Sally McLellan BLOG

Well Perth was amazing and also a little dissappointing. Yes i know sometimes I may sound a little hard on myself, but I believe that if you have not achieve the result that you want then why do you have to be happy with it. Of course if you have tried your hardest then there is nothing else you can do but there is no reason why you should be happy you can be satisfied with something but you don’t have to be happy. People may not really agree with this at all but I believe that it keeps you hungry. Wanting more out of yourself is always better than being complacent.
My results were a mixture of happiness satisfaction and dissappointment…. First up was the 100m. I was going into the 100m with very good training from the session before hand and was looking forward to running a very good time possibly a personal best. I raced well and got out of the blocks strong the conditions we good maybe a little cold but otherwise not to bad. I ended up running 11.20, although this was the second fastest time I have ever run it was a result that resembled didnt anything I was doing in training before hand.. The hurdles were next and I was very excited and ready to run. I got out of the blocks vey fast and pulled away very early on from the other girls. My race was not the tidiest but it was still fast in a time of 12.85 the fastest time I have opened up with in my career, so I guess you can say I happy with my run and all is looking good heading to europe and onwards to the world champs. The next day was the 200 meters now I know I have been saying all season that I want to run under 23 seconds and I know that I can do it I know that I have more to come in this event than what I have been showing, unfortunately I have not shown this result as yet. I ran 23.22 and really was very dissappointed.

I am now waiting till nationals which is this week coming up on Friday Saturday and Sunday. I think that I will be only running the 100m and the 100m hurdles. The program at nationals does not allow me to fit all three events in so I have chose only two and not to push my body through breaking point in choosing three events.

In my next blog I will try my hardest to put some pictures up. I know I have been slack so I will do my best.

Talk to you guys soon.
Sally

It has been a down and up last couple of comps.

Melbourne track is known to be slow for sprinters to race on. Dont ask me why I have know idea why. In the last few years there has some very slow sprint times posted there. I raced in the 100m and 200m I won both events in ok times but again nothing very exciting. I dont really want to talk about the Melbourne meet all that much as I was quite disappointed with it. So, I will move onto the more exciting meet that was held just last night in Sydney.

The Sydney track classic is known for putting on a good meet. The weather conditions were horrible it was wet and it was cold, but, the wind had dropped which is always great for sprinting in that is when i started to get excited. I raced the 4x100m first up to try and help my team qualify for the world championships. Unfortunately it was meant to be. We missed out by 2 hundredth of a second. we ran 44.02 and 44 is the cut off. We have another chance later on in the year which hopefuly by then we should all be running fast and our skills will have developed a lot more. My second race of the night was the 100m, because of the dissappontment from the relay I used all my anger and frustration and put it into my individual races and it worked. I won the race and ran the second fastest time of my career which was 11.21 so I was very excited. my second event was the 200m. Now, by this time I have run two solid races within 1.5 hours and about to run my third half an hour later. I was very scared to run this race and very nervous, but I knew I had a fast race in me, unfortuantely because of the fatigue in my legs they could not pull me through for a fast time in the 200m and I only ran 23.12 I was looking for a time under 23 seconds.

Anyway next up is perth i will be heading over there next saturday. I will let you all kow how it goes.

sal

Wow what a few crazy weeks it has been.

First of all Brisbane.. I remember telling you all that i will run well in Brisbane and may well break the 23 second barrier. Well didnt that go well i came so close but yet i was still far enough away from it that i didnt break it. I ran 23.05. I was very disappointed by this time. I had trained so hard and was so focused for that event that i was sure that the time was going to come. These things happen and you have to move on from them and get focused for the next competition. I also raced in the 100m and ran a sloid 11.35 to also place first in that event as well.

Second of all… Hobart… Ahh Hobart was so cold, and coming from Brisbane where it had been 35 degrees and humid hobarts 15 degrees was like snow for me haha. Anyway the weather conditions did not help this time around the wind was very swirly and very strong and the temperature was very cold, so not the best connidtions to compete in. I did however manage to win my events in the times of 11.57 for the 100m and 23.60 for the 200m.

Thirdly… New Zealand.. This is a very sad time for New Zealand. All my complaining about bad winds and cold temperatures dont even compare to what New Zealand is facing at this time. I would like to pour my heart and soul out to our friendly neighbours and tell them to hang in there and let them know how sorry I am for them. I have a friend over there and she is ok. Her house is on a lean but thank goodness she is ok as well as her daughter.
I have never visited the country but I believe that it is the most incredible place to visit, which I hope that I can do one day.

Next up I have the 3rd installment of the Athletics Australia tour in Melbourne next Thursday night. There will be an American femle sprinter coming out to race me, which i am very excited about. Her name is Mikile Barbor, she has a personal best time of 11.02 and she is known to be quick out of the blocks. I look to forward to letting you all know how I went.

talk to you all soon.

sal x

The last time i had to pass the time was at the commonwealth games in Dehli. Sitting at home waiting for not as big a competition is still killing me. The Australian Athletics tour has finally started and begins tonight in Brisbane. I have been training so hard for the last 3 months and now it is time to see if it has all paid off. My first race is on at 7:57pm which is the 100m sprint the 200m is on at 9:10pm.

I am now sitting here though waiting, waiting, waiting. I need some good ideas from everyone as to what i can do to pass the time before i race.

Let me know,

sal

P.s results will be on here as soon as possible

It has been a great week. I had my second competition of the week and ran really well. My time in the 200m came down by .30 i ran 23.32 I also ran my first 100m competition and ran 11.46 which is the fastest in australia right now.

The weather conditions were perfect for competing on the gold coast. It was Hot and we had south easterly winds which means we had tail winds for the sprints which is perfect.

My next comp will be a big one it is the first race of the athletics australia tour which starts in brisbane on the 11th february. I am really looking forward to it. At the moment it feels like i am jumping out of my skin, i am so ready to race a good quality field and run well.

Also,

Just on friday i was awarded the gold coast sports star of the year for 2010. It is a huge honour to win this award and is also a very hard award to win with so many worthy winners, such as steph Gilmore, who has won it two times.

When an athlete wins these types of awards it feels so special. It shows that the people of your town and your state and your country are really looking out for you when your competing and taking notice, So, thank you everyone of the gold coast for keeping track.

till next time,

sal x

Well I had my first 200m race of the season and all went pretty well.

I didnt feel fantastic but i didnt feel terrible either. Usually for the first race of the season I tend to race a little tense and stiff and of course that is what happened this time butmy result wasnt all that bad. The time for the race was 23.66 seconds with a -1.8 headwind which is quite a strong head wind for sprinters. I am really happy to have the first race out of the way with not a too bad result.

My next race will be this weekend on the gold coast at the track that i train at. Ill keep you posted next week for results.

sally

I did say to you in my last blog that i was running last saturday. Unfortuantely that competition was cancelled due to floods. The competition has now been moved to this saturday in Brisbane.

I feell a lot more confident about runnig this weekend than i was last weekend. I have one more week of training under my belt and this week i am running off an easy week of training where as last week i was running off a hard week of training.

I asked my coach what she thought i could run this weekend and she said 22. 9 for the 200m!! I said WHAT!!!!! run that this weekend?? she said MMMMM maybe not this weekend maybe in your first athletics australia tour in Brisbane on the 11th of February. This has made me a little more excited to run now. Last week we were looking more at 23.8 for my first run. Now even though i may not break 23 this weekend i know it will be a lot faster than the 23.8 we had first predicted.

Anyway more from me after this weekend.

sal

My thoughts go out to all the flood victims in queensland. This is a terrible time for queensland residents but we will pull through it and come out stronger.

I live on the gold coast so at the moment my city is all good. There is no flooding, just a lot of rain. The governament are saying though that this flooding will be worse than the 1974 floods which saw flooding on the gold coast as well, so really everyone in the south east have to prepare them selves for anything and hope for the best.

I bought a boat at the start of december and have been out on it about 5 times now which is really quite depressing as well becasue of all of this rain. I cant complain though because i am safe and sound in a dry place at home.

On to some more happier news. My training is going very well. I have my first small interclub meet in brisbane on saturday which I will be running the 200m. My training partner and I are really quite nervous which is normal for the first race of the season. There will be a few good girls running as well which makes it even more nerve racking that I cant have it easy even for my first race.

Anyway better get back to it.

sal

Merry christmas everyone,

I know i havent been on here very much so I appologise for that. I know that a lot of you read my blog so I just wanted to say thank you for reading I am getting all your comments that you post on here and i appreciate a lot.

Right now I am into very hard training I actually had a vomit se4ssion the other day where me and my training partner both vomited haha, but it is going very well I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season pans out. I feel all i have to do is keep myself injury free and I should be coming out very well for competition.

The hopital opening went really well we had a lot of people turn out and a lot of media there as well to help spread the word about this amazing organisation.

I won my first major sport award which was queensland sports women of the year it was the most honourable award that could be won by a queensland sports women and I am really proud. At the moment I dont have a photo of me holding the trophy but I will chase one up and show you guys.

My first comp went really well although I did not make it out of the heats it felt good to be sprinting again. I have to admit it is hard chasing down girls that are about 15 meters ahead of me to try and win but it was a lot of fun and really good training for me. We were put up in this beautiful little cabin on the most beautiful winery at tops cap in country victoria.

I am now waiting to run my next race at this point I dont know exactly when that is but it should be sometime in january I will keep you posted.

For now it will be a lot more vomit session for me and my partner while we try and get through the hardest part of our season.

again thank you for everyone who comment and read my blogs i really do appreciate it.

thanks again sally

Some exciting news, i am now volunteering at currumbin wildlife santuary one day a week. My manager organised this for me for when i arrived back into australia. Animals are a huge passion for me and now that i get to be closer to them and helping them through a traumatic time is really rewarding. I am going to the official hospital opening which is held on the 30th of November at 11am, i am really happy that i can be apart of this fantastic role and to be there for the animals.

I have been back into training for about a week and half now. It is going really well and it is fantastic to be back except for the soreness and lactic that i get, but that is what i have to put up with as an athlete. My first competition is on the 19th of december. It is a gift race which means i will be running on grass and all the athletes are handicapped in different positions according to the times that they can run. No guesses where i will be positioned hahaha. i will be doing a few gift races this season as i really think that it helps with your speed endurance. When your at the back of the pack you have to run hard all the way to try and catch the girls who are ahead of you which means it is very hard work. Sometimes the girls can be as far as 20 meters ahead so i really am not allowed to slow down becasue i tend to catch them towards the end of the race where they are tireing.
My first big meet will be in Brisbane as part of the australian athletics tour. I am really looking forward to start competing already even though i have only just arrived back from over seas, so that is why i am so confident about next year and how i think it will work out really well.

anyway must be off, talk soon.
sal