On the 16th of March, I decided to drive over to NYUAD and test myself in the Ultimate Athletics 800m and 400m timed events. Medals were up for grabs for the 1st - 3rd places.
Long story short, I managed a podium in the men's seniors category in both the 800m and 400m events, spaced about 45 minutes apart. I went limping back home and was happy to shampoo the sand off from my hair.
To be fair, it was a heck of a windy day (Beufort scale 4) so there wasn't much of a turnout at the event. Which was good because I was wearing an ugly pair of Hypersprint 6 neon track shoes by Asics and was praying that no one would see me.
But those who turned up were pretty solid runners. In the 800m, I ran with one of the top teenage female running stars in Dubai - Megan Dingle - and was hanging on for dear life. Definitely felt 100 years older.
In the 400m, I was served some solid African competition but in hindsight, that turned out to be a great testosterone booster because I turned out my fastest 400m. In both events, I managed a PR from the last indoor meet at the same place.
A couple of preliminary photos from the action (check out the massive number of spectators!) :
The results were encouraging for someone who has had virtually no track running since last September 2016. I had great hopes to set up the Stryd powermeter and record data from the run. Unfortunately, the device didn't wake itself up during the second shorter run (the 400m), meaning I only captured data from the first 800m run. Bit of an annoyance.
From the data I did capture for the 800m, things went as follows :
Time : 2:30"
Pace : 5.3537 m/s
Cadence : 102 spm
Estimated VO2 : 55 ml/kg/min
Power to weight ratio : 5.30 W/kg
Form Power : 64W
Vertical Oscillation : 6 cm
Leg Spring Stiffness : 10 kN/m
Ground Contact Time : 176ms
Run Effectiveness (RE) = 1.01 m/s / W/kg
Energy Cost of Running = 0.98 kJ/kg/km
A couple of things from the data :
1) You notice that even though power picks up in the first 20seconds of the race, the other variables such as GCT, LSS, VO etc take time to activate. This is bizarre and I label it a lag from the Powercenter screenshot. I grow discouraged from the behavior of Stryd on short, fast track runs.
2) In the final lap, about 200m from the finish was a nice burst of 20kph headwind smack against the face. This was where I slowed down a bit but consciously picked up my legs in order not to fall behind (or fall off!). The delta in wattage from initial part of the race to this point was about 110W.
3) Knowing from a previous RAK half marathon race that my FTP maybe between 200-205W, the intensity factor of the 800m was approximately 330W ave / 200W = 1.65.
Race results, in old school paper form.
Highlight of the night was to get introduced to some solid fast twitchers from Zimbabwe (if I recall correctly). Somehow this 63kg slow twitcher was keeping up but it was a hard effort. I'll look forward to more, NYUAD!
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