The Sheffield jinx

My training focus shifted to the BMAF decathlon on the 14-15th of July in Sheffield after the ups and downs of the pentathlon. First though I had to rehab my hamstring after venturing out for an unfamiliar road run, normally I'd pull this doing some sort of sprinting torture, but somehow I managed to find a way of doing the same whilst drifting serenely along my local streets. It responded well to the ice and whisky treatment, by which I mean I applied ice to the dodgy hamstring whilst enjoying a glass or three of my favourite single malts. As you well know you don't put ice in a single malt, that would be silly.

Before getting back to some decent speed endurance training, I decided that this Park Run thingy that I did with the wife should be taken a bit more seriously, after all it seems to get non-athletic types fit. So far I'd just jogged along quietly with my wife taking 40-50 minutes out of our Saturday morning, but I could probably do one in under half an hour bear or no bear. However, the first run out didn't go that way. I had to act as water barer for my wife as the day was hot and the bottle of water was too big to carry - well I carried it anyway. Trouble was I had to stop each lap to wait for her to catch up and have her drink. I think I did 32 minutes of running and 15 minutes of waiting. Got up the next day stiff as a plank and confused as to why, I must have forgotten the whisky again.

The next Midlands League was 4 weeks away and coincided with the English Master's inter area challenge, so I was glad to be getting back to some serious training along side all this mucking about in the trees in the park. I did a session of 200's (nice and easy in 35 secs) over the field and the only wildlife encountered was my mate the bear with his well stocked fridge, a promising start. Then it was a return to the track for some speed work, not looking to shabby all things considered. I even fitted in some throwing and the odd vaulting session, things  were re-building nicely.

Team selection for the  Master's Inter area initially left me just as a relay runner, the trouble with being a decathlete is you probably won't be first choice for any particular event and so it was, I ranked 2nd or 3rd in something like 5 events. But you can always rely on someone getting injured, trouble was half the flipping Welsh team seemed to drop out and but for a time table clash with the hurdles, I got selected for all four jumps and the relay. Now remember this was to be the day after the Midlands league, so 8 events over the weekend would certainly test my resilience.

The Midlands League was our home match so turnout was good, but not good enough to prevent me doing three events, inevitably the pole vault, the high jump and now the triple jump. The day dawned hot and sunny with little wind, perfect conditions to make a pigs ear of things. True to form I nearly no-heighted in the vault, taking three attempts to scramble over 2.50m, before going on to clear 2.70m on a borrowed pole and on a shortened run up. It did put a smile back on my face at least, sadly short lived as I followed the 2nd place with another no-heighting in the high jump. I just can't seem to get the 1.40m starting height, that's three time in a row now. With that still ringing in my ears, I had to get things back together for the triple jump, which was going to be interesting. The Midlands league specify nothing less than the 9m board can be used, which makes for some exciting jumping when your best jump for the last four years has been 8.84m. The run up was at least well trodden in the long jump but I triple jump off the opposite foot because I want the 3rd phase to be off the best jumping leg. Thankfully, this daft approach worked perfectly, opening jump was 9.61m which actually broke the club's Masters 55 record. In celebration of this the second and third rounds were no-jumps as I removed the plasticine from the board using my foot, each time making the pit with ease.

On the back of this semi-successful performance, I went to Solihull for the Masters event determined to set some season's bests and better if  I could. First up was the long jump for once and I have to say it's not my favourite run up as the pit is set against the sports centre giving you the impression you're running straight into the wall. It's getting rather predictable, but I was plagued by blasted no jumps once again. Fortunately, I opened with 4.66m just short of my best this year, so the following fouls didn't hurt too much, and my final jump of only 4.54m didn't really matter. It was nevertheless a successful event as I placed 4th. My next event was supposed to be the triple jump, but the timetable was slipping badly and I had to warm up for vault at the same time. Unfortunately it slipped so badly that I only managed one rubbish jump of 9.12m, barely skimming into the pit off of the 9m board.. Comes from being too cocky from the day before, but I was more focused on the vault so I scratched from the triple before I came unstuck. 

It sort of worked, I came into the vault at my preferred opening height of 2.52m and cleared easily, not sure why I couldn't do that the day before, but I was glad of a confident start. I went on to vault fairly well to come 2nd with 2.82m, improving my season's best by 2cm and lifting me to 6th in the rankings by myself. Buoyed by this success I moved on to the high jump, this time I could set my opening height more sensibly than the previous day. I opened at 1.30m and flopped easily onto the bed, which was when I realised I had burnt my shoulders and neck in the Brummie sun. I managed 1.35m for a season's best but 1.40m eluded me once more but I was happy with 4th as the height had been close. This all left me rather tired and stiff, and just a little bit sore despite the application of factor 20, I really wasn't up for the 4x100m relay. I needn't have worried about my legs feeling like I was wearing concrete wellies full of cold porridge, I got a decent start and after 20m the after burners lit and I ran a good leg. We finished 3rd behind a very strong Midlands side as did Wales in the overall match.

I was a bit stiff on Monday to say the least, but nothing serious, so I wound down for the forthcoming decathlon on the next weekend. This involved finishing off the remains of my Highland Park Dark Origins single malt. It's got a  really rich sherry oak taste but it still retains the characteristic heathery honey flavours that this top class distillery is known for. It certainly made me feel relaxed as the weekend's BMAF decathlon approached, little did I know what trials and tribulations were waiting for me.

Friday came as it does, I was half day so I could get to Sheffield in time to drop off my poles at the stadium as they wouldn't fit into the hotel bedroom on the top floor. As you know it had been a scorchingly hot summer and it chose this Friday to break, quite spectacularly as I approached Worcester. I noticed the wipers were a little sluggish as they hadn't moved in a while, then the traffic announced an accident just up ahead, so I left the queue on the M5 and headed for Evesham. I didn't get far before the wipers packed up completely and I had to stop and call the RAC. The replacement motor cost me £250 and 2 hours, meaning I could no longer get to stadium in time for the second year in a row and had to leave the poles on  the roof rack overnight in the pouring rain.

Anyway, traffic mishaps behind me I made the start line on day 1 for the 100m in good shape and raring to take on my friends and rivals and hopefully right last year's no-height in the vault. Disappointingly I got a medium start reacting too slow to the gun, but we were recalled as John Dickinson false started. My second start was bang on and I won in a season's best of 13.42 a bit down on target, but a good enough start. Moving on to the long jump and feeling good, I determined to play it safe in round one remembering the fiaso of the pentathlon and surprised myself with 4.45m without trying. Sadly, but not surprisingly, that was all I managed as the curse of the no jump returned to haunt me in the next two rounds, as I struggled with the wind. I dropped to third as a result as Ian Crawley took the lead. Next up was the shot, not my strongest event, but memories of last year spurred me to get it right for once. I can't say I nailed it, but it was above target so I can take the 8.12m especially as it pushed me back up to 2nd just ahead of my friend Pete Stepney. Event 4, the high jump, was interesting, I'd spent the whole season just missing 1.40m, so I'd set the target at 1.37m being a realist. Came in at 1.28m and duly hit it off - fat butt jumping, before focusing on the task at hand and the issue with my run up. I got to 1.40m cleanly but took it off - just - with my first attempt. Jump two was much better and what was my 14th attempt this year to get it, I cleared it. The attempts at 1.43m weren't too bad but that was it for the high jump - secure in 2nd. The final event of day one is the man killer 400m. I'd done a couple of time trials which suggested 65-66 seconds was possible, but more was needed. Gun went and I drove out hard and set about shadowing Pete down the back straight. We rounded the top bend and I moved up to Pete's shoulder. I knew who was waiting in the home straight for me, the bear, his fridge, his cousin and a few others all leapt on me with 80 to go. I hung on the line but felt that was a bad run as my head continued round the bend whilst my legs headed for the stand. So you can imagine my shock at running a M55 PB of 63.58 and hanging on to second place overnight with 2969 points, just 64 points off target.

So to day 2 and the 100m hurdles. I'd undergone a two bag ice bath and a massage so wasn't feeling bad, though tired. Warm up went well, I even helped move and reset the hurdles from the  M60 settings. I settled and got a poor start but John repeated his party trick and we were recalled again. Start two was much better, so I nailed hurdle one and two and started to race well. I got over 5 and twisted and felt a sharp pain in my left leg but I was committed to take 6 or crah into it, and something really went big time in my adductor. I managed to jump the rest on my right leg but that was the end of my decathlon and my season. I had torn the left aductor really badly as it bled internally and went the colour of an aubergine. Ian went on to win the decathlon with Pete second and John third.

I went back to the hotel and made friends with the bar's bottle of Talisker, all that worrying about the poles and vaulting was for nothing for thhe second year running. That's athletics for you.