Keeping It Going

By Paul Hession The last time I wrote a diary entry I was in Ostrava preparing for the 300m against Jeremy Wariner the following day. It went pretty well. I came 2nd in 32.47, which is another Irish Record. I had hoped to run under 32.5 so it was objective complete to an extent. It shows that I am a lot stronger than I have been in previous years and the fact that I now can put my head on the block in a 300m against the World Champion without much thought shows how far my confidence levels have come. It was an interesting race. As I half expected, I ended up in the lane outside Wariner. I think he went off a lot quicker than I expected and I responded to him between 50m and 150m. As a result, I went through 200m in 20.55-20.60 which was a bit quicker than I had wanted to.

He went through in 20.3 so I was about 2 metres off him. As expected, he walked away from me up the straight. I really suffered in the last 50m and only got an 11.9 for the last 100m. This was maybe half a second down on what I would have hoped for but it was still excellent. The whole race gave me a really great training effect and I flew home from Ostrava with an Irish record under my belt! My training partner, Paul McKee, was also in the race and he came 4th in 33.33, which was also under the old record.

I had planned to spend a weekend in Dublin before heading back to Scotland on the Monday. However, while on the way home I had learned that my dad was involved in a bit of an accident at home. I went straight back to Galway and spent a few days at home with my family. He will be fine though and I came back to Scotland a couple of days late to get one session in with Nick prior to the European Cup in Tallinn. It went well and myself, Stuart and Brian headed off, bright and early, on a 6am flight from Edinburgh on Thursday morning. I ran the 100m and 4x100m relay on Saturday. Everything went fine. The 100m was a nice solid win in 10.30. The wind of +2.1 was a bit baffling, as it was calm, but nonetheless I was very pleased. My top speed and turnover definitely seems to have progressed to another level. It augurs well for my next races over 200m. Our relay changes went poorly and, as a result, we only managed 40.90 for 2nd place in race we maybe should have won but it could have been a whole lot worse!

On Sunday the lads had their 2nd attempt at qualifying in the 4x400m relay. Unfortunately Day 2 had very strong winds so it was not going to be easy to run fast. The lads put up a phenomenal fight to win in 3:04.43 which was only a few hundredths short of where they need to be. At the moment they are lying in 18th, with the top 16 in the world getting to go to the Olympics. Our training group were involved in all 3 victories that the Irish men’s team had (me in 100m, Paul in the 400m and Paul & Brian in the relay) so it was a good day for Group Hogg! On Sunday morning in Tallinn I got a nice blow-out session in myself which I felt I needed before really sharpening up going into the next phase of races.

I am now back in Scotland getting in a week of solid specific work before my next race. In my next 3 races I am going to really concentrate on the 200m. I race on Wednesday in Salamanca, the following Wednesday (9th) in Thessaloniki and then I come home for the Cork City Sports on July 12th where I will double up over 100m and 200m. This is a vital race period to get me really race fit and sharp. I will have decent races at all three meets so I can really test myself and see where I am at. I must say I am really looking forward to it. I have intentionally kept away from the 200m for the last few weeks so I am now itching to get in there and get a few more under my belt!
I had hoped to run under 32.5 so it was objective complete to an extent. It shows that I am a lot stronger than I have been in previous years and the fact that I now can put my head on the block in a 300m against the World Champion without much thought shows how far my confidence levels have come. It was an interesting race. As I half expected, I ended up in the lane outside Wariner. I think he went off a lot quicker than I expected and I responded to him between 50m and 150m. As a result, I went through 200m in 20.55-20.60 which was a bit quicker than I had wanted to.

He went through in 20.3 so I was about 2 metres off him. As expected, he walked away from me up the straight. I really suffered in the last 50m and only got an 11.9 for the last 100m. This was maybe half a second down on what I would have hoped for but it was still excellent. The whole race gave me a really great training effect and I flew home from Ostrava with an Irish record under my belt! My training partner, Paul McKee, was also in the race and he came 4th in 33.33, which was also under the old record.

I had planned to spend a weekend in Dublin before heading back to Scotland on the Monday. However, while on the way home I had learned that my dad was involved in a bit of an accident at home. I went straight back to Galway and spent a few days at home with my family. He will be fine though and I came back to Scotland a couple of days late to get one session in with Nick prior to the European Cup in Tallinn. It went well and myself, Stuart and Brian headed off, bright and early, on a 6am flight from Edinburgh on Thursday morning. I ran the 100m and 4x100m relay on Saturday. Everything went fine. The 100m was a nice solid win in 10.30. The wind of +2.1 was a bit baffling, as it was calm, but nonetheless I was very pleased. My top speed and turnover definitely seems to have progressed to another level. It augurs well for my next races over 200m. Our relay changes went poorly and, as a result, we only managed 40.90 for 2nd place in race we maybe should have won but it could have been a whole lot worse!

On Sunday the lads had their 2nd attempt at qualifying in the 4x400m relay. Unfortunately Day 2 had very strong winds so it was not going to be easy to run fast. The lads put up a phenomenal fight to win in 3:04.43 which was only a few hundredths short of where they need to be. At the moment they are lying in 18th, with the top 16 in the world getting to go to the Olympics. Our training group were involved in all 3 victories that the Irish men’s team had (me in 100m, Paul in the 400m and Paul & Brian in the relay) so it was a good day for Group Hogg! On Sunday morning in Tallinn I got a nice blow-out session in myself which I felt I needed before really sharpening up going into the next phase of races.

I am now back in Scotland getting in a week of solid specific work before my next race. In my next 3 races I am going to really concentrate on the 200m. I race on Wednesday in Salamanca, the following Wednesday (9th) in Thessaloniki and then I come home for the Cork City Sports on July 12th where I will double up over 100m and 200m. This is a vital race period to get me really race fit and sharp. I will have decent races at all three meets so I can really test myself and see where I am at. I must say I am really looking forward to it. I have intentionally kept away from the 200m for the last few weeks so I am now itching to get in there and get a few more under my belt!