Consistant Racing

Now uni has finished for the summer, hopefully I can blog more regularly. I have raced twice since my last post, in Chelmsford on 26 May and in Birmingham on 2 June.

Chelmsford:
This was the week that it was summer in England with beautiful warm weather for racing. However, despite it being warm, I felt like my muscles were struggling to come alive. I was slow to come out of the blocks, slow to pass the other athletes and slow to get up to speed. I was therefore surprised to run 14.62secs, 0.01 faster than the Olympic stadium, all be it with a bit more of a following wind.

For the first time this year, I had no reason to avoid the 200m, although I did feel quite dehydrated by the time it got around to running it. I ran the best bend I have ever done before, most likely due to swapping my guide to my left so they can lead me around the bend. Nevertheless, after building up a strong lead, my legs began to go and my guide runner ignored our plan to kick at 50m to go, telling me afterwards he thought I was dead. I felt the other athletes come up beside me and had to kick by myself to the finish. The time came out at 32.29secs, 0.07 shy of my PB, best season opener, but it really should have been a big PB. But I did win in the end!

Birmingham:
I only did the 100m in Birmingham, as it ran over two days and I needed to finish off my uni work. There was strong competition there and on paper I was third fastest. Nonetheless, I was gunning for the win. For the first time this year I got a great start, perhaps because that’s what we had been working on constantly the days leading up to the event! Then, I managed to make hard work of the second part of the race. I knew I was taking too many steps, not getting any air time, so kept trying to adjust my body, but failed. I was leading for most of the race and one athlete just shot by me to clinch the win. If only I had executed my race, I would have had it in the bag. Unbelievably, the time came out as 14.61, yet another 0.01 off my PB.

So it seems I can run 14.6 with a bad start, good start, head wind, following wind, no wind, hell any which way I like! I’m ready to run faster now though, it will be a killer if it’s 14.60secs next time!

My next race is on 23 June in Wigan and with many of the Paralympic athletes going to the IPC European Championships, it will be a pressure free race. Until then my training will be circled around execution.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail