I've watched javelin since the days of Steve Backley and Jan Zelezny, and despite being utterly dreadful at it, I know the basic simple rules from years of watching it. These guys hadn't a notion.

My 6th throw wasn't great but the tip definitely hit the ground first. They called a foul and didn't measure it. My competitors all saw that it was a legit throw. When I told the officials this, they reluctantly asked me did I want another throw then. I refused as I felt like I would then be causing a scene (even more so than I was). By this point it was pretty cold and the rain was coming down, so I was happy to finish up anyway.

My throws were awful, but I got special acclaim off the others for the screams I put into the throws. Overall, it was a fun experience. I don't think I'll be threatening Terry McHugh's Irish record anytime soon though!

My plan for the rest of the season is as follows:

I'll just be training on the days where my training group are training, so that's Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, as I wind things down now. My remaining races will be:

Graded Meet Round 7 - Santry - Wed 20 July - 200m
London Interclub meet - Saracens stadium - Sat 30 July - 100m & 200m
Beer Mile World Classic - Saracens stadium - Sun 31 July - Beer Mile

vanderlyle

Love the report on the javelin, it sounds like a lot of fun. Fancy a crack at the pole vault in Santry next week?

The organisers messed up some of the 800m runners as well - two lads from my club were registered for grade C, and another lad registered for grade B, but they all found themselves in grade D, sharing lanes, with a very unsympathetic official. I went in grade C and there were spare lanes, only 6 in the race. They also marked the wrong line as the 800m break-line, but it was corrected in time.

Chivito550

2 really enjoyable days training in absolutely stunning sunny warm weather to update on.

Saturday: Track

2 x (3 x 60) with 7 minutes between sets and 3 minutes within sets. Lots of recovery so these could be run at full intensity. We did them from 3 point starts. I was a good metre or metre and a half down on two of the lads who have run the same 100m time as me this year (give or take a few hundredths), so I have definitely lost a bit of sharpness during the 3 weeks since Nationals.

Sunday: Track

Split 200s. 3 x (150 - 1 minute - 50) with 5 minutes between reps. This was the best session I have had since Nationals, and I was very close to one of the lads in all reps, so it's coming back a bit, and this was the best I've felt in a training session since Nationals. Hopefully I'll be able to close out the season with some respectable times. I'm not thinking about PBs now. I've gone past my peak and lost too much training over a 2 and a half week period, but it would be nice to close off a great season with some nice times.

Ciara Mageean was down at the track training. Got chatting to her for a bit, particularly about the "We all dream of a team of Ciara Mageeans" craic. She gave me her medal, and said I could show it around to the others in the club. This brought a smile to a lot of people's faces. That type of thing certainly doesn't happen every day. She disappeared for about 20 minutes and I thought for a bit that she had forgotten about it!! Certainly was a nice thing to happen on a standard Sunday morning session.

Chivito550

Monday: Hills

8 x 40 steep hill in perfect 25 degree weather. 2 minute recoveries Times were:

7,9 - 7.7 - 7.9 - 7.8 - 7.9 - 7.9 - 7.9 - 7.7

Times slightly down since pre-Nationals, but not by too much, though I had the benefit of the best conditions imaginable on this occasion.

Wednesday: Graded 200m

Managed to sleep in til 9:30am, and was late for work, so getting 2 extra hours sleep that I should have I felt a bit fresher than normal for an evening meet. In general though I wasn't all that up for this. Sort of going through the motions a bit, as I find the gradeds do little to get me fired up.

Conditions not great either which is disappointing given how amazing the weather had been for the previous 4-5 days. It was about 18 degrees, but the wind was blowing diagonally into my face on the bend, and also in the straight.

I was in the third of three C race. Ivory Tower was inside me in lane 2, I was in lane 3, a Crusaders guy who I've raced a few times this year in lane 4, a brother of a guy I train with in lane 5, and then 2 others.

Start was fairly average I thought. Went hard for the first 60m, at around which time Ivory Tower goes by me. I float for about 30m, before kicking, but felt a bit sluggish. Entering the straight I am about 5m down on IT and much further down on the Crusaders guy. I finished well though and was reeling in IT with every stride at the end, finishing about 1.5m down at a rough guess to finish 4th of 6.

The wind was extremely strong which made the start very tough. My time was 26.04 seconds into a -1.4 headwind, which doesn't even do justice to how strong it was on the bend. The winning time by the Crusaders athlete was 24.64, and he ran 23.91 in Belfast a few days earlier. I was 1.4 seconds down on him, which is roughly what I was down in him in Greystones at the start of the year, but I was only 0.9 down on his when I set my PB. Overall the run was decent, but not great at all. I think in good conditions it was probably worth a 25.5. It was definitely an improvement on the previous graded the week before.

I plan to run the 100m and 200m at the London Interclub Challenge next Saturday, which will give me one last weekend meet, and the only one since Nationals. Beer Mile on the Sunday, and then the 100m at the last graded the following Wednesday, as they are putting one in now in place of the DMR.

Chivito550

Saturday: Track

2 x (3 x 60m blocks) with 7 minutes recovery between sets, and about 3 minutes within sets. Was good to get some block practice in again. Was told I was getting out well. I tried to stay low for the first 30, which is still a work in progress. I feel I've lost a small bit of explosiveness since Nationals. Maybe it has something to do with cutting out the gym sessions since then. Maybe not.

Sunday: Track

Endurance session. 300-250-200-150-100 with 150-200-150-100 jog recoveries. Wore the distance spikes but ran all reps bar the 250 on the balls of my feet. I went a bit off the boil on the 250, as the short recovery after the 300 was a shock to the system, but I responded well after. Other than the 300 all reps were pretty much on my own as we went at our own paces, as some lads prefer to take quicker jog recoveries than others. Times were:

46.0 - 45.6 - 34.1 - 23.4 - 15.2

Recoveries were: 1:20 - 1:31 - 1:33 - 1:09

Hard to motivate oneself to truly make yourself hurt in that session at this stage of the season. The track was virtually empty with just 4 of us, and 2 others from a different group there. People have well and truly shut down.

That said, after 2 and a half weeks after Nationals of just 3 days running, I've ran (race, track or short steep hills) 7 of the last 12 days, so hopefully I can get some good times in London on Saturday.

Chivito550

Monday: Hills

Was up in Bundoran for work for a night so I squeezed in a session on a steep 25m hill on a walk way from a car park up to the main road. 8 x 25m from a three point start with slow walk back and standing recovery.

Tuesday: Beer + run

With the Beer Mile World Classic just 5 days away, it's time to start specific training. I still don't know what the beer that we will be provided with on Sunday, so I do not want to get too attached to any one beer, so I'm going with a different approach. Went to the off-licence and picked up 4 different beers, and I'll mix them together for training sessions. The logic is that if I can get through random beers mixed in together on the one session, then I'll be ready for anything they throw at me on the big day. My approach got the thumbs up from beer mile legends Josh Harris and Charlie Blanch, so there must be merit to my plan.

This evening I went with 4 runs 3 beers. Each run was about 380m or so, out and back, as opposed to a loop. I went in the order of run-beer-run-beer-run-beer-run.

Beer 1: Singha - 330ml, 5%

Beer 2: Tiger - 330ml, 4.8%

Beer 3: Daura Damm (Gluten Free) - 330ml, 5.4%

All the beers were slightly below the Kingston Rules threshold, but if I want to train my body to get used to different beers I just had to accept that. I chose the beers that were closest to the criteria.

Times below (all beer times include bottle opening):

Run 1: 1:40
Beer 1: 38.9
Run 2: 1:44
Beer 2: 35.4
Run 3: 1:41
Beer 3: 44.6
Run 4: 1:29

Total: 8:35

Delighted with this session. I felt in control throughout, and the second beer felt ridiculously easy. Felt in the zone for it and couldn't believe it when the end of it arrived. I'm starting to get comfortable with downing the bottles in the 30-40 second range.

More sessions planned for tomorrow and Thursday, but rest day on Friday to get ready for Saturday's 100 and 200, then probably just easy drinking Saturday night.

Murph_D

Jaysus, J, I know Bundoran is a relatively cosmopolitan town by DL standards but that three point start in the car park must have raised a few eyebrows.

Great beer session. Like the selection box approach. Good luck on the day.

Chivito550

Wednesday:

Normal Training: Track

2 x (2 x 200) with 6 minutes between sets and walk back within sets. Last track session of the season. I only did these at about 90% as I have a bit of a niggle, which hopefully will get sorted out through massage tomorrow morning, so didn't want to chance anything.

Beer Mile Training: About 90 minutes after my normal session, with the beers 30 minutes out of the fridge it was time to embark on my first ever beer mile in training. The runs are only 380m, but with a sharp U-turn and a bit of a hill included, it would be similar to a 400m on a track.

I used 4 different beers, in the order of:

Beer 1: Daura Damm (Gluten Free) - 330ml, 5.4%

Beer 2: Tiger - 330ml, 4.8%

Beer 3: Singha - 330ml, 5%

Beer 4: Brooklyn Lager - 355ml, 5%

Times below (all beer times include bottle opening):

Beer 1: 32.9
Run 1: 1:39
Beer 2: 37.0
Run 2: 1:41
Beer 3: 38.0
Run 3: 1:42
Beer 4: 43.0
Run 4: 1:27

Total time: 9:02

This time gives me massive confidence. I didn't empty the tank and kept things controlled. I really feel my PB of 8:27 is under threat and that I can take any beer they throw at me (unless it is stout). Tomorrow I might do some over distance with a beer 2km, which would make a beer mile seem easy. I'll play it by ear.

Chivito550

Great day at the London Interclub Challenge at Allianz Park, Saracens' rugby stadium. Great to catch up with a former training partner from my Melbourne days. Absolutely perfect sprinting conditions today. 12.50 (+1.3) for 100m, my third fastest time ever, 0.15 down on the PB. Then 25.30 (+2.0) for 200m, my third fastest time ever, 0.20 down on my PB. Very happy with those results as training was very poor for 2 and a half weeks after nationals with Amsterdam and general post nationals lack of motivation. Have had a couple of good weeks training since so happy to get good results. Sub 25 will have to wait til next year. Great Interclub setup here and about 7 or 8 times as many sprinters as middle distance runners which is very different to what it's like at home. I'll be back next year hopefully.

Chivito550

Unofficially I ran 8:43 today at the Beer Mile World Classic. Still awaiting official results. 16 seconds slower than my PB but my second fastest beer mile ever with Kingston Rules approved beer (Brooklyn Lager bottles). Bit disappointed to miss the PB. Could have committed more on the early laps but was worried I'd explode later on by doing so, so had a lot in the tank for a fast final 200. But overall delighted to pull it together well in such a fun event. Particularly great to catch up with some real stalwarts from the Melbourne beer mile scene after a couple of years. Finished the day off running the lead off leg in a 4x400 beer relay after an absolute fist full of beer. Had a shocker with the can of Heineken in 29 seconds but managed to run the 400m straight after in 65 seconds which I am strangely proud of. Great event all in all. And Cory Bellemore's outrageous world record of 4:34 was something that needed to be seen to be believed. Truly staggering.

Chivito550

I didn't go over especially for this. This weekend was originally planned to be either (or both of) Le Cheile International and the Munster Championships. But when I heard that the Beer Mile World Classic was scheduled for London at this time, I felt I had to jump at that opportunity. I was then going to run Leixlip and then fly out that night but this would be a bit of a pain in the ass, so I went in search of a replacement meet in London instead, and oh how I found one.

The London Interclub Challenge has 4 rounds, with this being the third. The venue would be Allianz Park, home of Saracens Rugby Club. Despite not being a member of a London, or a UK club I was informed that I would be most welcome, and just had to pay the £3 entry on the day for my first event, and then £2 for each event thereafter.

Frustratingly the Northern Line tube was out of action all weekend, which meant getting to the stadium was a fierce grind. Two overgrounds and a bus, from where I was staying in Clapham Junction, but I still arrived at 1pm, 1 hour before the time the 100m was scheduled to start.

Conditions were absolutely perfect. About 22 degrees or so, sunny for the 100m, overcast for the 200m, but still warm, with a following wind for both, and the best type of following wind for the 200m, not blowing into our faces on the bend. Couldn't ask for more really, as it wasn't too hot either, so warm up wasn't uncomfortable.

Met an old training partner, who decided to come compete in the 100m too when I told her I was coming over. I trained with her in Melbourne for my last 3 months or so there. Great catching up, and she put in a strong run of 12.55 (+0.3), a little over a tenth down on her PB.

100m:

She ran in the women's A race, but then after that it was mixed, and all based on our entry time we submitted when entering on the day. I didn't expect this and so ended up with a far longer warm up than hoped. In total there were 16 heats of the 100m, and I was in around the 9th one.

The upshot of all of this was that all heats were competitive, with the standard in each heat being competitive, so we would all be getting a proper race, not just an opportunity to run fast while coming second last or last.

There were 6 in my heat and I was drawn in lane 5. The guy beside me flinched in the blocks and so we were asked to stand up as we had got into the set position. Away we went at the second time of asking and I got out well. Found that two lads got away and they would stay away. There were two other guys near me, but I had the strength to edge away in the final 40m of the race, finishing about 4-5m down on the two ahead of me. I was surprised to see that their times were 11.87 and 11.91 because they didn't seem to be all that far ahead of me. I finished third in 12.50 seconds with a +1.3 tailwind, my third fastest time ever, 0.15 down on my PB. I felt good throughout and the time was around what I expected based on how I ran, and the time of the season, being a bit past my peak now. I was very pleased. 4th was 12.63 and 5th was 12.70 with 6th over 14 seconds, what ever happened there.

200m:

Chilled out for awhile and watched the 400m races. Waited until the women's A race started before warming up this time, learning from experience. There were 12 200m races in total and I was in around the 7th of these. There were 7 in my heat and I got lane 6, with two guys outside me. I got out well again, drove hard for 50m or so, floated for about 30m, and then kicked off the bend, and then hammered it once on the straight. The race was so competitive that it was a complete blur. There were lads near me everywhere, and I just focused on trying to catch as many as I could. I went past one lad to my right with 80m to go who made a crazy loud noise as I passed him. I wondered was it an injury, but judging my the fact he still finished under 26 seconds, he must have just been not specifically fit enough for 200m. Felt very strong in the final 100m, but the other lads ahead didn't die much so my gains on them were only small, and I finished in what felt like a blanket finish. The winner ran 23.69 on the clock (corrected slightly after), and I had no idea where he was as I was looking at the swarm of lads around me. I thought for a second, maybe just maybe I could have gone sub 25, as I had a very favourable following wind. No such joy though. My time was a satisfying 25.30 seconds, with a barely legal +2.0 tailwind. This was my third fastest time ever, just 0.2 down on my PB. The winner ran 23.72, then just 1.08 seconds separated 2nd and 7th, with 24.85, 25.06, 25.28, 25.30, 25.81 and 25.93 being the times. It was a fun race to be involved in.

I lost a lot of motivation after Nationals, and Amsterdam meant my training took a real hit. I've managed to re-focus since, and got the running sessions in over the past 2 and a half weeks, although I haven't bothered going back to the gym at this late stage in the season. Given my efforts over the last few weeks, I'm delighted to run good times, which gives a great season a deserving end. I didn't want it to completely fizzle out, and these performances have justified the training through July, which truth be told, was hard to get up for at times. It's a pity I didn't make it to this meet in my peak shape as if I had I may have snuck under 25 seconds. If I had known this meet would be one which I really felt up for, and the conditions would be this perfect, I could perhaps have tried to hold my peak after Nationals, though given I was in Amsterdam for a week, even fully motivated that would have been a stretch. I'm happy with 12.50 and 25.30 on Saturday and there's no point worrying about what ifs.

This is not quite the official end to my season. I will run the 100m at the gradeds in Tallaght tomorrow, but it's as good as, given the forecast.

A final word on the meet. What a fantastic competition. It's very like the AV Shield in Melbourne in many ways. Everything is graded, but it actually goes one step further by mixing women with men. What a great idea. I constantly see a lad run the gradeds here in 68 seconds for 400m. Why can't men and women just race together in these kind of meets, so that more people get competitive races which help push people on. My very first 400m race was against 5 women after all!

Another great aspect of this meet was the amount of sprinters. There were 16 100m heats and 12 200m heats. The 400m wasn't quite as popular with just 5 heats, but this still dwarfed the 800m (2 or 3 heats) and the 1500m (1 heat with a pitiful 8 runners). This meet was really all about the sprinters, with people from all cultural backgrounds, which gave the event a real colourful and vibrant feeling. Great to see sprinting in such a good state over there at all levels, and it's a refreshing change from what it's like here, with middle distance sort of carrying track meets. I'll definitely do more of these meets. I wouldn't go all the way just to race them, but co-coordinating them into a trip to London is something I will look at in the future.

Motivation was low since Nationals, and I find it very tough to get up for Graded Meets, but 10 minutes inside Allianz Park, and I was rearing to go. Magnificent.

Oiriallach

Chivito550 wrote: »

A final word on the meet. What a fantastic competition. It's very like the AV Shield in Melbourne in many ways. Everything is graded, but it actually goes one step further by mixing women with men. What a great idea. I constantly see a lad run the gradeds here in 68 seconds for 400m. Why can't men and women just race together in these kind of meets, so that more people get competitive races which help push people on. My very first 400m race was against 5 women after all!

IAAF Rule 147 only allows for mixed competition in track events of 5000m or longer (and in field events). That's probably why they had a women's only race for the leading women in London. Any records or qualifying standards for international competitions set in a mixed race wouldn't be recognised. But mixed races do make sense if there's nobody likely to be running a record/qualifying standard.

Chivito550

Oiriallach wrote: »

IAAF Rule 147 only allows for mixed competition in track events of 5000m or longer (and in field events). That's probably why they had a women's only race for the leading women in London. Any records or qualifying standards for international competitions set in a mixed race wouldn't be recognised. But mixed races do make sense if there's nobody likely to be running a record/qualifying standard.

Yeh absolutely. At lower levels it should be mixed. Even at higher female levels the odd mixed race can be fun. I ran a 400 last year against 2 women who finished first and third at nationals a few weeks later. I enjoyed the extra bit of competitiveness, and it was probably good for them too having faster guys to chase, as a few ran 52 or so. But yeh if chasing qualification times then probably not a good idea.

Chivito550

Slightly sobering end to the season at the Graded Meet in Tallaght. Got to the track barely 20 minutes before the race, wasn't fully warmed up, and ran the 100m with a tight tendon in the left leg, into a -4.1 headwind. Time was an appalling 13.80. Seemed to loosen up after that so decided to run my first 400m in 12 months, and the first since giving up the 400m. 58.35, which is 3 and a half seconds slower than my PB. Dreadfully windy though, and haven't trained for it this year so won't lose much sleep over it. Despite this evening, it has been a fantastic and extremely enjoyable season. Managed to take my 100m time down from 12.58 to 12.35, running 5 times under my old PB, and took my 200m time down from 25.42 to 25.10, running 4 times under my old PB, not to mention a very enjoyable experimentation with the 4x100m relay. I didn't believe I would manage any of this back in November when I horribly tore my groin training for long jump, didn't even jog a step for 6 weeks, didn't do proper training for 11 weeks, and ran dreadfully slow in the indoor season. Thanks to Myles for nursing me back to health, and a big thanks to my coach for helping improve my speed so much. And of course thanks to all my training partners who help to keep the sport filled with so much craic. Time for a nice long break now.

Will do up a report on this meet soon, and of course the report on the Beer Mile World Classic is in the pipeline too.

Chivito550

After two very nice runs on Saturday, logic would have been to end my season then. But the nature of the athlete is to hang on thinking there's one more good race in him/her. There wasn't. This was a meet too far. I wasn't prepared, wasn't hugely up for it, and the weather was awful with ridiculously strong headwinds in the homestraight.

Took an age to get from town to Tallaght. Bus didn't show for ages, then I fell asleep on the bus, and missed my stop, resulting in an extra 10 minutes journey time. I arrived at the track at 6:45pm, and by the time I had checked in, and got changed it was 7 minutes to 7, with the men's 100m due to start at 7:10. Fortunately the 100m were a bit behind schedule but all in all I didn't have much warm up time.

100m:

Since just before nationals I've had a niggle in the tendon connecting my left calf and hamstring. Supposedly it's a very minor grade 1 tear which I only found out last week. I was able to stay on top of it, but it has lingered. On this occasion it was feeling tight during my warm up, and I needed more time to loosen it out, which I didn't have.

I was drawn in lane 3, and got out of the blocks slow. The Crusaders lad beside me who I have raced loads was much further ahead of me this time. Usually the last 40m is the best part of my race but felt I wasn't able to kick on here. I finished in 4th of 6, and way back on the other three. My time was initially given as 14.80, which I queried. Turns out it was a mistake and I actually clocked a dreadfully slow 13.80 seconds into a horrible -4.1 headwind. The Crusaders lad ran around 12.5, and he's run 11.78 or so this season. A good run for me in those conditions would have been about 13.1 or so. I was way off this. Very poor run, but I just didn't feel prepared for it in any way. Afterwards my tendon was extremely tight.

400m:

I immediately decided I wouldn't bother with the 400, but low and behold after a bit of a walk, the tightness had disappeared. The 100 had warmed me up. I decided to do the 400m, even though I didn't feel enthused about doing so. The 400m is sort of a sacred event for me. I've run 60 races over the distance during the 5 track seasons I focused on it. The idea of showing up to race in this distance and lose to people who I would be beating (or at the very least getting close to) when I was a 400m runner didn't sit with me easily.

What turned it for me was the fact that the 100m was a huge waste of time on this occasion and I wanted to go home having done reasonable exercise. So I decided to go for it. I wasn't too worried about the time, and thought I'd just go out and do it for the laugh. I was hesitant about racing after 8pm over 400m and the calf cramps I have had doing so in the past. If it happened I'd just step off the track and there'd be no loss.

I was drawn in lane 6. Ivory Tower, off the back of a cracking sub 55 the other day, was thrown into lane 8 as a complete afterthought, as they forgot to put him in any race entirely. Crusaders lad was in lane 2, who runs around 55, and a brother of a training partner of mine, who occasionally trains with us was in the race too.

I drove ok out of the blocks, but went into a cruise period a lot earlier than usual, and was sluggish coming off the bend onto the backstraight. At this point I heard a former training partner of mine and a good national standard 400m runner give me a shout out, which helped, but I also felt a bit embarrassed to be running this slowly over this distance. I didn't have the heart to commit down the backstraight and was so sluggish I even allowed my heel graise the ground on the odd stride, which is a complete no-no. Ivory Tower was striding out ahead of me, and one or two started coming up on me in the back straight, but I still felt in contention. I upped the effort levels at half way, and really started to kick with 150m to go. I didn't really lose a huge amount of ground after this, and finished quite strong. However I hit the straight way down on the field, in 6th place. I did my best to force myself into contention but the wind was so incredibly strong into our faces that it felt like I was getting nowhere, and I only closed marginally.

The winning time was 54.8, second 55.1, Ivory Tower was third in 56.2, 4th was a good bit ahead of me too, but I got to within 0.8 of 5th. I finished 6th of 7 with a clocking of 58.35 seconds. Since October 2012, I had only run slower than this once, and that was at the National Decathlon in Tullamore in truly deplorable conditions, and only 0.01 slower. However the wind was truly dreadful on this occasion, with Tallaght designed in a weird way that the tailwind on the backstraight is hidden as that area is less exposed. I also didn't feel great doing it and the heart wasn't 100% in it. It was worth a solid mid 57 second run in decent conditions. I think if I ran another one, on a weekend afternoon fresh, with good conditions, I'd run a 56, which I guess is pretty good given I haven't been training for the distance. I'm confident enough had I run one back at my peak 100/200 fitness back in June I'd have run a solid 56, but I didn't have the curiosity to find out, as that's not where the focus is at the moment. This occasion, in any case, wasn't a chance to run fast.

Had I been in either of the other 2 C races I'd have been second, but in my heat I was 6th. Seems like they have their seedings all over the place.

So not the end to the season I'd have liked, but to be honest, I seem to be a shadow of myself at the graded meets. My only 4 bad races this season have come at these meets. I only did them this year as there were so few meets left after Nationals. Next season it is unlikely I will run any, assuming Nationals is back to late season. I'm not too fussed about the performances in them. My performances in London showed that even at this late stage of the season, past my peak, I've still a far better runner in the afternoon meets when fresh, and I got good results to justify continuing on with the training since Nationals. This graded was really just bonus territory, and I got no bonus. No harm done.

Chivito550

Taking the next step

Having completed 6 beer miles to date, 3 in Melbourne and 3 in Dublin, it was time to take it to the next level. Many may find the fact one does a beer mile crazy enough. Training for it? That's mad altogether. But actually flying to another country to run one? Off the charts.

Yet I would not be alone in this kind of tomfoolery. Dozens of people from USA, Canada, Australia and Sweden among other places, both elites and recreational beer milers, descended on the Allianz Park Stadium for the second edition of the Beer Mile World Classic, begun in San Francisco by founder and former world record holder James "The Beast" Nielson last year.

Selection box approach

My training was adapted slightly this time. I wasn't aware until a few days out that I could bring my own beer, and I thought I would have to drink what was provided. Without knowing what this would be I tried a selection box approach. On Tuesday I did 4 runs, 3 beers, with 3 different beers, and then on Wednesday I did a full beer mile with 4 different beers. The last of these was Brooklyn lager. Once I heard I could bring my own beer, it became inevitable I would go with this one, as they were providing cans at the race, and I have never used cans to skull beer, and my usual suspects James Boags and Moosehead would be tough to find in a city I do not know well.

Brianderunner and Rainbow Kirby kindly sourced me some Brooklyn Lagers and stored them in their fridge. After my 100 and 200 races on the Saturday, I went to their house and tried out a quick 3 runs, 2 beers session to make sure the Brooklyn went down ok. It felt fine.

Race Day:

With the non elite races starting at 2pm and going every 30 minutes until 4pm on a first come first serve basis, I decided to aim for around 3pm, and had my breakfast finished by 11:20pm, and shook off the hangover from the previous night pretty well. Brian and RK drove me out and came to watch the madness unfold with the little one. Got there around 3:10pm and was put in the 4pm heat. Had my beers in a cooler bag, to keep them cold-ish over the next while, as the weather was a warm 21 degrees or so, albeit mostly overcast and a bit breezy.

There was quite a buzz around the place, with plenty of spectators around the drinking zone. I received my race number which bizarrely was 240, which was the exact same number I had for my 100 and 200 races the previous day. We got a timing chip too, which I took an absolute age to get onto my shoe (sprinters aren't used to this type of thing!)

A poor oversight

I was glad I brought my own bottles, as the cans they provided for everybody not in the elite races was Heineken, which was 5.0% but only 330ml. Somebody seriously dropped the ball there. As a result all my competitors would have an easier time of it than me. In fact I was the only non-elite who brought a different beer, impressing the MC guys, who ordered the rest of my competitors to not touch my beer.

The MC announced out some of the guys in my race with cool introductions, but it was only the guys he knew personally who he bothered to do this to, so I got no introduction.

Competitors

My friend who is not a runner, but keeps fit, a serious endurance drinker and lives in London decided he'd enter too for the craic, and he was in my race. I knew nothing about the other guys.

Marks...set....chug!!!

Beer 1: With there being an electronic clock at the start line I decided not to waste any time starting my watch and got straight into opening the beer with the bottle opener (I brought 2, in case one accidentally went amiss, mid race) and then started my watch once the first beer was down, and added the time of my first beer on when checking my time throughout the rest of the race. First beer felt smooth. Chugged it in one flowing action mainly, with just one half second breather. I completed it in 24 seconds which is probably a chugging PB to be honest. However I was probably 10th out of the 14 in the race at this point as most got away from me.

Run 1: My mate beat me on the beer, but I casually reeled him in by 150m. I kept very relaxed and didn't push it much, staying very conservative. At this point of the race you are filled with self doubt and full of fear about what may lie ahead. Run time was 1:34, and I hit one quarter through the race in a nifty 1:58. Highly doubtful I'd keep up the sub 8 pace though.

Beer 2: For beers 2 to 4 I revert to the fast gulps technique rather than pure skulling. Big mouth full, quick swallow while moving head down, head straight back up and big mouth full again, all in a snappy continuous motion. It's a very effective technique if you are not a quick skuller. I got through this in 35 seconds which for me is a strong second beer effort.

Run 2: Both myself and my mate exit beer 2 together, as despite having a lead on him entering the second beer, he got through his Heineken quicker than me. I disposed of him easily in the run however and at about 300m into the lap I glanced around and saw he was 100m back and struggling. I didn't need to worry about him anymore, and indeed his beer paces dropped to fast pub pace by the end, opting for safety over speed, and he came through in 10:46 or so, for a great debut effort. My second run time was 1:39, and at half way I was at around 4:12 or so, just about on pace to beat my PB of 8:27.

Beer 3: This was much of the same. Really kept focused and just got on with the job at hand with the quick gulps and came through in 38 seconds. Pace wasn't dropping much.

Run 3: Kept focusing on getting all the burps out and still kept relaxed. Like the first 2 laps I feel afraid to commit because there's such a fine line in this game between success and penalty lap failure. I came through in 1:41. I was falling off the pace now and a big last effort would be needed.

Beer 4: This was the toughest one. This beer seemed to feel warmer than the others for whatever reason, and it wasn't going down as easily. Needed some slightly longer breaks, and got though it in 46 seconds. It was far from a disaster though. If somebody told me that 46 would be by far my worst beer split, I'd have taken that result.

Run 4: Clock said 7:20 or so as I took off for the final lap. The first 100m are slow, full of burps. With 300 to go the guy ahead of me is about 40m ahead, certainly at least 30m. I didn't think I'd be getting near him. I gradually up the tempo over the next 100m, and then push it to about 85% from 200 to 150, 90% from 150 to 100 to go, and then pretty much went flat out down the straight, and was catching the guy ahead of me at an alarming rate, and just lost out to him by 0.4 of a second or so. My final lap was 1:24 with the last 200m covered in 36 seconds and the last 150m being covered in 26 seconds. Not bad with 1.4 litres of beer sitting in the gut.

I finished 7th out of 14 in my heat which appeared to be the strongest of the non elite races. Overall I finished 46th out of the 99 competitors across all races (elites or otherwise) with a clocking of 8:43.37 electronically timed. This was 16 seconds down on my PB which was a little disappointing, but I was proud that I ran my second fastest official time ever when it mattered most. It was also great to get to run a beer mile on a proper track in spikes again after so long. I was 18 seconds quicker than at the Irish Championships. That difference is probably mostly explained by the better track, though maybe this was a slightly better run too.

Aftermath

I was in agony for a minute after. Worried I'd spew but the urge subsided. Then I felt hammered soon after. Then I kept drinking. Then I drank some more. Then I watched the elite races and the outrageous 4:34 world record by Cory Bellemore, while I was still drinking and not eating of course. And then I took part in the following:

4x400 beer relay

Myself, my mate, and 2 randomers, both slow, formed a makeshift team for this. We all used Heineken, and I went on the lead off leg. Big mistake. I got left for dead on the beer by every single team, including Canada who set a new world record, and were about 150m in by the time I finished the struggle through the can of Heineken in 29 seconds. I'm clearly more a middle distance skuller than a sprint skuller.

I took off knowing I'd catch very few. Went hard the first 50m while burping, running flat footed for awhile. Then 100m in I started to run on my toes. Went by one lad as if he was standing still, but the rest were way ahead. I started reeling some people in though but didn't have enough track left to catch anymore. It was a weird sensation sprinting not only with beer in the stomach, but also while drunk too. Brian timed me at 64 seconds to the 9m to go line, so about 65 seconds for 400m, which I was delighted with. I didn't think I'd run that fast after 7-8 beers, no water, no food in me all day, and hammered. I though sub 70 would have been a good effort. I was quite surprised. Our team finished with 6:45 overall or something. Nobody was keeping track of any of the teams other than the guys at the front. Just a bit of craic.

The after party

There was plenty more drinking at the track, and it was great to see Charlie Blanch again, one of the real stalwarts of beer mileing in Melbourne and indeed worldwide, and he ran a PB of 5:20. The party took us to Soho where lots of mayhem ensued, and indeed they kicked most of the beer mileing contingent out of the late bar eventually, which made no real sense as we provided the bulk of their customers. We were having too much fun for their restrained ways. I woke up the following morning with a sore head but surprisingly not as bad as feared.

So there we have it. The Beer Mile World Classic lived up to it's name, and it was an unforgettable experience to be part of such a unique event.

There's a video of my race here, which thankfully goes right up to just after I finish: http://www.trackie.com/track-and-field/TrackieTV/2016-world-beer-mile-classic-open-heat-5/6843/

Mulberry

So what kind of off-season/winter training are you planning Chivito?

Chivito550

Mulberry wrote: »

So what kind of off-season/winter training are you planning Chivito?

Haven't given my running a second thought since the season ended. Too busy in Rio with the Olympics. Don't plan to start back training until early October. I'll do up a season review soon though.

Chivito550

Background:

The 400m has always been my event. From very soon after the moment the idea of sprinting was planted in my head, when attending the European Championships in Barcelona as a spectator in 2010. I did my first ever time trial in runners in August 2010, in an unremarkable 67.8, before improving a week later, in spikes, to 66.2. The idea of sub 60, rather than the mainstream sub 3 marathon or sub 5 mile started to catch my attention, and so a 5 season obsession with the one lap distance began. Having had a one off race soon after arriving in Melbourne in 63.9 hand timed, I started to take things seriously, and in my first full season brought my time down to 58.68. My second season saw further progress to 56.26, and in my third season I took another big chunk off my best, running 55.00. In my fourth season, and first back in Ireland, I finally nailed the sub 55 with a 54.88. It was all an immensely satisfying and fun process.

Becoming a grind:

However, for my fifth season, things began to change. I had a very difficult personal setback, and to try deal with it, I threw myself into my training, with pure single-minded, tunnel vision dedication. I wanted a sub 54, and it became the most important thing in my life. The results did not happen. Despite all the hard work, nothing seemed to go right: Our track out of action most of the year, coach leaves after indoor season, training partners leave, horrible weather for most races all season, and I ended up with a season’s best of 55.61, which did not reflect the work I put in. I felt jaded from it all, and simply was not enjoying it like I used to.

The biggest turning point indicating I needed to make a change was when I went to Paris for a weekend with some friends to watch the Diamond League. I spent 2 of my 3 mornings trekking out to a track to do filthy speed endurance sessions in 34 degrees, while I could have been enjoying a nice breakfast in Montemarte. I began to question the sanity of all this. I hated the sessions, and just wanted them done so I could get back into the city and resume my small holiday. I made a decision to myself there and then, that I’d see out the end of the season, and put absolutely everything into it, and then I would move away from the 400m. It was dawning on me that I needed to get back to enjoying the sport, and what I enjoyed more was the shorter stuff, rather than the hard graft of the longer sprint. After 5 full years of it, I felt I gave the 400m a serious whack, and I decided for now, it was time to leave it behind.

New targets:

I decided I would focus on four events, giving me the type of variety I felt I had lost since moving home from Australia. These were the 60m, 100m, 200m and Long Jump. The goals were as follows:

60m – Sub 8 (PB 8:05)
100m – Sub 12.40 (PB 12.58)
200m – Sub 25 (PB 25.42)
Long Jump – 5.50m (PB 4.95m)

Long Jump injury nightmare:

Of all the above events, the long jump was the one that intrigued me the most. I jumped 4.95m at Nationals 2015 with no specific work, and was feeling hugely motivated. I bought specific long jump spikes, and through consultation with the long jump coach in the club decided to do plyometric work as part of my gym sessions. After about 5 weeks of winter training, I started to do specific jumping sessions. The first went well, the second even better. However in mid-November, disaster struck. With the coach not able to attend that day, the session was left for us. That’s grand for experienced jumpers, but for a clueless novice like myself this was dangerous, but it was only after that I realised this. I did jump after jump after jump, with very little recovery. I almost got away with it, but at the very end of the session, I tore my left groin when taking off with my right foot off a full run up jump.

The pain was unbearable. Any sort of semi normal speed movement and it would provide a sharp sudden pain. It took me 6 minutes to walk 300m to the bus the next morning. I’d wake up repeatedly with the pain. What followed was a frustrating lay off where it took an age to heal. I did not jog a step for 6 weeks. I was starting to doubt I’d ever get back to where I was. One thing was certain, my brief flirtation with the long jump was well and truly over.

Recovering:

After several trips to the physio and almost complete inactivity for almost a month and a half, at the very beginning of January I finally was given the all clear to do some easy jogging. The first attempt was grim. In 10 minutes I covered just 1.5km. I was quite demoralised. Each day though things began to get better, and within a week I did a parkrun comfortably at jogging pace with a few strides every kilometre, and ran just under 23 minutes. From here things gradually got better and better. Within about 3 weeks I was back doing easy track work, and eventually around 11 weeks after the injury happened, I was back training with the group. I had lost so much speed, fitness and power and was being left for dead by my training partners, and struggling to hold off the slowest runners in the group.

Brief indoor season:

Eventually, after about 3 weeks of training under my belt I started my indoor season, better late than never, and with no expectations. First up was the Connaught Championships where I ran a shockingly slow 8.33 for 60m, followed by very poor 26.96 for 200m, albeit from a tight lane 3. The Nationals the following week signalled marginal improvement, 8.19 for 60m, and 26.90 for 200m from the even tighter lane 2.

My indoor season was over before it really began, and I was left wondering how on earth I would be able to get back to where I once was in time for the summer season, which was now just two months away.

Chivito550

The long road back to full fitness

The indoor season had not gone to plan, and I was running incredibly slow times. On the bus back from Athlone after the Nationals I started to question would I ever get back to my best. The after affects of the injury were lingering for an eternity. While the tear had now healed, I was left with incredibly tightness in my left groin area and left hip.

However, bit by bit things started to come together. I had a good two months to get myself into proper shape for the outdoor season, and gradually things started clicking. I got consistent training in, first at around 4 days per week, as I chose to balance my training with other interests. Then as I got closer to the season I found I was able to do 5, sometimes 6 days training, without compromising my other interests. This all depends on circumstances, which can easily change at the drop of a hat of course.

Short sharp hills

One thing which I introduced for the first time was the use of a steep hill right by my house. I am incredibly fortunate to live by such an incredible natural training facility, and I built short steep hill reps into my routine. Things like 40m reps with a walk back recovery. 7.5-8 seconds of explosive power work. I believe this was something which really helped make the difference for what was to come.

April

At the end of April I got my summer campaign underway, at the IMC meet in Greystones. The weather was not as shocking as the year before, but it was poor nonetheless, with about 10 degrees, fluctuating winds, and on and off rain. A wind inhibited 13.02 (-3.2) for 100m was followed by a very encouraging 25.72 (-0.2) for 200m, just 0.3 down on my PB. I was up and running.

May

The target race for the early part of the season was the Ton le Gaoithe wind sprint meet in Waterford. On a nice day with temperatures of around 14 degrees (which felt warmer than that suggests) and partial sunshine, I recorded my first sprint PBs since running 54.88 for 400m in July 2014. In the 100m I recorded 12.53 (+1.2), which was a new PB, bettering the 12.58 (+2.7) (and the 12.63 legal PB) which had lasted since late 2013, although I had not run many 100m races over the previous two years.

Soon after I ran another 100m, recording 12.54 (-0.3), just behind my new PB, but actually a better run when adjusted for wind. I rounded off a great day by setting a new PB in the 200m, clocking 25.26 (+1.6).

June

With Nationals being early this year, June was the time I wanted to peak, and the time I wanted to race the most. I planned to do 4 weekends in a row of racing, but the third weekend was scrapped when I came down with a sore throat.

First up was the Leinster Championships in Tullamore in absolutely glorious conditions of around 22 degrees and sunshine. I felt I ran a great 200m, but my time (and others) was suspiciously slow at 25.55 (+0.7). Rightly or wrongly, the big PB assault would have to wait. However, not long later I surprised myself by running a big PB in the 100m, clocking 12.35 (+1.5), and I had forgotten all about the disappointment of the 200m. I rounded out the day by running the second leg of our 4x100m relay team who took home the gold. It's no great shakes, and it was disappointing that only one other team showed up, but we had practiced this a lot as a group, so it was a very enjoyable moment.

A week later, and it was off to Santry to guest in the first round of the National League. Conditions were absolutely perfect again, with sunshine, high teens and tailwinds. I was getting the luck that deserted me last season. The run of PBs continued as I ran a time of 25.10 (+0.5) for 200m. I followed it up with a near miss of 12.40 (+1.2) for 100m, backing up my performance from Tullamore, and proving it was no fluke.

Two weeks later, having recovered from a short period of sickness, and a bit of missed training, I competed at the National Championships in Santry. On the Saturday I ran the 200m in 25.37 (+2.1), with a horrendous headwind over the first 60m which severely impacted my time. Conditions were on the cool side, so overall I felt I performed well on the big occasion. The 100m the next day was slightly disappointing. Conditions were even worse, and all I could muster was 12.71 (-1.1).

July

In my head my season was over after Nationals. I lost motivation for a week and a half and did very little training. Then I went off to Amsterdam for the European Championships. By the time I got back I had run just 3 times in 2 and a half weeks. I dropped the gym work completely and just focused on getting the running training in for the final few weeks of the season.

There were very little meets left, and the season seemed to be winding down in general, with it being very easy to lose interest after Nationals. I opted to run the Graded Meets, which I rarely do, as I find them very hard to get up for.

At Graded Meet Round 6 at Irishtown, just after returning from Amsterdam I recorded an appalling 12.97 (-1.1). A week later was an improvement as I competed in the 200m at Graded Meet Round 7 at Santry. There I ran a slow 26.04 (-1.4) but was inhibited by a ridiculously strong headwind around the bend, and a lighter headwind down the straight.

At the very end of July I travelled to London, and while there ran my only afternoon meet post Nationals, determined to finish my season in style, and not let it just fizzle out. At the London Interclub Challenge meet at Allianz Park I managed this. The meet was great, the conditions were perfect, and I performed well. I recorded 12.50 (+1.3) for 100m, my third fastest time ever, and followed it up with 25.30(+2.0) for 200m, which was also the third fastest time I have ever recorded. Had I ran this meet in peak shape, I know a sub 25 was on the cards, as the perfect conditions, and ideal racing setup (proper grading of races) meant I had everything needed to run a PB. Unfortunately I am not psychic and couldn't forsee in advance that I would have such a great opportunity post Nationals, so I reached this meet past my peak, but was still delighted with the runs nonetheless.

August

Everyone thinks they have one more big race left in them, and I made that mistake by running the Graded Meet Round 8 at Tallaght in deplorably windy conditions. Not fully warmed up, I laboured to a miserable 13.80 (-4.1), and then followed it up with my only 400m of the season, a sobering 58.35 in very windy conditions. It was a poor end to the season, but it didn't matter a jot.

Reflection

This has been a wonderful season. I have enjoyed my training again, looked forward to competition with excitement rather than dread and pressure, and I have taken my 100m and 200m PBs down twice. I have brought my 100m time down from 12.58 to 12.35 and have run faster than my old PB on 5 occasions. I have taken my 200m PB down from 25.42 to 25.10 and have run under my old PB on 4 occasions. I got a bit of luck with the weather, but it was luck I feel I deserved for all the hard work that went into it.

Obviously my long jump goal was off the table early on. I missed out by a long way in the 60m but I didn't get a proper crack at it. I achieved my 100m goal, and missed out by 0.11 on my 200m target.

Injury perhaps a help in hindsight

Having watched Thomas Barr's incredible performances in Rio, and listening to Jerry Kiernan's thoughts about his injury being a good thing, being at the right time, and allowing him to rest, I started to think about this from my own perspective. While I may be about 100 divisions below arguably the greatest sprinter Ireland has ever produced, I couldn't help but think that maybe my injury could have helped me in the long run. You never think it at the time, but maybe it allowed me to rest, and by the time I got to the summer season I was fresh and in good shape, and ready to go. Maybe I trained too hard in the early part of winter the year before, and maybe I should look at how much training I do each week this side of Christmas, and not religiously feel the need to be getting the 5-6 days in all the time.

Where to next?

I haven't run since early August. Right now I don't have the motivation to start back training. It will come back, it always does, but I'm allowing it to come back naturally. When I am feeling ready to start back training I will, and not a minute sooner. We are due back early October, but I might even take an extra week or two if I need it. It's a long winter.

I'm still thinking about how I will approach next season, and what my goals will be. Obviously I want to keep taking the 100m and 200m time down, and get below that 25 second barrier for 200m. I really want a 24 to go beside my 54, and surely if it is going to happen, next year is the time. I also want a proper crack at the 60m, and that will more than likely be the sole focus of the indoor season, as I look to break 8 seconds and push beyond that. But right now these are all just vague thoughts in my head. For the most part I have switched off from my own running since the season has ended.

A sabbatical from this log

This log has been something close to my heart, but of late it has felt like a drag, and I don't feel I am getting the benefit out of it that I used to. I won't be locking the log or anything, and perhaps I will come back to it in the future, but for now, I plan to keep my training away from it. I've been thinking about this during last season, and thought that the end of the season would be a good time to call a halt to it. I don't want to start listing targets and plans and then not follow through with logging the training. If I run PBs I will more than likely post them here, but for now, the days of long race reports, and detailed training updates are over.

This log proved hugely valuable in my early days as a sprinter and I really enjoyed writing about my experiences in Australian athletics. I haven't found writing about the Irish scene as interesting because most readers are fairly familiar with it. I'd like to thank everybody who has contributed positively to this over the last 6 years. I'm no Wayde Van Niekerk but I have had the fortune of training with really good athletes and the privilege of working with 3 fantastic coaches. There's 6 years of great sessions in this log, which are all the product of these three great minds, so for anybody looking to take up the sport there's so much in here to take on board. And if anybody ever has a question, don't hesitate to ask here.

Final words

My 6th track season brought me back to how I felt during my first 3 seasons. A sense of genuine enjoyment and love for the sport. Long may it continue.

Mulberry

That's a shame that we'll be losing your log, there's little enough on this forum about sprinting. I'll just have to start reading this log backwards - that'll keep me going for a while at least!

Chivito550

Mulberry wrote: »

That's a shame that we'll be losing your log, there's little enough on this forum about sprinting. I'll just have to start reading this log backwards - that'll keep me going for a while at least!

Haha, well there's enough material there to keep you going for a good while.