Okay, I've been doing some thinking and I have formulated a plan for the next few days.
06-05- Extensive Tempo- 5*300 @ :54 â?? 1:30 minutes rest
06-06- Intensive Tempo- 5*200 @ :26 w/ 5 minutes rest (spikes)
06-07- Recovery-ART Therapy- contrast shower, abs circuit, extended stretch
06-08- Track with coach, not sure, but likely something of moderate to high intensity
06-09- Extensive Tempo- 15*100 @ :17 w/30 seconds rest.
06-10- Track with coach, similar to 06-08
Hopefully after this my calf will heal to the point where I can do some decent speed work, but only time will tell. This plan should keep me in okay shape, but I'm getting really anxious as my speed right now isn't where it should be, but I can't do anything about it, really irritating.
Tough workout today. To warmup I jogged 1200m, did my usual drills, jogged another 600 m, then did 4*100 of easy tempo w/30 seconds rest in between. I then moved onto the workout. The planned workout was:
I ended up taking 1:35 between reps instead of 1:30 (may not sound like much but can make a big difference over the course of the workout). To cooldown I did 4*100 easy tempo, jogged for 10 minutes, walked home, and stretched for 20 minutes.
Comments: Really tough workout today! Mentally and physically. To start with it was real hot out, it was like 25 celsius (77 Farenheit). That probably doesn't sound hot at all to the Americans in the crowd, but in Canada that is killer heat. It really took a lot out of me and made this workout a lot harder. I wasn't really feeling particularly motivated at the start. I felt tired after my warmup, and then after each rep I didn't think I would make it. After each rep I told myself I would quit after the next one, but I never did, so I'm proud of myself. I got quite a solid lactic burn towards the end of the last two, moreso than anticipated. I probably should have eased off a bit, to make this workout easy to recover from, but I hate doing that. Since today was almost intensive tempo, I might change tommorrow planned intensive tempo workout to something different, like 3*200 @ 400 race pace with 10 minutes in between, or something of that nature.
Warmup- 15 minute of GS excercises, really got a good sweat going.
10 minutes of stretching
Had to sit around for a while travelling to track
5 minute jog
3*40 meter buildups in flats @ 85%
1*40 meters @ 95% in spikes
Workout: 2*3*100 w/3 minutes between reps and 10 minutes between sets.
Set 1
1: 11.24
2: 11.25
3: 11.54
Total: 34.03
Set 2
1: 11.55
2: 11.81
3: 12.1? (timing error)
Total: 35.46
Important note: All runs were done with a 10m rolling start (timed from first foot contact over start line) to take stress off the calf, so the times are a bit faster than they would be from a standing start.
Not much cooldown, just a 400m or so jog.
Comments: Okay, to start with the weather. It was freezing, rainy and windy, absolutely brutal. By the end of the workout my shirt was probably about 2 pounds heavier than it was at the beginning. It was rough, I had a huge amount of trouble maintaining any sort of a warmup whatsoever. Despite that I am happy with the way this workout went. I took 400mg of Motrin before I went, and it seemed to help with the calf pain moreso than Tylenol. The emphasis on all the runs was not speed, but staying relaxed and holding form, particularly towards the end of the rep. This workout wasn't that tough from a lactic perspective, but it was tough neurally. The reason I didn't go with the planned 200's, was because the curve was absolutely soaked, I would have had to run extremely slow, or risked killing myself, so I didn't feel it was worth the risk. I'd say within a week I'll be able to do my speed work from standing starts again. This workout felt really good, and I'm fairly pleased with the overall times. I think this will help my 200.
Thinking Ahead
This session has made me way more optimistic about the remainder of the season. I remember a quote from CF, I think it was "Great competition performances are a result of a series of great workouts". This is really very true. When I look back at my indoor training journal I had about a month of really good workouts before I dropped the bomb (24.18 indoors). I want to do that again, so far I have strung together 2 awesome workouts, if I can keep this up the whole month, my season may still turn out good despite lost training time. The emphasis will be on really high quality speed work, specific MaxV and SE work, with some fast lactic work as well. Tommorrow I want to have a good recovery day, to make it three good workout days in a row.
Comments: Good recovery session got the blood flowing well. Training with my team tommorrow for the first time in weeks, looking forward to that, hoping to do something fast.
Had an ART session later in the afternoon. Seems to be helping, as I predicted earlier I think my calf will be almost as good as ever within a week or so,
Worked out with team for the first time in a while, it wasn't a great workout, but it was okay. When I realized we were doing a pyramid (2, 3, 4, 3, 2) I was dissapointed as I was hoping to do some speedwork. I decided to take the runs easy, but shorten the rest, so it would be like a fast extensive tempo workout.
200: 31.2
300: 48.0
400: 1:08
300: 47.6
200: 28.5
Took 3 minutes rest between all reps except after the first 200 where I took 4. Did some light grass tempo and stretched for about 15 minutes to cool down.
Comments: Like I said not a great workout, but at least I should be able to do something of high quality tommorrow. It served it's purpose as a recovery/work capacity workout.
Wednesday June 9th
Great session today!!! I had this morning off school, so I got up at 9, ate breakfast and was at the track by quarter after 11. After a full warmup I was feeling good, it was really nice outside. The workout was 2*150, 1*100 with 10 minutes rest between all reps and sets.
I used a 10 meter rolling start again to take stress of my calf. I think it is about the same as my old timing method, since I start the watch as soon as I hit the line, rather than off first step, so you can add about .7 to get a FAT time.
150: 17.16 (Split 8.14 at 70 meters)
10 minutes
150: 17.22
10 minutes
100: 11.54
Cooldown: 2*100 tempo, 5 minute jog
Comments: Just an awesome session. If you look at my indoor journal you'll see that I ran a 17.25 just a week before running 24.18 indoors (likely sub 24 outdoors). Now I'm running 17.16, and a 17.22 just 10 minutes later. Normally I would have been absolutely trashed after one tough 150, and if I had attempted another it would have been 3 tenths slower.
I think I am ready to go sub 24, and here's why. When I'm in good shape I can run a 7.6 60, and probably an 8.7 70. On a curve during a 200 meter race let's say 8.8 (Considering i ran an 8.84 FAT equivalent today). I know I can run the next 80 or so in about 8.9, I proved this today when I did it in 9.02, with a few more weeks 8.9 is possible. I'm pretty sure I could finish the last 50 right around 6. Add those up and you get 23.7 which is about where I want to be.
Planning Ahead
Here's the plan for the next few days.
06-10- I have to take tommorrow off to attend an awards ceremony
06-11- Tempo 15*100 @ :18 w/30 seconds rest.
06-12-Track with club, likely some block starts.
06-13-Tempo (2*100, 300, 550, 300, 2*100) 100's in :18, 300's in :55, 550 in 1:50, with 30 seconds rest after 100's, 1:30 after 300, 3:00 after 550)
Well I didn't do my original planned tempo session, but that is because I played about 3 hours of ball hockey. It really got the blood flowing, but tired me out a lot too, so I figured extra tempo work on top of all this activity would be more destructive than anything.
Planning Ahead
Well I have a session tommorrow with my team, and I was told on Tuesday that we'll be doing blocks/technical speed work tommorrow, so that is what I am anticipating. What I don't know is how much, how intense, or if there's any other additional work. So I'll refrain from planning ahead until after tommorrow morning's session.
Good session today. After a nice warmup, I got the blocks out and did a series of starts.
1*20, 1*30, 1*40, 3*50-60
None were timed unfortunately, and I didn't have anyone to race against like I usually do, so it's difficult to say if they were fast or not. They felt good though, and that's all I have to go on. My coach gave me a tip that really helped, he told me to get my butt higher in the set position, and it really seemed to help. For the first 20 meters I just focused on that, and being explosive with my arms. When I started to come up, I focused on being nice and quick with my stride, not allowing myself to get lazy. After that it's all about relaxation.
Planning Ahead
Okay, I found out today I'll be doing a submax SE pyramid. This kind of makes planning a bit awkward, but I should be able to manage.
Sunday: 15*100 @ :18 w/30 seconds rest
Monday: Maybe a short accel session, sprints between 20-40 meters?
Tuesday: SE Pyramid, likely something like 100, 150, 200, 250, 200, 150, 100 w like 6 minutes rest between each, @ 90-95%, relaxed but fast
Good tempo session today. After warming up I did 15*100, most of the times were in the 17's so i was pleased with that. Rest interval was 30 seconds. I did these runs on the track infield, I usually do my tempo on a different field. The reason I'm mentioning this is because The distance I did on this day was almost exactly 100 meters, whereas the distance at the other field was just paced off by me, and I think it might be a bit long. This is because I had an extremely easy time doing this workout, that I thought would present a moderate challenge. Of course this could just be indiciative of my good fitness.
After the tempo I went home and did 300 general fitness reps (calisthentics and core reps). I then did 15-20 minutes of stretching.
Comments: Overall this was a really good recovery day, I got my core temperature really high and really got the blood flowing, so I feel good. The workout also felt real easy so I know I'm in pretty good shape. On a slightly negative note, my right hamstring felt pretty tender during the workout. I think it's because I have done a lot of speed work this week, after going 3-4 weeks with almost none, so it's not a big deal yet, and shouldn't be as long as I'm careful
Monday June 14th
Rest
I was considering doing a speed session today, but I opted against it for a few reasons. The weather's crappy, my hamstring is tender, and I have an SE session that I'm doing tommorrow. On top of that I'm still a bit fried from Saturday's blocks session. I don't feel as though I would have gained anything from doing this workout, and it could have even been detrimental because it could have detracted from the quality of tommorrow's session and tired me out even further.
I am really looking forward to tommorrow's session!
The times on the 1's and 2's were 11.53, 24.68, and 12.01, as usual handtimed off first step. The first 100 felt absolutely awesome, I felt like I was jogging and I still ran a 12.2 FAT equivalent. I am confident that it is just a matter of time before I go sub 12 FAT (hopefully Saturday). The block start were good as well, I won both the races to 60 against my training parteners. It was really weird though because as I was passing them i felt like I was running slow. Maybe that's a sign that my nervous system is in good shape (less 'background noise'). Just did 2 laps for the cooldown. I think my nervous system is really fatigued right now, but I have a lot of easy days to rest before the meet Saturday. I'll do a low intensity day tommorrow, and then just a light day Thursday, probably relay exchange work or something like that, and then just my usual pre-meet day, which is light circuit and stretch.
Just my full core circuit, followed by a stretch. Unfortunately my right hammie is REALLY acting up right now. At this point I was not sure if i would be good to go Saturday.
Thursday June 17th
Well I went to my club to workout today, but unfortunately my hamstring is even worse. I went through my warmup, attempted a few slow accels, and knew right away I would not be able to workout. Just did some stretching and that's it. Things are looking sketchy for Saturday. Injuries are beginning to drive me crazy.
Friday June 18th
Complete rest, except for an ART therapy on my hamstring. Hoping for the best but things don't look good.
Saturday June 19th
Well as stated in the previous entries I was pretty sure my hamstring would impair my ability to run, however miraculously it barely affected me at all today, so needless to say I was thrilled. This is the first meet since early May where I have not been hampered by injuries, so I was definately excited. I ran 100 prelims, 100 finals, and the anchor leg of our 4*1. Here are the results.
100: 12.11q, 12.04 New PB
Comments: Very pleased with the 100's. In the prelim I had an unbelievable start, I actually think I may have had a slight lead until 20, which almost never happens with me. I ran the rest of the way solid but not great. The finals was a really good all around race. I knew it would be fun because my training partener, who is about the same speed as me, was in the lane beside me. He got about a 1 meter lead out of the blocks, but I slowly realed him in and ended up beating him by .01, so that felt good. My speed is coming back to me, slowly but surely, and I think that I will break 12 by the end of the year, if I get good conditions. I had a +1.1 wind for the finals, so that was helpful, although I felt a bit drained from being in the sun so much. I am looking forward to the 200's tommorrow, I would be thrilled if I was able to go sub 24, which I think may be possible, now that my speed is coming back, I'm relatively uninjured, and I have been working my SE hard in the last little while.
Comments: Well I got a new PB so I can't complain too much. I ran an okay race, not bad not great. The key thing now is that I'm not injured, so I can finally run at the high quality neccesary to stimulate improvements. I'm getting closer and closer to sub24, so that is positive.
Well I've ran 4 races in the last 2 days, and 2 of them were PB's, so needless to say I'm just looking to recover right now. I had a really good contrast shower in the afternoon, got some more ART on my hamstring (which is much better; probably around 80%, should be near 100% within a few days), and then did a full 30 minutes bodyweight circuit + some drills. I stretched for about 30 minutes afterwards, and I'm really starting to feel loose all over which is good. I feel ready to do some quality work tommorrow!
In the evening I mowed the lawn for 45 minutes. It was actually a suprisingly good circulation workout, so I did about 15 minutes of stretching afterwards. I feel really really loose right now and ready to run, the first time I've felt this good in weeks.
The stretching seemed to have done some good, I felt like I was bouncing off the ground during the warmup today. It was a speed day, and the workout was as follows.
3*30 from blocks @ 100 %
1*80 from blocks @ 100%
1*80 standing start
1*60 standing start
All with full recovery. I felt great coming out of the blocks, more explosive then ever. I seemed to have trouble during the max speed phase though, so I need to focus on lighter quicker strides during that period. The time on the 80 was 9.23, which is just okay, but it would have been way faster had some lady not walked right into my lane during the run, completely throwing off my rhythym over the last 30 meters. The 60 was a poor 7.15, but I think that was just due to fatigue. Overall I feel pretty good.
Wednesday june 23rd
Rest
Thursday June 24th
4*30m from blocks, all out. Again my starts were excellent, I'm looking forward to competing on Saturday. AFterwards I did 300 general fitness reps, followed by a 20 minute stretch. Friday will just be a circulation/stretching/easy general fitness day to prepare for the meet on Saturday.
