The least important part of this thread is the Title

Chivito550

Congrats. Great running. Must be very satisfying to run that time after so many annoying injury problems. Hopefully next year you'll get a clean run throughout with no injuries so you'll be able to race more. It takes a good few races to hit a peak. Those 2 bad races earlier this season definitely would have helped you on Sunday.

You seem to have taken a lot out of Phil Healy in the last 90m judging by your report. She really has the makings of a low 52 runner I feel, if she gets a good winter behind her to add endurance to that speed.

Oregano_State

Chivito550 wrote: »

Congrats. Great running. Must be very satisfying to run that time after so many annoying injury problems. Hopefully next year you'll get a clean run throughout with no injuries so you'll be able to race more. It takes a good few races to hit a peak. Those 2 bad races earlier this season definitely would have helped you on Sunday.

You seem to have taken a lot out of Phil Healy in the last 90m judging by your report. She really has the makings of a low 52 runner I feel, if she gets a good winter behind her to add endurance to that speed.

Thanks, yeah tbh I was surprised when I saw her time that I'd opened that much on her, she must have faded a good bit in the last 30m. She'll be much better next year if she gets a good winter's worth of endurance done.

I'm hoping for the same myself. For the moment however, I've still in season and feeling really good about my last few races.

Yesterday evening I did a speed session on the track: 30m x3, 60m x3, 1x200m off full recoveries and beat my 7.81 60m PB on all 3 60m reps, with 7.5, 7.7, 7.7.

The 200m came in at 25.1 which I was fairly happy with too. There was a fairly strong tailwind blowing, but even taking that into acvount I still felt like I was moving well.

Chivito550

Oregano_State wrote: »

Thanks, yeah tbh I was surprised when I saw her time that I'd opened that much on her, she must have faded a good bit in the last 30m. She'll be much better next year if she gets a good winter's worth of endurance done.

I'm hoping for the same myself. For the moment however, I've still in season and feeling really good about my last few races.

Yesterday evening I did a speed session on the track: 30m x3, 60m x3, 1x200m off full recoveries and beat my 7.81 60m PB on all 3 60m reps, with 7.5, 7.7, 7.7.

The 200m came in at 25.1 which I was fairly happy with too. There was a fairly strong tailwind blowing, but even taking that into acvount I still felt like I was moving well.

Haha, ah Jaysus don't be comparing rough hand timed training reps to your 60m PB.

Oregano_State

Chivito550 wrote: »

Haha, ah Jaysus don't be comparing rough hand timed training reps to your 60m PB.

You can't stop me:pac:

Oregano_State

I'm on a roll at the moment. 52.66s in the 400m last night in CIT and just pipped on the line for first place at the meet. There was a strong headwind on the back straight, and looking at the race video I still have some work to do tidying up my technique so in calmer conditions there will be more there.

In terms of race- execution, I was happy enough with my first 150m but maybe slackened off a little too much between there and 220m-ish. That resulted in maybe going a little too hard too early and even though I caught the guy who passed me on the back straight, I couldn't hold off the young lad outside me and was just edged out on the line.

I experienced a heavy dose of lactic about 3-4 mins after crossing the line, and my legs were a bit wobbly, but that didn't stop me from having a pop at the 100m, the next event scheduled. Incidentally, when I queried the timetable to one of the officials as I picked up my number, I was told there was no chance of putting the 100m first and that it had been planned that way "so that people could double up in the 400m & 1500m". WTF.

Anyway, somehow I managed to pull out a SB and won my heat in 12.15s with a handy little +1.2 m/s tailwind. I'm still not at all happy with my start, but it's going to be a big big focus going forward. Race video here .

And in even better news, I found out that they're taking guests in the Cork Champs this coming Sunday, so I'm going to try and continue my run of good form and bag some more SBs. I'll go for another 100m & 400m double which thankfully are timetabled the right way around this time. If I could posssibblyyy sneak in at 11.99s +1.9 m/s, and 52.49s in the 400m, I'd be a very happy bunny indeed .

IvoryTower

Nice one, cool videos to have. Are you near back to your best now? Would 50 sec be doable for next year at this rate?

Oregano_State

IvoryTower wrote: »

Nice one, cool videos to have. Are you near back to your best now? Would 50 sec be doable for next year at this rate?

Yeah the Cork Gradeds are great for photos and race videos. CIT is a nice track too.

If I'm not in my best ever shape, I'm definitely not far from it. I know I still have a lot to work on so that's giving me confidence that I can keep the improvements coming if I keep putting in the work. And yes, I really do think 50.x is possible next year and I'm going to go for it. I'll have 3 regular training partners who are consistent 50/51s guys, so they'll be a big help. I'm going to work hard on my 60m speed over the winter; if I can get my 200m time down to 23.4-ish by around May, I reckon a push for 50s is in play.

Oregano_State

Heading into the Cork Seniors and I've started to feel the cumulative effects of competition, with my 5th & 6th races in the space of 3 weeks bringing an end to my sprinting season tomorrow afternoon in CIT. I'm a bit banged up from all the high-intensity sessions and races, and I've been trying to pick a sensible line between getting adequate recovery and not doing a tap. Over the past month or so I've cut the volume of sprinting and weights down, lengthened my warm-ups & cool-downs, increased my focus on foam rolling, hockey-balled the crap out of my hip/glute region, and taken more rest days than usual, all in an effort to allow myself to recover as much as possible and avoid injury.

Despite all that, I'm currently sitting here with a tight hamstring, tight right calf, and a sore lower back/lat, all down my right side. I should be OK to get through tomorrow, but I'll be taking a couple days off completely after that, and only then will I make a decision on whether I want to have another crack at the 800m on the 26th.

Anyway, since Tuesday's races my training has gone as follows:
Wednesday: PM recovery swim/splash-about in the sea. The water is lovely at this time of the year, and I stayed in for about 20 minutes.
Thursday: Grass Track - 2x30m, 2x60m, 2x(300m, 200m) off 1min, 15mins
Felt pretty OK, but this was when I started to feel the tight hamstring. I timed my second 60m at 7.45s, which ties in nicely with a recent session I did on the track.
The split 500s were tough enough. I came in at 40.5s, 29.2s, on the first one, and 40.5, 29.6s on the second. This works out at about 55s 400m pace which for solo in training is very good for me. I also did a good long warm-up and cool-down here to help loosen everything out.
Friday: Gym
A) 10 mins easy on the spin bike
Lots of rolling and stretching
C1) SL DL: 15kg x 8, 20kg x 5, 25kg x 3 e/s
C2) DB Snatch: 15kg, 20kg, 25lg x 3 e/s
D) Power Cleans: 40kg x3, 60kg x2, 70kg x2, 75kg x2 (Rep PB)
E) Incline DB Bench: 20kg x 10, 25kg x8
F) Bench: 60kg x5, 70kg x5, 75kg x2, 80kg x2
G1) Pull-Ups: +5kg 2x4, BW 1x8
G2) Dips: BW 3x10

It's Saturday evening now at this stage and I haven't done anything yet today, but I plan on hitting the beach again in about half an hour for a bit of a jog and a recovery dip. Will also do a bit of foam rolling and a stretch. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, I really want to try and back up Tuesday's performances as that will give me a lot of confidence to aim high going into next season. The weather forecast says it's going to be 18 degrees with a strongish 13 kmph wind from the south east. I don't know how accurate the wind predictions are but the track is most sheltered from that direction so hopefully that might mitigate the effects of the wind.

The 100m is timetabled for 13:15, and the 400m up at 15:00. I will post tomorrow evening with a quick results update.

Oregano_State

100m in 12.32s (-1.2m/s). Not tremendous. My first 40m needs a lot of work, but speed endurance is good.

400m in 52.86s, and 1st place overall. I was guesting, but I'm still calling myself Cork Senior 400m Champ 2016. It always feels good as a Kerry man to beat the rebels in their back yard. Even though it's a shame the standard was fairly poor, the Leesiders might get their act together for next year and be ready to challenge when I come back to defend my title. :pac:

In seriousness, I was happy with my race - definitely still have things to work on - but my finish was strong.

Will do up a report tomorrow hopefully. In the meantime, I'm happy to be back winning races, healthy, and optimistic about the future.

Oregano_State

This year has been a bit of a write off for me, running wise. Training was very patchy during the winter due to both a lack of motivation and a lot of travel for work. Trained fairly well between March & May but then the only track within 90mins drive of where I live, was closed for 6 weeks to be resurfaced and my training went by the wayside again. Since it reopened I've got back on the horse and have put about 6 good weeks together.

Last Friday I ran my first race of the year at CIT in Cork, over 200m.
I ran 24.4s into a -0.4 m/s wind, although it felt stronger. Initially I was delighted with a hand-time of 23.9 on crossing the line (would have been a PB), but alas the computer told a different story.

Today I did a 400m time-trial, hand-timed. With a very strong headwind on the back straight and an awful start, I came in at 53.8s, which is a lot quicker than my opening races of 2016, which went 56, 55, 55. I'm going to do another TT in 2 weeks time and have one proper race left on September 2nd. If I can sneak under last season's best of 52.66, I'll be a happy man.