October 2016

Athletics continued through the rest of October.  This year, I’ve added some throws to my list of events.  This is for a few reasons.  Firstly, in the event I’m injured, throws are the events I’ll be most likely to able to do.  Secondly, they are also a category which I’ve had the most difficulty with, so constantly doing these difficult activities might be beneficial, especially because the throws are relaxing and fun to do.

With my sprints, a different pattern has emerged this year.  My longer runs (200 and 400m) haven’t seen much improvement so far, unlike last season, where these events saw the biggest improvements.  However, the short sprints (60 and 100m) have seen some big improvements.  Last year, my 100m PB was 13.51, and 60m was 8.74.  This year, I’ve run the following:

60m:

October 8 - 8.55 (unspecified headwind)

October 22 - 8.59 (3.6 m/S headwind)

100m:

August 28 (pre-season) - 13.41

September 25 (pre-season) - 13.53 (unspecified headwind)

September 30 (pre-season) - 13.47

October 15 - 13.01 (3.1 m/S tail wind)

October 29 - 13.10

There was a sudden improvement in the first week of October, which was due to some time well spend working on my start and acceleration phase.  There is more work to be done in this area, but the results so far have been encouraging.  I’ve also improved my top speed, and can now run down many others in the final stages of the 60 and 100m sprints.

My last run for October was the Bendigo Fun Run.  I ran the 5k event, mainly to support the community.  However, I did want to break the 5min/k barrier that has eluded me in previous 5k runs.  My previous best performance over a similar distance was 5.31k in 26:35 at the O’Keefe Ekiden Relay in May, and the previous best on a true 5k course was 25:37 at last year’s Bendigo Fun Run.

Knowing the course, with its long hill between the 3 and 4km marks, I knew I had to go out hard early, so I had more time to get up the hill.  My goal was to reach the 3k mark by 14 minutes, and be at the 4k mark by 20 minutes in to the race.  My first 3k were 4:20, 4:42 and 5:01 respectively, making 14:03.  So far, so good.  Passed the 4k mark ar around 20 minutes in.  Once I saw that, I knew I had a PB in the bag.  The question now was by how much?  I stopped my watch at the finish at 24:34, which was a clear PB on all accounts, and comfortably under the 5 min/km goal pace.  Official results haven’t come out yet, but I’m happy with my time, whatever happens.

- Tony via Tumblr http://ift.tt/2eKi00q

2016-2017 Track Season Begins

Saturday marked the beginning of the new athletics season, with the first of the Athletics Victoria Shield series.  Prior to that was the last pre-season meet on September 30.  On the 30th, I was a bit out of sorts, which I put down to this year’s unusual stretch of gloomy weather.  However, I still managed a respectable 13.47 in the 100m, my second fastest time yet.  Other results were 4.01m in the long jump, 5.20m in the shot put and 1:04.62  in the 400m.

On Saturday, the normal sunny weather returned for the day and I was back to my normal self.  First event was the 200m, which I ran in 27.62.  I’m not sure why it was slower than expected.  There was a headwind, but that doesn’t explain everything.  Next was the triple jump.  I hadn’t done this event since March, but still managed 8.20m, 6cm shy of my PB.  Not a bad way to start the season! :)  Discus, like all of my throws is very much a “work in progress”, with 12.57m being my best throw.  More work needed there. ;)  I’m doing the throws for sheer enjoyment, as well as trying to expose myself to even more different forms of movement, especially ones that have been a challenge in the past.

In the 60m sprint, everything went perfectly.  I have been working on my starts, and this showed, getting off to a good start, then finding even more speed in the latter part of the race to gain a position, and a significant PB of 8.55 seconds, 0.19 better than my previous PB.

Finished the day with a solid run in the 4x200m relay.  Anyway, I’m glad to see the season underway and looking forward to the next meet. :)

- Tony via Tumblr http://ift.tt/2dYuOBN