Hello all.
For those who don’t know, I am a 400m hurdler and sprinter, hailing from sunny Dunedin. NZrun has asked me to throw together a blog, so fingers crossed a handful of you will enjoy this bit of divergence from the usual topics found on here.
Firstly - a wee spiel about myself, assuming most readers won’t know who I am. I'm 22 and spend my time studying accounting here in Dunedin, after deciding that two years towards a law degree was a waste of my time (“Brilliant” – the single-worded text response from my parents upon hearing this news). In addition to ‘taking my place in the world’, I train 6-7 days a week under the expert watch of Brent Ward, and alongside Chris Donaldson, Cory Innes, Andy Moore, and Matthew Robinson.
After the best possible start to my 2010/2011 season – 51.68s 400mH in September, a big p.b. of 10.75s over 100m in December, followed a week later by a 22.16s 200m into a -3.5 headwind, I struck out with a sore groin after running the hurdles at Cooks Classic. I then pushed through a 200m at Capital a few days later. . . effectively ending my season. The diagnoses went from some mere muscle knotting, to osteitis pubis, to possibly a hernia. Less than ideal. With a single training session under my belt from mid Jan – NZ champs in late March I managed to bring myself up, if not only mentally, to race twice more over hurdles (Porrit and Melb Track Classic), and a 4x4 relay leg at nats, desperately trying to grasp onto the speed shown earlier in the season, knowing full well that it was my only chance of clocking something respectable. I didn’t.
I had never had an injury in my 4 years of serious training. They happen, you wait it out, and you bounce back. Simple. No point in over complicating it. But enough of this whinge, most reading this will have had much worse; I was just in need of a starting point.
So onto the here and now: Back from a European campaign that didn’t work out so well (racing wise). Five 400mH races, a 100m and a 200m in 3 weeks worked out horribly for someone who likes to run the hurdles five times over an entire season. Great learning experience though, I would strongly advise anyone thinking of going with a group to do so, at least for the first time. Stress = nil. After a 5-week break to sort this groin out properly, and catch up on all the school I missed, I started back last Monday. 10 x 200m in 26-28s, 3min recov. Cheers Wardy. Next day – 40min run and full weights session (I had lightly kept in touch with the gym so the muscles wouldn’t forget it all completely). Fair to say it didn’t work, although… naturally, I finished my set. Crawling around uni for the next few days like an old man with a broken hip was good fun, and not the least bit embarrassing on the catwalk that is Otago central library. The next day onto 100,300 x 4, 500,500 – in one fartlek session. By this stage I was at breaking point and had the rest of the week off. Strangely though, I enjoyed it.
Due to the fact that I am trying to keep this from being another training diary, I will leave it at that for the current training regime in this blog, can’t go giving away to many secrets either ;).
Since coming back I have put a bit of thought into how I will attack next season, and am playing around with an idea. Bearing in mind my injury, and time in Europe, I won’t have had a sufficient winter build-up come season start, and also the fact that to get anywhere near the Olympic qualifier I will need to spend A LOT more money chasing races both domestically, and further abroad. With all this in mind, I am leaning towards a season that is 100% geared towards World Champs in 2013. Put simply – getting healthy, getting fit, then getting fast. My line of thought consists of my normal winter type training through until Feb, with regular 400’s and 800’s pre xmas as a gauge of where I am at. Then once I kick things off I will run 200’s and 400’s, including nationals (due to the shitty way the programme is set for serious 400m hurdlers – ruling out any other events we would be competitive in), then calling the season then and there. Even in the 400 hurdles, speed is definitely my best friend. So at the detriment of one season, I will come out a serious contender in 2013 – or so the plan goes.
Furthermore, I would welcome any thoughts/advice to the contrary on this matter, especially if anyone has tried something similar.
Being new to this, and feeling a bit reserved when it comes to talking about myself, I’ll leave it here for number one.
Till next time,
Dan
For those who don’t know, I am a 400m hurdler and sprinter, hailing from sunny Dunedin. NZrun has asked me to throw together a blog, so fingers crossed a handful of you will enjoy this bit of divergence from the usual topics found on here.
Firstly - a wee spiel about myself, assuming most readers won’t know who I am. I'm 22 and spend my time studying accounting here in Dunedin, after deciding that two years towards a law degree was a waste of my time (“Brilliant” – the single-worded text response from my parents upon hearing this news). In addition to ‘taking my place in the world’, I train 6-7 days a week under the expert watch of Brent Ward, and alongside Chris Donaldson, Cory Innes, Andy Moore, and Matthew Robinson.
After the best possible start to my 2010/2011 season – 51.68s 400mH in September, a big p.b. of 10.75s over 100m in December, followed a week later by a 22.16s 200m into a -3.5 headwind, I struck out with a sore groin after running the hurdles at Cooks Classic. I then pushed through a 200m at Capital a few days later. . . effectively ending my season. The diagnoses went from some mere muscle knotting, to osteitis pubis, to possibly a hernia. Less than ideal. With a single training session under my belt from mid Jan – NZ champs in late March I managed to bring myself up, if not only mentally, to race twice more over hurdles (Porrit and Melb Track Classic), and a 4x4 relay leg at nats, desperately trying to grasp onto the speed shown earlier in the season, knowing full well that it was my only chance of clocking something respectable. I didn’t.
I had never had an injury in my 4 years of serious training. They happen, you wait it out, and you bounce back. Simple. No point in over complicating it. But enough of this whinge, most reading this will have had much worse; I was just in need of a starting point.
So onto the here and now: Back from a European campaign that didn’t work out so well (racing wise). Five 400mH races, a 100m and a 200m in 3 weeks worked out horribly for someone who likes to run the hurdles five times over an entire season. Great learning experience though, I would strongly advise anyone thinking of going with a group to do so, at least for the first time. Stress = nil. After a 5-week break to sort this groin out properly, and catch up on all the school I missed, I started back last Monday. 10 x 200m in 26-28s, 3min recov. Cheers Wardy. Next day – 40min run and full weights session (I had lightly kept in touch with the gym so the muscles wouldn’t forget it all completely). Fair to say it didn’t work, although… naturally, I finished my set. Crawling around uni for the next few days like an old man with a broken hip was good fun, and not the least bit embarrassing on the catwalk that is Otago central library. The next day onto 100,300 x 4, 500,500 – in one fartlek session. By this stage I was at breaking point and had the rest of the week off. Strangely though, I enjoyed it.
Due to the fact that I am trying to keep this from being another training diary, I will leave it at that for the current training regime in this blog, can’t go giving away to many secrets either ;).
Since coming back I have put a bit of thought into how I will attack next season, and am playing around with an idea. Bearing in mind my injury, and time in Europe, I won’t have had a sufficient winter build-up come season start, and also the fact that to get anywhere near the Olympic qualifier I will need to spend A LOT more money chasing races both domestically, and further abroad. With all this in mind, I am leaning towards a season that is 100% geared towards World Champs in 2013. Put simply – getting healthy, getting fit, then getting fast. My line of thought consists of my normal winter type training through until Feb, with regular 400’s and 800’s pre xmas as a gauge of where I am at. Then once I kick things off I will run 200’s and 400’s, including nationals (due to the shitty way the programme is set for serious 400m hurdlers – ruling out any other events we would be competitive in), then calling the season then and there. Even in the 400 hurdles, speed is definitely my best friend. So at the detriment of one season, I will come out a serious contender in 2013 – or so the plan goes.
Furthermore, I would welcome any thoughts/advice to the contrary on this matter, especially if anyone has tried something similar.
Being new to this, and feeling a bit reserved when it comes to talking about myself, I’ll leave it here for number one.
Till next time,
Dan
