Track & Field Championships 2011 & hill session

Hello hello,

Another week, another race.

Or in this case, three races for the price of one at the NE Veteran's Athletics championships at Monkton last weekend.  I was hoping to target the 200m for a personal best, but the wind was against us in the last 100m, so that was pretty much out of the question, and, I had results to do again (in my role as the VAANEE T&F secretary), so it was like other league meetings with me running from the box down to the start line.  I did manage to get some assistance from the super lady volunteers Steph (Tynedale) and Liz (Houghton) - thanks girls!!  so at least I did get to jog around a bit before a couple of the events.

First up was the 400m.  To be quite honest I just did this as a bit of a warm up race for the 200m, so I wasn't surprised with a disappointing 4th place in 84.0 seconds.  I dunno what it is with 400m, it seems three times more difficult than the 300m, yet it's only 100m more.  It prolly doesn't help that I feel like I've got a bit of an arse & thigh weight addition over the last month or so (with my rubbish eating habits before our house move), so much so that I look like I could have possibly eating too many of Helen & Tom's MyPy produce #apprentice.  On the plus side we have moved now, so I should be eating a fair bit healthier.

The next race on the agenda was the 200m.  The wind had knocked hopes of a pb, but I do feel like I've got it in me to go a lot quicker, so I was pleased with an overall 2nd place in 35.2, and a 1st place in my age category.  Since my pb is 34.4, and I still jumped like I'd been shot by the starting gun instead of running when I heard it, I'm pretty sure I could manage 33.x or even 32.x

The 800m was only really on my list of races because I didn't have time (or feel up to) the 3000m.  Again I got round in a pretty naff time of 3:11.0, which is dire given my best time of 2:55.  Managed to walk away with a few medals anyways, so at least it wasn't a wasted effort.

Full results are available here on the Sportsoft website

Watergate 10k was on my list of must do races for this year, but since it fell on the Sunday after we moved house, and I'd left Andy in a sea of my junk & boxes on the Saturday, I thought it prudent to fore go the race in favour of a morning sorting out rubbish & furniture.  This was a pretty good plan, as we really needed to find certain important items amidst the chaos. 

We found time to play in a couple of golf comps recently including a mixed competition on the Sunday afternoon, and a Texas scramble on Monday evening, played like a muppet on Sunday ('cause I was knackered and aching from humping boxes around) and the ok-ish on the Monday.  Both were canny though, and although I'll never be as good as the guys playing in today's little competition in Royal St George's, I am improving.

Tuesday

My favourite session.  Springfield Bank (Field Terrace).

It's a not-too-savage hill session we normally do in the winter, but Evil Coach Darth Jim must have decided that we've already had our summer, and that hill training is back on the menu.  My aim was to keep with Mick 'rapidly returning to form' Joyce for as long as possible, without letting Frankie 'the machine' Devlin lap me.

Set off at a steady pace, running alongside Mick for the first 4 reps, but then he managed to get away from me on the fifth hill, and I was unable to get the distance back.  I did manage to keep the gap no more than 50m though, so I was happy enough with that, and the finishing time after 12 reps of 31.49.  Last time we did it I got round in 32:10, so at least I haven't lost too much fitness, or I'm getting back.

Well done to the rest of the gang for working well and completing the session :)

Just waiting now to see what crazy session we'll be doing on the track tonight!

Happy running folks!