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It’s been a while since my last blog; so, time to fill you guys in on what I’ve been up to and my plans for the coming months.

At the beginning of April I moved from my hometown Thames to Hamilton to be closer to my coach, Don Willoughby, who lives in Cambridge.  Over the summer months I got a bit off track with my training. My dogs (Bruce and Holly) aren’t very good pacers, so it’s good to be able to run with my training partners again (see below) who keep me honest. I’m currently living with my best mate Cory Whiting who is also a runner. We’re out in the country side, close to all the good training areas. My morning run is out at a golf course, minutes down the road. There is an all-weather track just 15 minute drive away and Cambridge is 10 minutes away, where I do all my long runs.

I have a pretty sweet set up where I live, sleeping out in the games room. In between trainings I play online with Whiting. He’s got a pretty sweet kill streak going on. I also hang out on Facebook; as well managing to fit a bit of study in there as well. It’s a matter of priorities!

I head back home most weekends. I do all my training in the Karanga Valley; where there are real hills to run up! Not like the small ones round Hamilton and Cambridge.

Since the start of April I have been working on building up my aerobic fitness. I do plenty of miles and spend a lot of time on my feet. I’ve started to incorporate gym training 2-3 times a week into my training regime. I never used to do any core work or weight based exercises and I’m already starting to notice the gains. Soon I might be able to bench press 100kg like Cory can. He thinks he is pretty hard out!

Being based here in Hamilton means that I have got a group of top runners to run with. My core training group consist of:

·     Timothy Stewart (good beer mile debut the other day)

·     Richo Harris (the Wikipedia of running)

·     Mike Whitehead (NZ Senior 800m Champ)

·     Kerry Suter (Gamer/Ultra Distance Runner but capable of running any distance exceptionally well)

·     Cory (Mullet) Whiting

Whiting’s mullet is frowned upon, but it’s a good laugh. Just imagine how dirty this looks: The top of his head is a number 4 shave, while the back is so long it reaches his mouth! (But that’s only if he runs fast enough).

Since the end of February I have only raced twice. The races were:

·     The Rotorua half marathon on the 30^th April

·     The Huntly half marathon on the 22^nd May

I used them for a bit of a solid hit out. Stephen Lett finished 2^nd to me in the Huntly half. I’m picking he will be the man to watch out for in the up and coming XC season here in New Zealand. I wish him the best of luck.

Last week I stepped onto the track for the first time since 26^th February. I will be on the track at least two times a week now until I fly out. I will mainly be doing lots of short reps to help build my speed up for the races in Europe.

I fly out to Paris on the 19^th June.  I will be based there with a small New Zealand development team. I will try to keep everyone updated with my results. 

Thanks for reading,

Aaron Pulford

Aaron Trains in the
New Balance 1080

 

After finishing the world cross country feeling quite disappointed with my result, I arrived back in New Zealand where I had a short break from training. After my break I had a meeting with my coach and we worked out a solid training program starting on the 5th April leading up to the world juniors where I will be racing the 10000m (20th July). For the first 7-8 weeks I had just been working on getting my strength and fitness back that had some how disappeared towards the end of our track season here in N.Z .



I have now started doing a bit of faster stuff on the track to help sharpen up for world juniors. For the last 2months I have been living in Hamilton and have got together with a few local runners. We have a pretty good little group going now and I have been training with Michael Whitehead who has a 800m p.b of 1.52 and a 400m p.b of 49secs.  Since he has started training with me back in April he has lost over 5kg and is shaping up to run a good 1500m, he is hoping to run round 3.40-42. It's good to have someone fast to help out with my track training leading up to world juniors.



Also I have another training partner now in Cory Whiting who does most of my long runs and helps out pacing in my track sessions. It's pretty sweet to have people to train with now after training in Thames for the last 2 years and only having my dog to run with.

Thanks for reading. 

Aaron 

Brought to you by Edward Ovadia who is in Berlin with official IAAF accreditation covering the championships for Runnerstribe.com

The womens discus throw qualification was the highlight of the fifth morning of competition, where Dani Samuels took centre stage. She is a class act all the way, and although young for her event, she is already one of the best throwers in the world, and a real medal chance for Australia. She is a World Youth Champion, a World Junior Champion, a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, and came ninth in the Olympics last year. She has stepped it up another level since then, and is regularly throwing over 62m - and today was no exception. Samuels needed just one throw to reach the qualifying mark of 61.50m, and pass it easily - she threw 62.67, and was the third qualifier going into the finals.

Multiple World Champion and local hero Franka Dietzsch failed to make the next round, and reigning Olympic Champion Stephanie Brown-Trafton, who was only last week telling Runner's Tribe how ready she was to let a big one fly, took three throws and only managed 61.23. But Brown-Trafton is a class act, and will be coming back strong in the final. She is the one Samuels will have to look out for, along with the Chinese duo of Xuejun Ma and Aimin Song, who were the top two qualifiers in the rounds.

Samuels: "It is definitely a boost doing it on my first throw. I love the fact now that I can just go out and just be relaxed and smash one out just thirty centimeters from my PB in my first throw. I definitely feel in PB shape. I was so nervous this morning; it just seemed to go forever. I woke up at 5.30am and was like just go back to sleep!"

The womens 5000m heats was a largely unnecessary race, with two heats being run - the result was only seven people being eliminated, and fifteen making it through to the final. All the favourites looked good, and Defar was sure in winning her heat. Elvan Abeylegesse, who pulled out of the 10000m, didn't start the 5000m. Neither did Tirunesh Dibaba, who has been forced to miss both the 10000m and the 5000m due to an injury just before the Championships.

Defar: "I pushed the pace because I've been a little bit sick, and I wanted to see how my body would respond. I feel OK. I'm pleased I qualified because I really want to win the final."

In the mens 110m hurdles, Dayron Robles got a terrible start, and almost missed making the next round - he placed third in his heat, and made it by only 0.05 seconds. But Robles too is a class act, and we will be seeing much more of him in the next round. He has mentioned the world record, and Berlin may be the time to do it. The fastest qualifier was Daniel Kiss, who ran a Hungarian national record of 13.34!

Robles: "I felt pain in my left thigh, I do not know what is going on. I thought it was only a small problem but now I know that I really have a problem. I am a warrior, I will fight!"

Tune in tonight for Sally McLellan in the semis then hopefully finals of the womens 100m hurdles, as well as the mens 1500m final, and the womens 800m final. It's going to be a big night!

 

 

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'Hills are speedword in disguise '
Frank Shorter

2008 Japanese Olympic Trials - Men`s 1500m