My heats of the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints at the 2016...

My heats of the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints at the 2016 Victorian Police and Emergency Services Games Track and Field.

- Tony via Tumblr http://ift.tt/1W8LMu3

2016 Victorian Police and Emergency Services Games

Today was the track and field day for the Victorian Police and Emergency Services Games.  I had entered 3 events for the day, namely the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints.  This took place in Croydon, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, over 2 hours drive away, which meant an early start on the road.

On arrival, I signed in and noticed that although the field was small, I did have some competition in my events, which was good.  It’s not as much fun winning a “one horse race”.

First up was the 100 metres.  Conditions were excellent, with hardly any wind.  I ran reasonably well, coming 4th overall in my heat and second in my age group, with a time of 13.52.  Acceleration seemed to be where I lost time, once up to top speed, I was holding my position, if not gaining slightly.

An hour and a half later was the 200m.  After a quick warmup, I was ready to race.  The 200m has been my best event over the summer.  This time, I had a coordination hiccup at the start, before getting underway.  Rounded the bend in second place, and now at top speed, I started gaining on the leader.  Finished second in my heat, and won the gold in my age group.

Lunch followed the 200m (after watching the final stages of the high jump), then medal presentations for the morning events.

After lunch, conditions deteriorated.  A stiff southerly wind sprang up, creating a headwind down the back straight.  These were the conditions for the 400m, my last event, which made race tactics a bit harder.  Again, the coordination issue crept in, but the rest of the race was solid.  The headwind in the back straight made the race significantly slower than I had hoped, sapping speed built up in the start.  However, I pushed through and maintained pace for the rest of the race.  Finished second in my heat, but another gold medal, when broken down into age groups, with a time of around 66 seconds, and a massive lead over the others in my age group.

Ended up finishing the day as an official, helping counting laps for the 5000m event, which was the last of the day.   This made for an interesting end to the day.  All that was left were the medal presentations, before saying goodbye.

A good day all round, with a great chance to look at my race performance in some detail.  It seems the acceleration phase is now my weak link.  My top speed has improved considerably over the past summer.  From here, I’m keen to look at the more technical aspects of my race, to improve that acceleration.

Anyway, my track season has ended, and it’s back to cross country next week.

- Tony via Tumblr http://ift.tt/1QdDDxs

Cross country 2016 starts.

Today, the 2016 winter cross country season started.  This year, I made a strategic decision to focus on the shorter 1km events, rather than the 3km races I ran last year.  The reason is because the 1km is more relevant to my primary athletic discipline, namely sprints.  The 1km races will help develop more endurance for 400m and 200m sprints.

Today’s offerings were 1.06km, 2.4km and 4.8km.  I entered the 1.06km event, and was handicapped at 4 minutes for 1km, which put me starting at 3:05 after the first starters.  When my turn to start came, I got off to a good start, passing several others in the first 200m.  By the 800m mark, I passed those who had started more than 3 minutes ahead, and shortly afterwards, passed the leader.  Finished in first place, with a time of 3:57, and 3:40 for the first 1km.  The handicapper informed me of the bad news, my new handicap would be 3:40 for 1km, which was of no surprise. :)  Looking forward to running with my new handicap, which will make the races more challenging.  Overall, I’m happy with my performance, and my winter training has started off on a good note.

Next week, it’s back to the track for the Police and Emergency Services Games, where I will be competing in the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints.

- Tony via Tumblr http://ift.tt/1YkRRT8

Some of my runs in the start of the 2015-2016 athletics and fire...

Some of my runs in the start of the 2015-2016 athletics and fire brigade season.

- Tony via Tumblr http://ift.tt/1MPjmDC

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Mixed bag of training.

The last few weeks of training have been a bit mixed.  Because I have the Police and Emergency Services Games in less than 2 weeks, athletics training is still in full swing with more improvements being made in fitness and form.

However, autismwalk 2016 is now less than 3 months away, so some longer walks have been creeping into my training mix.  In 4 days, cross country also starts.  While I will be competing, cross country will be mainly training runs to improve fitness for next summer.  This year, I intend to focus on the 1km distance, to give the greatest impact on sprinting performance, especially for the 400m events.