Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Two throws forward, one throw back...
Sunday January 1st 2006, 7:15am
16km easy - 1:13:04 (4:33/km)
Although New Years Eve was a low key affair, a few festive drinks were had, so there was no 5:30am start to the new year. However, the napkin sketch training-plan I had done the night before called for a 16km run this morning, so despite the fact the mercury had already hit 30, I headed out at 7:00. Struggled with the heat a bit - OK when you hit a breeze, but hard going in the secluded areas. Hills were also unwelcome, dropping me back to 5:30/km at some stages. Tempted to cut it short, but as I had taken water the whole way, it was too early in the year to get soft.
Monday January 2nd, 5:30am
9km steady - 35:53 (3:59/km), middle 7km 27:14 (3:53/km)
After 45 degrees yesterday (which necessitated spending most of the day sitting in a wading pool or on the sofa with Louis (as shown above)), it was a pleasure to wake up to a low-20's morning, and even the rain that got steadily stronger during the run was welcome. Crappy 4 hours sleep (went in to Louis at 4:50am, to discover he has found a new game - taking off his nappy and jetisoning it ove the side of the cot - showed my fatherly prowess by replacing it with a new one in total darkness), so wasn't expecting much, but the sub-4 min/kms felt pretty comfortable, so I just went with it.
Spent the rest of the day at the cricket (actually I did about an hours work in nothing but a bath towel, after removing my soaking wet running gear - as you do). Those who find cricket boring would have been in their element yesterday - one of the dullest days cricket I have been to. Tried my usual trick of getting seats in the alcohol-free zone, but they must have changed things, because the beer was flowing freely - and with the first session washed out - very freely. The SCG decided to ban full strength beer, but in their wisdom kept serving rum! My favourite philosopher is Jean Paul Satre - purely on the strength of his observation that "Hell is other people". Still, the company was good, and I don't often get the chance to pay $4.20 for a 600ml Coke, so still an enjoyable day.
Tuesday 3rd January, 12:30pm
Decided it was time to give the Christmas presents a workout, and as Tuesdays are my designated throws training day, packed up the car with my javelin, 2 discuses and shot put, as well as a very optimistic 60m tape measure. Temperature was over 30, and I had spent most of the morning cleaning gutters and gardening, so not really optimal training conditions. After a few laps and some stretching, I did 6x400m in 72 with 1 minute recovery as a warm-up run component. Comforatble, but felt a bit flat. The quad gave me virtually no grief, and I will try a proper speed session on Thursday.
By the time I had lugged all the throwing equipment to the other side of the field, I felt like I had done enough strength work for the day, but continued anyway. Started with my weakest event, javelin. Tried some standing throws, but they just made me feel more unco-ordinated, so moved to a run-up of a couple of steps. Things started to fall into place, and I was consistently throwing 25 metres (just short of my 26.20 PB). Felt emboldened to try a semi-full run-up, and landed about 6 good throws out past 26.20 (marked with one of my shoes), the best being (drum roll) 28.23 - a 2 metre PB. I am feeling more optimistic about this event, as I am still not clicking, but feel like I am getting the drift (the running throws were getting longer each time, showing I was making improvements (or getting luckier)). Hope to throw over 30m by the end of the month.
The positives in the javelin were more than matched by negatives in the discus, where absolutely nothing went right, and only one throw cleared 20m. Some desperate remedial work is needed, and I am keen to start back with Jim next week. They say that the discus is the most difficult decathlon event to master, and I am beginning to see why.
Break-even as I headed to the shot-put circle. I hadn't felt that great last time, and didn't know what to expect. My PB is 7.78, and as part of a sinister anti-metric plot, the shot-put circle marked 25ft, 7.6m, so anything beyond that was near PB territory. A few standing throws demonstrated that I am no good at standing throws, so I jumped into proper throws (unlike the other throws, it's pretty much all or nothing with the shot). Put more and more of my body into each throw, and the steadily landed further and further away, with two landing out at (drum roll) 8.24m!
Coincidently, both the javelin and the shot put yielded 28 point improvements. Not a huge amount, but over 20 events, is worth nearly 600 points. With nearly 10 months till the big event, this sort of incremental improvement is the only way to go.
16km easy - 1:13:04 (4:33/km)
Although New Years Eve was a low key affair, a few festive drinks were had, so there was no 5:30am start to the new year. However, the napkin sketch training-plan I had done the night before called for a 16km run this morning, so despite the fact the mercury had already hit 30, I headed out at 7:00. Struggled with the heat a bit - OK when you hit a breeze, but hard going in the secluded areas. Hills were also unwelcome, dropping me back to 5:30/km at some stages. Tempted to cut it short, but as I had taken water the whole way, it was too early in the year to get soft.
Monday January 2nd, 5:30am
9km steady - 35:53 (3:59/km), middle 7km 27:14 (3:53/km)
After 45 degrees yesterday (which necessitated spending most of the day sitting in a wading pool or on the sofa with Louis (as shown above)), it was a pleasure to wake up to a low-20's morning, and even the rain that got steadily stronger during the run was welcome. Crappy 4 hours sleep (went in to Louis at 4:50am, to discover he has found a new game - taking off his nappy and jetisoning it ove the side of the cot - showed my fatherly prowess by replacing it with a new one in total darkness), so wasn't expecting much, but the sub-4 min/kms felt pretty comfortable, so I just went with it.
Spent the rest of the day at the cricket (actually I did about an hours work in nothing but a bath towel, after removing my soaking wet running gear - as you do). Those who find cricket boring would have been in their element yesterday - one of the dullest days cricket I have been to. Tried my usual trick of getting seats in the alcohol-free zone, but they must have changed things, because the beer was flowing freely - and with the first session washed out - very freely. The SCG decided to ban full strength beer, but in their wisdom kept serving rum! My favourite philosopher is Jean Paul Satre - purely on the strength of his observation that "Hell is other people". Still, the company was good, and I don't often get the chance to pay $4.20 for a 600ml Coke, so still an enjoyable day.
Tuesday 3rd January, 12:30pm
Decided it was time to give the Christmas presents a workout, and as Tuesdays are my designated throws training day, packed up the car with my javelin, 2 discuses and shot put, as well as a very optimistic 60m tape measure. Temperature was over 30, and I had spent most of the morning cleaning gutters and gardening, so not really optimal training conditions. After a few laps and some stretching, I did 6x400m in 72 with 1 minute recovery as a warm-up run component. Comforatble, but felt a bit flat. The quad gave me virtually no grief, and I will try a proper speed session on Thursday.
By the time I had lugged all the throwing equipment to the other side of the field, I felt like I had done enough strength work for the day, but continued anyway. Started with my weakest event, javelin. Tried some standing throws, but they just made me feel more unco-ordinated, so moved to a run-up of a couple of steps. Things started to fall into place, and I was consistently throwing 25 metres (just short of my 26.20 PB). Felt emboldened to try a semi-full run-up, and landed about 6 good throws out past 26.20 (marked with one of my shoes), the best being (drum roll) 28.23 - a 2 metre PB. I am feeling more optimistic about this event, as I am still not clicking, but feel like I am getting the drift (the running throws were getting longer each time, showing I was making improvements (or getting luckier)). Hope to throw over 30m by the end of the month.
The positives in the javelin were more than matched by negatives in the discus, where absolutely nothing went right, and only one throw cleared 20m. Some desperate remedial work is needed, and I am keen to start back with Jim next week. They say that the discus is the most difficult decathlon event to master, and I am beginning to see why.
Break-even as I headed to the shot-put circle. I hadn't felt that great last time, and didn't know what to expect. My PB is 7.78, and as part of a sinister anti-metric plot, the shot-put circle marked 25ft, 7.6m, so anything beyond that was near PB territory. A few standing throws demonstrated that I am no good at standing throws, so I jumped into proper throws (unlike the other throws, it's pretty much all or nothing with the shot). Put more and more of my body into each throw, and the steadily landed further and further away, with two landing out at (drum roll) 8.24m!
Coincidently, both the javelin and the shot put yielded 28 point improvements. Not a huge amount, but over 20 events, is worth nearly 600 points. With nearly 10 months till the big event, this sort of incremental improvement is the only way to go.
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Sounds like you are having fun with your Christmas presents and making great improvements. Great to hear. How many points for a nappy change in the dark?
Congratulations on your throwing progress. I tried something the other day that I think really helped my technique - I practiced with under-weight implements. If you can seek out a 50-59yr old thower to train with every now and then, taking a few cracks at it with his implements might be of help to you. There's something to be said for being able to focus on proper body positions, but without having to fight all that weight.
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