BMAF Pentathlon Preview

Tomorrow I've got a competition - the British Masters Pentathlon Championships at Horspath Stadium just outside Oxford.

There are 6 entrants in my category (35-39 yr olds). On paper, I am ranked 6th. I haven't trained much recently so can't expect too much of a performance, but I still have some targets I want to beat:

Long Jump - 5.00m - (PB is 5.95 in 1994, but last year 4.93m)
Javelin - 50m  - (PB is 63.14m from 1994 but in recent years have thrown 51-54m)
200m - 27.5s -  (100m PB is 13.01s last year - no idea how it should equate)
Discus - 35m  - (PB is 32.23m set in Decathlon last year, from standing)
1500m - Under 7 mins!  - (last year I did it in 7:05, hobbling to the line nursing injuries)

If I can match those targets, that will earn me a total of 2020 points. Anything less than 2000 will be a disappointment, but anything over will be a pleasant surprise. If I can try and catch 5th or 4th place, that would be awesome!!

Setting off before 9am and competing in the afternoon, will try to Tweet progress and get some video footage for the comedy value!

My match write up may be Monday if I'm home too late tomorrow,

Thanks for reading!

p.s. - Here's my write up of last year's decathlon for charity: http://grahamlay.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/decathlon-2011-uk-masters-for-rays-of.html

100m statistics

Usain Bolt is widely regarded as being the fastest man who ever lived, and to some, unbeatable.

His 9.58 seconds World Record is 0.11 seconds faster than anyone else has ever run.

In the build up to the London 2012 Olympics, I thought I'd have a look at where the contenders stand in terms of track record and see just how far ahead he is of the rest of the field.

There are 3 athletes contending who stand out from the rest in terms of their PBs:

9.58 Usain Bolt
9.69 Tyson Gay
9.72 Asafa Powell

Number of races under 9.80:

Usain Bolt - 9 times
Asafa Powell - 8 times
Tyson Gay - 7 times

Usain's 9.58 is the only one time anyone has ever run faster than Tyson Gay's PB, including Usain Bolt.

Asafa Powell is the sprinter who has clocked the most sub 10.00 races ever (over 80 times!)

The current rankings for this year:

9.76 - Usain Bolt
9.85 - Asafa Powell
10.00 - Tyson Gay (first race back since injury, into a 1.5m/s headwind)

In the latest Powell v Bolt race, Powell had the better start and led up to the half way mark before Bolt came through with a strong last 30m - a sign that he isn't as far ahead as many believe.

Usain and Asafa have both run sub-10 3 times so far this year. So has Justin Gatlin who recently prompted controversy by hinting that he could be the man to beat Bolt. Yohan Blake is another contender with a 9.84 clocking this year.

Providing Bolt, Powell and Gay make it through to the final, injury free (we all hope), it could just be the most amazing race we've ever seen, and perhaps not the runaway victory for Bolt that many people expect....

Here's the second fastest run of all time - Tyson Gay after a terrible start. What could he run if he nails his start?

Six Day Diet App

When I lost 14.5lbs in 6 days I was totally surprised. That was in 2009 when my personal trainer devised a diet with me to give me a kickstart. I ended up losing 3 stone in 3 months using the principles from the diet and it transformed my life.That's no flowery marketing gumph, it's a real story and one that has prompted hundreds of people to ask me to share the diet with them. 

Recently, I decided I'd have a go at making an Android App to share the diet on the open market. It cost me £16 to register as a Google Developer, the Buzztouch website was FREE and helped me to learn how to go about it and download all the necessary bits n bobs. It took a couple of weeks to learn, develop and then publish the app - not too bad, only a few frustrations along the way!

Anyway, here it is: Six Day Diet App

I've charged 75p for it to help cover the cost and time involved, and hope to raise enough to invest in a Mac so I can then go on to develop Apple Apps in the future. Please share the link as i'd like to help others lose weight and change their lives and also raise enough pocket money to take the next step in my hobby of app development! :-D Thanks