I'm not particularly proud of my personal bests to be honest. However that reason keeps forcing me to do better every time I race, it makes me train harder so that I can reach a far-out yet achievable goal. I'm not entirely sure of my overall goal in athletics. This is because I seem to aim very high like winning the World Champs or the Olympics which are probably out of reach for me. I suppose it's to win everything I can, every race, and represent GB at some point.
2011 is my second season in athletics and it has started rather well for me. My results are still very slow compared to that of elite athletes but it's still early days and I feel there's a lot more in me. I need to train properly and do everything right so that I can unleash this self-proclaimed potential!
Personal Bests:
60m - 7.32 (13/3/2011)
100m - 11.32 (9/4/2011)
200m - 23.4 (15/5/2010)
You can see a list of my performances on The Power of 10 website. There's a link over there on that Power of 10 button =>=>
I trained really hard over the winter to get good leg speed and endurance, whilst trying to improve my technique off the blocks. The first 40m was the worst part of my race last season so I was mildly happy with the 60m result this season although I was aiming to run it in 7.2 seconds. I think I would have reached this if I had raced the distance more than 4 times. It did smash my old best of 7.64 though, so that's something!
I've performed in two 100m warm up events this year, the first matched my PB and the second beat it by 0.08s. The first was at a meet in Hornchurch. The result was 2nd place and 11.4s. After watching my coach's video of the race I could see I was leading by a few metres until half way when I just seemed to slow down. This could have been me getting cocky but I think it was more the face that I couldn't open my strides out any further and felt as if I was getting no where. As a result the chap in the lane next to me zoomed past to win with 11.3...a bit gutting for me.
I knew I had a race the following week at Lee Valley and there would be some competition there so I used my 2 track days at Basildon to work on the transition from the drive phase to the kick phase to open out my legs. This hard work showed at Lee Valley where I ran 11.32, my current PB. On the video I appeared to open my legs out more and it felt much better during the race. I'm quite pleased from that event as not only was the result a PB, but I felt like there was a lot more in the tank. Although I had longer strides I still felt as though I was coasting to the finish line, coming 4th. So I obviously need to get my fighting spirit back.
I've only ever ran 200m once and it wasn't long after I tore my groin (I won't go into that, it's no excuse) I ran 23.4 and won by 1.7 seconds...so there wasn't much competition. From training I would say 200m is my best event, but I seem to be too scared to run it!! I've chickened out twice already this year, so I'm going to try it this weekend. I'm hoping to get around 22.6-22.9s. As long as it's in the 22seconds I'll be happy at the moment. I'm pretty sure as soon as I run it once I'll get the buzz and I won't stop running 200s. I hope anyway...
