The least important part of this thread is the Title

Oregano_State

Tuesday - Saturday

Tuesday: Upper body + Core at the gym, featuring crippling leg DOMS.
Wednesday: Rest Day
Thursday: Gym: Power Cleans, High Pulls & Deadlifts Plus Hamstring work
Friday: Was planning a track session but both tracks I use had competitions on, so made do with 25mins fartlek running on the trails in Ballyseedy Woods, which despite being very close to where I live, I had never been to before.
Saturday: Pre-race tune-up on the grass track in great conditions. Long warm-up, 2x20m, 2x40m accels, then 2x flying 100m, self-timed in 12.31s & 12.08s
I felt pretty good on Saturday despite waking up at 6am with a cramp in my niggly hamstring. At the time I was sure that was going to put me out of the comp today, but I went back to sleep and got up just before midday refreshed and with no remnants of the cramp. Happy Days. The flying 100s felt good. I didn't commit properly on the first one; I think I need to work on that.

Chivito550

Oregano_State wrote: »

In fantastic conditions for athletics, with plenty of sun and not too much in the way of wind in Castleisland, I came away with a huge PB in the 200m & possible a PW (personal worst) in the 400m, albeit on tired legs. Takeaway feeling is 80% happy, 20% sad.

I felt pretty good today waking up. Calves were fairly tight surprisingly given the relatively light week's training I've had (I'll get to that in a minute), but nothing that a little foam rolling couldn't put right. I wasn't sure what to expect from today, but I was determined to put in a good effort having felt like my training has been on an upward trend the past 3 weeks or so. I knew (know) that I'm still a way off my best, but I thought a good rust-buster at this stage of the season could only be a good thing, having not competed since the Munster Indoors in 2015, which I'm pretty sure was in January.

Standing behind my blocks for the 200m, the familiar pre-race nerves that had come on strong during my warm-up faded, and I felt ready to perform. I had drawn lane 4, and with 5 other fairly quality sprinters in the race I was focusing purely on myself. The start felt OK, I drove out well and held my own with the lad outside me (a 23.3 man), I was passed by lane 3 after about 60m, but I knew he was a very fast starter and it didn't affect my concentration. From 60m-140m I think I had my best part of the race, I actually closed a metre or so on the two lads in lane 5 & 6 (who finished 2nd & 1st in 23.3xs & 23.18s respectively), but from 140m on the wheels came off slightly and I lost a lot of ground on the leaders. I finished 5th of 6 in 24.21s, which I believe is 0.54s PB. I was fairly surprised when I heard my time, as I've plenty to improve upon, but I certainly won't turn up my nose at a PB.

There was about 45 minutes between the 200m & 400m, which is an OK amount of time to recover, but in hindsight, having not run faster than 27-high over 200m at any stage in training in recent memory, my body must have been a bit fried. I ran in lane 3, with the guy who was in the lane outside me in the 200m in lane 4. There was one more guy in lane 5, so I was guaranteed a medal (;)), but both these guys are sub 52s runners this season so I knew I'd have my work cut out for me. My plan was to get out hard and commit over the first 200m and see what was left for 'Part 2: Revenge Of The Lactic', but to be honest that never materialised. I didn't commit and never got within touching distance of the lads outside me. There was a sneaky little headwind on the back straight, but nothing that I shouldn't be able to deal with. I put the boot down with 130m or so to go and actually sped up - which should never happen - but it was a short-lived boost and I struggled home from 80m out, finishing in an absolutely shocking 56.02s.

Speaking to one of the coaches in the club afterwards, she said I looked all over the place from the get go: sluggish out of the blocks, poor turnover, and over-striding on the back straight. Not a recipe conducive to an efficient performance. I'll put it down to race-rust and degree of sub-optimal race conditioning. Still, I won a Championship medal (*cough* by default *cough* *cough*) which hasn't happened in about 5 years, and I'm back on the track racing and injury free which are huge achievements in themselves. A solid day all in all.


About 20 minutes after my 400m, with the track events finished, I did 2x2x200m with 1min, 5min rest.
I knocked them out in 28.9s, 28.2s, 28.9s, 28.9s, with the last one being hosted in lactic-city from 100m out.

Congrats on the PB. Any day a PB is run is a good day.

But if you've run a 400m properly you really shouldn't be able for 4x200 20 mins later. I don't think mixing training in with races is a good idea. You could have been subconsciously thinking of your session before you even raced the 400.

Oregano_State

Yeah, maybe you're right. It would have had to be subconscious though, I was fairly focused on the race. I've never trained on the same day as a race before, today it fit in with the weekly training load, on most other race days it probably wouldn't.

IvoryTower

What's your 400 pb?

IvoryTower

And what are you hoping for this summer? Well done on the 200 btw great time

Oregano_State

IvoryTower wrote: »

What's your 400 pb?

My 400m PB is 51.3s, but I haven't been anywhere close to that in recent seasons. I posted 53.77s in the only race I ran in 2014, but I was definitely in better shape that summer, I just didn't get the chance to show it in a race. 2015 was a washout with injury.

Based on my 200m time from today, I should really be getting into the 52.xx range this summer, and could feasibly go lower given that my new 200m PB is also a season-opener and my first race in well over a year.

I haven't really done any speed endurance yet this year; my training so far has focused on tempo work and short acceleration stuff so I'll be spending more time in the 'middle zone' from here on out. I feel like I've left myself room to improve, and I'm optimistic about the chances that I will do just that.

Oregano_State

Monday: Gym
A) Spin Bike
4min warmup
5x2min on/2min easy
2min
5x30s on/30s easy
2min easy to bring my up to 30 mins total. SWEATFEST

Was fairly goosed after the bike but caught my breath and knocked out some upper body weights and core.

Tuesday: Grass 300s
I did 2x3x300m off 100m walk, and 3mins between sets on the grass track.
I wasn't very happy with this session as I stupidly only brought racing flats with me and so was slipping all over the shop on the fairly wet grass. This meant that I couldn't get up to the pace I wanted and as a result the times were very slow. Still, effort was there.
Times: 54, 52, 51, 49, 52, 49

Wednesday: - Off
Thursday: 3x300m on grass again. Brought my spikes this time, took 6mins between reps. Times: 41, 42, 44. There was a fairly strong headwind, but I was not thrilled by how that went. More work to be done here.

Friday: 2x(20m, 30m, 40m) from blocks; then 6x120m off 3mins from a 3-point start.
The block starts went OK, but I still have a lot to work on there. The 120s were only alright. I handtimed myself at 15/16s for all of them, but I never felt right in the way I was running.

I think my right hamstring is a bit of a problem at the moment, I need to build strength up in it more. I'm going to take a step back from sprinting this week and concentrate on strengthening it up before I go back to the speed work because it doesn't feel right.

Oregano_State

IvoryTower wrote: »

And what are you hoping for this summer? Well done on the 200 btw great time

Didn't realise I hadn't replied to this yet.

I'm aiming to peak at the end of the season because I was only able to start training properly in March. The Munster Seniors are on the 31st of July so I'm targeting that competition in a big way.

I hope to get back to running 52s over 400m this summer, which will be a good platform to build on going into next season. It would be great to get under 24s in the 200m as well, but the main focus is the 400m.

Right now I've got a bit of a problem that I want to nip in the bud with my hamstring. I've got OK speed, going by the 200m last week, but I've been having trouble getting into a good relaxed rhythm at high percentages of my top speed over 200m+; it all feels very forced at the moment. I think one of the causes is that my right hamstring (the one that kept me out last year) is still not as strong as it should be. I can run on it, but it feels tight more often than not, and I think it's holding me back. I'm going to focus on sorting that now over the next ten days or so.

IvoryTower

Hi OS, how has training been going? Any races to report?

Oregano_State

IvoryTower wrote: »

Hi OS, how has training been going? Any races to report?

I do indeed. I ran in the first round of the national league in Athlone as a guest in the 400m. I wasn't very happy with my run, with a time of 55.37s, but at least it was an improvement on my first race.

Training has been going very well however, so I'm really still focused on being able to perform at a level I'm used to in July and August. I will do up a post this weekend of all the training I've failed to log, I have been using an app called Sweat Mobile to log my training so I have a good record of everything. I'd actually really recommend Sweat Mobile as it has a lot of fairly high level athletes logging on it regularly, including some pros. I think our own Kevin Batt has some involvement in the company behind it as well.

Anyway, to summarize: I've really been flat out with work in the last few weeks so I've found it difficult to make time to post here and follow people's training. I hope you're getting on well yourself.

Chivito550

Oregano_State wrote: »

I do indeed. I ran in the first round of the national league in Athlone as a guest in the 400m. I wasn't very happy with my run, with a time of 55.37s, but at least it was an improvement on my first race.

Training has been going very well however, so I'm really still focused on being able to perform at a level I'm used to in July and August. I will do up a post this weekend of all the training I've failed to log, I have been using an app called Sweat Mobile to log my training so I have a good record of everything. I'd actually really recommend Sweat Mobile as it has a lot of fairly high level athletes logging on it regularly, including some pros. I think our own Kevin Batt has some involvement in the company behind it as well.

Anyway, to summarize: I've really been flat out with work in the last few weeks so I've found it difficult to make time to post here and follow people's training. I hope you're getting on well yourself.

How useful is Sweat Mobile for sprinters? Is it another Strava type thing geared for distance runners or is it for all athletes? Is there a community of sprinters on it? Not feeling the love with the Boards log like I used to, and wouldn't mind shopping around for alternative ways to log my training.

Oregano_State

Chivito550 wrote: »

How useful is Sweat Mobile for sprinters? Is it another Strava type thing geared for distance runners or is it for all athletes? Is there a community of sprinters on it? Not feeling the love with the Boards log like I used to, and wouldn't mind shopping around for alternative ways to log my training.

From what I can see there are a lot more milers on it than sprinters. However, there are some good 400m logs on there. The standard of the athletes logging is very high too, and it seems to be fairly big in Australia. There's a guy called Joseph Deng who's doing the 800m in the world juniors this month. The lad is seriously quick over 200m - 800m. There's another Australian guy called Tom Robertson who's log is very good too.

In terms of non-sprint logs, Will Leer is a regular logger, as was Nick Symmonds up until his injury which seems to have happened a few weeks ago judging by when he stopped posting. Cormac Kelly, who finished 3rd in our 1500m nationals last weekend is also on there.

Overall it looks like it's a growing community. I find it handier than boards as it's more mobile-friendly.

IvoryTower

Sounds good I must try it. You should still throw in some race reports and the odd update for us

Chivito550

Oregano_State wrote: »

From what I can see there are a lot more milers on it than sprinters. However, there are some good 400m logs on there. The standard of the athletes logging is very high too, and it seems to be fairly big in Australia. There's a guy called Joseph Deng who's doing the 800m in the world juniors this month. The lad is seriously quick over 200m - 800m. There's another Australian guy called Tom Robertson who's log is very good too.

In terms of non-sprint logs, Will Leer is a regular logger, as was Nick Symmonds up until his injury which seems to have happened a few weeks ago judging by when he stopped posting. Cormac Kelly, who finished 3rd in our 1500m nationals last weekend is also on there.

Overall it looks like it's a growing community. I find it handier than boards as it's more mobile-friendly.

Haha I know Tom from my time in Melbourne. Races 400m hurdles for one of the clubs in the AV Shield region my old club is in. That's gas.

Oregano_State

Chivito550 wrote: »

Haha I know Tom from my time in Melbourne. Races 400m hurdles for one of the clubs in the AV Shield region my old club is in. That's gas.

Small world:D

Oregano_State

Training's progressing well, have managed to meet up with a group of decent quarter-milers for track sessions over the last 5 weeks or so. Hit some of my fastest training times ever this Wednesday over 180m, 150m & 120m. I also hit a 5kg PB of 80kg in the power clean today at the gym.

I'm racing a 200m and possibly an 800m at the Cork graded meet on Monday. My main focus however is a big season's best in the 400m on the 31st at the Munster Seniors in Waterford.

After that, there's another graded in Cork on the 9th, where I'll have another 400m race. Then there's one more graded at the end of August but I haven't decided yet if I'll keep my season going until then. Most likely I'll get caught up in Olympic fever and carry on, as I haven't raced a whole lot this year.

Oregano_State

Munster Seniors Result: Best 400m time in 7 years - 53.30s!!!

And I managed not to get beaten by Phil Healy.

Booyakesha!!! Currently quite inebriated. #recovery

IvoryTower

7 years! Fair play, be interesting to see how you get on next year. Any more races before season out?

Well done btw cracking time

Oregano_State

IvoryTower wrote: »

7 years! Fair play, be interesting to see how you get on next year. Any more races before season out?

Well done btw cracking time

Thank you for the kind words. I'm fairly happy with my performance yesterday. I knew I was in much better shape than I showed in my two other races over the quarter-mile this season. I've another 400m in Cork on the 9th so I'm hoping to back up yesterday's run and maybe sneak in under 53s if I'm lucky.

Those 7 years include about 2 & a half where I went away from the sport, as well as many many months spent injured. I've had 5 months now of mostly uninterrupted, 90% injury-free training, and it looks like I'm getting back into decent shape.

I'll do up a longer post later on tonight when I get back to my laptop where I'll go through my recent races in detail.

Oregano_State

This season has been a strange one for me, and up until the past few weeks, I was wondering if all the training I've been doing was worth it, as I didn't seem to getting anywhere fast. However, after a couple of trips to the physio to get a multitude of accumulated knots worked out of my legs, as well as decreasing the volume I was running and focusing more on race-specific type sessions, things have really started to click for me now.

When I was able to start training properly in early March of this year, after finally shaking off a hamstring injury that had been bothering me for much of 2015, I had a look at the fixtures list for the outdoor season and was delighted to see that the Munsters were not being held until the end of July. I knew I would not be in great shape early in the outdoor season, so I decided to make this competition my main target.

So fast forward to Tuesday of last week, 5 days out from the Munsters. I had run two races the evening beforehand in Cork, a 200m & an 800m, and hadn't quite performed as I was hoping to, with times of 24.7 & 2:10.9 respectively (I'll save the details for a different post). I was a little disheartened, as I was looking for two good runs in those races to set me up for the weekend with a bit of confidence, but instead was left questioning the shape I was in. My season had been up and down. It kicked off in May with a 200m PB of 24.21s at the Kerry Champs, but on the same day I also put in what I think is my worst ever 400m performance of 56.02s. Then in June I ran a 400m in Athlone at the National League and came in with another disappointing time of 55.37s. That lead me to get stuck into more training with the aim of coming back stronger in mid/late July.

So, back to last Tuesday. After a little bit of feeling sorry for myself, I sketched out a plan for the days ahead, to fit in some confidence-building training and get me back in the groove, hopefully without burning myself out for Sunday.

The plan was as follows:
Tuesday - Gym: Short but Sharp
Wednesday - Track Session: Accels + Speed Endurance
Thursday - Off
Friday - Track: Pre-Race workout - long warm-up + 2-3 x 150m
Saturday: Travel to Waterford
Sunday: Hit a big SB in the 400m

And the plan worked; I really felt great the morning of the competition as I arrived at the track around 10:30. I was entered in the 100m & 400m, with the 100m set for 12:00, and the 400m at 16:30.

100m
Felt good warming up for this, but made a bit of an error in not getting some block starts done early enough, as they had been nabbed by other athletes by the time I wanted them. I was drawn in lane 3, in the second of 3 heats in the senior men competition. I only recognised one fella in my race, and I knew he was a 22s 200m guy so I wasn't expecting to win. I felt smooth in the two practice block starts I had time for, before getting called to our marks. Unfortunately, my start in the race itself did not go as well, and I actually stumbled a little on my right foot about 3 or 4 strides in, which is not a good idea at all at that stage of the race. As I straightened up I could see the guy in lane 2 pulling away from me, but I felt like I got into a good rhythm and stayed more relaxed than I usually do. Crossing the line, I knew I had no chance of making the final, which did not bother me at all, but despite the poor start I was hopeful of a time close to 12s. My actual time was 12.28s with a -0.8 m/s wind. Not terrible, but I know I can do much better.

400m
In the 4 hours between the races I kept myself occupied watching the competition in what is a fantastic venue for athletics, eating, and staying as loose as possible while spending the best part of 4 hours sitting in a fold-down plastic seat with not quite enough legroom. At about a quarter past 3 I did a bit of foam rolling and eased into my second warmup of the day. The wind, which had turned into a near-gale of a headwind during the 200m races, had thankfully died down and the sun had made a reappearance. I started focusing on my race plan of getting out nice and quick and settling into a good rhythm down the back straight.

Check-in came calling, and as there was a few heats-worth of athletes milling around, they told us they would seed the races and the medals would be decided on times. Fair enough, says I to myself, sure I don't need to be worrying about a medal anyway. When asked for my 'time' by the official doing the seeding, I said 54.5, even though I'd only run 55.36 this season. The reason I did this was because I knew I'd under-performed in my 400m races this year, and I also wanted to be pulled around by people a little quicker than me, rather than being left to do the pulling in a slower race. I got what I wished for, being drawn in lane 2 of the second heat, with the top guys going just before our race. I had the famous Phil Healy in lane 4 outside me, as she would would have been in danger of lapping the field if she'd run against the women. I was delighted to have her to chase, knowing she had hit a number of times well under 54s this year, I figured if I gauged myself off her I wouldn't go too far wrong. The guy in the lane 3 I knew was a 51/52s runner, and there was another fast guy in lane 5. I didn't take any notice of the other people in my race.

I got a huge dose of nerves watching the first heat go off, won very impressively by Niall Tuohy. The wind had started to blow a bit again, but the sun was still shining. The nerves kept coming as I set up my blocks, but that is a fairly common feeling for me before a 400m race, and I did my best to empty my mind and focus on what I wanted to do. We got asked to stand back up after being put on set for the first time - cue another wave of nerves - but got away cleanly at the second time of asking. I felt like I hadn't pushed my hips up high enough on set, but worked through it and pushed the pace around the bend. There was nobody inside me in lane 1, but coming onto the straight I noticed lane 3 had opened up a few meters on me although I was happy to see that I was about even with Phil. Approaching 200m and I felt good (looking back, possibly too good: maybe I didn't quite get out hard enough), however Phil was now about a metre ahead of me. I raised the effort level gradually around the bend but she wasn't coming back to me, even though I was 2 lanes inside her. Coming onto the home straight she had about 2 meters me, and I could hear the crowd cheering us her on. I was not willing to get beaten by a girl without a fight, and thankfully I found another gear. In my previous two 400s this season I was really disappointed with my fading home-straight performances, but on Sunday I really powered home. I reeled Phil in with about 40 or 50m to go, and I'm pretty sure I gained on the two lads out ahead who both finished in 51.9x. I knew crossing the line that I'd hit a SB, but wasn't sure by how much. I was delighted (and a bit surprised) to learn that I'd knocked over 2 seconds off my SB to come home in 53.30s, with Phil Healy taking the Munster Championship record with 53.79s, herself taking over 2 seconds off Jenna Bromell's time from 2014.


I'm very encouraged by Sunday's run, as now I feel like I'm back within striking distance of my PB. I will have one more 400m race this season - in Cork next Tuesday evening at the graded meet. I want to really consolidate last Sunday's run, and hope I can sneak in under 53s if I'm lucky. After that, I was disgusted not to break 2:10 last week in the 800m, so I'm going to do another 800m in Cork on the 26th and aim to break 2:05 in that one. I'll then take a bit of time off, aiming to start back the last week of September to work towards smashing all my PBs in the 2017 indoor season. That's the plan as it stands.

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.