Today marked the completion of a big weekend of sporting activity. Friday evening, we had the fire brigade winter competitions. This is a fun social night where we run a few of the dry events in teams drawn out of a hat. I did quite well, scoring a first, second and fifth place.
Yesterday was the cross country breakup and 800m handicap as described in yesterday’s post.
Today was a full track and field meet at the local athletics track. The weather was cool and sunny with a light north wind which favoured the 100m and 200m events. I entered the 100, 200 and 400m as my main events, and added the shot put and discus for something different.
While I’ve been training consistently, a couple of things in the lead up added a little challenge. Last Sunday during speed drills I stressed my left hamstring slightly, though it didn’t affect my training. On Thursday I did a lot of speed, starts and acceleration which worked that area a fair bit, and it remained a bit tight on Friday and through the activities of the last few days. I also had some coordination issues with my block starts on Thursday which really affected my starts. Possibly something I’ve just become aware of with increasing awareness.
First up was the 100 metre event. This was the most likely time for something to go wrong. For my start issue, I tried a visualisation (it’s actually more a sensory immersion in my mind) technique to get my first step right. I have used similar techniques in the past for a lot of physical activities, including teaching myself to swim as a kid. From my practice starts, it was obvious that this technique worked. Anyway, with a bit of caution during the acceleration, I ran a (official electronic) PB time of 13.41.
Next up was the discus. Here I was in it purely for the fun. Managed one legal throw with a distance of a bit over 12 metres. :)
The 200m was my third event. This one felt really good the whole way, got off to a good start, and for the first time, maintained full effort for the entire distance - the first time I’ve been able to do this. My time was short of my 27 second goal, but still a PB at 27.11.
Following the 200m after a long wait was the 400m. My goal here was to break the minute barrier. With the slight breeze not being optimal, this was going to be a tall ask, but I was out to give it a go. My first 200m was quite fast, with a friend recording it in a similar time to my 200m race! For the rest, I maintained as much speed as I could manage. Ran 1:03.72, 0.37 seconds outside my PB.
To finish the day, I competed in the shot put. Like the discus, I hadn’t thrown a shot put since school. Managed 2 legal throws, with the best being 5.06m. Not exactly earth shattering, but I’m in this one purely for the fun. :)
Another good day, especially for pre-season. My fitness is better than at any stage last year. Have to work on technque for acceleration and speed, and race strategy for the 400m.
Lookinf forward to next month’s final pre-season meet and the start of track season a week after.
- Tony via Tumblr http://ift.tt/2bZS2SL
No comments:
Post a Comment