message by squatdr on the vertical summitt..i didnt make this up……..
so i started off by sprinting for the first time as a junior in college at age 20. i didnt sprint in highschool and hadnt flat our ran fast in a long time outside of playing bsaketball. i trained for size and vertical jump, but not speed. so when i started sprinting, quite frankly i sucked. it bothered me so much to the point that i was determined to be fast. at that time i was a 7.5 60 meter guy and i thought 7.2 was fast. so i busted my ass and ran 7.2 the next year. then i thought 7.0 flat was fast, came back and was overtrained and ran 7.3. so at this point people are telling me that i am slow, and that you are either fast or not. that pissed me off. trained on my own for a two years outdoors in snow and never was healthy, but managed to run small pr’s. then i ran a 7 flat with the flu. then i started running much faster. why? well i think i always had it in me, i just never showed it. the paralysis by analysis is my best explaination. that and my technique was worse than any human being i had ever seen. threw countless hours of trying to fix it (it still needs work) it improved, but i was still thinking too much. so finally, after advice from a good friend who told me to shut the brain off, i started running fast. then confidence starts going, then you start seeing the results of all those ice baths, contrast showers, stretching, foam rolling, training on the snowy track by myself etc kicking in, which reinforces you to do that more. i recently trained with a 10.22 sprinter, who used to beat me by over a second and to 60 meters i beat him, every time. my mind set is “shut the f*ck up and run” and it works, as long as technique is reasonably good. my personal best timed with a speed trap on an outdoor 60 meters is 6.59 with the 10.22 guy as my competition and that was with SLOOOOOOOW reaction time factored in but also some tailwind as well. i just had a groin tweak but i have been extra careful and i am excited to get back to see where i am at. personal bests speed traped time are 1.68 to 10 3.76 to 30 6.62 to 60 with reation time (the first two are with no reaction time).
so all in all, i did something, struggled, pushed threw it, was told i couldnt do it, did it anyway while training by myself outside in the snow, and got WAY faster, and with all that said, i got more in the tank! train hard.