Sparkie's rundiary

Headed out to Lane Cove this afternoon to continue my quest for benchmarks in the double decathlon. The main aim was to get a 200m time, to test where my speed is currently at, but had a go at a few other events to start to familiarise myself with them, test my current form, and get my body used to doing multiple events. Did six events in all:

Discus
Two craps throws, and one half-decent one, coming in at 23.06. Back to the drawing board on this one. I was trying two spins, but need to get my release much better before worrying about the extra momentum of the spins.

Triple jump
The last time I triple jumped was over 10 years ago, jumping a PB of 11.28. So I guess I can't complain about two jumps of 11.24. This easily won the competition (and would have won the National Masters last year), and my jumps were the three longest of the day by over a metre. Although this was encouraging, this is a demanding event on your legs, and they were a bit worse for wear at the end of it. Jim, my pole vault/throws coach is also a horizontal jumps coach, so hopefully some technical session will add some distance. I think 12 metres is achievable

200m
Like all Sydney athletics tracks, Lane Cove is nicely situated in a wind tunnel, and a nice headwind was waiting for us. Raced the first heat with two other runners - both looked like serious sprinters, what with their sprinting spikes and large muscular legs, whereas I needed help getting my blocks set up (damn hardware). Was worried about my hamstrings going in, but everything held together fine, and the headwind was much more of a challenge. Closed in on second place, but not quite, and finished with 25.6 - not as quick as I was hoping. However, two factors hopefully offset this. Firstly the strong headwind, which both the other runners thought was worth about a second. And the comment from the starter that second place only beat me be a metre or so, but the time difference was 0.7 seconds (4-5 metres). Either way, I think sub-25 on tartan is possible at the moment.

However, my form was all over the place, and the run was tougher than I remember 200m runs being, so there is a lot of work to do. Next week I will be adding sprint drills to a couple of workouts to start working on my form.

Javelin
Break-through! Rather than a fancy runup, I focused on the actual throwing, and pulled off a 5.5m PB of 26.20 (it even drew some applause from the other competitors). Like discus, I need to focus on nailing my release before worrying about building up speed on my run-up, but after my initial efforts a few weeks ago, this is encouraging. Santa is apparently going to slip a javelin in my stocking (requiring a 2.5 metre stocking), so there will be lots more practice with this.

60m
Jumped into this on a whin, and ran an easy 8 seconds dead. With no blocks, and no real attempt at rapid acceleration, there was no real point to this, but won my heat anyway, and ran the third fastest time of the day (no surprises that the two 200m guys beat me). My only other attempt at 60m was 7.7 seconds back in 1995, so once again, no discernable loss of speed.

3000m
Entered this more as mental workout (running when I was tired and not in the mood), and to ensure that I had more than 260m in the training diary for today (this replaced a 7.5km fartlek session). Lapped all the competitors at least once, and most twice, so it wouldn't really call it a race (note to The Owl - you would have finised in the top half of the field). Had wanted to run the distance in 10:00 dead, but after nailing 3:20 for the first km, the heat, other events and a general 'I don't feel like pushing myself' attitude kicked in, and I finished in 10:23. Took about 30 seconds to recover, so I was running within myself, but still a bit frustrated to drop off the pace so easily.

This was a very low-key meet, mostly of veterans older than me (apart from the guys in the 200m), so I am not drawing any false excitement from the results. The triple jump was a pleasent surprise, as was the javelin PB, but the 200m and 3000m were both below expectations. I think part of this is due to the heavy training I am currently doing - the old adage that you can't train well and race well at the same time. Also, I think my body is in limbo a bit as I move from aerobic training to anaerobic training, with neither being a particular strength at the moment. A lot of work to do, but I really enjoyed getting back into events like this, and will definitely be heading back again.