Did all warmup drills on an incline, over about 30 meters, that got progressively steeper. After the warmup we went to the infield and did some easy 'grass sprints'. I did them in flats, with sweats on. We did 2*(25, 50, 75, 100) with walkback rest in between reps, and 4 minutes between sets. I went about 90% on them, just a nice smooth relaxed pace. Felt really good, for the first time in a while I'm finally starting to feel ready to run fast, and my fitness is awesome, these didn't even faze me.
After that we went over to a nearby hill, very steep, and about 50-60 meters long (rough guess). We 'sprinted' (80-90%) up it 11 times, jogging back down and doing 10 pushups and crunches at the bottom. It got quite aerobically challenging, as it was nonstop, and we were running up the hill very hard. The cooldown was just a 1km jog, and then I stretched for about 10 minutes.
Comments: Excellent workout, I was happy to have pushed myself through the hills, and I was really happy with my ability to cruise yet still go at a decent speed in the grass sprints.
Planning Ahead
Training has been going quite well lately, I have been able to string together a series of really good workouts. I have a meet Thursday, and Saturday. The whole month of May is jam packed with competition. I'm excited to start competing again, as it's been two months since the indoor season ended. Tommorrow I was planning on doing speed, but on Monday there is a mandoatory relay practice at school, so I'll probably have to do a few high speed runs, and I've been informed by my coach that I will be doing blocks Tuesday, so I think it would be wise to save my body, and just do extensive tempo tommorrow.
The plan for the next week looks like this.
Sunday: Extensive Tempo (Volume: 2000-3000 meters, moderate intensity)
Monday: Relay practice with school
Tuesday: Block work and intensive pyramid (likely something like 2, 3, 4,3, 2)
Wednesday: Extensive Tempo (Volume: 1500-2500 meters, easy intensity). I may also consider just doing a light circuit and stretch on this day to save myself for the meet.
Thursday:Meet. I don't know what events I'm doing yet, although I'll probably discuss it with the coach Monday.
Friday: Extensive Tempo or light circuit.
Saturday: Meet (100, 200)
Sunday: Extensive Tempo or light circuit
Monday: Submax Speed (95% work, under 60 meters very low volume, likely under 300 meters)
Tuesday: Extensive tempo(Easy intensity, volume 1500-2500 meters) or light circuit.
Wednesday: Meet (Again, don't know what I'm running)
1 mile jog
2*20m shuffle jacks
2*10m lunge walks
2*200 fast jogging pace (50%)
(Sweats off)
4*100 in <19 seconds,with 35-40 second recovery
Rest 1 minute
5*300 averaging around 56-58 seconds
with 1:30 minutes in between.
Ended up averaging 57.5, so just about perfect, although pace problems early.
4*100 in <19 seconds with 35-40 second recovery
(Sweats on)
1*200 fast jogging pace (50%)
600m cooldown jog
25 minutes of post workout stretching
Comments: A solid workout today. I had a little trouble hitting pace, the first run was slow (59) but the next two were fast (55's) but all in all it went well. I felt really relaxed the whole way, just really rhythmic and powerful. I had a good stretching session afterwards too. My muscles are finally starting to feel relaxed, powerful and fast, rather than sore, tight and slow. Fitness is good.
Just did a few handoffs at full speed. It wasnâ??t too taxing, but I also had to play rugby in gym, so it actually took a bit of a toll on me.
May 4, 2004
I did a lot to day. I had two periods of gym today, so that meant a lot of rugby, and I also had a relay practice at lunch, all of this on top of my regular workout after school! That workout was 3*40-50 meter starts from blocks, and then a intensive tempo pyramid of 150, 200, 300, 200, 150, 150. The starts went okay, although the weather was awful and I was really sore, I still managed to beat my training partner by .5-1 meter on all the reps. Here are the times for the pyramid
As you can see I started off conservatively, because I havenâ??t done this exact workout before so I didnâ??t know how tough it would be. I took 4 minutes after every rep. I pushed the 3 fairly hard, 42.3 is a fairly fast tempo pace for me, especially in flats in crappy weather. It wasnâ??t that hard though. The overall intensity of this workout was moderate, I wasnâ??t feeling great though.
May 5, 2004
I did the exact same circuit today as I did on April 28th, so refer to that if you want specifics. I just wanted to get the circulation going, as I was really sore after yesterday. I have a feeling the meet tommorrow is going to be cancelled, as we got a few inches of snow last night, and right now the temperature is hovering right around freezing. I donâ??t really care if itâ??s cancelled though, I could use the rest, and I wouldnâ??t mind opening over both 100 and 200 on Saturday with electronic timing, in nicer weather. Until itâ??s officially cancelled though, I have to be prepared to run.
The meet was cancelled so I just took a much needed rest day.
May 7, 2004
Just warmed up for 20 minutes inside the calisthentics, then did 20 minutes of stretching. Itâ??s amazing what three low intensity/rest days can do for you! On Tuesday I felt absolutely fried, my CNS, I was sore, and exhausted. Today I feel loose and fresh, and ready to compete tommorrow (100 and 200)!
Okay, I havenâ??t posted for a while, but thereâ??s a reason. The meet went fairly well, but there was a mixup with the results, so they havenâ??t been posted online yet, but Iâ??m told they will be ASAP. With that said, I ran decent in both the 100 and the 200. In the 100 I had an absolutely terrible start, and was 2 meters behind the guy beside me (who was a 7.4x 60 guy this indoor season, and had a pr of 11.55 last season). However I expected him to pull away from me, but I maintained the gap the whole way. I also beat my training partner whose fairly fast by a couple of meters, so I think things went well. In the 200, I ran decent, I was happy with my ability to relax on the curve.
May 9, 2004
Just a light circuit, very similar to the one on May 5th. I wanted to get outside for extensive tempo but it snowed overnight.
May 10, 2004
Submax speed work. I warmed up, and then just did 4 60â??s at 95%. It was really cold outside so I only took a walkback rest on the last 3 because I just wanted to get it done.
May 11, 2004
Rest.
May 12, 2004
Okay, I was supposed to have a meet today, but it was cancelled because it was snowing steadily throughout this whole week. Luckly the meet has been rescheduled for the 17th, so at least I donâ??t completely miss it.
May 13, 2004
Another circuit.
May 14, 2004
Some 95% SE with short rests.
After warming up:
100: 11.77
200: 24.98
300: 39.9
100: 12.2
Each rep done with 6 min rest, except after the 300 I had to take 15 minutes rest! The first 100 felt fantastic, I was barely trying at all, just completely relaxed. The 200 felt good too. In fact after the 1 and the 2 I was hardly fatigued at all. The 3 wasnâ??t even that bad while I was running it, but afterwards the pain hit me like a ton of bricks! It was really strange. The last 100 felt like crap. On a side note, I got this really strange pain in my calf right before the workout that refused to go away, and got worse afterwards.
May 15, 2004
Extensive Tempo
I did the same workout as I did on May 2 (Extensive Tempo 300s), except the cooldown was cut short because my calf hurt so badly. The 300â??s went well from an aerobic standpoint I did them 4 in the 56â??s and one in the 55â??s, and it didnâ??t feel any more difficulat than it did on the second, so I have an improved quite a bit since them. My calf though was giving me a huge amount of trouble throughout the workout. Afterwards, I had trouble walking home it was so bad.
May 16, 2004
Rest. My calf is killing me right now, so my only real goal between now and Monday is to get rid of the calf pain so I can compete well.
Okay first things first, meet results from May 9th.
100: No reliable time. They completely fucked up the 100 results, it seriously looked like they lost the results, and in an attempt to cover their asses made them up. I was given an 11.32 (!) And the guy beside me who beat me by 2 meters got 13.9. That should give you an idea of how inaccurate they were.
200: 24.30…. Not terrible, although I would have liked to have done a little bit better. A decent opener though, if I can continue to improve upon that time from here on in.
This week: (May 17-May19) This week my calf was still just terrible, so all I really did training wise was physio work, and bodyweight circuits. My calf is somewhat better, it is almost pain free when I walk, but sprinting is still really painful, and it slows me down for the first 20 meters or so.
May 20th, 2004
Regional Meet
Prologue: Okay for high school track there are three meets that count for anything. These are regionals, cities, and provincials. In Regionals you must finish in the top 4 to move onto cities, and in cities top 2 to move onto provincials. Today was the regionals. I was slated to run the 100, the 200, the 400, and the 4*1 relay. I ran my 100 prelim, and my 200 prelim, but then the meet got cancelled, due to heavy rain. Here are the results from the prelims:
100: 12.24q (3rd fastest prelim time overall)
200: 24.61q (5th fastest prelim time overall)
Comments: These are the only 2 races I got to run before it was called off, however these two races count towards the rescheduled date (Wednesday), so I don't have to run as much on Wednesday. My calf is really bothering me still, but it feels like it will be gone within a few days. The conditions were brutal, really cold, and wet, plus my aching calf, and I hadn't ran for a weak. If I can go into the next meet sharp, healthy, and we get decent weather, I think sub 12 is very possible. The 200 I ran poorly. I had no energy before the race, I was freezing, soaked, and injured, I just wanted to get the race done. I couldn't run aggresively on the curve at all, because I was afraid I would slip, or injure something. I think in good weather, had I been feeling better, I could have gone in the very low 24's.
Planning Ahead: Well, my injury definately held me back somewhat today, but the good news is I survived. I qualified for both finals. The next few days will look like this for me.
Friday: Physio, some light tempo (The intensity of the tempo will depend largely on how my calf is feeling.)
Saturday: Meet? There is a meet scheduled for this day, but it is supposed to be 8 degrees with a 100% chance of rain, so I don't know if it will be cancelled or not. Even if it isn't cancelled, I'm not sure if it would be wise for me to run in it. If I don't run in the meet, I'll do some tempo again, just getting back into the running groove without aggravating my calf.
Sunday: IF I did tempo the day before, I might try to get in a little speed work, obviously being extremely careful not to further aggravate anything. If I do compete on Saturday, this will just be a tempo/recovery day.
Damn, that meet just made my calf worse. Got some physio, but didn't really notice a huge difference. Afterwards I went over to the field and did about 10 100m runthroughs on the grass, at an easy pace but with short rest. I then did 3*300 with 1:15 rest. I did them all extremely slow, right around 70 seconds was about the fastest I could manage with my calf. I wasn't happy at all after this workout, my fitness seemed to be deteriorating as I was missing more and more training from injury.
Saturday May 22nd
Well the meet today was cancelled after all, but there's no way I would have gone anyway. I did a few hundred general fitness reps at home, then went over to the field and did 2*(10*100) w/30 seconds rest between reps, and 1:30 between sets. I did these pretty fast for tempo actually, in the 17-18 second range, in the rain with my sweats on. It was fairly challenging, but it's good to know my fitness hasn't detiorated that much yet. Did my cooldown jog and stretched for 20 minutes.
Sunday May 23rd
I don't know what it was about today's workout, but I suddenly feel more optimistic. I went through my warmup, and did my buildups. Doing my buildups with spikes on felt really really shitty on my calf, I felt so rigid and slow because of the pain. Absolute crap. But then things picked up a little bit. The workout was:
1*320 @ 400 meter race pace
320: 42.6 (26.3 200 en route)
Done with a rolling start to take a little bit of stress off my calf.
Did a 1500 meter cooldown, and had a 15 minute ice bath 2 hours post workout.
Comments: I'm actually rather satisfied with my 42.6. Keep in mind that I ran it at 400 meter race pace, not all out. I actually felt as though I had a lot left in the tank, and that I could have finished fairly strongly. My guess is I would have broken 54 handtimed, and there were many things I could have done better. One thing I need to do for sure when I race is to go out a little bit faster. 26.3h is like almost 27 FAT, so if I want to be running 53's, negative splitting is likely not the most efficient way to do it! I started aggresively, but cruised too much in the 50-200 section. I feel that when my injury clears up and I get a few 400 races under my belt, I will probably be able to drop a 52 by the end of the season.
Just a real light circuit, followed by stretch, trying to rest calf as much as possible.
Tuesday May 25th
Well to my complete shock, I found out this morning that the meet was today, not Wednesday as scheduled. That was a bit of a suprise, but I don't think it was that big of a deal, although I would have defintely liked more time to recover from Sunday's workout.
Regional Meet
200: 24.33 (5th place, no cities)
100: 12.11 (New PB, 4th place, cities)
400: 55.2 (New PB (first time ever ran), 4th place, cities).
4*100 relay (second leg): Have no idea what the time was, but our team won by about 25 meters and are going to cities.
Comments: What an exhausting meet! This is by far the most running I have ever had to do at one meet, it was absolutely insane. Okay, I'll go event by event. The 200: I don't think I ran my best race, but I didn't run terrible either. I was shocked that I didn't make top 4, although it was really close. 2nd through 5th were seperated by only .13. The 100: I ran okay. I got a new PB, so I guess that's worth being excited about. I got a okay start, by my standards(my start sucks), and the rest of the race was just average. So ya, pretty average race.
400: Okay this was my first 400 race ever. I was already pretty tired from running the 1 and the 2. I felt like I was going extremely slow down throughout the whole race, but I was just trying to qualify. I know that when I'm fresh, and with a more aggresive strategy, that I'll likely be able to drop low 54, high 53's.
4*100 relay: I was exhausted at this point, and we knew we had the fastest team on the track, so our goal was to just get the stick around and qualify for cities.
you probably could. im assuming all those times were elctronic. my best 200 was 24.8h:( so… yeah. hahaha it was right after i ran the 300h though, im assuming (hoping) i can run better. have you run sub 12 in practice? i could have sworn i saw sub 12 in this training journal somewhere.
I ran an 11.91h at a meet last year. My best time in practice is 11.5, but it was timed off first step so you have to add quite a bit. All of the times I post in meets are electronic unless otherwise noted.
Wow I haven't posted for a long time. I'll try to remember the best I can what happened.
Friday May 28th, 2004
Just light circuit and light stretch
Saturday May 29th, 2004
City meet:
100: 12.06 New PB
Comments: Unfortunately the 100 was the only event I was able to run, my calf really began to flair up. I was injured running the 100 as well, if I was healthy I know I would have been in the 11's.
Sunday, and Monday
Pretty much just passive rest days, trying to allow my calf to recover.
Tuesday June 1, 2004
Good workout today. I had a ART (Active Release technique) session on Monday, I'm hoping it will help. Today I opened up with my usual general fitness circuit, but that was just the warmup for the real work. I then moved to depletion squats. 2*(20 squats, 20 lunges, 16s, 16L, 12s, 12L, 8s, 8L, 4s, 4L) with 5 minutes between supersets. It was challenging, but not unbearable by any stretch of the imagination. Then did some decline pushups, and finished with some chins.
Wednesday June 2nd, 2004
Extensive Tempo today, pretty intense though. After my warmup (which had 4*100 tempo in it), I did 5*300 with 1:30 in between reps. The times were
55, 56, 53, 53, 53.
I don't remember the decimals, but you get the idea. This workout ended up being pretty tough overall, I felt some lactic towards the end of the last rep. The times are also probably much faster, because I think the 300 meter course that I paced off is a bit long. It was also on a grass track with tight turns.
Thursday June 3rd
Easy rest day.
Comments: Hmmm, I am a tad worried right now. I need some to do some serious thinking regarding the rest of my season. The last few weeks of training have been pretty crappy because of my injury, I've been doing the best I can to maintain fitness, but have been unable to do enough of the high quality speedwork neccesary. Since I don't have any meets for a while I'm patiently waiting for my calf to get back to 100%, while in the meantime doing a lot of general fitness work so when I am healthy again I can go right back into speed. I still have about 5-6 weeks before my season ends, and in that time I'll be emphasizing extremely specific speedwork (distances between 50 and 150m), because I feel that will yield the best results at this time. Today I'm just planning on doing a general strength circuit, then tommorrow I'll train with my club again, for the first time in a few weeks. I will keep you guys updated.
I don't know what it was about today's workout, but I suddenly feel more optimistic. I went through my warmup, and did my buildups. Doing my buildups with spikes on felt really really shitty on my calf, I felt so rigid and slow because of the pain. Absolute crap. But then things picked up a little bit. The workout was:
(jk)
