The 09/10 domestic season has come and gone and it was one I was content with on a whole. I lowered my 800m, 1500m, and 3000m PB’s, was selected for the Athletics Australia U/21’s development squad and won my second NSW Open title, this year the 1500m.
The focus of the year was always the 1500m at the National Championships and I was happy with the way I raced. I put myself in a good position in the heats and qualified automatically for the final. In the final I did all I could against a very high quality field but the leaders got away from me over the final 200m - I ended up a pretty solid 7th. I think I handled myself both physically and mentally well throughout the season and gained some valuable senior racing experience in my first full track season as an Open-aged athlete. I know what needs to be done training and racing wise to make it to where I want to be and know my time will come soon enough to be where I want to be: representing my country as a senior athlete.
I’ve been back in training for the last 6 weeks or so after nationals and my training has shifted a lot as a result. My summer track sessions with Roffy are replaced with longer reps with Huntsman (Jeff Hunt), I’m back in the NSWIS gym twice a week with my strength and conditioning coach Jason Howell and am bumping the mileage back up - building a solid aerobic platform for the next track season.
Most recently I did my first winter race: the NSW Cross Country relays held at Miranda Park as part of the Sydney University Athletics Club. As running is such an individual sport, over the years you really start to relish these team competitions. I loved the camaraderie with my fellow University teammates as we cheered each other on and compared our mud-drenched all-white uniforms at the end of the race. There was a lot of pre-race banter within the Ken Green training squad, with myself and Chinny (Russell Dessaix-Chin) competing for the Uni team- the majority of the others racing for Randwick Botany Harriers. None can ever really match that refined Sydney University wit; however the Randwick boys put us in our place on the day as clear winners. I started my anchoring leg with training partner Jeff Hunt out of sight in front. I stormed through the boggy course as swiftly as I could on the first leg and was making up a bit of ground. I started to notice him on the other sides of the bends and started to think I could catch him. But you really can’t give a guy in Jeff’s class any head start or he will put you away, and he did exactly that on the second lap. Overall I was happy with a determined run by myself and a silver medal for the Sydney Uni Team.
I’ll be racing the Athletics NSW cross country races as a part of my winter program and am racing the Leonora Golden Mile this week in Western Australia. Keeping the competition flowing throughout my base in the form of these types of races provides motivation for me over a long winter as well as being solid hit outs in themselves. My primary goal for the 2010/11 athletics season will be to make the Australian team for the World University’s Championships in China 2011- wish me luck.
Thanks for reading,
Nipper
