Not Too Dorky

Provincials is fast approaching so practice today included lots of time trial starts and sprints. Thanks to ShH, I finally know what I look like when I do my time trial starts. She took plenty of pictures and videos today during practice. If picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture and a video together should make my post quite brief. Let's take a look:

This video was taken probably during my third or fourth attempt because I remember my balance was off in my first few tries. JeP gave me some good advice...do not stick my bum out while I run! Ideally, I want to generate forward momentum and the feeling would be similar to falling forward. With my bum sitting back, my running motion was too up right and it looked like my body was dragging behind. ShH commented that my start was smooth and coach SZ agreed that the general mechanic of my start was all in place. I do need to keep in mind of a more aggressive arm swing and of course stepping one foot in front of the other so the initial run would be more crisp.

This picture was taken close to the end of the drill when I was a lot more confident. I absolutely love this picture! To have my foot off the ground like that and the body leaning forward, that is something I wasn't able to do last season. Somehow, things just sort of came together this year and I no longer feel awkward with my starts. Still a long way to go but I can't really complain. For some comparison, this is what I looked like this time last season during Provincials: 1, 2, 3, and 4.

After the TT starts, we moved on to group starts in preparation for 500m sprints. The distances varied between 50 to 200m. My running legs were missing today and my tempo was still not fast enough during the sprints. My reaction to the start signal was reasonable and I could typically reach the 50m mark in front of my group. Beyond that though, my poor acceleration caused me to lose significant ground. This is something that I continue to work on though I doubt any miracles will happen this season.

Picture and video by Shannon Hegarty.