Here we are at the start of another season . Another winter has come and gone and yes we’ve all aged another year but we’re at the begining of another fantastic season. Another day has dawned on Irish 400m running. Last year we had the privillage of seeing Brian Gregan make the Final of the World juniors and also a promising junior 4*400m relay team . The Leaps and bounds have being massive in 12 months.

This weekend coming is the Schools All Ireland which will see a fantastic senior boys 400m packed full of young talented juniors, looking for there own qualifiers and also breaking down the door of 48 seconds. Billy Ryan had a fantastic indoors recording 48.17sec and will definitely be one to watch.

David Gillick has being out in flying form recording 45.80 so far this season. As has, Antoine Burke in Australia running 47.92. Myself, Brian Murphy and Brian Gregan will be out over the next 10 days proving fitness for the upcoming Europa Cup. As the hunt begins for all important European cup selection getting the times will be of the upmost importance for selection.

Racing Dates:

Gordon Kennedy Races in:

• Ljubljana 1st June
• Helsinki 5th June
• Tullamore 7th June
• Gothenberg 9th June

Brian Murphy races in:

• Helsinki 5th June

By Gordon Kennedy

It has been a while since any of us posted anything on the site. With the European Indoors next weekend and our double European champion, David Gillick, taking to the boards it seems like the perfect time to kick things off again.

Last year was a tough pill for us to swallow and it took a lot of time to sink in that we were not going to be competing in the Olympics, for some of us it was our last shot and for others only the beginning.

All is not lost however, in fact there is a lot to be hopeful about. Last year saw a new National Senior Record by David Gillick while Brian Greagan equalled the 8 year old National Junior Record. We also saw a new Schools record by Curtis Woods the newest member and sensation on the Irish circuit. This good form has continued into 2009 as we saw Billy Ryan win the AAA Championships in a time of 48.13, although he was unfortunately disqualified a little later, but will definitely be someone to watch this summer.

For the year ahead everyone will be doing there own preparations for various championships be it Junior, U23 or the World Championshps in Berlin. The target for the 4*4 in Berlin is tough but with the list of athletes under the 48 seconds mark growing all the time we have high hopes of translating this into more athletes under the crucial 47 seconds mark. One thing is for sure, there will be a relay team at the Europa cup come the 22 of june. Who will form the team will be decided over the coming months and I personally hope to challenge once again for my place and give it everything on the day.

For now best of luck to David. I wish him look in the next few days.

Gordon Kennedy
Project 400

Gordon Kennedy was racing in the Lugano GP in Switzerland on Friday evening. Running on the outside lane he got off to a sluggish start which cost him dearly in the home straight but still managed to finish strong, claiming fourth in a time of 46.91, his second fastest time this year.

This was the first of 4 races lined up over the next 8 days for Gordon.

Next race will be in Sollentuna Sweden on Tuesday night.

24th May

Barcelona

I started the racing season in Spain on the 24th in Pallafrugal. While I had a good lane draw, the conditions were not ideal and my first race was all over at the 350m mark as I tied up badly to finish 4th in a time of 47.64 . It was however, my fastest opener ever but still not as good as I would have liked.

31st May

Geneva

The Following weekend saw me in Geneva, the Mecca of 400m running. Almost 60 400m runners from around Europe were there. As one said to me, it was like a European championships without a few Polish and one or two French. I was drawn in lane 7 and had a reasonable start and got in to a nice position on the back straight. Between the 150m and 200m mark the inside field were making moves on me and from 200 to 300 I really kicked it up a gear and coming into the home straight I was in 4th but closing the field down . The last fifty was superb and I got up for 2nd with a time of 47.06 . It felt like it was all going in the right direction for me now.

3rd June

Malmo

I decided to drop to a 200m race this time to work on top-end speed . The Folksam GP are perfect, good standard races and well organised meets. It was set up to be a tough race and being drawn in lane seven, I knew everything was going to be happening on my inside. The race got under way after several false starts and a disqualification. My first 40 was not the best but the following 60m, I really blistered the track and to everyones surprise was in the lead coming into the home straight . Battling -3 headwinds, I held on to the lead and won the race in a time of 22.49 with a wind reading of -2.7!

Next stop on the tour, Lapua Finland Sunday and a return to the 400m.

Gordon.

22nd of March – 2nd of May

I have being away from Ireland for the past 6 weeks in Portugal. I decided after my last trip to the states in November (where I spent 12 days training), that if I was going to go warm weather training that I would make a considerable effort to stay as long as possible. After looking at a few options I decided on Monte Gordo in the south of Portugal.

Good points
1. No distractions
2. Facilities and location are second to none.
3. Costs are low.
4. Very close to home in case it’s needed

Bad Points
1. No Distractions

I started my trip with good weather and in good spirits. Paul Opperman and Fiona O’Freill, fellow Irish sprinters, were over for the first two weeks and this was a huge help to me in terms of training and on a personal level having someone in the evenings for cooking and getting away from the track.

Brian Murphy, my fellow project400 member, was out on two occasions during my stay, first for 19 days and then again for 10 days a week later, As myself and Brian have the same Coach (John Coughlan) it was really good to have the opportunity to train with him. We live 150 miles apart at home so intense training in Ireland is just not an option for us. I was joined by another friend and training partner Ray Lennon for 3 weeks, so I was never bored out there.

So what is the life of an athlete on a warm weather training trip like? Well to give you an idea this is the schedule that most of my days took. Normally, the day would start around 9am with breakfast. After this, I would head to the track for about 10.30am and would finish training around 1.30-2pm. (I should note that it wasn’t that we did much more training here than we would do at home but we could do the extra bit of stretching and recovery work that our schedules at home often don’t permit.).

I would go for some physio/massage most afternoons at around 4 and would only have time to grab a recovery snack after this before heading back to the track for my evening workout. My physiotherapist was a Portuguese man called David, who was a very interesting character and I think I had paid for a few instalments on his car loan by the time I had left. He is a good physio and gave me an extra confidence in what I was doing. He had some great sayings.”I think this so” Make strong” and he worked hard on me and kept me in one piece for my entire trip, which any sprinter knows is no easy task.

In the evening I chilled out at the Apartment, which felt more like a home after a while. The staff in the hotel couldn’t have been any nicer. My diet also changed while there as I was nearly overweight going over and I had to make some drastic changes to lose some of these excess pounds. I brought my diet right back to the basics and it really helped to shed the excess pounds. The most annoying thing at mealtimes was waiting for the others to be finished their starters before we were served the main course, I was lucky to have any fingers left by the time we were finished.

Going over, I was worried that I would get bored by the lack of distractions. At home, I work full time and train in the evenings so it is rare to have a quiet moment to myself. However, the days in MonteGordo were pretty full and any extra time I had was spent recovering. We also chilled out from time to time in the local hot spot Bar 42. It’s not really a pub but more like an internet café and as long as you are drinking juice or water they left us be. It was also the best place in town for meeting people and having a chat and this kept me sane off the track. I could go down and mingle with other athletes from across Europe who were also doing their warm weather training here and it was a great opportunity to learn a bit about their approaches to training. Seeing the way in which other nations train can sometimes be a great eye-opener and from chatting to a few of the coach’s I have learnt a few new tricks to apply to my own training.

Over-all warm weather training is not about doubling your training just because you can, it’s about getting the sessions in and the little extras that just get left out at home because of time restrictions. I have seen some groups who went from training 4 times a week to training 10 times a week, they have a great first week but by the middle of the second week, they’re complaining of shin splints and other over-use injuries. So remember, just because you might have the time doesn’t mean you have to over-train.

Over-all it was a great 6 weeks and I had some very good training sessions. I really kicked it up another gear. The season is here now and it’s starting to come together, a few little niggles but we all have them.

Chat soon,

Gordon Kennedy

Gordon’s race schedule is as follows, keep an eye out for news and reports over the coming weeks.

Races Coming up:

Training is going well here in Monte Gordo. Last week the weather got pretty nasty, gale force winds, torrential rain and cold temperatures. It was more a case of Weather Training rather than Warm Weather Training.

This week it has been much better and we haven’t had to splash through too many puddles. As I said earlier, the best thing about this place is the atmosphere of being surrounded by other athletes. Last Saturday we did a session with Chris Clarke from England. Chris is the current World Youths 400m Champion and definitely one to watch out for. We were doing 2 x 500’s and he was doing 2 x 450’s and as we were going through the 400 mark (c. 52s) at the same pace we decided to do the session together. For an 18 year old he can certainly run, and it’s always nice to train with someone new.

You pick up lots of bits of information training with other people. Yesterday I was doing weights in the gym and I noticed something shiny in my field of view. You can see from the photo, the girl on my right is doing cleans with shin guards on. They looked odd but I thought it was a pretty nifty idea. I have a tendency to cut my shin bones like I’m grating cheese so they might be a wise investment!

Training is starting to get quicker now and I’ve started booking flights for races in Europe. It certainly gives training a different edge when you can see the races coming into view. I’m opening up in Pavia on May 11th so it would be a nice to get the season going with a quick time.

Brian M

This is a bit of an overdue post considering that we haven’t added much to the site in the last month. Apologies. March was a case of keeping the head down and putting the training in. In my case I also had to take care of my work before I could head off warm weather training in April.

I arrived in Portugal last Wednesday to train with Gordon in Monte Gordo. Gordon had come over a week before me so he had the place sussed out for me which was very handy. As a place to train, it really is fantastic here. The weather is sooo much better than home, the facilities are top class and the buzz of being around other athletes never wears off. As resort towns go MonteG (as we like to call it) is very quiet but it suits the people that come here, namely athletes and old people. At the moment there is about 10 other Irish athletes so it’s great to have people to hang out with when we’re not training.

Anyways if we don’t give in to a case of Cabin Fever, we’ll add a few photos and maybe a video of our training over here (Gordon loves a good montage).

Cheers
Brian

I really love that quote. It is not a famous quote but it’s a good one. It comes from Len Bosack, the founder of Cisco Systems. In the early 1980s he and his wife helped invent the router at Cisco Systems. Without the router the Internet as we know it would not be possible.

Len was a workaholic and when asked about his work ethic he said “Commitment starts at 100 hours a week”. According to him, if you are committed to something then 100 hours per week is the minimal outlay of human effort required to show commitment.

The media tend to overuse the word “commitment” in relation to sport. Commitment is mainly referred to in relation to putting in the training sessions but to me commitment is much more that. I like to refer commitment in the Bosack sense of the word.

When you take sleep out of the week, the athlete is awake for just over 100 hours a week and for those hours they must live each hour committed to the sport. People think that international athletes train about 40 hours a week, but the reality is closer to between 15 and 20. Most athletes will tell you that training is the easy part, it’s the other 80-90 hours in the week that are the hard part.

Staying out late, having a few beers, eating what you like are all luxuries that the athlete misses out on. Personally I could train for hours without feeling I am missing out on anything. It’s only when I have to scan the menu for the healthy option, miss out on going out with my friends, or have to refuse playing other sports for risk of injury that I feel the trade-off of choosing to compete at a high level. These are the times when it is difficult and this is what requires commitment. Lifting weights and running track sessions are things that I enjoy.

What makes athletics great that it is in essence performance with zero margin for error. Turning up at the track at 98% is not an option. Being at 98% is the equivalent of finishing 8m back at the end of a 400m race. With athletics there is no where to hide, and no amount of passion, will, or determination will make up for a lack of preparation. To quote another athlete, former marathoner Juma Ikangaa:

“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare”

Just another 3 months or so of preparation to go!

- Brian Murphy

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