SAC Mathew Bailey - Training Diary - 03 July 2012

july 2012This morning was a bit of an overcast day when we woke up a change to the clear sky’s we were getting used to. We were down the range shooting this morning so after getting ourselves sorted we headed down to the range for a morning of shooting. Today coach wanted us to practise for an upcoming shooting test. He told us we were going to be shooting in the prone shooting 20 rounds on each paper target 100 rounds all together over the 5 paper targets. The point of this was to get the best grouping in the centre of the targets as possible. It was hard going on the eye concentrating for so long but I could defiantly see an improvement with each 20 round grouping I did with the last one being my best. We finished off this session with a fun shoot on metal to see who could hit all the targets as fast as possible I came out on top doing it in 22 seconds (that's starting standing behind the shooting mat, getting on the mat, taking rifle off, loading, making ready, taking 5 shots, cocking in between every shot, putting rifle back on and standing up off the mat!) . In the afternoon we were down the range again but this time we were skating. It started to rain as we got there making a welcome change to the heat we had been training in the last couple of weeks. Today we were doing the longest loop of the track which is just a little over 5k (3 miles). This loop includes the terrifying cannonball downhill decent. Coach, Carl and l completed the first loop in 16 minutes which we then had to try and repeat for the next three maintaining a constant pace. It was a hard session, Carl and I were pretty knackered after and my legs would not stop trembling. While we did this Grant was doing a smaller 2k loop working on his footwork and technique around the track. Even though it rained which made the slip a little bit slippery in places it made for a welcome cooler session.