Saturday, January 14, 2006
Hurdles and Wiggles
Saturday 14th January 2006
Up again at 5.3oam, despite having a wedding tonight that will definitely go past midnight. Headed to Pennant Hills Park to do some hurdling in leiu of Wednesdays reshuffled session.
About half an hour to warm-up, stretch, do run-throughs and get the hurdles in place (must buy a spray can to mark their positions, to save me measuring each time). Launched into my first set, from a croush start, and BANG, straight into the first hurdle. The ground was so wet and spongy that my stride pattern was shot to bits, and I had to swap to leading with my left leg over the first hurdle (normally it is the right). The ground also stuffed my timing between hurdles, and I wasn't really getting much out of the session, so stopped after 10 reps to shift to 400m hurdle drills. These felt much better, and did 10 100m reps with 3 hurdles.
Racing against the clock (I had to be back by 7:30 so Amelia could get to the hairdressers), I finished with a 1200m steeple in 4:08, which was very comfortable. 1.6km warmup and 1km warm down. In the door at 7:28.
Finding that alternating lead legs is becoming more natural - my problem in the past was always wanting to lead with the right, and adjusting my stride pattern accordingly, which totally blows your rhythm. I will try and do my hurdles sessions on tartan from now on, as a key factor is programming a series of actions, and constantly changing conditions on grass will not help achieve that. Plus, the tracks have their own hurdles (saving me lugging mine around, and giving me the reality of crashing into 5kg of metal and wood, rather than 1km of PVC) , and properly marked layouts, saving me time measuring.
This morning's session also highlights that my flexibility is still not up to par, and I will need to start doing some more specific stretches for hurdles and high jump.
Spent the morning with just Louis and I. I am now officially a parent, as I know all the words to all The Wiggles' songs, as well as most of the dance actions. The more I see them, the more I like them - the exact opposite of my experience with 'Hi-5'.
Up again at 5.3oam, despite having a wedding tonight that will definitely go past midnight. Headed to Pennant Hills Park to do some hurdling in leiu of Wednesdays reshuffled session.
About half an hour to warm-up, stretch, do run-throughs and get the hurdles in place (must buy a spray can to mark their positions, to save me measuring each time). Launched into my first set, from a croush start, and BANG, straight into the first hurdle. The ground was so wet and spongy that my stride pattern was shot to bits, and I had to swap to leading with my left leg over the first hurdle (normally it is the right). The ground also stuffed my timing between hurdles, and I wasn't really getting much out of the session, so stopped after 10 reps to shift to 400m hurdle drills. These felt much better, and did 10 100m reps with 3 hurdles.
Racing against the clock (I had to be back by 7:30 so Amelia could get to the hairdressers), I finished with a 1200m steeple in 4:08, which was very comfortable. 1.6km warmup and 1km warm down. In the door at 7:28.
Finding that alternating lead legs is becoming more natural - my problem in the past was always wanting to lead with the right, and adjusting my stride pattern accordingly, which totally blows your rhythm. I will try and do my hurdles sessions on tartan from now on, as a key factor is programming a series of actions, and constantly changing conditions on grass will not help achieve that. Plus, the tracks have their own hurdles (saving me lugging mine around, and giving me the reality of crashing into 5kg of metal and wood, rather than 1km of PVC) , and properly marked layouts, saving me time measuring.
This morning's session also highlights that my flexibility is still not up to par, and I will need to start doing some more specific stretches for hurdles and high jump.
Spent the morning with just Louis and I. I am now officially a parent, as I know all the words to all The Wiggles' songs, as well as most of the dance actions. The more I see them, the more I like them - the exact opposite of my experience with 'Hi-5'.
