40 Year old Decathlon Training Journal

Yeah, I lost a lot of time this year with assorted knee injuries keeping me off the track. Also I will admit that tempo running like I need to do is something I have to mentally push myself for. The reality is based on my running experience and physical testing is that the problem isn’t VO2max, but lactate threshold. So a lot of tempo running is going to be in the immediate future.

Immediate goals would be to get over 15ft in the lj, 35 ft in the shot, 60 in the 400m and 6:30 in the 1500m. All are physically obtainable.

Upcoming meets are an open meet tomorrow night with the lj, sp, and 400m. I’ll have some Friday night pole vault meets through the middle of July, a couple of association meets on the 10th and 17th, and the pentathlon at the outdoor masters nationals next month. Plenty to keep me busy. 🙂

As for the physical parameters, I’m 6′ 210″ (was 190 in college) with a BFI of about 19.0. Decent amount of weight work, need to do more olympic and single arm dumbell work, more tempo work, more static stretching after work outs, and get back into plyometrics once my knee feels strong enough.

Wish I was going out to the Master’s Pent next month (but I don’t hit Master’s age until July 30). Why don’t you come out to IL and do the throws Pentathlon (Master’s Throws National Champs) on August 7-8 in Chicago?

Umm, because I have no experience with the weights? Seriously, I’ve never tossed a hammer or weight and all things considered I’d rather focus my energy on losing a bit more fat, and improving my skills for the commonality stuff rather than learning new events that would take away from the sprints/jumps.

Workout for June 22:

Warmups: 4 100m straightaways, drills, dynamic stretching, and hurdle flexibility work

Workout was abbreviated due to some fatigue from the 200m runs the day before and a meet tonight so I focused on long jump approaches. Couldn’t seem to get a proper approach to the board no matter how much I moved up on the runway. I suspect the previous days fatigue was affecting me as I didn’t feel top speed at all.

Plan for the meet tonight is long jump, shot put, and 400 meters.

Meet on June 23.

Shot put best throw was 29′ 6″. Better than last outing but a good 2-3 feet below what I threw in practice a year ago. Not sure what I am missing but I know my top end weight lifting strength is down a bit as I lost 15 pounds in that year.

400 meter was a disaster. Went out well through 250 meters, felt quick and smooth and then hit a wall. I don’t have splits but I finished in 1:13 which is WAY below what I ran a year ago and is what I ran when I got back into running three years ago and 25 pounds heavier. Knee was a little sore, but I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Maybe I just need to focus on hard conditioning right now?

Didn’t jump. It was quirky meet in terms of how it was run. Flyer said it was an open pit starting at 6:15 til 7:30. I coulnd’t leave work early and had to go pick up facility required 3/16″ spikes which were delivered at home yesterday, I got to the meet right at 6:15 only to find out that registration for all field events was already closed. :grrr:

I convinced them to let me in the shot (supposedly open pit too but started 10 minutes later) because of a short entry list but there were too many people in the long jump.

Anyway as it turns out I think the knee tendonitis has been affecting me more than I realized as it feels much better the morning after I work it hard. That tells me it is improving and once it gets close to 100% I’ll be utilizing my quad strength, which right now I really am not in that leg.

June 25th workout.

Warmup.
Drills.
4x150m at about 90% with walkback rest.

Planning on a strong weightlifting workout and some temp running today.

Felt strong running. Not top speed fast but within expectations.

Decision to be made about the national pentathlon. Non track life issues popping up regarding finances, jury duty the day before the competition possibly interfering, and ComicCon here in San Diego that weekend. I’m not planning on any open events so I could conceivable come back the same night and catch the rest of ComicCon. Yes its that important. 🙂

Entered the 40-44 Pentathlon in Sacramento next month. Of course the night before I have a local series championship here in San Diego then flying up around 10pm, but given the nature of the events in the Pent, I don’t think fatigue would hurt me that much.

Friday the 25th was a rest day. Wasn’t intended to be but there was a relay for life event at the track which made the decision easy.

Once again the track was in use for the relay for life. About the only thing I could have done there was throw at the shot pit and maybe the secondary discus ring….or go for a jog on the road. Since I was pressed for time, I went to the gym.

4x5x225 hack squat machine. Knees were tight at first but loosened up. Felt stronger as I went along, and otherwise felt good for a lift I hadn’t done in six weeks.
4x5x160 seated calf raise
5x5x90 standing single leg hamstring curl
4x5x55 single arm standing dumbell shoulder press.
4×7 dips
3x7x80 seated arm curl
2x7x20 single arm forward dumbell raise
A couple walks around twisting my core with a 45lb plate
2x7x110 leg extension..cautious here because of knee tendonitis…felt good
Couple sets of weighted situps.

Wanted to do some walking lunges and single arm snatches but I simply didn’t have time before I had to meet my girlfriend.

Tomorrow will be a jav/disc throwing and 1500m tempo run day.

Did some discus work. Not happy with the results. I seem a little out of sync and not generating enough power. Did about 30 throws standing and spinning. Corrected some problems but by the time I did I was clearly fatiguing. Probably not a single throw over 85 feet.

Went on to do 1500 meter tempo work.

5×300 meters. Ended up doing 74-72-70-70-74 on 2 minutes rest which given my 1500 meter times is probably about right but I did struggle to do it. None of the reps were effortless. I think right now the goal would be get them down to a minute.

Heading off to the gym now.

Body fat testing this morning. 212 lbs w/ 19.0% fat. Consistent with the last several months. When I started running again three years ago, I was 240 and 26.3%. Would like to get it down to 200 and 10%. Not sure how feasible that is at 40. In college I was 190 and my fat percentage was supposedly 6% but that was using calipers not a tub.

That’s decent progress over 3 years. Not too dissimilar to my situation – 230 at 25% bf in late 2007 (172# LBM), then got back to running/lifting 2008 and 2009, dropping down to low of 194 (lost some strength and muscle in the process) and now at around 205 and 14% (177# LBM).

It is difficult to drop fat without losing muscle and strength as well – which is why you can lose strength in the weight loss process – hence making substantial changes in LBM a slow process.

I’d say going from 212 at 19% to 200 at 10% is tough – but doable. That means going from a Lean Body mass of 172 (with 40 lb of fat) to a LBM of 180 (with 20 lb of fat). That is a pretty dramatic change – and probably comes down to diet as much as anything. If you are serious about training/competing again – start working your diet actively. Body building sites (while extreme in much of their advice) may have some of the most advanced thinking on nutrition.

I was thinking pretty much the same. My diet COULD improve and certainly it is light years from what it was. Biggest thing I need to do is get protein in the morning and stay away from ice cream. My fruit and veggie content is decent – could be better and I am somewhat low on meat consumption which is a direct result of a having a girlfriend who is vegan.

For comparative purposes, a year ago when I started with this particular fat tester I was 219 with a fat percentage of 23% and LBM of 168.5 as opposed to the LMB now of 171.9. I’ll also say that my frequency at the gym over the last 9 months or so has been…less than ideal. I suppose once August rolls around and I have no more meets I’ll cut back on the track work and do more gym work.

6/28/10 workout

Warmup
10 two handed reverse and forward shot tosses. Topped out at only 37 feet each way. Felt sluggish and tired.
Tried to do some plyos and felt tightness in both knees and called it.

Looking to do some vault work tomorrow.

6/29

Warmup and then pole vault approaches

6/30
Warmp and light javelin tosses. Soccer people were on the infield (how DO we get rid of them?) so my ability to do any real throws was limited.

Well there was almost a fight Tuesday night. Tuesdays and Thursday a paid group through UCSD athletics gets the use of the track from 6-7. It’s a distance runners workout for the hour. Not a problem to me, I stay out of the way and do my work in the outside lanes.

Well some gentleman decides he’s going to incorporate his own workout into lane 2. Naturally it didn’t go over well with the group coach who mentions they have a permit for the track for that time. Mr. I want to run in Lane 2 gets in his face about it threatening him with arrest if the coach touches him again, blah blah blah.

I should have asked the coach if he wanted to lay a shoulder check into the guy as he came around the turn.

7/1

Off Day. Worked til 8pm, and just couldn’t do it.

7/2

Weight room day.

4x5x185 incline bench press
5x5x90 single arm lat pulldowns
3×10 exercise ball pushups
5x5x170 nautilus pullovers
55×5 60×5 and 65×3 single arm dumbell snatches
2×10 hanging knee raises
good solid static stretching routine

7/3 Just some basic warmup work at the gym

7/4

4×400 meter 1500 tempo runs.

1:30 1:35 1:43 and 1:35 with 200m walking rest between intervals.

7/5

Gym workout

hamstring curls
push presses
leg extensions
calf raises
arm curls
tricep pushdowns
situps

7/6

discus throws and shot put glide work

7/7

worked on block starts in preparation for races Friday and Saturday

7/8 will be an off day before the meet Friday morning.

Results from the California State Games

100m – 13.94. Lousy acceleration and felt like I overstrided.
LJ – 4.35 tieing my masters PR.
Jav – 25.80. About normal for me, nowhere near a PR.
Shot put – 9.36 which also ties a masters PR.

Was scheduled to run the 400m but the field event schedule was all messed up in terms of when they were held. Supposed to be open pits at certain times but it didn’t end up that way. 400 went off while I was two fields away tossing the jav.

Was also schedule to throw the discus, but withdrew. After 6 jav attempts and 6 quick shot tosses, my shoulder just felt too tired to go right into 6 more discus throws.

Competed in two meets in two days.

California State Games in San Diego on 7/09
100 meters – 13.92
long jump 4.35 (ties masters PR)
Javelin – 25.82
Shot put – 9.06 (ties masters PR)

USATF Western Masters Regionals 7/10 in Costa Mesa

100 meters – 14.22
long jump – 4.25
javelin – 26.12
shot put – 8.56

Wanted to get a 400 in there but the schedule in San Diego didn’t allow for it, and i was simply too tired in Costa Mesa.

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks so I can focus on heavy track and weight room work because I simply feel like I’m not as fast/strong as I should be and I know its in there. I should be sub 13 in the 100. Perhaps losing 10 pounds would do it, but I don’t think I can do it in the next couple weeks.

Rather than get down about less than stellar performances over the weekend, I focused on the reasons why.

1) Morning meets. Aside from not being a morning person, I know of several other athletes complaining about start times from 7:45 (pole vault) to 9:00. Ballistic type events just shouldn’t be that early. The race on Saturday was into a headwind as well, which didn’t help. Last time I ran in Costa Mesa, my 100 time was even worse. -2.2 I believe it ended up being.

2) Lack of speed. I simply need to focus more on olympic lifting, speed on the track, and when my knee feels ready for it plyometrics. I haven’t done any plyometric work since medications swelled my knee up last November.

3) Some internet reading indicated my whole approach to block starts was out of whack. Not a surprise actually. Seems I need to tweek my positioning but also focus more on explosion from my front leg (the one with the tendonitis) which is something I hadn’t been doing.

The 7/12 workout was really just light warmup and stretching. Quads were sore and I felt really fatigued.

7/13

warmups and drills.

2×150 at 22. Pace was probably 95%. Just shy of flat out race speed. Felt good and strong but I felt a twinge at the bottom of my glute and shut it down. Felt fine in the morning but with another meet Saturday I didn’t want to jeopardize it.

Getting caught up.

7/13 was an off day going to the All Star Game

7/14 spent some time walking and climbing up a steep cliff and then some work with overhead shot tosses and then some shot drills and work. Just not getting good distance. Topping out around 28-29 feet.

Then did some chest and back work at the gym.

Incline Bench 4x5x185
Bent over rows 3x3x135
Lat pull downs 4x5x250
Pec deck work.

7/15 was intended to be a hurdle day but a late afternoon thunderstorm washed that out.

Today I’m entering a pole vault meet, hope to clear 7′, which doesn’t sound like much until you realize I’ve never had any formal training in the event and couldn’t tell you where a 5 step approach should start at.

Haven’t posted in a while. Done for the summer. Association championships were last Saturday, and then did a quick LJ/100m before I went to nationals Wednesday night. National Pentathlon was just not day. I won’t get into the results (I believe they are posted on USATF if anyone cares to look). My body has felt very tired the last month. Too many meets with 3-5 events. I’ve lost 1 1/2 feet on my long jump, about 2 feet on my shot, and hell, my 400 and 1500 times are up noticeably from a year ago. Yesterday’s 1500 was 8:12. No thats not a typo. I’ve had time to think about the race and while I’m sure the heat didn’t help I think overall fatigue and the order of events (not used to a pentathlon) didn’t help. I started to feel I was slowing down on the first lap. I wanted to run 1:40 (and certainly did that easily in tempo runs) and ran 1:50 and it got worse from there. I think the 200 an hour+ earlier hurt me too, something that would not have happened in college.

A couple positive things though.

My 100-200 speed has been close to normal. Not peak but close enough so that I can point to other factors pulling me down elsewhere.

I just picked up a nice Nordic 50m javelin for $50 locally off of Craigslist. I think this will be an improvement over the Gill I’ve been using and the smalled diamter will benefit me. The same guy is also going to sell me a 12′ 160 pole which I think will be better suited for me. Yeah I know I weigh 210-215 but the reality is my pure runway speed simply isn’t enough to bend my 13′ 6″ 185 pole if I want to work and get up to 10′.

Things to work on:

One month without stepping on the track. Period. Maybe some light jogging along the beach but thats it.
Start spending more serious time in the weight room. Some goals would be a bench press of 300lbs, power clean of 275, and a squat of 450. The last year or so I’ve not gone in the weight room more than twice a week. Just started to hate it, and I seriously think it hurt me. Not going in there and boom boom booming away took away some of the explosiveness. Well, injury too, but I’m going to force myself to lift 4 times a week now.
Once I go back on the track spend a lot of early time first on 1500 tempo work and then plyometrics. I got away from plyos mostly because of knee problems that developed (not sports related) and even now the tendonitis hurts. Let it heal and all will be well.
Diet wise I need to change my breakfast habits. Not enough whole grain/fruit/protein and too much carb (muffin/pastry). I could improve somewhat otherwise with more fruits and veggies but really the weak part of my diet is and always has been breakfast.
Somehow improve my block starts. I feel like I react ok but I just never feel fast accelerating and feel a step or two behind by 20 meters.
More intensive and lengthy interval workouts between 150 and 300 meters. Just have to suck it up and do it.

Ok, the layoff has ended. Last several days I’ve been getting to the track and doing warmups and sprint drills. Changed my lifting routine to more reps and lower weight. Unfortunately the knee still hurts and the throwing shoulder hurts a lot when trying to do flat bench work.

Body fat % was measured this morning and has gradually risen to 19.9 from a low of 18.5 in February. Time to take stock of my eating habits. Need a better and earlier breakfast and get more leafy veggies into me. My fruit content is good, I don’t eat much meat and certainly get enough protein. Probably could stand to drink more straight water and less diet soda. 🙂

Yesterday was an off day, mostly due to knee soreness and serious heat here, and well, for some insane reason UCSD shut off the water to the fountains at the track.

Also learned there may be a medical reason why my stamina in longer events like the 1500 is so poor. A problem with a kidney….course the doctor was supposed to call back today and didn’t.

8/27 Workout

Plyo work

3×25 stationary jumps
2×30 meter horizontal bounding
2×30 meter vertical bounding
1×10 box drops
2×20 single legged horizontal bounding
3×7 consecutive frog leaping

Felt okay doing it. The single legged bounding and the frog leaps are usually how I can measure my progress and not having done it since last November was apparent. The single legged hops on my left leg were problematic due to the tendonitis and overall I think there is definite room for improvement. I was off about a 1/2 foot per jump, but didn’t feel particularly sore doing it muscle wise. Could have done more, but wanted to limit myself and measure how well I would hold up.

8/29

About 4 miles walking on the beach in the mid day sun and not for recreation 🙁

Standing calf raises 3x10x250

Push presses 135×5 155×4 165×3 175×1 Could use some work, room for growth with effort

Single arm snatches both arms 3x5x60 Lot of potential to go higher here, was more tired from the exertion than having difficulty with the weight.

Hamstring curls 3x10x125

Leg extension 3x7x165, didn’t push this because its an exercise I often have trouble with depending on how my tendonitis feels. Felt good with minimal pain. I have in the past done high reps with as much as 275 and if I pushed probably could again.

Some tricep and bicep work and a quick series of ab crunches.

Wanted to do more but the circumstances of the day left me pretty drained when I got to the gym around 9:30.

8/30

Did some explosive work at the track

10 forward and reverse overhead shot tosses. Felt ok but not as good as it could be.

2×10 box drops. Felt strong.

2×10 standing jumps onto the high jump mats and landing flat. Felt strong.

Some plyo work on the stadium steps.

9/2

Mile warm up and drills.

6 200 meter tempo runs, not hard just running and not sprinting. Averaged 39 on them. Not terribly out of breath but felt an energy drain. Rest was walking back to the starting line, 2 1/2 minutes I’d guess.

Did some chest and back lifting Sunday 9/6.

3x8x70 dumbell bench press
3x8x70 single arm dumbell rowing
3×20 seconds isometric bunch press holds and lat holds

9/7
Plyo work
3×25 vertical leaping in place
3×10 box drops
3×10 horizontal bounding on grass
3×10 vertical bounding on grass
2×15 single legged hops for distance. Right is much stronger than the left (plant leg) right now
tried to do some leapfrog series and had just about nothing. I usually try to series of 7 for distance but fatigue crept in and I called it.

I apologize for being remiss in posting my workouts. I’ve been tied up personally and working later with tax deadlines.

9/19

Morning workout at the gym

5×135 3×155 push presses Tried for 175 and couldn’t do it.
10×135, 5×225 and 2x5x315 on the hack squat machine.
5x5x240 on the standing calf raise machine
3x7x200 on the seated hamstring curl machine
3x7x200 on the leg extension
3×10 dips
3x5x100 bicep curl machine

afternoon workout
3 mile walk on the beach
10 minute climb from the beach to the parking at Torrey Pines gliderport (this is a workout, trust me)
across the street to the track and did 20 flights of stadium steps.

9/20

Mile warmup, some dynamic and static stretching.
The intent after a tough day on the legs was to do some discus throwing and light running. Unfortunately intramural soccer players took the field and for some strange reason throwing a 2k discus at soccer players is frowned upon. So…..
Did a little bit of plyometrics, not a lot.

5 series of 20 second lateral single legged hops
3 sets of 25 stationary vertical leaps on short rest.

A lot of soccer players were on the track for their weekly conditioning workout so I gave up.

9/22

mile warmup, dynamic stretching, drills.

Tried to replicate Matt Norquist’s extensive tempo. Failed.

100-17.5
200-35.5
300-61.0

At this point there was little light on the track (7:15pm) and a lot of people just sort of wandering around, and with that in mind I didn’t do the 400 and 500.

I didn’t feel overly exhausted running those times, certainly the 300 wasn’t run hard at all, but I was drained enough to recognize I couldn’t do the longer runs on the required rest.

9/23

warmups went into plyos

3×10 box drops,
3×10 horizontal bounding 30 meters on grass
3×10 vertical bounding on grass
2 35 meter single legged hops for distance. Right leg is stronger than the left (jumping) leg but both legs responded a lot better than the last several times I did this. Not 100% but getting close. Second run throughs were better than the first.
3×7 consecutive frog leaps. Seemed to explode better on each series.
3×30 second drills split leg jumps on stadium rows

3x5x185 incline bench press (felt strong, would have held up better with more than 2 minutes between sets)
3x5x195 pec dec
3x7x160 platform rowing
3x7x125 lat pulldown (mostly just to do it, wasn’t even a strain)
Last three lifts were done on 30 second rest between sets
some aductor and abductor work

Really you think so? IIRC some of the plyo workout recommendations I’ve seen recommend 120-140 jumps on each leg. It doesn’t seem longer that anything I did in college either. I’ll look it over again and think about knocking some of it down but I wasn’t feeling anything unusual after this last workout.

Took Friday and Saturday off for some social activities. Okay I went to a Padres game and was out taking care of my baseball challenged SO. If she’s not happy I’m not happy. 😉

Sunday was a lot of beach walking, and some light work at the gym.

5x7x135 Seated calf raises
2x25x95 seated abdominal crunches
200 bench ab crunches
3x5x180 rear shoulder hammer strength

Wanted to do more but I was really not feeling powerful as the Sunday workout was in the morning and I wasn’t really energetic. Also my left shin was hurting from the plyo workout on Thursday. It wasn’t from the work but from one of the box drops. On the way back up my foot slipped off the box and my shine whacked the steel box pretty good. A nice gash but more importantly the shin swelled up. It’s still just a bit sore and some fluid at the spot where I hit it.

Today 9/27 was intended to be hills and upper body but some domestic issues, 90 degree heat at the beach, and tax deadline work effectively killed that for me. Sometimes life does interfere with training.

9/28

Warmup
10 overhead shot tosses. Averaged 37 feet. Didn’t feel the oomph I’m accustomed to
10 standing horizontal jumps onto the high jump mats.

Hill work

165 meter hill with a 20% incline.

5 reps. 37-35-34-33-37

Pretty wasted at that point.

Probably had an effect on body fat test this morning. Had a spike to 20.9 from a low of 18.3 earlier in the year. Weight was at 211 and I look good, so maybe last nights workout had an impact on my ability to get air out of my lungs?

10/7

Warmups, sprint drills.

Did some hurdle walk over work to work on hip flexibility.

Track work:
2×100 flat out flying start.
2×125 flat out flying start.

Rest was walking back to the starting point. Didn’t time them but felt good, strong with good form. The plan was to add a couple of 150’s, but I started to feel a cut on the outside of my left foot right above where a spike sits. I tend to have some pronation on that foot which causes this when I haven’t been doing a lot of track work. I would have continued anyway but I was feeling serious O2 deficit.

Right now the cut isn’t too bad but had I continued it would have peel a layer of skin off right below the toe. Shouldn’t effect the weight work.

Tomas, assuming you can clear a pole vault height and run at least 6:00 in the 1500 you should perform phenomenaly with those 100 and 400 times and that LJ.

Some of the problems I face now that I didn’t even when I started getting back into training three years ago are knee and shoulder pain, life (which tends to interfere with non-essential activities like training), and that being 40 my mind and body don’t always respond well to long stretches of intense workouts. Reality is, even now I weigh 10k more than I did in when I competed in college and don’t think for a minute it doesn’t hurt me in the jumps and longer runs.

10/8

Didnt have time for a lot of work. Tax deadline and needs of my SO took my time.

Went to the gym at lunch and worked shoulders/arms.

3×7 75lb barbell arm curl and then 1×5 at 75. 60 second rest between sets. Used to be able to do this a lot better but arms haven’t been a focus in some time.
4×7 110lb nautilus tricep extension.
1x7x180 and then 3x3x230 front hammer strength shoulder press.
did 3×30 second isometric holds for bicep curls and dips on the pullup assist machine at body weight minus 100 lbs.
3x7x15 double front arm raise. Not seriously working it there but the point is more to strengthen the the muscle from work rather than explosive power.

After work I walked a bit on the beach and then did the notorious long hike back up the cliff which invariably leaves me covered in sweat. Didn’t do it was an endurance climb but more the fact that in many spots it acts as a series of stepups to work the quads and glutes.

You’d do quite well. Given your 400m, your 1500 should be quite good.

I’d spend time working on the Discus and Javelin – as those marks are almost zero points. But you’ll get to use lighter implements which should bump those numbers up a bit.

I’ll disagree insomuch as he doesn’t get to use lighter implements. I use the same weight implements at 40 as I did at 20. Lighter implements don’t get used until you’re 50. The ONLY difference between open and 30-49 age groups is hurdle height at 42 vs 39 inches.

10/10

stair work out at the track

2 sets of 5 flights of steps (36 each flight)
1 set of 5 flight of rows (18 each flight)

Hit the gym.

Dumbbell bench press 70,75,80 7 reps each
Single arm dumbbell rows 3x7x70
deadlift 2x3x225 and then 3×245. I’ve never been very good at this.
Isometric pushups, 3×20 seconds at low medium and high positions
3×20 second pullup holds
3×15 roman chair situps with 25lbweight

Haven’t posted in a while but I have been working out.

12/7

Warmups and sprint drills.
Went and did some hill work on the 165m hill next to the track. 29.3 30.2 31.3 31.7 with about 3 minutes rest which is about the time it takes to walk back down and maybe a couple of breaths. After 4 reps, my legs were literally done and for a fith rep I just jogged up the hill and even that was tough. When I first started doing this hill I was averaging 34 so this is some still serious progress.

Went to the gym afterwards.
3x5x 270 on the seated Hammerstrength row
2×12 and then another 8 with 65 lb dumbell bench press. First time doing it in a while and did the reps on short rest hence the lower weight and falloff on the last set.
2x10x150 lat pulldowns.
3 20 second bench press isometric holds.
3x3x65 single arm dumbell snatches.
Did some light work on my adductors and abductors (sore left groin) and some reverse grip bicep curls.
Finally, 2x20x45 walking core twists.

12/8

Went to a different gym based on where I had to be tonight. Unfortunately it didn’t have a lot of the things I like for the workout I had planned.

Hack squats. 5×225 5×315 5×365 5×385
Dumbell lunges 3x7x50
Standing dumbell shoulder presses 5×45 5×50 5×55 and 3×60
Did some light calf, bicep, and tricep work
200 crunches
3x7x20 pound dumbell box stepups. Went with the 20 inch box. I tried the 30 inch box but only felt comfortable trying it without any weight.

12/13
Upper body workout at the gym.
2x7x175 incline bench and then 2x7x165 incline as I didn’t have enough to continue doing 7 at 175
4x7x230 lat pulldowns
3×30 second isometric pushup holds
3×20 second hanging lat holds

12/14
Warmups and drills
Reverse overhead shot tosses, averaged 38 hit 39 on a couple. It was tough from a tossing standpoint because it was about 50 degrees and my hands would lose sensitivity after holding the iron shots.
10 standing box jumps
10 standing jumps onto high jump mats
10 standing long jumps onto high jump mats
5 standing long jumps into the sand pit

Felt really good with the explosive power and the vertical jumping, not so much with the horizontal jumping.

Been lax in posting.

1/16

upper body weight room day

3x6x175 incline bench. 4th set failed at 5 reps, 5th set at 4 reps.
5x6x230 lat pulldowns
5×6 dumbell curls, 35-45lbs 2.5 lb incremental increase
5x6x240 tricep pushdown
2×40 second isometric hold bench press, lat hangs, pullup, and dips.
2×25 weighted stomach crunches

1/18/11

Comprehensive warmup and sprint drills
Did some work with a Javee. Just working on the throwing motion and loosening up the arm.

For the workout:

5 hill runs. 165 meter hill with a 20 degree incline.

30.0 30.2 30.2 31.3 38.0 (was wasted at that point) 3 minute rest interval which covered walking back down the hill and not much more.
Then after a few minutes did some 1500 meter temp run but only got to 300 meters. Hope to start extending that out as my workouts progress.

Just found out about an all-comers meet in the South Bay this Saturday so I might focus on short sprints and maybe shot put for that meet.

1/22

Upper body weight session
Focused on lighter weight higher reps

4×10 70lb dumbell bench press neutral grip
2×20 55lb single arm dumbell row
2×20 50lb tricep extensions
4×10 60lb bicep curl

2×40 second isometric holds for pushups, lat hangs, pullups, dips
250 ab crunches

Going to the track tomorrow and working on starts and maybe get the hurdles out.

Long time since I posted but I figured I post my results from the 2011 WMAs in Sacramento.

100M – 13.92. Slow reaction time out of the block cost me a couple tenths of a second. Speed was otherwise good. My masters PR remains 13.76.
LJ – 4.33M. Never really did feel comfortable with my approach and some stutter stepping cost me. Still close to my masters PR of 4.37.
SP – 8.82M. One of the field events I am going to need coaching on as I used to routinely hit 10m in practice a couple years back when I returned to combined events, and now have a tough time hitting much more than 9.00.
HJ – 1.36M. Masters PR is 1.37 so you wouldn’t think I was disappointed but I came in early at 1.21, and in hindsight took too many jumps. I was probably capable of 1.42 with some of the early jumps and simply got tired.
400M – 1:09.39. Masters PR is 1:05.72 and this was disappointing. I came through 300m in 47 but really faded the final 100. Perhaps it was the mid afternoon Sac heat?

110HH – 23.63. My PR is 23.25 set a few weeks ago and this isn’t an event I have traditionally ran in meets except to get work in. As the starting time was 8am, I am thinking that and perhaps anxiety was the reason I leaped more than attacked the first hurdle since in practice I have been much better.
Discus – 24.87 from a standing throw. I have NEVER been able to throw decently with a spin and it shows. My masters PR is 25.89 but I think there is no reason I can’t do 30 standing.
PV – 2.00. An event I really can’t practice but it does tie my PR. Again I came in early for safety and after clearing 2.0 by a ton, fatigue kicked in and I was never even close on 2.1. There’s a local community college coach I am communicating with who specializes in the vault and combined events and perhaps I can get some help here.
Javelin – 26.43. A PR by .18 so I can’t bitch too much. My approach needs work but overall ultimately I think I won’t get much more than 30. My throwing arm isn’t what it used to be in baseball and although a different delivery a lot of the same principles apply.
1500 – 7:32.2. A masters PR by about 9 seconds and I felt in retrospect that I had a LOT more in me.

I want to add that there was an outside influence that negatively impacted my performance and that was a profound lack of sleep before both days. There was a reason I didn’t sleep and I have properly bitched her out accordingly. I don’t think it affected my energy or alertness but I am convinced it impacted my coordination in the field events.

Matt unfortunately it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Without saying anything to embarass the person at issue, it was her poor unnecessary selfish behavior and she refused to let me simply sleep.

Haven’t posted in a long time. I have been working out and training and have incorporated routines from two sources for my conditioning and am seeing results in the stamina/speed endurance area. Still too soon to report on the strength and explosive strength portion.

10/6

Warmups/sprint drills.

2x10x100 meters on grass at 70%, R= 50 seconds, 3 minutes
Third time I have done this type of workout in as many weeks, but by far the most reps I have done. Average rep was about 20 secs with only one rep (#18) being difficult to complete.

Gym workout a little later:

Several sets of squats for 6 reps. 135, 185, 225, 275, 305. By the last set I was toast and only got it up twice. I can likely attribute that to general fatigue after the running.

Moved on to a circuit routine.

Weight assisted Pullups, pushups, walking lunges, and russian twists. Three sets, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds between exercises, 3 minutes recovery. Finished with 3×6 squat jumps.

Yesterday I felt really fatigued as I’d trained hard all week so I took the day off. Will post later with today’s workout.

10/8/11

Just a simple easy 20 minute run

10/9/11
Did a dynamic stretching routine
Moved onto deadlifts
135, 185, 215, 225 for 6 reps each and then only 2 at 245 as fatigue kicked in.

Then a 30 second circuit for three reps

45lb single arm clean and press (each arm)
weight assisted pullups
overhead situps

Finally 3 sets of 6 explosive pushups.

10/10/11

Got to the track and naturally immediately after I get there, my phone rings with a oanic call from my GF. Naturally.

So I did the track portion of my workout, skipped the lifting portion, and went got her.

8×30 at 95% on a 20 degree incline hill
8x standing triple jumps into a pit.

10/11/11

Warmups

Inspired mostly by the UCSD track team posting its first day of tryout results, I brought my shot to the track for overhead tosses. Averaged around 40′ with one close to 42′. As good as I’ve ever done but didn’t feel terribly explosive. I think it indicates a need to work more on more explosive hip and leg exercises.

So I moved on to the running portion of the workout.

12×100 at 70% R= 50 sec. ~ averaged about 19 sec per run. Then a 3 1/2 minute recovery and did 10 more (was supposed to do 12) averaging 20 sec and R= 50 until the last couple where I took a full minute. When I started this preseason 400 meter program a month ago I had trouble doing 10 of these so this is significant improvement.

My only regret is that it takes enough out of me that it becomes difficult to have energy to do any lifting.

10/12/11

5×200 meter hill runs. Averaged around 37.0 It was really hot so I waited until after dark to do it.

Weight room:

Hack squat: 5×6 135, 205, 245, 275, 315

3 times 30 second circuit, r = 30, 3

60lb goblet squats
reverse rows
25 lb reverse lunges
high planks

Finished off with 3×6 squat jumps.

10/13 and10/14 off

10/15
1500 meter warmup run
program called for repeat 2x4x300 meters at 60 seconds R= 100 meter jog, 7 minutes

The reality was something else. I think it just wasn’t a good day overall.

Did the first 300 in 68. Ouch. It was clear I wasn’t going to be doing 300s. So I switched to 200s. Averaged 40-41 with 100 meter jog rest. Did 3 of the 200s, took a break, and then did 2 more. Was feeling O2 deficit in my head so I called it. Disappointing especially after 2 days of rest.

Tomorrow is a double session heavy lifting day bracketing the Patriots game, and I expect better things.

10/16/11

Went for a 22 minute run. Wasn’t a hard run, just mostly to work up a sweat because the couse to and from my apartment is fairly steep hills.

Then I hit the gym.

Started with bench press.

6×135, 6×165, 6×185, 5×205, 1×225.

A little disappointing at 205 and 225 (wanted 6) but given that most of my chest work for the last 18 months has been incline I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much. I expect that a couple weeks more of this type of work and I’ll be doing the 6 reps at 245 or more.

Moved on to the circuit work

Three sets of 30 seconds each side dumbbell rowing at 55lbs, 30 seconds each side dumbbell single arm bench press 55 lbs. R=30 seconds, 3 minutes.

Finished it off with three sets of jump lunges with 6 reps each side.

10/17/11

Warmups and drills

6×30 meters 95%
2×40 meters from a crouch 95%

R=3 minutes

8 standing triple jumps into a pit. Unmeasured.

Was planning on a squat/bodyweight workout but am pushing it off til Tuesday.

10/18/11

Dynamic warmup

4×4 minute runs on grass, R = 2 minutes. Hard to tell how far exactly I ran each rep for….best guess is 700-740 meters. Didn’t try to push myself too hard here as I don’t normally run intervals this long and didn’t think I’d hold up if I went for 800 meters. Based on my last run, probably a good bet too.

Finished the running off with some hurdle flexibility exercises (without any hurdles…..) and a barefoot 800 meter run on the grass.

Hit the gym afterwards

Squats
4×185,225,275 2×295, 1×315
Need to improve hip flexibility and strength.

3×30 second circuits, R=30 seconds, 2 1/2 minutes
body weight squats, pushups, reverse rows, walking lunges

3×6 jump squats (did not feel very good after everything else)

Why yes I am 🙂

I went with it especially for the 400 meters as I identify that event as one with enough room improvement and training for it would have carryover in the 1500 and 100. I am seeing significant improvement in my ability to handle an increasing volume of work, but not yet with improving performance on repeat intervals with longer runs.

As far as the lifting goes, I went with the lifting program from Primal ATC which is a thrower’s based lifting program and as a practical matter IMO it carries over nicely into the sprints and jumps as its a functional strength program. Rather than focusing on maximum lifting it focuses on maximum useful power.

10/19/11

Off day

10/20/11
5×200 (guesstimate) meter hill with a steep incline. Times averaged 35.8-38.2. R= 2:30. Better overall than the last time, and with about 30-45 seconds less rest on average.

Lifting:
Bench Press 4×135,185,205 3×215, 2×225
Slight improvement at the top end. 18 months ago I could do 9×225. I suspect if I did just a set of 225 like a football player measurement, I could still probably do 5.

Circuit:
3×30 seconds see-saw dumbell press (35lb), (miserable) attempts at pullups, 10lb overhead situps, 65lb romanian deadlifts . R= 30 seconds, 3 minutes.

Plyo:
3×6 jumping lunges R= 1 minute

Off 10/21 and 10/22

10/23

4×200 averaged 40. R=2 minutes. Wanted 8 but it was clear 1/2 into the 5th rep I had nothing left.

Not sure if I can get much done tonight. Car engine just died (was just replaced under warranty three weeks ago, ugh) and until I can get a rental tomorrow, there’s little I can do except the high school track up at the top of the hill or simply do hills. Closest gym is 2 1/2 miles away and just a little too far unless I want the run there and back to be my running (I don’t). Driving my ailing car may have to be the answer if I want to lift.

10/24/11 off

10/25/11
This is a let down week so there’s work and at a lower effort level for the most part.

Warmups and drills
6×40 90% from a starting crouch
8 standing triple jumps into a pit

Squats 8×185, 4x4x225. Felt really good and not stressful. Worked the form hard on trying to get ATP, something which has been a problem in the past.
Circuit
3x Recline rows, bodyweight lunges, pushups for 30 seconds each. R=30 seconds, 2 minutes
100 situps.

10/27/11
Off.

10/28/11
Warmups and drills
3x5x100 meters @75%. R=1m, 3m.
Hit 18 or so every time which is about right.

Lifting
Bench Press 6×185, 4x4x205.
Circuit
3×30 seconds recline rows, lunges, pushups R=30 sec, 2m

Off 10/29

10/30/11

4x hill workout (not sure of distance….probably somewhere between 230 and 250 meters). Times were 1:33 1:31 1:26 1:19 as I became accustomed to that particular hill. R=slow jog back, about 3m.

Lifting

Deadlift 6×135 4x4x225
Circuit
3×30 recline rows, lunges, pushups, R=30 sec, 2 minutes. Doing a little bit better on these specific circuit exercises particularly the recline rows and pushups. More reps until failure or the 30 seconds.

10/31

Warmups, drills
7×40 at 95% from a starting position. R=3 minutes. No spikes yet
7 x standing triple jump

Lifting
Trying for a max in the squat. Probably should have done it on a non-running day.
Ended up maxing at 315lbs with thighs parallel to ground. Was hoping for at least 350.
2×12 hamstring curls.
Some adductor and abductor lifting on the machine just to get some work on them
2×10 seated calf raise with 135lbs.

11/1/11

Squats from yesterday taking their toll….

Workout plan called for 3x8x100 @18, R=45, 3m

I was good through the first set but feeling it. Only got through 6 on the second set, and 4 on the final set. I was clearly out of energy and slowing down even when I pushed things.

Did some hurdle flexibility work when I recovered.

A little disappointing, but I suspect had I not done squats yesterday that my legs would have held up, not that I was sore but I felt tired even when I started. This was the hardest workout of this type so far, with a slightly harder effort level and the lowest recovery time yet. Still I’m pleased with the overall improvement and not going to get down over not hitting the target this time.

11/2/11

It was a nice warm sunny day. Program called for some hill work. I decided to do something different….I went to the beach at Torrey Pines. The workout?

Running up the steep cliff trail from the beach to the gliderport. Time: 5:36. New PR for that particular run by 2 seconds despite being slowed down for 30 seconds by people in front of me who SIMPLY WOULD NOT MOVE.

Anyway I think that was a lot more fun (and exhausting) than a generic hill workout.

Track:
500 at 2:15.
2×400 at 1:45 and 1:40

A little disappointing but given that its my first attempt at anything that long this fall, I won’t complain.

Lifting:
Max day on the bench, ended at 245. Tried 255, failed. Probably could have done 250.
rest was core and static stretching

11/4/11

Off day…..heavy storm hit the area and going on the track in heavy rain and wind would have been foolish.

11/5/11

4×200 @ 38 R=2 minutes
Did a 5th 200 and was simply out of energy….finished in 47 and wasted. Took 3 minutes of rest this time and on the 6th rep hit the 38 second target again but it was clear I was about done at that point. Wanted to do 10, but at least this was an incremental improvement.

It’s not the speed thats the problem, it’s the recovery. Had I done R=3 minutes, I could have hit the number of reps, possibly at 35-36, though the speed wasn’t the goal here.

11/5/11

No running.

Did some deadlifting. Also some single arm shoulder presses and overhead situps.

What does your overall plan look like?

Seems like your accels are extending pretty quickly and why still in flats?

Given your conditioning challenges, I expect the tempo volume to help.

One thing you might try is 1 day per week of 400m special endurance – where you to 1000-1200m at tour target 400 pace. Start with this as 100m reps with 1’30” rest per 100. By end of season should be something like 2-3×300 with full recovery.

Matt,

The accels are going to be in spikes going forward, up until this point the accels were short enough and from a stand where I didn’t care either way. Now, they’re long enough from a starting position where I need the spikes.

Thanks for the input, I’ll look at modifying my program to fit suggestion in….right now this week’s 100 meter repeat day was scheduled to be 3x8x100 at a 75% with about 1/2 that rest. I think maybe one straight set of 12×100 at 1:30 rest at 85% would work well.

11/7/11

Track
8×40 R=4m
8x standing triple jump

Gym
Squats 10×135, 8×155, 6x185x 6x215x7x245

Circuit
3×45 seconds: pushups (averaged 23), single arm dumbell rows (30lbs), dumbell lunges (25 lbs), leg raises (averaged 18)
R= 30 seconds, 2 minutes

Plyo
3×8 squat jumps and was absolutely wasted doing it

11/8/11

Warmups

The plan was to test some OHB and BLM throws and then run hills. I wanted to test the throws only because the facility I use only has lights in the evening on T and R and I’m not available this week on R.

Clearly the squats and deadlifts of the last couple days had their effect. OHB tosses were landing just beyond 40 feet (usually top out 41-42) and BLM at 37 (38-39).

Was really feeling weak at that point and decided it was in my best interests to not run the hills and moved over to doing some hurdle flexibility work. Given how refreshed I feel now after a night’s rest, it was the right decision.

11/9/11

Warmups and drills

2x5x100 meters @85% R= 1:30, 3 minutes. Felt strong early on, labored towards the end and had to work hard to hit the target time of 16.0 (best guess without tapping the watch as I cross the line). Next time out doing this, expect to do 2×8.

3×8 lunge jumps
3×15 single legged hops

11/10/11

Off day but several hours of manual labor at a road running event

11/11/11

5xhills Average time 1:17. R=slow job back

Weights:
Bench press
10×100, 8×125, 6×150, 6×175, 6×205

Circuit
3×45 seconds goblet squat 60lbs, single arm dumbbell clean and press (45,40,35 lbs), low plank, bar hangs R=30 seconds, 2 minutes
10 minutes of static stretching

11/12/11

Raining hard, no running track work today.

Weight room
Deadlifts 10×135,8×145,6×185,6×205,8×225

Circuit 3×45 seconds (romanian deadlift @80lbs, body weight squats, single arm dumbbell curls @ 30lbs, overhead situps with a 25lb plate) R= 30 seconds, 2 minutes
Plyo = 3×8 explosive pushups

11/13/11
Off day

11/14/11

Track
warmups/drills

6×50 from a crouch
6 standing triple jumps

Weight room
Squats 8×135, 6×175, 6×205, 6×235, 7×265 Feeling really good about the higher weight squats as I’m finally building up hip flexibility and getting below parallel with my thighs.

Circuit
3×45 seconds incline dumbbell bench press (45lbs), single arm bend over rows (50lbs), reverse dumbbell lunges (25lbs), leg raises. R= 30 seconds, 2 minutes. Again, I felt better doing this and better able to complete the time with more reps.

Plyos
Jump squats 3×8

11/15/11

Hill workout, same one I’ve done last couple of times.

1:07, 1:14, 1:18, 1:15 and 1:14 R average 3:45 slow job back down.

Going to start incorporating more plyometrics and event specific drills over the next few weeks as I’m somewhat satisfied (or not) with my progress in the underlying stamina and flexibility. Still want more, and the strength is building too. Looking forward to a day of testing around the end of the month.

Warmups and light drills

5×200 averaged 38, last one came in at 40, R=2 minutes. Gave myself 3 minutes, did a 6th, ran 40 again. Tried then to do a 100, but I was pretty much done with no energy in my legs. Not where I want to be, but still a bit of an improvement over 2 weeks ago doing this same workout. The goal here is to be able to do 10 with 2 minute recovery.

When I recovered I pulled out some hurdles just to do leg flexibility work and hurdle drills. Didn’t do any actual hurdle work beyond that.

11/17/11

Drills and warmups

2x5x100 meters @80-85% (time was 16-17) R=45 seconds, 2 minutes and then added another two 100 meters run at the back end. Wanted to do a third set but my body was starting to tighten up. Conditioning wise I could have squeezed it out with effort.

3×8 jumping lunges
3×8 20″ box jumps. Wanted to use the other side of the steel box which was probably 30″ but it was damp outside and for safety reasons I went with the shorter side with the friction strip on it.

WR
Bench press: 8×110,6×135,4×160,4×185,6×210
Circuit: front dumbbell squats with 40lb dumbbells, single arm clean & press@ 40lbs, arm hang, walking plank
2 sets through, r=30 seconds, 2 minutes.
Started a third set, got through the squats again (this time with 45lbs) but my phone was blowing up from my GF needing an unexpected ride.

Starting to feel some soreness on the outside of my left foot. I tend to severely overpronate there so a day off from running won’t kill me.

11/18/11

WR only day.

Dynamic stretching and warmup routine

Deadlifts: 8×135, 6×155, 4×185, 4x 215, 5×245

Circuit 45 seconds: RDL 90lbs, single arm snatches (started with 45 then 40, then 35….fatigue), bodyweight squats, overhead situps 25lb plate. R=30 seconds, 2 minutes

Plyo: 3×8 explosive pushups.

Finished with some static stretching, but given what I had done, didn’t really need it.

11/19

Off Day

11/20

Got to the track as it started raining. Got some overhead shot tosses in then tried to do some 300’s. No dice. Started raining hard with a strong wind. Gave up and glad I did as it was getting dark and the rain continued that way most of the night.

11/21

Off day

11/23/11

Warmups and drills
5×50, 1×60 from a crouch. Top speed felt good but acceleration a bit choppy and didn’t feel like I stayed down long enough. May need to do something like sleds to help me on staying down.

6x standing triple jump

Weight room
Squats 10×155,8×185,6×215,4×245,3×285.

Circuit 2×45 seconds: raised dumbbell pushups, recline rows, walking lunges (30lb dumbbells), leg raises, floor dumbbell bench press (just 30 lbs)

Plyo: 3×8 jump squats. Felt good and explosive even if the height didnt reflect it.

Trying to catch up after a week with no computer

11/24
Thanksgiving. Did a deadlift session at the gym.

Off 11/25 and 11/26

11/27
Warmups and drills
Did some OHB…topped out at 41′ 4″.
Then went out on the track and did accelerations

5×50, 1×60
6 standing triple jumps

11/28
Warmups and drills
10×100 at 75-80%, R = 50 seconds
1×200….ran out of gas on the back ending in 40.
Moved on to hurdle flexibility exercises afterwards

11/29
Hills 5x average time 1:12 R = 3:45 on average

WR
Squats (Deload week for lifting)
1x8x165, 4x6x205
Circuit: 3×30 seconds Pushups, Standing lungers, recline rows. R= 30 seconds, 2 minutes

11/30
Warmups
Hurdle flexibility work
Went into the discus circle (brought wrong shoes), worked on spin technique

12/1
Feeling a fever. Off day, and hopefull I will recover for a local all-comers meet Saturday morning. Looking to do the discus, 300m, and 150m in that order.

12/2/11

Off day again. The problem is a kidney stone. Wasn’t in agony but in no shape to workout.

12/3/11
Went to the meet as a spectator, met up with a couple of fellow decathletes. I felt well enough to run, but not really strong enough. I literally felt the stone pass out of the ureter while walking on the infield. Using the day to rest and gather my strength and go back at it on Sunday.

12/4/11

Felt less than spectacular after three off days…still a little sore in the kidney area and at least initially it felt “wrong” trying to run. But after a 30 minute dynamic warmup I lost that sick and sore feeling and was ready to go.

Track work was 8×30 second grass runs at about 70%, R=2 minutes. I gauge that I ran about 160 meters on average. Obviously speed isn’t the concern running with flats on grass.

Weight room, still a deload week:
Bench Press 8×135, 4x6x165
Dead lift 8×155, 4x6x185

Circuit: 3×30 seconds standing lunges, recline rows, pushups. R=30 seconds, 2 minutes.

Starting much more complex work on the track and weight room today.

12/5/11
Off

12/6/11
Warmups, drills
5×60 accells
5×5 alternating single leg bounds

12/7/11
Off

All week, my flank has ached where that kidney stone was, and had off and on fever symptoms. I had planned on doing squats on Tuesday but even body weight squats I could feel something that wasn’t right in the area of that kidney. I think it’s something that will pass in a week or so based on my personal medical history and the workouts will reflect a reduced less strenuous workload until the problem clears up.

12/10/11

Basically taking the week off. I’ve felt better day by day but still had soreness in my kidney area leading to shortness of breath from pain so I believe I probably bruised the kidney working out while I had a stone lodged. It’s disappearing and going to give it a shot tomorrow.

At some point surgery will be needed to break that thing up (about 2 inches in diameter) with about 2 weeks down time when that happens. No urgency though as long as I don’t have a blockage.

12/11/12

Warmups and drills

5×60 from blocks (need a new starting block)
5×5 alternating single leg bounds

Felt slow and tired doing it, a result of a week of nothing and remnants of whatever was wrong with me. It was pain free though and even though I was fatigued in a workout I should not have been, being out there doing it was good enough.

12/12/11

Off Day

12/13/11

Warmups and drills

6×100@75-80% R=45 seconds, 2 minute R then another 4×100

Was supposed to do 2×10 but I simply haven’t recovered enough. A month ago I could have gone right through it. It’s also quite possible the fact it was 50 degrees F, and raw and wet might have had something to do with it as well.

Weight Room:
Squats: 10×135, 8×165, 6×205, 6×230, 4×265
Circuit: 3×45 seconds Pushups (25,23,18), Single arm rows each side (35lb, 20-22 reps), walking lunges (25lb dbs, 7-9 reps), lying leg raises (20 reps). R=15 seconds, 2 minutes

Plyo: 3×8 jump squats – really felt tired here and barely getting off the ground.

12/14/11

Off

12/15/11

Warmups and drills

5x150m. 50m 75%, 50 85%, 50m 95%. Expected time was 25.0 and was within 0.3 every time. R= walking the 250m on the back side. Was hoping for 6, lights went out. Another cold, slightly rainy evening, and without lights decided safety was more important. Felt a little O2 deficit but could have done the 6th if I pushed it. A much better outing than my last one.

Will lift in the morning.

12/16/11

Off

12/17/11

Lifting session dynamic warmup
Bench press 10×115, 8×135, 6×160, 6×185, 4×210

Circuit: 3×45 seconds (goblet squat 65lbs, single arm clean and press 35 and 40 lbs, pullup hang, low plank) R=15 seconds, 2 minutes

It was REALLY hard to go from goblet squats to weak arm clean and press on 15 seconds rest. Third set I needed 30 seconds between sets.

Haven’t been doing much this week. Transportation issues, holiday issues, and related stress. Got to the track Wednesday, did my warmup routine and then hurdle flexibility work and then some wall drills.

Today (X-Mas eve) before sunset I did a couple hills outside (1:06 and 1:10) and was wiped out. Jogged a little bit afterwards to drain the lactic acid.

I’ll do some work at the track up the street and find a way to the gym when it reopens on Monday. Commitment is more than just a word. 😀

[quote author="David Woods" date="1323934015"]
Just my $0.02 – but I always find plyos more effectively during or after sprints and/or at start of weight sessions (work really well super-set with squats or cleans).

If the workout was a pure sprint workout I would have done that. What I’ve been doing though was combining the GPP workouts for 400m training with the lifting workouts for a thrower. Those specific plyos came from the lifting program.

As I get into SPP in 2-3 weeks the plyo aspect will transition more into sprinter/jumper stuff.

12/28/11
Warmups and drills
5×100 from a crouch. 95% R=6m

Form felt good and technically efficient from the start through acceleration but after a lengthy layoff without sprinting I didn’t feel strong at all.

10/29/11
Weight room based warmups
Squats: 10×135, 8×165, 6×205, 6×230, 4×260

Circuit: 3×45 seconds (pushups averaged 22, single arm rows 35lbs 23 reps, walking lunges 30lbs 8 reps, leg raises 20 reps) R=15 sec, 2 M

Then some plate crunching for grip strength and then 3×8 for jump squats

12/30/11
Off

12/31/11
I gave blood in the morning so I cut the circuit routine down a bit, and am glad I did.
Weight room warmup

Bench press 10×105, 8×135, 6×160, 6×185, 5×210
Circuit: 2×30 sec (goblet squat 60lb 13rep, single arm clean and press 35lb 6 rep, low planks) R=30 sec, 2M

Finished it off with plate pinches and then 3×8 jumping lunges for plyos.

1/1/12
Weight room warmup (partial)
This was a late night thing so the warmup was scaled down.

Deadlift 10×135, 8×185, 6×225, 6×255
Circuit 3×45 second (RDL 135lb 12 rep, body weight squats 20 rep, 35 lb single arm dumbbell curl 10 rep, overhead tricep extension 25-45 lb plates, overhead situps 25lb, 16-20 rep)
2x45lb dumbbell farmer’s walk for 50 steps
3×8 explosive pushups

1/2/12

Went and walked along the beach. Tried running up the trail to the parking lot. Got stuck behind a couple other people. Threw off my rhythm and I didn’t push myself. Finished up about a minute behind my best time on the hill.

Went over to the track as it got dark and did some plyos.

2×5 single leg bound
2×10 vertical bound
2×8 single leg for distance
2×5 frog leaps

1/3/12

Warmups and drills

6×100 @80% R=45 sec, 2m
4×100 @75 R=1m

Felt some stiffness from yesterday’s plyos. Also felt the effects of the burrito I had for lunch. I had the strength and maybe the O2 but felt some stomach cramping. Lesson learned. Don’t eat burritos for breakfast and lunch if you’re doing anaerobic track work.

1/5/12

Warmups
Hurdle flexibility work
5×4 hurdle jumping

Lights went off at that point, 45 minutes early, so my workout got cut off early.

1/6/12
Off

1/7/12
WR
Squats 10×145, 8×185, 6×215, 6×245, 3×275
Circuit 2×45 seconds (recline rows about 10 reps in 30 sec, 20 rep RDL 95lb, reverse dumbbell lunge 25lb 7 rep, dumbbell bench press 40lb 20 rep) R=15 sec, 2m
4×5 hanging knee raises (tried leg raise and my lower back hurt)
3×8 jump squats (felt really good)

1/8/12

Warmups

OHB 39-41 ft on 6 throws
Standing shot tosses – distance not worth discussing. Felt tired and stiff from squats the day before so my ability to drive from the power position or even feel comfortable in that position was compromised.
Was intending to throw the discus a few times but sunset came and as I discovered when I arrived, the circle was filled with water even if I wanted to throw in a bit of darkness.

WR:
Bench press 10×115, 8×145, 6×175, 6×195, 4×215
Circuit: 3×45 seconds or as long as I could go (front dumbbell squats 15 rep 80lbs, single arm snatches 5 rep 50 lbs, walking planks 10 reps)
Some plate pinching for the grips
3×8 jump lunges

Starting to see a little improvement in my primary compound lifts and in my plyos. Hope I can get that to translate to better overall performance.

1/9/12

Warmups and light drills

Wall drills 1,3,5,7 steps
3×6 hurdle jumps
5×50 Block accelerations
6 standing broad jumps into a pit

1/10/12

Warmups and drills

8×100 @ 80% R=1m
6×100 @ 80% R=1m,2m

WR
It was late night so I cut the circuit down from 3 sets to 2

Deadlift 10×135, 8×165, 6×195, 6×225, 4×255
Circuit 2×45 seconds (single leg squats 12 reps each leg, close grip bench 20 reps @ 95lbs, alternating dumbbell curls 5 reps @ 50lbs, overhead situps 15 reps @ 25lbs)
2×50 fireman carries
2×8 explosive pushups

1/11/12

Dynamic warmup
Broke out the javee trainer and spent quite a while working on stretching and aspects of the javelin throwing motions with it.
3×30 crossover drills

1/15/12

Testing day at the track for OHB and standing LJ

Best OHB was 42′ 6″, consistently around 42 and LJ was 7′ 6″. Very pleased with the OHB, a little disappointed in the LJ, cognizant of the fact I’m not 22 anymore and 10′ isn’t realistic…..

Did 3×6 hurdle jumps and walkovers afterwards

Weight Room

Squat 10×165, 8×195, 6×225, 6×255, 2×285 (probably had 3 but no spotter)
Circuit 2x45seconds
Elevated pushups 23 reps
Bent over row 90lbs 20 reps
Reverse dumbbell lunges 20lbs 7 reps

General lifting (to work muscles in a way I haven’t in quite some time)
3 sets of plate pinches (2x10lb plates)
3x10x120 seated hamstring curl
3x10x90 seated calf raise
1×50 lying bicycle kicks

1/18/12

Warmups and drills
Wall drills 1,3,5,7,9 steps
5×60 accels R=5
3×8 jump lunges

First training post in a long time. Had a mixed 2012 season. Set some old man PR’s at the US Masters National Dec in July but overall didn’t do well because of a tweaked hamstring I suffered a week earlier. Earlier in the year I had a stretch of 3 months where domestic issues involving a local move and working 12 hour days knocked down my workouts to about 1-2 a week. Not good.

Anyway, I’m in the third week of Latif Thomas’s 400 meter GPP program.

Workout 9/26/12

Warmup

4×180 meter hill. Times were 38.6 39.2 47.2 and 42.3. R was walk back down the hill ~ 3 1/2 minutes.
Cool down 800 meters barefoot on the grass.

Overall I’ve been hitting the target times and reps from the program. Weight is down to 205. When I started 3 years ago I was 230. I think the only thing I’m missing is raw strength which seems down about 10%, but I think if I focus myself on it I can regain it.

Tell me about it Matt. It gets worse as you get older and life has to take precedence. And while I love my girlfriend very much, she doesn’t understand the difference between working out and training and because of that, why I don’t much care for her coming to the track with me. I don’t mind her at the gym (to the extent she does anything beyond treadmill walking) but she really gets in the way when I’m doing dynamic warmups on the track.

9/28/12

Left knee was very tight and sore. Went to the beach mid afternoon, and after walking a while and then down and back up the cliff, I went to the track and started warmups. Tried to do an extensive tempo workout, but I went about three strides and realized I simply was in too much pain to run. So I grabbed six hurdles and did a bunch of hurdle flexibility work and called it a day.

9/29/12

Knee felt MUCH better after a night to rest and this time I went to the beach AFTER my track work.

2x10x100 meters at 70%. R= 50s, 3m. Did them in flats on grass which slowed me a bit. Averaged 21s, about a second slower than I normally do on the track with spikes. Last four were really tough, I think it was #18 which wasn’t much more than a jog but 19 and 20 were close to the target.

9/30/12

Went to the gym in the early afternoon after the Patriots secured their victory.

Moderate lifting, good work but not pushing to the limit.

Squats, 8×175, 4x6x205. Felt good and felt more explosive after the third set.
Circuit: 3 times through 8x45lb shoulder piston press, 8×42.5 single arm dumbbell curls, 20 pushups, 7×25 forward lunges, 15 lying leg raises. R= 30 sec, 2m.

Afternoon was at the beach and went slow up the cliff before going across the street to the track. Did a short workout, and could feel the fatigue in my legs. Was expecting to do 600s at 2:30. Well I did three 500’s at 2:30. R=2m. Given that I haven’t run anything that long in months and could do it the last time I did, I chalking this up to the earlier squats and cliff climb.

10/1/12

Warmups

Accelerations 8×35 meters R=3m. As I was sore and tired from the day before, I don’t know that I was fast, but it felt powerful and definitely at or near top speed by about 30 meters.

Finished it off with 8 standing triple jumps into the pit.

10/2/12

Moderate warmups and drills

Track workout

12×100 meters @ 70% and then 10×100 meters @ 70%. R = 50, 3m.

Averaged 20-21 which is on target for wet infield grass running whereas I would’ve expected 19.7 or so in spikes on the track. Felt good, much better than last week’s session of this workout where I was done by #18 and dragging. This time I went up to speed all the way through #22.

Tonight is hills and a weight room session. 😀

10/3/12

Off

10/4/12

Hills. 5 times. I’d guess maybe 250 meters. 1:00, 1:03, 1:02, 1:06, fifth one ran into iron lung at about 180 meters.

Weight room

Bench press 8×135, 4x6x160
Circuit: 3 sets Recline rows x10, Dips x8, Hanging leg raises x10

10/6/12

2400 meter warmup run

3×300 @67 + 1×200 @45. R=100 meter walk recovery ~ 3minutes, 7m
1×300 @67 + 2×100

Never really felt into this workout. Aside from tiring at the end, the times were about 5 seconds slower than I wanted and mostly because I just never got into a fast pace. I think I intimidated myself by the goal of 2x4x300 and adjusted my speed down rather than running at pace and maintaining as long as possible.

10/7/12

Went out jogging for 12 minutes, turned around and came back in 11. Was hoping for 10.

Weights:

Deadlifts 5x6x185. Just looking to do work, not push it.

Circuit: 3x Incline dumbbell 15×40 (different grip each set), RDL 10×90, core (35 bicycle kicks, 15 lying leg raises, 10 hanging leg raises), 15×40 single arm row. 3×50 fireman’s carry for 50 steps, 3×8 clapping pushups.

10/8/12

Warmups

Plyos 3×8 jump squats
Accelerations 6×30, 2×40 from a crouch
Standing triple jump x8 into a pit

Felt somewhat out of sync from the deadlifts and RDls the night before. My hamstrings felt a little tired before, and sore after.

10/9/12

4×4 minute runs on the infield, R=2 minutes. As it was late and dark, and the sprinklers had JUST shut off on the grass, I didn’t run this very well. I guess I might have done about 700 meters for each run. Aside from fatigue it was simply difficult to run faster because of the conditions as the last time I did this workout I got to about 750 meters on each run.

10/10/12

Day off

10/11/12
Had a local event so I only lifted

Squats 10×135,8x165x,6×195,6×225,4×260
Circuit 2×45 seconds (pushups, recline rows, 25lb forward lunges, lying leg raises, 15lb dumbell forward arm raises, seated adductor machine) R=15s, 2m

10/12/12 and 10/13/12 Off as I’m working long hours towards a tax deadline

10/14/12
Morning
5 250 meter hills. 61,64,64,69,78 R=slow jog back and then a mile cooldown

Evening
5×150 acceleration buildups. 75-80-85% each 50 meters. Each run was about 25.5-26.0 right where it was supposed to be based on level of effort.

10/15/12

Off. Deadline day, 12 hours in the office, my brain was ready to shut down.

10/16/12
Warmups
Accelerations
6x40r=4m
6 standing triple jumps.

Felt REALLY good on the accelerations and thought I had great form coming out of the crouch and good power on the jumps.

Was planning on lifting afterwards but domestic issues reared their ugly head again…

10/17/12

Off

10/18/12
Warmups
3x5x100m at 75-80% on the infield grass. R=1m, 3m
Hit the target time or better on all but #10, 14, and 15. Really happy with that considering I’m not in spikes on the mondo.

Weights
Bench press. 10×135, 8×135, 6×155, 6×175, 1×205 (nothing left, curious how it would have gone without the earlier running)
Circuit 2x (Goblet squat 65lbsx10, dumbbell clean and press 6×45 each arm, best efforts at chinups, 45 second low planks)

10/19/12

Hills
4×250 61,65,64,61
Slow jog recovery (30 seconds faster than walking ~3:15) and mile cool down.

Felt MUCH stronger than the last time I did it a week ago. Had I realized how strong I felt I could have gone 60 on each rep.

Weights
Deadlift 10×135,8x155x6x185 Wasn’t feeling very explosive and cut it short
Circuit 3x(RDLs 15x90lbs, 20 x bodyweight squats, preacher curl 10x70lbs, overhead tricep extension 10x60lbs, overhead situps 15x25lbs) R=30 sec, 2M
3 sets farmer’s walk 50lbs for 50 steps.
3 sets explosive pushups

10/20/12
Off

10/21/12

Warmups
500m 2:04, 2:23
400m 1:43

R=4,5m

First and third ones felt good. I probably should have gone 500m on the last rep but I had mentally checked out based on the effort level and fatigue on the previous rep.

10/22/12

Warmups/speed drills

7×40 accelerations from a crouch. Mostly good. First steps had good length but not as quick or reactionary as I’d like.
3×8 squat jumps
7x standing triple jumps

Weight room:
Squats 10×155, 8×185, 6×215, 6×245, 4×275. Felt strong, but not enough depth as I’d like particularly on the heavier weights. I’m switching to a wider stance going forward.
Circuit 2x (15x50lbs incline dumbbell bench press, 7x25lb reverse lunges, 8x recline rows from hanging grips, 10x hanging leg raises)

10/23/12

Hurdle flexibility work, stepovers, kicks, motion drills, and 2 series of bounding over a set of 6 hurdles

5×180 meter hills. Times were roughly 40, 42, 41, 42, 41 and slow jog recovery of about 3:00. Felt strong and consistent on each rep and didn’t overdo the speed to the point where I was gassed.

By contrast, the last time I did this specific hill was about a month ago.

https://elitetrack.com/forums/viewthread/9284/P120/#99345

Started out a bit faster that time but even with a longer recovery just couldn’t sustain much. Next time I do this hill I plan on hitting it for speed all five reps.

10/24/12

100 meter repeats

2×8 @ ~ 70-75% R=45sec, 3m, then another 4 reps.

800 meter barefoot cool down

Wanted to finish that third set but I was really laboring and stiffening up. Otherwise I think it went well given a slightly quicker pace and significantly shorter (1m-45sec) recovery.

10/26 Off

10/27

85 degree afternoon, ended up at the beach. Ran the trail up the cliff in 5:25. New PR by :02!

10/28
Did some prelim warmups waiting for my GF. Things went south though and that was it.

10/28/12

Split the workout because it was a football Sunday.

Noontime weight room work.

Bench press 10×115,8×140,6×165,6×190,3×215 A little better than the last bench press because I hadn’t run.
Circuit 3x (80lb front dumbbell squatsx12, 40 single arm snatch x6, 30 second overhead bar hangs, 45 second low planks) r=15 sec, 2m
Then some grip work and some machine isolation exercises just to work certain muscles (lower back, seated dip, seated leg curl)

Six hours later (and after an 90 minute walk down to the beach and back up the trail) I hit the track with the intention of doing extensive tempo. Didn’t go so well, mostly because of the time at the beach. The trail up and down takes 10 minutes down and 15 up if you’re not rushing, and has very steep steps. Even going slow it took a lot out of me.

Got through 3 200s. 39,38,38,42 and toast. R=2 Fresh I expect I could have done 38 10 times on that recovery. Ugh.

10/29/12

Warmups and sprint drills
8x40m from a crouch
8 standing triple jumps
3×8 jump lunges

Felt good and strong, technique from the start is improved but still a little inconsistent and without an audio cue its impossible to determined my reaction time.

10/30/12
5x250m hills 61,58,60,59,61 r=walk back ~ 4 minutes
Felt strong again and a longer recovery helped but it felt good to be able to maintain the run through the end whereas 8 weeks ago I was barely jogging at the end.

Weights
The hills really wiped me but did what I could
Push presses, topping out with a couple reps at 155. I think doing it again without a set of hills I might be able to hit 175

Circuit 3x (single legged squats x10 – trail leg on bench, dumbbell hammer curls 6×45, decline close grip bench 10×115)

Also tried a new Precor Ab-X machine. Did 2 sets of 25 “situps” and my abs were on fire. Ouch. Since I tend to think I have superior ab strength, I think that kind of isolation exercise is something I haven’t done in some time and also a more focused exercise.

10/31/12

Off fighting the zombie apocalypse

11/1/12

Warmups
8x100m ~ 77% R=45s, next 2 sets 4×100 same pace and recovery but with only 2 minutes between sets.
Went on the track and with spikes for this one. Last few times was on grass or field turf in sneakers.
Results were ok….pace was about a second faster than last time, and the shorter time between sets really did me in. Still, its an incremental step and I take something away from that.

Weights
Predictably I was feeling the effects of the sprints
Squats 10×165, 8×195, 6×225, 4×255, 2×285. Trouble really getting down on the heavier weight, I may put a seat beneath me for the mental aspect of worrying about going too far.
Circuit 2x (Incline pushups x20, Bodyweight squats x20, 30 jumping jacks, 10x15lb dumbbell reverse lunges)

11/2 11/3
Off (but walked up the beach cliff a couple times)

11/4/12
Weight room
Bench press 10×135,8×165,6×195,4×205,1×225
Circuit 3x (Goblet squat 20x60lb, single arm clean and press 6×45 each arm, 30 second hang from a bar, overhead situpx 15×25) r=15s, 2m

11/5/12

Warmups
Did some wall drills
Block start accelerations 6×50
Jump squats 3×8
6x standing triple jump

11/6/12
250m hills. 60,64,59,61,56 jog back recovery. Really happy on that last time where I kicked it up a notch and got a PR by running hard and mentally and physically sustaining it.
Weight room
Push presses, knocked one out pretty good at 165, a PR, and hoping for more next time.
Circuit 3x(split squats x18 each leg, close grip bench 15×95, standing DB hammer curls 8x45lbs, seesaw shoulder press 12x45lbs) r=15s, 2m

A REALLY good day overall despite the election results.

11/7/12

3x5x100m 75-80% R=45s, 2m
Started to feel myself slowing on the last few, no surprise.

11/8/12
Nothing significant. After some obligations I did some light machine lifting at the gym.

11/9/12

Off

11/10/12
Last couple of days have been brutally windy and wet, not really good for the type of track workouts I had planned. Pushing them back a couple days.

Weight room
Squats, maxed out at 315 parallel to ground. Maybe could have done more but I’ll stick with that for now given it wasn’t an ideal squat rack.
Circuit 3×10, seated calf raises, abductor/adductor lifts, hamdstring curls.

11/11/12

Not a good day. Went to the track earlier than normal (mid afternoon) and on what was overall a lethargic day.

5×200, time=not very good, R=2m

Was expecting to try for 10 at 37, and even in warmups my body was just not responding. Whether its due to the suddenly colder weather, or a lower food/water day, I don’t know. Will repeat this in a week and expect much better results.

11/12/12

Warmups, wall drills
Acceleration 5×50,1×60
3×8 jump squats
6x standing triple jump – maxed at about 23 feet.

11/13-14
Off day

11/15/12
6x250m hills. 59,61,58,60,58,54.8 R=walk back

Weight room
max bench @235, failed at 245, failing serious fatigue at that point.

11/16/12
Off

11/17/12
Warmups
10×100 @18 ~ 75% R=45s, 3×200 @40 R=2m, 3:30 between sets

Well thankfully it doesn’t generally get below 40 here. It does get chilly and damp though as the track is within walking distance of the ocean. After sunset, it gets to be in the high 40’s with fog.

11/18/12
Light warmup
Overhead shot toss – maxed at 42 feet.
Underhand toss – maxed at 39 feet.
Hurdle flexibility work – stepovers, leg kicks
Hurdle hops 3×6
Infield corner runs x10 ~ 28 seconds, R=1m

11/19/12

Warmups
Bounding 3×10 alternating legs
Jump squat 3×8
Accelerations 5×60

Short weight session
Push presses, maxing at 175 (PR with room to spare)
hanging leg raises
overhead rows
static stretch

11/20/12

Warmups
2×400 1:26, 1:23, 300 @62 R=8m.

First time really running these longer runs since training started. Both encouraged and disappointed. They weren’t hard effort runs so I don’t read much into the time, but was hoping I could finish the final 400 and not stop at 300 (was actually supposed to run 500’s but didn’t feel ready for them). Again, I think next time I will run them faster (maybe about 5 seconds or so).

11/21/12
Warmups and then off. Operating on a short sleep night and after 4 days in a row of running I needed some rest.

Heading off to the weight room now for a squat workout before Thanksgiving dinner.

11/22/12

Off

11/23/12

10×100, 6×100, 4×100. 75% ~17.5-18. R=45s between reps, 3,2m between sets. Felt good, wore my new lighweight flats rather than spikes in the infamouse La Jolla early evening fog.

Squats
Finished up with a set of 5×255 and easier than I remember and pretty much to parallel.
Circuit 3x (100lb RDLx12, 20 pushups, 30lb DB lunges x7, 15 lying leg raises). R=30s, 2m

11/24/12

Skipped the track today for a 45 minute walk on the beach and a good climb back up the cliff.
Weight room
Incline bench press, ending with a solid set at 175
Circuit: Bent over rows, 50lb seesaw db shoulder press, 60sec planks, seated tricep dips

Overall, just fatigued and sore from yesterday.

11/25/12

Was feeling a lot of hamstring and glute soreness from Friday’s session and lifting but gutted this one out.

Slow warmups
6×150 split 75/85/95%. R=250m walk around the back of the track. Times were 24.2-24.6 which based on intended tempo was right on the money.

11/26

Off

11/27
Warmups
Wall drills
Jump lunges 3×8
Single legged bounds 5×10
Started to do 100s @ 95% and at about 70m on the first one felt a slight twinge in my left hamstring. Rather than push it and continue on with another 5 100s I simply went and did a half dozen starts out to 20 meters.

11/28

Still feeling a little soreness in that spot on the hamstring so I skipped any running.

Throwers type warmup
A couple of overhead and underhand shot tosses. 12.8 and 11.9m respectively. Good by my standards.
10 standing shot tosses. Averaged about 9.15 (30ft for those of us in the US) which is a 10% improvement over where I had been the last few years. I think the focus on quality plyos and power lifts has been very helpful. Not quite ready to start focusing on the glide since Saturday will be the only competitive throwing I’ll be doing until late January.

Full regimen of hurdle flexibility work
3×6 hurdle hops at 33″ Good clearance.

Weight room
Push presses, topping out at 175 and failure at 185
Circuit: 3x45s (10x40lb hammer curl, 22x bodyweight squats, 15x50lb dumbbell bench press, 15x25lb overhead situp, 50lb dumbbell farmers walk for 50 steps) Re=15s, 2m

11/29 11/30
Off

12/1
Allcomers meet

Shot: Best was 9.07
60m: 8.73

Not my best but mornings (even late mornings) aren’t my best time of the day. Felt a little weaker in the shot, and just generally SLOW in the 60. Some more morning workouts might help with that.

12/2

Light workout

Overhead and underhand shot tosses
4×5 broad not quite 60 feet like Mr. Hurlebaus 😉 …closer to 38-40
10x standing jump onto the pole vault mats ~ 36″ ???

Good opener – Nice to get a first meet out of the way. One of the things that helps me for morning meets is an early wake up – and doing a full warm-up and a couple hard build-ups – say at 6 or 6:30 AM for a 10 or 11 AM race.

One of the problems I had was the event scheduling. They really didn’t do a good job of scheduling track events. The 60 and SP were supposed to go off at the same time (and for me that actually would have been good for both events from an explosive standpoint) but instead the 60 was delayed an hour and I couldn’t keep the edge I had earier after warmups. I will try your method though in the future as all but one weekend meet in San Diego tends to be mid-morning based (or earlier). I know some PV friends of mine who will even skip association/regional championship meets because the event starts at 7:30am.

12/3

5x250m hills

61,57,61,59,53. Really cut it loose on the last one, by far the fastest I’ve run that hill.

12/4
Dynamic warmup
Wall drills
3×8 jump squats
5×5 single leg bounds
5×60 block starts

12/5

Dynamic warmup
3x4x100 @85-90% R=90s, 3m. Hard to br precise while running but it translated into times of 15-16s looking down at the watch. Felt good except for the last 100. Tried to open it up to finish off and felt hammy strain at about 50 meters and stopped. Next time (hamstring dependent) I’ll knock the rep recovery down about 10s and maybe go 4 sets.

Squats 145×10, 175×8, 205×6, 235×4, 265×4 pretty much or near ATG. Felt strong but tired, not surprisingly right after running.
Circuit 2x (dumbell pushups x20, dumbell lunges 30×7, 45 second plank, seated leg curl 100×10)

12/6-12/8

Off

12/9
2 mile run on the track at a moderate pace, reversing direction after 1 mile. (untimed)
Incline bench 105,125,145,165 finishing 185×5.
Circuit 3x ~ 45s per exercise(front dumbell squat 12×80, single arm dumbell clean and press 8×45 each arm, 12×90 barbell RDL, 20x lying leg raises) r=30s, 2m.

12/10

Off

12/11
Extensive warmup
Wall drills
4×60 accelerations…left hamstring flared up again on the last one and I shut things down and skipped any plyo work I had planned.

Weights
Skipped the main power lift because of the hamstring (would’ve been either push press or power cleans)
Circuit 3x (50lb incline dumbell bench x17, 50lb single arm rows x20, 47.5lb hammer curls x6, hanging leg raises x20) r=30s, 2m

Morning after the hamstring feels sore but not like a tear. I will simply have to not do spring above 85% or any RDL’s until this thing heals fully. I still have full flexibility there so I don’t consider it a serious injury. I might also consider looking into how I stride with the downward mechanics as its a lot more forceful when I open up the speed.

12/12/12

Warmups
Hurdle flexibility work
3×6 33″ hurdle hops
No running. Not even a slow warmup lap.

12/13/12

off

12/19/12

Warmups
2x4x100 @75% R=90s, 2m

After the last 100 I could feel the hamstring tightening up (it was about 9pm and 40 degrees F in San Diego)

Got about half the volume and about 10% lower intensity than I wanted. All hamstring related. Felt smooth, loose, and conditioning wasn’t an issue.

Going to try hills and then a squat workout tonight.

12/23

Warmups
Squats, finished at 265 for 4 at about parallel
Circuit x2 (incline dumbell 15×50, single arm row 15×50, reverse dumbell lunge 7×30, 20 lying leg raises)

Been cold, rainy and windy lately and my hamstring feels just enough soreness in this weather to be skip running. Gym closed til Wednesday morning so I’ll have to tough it up and run to get exercise in over the holiday.

12/28/12

Incline bench press ended with 5×185
Circuit 2x 45s
2x40lb dumbell squats
8x50lb single arm clean and press
6x weight assisted pullups -100lb
planks
r = 30s, 2m

12/31

Light hills
5x200m averaging 48s.

Circuit 3x 45s
100lb seated hamstring curl x22
45lb seesaw shoulder press x10
35lb dumbell curls x10
pushup x 20
25lb overhead situp x15
50lb farmers walk

1/1 Off

1/2
Warmups
Wall drills 7 step x3
Jump squat 3×8
Accelerations 6×20 moderate intensity due to hamstring
Single leg bounds 5×5

Finally have life in order after moving into a new apartment and domestic issues. Now if only the hamstring can heal I’ll be back on track. its not hurting but definitely limiting my running.

1/3 Off

1/4

Warmups
No running, hamstring soreness

1/5 off

1/6
Weight room

Squats to 285×3
Circuit 3x
dumbell pushups 20-22
recline rows 8-12
lunges 30×7
lying leg raises 20-22
r-30s, 2m

1/7

Extensive warmup
3x wall drills
3×8 squat jump
8×35 block accelerations at maybe 85% and painfree. Very measured but felt good to run even if not at top speed.
5x frog leap series measured at just over 37 feet.

1/8 off

1/9

2x8x100m @75% r=1m, 2m
Hamstring felt tight but not sore. A little limiting and the lack of hard workouts over the last 6 weeks showed.

1/10-1/11
Off, too cold and windy at night at the track (about 40F and 30mph gusts)

1/13

5×200 @~38 R=2m
Rain it pain free and didn’t push the speed. The cold didn’t help my endurance but for the first time running repeat 200’s in about 8 weeks I think it was ok.

WR
Incline bench 5 sets ending with 3×195

Circuit 3x at 43s per station
Goblet squat 65×15
Single arm clean and press 47.5×8
weight assisted lat pullups
weighted situps 25×15
R=30s, 2m

10 minutes static stretching

1/14

Warmups
3×7 wall drills
3×8 squat jumps
6×50 meter accelerations
5×5 single leg bounds

Still held a little back but felt good running if not a little out of sorts mechanically from the crouch.

1/15

10×100, 8×100 @75% r=1m, 2m
Getting close to where I was before the injury

1/16
Off

1/17
2×400 1.26, 1.23 r=8m
Not the fastest possible times as I was pacing myself and I felt serious energy drain after the second run and hamstring fatigue. Still all things considered I’ll take it.

1/18 off

1/19

OHB x6 reached 12-13 meters
10 standing shot throws, averaged 9.3 meters.
10 standing discus throws, not sure of the distance as it had gotten dark and I couldn’t see well enough to mark off the landings.

1/20

Push press 5×115, 5×135, 3×155, 1×175, just missed at 185
Circuit 3x
8×50 single arm snatch
12×35 double armed dumbbell curls
12×50 standing tricep extension
45s walking planks
r=30s, 2m
3×8 jump lunges r=1m

1/21
Extensive warmup
wall drills 3×7
Jump squats 3×8
Crouch accelerations 5×60
Single leg bounds 5×5
Accelerations were good from a form standpoint. Didn’t feel fast and didn’t want to test the hamstring so I got out and ran but didn’t fly. The bounds were significantly better than previous efforts, by maybe a 6″ per bound.

1/22
10×100 @80%, 8×100 @75% r=1m, 2m
Hamstring felt sore this morning but it was muscle soreness not injury soreness. Felt a lot stonger doing it this week than last. Next time out I’ll try and increase the speed a bit and drop the recovery by 10s.

1/23 – 1/25 Off..partly rain, partly domestic stuff, partly taking a day off upon turning 43.

1/26
5×200 hills. Times 41-45, r= ~2:45

Late night weight room
Squats up to 285
3×10 on machines adductor/abductor, seated hamstring curl, standing calf raise, lower back extension, hanging leg raise, r=15, 1m

1/27 Off

1/28

6×150 buildup 75/85/95%. R=walk the back 250m

Times 23-24 which was better than expected and no hamstring pain.

1/29

Wall drills 3×7
5×100 @90%
Single leg bounds 5×5

Weights:
Was supposed to do incline bench but I was having shoulder stiffness from sleeping on it the night before
Switched to a machine workout circuit
Shoulder rows 3×10
Tricep dips 3×10
Lower back extensions 3×10
VERY light leg press 3×10
Lying leg raises 3×20
R=15s, 30s

1/30-2/1 Off

2/2

Jumped into a High School State Qualifyer/All-comers meet

Did very well compared to my expectations. The track events were California high school track distances so its a little different.

Shot Put: 9.12 I’m okay with this considering I haven’t worked on form.
55m 7.97 Better than the 60 (distance adjusted time) I ran 2 months ago by about .25. Still need to work on my reaction time and initial burst out of the block.
Discus 26.2 I’d have to check but I THINK it’s a masters PR for me by a little bit. Finally decided to go with a spin instead of a standing throw. I probably have a lot more in there as I wasn’t even close to letting it all out or near the front of the circle after release.
300m 47.9 Wasn’t sure how to approach this race. I felt strong throughout and finished strong but I don’t feel like I ran as hard as I should have. It felt like I ran at a 400m pace. Were I to do it again and now knowing how I feel running it I could easily take a 2-3 seconds off of it. I was gassed at the end but more from the distance rather than the effort. I don’t know that I will be running this race again any time soon as everything else coming up on the calendar are more traditional outdoor race lengths…with a 400m next weekend.

2/3 Off

2/4
6x200m 35,35,35,38,40,40 r=2m Starting to feel stronger on the 200s for multiple reps, maybe one more time doing this before I start to lower the times for quality.

10x standing jumps onto the high jump mats. 36″?

Weights
Squats 10×135, 8×165, 6×195, 6×235, 4×265 thighs parallel to hips. Can’t to ATG on much more than 135, but then again I don’t work on it.
Circuit 2x (25 pushups, 22x45lb single armed rows, 7×25 lunges, 20 lying leg raises) rx=15s, 2m

2/5 Off

2/6
Warmups
3×9 wall drills
3×8 squat jumps
5×100 @90% walkback recovery
5×5 single legged jumps
got bitched at by a UCSD workstudy student for not having a RIMAC pass while using the track…

Weight room
Incline bench up to 5×185
Light circuit 2x as I was feeling stiff and tired at this point.
3x1m planks

2/7 Off

2/8 – 2/9 off

2/10
Some OHB and standing shot throws before darkness
10xstanding lj into the sand pit. About 7′ 6″ average. Want it up to 8.

2/11
Warmups and drills
5×5 single leg bounds
3×8 squat jumps

2/12

Warmups
8×100+5×100 @ 80% r=50s, 2m
it was 46 and damp that night so I didn’t last as long as I would have liked.

Weight
Squats 10×175, 8×205, 6×235, 4×265, 2×295
Circuit 2x (feet elevated pushups x25, bent over rows 20×80, reverse lunges 8×20, squats x20, jumping jacks x20) r= 15s, 2m
Farmers carry 3x 50lbs x 50 steps

2/13 off

2/14

Warmups
Extended hurdle flexibility drills
Set up 1 hurdle at 33″ just to get a rhythm into going over the first hurdle. I definitely need work on going over a hurdle correctly (muscle memory anyone?) but noticed that I got into the hurdle from a step and fluidity standpoint a LOT better from a standing start than from a crouch. I think its a confidence thing seeing the hurdle from above and not holding back from a fear of hurdle thing as I start a lot harder approaching the hurdle.
Did 3×100 after about 10 hurdle starts @90%. Wanted two more and hurdle hops but I felt some strain on the top of my foot at the flexor and stopped.

Weights
Incline bench 10,8,6,4,2 up to 205
Circuit 2x (Goblet squat 20×60, Single arm clean and press 8×40, weight assisted pullups x8, 45 second walking lunges) r=15s, 2m.

I took most of last week off. Bad weather, and job obligations.

2/24
Noontime lift
Circuit 3x (Single leg split squats x20, 20x95lb close grip bench press, 8×45 hammer curl, 6×40-30-25lb see saw shoulder press) r=15s, 2m. Totally gassed by the time I got to the shoulder press in each set.
30m jog to the beach and back. Longest I’ve run in 4 months and had some soreness the next morning.

2/25
Warmups and drills
6x200m 35,35,37,39..and then the lactic acid hit me with a 49 and 46. R=2m.

2/26
Warmups and drills
10×100 @75% r=50s, 2mr and then 6×100 @75% r=50s. I tried to make a go for another few reps but my legs were shot more than my lungs or energy system.

2/27 Off

2/28

OHB warmup
10 standing shot tosses ~ 9.2m
10 glide tosses mostly the same but had a couple where the form and explosiveness came together for about 9.6m
5 standing discus throws ~ 24m
10 spin throws ~ 25m

Weight room
Squats – max rep day. Top rep where I went parallel was 315lbs.
Power clean 3x5x135lbs – an exercise I haven’t done in a LONG time
3×5 box jumps

3/1 – 3/2 Off

3/3
Hurdle flexibility
4×150 near full recovery 22.6,22.1,22.0,23.4 last one I felt done and couldn’t hold it together. On the flip side, those are the fastest 150s I’ve done since getting back into track 5 years ago.

3/4
Lots of long jump work.
A couple approaches to check on marks
A fair number of standing broad jumps (7′ 10″ was the best distance)
and a lot of short approaches just to work on takeoff and followthrough.

3/5
warmups and drills
3×8 squat jumps r=1m
wall drills
5×100 at 95%
5×5 single leg bounds

Weight room (a couple hours later around midnight)
Went for a max incline bench and only got 205. I think the late hour and 2 hour cool down from the track work killed me.
3×10 (seated hamstring curls, tricep dips, lat pulldowns, hanging knees raises)

3/6
Off

3/7
OHB, standing shot and discus throws

3/8 3/9
Off

3/10
Javelin tosses, mostly short throws and 3 step approaches
Weight room
Deadlifts 10×135, 8×185, 6×225
Snatch 3x5x95
Hammer strength incline bench
Hammer curl 3x4x50
Ab work

3/11
off

Tax season is starting to take its toll on my time and energy as at the end of the work day I am very mentally and physically fatigued.

3/12

Hurdle work. I feel improvement in the approach to hurdle #1, particulary with a flying start. The problem isn’t my overall speed, but an inability to get to sufficient speed from the blocks before the first hurdle. Hmmm

I find myself still choppping to 5 steps to hurdle #2 which tells me I could probably do a 4 step.

Weight room
Squats to 2×295 (but lousy form) Will need to do more deadlift and lower weight squats for a while.
Circuit 3x at 45s intervals(Dumbbell pushups x18-20, lying ring pullups x12, 27.5lb lunges x8, lying leg raises x20) r=15s, 2m.
Solid circuit that taxed me but not to the point where I had to stop.

3/13 Off

3/14
Weight room
Incline bench max at 215 (up from 205 a week ago) as I didn’t do any track work
Circuit 45s 3x (20x deep bodyweight squats, 8x40lb single arm clean and press, 8x25lb forward lunges, 15x25lb weighted situps) r=15s, 2m

3/15
Basic track warmup

3/16 Off

3/17
OHBs (PRed at 13.0)
10 standing shot tosses (to just over 30’/9.15)
10 glide tosses (masters PR at 9.6)
Some standing and spin discus throws to about 27.0

Weights
Dead lifts up to 4x245lb
Power cleans 5×135, 2x5x155
Hammer strength incline bench press up to a max of 135lb each side
3×10 seated hamstring curls r=15s
3×10 seated calf raised r=15s
2×10 bodyweight dips

3/18
Light warmup session
400-50 meter progressions at 1500m pace. Was really fatigued from the heavy lifting the night before and had left knee and right hip flexor soreness.

3/19
Long jump takeoff and landing drills
2x150m, 22.3 and 21.9

3/20

Was thinking to take the day off but my GF pushed me so….

10×100 @75% in flats and then 6×100 @75%. r=50s, 2m.

Could have pushed out another couple but backed off. Speed was lower than I would have liked by about a second each run but its hard to maintain that pace for me in flats and not spikes. Recovered nicely though at the end.

3/21-3/22 Off

3/23
Thanks to Ross for hosting at the USOTC in Chula Vista. We worked on my poor drive phase coming out of the starting blocks and steps to the first hurdle. Gave me a lot to think about and focus on!

3/24

Shot and discus throws.
Felt fairly slow and lethargic and the hamstrings were a little (surprisingly) sore from the day before.

3/25
3×200@90%
Weight room
Squats up to 2×295
Single arm shoulder presses up to 4×55
Reverse lunges 6×25
Series of barbell rows
50 situps

3/26 off

3/27
Warmup and light plyos

3/28-3/30
Off

3/31
OHB
Standing shot tosses x12
Glide shot tosses x8
Standing disc tosses x10
Spin x6

4/1

Good solid warmup with drills
3×80 turn accelerations,

Weight room
Bench Press up to 225lbs
3x6x90 barbell curls
3x10x100 RDLs
Some bodyups
Twisting ab work

4/2
Warmup
Heavy plyos
4×4 box drops
8×6 box jumps
6×5 hurdle hops
3×10 alternating single leg bound
5×8 single leg bound
50-60-70 accelerations

4/3 Off

4/4
Joined a meetup with a local college coach and an elite 200m sprinter
1mile run uphill
4x circuit run from station to station(20x walking lunge with a twist, 15 pushups, 20 good mornings, 20 bug crawls, 15 jump squats) and a 100 meter run up a steep hill between sets.

5/9

Haven’t been posting lately, but the training has shown some results. My explosiveness has improved in box jumps, bounding, and olympic lifts. I can’t quantify it numerically, but my squats, power cleans, and snatches “feel” more powerful, and smoother at higher weights.

Ran a 100m at a meet a few weeks back. Only had 13.97. I never felt quite in sync with my stride and I think one of my strides just hit wrong at about 80m, as I felt out of energy immediately and my lower back was sore and stiff for about 3 days afterwards.

Standing and glide shot throws are showing marginal improvement and I suspect based on my improvement in the circuit workouts that my ability to sustain speed in the 400 has improved and maybe the 1500 as well. The hurdles may be a problem as the school’s hurdles are locked up (for now). If I get the lock combination I should be good to go. The vault to me is a lost cause, but I can still work on the physical aspects from a body strength and coordination standpoint.

I’ve been talking with one of the assistant coaches at a local university and he’s looking to try and get funding for community based track and field workouts for people like myself as there are a lot of people in the San Diego area into masters and non-collegiate/scholastic track but no organized group for it. Example: The San Diego Track Club as a practical matter doesn’t do track and field, and their weekly track workouts are geared towards distance runners.

Although I have a few pole vault only meets coming up, my season is effectively over. A mixed bag. Not a ton of races but enough to say I did a bunch.

Overall it went as follows:

100m -200m about the same times as I am accustomed to. I think my takeaway here is that I need to work hard on all phases of the 100, start, acceleration, and top speed.

400m was a major disappointment. I’ve lost 5-6 seconds from where I was in 2009 and running it more frequently. I think part if not all of it is how I run the race as I’ve started to try and hold some back. Whereas before I would hit 300 in 48 and just hang on, now I’m running through 200 and 300 a couple seconds slower even though my actual 200 and 300 times in their own right are still the same. Might be a mental thing where I don’t want to be completely exhausted at the finish.

Jumps were an improvement as were the shot and discus (slightly). Javelin stayed the same, the 1500m is hard to gauge as I’ll explain later.

Hurdles showed some improvement after getting a few faces in. I ran three races (four if you count a non-timed hurdle race at a sanctioned dec) and lowered my time each race. I started at 23.3 (which was about what I’d typically run before) at that dec (which was 20 minutes after running what I thought to be a BETTER 110HH which the gun wasn’t registered by the computer) and progressively lowered my time to 22.4 within a month and I feel with dedicated work, could easily drop 2 more seconds.

As for the dec, I only did one, at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista for the San Diego Association Championships. It was an open meet, but the director was kind enough to lower the hurdles to 39 inches for me. My final score was a PR of 2,951 which beat my previous beat by 52 points at the Worlds in Sacramento 2 years ago (masters adjusted) and was off by 30 points from a PR in open scoring. This was despite running an abysmal 400 and 1500. While I mentioned my 400 problems earlier, they were aggravated here as there was simply a horrendous westerly wind to fight through. Everyone was 3 seconds off their marks in the 400 and 30 seconds in the 1500. Had I run my normal times I would have had another 120.

Otherwise it was a fantastic meet. I set masters PRs in the long jump by 7cm, shot put by 45cm, high jump by 3cm, and discus by about 50cm and tied my PR in the pole vault. Even more remarkable was that I had done NO high jumping or pole vaulting only minimal work on the long jump, and had focused my jumping efforts with a pretty goof plyometric program I had picked up from a local college.

Back into training after some time just working out with no real structure.

9/8/13
Warmups
Accelerations 10x20m
Plyos
box drops 6×5
platform jumps 6×5
single legged hops 2×8
alternate leg bound 4×10

9/9/13
Warmups
10x100m 70% R=45s (felt a little sluggish and tired but hit my marks anyway)
Squats 10×135, 8×165, 6×195, 6×225, 4×255 (felt stronger than I expected)
Circuit 2x (25 pushups, single armed DB row 18x45lb, walking lunges 7x25lb, 20 lying leg raises) r=15s, 2m.

9/10

Mile run, 3x250m hill averaged 53

9/11
Off

9/12
7×200 @65-70%. r=2m.
Wanted 8 but it would have finished at about 60% and not worth it.

9/13
Off

9/14
1 1/2 mile run
Bench press up to 5×195
2x circuit (40lb goblet squat x18, 40lb single arm clean and press x8, weight assisted pullups. leg raises x20) r=153, 2m

9/15

Off

9/16
Warmups and wall drills
10×20 accelerations
6×5 box drops
10×2 broad jumps into the jumping pit

9/17
off

9/18
10×100, 5×100 @ 65-70% in flats ~20sec, r=45s, 3m

9/19
Hills
1 mile run
3×250 hill ~ 55s, walk back recovery

deadlift workout topping out at 5×255
Circuit 2x (RDL 15×80, db bench press 15×80, 20x body weight squats, 8×40 hammer curls, 15×25 overhead situps) r=15s, 2m

9/20
Off

9/21
Crossfit style workout
5 minute (approximately 800m on grass by the water) run, 50 pushups, 5 minute run, 100 crunches, 5 minute run, 50 split leg squats. Took about 21:30

9/22

Off

9/23

Sprint drills
5×20, 4×25 accelerations (from a starting position)
5×5 box drops
5×5 vertical jumps onto the pole vault pits (39 inches?)
5×2 broad jump into the sand pit

Squats up to 3×275
Circuit 3x (15×45 incline dumbbell bench press, 18×45 single arm db row, 7×35 reverse DB lunges, 20 lying leg raises) 4=15s, 2m

9/24
10x100x2,@ 70%, r=50s, 3m.
Did this in flats on damp grass and times were consistently 20-21 which hit the target of 70% given I wasn’t in spikes on a track.

Catching up here.

10/6
Push press, failed at a max of 175. Wasn’t full warmed up when I started but I want that up to 205.
Circuit 3x
RDL 15×90, DB curls 8×40 each arm, see saw DB press 8×40, overhead situp 15×25
R=15s, 2m

10/7
Off

10/8
(10pm when I finally got to the track)
Comprehensive warmup with sprint drills
Wall drills
4×30, 2×40 from a starting position
Wish I had blocks to push out of. Didn’t feel like I was staying low enough or reaching far enough in the first few steps
Plyos: 3×8 jump squats, 8 standing triple jump into the pit alternating legs on each rep.