15th January 2022.
An impromptu competition was sprung after a long tiring week for Russel and a 100m and 400m was selected with 48 hours to go to the Shield by the lead coach Denise Boyd to assess the relative speed endurance and special endurance fitness of the athlete instead of the favoured 200m event.
Of course mixing race discipline at this stage in the training schedule has value in enabling coach’s to assess an athlete’s race-specific fitness for a sprinting distance but also to assess the specific fitness of the athletes and see in action the elements of Speed, Endurance, Strength, Tempo, and Race Modelling.
Whilst the timing and short notice allowed very little strategy and race modelling for the 400m a well-trained runner should still do well and Russel was able to produce a decent time of 48.67 and accomplish yet another 100m in a respectable 10.53.
Lead Coach Denise was “impressed with times considering the fatigue levels” of the athlete and short notice – no doubt gaining some good insights for further training and good race conditions feedback for fine tuning adaptations.
Russel commented “It’s been a consistent season so far and pleasing to continue run in the 10.50’s despite not always feeling fresh or work still to be done in the race execution. But we continue to build race fitness you can’t otherwise gain in training whilst waiting for all the puzzle pieces to match up!”
See Russel’s post on FaceBook: www.facebook.com/russelalexandernasirtaib