Well, that didn’t go as planned!
Um… Yeah. For those of you asking about how my competition went last weekend, my radio silence has probably been a clue. It didn’t go well.
What follows is an attempt to dissect, learn from this and ultimately put it to bed. So here goes:
As you know, I was competing in the 100m and the Long Jump and the problems began before I even got there…
P!ss poor preparation
I was in total denial about the weather. I vaguely knew it was going to rain, but I was unprepared for how bad it would get. As a result, I had the wrong jacket, no umbrella, and me and my kit bag were soaked in minutes.
Experienced competitors had bin bags for their kit, waterproof jackets, umbrellas and waterproof covers to sit on… My lack of preparation was embarrassing.
It was a particular problem in the long jump where in between jumps I had literally no alternative but to stand in the rain with not enough warm or dry clothes on. P1ss poor preparation!! Nuff said…
The 100m
This wasn’t too bad all in all. I came in at 14.29, which is considerably better than I was running this time last year. So that’s good. I was 4th but literally miles away from the top three (Though they were probably about 10-15 years youngers, so….). I had a good block start compared to previous races, so actually it was an OK result.
It was all a bit of a haze though. I don’t remember being “present” in the race. Let alone focusing on form, or thinking about driving hard. A friend filmed it for me and it looks relaxed. Too relaxed. I don’t seem to have much power. ☹
The Long Jump
The problem here is that I was expecting big things. I have been working a lot on technique and have had some breakthroughs. My previous best had been 4.43m in February so I was hoping to get over the 4.50m barrier… I’ve been dreaming 4.60 – 4.70!! But…
It didn’t happen. At all. I jumped 4.20m pretty much consistently in all 6 jumps and came penultimate. Ugggh. Depressing.
But was it all shit? No, technically I was good. I had good presence in the air, I had good flight… So that’s something to take away because I have been working on technical stuff a lot (and this might be a part of the problem.)
The other thing is that I didn’t have enough speed and power. The more I look at the 100m video the more I think this is the problem.
So what next?
Well. I’ve got 3 weeks to prepare for the next one. That’s not a lot of time so here’s a shortlist of what I’m gonna focus on:
- Do competition style jumping every week, where I actually run a full run up, jump and measure. This will give a better indication of what I’m capable of rather than basing expectations on wishful thinking.
- Do blockwork every week. I’m so nervous about tripping up in my blocks that that’s all I think about before the start, and the rest becomes a haze…
- Run with people who are faster than I am!
- More strength and power training in the gym.
- Finally. I’m just going to move on. It is possible it was just a bad day. Blame the cold!
Thanks for reading!
Chris
