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

ultrapercy

Chivito550 wrote: »

Good question. From my experience training with a bad hangover is bad for both. For the endurance sessions you'll get through it but you'll feel like absolute death during it, while for the speed sessions you won't feel as horrific doing it, but if you haven't re-hydrated properly, then you run the risk of cramps.

Having said that, I remember back in January 2013 I ran a 400m PB just days after a Christmas where I did the dog on drink and crap food. I then knuckled down in terms of severely cutting back on my intake of alcohol and didn't drink much for the rest of the season. I didn't run faster (I did get close though). Kind of funny looking back. Makes no sense really.

Life gets in the way. It's about managing it all. Alcohol in moderation will have very little (if any) impact on performance at our level. Problem is this November and December has not been moderation. But there was so much on. The aforementioned wedding, a stag that took me 2 weeks to recover from, a trip to Bulgaria, trip to Germany, not to mention all the usual Christmas gettogethers. It really adds up.

All throughout the last season I was very disciplined with the booze. I didn't drink much. Few beers here and there, but very few blowouts. I was so sensible. Training was consistent, and the results spoke for themselves.

What I found with alcohol if drinking to excess is that it really starts to affect your mood, and that in turn can affect motivation, and you really have to force yourself to get the runners on.

Knowing what is ahead of me this summer, I'd be telling a lie if I said I was as motivated about the coming season. National Indoors and National Outdoors are both off the table with family weddings. These are the events where my 60m, 200m outdoor, 200m indoor, 400m outdoor and 400m indoor have all come from. Only the 100m PB has come from elsewhere, and even then my second best time in the 100m has come from Nationals. The occasion of Nationals seems to bring out the best in me. I've only got a half season really for outdoors this year as I've a wedding end of May, start of June, and then end of July. No dates of stags confirmed yet, but there will be at least 2, maybe even 3.

Now that I'm into the indoor season, I can feel the motivation coming back. Will focus on indoors solely for now, and enjoy the season with no pressure to run PBs.

I find the worse thing about drinking sessions is the disruption to quality sleep which can last for several days after a heavy weekend. The 2nd biggest impact I feel is on diet, again for several days after a heavy night or nights my appetite is altered craving salty food etc. Thirdly its the mental effect lack of mojo etc. Once I get a week on the dry Im more or less back to normal. I do find more muscel soreness when I run after a night out. Its to the point now when I wonder is training agter drinking doing more harm than good.

Chivito550

ultrapercy wrote: »

I find the worse thing about drinking sessions is the disruption to quality sleep which can last for several days after a heavy weekend. The 2nd biggest impact I feel is on diet, again for several days after a heavy night or nights my appetite is altered craving salty food etc. Thirdly its the mental effect lack of mojo etc. Once I get a week on the dry Im more or less back to normal. I do find more muscel soreness when I run after a night out. Its to the point now when I wonder is training agter drinking doing more harm than good.

Absolutely. Agree on all 3 points. Regarding the first one, the sleep you get after a heavy night is more of a coma than a sleep. You wake up completely unrefreshed, and it's only after the next night of sleep that you feel back to normal (and that's after just one night on the tear, not several nights).

Chivito550

60m: 8.02

Was in the 3rd of 5 races, with 4 of the 6 in the race being from our training group. My reaction was pretty good looking at the video, but I didn't get enough of an initial drive. My pickup after that was good and I finished strong, a little down on one of my training partners who is a 7.61 guy from last year. I finished third. I expected an improvement on last week as it felt better so I was surprised to see I only ran 8.02, down on the 7.99 from League Round 1. Training partner ran 7.81 so we were both two tenths down on our best.

Not happy with the time, but reasonably happy overall given running at 8pm is just not my thing. I'm feeling confident I can take a chunk off the season's best come AAI Games.

Chivito550

Very busy day yesterday. 3 races, and a lot of warming up as a result.

60m Race 1: 8.03

Was in lane 6 in heat 3 of 4 and finished a distant last. My reaction was 0.197 which is poor, but it was the first few strides which really cost me, as I just wasn't explosive enough. Disappointing result overall, and 0.04 down on my season's best.

60m Race 2: 7.97

Was in lane 6 in heat 2 of 3. I really do not know how they graded this as again I was out of my depth in this race, while all the lads around my standard were in the race after me. It made no sense. My reaction this time was a bit better at 0.187, but I felt my first few strides were greatly improved, and overall it felt like a much better run. My coach said it looked very good. I expected a low 7.9x run, so was a bit disappointed that it was only 7.97. It's a small season's best, by 0.02, but it is 0.17 down on my PB and 0.08 down on my performance at AAI Games last year. Going in the right direction though.

200m: 25.75 (Lane 3)

I was in heat 4 of 4, and was drawn in lane 3, with 3 lads outside me and nobody inside me. Not a good lane draw, but at least lane 3 gives you something to work with, which can't be said about lanes 1 and 2. In the lane outside me was a masters athlete from Celbridge who I beat last year over 60m en route to my 7.80 PB at Nationals. This year he beat me at NIA Live recently, and earlier in the day ran 7.83, so was in good nick. I drove hard around the first bend then cruised down the back straight, maybe a small bit too much, before driving into the bend. Coming into the straight he is about 1.5m ahead of me. At this point I go by the lad in lane 6 and I chase the Celbridge lad right down to the line and we dipped together, with him accidentally clattering me in the back with his hand in the process. I got hIm by 0.01 of a second to finish second in the race. The time of 25.75 is very satisfactory from lane 3. My indoor PB is 25.47 from lane 4, so even allowing for the lane draw, I was still a little down on this. But it was my best ever run from the inside 3 lanes so that's something. If I could get a kinder lane draw at Leinsters then I might have a chance at taking down that PB.

Legs were absolutely dead afterwards, and were in agony all night while watching the Super Bowl. A day later and they are tight and heavy. A tough day's work for sure.

b0son

Are you doing any sled work (pulled, not pushed)? Can be a great way to help develop power. Alternatively, incline sprints (no more than 10% slope) with a focus on form.

Chivito550

b0son wrote: »

Are you doing any sled work (pulled, not pushed)? Can be a great way to help develop power. Alternatively, incline sprints (no more than 10% slope) with a focus on form.

Have done sled work a good bit in the past under previous coaches. Not in the last couple of years though. Different coaches, different methodologies and all that.

Yeh, I'd do a good bit of hill sprints alright. Step running too.

Mulberry

Chivito550 wrote: »

My reaction was 0.197 which is poor, but it was the first few strides which really cost me, as I just wasn't explosive enough.

My reaction this time was a bit better at 0.187, but I felt my first few strides were greatly improved, and overall it felt like a much better run.

I almost got a reaction time at one of the NIA Live meets but it turns out my lane wasn't recorded. Anyway, I don't understand what this is, can you elaborate please?

Also, good going, I'm hoping to pb in the 60 but am nowhere near in the 200, I'd be very happy to be as close as you are.

Chivito550

Mulberry wrote: »

I almost got a reaction time at one of the NIA Live meets but it turns out my lane wasn't recorded. Anyway, I don't understand what this is, can you elaborate please?

Also, good going, I'm hoping to pb in the 60 but am nowhere near in the 200, I'd be very happy to be as close as you are.

I’m definitely not close to a PB in the 60m. 0.17 is a lot over such a short distance. If I could get close to 7.90 at Leinsters I’d be very pleased with the season to be honest. 0.28 off my PB over 200m, adjust a tenth of a second for the lane disadvantage (3 vs 4 for my PB), so about 0.18-0.20 or so off it, which is pretty close. I never prioritize the distance indoors as the unfairness of the outside lanes vs inside lanes puts me off the event. It’s good fun running it but I’ll only ever do it really if there’s a 60m on that day too. Funny as it is probably the event I love the most outdoors.

Reaction time is basically how quick you react to the noise of the gun. Supposedly it takes 0.1 seconds for us to react to sound, so if somebody has a reaction time less than 0.1 it means that person moves before actually hearing the gun. 0.091 would be a false start. 0.105 would be fine (although playing with fire). 0.13x would be a great start. Anything around 0.16x would be good at club level I would suspect.

Reaction time is only a small part of the start though. You could get a great reaction but a poor drive and your start would still end up crap.

Mulberry

Chivito550 wrote: »

Reaction time is only a small part of the start though. You could get a great reaction but a poor drive and your start would still end up crap.

Funny you say that. I've seen from various videos (slo mo!) that I have an excellent reaction time but a TERRIBLE drive, to the extent that I'm behind by the time I look up. I then have to make it up.

Anyway, I'm working on that. Video is great as it's highlighted it for me.

How do they measure it? Pressure on the block paddle?

IvoryTower

i was using a block start app on my phone yesterday to give me reaction times. only problem was it went from set to the gun almost instantly, gonna try a different one next week

Chivito550

Mulberry wrote: »

Funny you say that. I've seen from various videos (slo mo!) that I have an excellent reaction time but a TERRIBLE drive, to the extent that I'm behind by the time I look up. I then have to make it up.

Anyway, I'm working on that. Video is great as it's highlighted it for me.

How do they measure it? Pressure on the block paddle?

I'm not certain but I assume it is down to pressure, or perhaps movement, which is why twitching in the blocks has triggered false starts in many high profile races down the years.

IvoryTower wrote: »

i was using a block start app on my phone yesterday to give me reaction times. only problem was it went from set to the gun almost instantly, gonna try a different one next week

I really wouldn't even bother worrying about reaction times for 400m. It is so insignificant. Losing a few hundreths is huge in a 60m, not so much in a 400m.

IvoryTower

Chivito550 wrote: »

I really wouldn't even bother worrying about reaction times for 400m. It is so insignificant. Losing a few hundreths is huge in a 60m, not so much in a 400m.

ah im not really its just handy to have a gun while practicing blocks on my own, the reaction time feature is just a bonus for the nerd in me

Chivito550

So, for all of the 2017 track season training cycle, I recorded my training on the app Sweat Mobile. Since October, starting off the 2018 training cycle, I’ve been recording my running sessions by the pen and paper method, but continued to record my gym sessions on Sweat Mobile, out of pure convenience of copying and pasting sessions, and changing the numbers.

Anyway, last week the app stopped working, and now I can no longer access it. It is no longer available for download either. The app has disappeared. 2017 was possibly the best season of my athletics life, and now, all the sessions which contributed towards such a memorable season are lost forever. To say I am sickened is an understatement.

I have the training programmes our coach did up for us, but they weren't fixed programmes, and there was a lot of flexibility with them.

But it’s my own fault. Months ago I noticed that Sweat Mobile was on its last legs. I even said to myself I will need to take screenshots of every session before it is too late…….. Only I didn’t. I just kept on using it, despite the fact the app was dead, and not many were using it anymore, too lazy to actually spend the 30 mins needed to go back and screenshot 200+ sessions.

Arrghh. How annoying.

I have my race results recorded, both here, and firmly ingrained into my brain, so I guess that’s the most important thing.

Chivito550

Only getting around to this now.

Final race of the season last Saturday.

60m: 8.00

Felt I ran well, and I was pretty close to 4th place in my heat out of 7, but ended up in 6th. I was extremely disappointed when I saw the time, as it felt so much better. My reaction was 0.199 which is poor.

Overall, a disappointing season in the 60m. Last year I managed 7.80, 7.87, 7.89, 7.92 and 7.99. This year I ran 7.97, 7.99, 8.00, 8.02, 8.03 and 8.04.

0.17 is a significant difference. I had a crazy good season last year over 60m, so topping that would have been very difficult but I hoped to get closer.

200m: 25.53 (Lane 4)

After a fairly underwhelming indoor season, this performance sort of came out of the blue a little. Running from lane 4, I managed to get within just 0.06 of my 25.47 PB last year, which was also from lane 4. This is a very good comparison to my PB, as I don't have to adjust for tighter lanes etc. I think I was a bit sluggish down the backstraight, and maybe cruised a bit too much, and felt my heel slipping down a little, but I still tied up in the last 25m, so I must not have saved much energy after all.

Had I got lane 5 or 6, I almost certainly would have broken my PB, but I'm not sure it would have been deserved. The 200m indoors is my softest PB it must be said, but I did not expect to get so close to it, given I've probably done 15-20% less training than I did last year. I guess the drop in sessions has had more of an impact in my power and raw speed though, and my endurance still seems to be in good nick. It gives me hope that I can run some good times in the 200m this summer, and maybe even in the 100m.

Life has taken over a bit from training this year. Up to now training has really been pretty much one of, if not the, biggest priorities in my life. Now, I'm in a new job (and new career), have tons of weddings and stag parties from close friends and family, and other things happening. Training is still very important to me, but I don't think it can be the be all and end all it has been in previous years. 2018 was always going to be a bit of a down year with the amount of life distractions that lay ahead. I knew last year, when in the form of my life, I had to nail 24 seconds for 200m, as I knew what was coming this year. Thankfully I did, and it takes the pressure off for this year. Next year might be less crazy with commitments, but for now I have to just lower my expectations.

That 200m performances saved my season to an extent, and I am very pleased with that. While I haven't been hitting the 5 days per week religiously like all last year, I've averaged 4 per week, which has been difficult to manage at certain times over the last few months. I felt I deserved something good for the efforts, and thankfully I got it.

Chivito550

Time to draw a line under the indoor season. While my season wasn’t particularly great (barring one very good run over 200m at Leinsters), nothing comes remotely close to the massive disappointment of missing the World Indoor Championships at the weekend.

I was due to fly out Thursday at noon. After being in limbo for ages, the flight was eventually cancelled 2 hours beforehand. I still hadn’t left for the airport as the previous flight hadn’t gone out yet so was reluctant to spend €50 on a taxi for nothing (as no public transport was going). I then reacted quickly to rebook onto a Saturday morning flight. I was initially very positive about it, but the non-stop snow wore away my hope. I couldn’t even get a taxi booked to bring me to the airport Saturday morning. Once the red warning was extended to Saturday morning, I knew I was goosed, and my flight was swiftly cancelled at about 5pm on Friday. I had one last attempt to try find a way over, but every flight to Birmingham (and anywhere else in the UK) was either full or extortionately priced, and of course with no guarantee they’d get out on Saturday. I pulled the plug and watched it at home, absolutely sickened to the stomach to be watching it on TV when I was supposed to be there. I was seething watching the final session on Sunday, that I left it and went to the cinema, and watched the remainder of it later on instead. Seeing photos, comments etc on twitter, Facebook etc from other journalists and supporters only makes it even more frustrating.

I want to forget these championships even happened. Maybe it sounds drastic, but this was incredibly disappointing and frustrating. I’ve still never been to a World Indoors (2012 and 2014 I was living in Australia, 2016 was around the time of my sister’s wedding, and it was too far to travel to for a 3 day event), and the next ones are in Nanjing, China, which is just too far to go for such a short meet.

In a funny way though, this makes me very excited for outdoors. I don’t even want to see or think about an indoor track now. I can’t wait for the clock to go forward and for the temperatures to increase. I’m looking forward to having a pressure free season, and enjoying it. It’s very disrupted with weddings and stags, so I plan to focus on May and June, and pull the plug in July. Provisional plan is as follows:

1) Sat 21st April – Kettering Town Harriers Open Meeting (this is hand timed, but I’m over in the UK that weekend to watch the London Marathon and the World Snooker, so might aswell get a low key race in before Ton le Gaoithe)
2) Sat 5th May – Ton le Gaoithe, Waterford
3) Sun 13th May – Kildare Championships, Leixlip
4) Sun 3rd June – Leinster Championships, Tullamore
5) Sat 9th June – Northern Ireland Championships, Belfast
6) Sun 24th June – National League Round 1, TBC
7) Sun 8th July – National League Round 2, TBC

It won’t be plain sailing as during this period from 21st April to 8th July, I have 2 weddings and a stag. I also have a stag the weekend before I plan to open my season.

With Nationals off the cards due to a family wedding, and with precious little other meets on in July (other than GV Ryan and Graded meets, neither of which I enjoy), I’ll wrap it up after the second round of the league. I hope to use this time to go to the World Juniors in Tampere, Finland, something I have never been to, and then the European Championships in Berlin.

Chivito550

My 3rd year in a row doing this. I hit PBs the last 2 times, but knew on this occasion it would be a monumental ask.

Training has been pretty good since indoors, though I've had to do a good few sessions on my own locally, and actual track time has been a bit lower than hoped, though I've had some good ones in the last 2 weeks or so.

Conditions were good. Not the scorcher Dublin had, but 13/14 degrees, with hazy intermittent sunshine, though plenty of clouds. Illegal tailwinds for most of the day though.

Usually I have a race before this one to break away the cobwebs, but they had it a week earlier this year unfortunately, which meant this ended up being my first race of the season.

100m Race 1: 12.42 (+2.5)

I was pipped by one lad by 0.01 of a second. Ran pretty well. Felt a little ragged which is to be expected in a first race of the season. Illegal wind.

100m Race 2: 12.45 (+1.0)

A good improvement here. Small bit slower but with a legal wind. I beat the lad from the first race this time by 0.11 of a second. I was in lane 8, closest to the stands, after they decided to merge the last 2 races into one. Overall, 0.25 down on my PB from the same meet last year, which is sort of what I expected.

200m: 25.50 (+2.4)

By this stage I was feeling tired. I was in lane 2 and was poor out of the blocks, and for the entire bend really. No real power. But I finished very well and started clawing some people back. Illegal wind but wouldn't pay too much attention to that as it was blowing in my face around the bend. Overall 0.63 down on my PB which is quite a lot. I think I'm in better shape than that time I ran, but the two 100m races took it out of me.

Overall, the performances were around what I expected and I was pleased enough.

Woke up the next morning with an outrageously tight hamstring, which still hasn't subsided. Very weird as I didn't feel anything when racing. I've never experienced this kind of tightness in the hamstring before so it's a bit concerning. Hopefully it loosens out in the next few days. I may have to take a few more days off.

chasingpaper

Just finished reading this from start to finish, great journey to follow. 
Is there any chance you will start logging training sessions regularly again? 
BTW the sweat app is available and working if you download from the Googleplay, I can see your profile and sessions are still there.

Chivito550

chasingpaper wrote: »

Just finished reading this from start to finish, great journey to follow. 
Is there any chance you will start logging training sessions regularly again? 
BTW the sweat app is available and working if you download from the Googleplay, I can see your profile and sessions are still there.

Yikes, that must have taken you absolutely ages.

Glad you enjoyed it though. I've occasionally read back on some of my very early races and I get a good chuckle out of it. Some utterly mad stuff, namely attempting to run a 3000m in sprint spikes in my first ever meet, having already done 200m, 800m and long jump.

Never say never regarding the training logging, but for now, I'm happy with the pen and paper method. Happy to keep logging races here though.

Delighted to hear that Sweat still exists. I'm going to try get hold of that now and screenshot every session. I'd resigned myself to last year's training being lost forever. Cheers for letting me know.

Are you a sprinter yourself?

EDIT: I can't find the Sweat app anywhere. There's tons of other apps with the same name, but not the one I used to use.

chasingpaper

Ha yea it took a while, if I was as committed to training as I am to reading about it I would be decent! Seeing your progression is really good, not just in terms of times, but in how your knowledge of the sport has grown. I've been doing some sprinting for last year or two, one or two running sessions per week. This year I'm trying to get 4 running sessions per week and hope to get down to around 56 and maybe 55.x this summer. I got 58.9 last summer, no reaction time. 
I don't compete at minute but I time most sessions with freelap so I can see progression (or lack of it!). 
Sorry to get your hopes up, I downloaded it a few weeks ago but it seems to be gone again. I would be devastated to lose all that training info, you could try this link https://www.apkfollow.com/app/sweat-mobile/com.sweatmobile.sweat/  
That should install on an android.

chasingpaper

Clear your inbox so we can sort this out!

Chivito550

chasingpaper wrote: »

Clear your inbox so we can sort this out!

Done now.

Chivito550

Bit of an up and down day in Tullamore.

Training has been a bit inconsistent of late. It was going quite well for the first 2 weeks after Waterford, but then I ended up with 9 days of absolutely no training. First a 4 day holiday to Madrid, then I came down with a dose which kept me out for a few more days, and then I had a wedding in Clare. I managed to get 3 consecutive days running in this week (Mon-Wed) and rested up after that ahead of Leinsters.

Conditions were magnificent. If anything it was too warm, which is a good complaint to have.

200m: 25.74 (+0.1)

I was in lane 6, with nobody outside me. I felt sluggish driving out from the blocks, and eased off a bit too much after 50m, and the entire field ate up the stagger on me quickly. I entered the straight way behind, but I finished well, closing a bit on the guy in second last who finished in 25.20, but it was too little too late. I expected the time to be more in the 25.4 range, so was disappointed to see that I was almost a quarter of a second behind my time from Waterford 4 weeks ago. Hopefully I can get down into the lower 25 second range next weekend now that I have this run in the legs.

100m: No time

For the second time at a Leinster Championship I have run a race and received no time. I was in the second of 2 heats, and medals were to be decided on time. They knew straight away that there were no times, yet the officials made no effort to act on this. They should have announced this straight away, and offered athletes a re-run an hour later. I queried the officials on this, but they were all clueless, and each one just passed me on to somebody else. One in particular was downright rude. They weren't apologetic in the slightest. They only made a decision on how to proceed once I actually approached them on it. I had been sent to go talk to the track referee. When I went to him, he didn't even know about the lack of times to begin with. In the end they offered medals to the top 3 in each of the 2 races, so 6 people got medals, which really is laughable stuff.

So, running this race was essentially a big waste of time, and I can take nothing from it. There seemed to be a headwind, but in the absense of even a wind reading, I don't even know this for sure.

4x100m Relay; 47.96 Bronze

We did some practice for this last Wednesday at training, but getting 4 people together proved particularly challenging. Our fastest guy then had to withdraw before the 100m as his hamstring was bothering him which left us in a bit of a pickle. Thankfully one lad, not in our training group, who had won the 400m Hurdles earlier that day, and was still hanging around, was delighted to help out, and we were back on track.

I was the leadoff runner, followed by a new guy in our group who had run 12.50 in the 100m earlier, followed by a masters athlete in our group who ran 13.2 earlier and had done 5 events already, and then finally the lad who won the 400 hurdles, who is around 11.5 or so.

My hand was sweaty from the heat, and from putting suncream on. As I sat in my blocks I had my hand firmly grabbing the batton. Thoughts of Mujinga Kambundji were going through my mind, the poor Swiss girl who let go of the batton as she launched herself out of the blocks in the 2014 European Final in front of her home crowd.

There were 4 teams in the race, all of which looked strong, so if we were to medal, we would have to earn it (which is the way I want to win a medal). I had a feeling Fingallians and Celbridge would have a bit too much for us, but Father Murphy AC were there for the taking. We were in lane 6, with all 3 teams inside us. The leadoff runner for Father Murphy was built like a tank and looked a bit like Vin Diesel. He came down especially for the relay. I needed to make sure I could stay as close to him as possible, to keep us in contention.

I got out well, and drove the bend hard. I could hear the guy inside me come up on me towards the end, but I fought hard to minimize the damage, and he ate up the stagger not long before the changeover, meaning he beat me by about 4 metres or so. Our handover went smoothly, and my job was done. This felt like my best run of the 3 races throughout the day.

Our second runner did well to make up the gap on Father Murphy and putting us slightly ahead, which we extended on the 3rd leg, and maintained on the last to take third. Fingallians won in 45.46, Celbridge were second in 46.15, we were third in 47.96, and Father Murphy were 4th in 49.37.

This bronze was far more satisfying than the gold 2 years ago, as we only ran 50.71 on that occasion and only had to beat one team who ran around 55. On this occasion we ran a very respectable time, and had to run well to take a medal.

I've only ever run the 4x100m on 4 occasions, but this was the fastest one I've been part of by about 1.4 seconds.

So most of the day was frustrating, but it ended on a high.

career move

Well done in the relay. My clubmate had no time for her 200 either. Very annoying!

Sorry I didn't really get to meet you properly yesterday. I know what you look like now anyway

Chivito550

career move wrote: »

Well done in the relay. My clubmate had no time for her 200 either. Very annoying!

Sorry I didn't really get to meet you properly yesterday. I know what you look like now anyway

Yeh it’s a fairly hectic day. Not a lot of time to stop really. Of course this Saturday I’ll have a 5 hour gap between races in Belfast and absolutely nobody to talk to. Murphy’s Law. Good to meet you Sunday, albeit briefly.

Chivito550

Beautiful day weather wise, but as is usual for the Mary Peters Track, there was a sizeable headwind in the 100m. Not long before the 200m there was a big thunderstorm, which seemed to calm the air, so conditions were pretty nice for the 200m, other than a damp track.

100m: 12.79 (-1.1)

120+ years of history in our sport of using a gun, and for some uncomprehendable reason, across the UK they are rolling out a beep sound now. It threw a lot of people off, and even though they remind you before the start, we simply are not tuned into that specific noise. I really had to focus on remembering that it's a beep while in the blocks. If you start thinking of anything else (stuff you normally think about when in the blocks!) then you are goosed! Fortunately I reacted fine, but I saw a 400m race being called back because one guy didn't move from the blocks. To add to the madness, the recall sound for a false start sounds like a DJ scratching a record or something. Two massive thumbs down for all this nonsense. In fairness to the officials, a couple of them said they absolutely hate it too but that they have no choice but to go with it. I really hope this nonsense doesn't make it south of the border.

I thought I ran ok, but felt I lacked power in the second half of the race. The time was pretty bad, and way down on my season's best from Waterford, even accounting for the various wind readings.

200m: 25.52 (-0.3)

I had a long 5 hour gap between races which is just too long. I was pretty disappointed with my 100m time, so I wanted to salvage something in the 200m, and make the journey up worthwhile.

I was in lane 4 and I attacked the bend much better than I did last week. The lad in lane 3 runs around mid 24 so I tried to stay as close to him as possible. 2 lads outside me were in or around me entering the straight, so this was a good competitive race to be in. One lad stretched away from me in the straight, while the other was behind me at half way, but disappointingly got ahead of me, as I died a death in the last 50m.

I felt I ran well and was hopeful of a season's best, but alas I missed this by 0.02. But it was a 0.22 improvement on my poor run from Leinsters the week before, so I was relatively pleased. Expectations are very low this season. I'd have been disgusted with 25.52 last year!

Next meet is the League in Templemore where I plan to guest in the 200m in 2 weeks time.

Mulberry

I was considering the NI Masters at the end of June but between the beep starts and a prevailing headwind on the 100 I'm now put off!

Well done anyway, disappointing for you I guess in the 100 but you made up for it in the 2. Hopefully you'll beat your SB there in Templemore.

Chivito550

Mulberry wrote: »

I was considering the NI Masters at the end of June but between the beep starts and a prevailing headwind on the 100 I'm now put off!

Well done anyway, disappointing for you I guess in the 100 but you made up for it in the 2. Hopefully you'll beat your SB there in Templemore.

Most tracks in Ireland are built with the home straights running into the prevailing winds, so I wouldn’t let that put you off going to Belfast, unless you apply the same to Santry, Irishtown, Tallaght etc.

The beep starts are a real pain in the ass though.

On the plus side, the Mary Peters Track is one of the best in Ireland, and the setting is by far the most beautiful. I also find the people up there to generally be very nice, and finally, while I can’t speak for the Masters championship, their senior championships are organised impeccably, far better than most events you’d get in the south.

Mulberry

Chivito550 wrote: »

Most tracks in Ireland are built with the home straights running into the prevailing winds, so I wouldn’t let that put you off going to Belfast, unless you apply the same to Santry, Irishtown, Tallaght etc.

Really? I didn't know that. I've only raced in Santry and Tallaght once each I think, never in Irishtown.

Chivito550 wrote: »

On the plus side, the Mary Peters Track is one of the best in Ireland, and the setting is by far the most beautiful. I also find the people up there to generally be very nice, and finally, while I can’t speak for the Masters championship, their senior championships are organised impeccably, far better than most events you’d get in the south.

I'd heard similar feedback about the Masters Champs. Maybe I'll reconsider, despite the annoying beep

Chivito550

Mulberry wrote: »

Really? I didn't know that. I've only raced in Santry and Tallaght once each I think, never in Irishtown.


I'd heard similar feedback about the Masters Champs. Maybe I'll reconsider, despite the annoying beep

Yeh unfortunately this is the case. The prevailing winds come from the West and South (south west I guess). If you look at all the Dublin metropolitan tracks (Santry, Tallaght, Irishtown, Leixlip, Greystones) on google maps you’ll see that the home straight is all running into these prevailing winds. You’d think that these kind of things would be looked at before constructing a track, but then again, this is Ireland.

Tullamore goes with the prevailing winds.

Chivito550

Incredibly hot day in Templemore. About 25 degrees by the time I raced. Took the train down and arrived at the track around 1pm, with my race scheduled for 3:30pm. After checking in I killed a lot of time in the nearby pub, to stay out of the sun, as there is no shade at that track, and I watched the England match.

Came out to the track about 2:45 and started my warm up. Assumed I had loads of time. Then after doing my drills, I put on my spikes to start my strides, only to see that the race before the guest 200m is about to go. I should know by now to not allow this to happen!! Anyway, I had 5 minutes to do my strides, which given the hot weather was plenty. We were about 20 minutes ahead of schedule.

However, we then encounter a cranky official. He thought there were only 8 guys there for the guest 200m. Then he sees a 9th and he did not try to hide his disgust. He moans to us that now he has to organise 2 races rather than 1. Honest to God, what did he expect? For one athlete to say "ah sure I'll take the hit here, no worries". Absolutely ridiculous stuff. He was getting thick with a good few of us, and says that we are now running behind schedule, which was a complete full blown lie, as we were well ahead of schedule. He obviously just wanted to get the day done ASAP as the weather was no doubt misery for all people officiating. I really have the utmost respect for those who give their time for the sport, but sometimes they make it very hard for athletes to stay positive towards them.

200m: 25.86 (-1.3)

I was in lane 4 with a lad who I'd raced twice over the 100m in Waterford (1 win each) in lane 3. A SLOT lad I know well was in lane 2, who would be about 5 metres better than me in terms of PBs. Felt I got out well and drove the bend well and while the guy in lane 2 ate up the stagger, I never saw or heard the lad in lane 3. I was a comfortable 3rd of 5 all the way down the straight and was about 8 metres or so down on SLOT. I thought this would be a good omen for a season's best, but it was not to be. He was a bit slower than I thought he would be at 24.71, so I came in with my slowest time of the year, in what actually felt like a good run. The wind wasn't ideal, but overall despite executing the race well, I'm just simply not in my best shape.

I knew this season would be a hell of a battle, but I still gave it a good shot through the winter, into indoors, and into the spring, but I've begun to lose heart of late, and I've found it hard to be consistent in training over the past 6 weeks or so, with a lot of other things in life competing for my time.

Next up is round 2 of the league in Santry in 2 weeks time, where I hope to run a 200m and a 100m. It's just about having some fun this season at this point. The season is a write off, and truth be told it has been a write off all along, even if I didn't accept it at first.