Swan Districts FC Pre Season

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -1000

* I have recently completed the pre Season training with the Players from Swan Districts Football Club. The Pre Season campaign commenced 2nd November, 2011.

The Players managed to complete the training program really well. The key fitness objective was to markedly improve Run endurance. Some very impressive times were achieved in the final 3km TT. Notably, Wes Lammie ( our Ruckman @ 104kgs, 200cm ) 3km in 9:30!

Part of the Pre Season program was an intensive training Camp at a farmstay at Williams. The Camp was based on Military training techniques, involving supply runs, team work, sleep deprivation etc.

Overall the camp achieved desired outcomes. I was very proud of the way in which the majority of the Group took on the challenges asked of them.

The planning and application of activities and motivation of the players by SAS Physical Training insructors Shane Saltmarsh and Glenn Folkard was professional and a clear example of why they are part of our elite Defence force.

The players were inspired by their presence, insight and direction.

When I designed the 2011/2012 SDFC Pre-season program, I considered this Camp to be one of the most important factors in the Players preparation. It was!

I am sure they will remember this experience for many years to come, for good reason!

News April 2012

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -1000

* Ben Bevan is going to Kona. Qualified at Ironman Western Australia.

* Tim Carpenter is going to Kona. Qualified at Ironman Melbourne.

* Darryl Watton completed the 2012 Marathon Des Sables. The MdS is a 6 day / 243km endurance race across the Sahara Desert in Morocco. Darryl placed 35th out 0f 796 in a time of 28hrs 32 mins.

>>> Latest from Darryl <<<

Hi Andy

We did it!

I am absolutely over the moon as the whole week couldn’t have gone any better. I stuck to the plan of heart rate dictating the speed that I travelled and it worked perfectly circa 135-145bpm. Day 1 was a mad day when everyone shot off – me included – but I slowed back down at CP2 as my HR was 10bpm too high. The temperatures on day 1 – 3 were 45-51deg but it didn’t appear to affect me too much as I presume the acclimation had worked. Each day I started off at my target heart rate and picked up places as each day went on – my pacing was spot on and I took confidence that hardly anyone overtook me after about 10km because they had gone off too quickly.

The long day was the dream day as all the training was focused on it and, again, I started slow following my heart rate and left the others to the do their thing. I didn’t take any notice of the other runners until after about 40km when I was caught the lead runners and we stayed together for the dunes and then I just wandered off ahead with an aussie who was a very quick runner. The last 20km were superb running – down hill, wind behind, good surface and I enjoyed it right to the last when I crossed the line second. Not being caught by the elite is a great accolade. I got TV and press interviewed – standing ovation by the support crews and was seen on the webcam by lots of friend and family as I crossed the line. Finishing in day light was excellent as only the 2 of us did so!

The marathon day was hard work and I ran very hard to keep position including 170bpm for the last 4 km to hammer it. It’s still not my slowest marathon and 4hr 10min is quite respectable for normal races let alone after 200km of hard running. The final day was really hard as I had nothing left in my legs for the dunes. I was totally gone with 5 km still to go as we finished with 9km of high, hard dunes which took all my reserves to complete. As you’ll see from the results I missed out on 34^th by 2 seconds – but who cares!

The nutrition worked very well indeed and I’m glad I took the extra weight especially as I had the confidence to carry it from all the hard training sessions. Some in my tent had 2000kcal per day whereas I had 3500kcal.

To finish it all off, one of my tents mates – extremely rich – gave me and another tent mate a lift back from the finish to the hotel in a helicopter which saved us a 6 hour coach trip and gave us the opportunity to relax on leather seats in air conditioning drinking fruit juice – I was a speechless Cheshire cat.

I had an unspoken dream to finish in the top 100 and to finish 35^th is so far beyond expectations I don’t know how to thank you. Your training plan worked an absolute dream and I had no doubt throughout the whole week that I had (been) prepared as meticulously as possible. I hope you take pleasure in getting me to finish 35^th as I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you and the family’s support and guidance.

Now I am very tired and will, no doubt, get ill within the next few days as my immune system gives up. I hope that within a month I’ll be back and running but I want to enjoy the euphoria of the event for a long time.

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Swan Districts FC Pre Season

News April 2012