The WUG’s Athletic program runs from the 16th-21st of August in Shenzhen, China, and I arrived on the 12^th after spending 2 months competing in competitions around Europe. I will be competing in the 1500m on the 16^th in the semi-final and hopefully in the final on the 18^th. 

I was selected to represent Australia at WUG after a solid domestic season over summer in which I met the qualifying time on a number of occasions and placed third in the men’s 1500m at the Australian Championships. At the time of notification from Athletics Australia I was back home on the farm working hard and having a short break after competing at the Stawell Gift in the Herb Hedemann Mile.

I had also been thinking about competing for Austria for some time, as I have dual citizenship (my grandparents emigrated from Austria in the 50’s). I had to make a decision as there was a short turn around to confirm for the Australian WUG Team. Having never competed for Australia before, meant that if I was to compete for Australia this August it would potentially mean that I would not be able to compete for Austria at best for at least one year, but most likely two years. I chose to withdraw from the Australian team and continue contact with the Austrian Athletics Association. Whether this is the right decision or not, time will tell; but I hope I can look back and say that it was the right decision for me in the future.

I arrived in Europe mid-June and was keen to get some good training in on the track before competing in some meets planned in July. After an easy week off the place I was keen to get some good training in, but unfortunately I got a chest infection, which cleared up after another easy week of training and a seven day course of antibiotics. By then I was just keen to string some weeks of training together, and had planned to race some races over to the west in the Netherlands, Germany and also Switzerland.

I continued with this plan and thought it would at least be good training. My first race was a 1500m in Uden (NED), 3:43, followed by a 1500m in Eindhoven (NED) and then a 1500m in Bottrop (GER), in 3:42. The plan was to then travel to Luzern in Switzerland for a good 3km, but again managed to catch a cold and whilst I considered racing, didn’t feel up to it on the day. Returning to my Vienna base and getting back into a decent training regime and completing some good track sessions gave me confidence ahead of the Austrian National Championships in Innsbruck, which I placed second in both the 1500m and the 800m.

I am now enjoying the Chinese hospitality and trying to avoid the hot and humid conditions, however I am sure that once I return to South Eastern Australia in late August I will be missing the hot conditions.

Brenton

2010/2011 season was a season to remember. It began with me changing from my high school coach, David Miles, to Pat Clohessy. Here I was introduced to the cruel world of hard training. In my final year of school my training program consisted of 45km weeks. Moving to Pat, I soon realised to become competitive, I needed to be stronger and faster. To do this I had to increase my training load. Soon after moving to Pat’s I was introduced to 75-85km weeks on a consistent basis.

After a few weeks I noticed significant improvement in my strength and fitness with the increase of my training load. I competed in a 3km winter carnival up at the University of Queensland where I ran an 8.45min (PB). This was a 7sec PB for me and was the first sign that my new training program was working for me.

A few weeks later Brisbane hosted the National Cross Country Titles. I was excited to race having produced a big PB in the 3km and been training hard with boys in my squad such as Jay Twist and Sam Schofield. Here I finished 8th, a huge improvement from my previous national cross placing of 32nd the year before. Narrowly coming behind Juniors Kevin Batt and Hugh Williams, gave me confidence that I was starting to become more competitive in the Junior ranks.



With a strong placing at Nationals, Pat and I decided to focus upon selection in the Junior World Cross Country Team for Worlds in Spain. With Peter Nowill back from London, the next few months involved lots of training and little racing. I would like to thank Pete for all those sessions he has pushed me since returning from London. Three races that we focused upon were the 5km Noosa Bolt, 1500m Classic and Zatopek.

In all of these races I produced massive PB’s as a result of my hard training. In the Noosa Bolt I ran a 15.10min, a 30sec PB. In the 1500m Classic, I ran a strong 3.52min, a 7sec PB and at Zatopek I finished with an 8.26min, a 19sec PB.



As a result of my good form towards the start of summer, I was given an opportunity by Athletics Australia to attend their Junior Camp down at Falls Creek. Here I ran with some of Australia’s top Junior and Senior athletes such as Collis Birmingham and Brett Robison.

The highlight of this camp was missing the bus back to the hotel from a training run one morning and getting a lift from Steve Moneghetti. Speaking to one of Australia’s greatest runners about my running was an honour.



Two weeks after Falls, I travelled to Canberra for the World Cross selection trial. It was a race I had been working towards for six months and by race day, I was ready to give it my all. The race started off slow for the first lap before Josh Johnson put down the pace and broke up the pack. By the last lap I was in a strong position and knew if I could hang on and hold off Ethan Heywood I would be picked in the team. I finished third in the end behind Josh Johnson and Hugh Williams and as a result was picked in the team with Ethan Heywood as well.

Receiving that call from Athletics Australia later in the week letting me know that I was picked made all those hard months worth it. Representing Australia at World Juniors with some of my best running mates is what every Junior dreams of and I thank Athletics Australia for believing in me and giving me the opportunity.

Looking back at the 2010/2011 season, it was a season full of PB’s and experience for me. Running at World Juniors Cross and placing 41^st was the highlight of my season. The trip, the race, the experience and the mates I made from it, is something I will always remember. The season has given me the opportunity of meeting some of my greatest mates I now have, such as the boys in the CIS (Clayfield Institute of Sport) house and Ethan, Hugh, and Josh who I got to experience falls and worlds with. These are the boys that help you through that last km rep and push you harder in your races. The major thing I learnt from the season is self belief. Believing in your training program, your coach and training partners when that gun goes, is an asset that I will always cherish.



At the moment I am involved in heavy training working towards Junior National Cross. In the coming months I will be looking at competing once again at the Noosa Bolt, 1500m Classic and Zatopek as I work on producing fast track times and possible selection in the World University Cross team next year.

I would like to thank SIS and Runner’s Tribe for giving me this opportunity to blog for them and I hope you enjoy reading what I thought was a breakthrough season for me.  

The last few weeks have been up there with the busiest of my life to date. With Year 12 HSC Trial exams and with just over a month until the World Championships, I had plenty to do both academically and athletically.

Training throughout June and July had been great. I was running really fast and my strong base work from a couple of months ago is paying dividends with my endurance. Since my last blog, I have very much begun speed work. Two of my three training sessions each week involve a speed foundation, with speed endurance sessions rounding out the third session. I’ve been feeling really strong, and certainly feeling more powerful then I have ever before. I think this is attributed to my “walking drill’s” and core stability work Fira (my coach) has gotten the squad doing after each session. The kind of exercises we do are lunges, walking squats, crab walk etc. Because I currently do not have a gym component to my training, this kind of strength training makes me a lot stronger.

Another pleasing aspect to my progression over the last few weeks have been my starts. Still young and without the gym component, I have been known to lack ‘power’ and explosiveness off my starts. However, having my first session out of blocks two weeks ago, I am pleased to report my starts are improving. I am feeling a lot more powerful without having to work strenuously hard; something my coach and I are very pleased about.

Last week (28/07), I ran a time trial in training over 400. I would like to take the opportunity to thanks all those who helped make the time trial possible, including my training squad, David Tarbotton and many many others. I felt really good. Running in chilly conditions, both Fira and I were very happy with the run.

Leading into the World Championships, to me, it is imperative to run a 11. last 100m. If the time trial was any sort of indicator, it could be very possible.

Well… 3 weeks out from the World Championships…. Time has certainly gone fast since nationals. Ill blog closer to the championships but I thought I’d give you my present thoughts.
A common question, I’d imagine everyone is curious to know is “how do you think you will go at the World Championships?”.

Well, for the moment, I can only forge the following answer, with many determinants that can influence how we as a team run at the Championships:

I have tried to look at where we are as a team. But, with the team spread out all over the world, I think it is only appropriate that I base my response around myself. I personally, am feeling very good and very confident that we as a team can excel at the championships. I feel that everything is on track for me personally, and both my coach and I are share the same thoughts. I’ve been running better then I have before, training harder then I have before and running faster then I have before. As for the rest of the team, they too from what I can gather are also on track in terms of their personal preparation. It doesn’t take a guru to acknowledge the experience of my team mates, with an array of medals and achievements on all stages of athletics that are unmatched by many who wear the tights and spikes of our sport. I haven’t personally spoken to Ben, Sean or John in a while, but I am confident that they know what they each need to do. They all have coaches who are very experienced and have a good reputation for seeing their athletes ‘peak’ at the right time. In spite of Australia’s “weaker” domestic race times then in the past, I am confident we all, as a team will be ready to run faster then we ever have before, and represent both our country and the team to the best of our abilities.

When you look at the four of us, the one thing you can never take away is our fight, out determination to give our all every time we step onto the track. I think I speak for the team when I say that we will do no different in three weeks time.

As I said earlier, ill give a more ‘updated’ response in a few weeks time.

For the next few weeks, with trial exams over, just about my full focus will be on athletics. I am really looking forward to my last few weeks of training before I leave. I will be doing a few 100, 200 and 300m time trials in the upcoming weeks, to give me an indication on my speed and speed endurance progression.

Finally before I go, I’d like to express my admiration and congratulations to all the Australian athletes who have been competing in Europe over the last few months. It has been great to see Sally leading by example, with many many others achieving personal bests and showing us that their preparations are well on track.

For now, I saw goodbye. Train hard, keep healthy and ill be back in a few weeks to give my final thoughts heading into my first IAAF World Championships.

Cheers,

Hey RT readers,

For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Johnny Rayner and I’m a 20 year old 800m runner from Victoria. In my first blog for runnerstribe I would like to let you in on the last few years or so of my sporting life that ultimately forced track and field to be my sport of choice. 

From a young age I have been heavily involved in both athletics and footy (AFL for all those up north). When I got to my mid teens I was fortunate enough to have won an U17 National 800m title and a National title while playing for Vic Metro. It soon became apparent though that I would not be able to continue juggling both sports if I was to make it to a high level in either. At the time footy was my first love so I decided to give it a 2 year crack, which would bring me to the end of my participation in the TAC cup under 18 competition. I made a promise to myself that if I was not drafted by an AFL club within these 2 years I would return to athletics. In the first of the 2 years I played ok, as a bottom ager, but sustained a stress fracture in my back which put me out for the year. Even so, I was receiving interview calls from AFL clubs and the prospect of being drafted was becoming more likely. As it turned out I was not selected in the 2008 draft on the basis of concern for the injury cloud that was over my head. This did not faze me however as I still had another year to be selected and the positive hype that surrounded me as a bottom ager would surely carry through to the next year. How wrong I was. In 2009 I played the best footy of my life, averaging 25 disposals in a team that really struggled. On stats alone I was ranked very highly in the competition, as a midfielder, yet I did not get the interview requests from AFL clubs that I got the previous year. Before the 2009 draft, I participated in the Victorian equivalent of the Draft camp in Canberra. At this camp, my results placed me as one of the top athletic players in the competition yet still there was no attention from the AFL recruiters. As draft day approached I became less and less expectant of being selected even though I had ‘ticked all the boxes’. When draft day came and went – and my name wasn’t called out – I was confused and somewhat angry as to why other players were selected and I was not. All hope was not lost however as I had secured a spot to do some pre-season training at St. Kilda FC before the rookie draft. This turned out to be a great experience but did not end up getting me selected (perhaps a good thing after all the turmoil that footy club has faced over the last few years). 

At this stage, my 2 years of trying to manufacture an AFL career were up. I had numerous offers to play VFL football and many more people saying “Johnny, stick at it...you will make it if you persist” but I stuck to the promise I made myself 2 years prior and returned to athletics – a decision that payed off very quickly.

This brings us to December of 2009. I spoke with my coach of 10 years, Gregor Gojrzeweski, and we realised the fact that I just did not have the time to gain the fitness required for my pet event, the 800m, by junior nationals in March. On the basis of this, we decided to pursue the 400m for a year with the ultimate goal of returning to the 800m the following year. After 4 months of 400m training nationals came around. I had not competed in any serious athletic competitions for 3 years now but the scene was still very familiar from all those years ago at Sydney Olympic Park. I drew an exceptionally tough heat and was forced to run a massive PB of 48.2 to place 4^th which just got me into the final. In the final a few days later I ended up coming 4^th which secured me a spot to represent Australia in the 4x400m in Canada at the 2010 World Junior Championships. This came as a massive surprise to me after only 4 months of solid training. 

The lead up to Canada was tough. Sprint training in the Melbourne winter is not fun and on top of this my coach needed to head overseas for a large chunk of our preparation stage. The trip to Canada was an awesome experience. It was fantastic to see how a competition is run at a IAAF world level. It was a shame however that I tore my hamstring in a time trial only 5 days out from the main competition. I tried all I could to get up and run but in the end it was better for both my team and I that I did not take my place on the start line. Watching the boys race was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life but it is now a memory that I use to motivate myself to get to that level once again. 

After returning back to Melbourne it took around 2 months off for my hamstring to fully recover.  I could finally begin somewhat of a winter preparation in September 2010.

In my next blog for runnerstribe I will give an outline of how my season 2010/11 unfolded as I tried to return to the 800m after a 5 year hiatus from the event.

Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my new sponsors SiS and Runner’s Tribe.

Till next time

G’day Guys,

As my first update I thought I’d tell you all a little about myself.

I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa where I lived for 13 years before immigrating to Australia with the rest of my family. I was never really interested in Track and Field, mainly because rugby was a way of life back home but I soon found myself becoming a member of a Little Athletics Club when I found out that AFL wasn’t for me after struggling to grasp the concept of bouncing a ball while running.

I joined Nunawading Little Athletics Club where I started my career in becoming the next Usain Bolt focusing on only the sprints as they required the least amount of training and gave more time to socialise during Saturday morning competitions; and I still wonder why I wasn’t picked for any relay teams.

After I reached the highest age group in Little Athletics I moved to Doncaster Athletics Club to continue my illustrious career in becoming a sprinter. Under the watchful eye of Tom Kelly I began taking my running more seriously, training once a week where everything was done in spikes, including my warm up drills; again I wondered why no relay team selection.

As a spare of the moment thought I attempted an 800m race at a weekly shield comp where my main ambition was to beat a fellow teammate; in the end I ran 2:02. I then entered the Victorian Junior Championships going on this result, where I narrowly won in 1:55. Heading over to the National Junior Championships I was finally put into my place coming last in the final to the newly crowned Australian National Champion, James Kaan, where he broke the National Junior record in 1:49 at that time.

Since then my major achievements include:

·         PBs - 800m: 1:50.00 & 400m: 48.85

·         4 Victorian State 800m titles including the Open Mens title in 2010

·         2^nd at NSW Championships behind Matty “Finger” Hammond in 2011
      

I’m currently in my third year of an Electrical Engineering degree which doesn’t leave much time for training, but I’ve improved from when I was young, trying to keep an active lifestyle; where I work as a swimming instructor for Nunawading Swimming Club, play mixed Netball for those social benefits, and now train 5-6 days a week averaging about 50km including several days at the gym.

I’m hoping for a better performance during the 2011/12 season where I hope to break that illusive 1:50 barrier and join the boys at the start line of finals of the 2012 Australian National Championships. With the help of “Team Kelly” and my new sponsors Saucony, Runnerstribe & Team SIS hopefully my next update will be a better read.

Keep Running!

Cheers    

I’m back to fill you in on my latest training endeavours.

Since my last blog, I have partaken in what is commonly known as “winter’ or “base” training.

Training kicked off in early May with heart rate controlled 20min jogs. This dampened my initial thoughts of the base training, which were hyped up by my squad at Team Fira to be lactic city, where everyone was momentarily enervated and incapacitated.

The next week, we resumed training with a new program. It was when I received this program that I began to come to the reality of base training. 50min Fartlek runs, heart rate controlled, followed by walking and hurdles drills. As one of my training partners astutely remarked; “welcome to winter training solo”.

The sessions began to get longer and at higher tempo’s. All this was tough, but made bearable by the support of the squad. We enjoyed about a month of these kinds of sessions, a typical weeks track sessions looking similar to:

Shortly after came the infamous stairs. One thing I learned to love about the stairs session was no matter how fast or slow you ran, you still felt equally fatigued after the session.

We undertook these sessions at Cooper Park, a heavily inclined stair course with I would guess had between 80-90 stairs. As all of you whom done stairs would know, the easy part is going up, the hard part is going down. The squad quickly acquired “the shakes”, with none other then Ben Southwell leading the charge, both with the ‘shakes’, in addition to the lactic spews.

I think one session sums up our stairs endeavour, with that being a bright and early morning on the Queen’s birthday long weekend. The rain was bucketing! We all completed the session as planned, but being under the influence of lactic acid, made some ill-educated decisions…. Such as collapsing onto the side walk into a puddle, only to be further drowned by an on-going cars splashes.

The best part of the stairs session, was the end. Not because you were relieved of further pain, but rather because of the thought of the Pasta Pantry baguette. A Team Fira tradition; after stairs, we would go have breakfast at a nearby café.

That bought us right up until the 20^th June.  Training is now shifting towards a more speed-based sessions. My first speed session back was on Monday:

100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200 (3,4,5,6,10,10 min between)

I raced in the Gold Coast on the weekend, in my first 400m since nationals. Fortunately, I was able to get the better of a strong field, and although the time wasn’t super flash, the run was important. After a long recollection with Tristan Thomas, we both concluded that the times of high 46’s (46.75) were less important, and the fact that we ran such a time in less then favourable conditions and so early suggest that we’re on track. Its also great to see that others Australian athletes are finding their bearings, and running quick times for this time of year.

Until next time, train hard and keep healthy.

Cheers,

Firstly I would like to thank Runnerstribe for the opportunity to contribute to the site. Since the trip to Spain for the World cross and the brief period of track training I had I’ve just been keeping the training consistent and building on my base work. I haven’t really done much else in terms of my running, now I’m almost at the end of the semester for uni, I’m having to spend a lot of time studying for my exams. It makes it hard to try and combine everything, but once you get the hang of it it gets a bit easier.


 
World Cross Country was an awesome experience, from when we arrived right up until we left I really enjoyed my time over there. Travelling there was tiring, and it seemed like we were going everywhere but where we needed to be, I flew over to Singapore then on to London, from there we went to Madrid, to Seville and then to Punta Umbria by bus (not to mention missing the flight from Madrid to Seville) we were travelling for something like almost 2 days. In the week leading up to the race all I did was easy running, apart from a light fartlek session on the course a couple of days out. When I was running around I new it would be a brilliant race, I loved the course and I was much more calm and approached it with more of a level head this year after having the experience of last years competition. It was surprising because I managed to acclimatise and rid myself of any jet lag really quickly once I was there, and got decent sleep all week long, even the night before the race. On race day my nerves were more excitement and anticipation rather than worry, I couldn’t wait to get out and see what I could do.

All they had for us to warm up on was a small football field, there wasn’t much room and there were quite a few people jogging around at the same time, we all did our own thing with the warm ups and it didn’t take me long to get in the zone and focus my energy. Once we actually got out to the start line I found that I was much more relaxed than the previous year as well, starting at the back of our gate didn’t phase me either – it was more of a blessing because I was forced to stop myself going out too hard, which is a massive killer. After the first lap I went through in 48^th, and I started to work my way up, eventually getting myself to 40^th the following lap which is pretty much where I stayed for the rest of the race. It was a tough course, the hills weren’t huge but they really take it out of you, especially when they are in quick succession. I finished quite strong as well just edging Glen Yarham, although just getting caught on the line by Brit Jonny Hay. At the end of it all I was stoked with my run, 40^th place and a huge improvement from last years finish of 83^rd.

Since finishing the domestic track season in Melbourne for the nationals, I’ve mainly just been running, with a few hit outs here and there, like the HBF run for a reason and the state short course cross country. Leonora looks good for the coming weekend, and there isn’t much after that before the national championships in Canberra which should shape up to be a really good competition.

Thanks,

Ethan

Hi Everyone,

Well it has been a good two weeks since arriving in Ede-Wageningen, Holland. My first week here was rather rough in trying to recover from the flight, but after some easy long running in the forests around here, things started to return to normal quite quickly.

Jeroen and Neeltje have shown me around all the local running routes, and introduced me to many nice people. I have truly been made to feel welcome here and I can’t thank them enough.

My days at the moment are spent quite relaxed. I wake up, train, spend the day watching movies or reading National Geographic (I can tell you all about the evolution of the feather later…) and then train again in the early evening. After that is a bit of dins dins and a beer with some locals who are always too willing to pay for it!

I was meant to run a 1500m in Nijmegen last week. However I decided to skip this and make my European debut in Lokeren, Belgium. Here I managed to solo an even 3:43.00 and win feeling relatively comfortable. This has at least given me the confidence that I am in shape to run fast and also that it is time to do so!

Next race is this weekend (4^th June) at the IFAM meeting in Oordegem, Belgium. It has a good strong field and the pace is set to be quick so looking forward to having a real good crack.

In other news… “Doo Doo” The Cat has stopped attacking me. This is not through some new friendship that we’ve formed though, but because it is my duty to feed her when Jeroen and Neeltje are not around!!! It seems she knows this!!!

I am also trying very hard to learn some Dutch… it is a bloody difficult language though but here is a small sample of things so far:

“Kikker is verliefed” = “The Frog is in love”

“Lekker” = I like… (with many different contexts)

“Snell” = Fast… (they got that one right with Peter Snell or Peter Fast)

Anyway hope everyone is happy down-under in winter time; fantastic weather here!

Hayden

With the New Zealand winter domestic season ensuing, The Runner’s Tribe will be featuring regular updates from some of those who will likely feature in the medals at the National Road and Cross-Country Championships.

With a 5^th place finish at the 2010 NZXC champs, Stefan Smith enters the 2011 season as one of the top seeds in the domestic season. With a coaching change and a return to his home of Napier, the Wellington Scottish athlete has his sights firmly on asserting himself as the man to beat over all surfaces this year.

Back to Basics

With a fresh start at home I also made a coaching switch to Chris Pilone of Auckland from which we communicate through email/skype/phone and so far the transition has gone perfect with no hiccups at all apart from a cold I have just gotten over. Training has gone perfect since starting with him in February. I have gotten off to a great start with Chris, I get my schedule sent to me well in advance and I believe in him to take me to bigger and better things. 

I missed the past track season with a stress fracture in the foot I picked up in October and had roughly 3 months off where I basically did nothing - got fat and just learnt to not stress about the time off which I probably needed. I started back training to a normal pattern by the end of February when I was doing close to an hour each day. I am now in full training and with a 9 day cycle it is something I have become used to now and don't worry so much about how much mileage I run a week and I now have regular rest days. I really enjoy this cycle because when you look at it weekly it is different every week, I am listening to my body a lot more, with a day off every 9 days I feel I am recovering more and can run hard when I need to and not feel like some days are a bit of a drag. I have also started doing specific weight and core sessions that are usually after long runs, which can be tough! 

I am now fully pumped to be back running and excited for what 2011 brings, with plans of a marathon debut possibly at the end of the year and looking to step up from my 5th last year at NZXC to be at the top of the podium this year! I am also keen to put together a good track season 2011/12 as I haven't really had a fully focused one in a while now as my track times are rubbish and feel like I have never really converted my xc strength to the track. 

I am currently living back at home which has been awesome in terms of my nutrition, mum is a great cook and I don't have to worry about what to put on my plate after training. I am working 20hours a week in a local cafe which has been ok, time on the feet not the most ideal position to be in when trying to put all your energy into training but for now it will have to do, has also kept my old man off my back about getting a job too as he thinks I would go crazy lazying around at home all day! 

Next up for me is the Huntly 10km on the 22nd May that I will use as a lead in race to the Christchurch Half Marathon. That will be the proper start of the season for me and I'm keen to run fast. 

 
A typical 9-day cycle:

40min AM, 40min PM

80min AM, 40min PM

45min AM, 30min PM

2hours + Weights/Core

45min AM, 45min PM + 5x100m

REST

90min including 40min hard over hills followed by 15-30min up tempo, 30min PM

60min

90min

I run by feel most the time, just at a pace that is relative to easy that day. A vo2 max session will be for example 6x3mins with 90sec recovery but these will be done at a specific time, the main focus is on building aerobic strength.

Happy running! 

Stef