2010-2011 55m Training

sat jan 22

meet (150m rubber flat track):
-55m -> 6.7h grrr
3 resistance/overspeed contrast runs (6 total runs)
-300m -> 39.1h grr
4x2 power clean@155/165/175/185
3x3 parallel squat@250/265/275

light massage

notes:
-kind of frustrating today because i came so close to my goals but didnt get them. with handtimes you never know though, i may have actually hit them, or not been been close depending on the error
-in the 300m there was a false start. i feel like that hurt my second start, but nothng i can do know. i just tried to really relax and i didnt even realize how good i did because i believe thats either a pr or a tie for a pr for me. still seeing a 38 wouldve been nice
-that 6.6h school record is killing me! i got an equal time with the winner of my heat (who was actually the 6.5h kid i raced on wednesday) and his coach got him at a 6.5h, so i was surprised that the official handtimers got us at 6.7’s. i had a good start for once, then the winner pulled away at 15-30 and i caught up bit by bit til the finish. i wasnt as relaxed at top speed and i think my hip height was a bit low again, but i tried running away from the blocks at the start instead of towards the finish, and my stride rate picked way up so at least i know what to do now!

sun jan 23

5’ erg warm up
jump rope
5x5 hurdle hops with short accel
frequency ankling drills
a. 5x3 bench@175/195/205/200/185
a. 3x5 wide grip pull ups
a. hurdle drills
a. 25 each x band
b. 2x100 medball throws
b. 1 each human flag
b. handstand push ups
cf bike workout (1st set)
light stretch

notes:
-continued to work on keeping my leg angle smaller and it feels good, it noticeably helps increase my stride rate, and from video looks like it may even be helping stride length. the only i have to watch for while concentrating on it is hitting triple ext bc its not 100% all the time when i cue straight back and not “pulling”
-my bench is still improving, i will increase to 210 for the sets of 3 but then stop there, and probably decrease a small bit as the big meets come
-minor upper leg soreness today, nothing my DOMS and should be gone by tomorrow
-i noticed during overspeed yesterday that at top speed i can handle a much higher stride rate, so i put n some frequency drills just to see if that helps me at all

sun jan 23

5’ erg warm up
jump rope
flip
5x5 hurdle hops with short accel
frequency ankling drills
a. 5x3 bench@175/195/205/200/185
a. 3x5 wide grip pull ups
a. hurdle drills
a. 25 each x band
b. 2x100 medball throws
b. 1 each human flag
b. handstand push ups
cf bike workout (1st set)
light stretch

notes:
-continued to work on keeping my leg angle smaller and it feels good, it noticeably helps increase my stride rate, and from video looks like it may even be helping stride length. the only i have to watch for while concentrating on it is hitting triple ext bc its not 100% all the time when i cue straight back and not “pulling”
-my bench is still improving, i will increase to 210 for the sets of 3 but then stop there, and probably decrease a small bit as the big meets come
-minor upper leg soreness today, nothing my DOMS and should be gone by tomorrow
-i noticed during overspeed yesterday that at top speed i can handle a much higher stride rate, so i put n some frequency drills just to see if that helps me at all

just a quick update post:

-im no longer cycling creatine, and im only taking weight gainer shakes post-lifting, though i do take zma nightly and a multivit daily
-i still try to eat as much as i can, as i dont seem to put on bf, its the only way ive put on muscle, and its seemed to have cured my chronic exhaustion that i had as a junior (i figured out that if i eat constantly the whole school day i no longer have uncontrollable sleep attacks during classes)
-before races i usually mix a small amount of creatine with gatorade, and take some arginine pills and eat some ginseng root
-my ankle and hip are no longer bothering me, but my right heel is a bit tender, and my pcl knee still doesnt feel greatin certain positions, though i have no real “injuries” as of now
-at the start, i cue the wrist flick to begin the race, then i aim to straighten my back and run away from the blocks, then once i realize im upright i cue my arm swing. ive had to stop cueing pumping my arms at the start bc that is one of the things i believe has let to my “casting out”. maybe as i get more and more used to a closed leg angle i can try cueing it again just bc its closer to my brain, so the neural impulses dont need to travel as far to my arms, haha

Hey, I have a question.

-Where do you do rev hypers?
-Did you buy a sled? Where do you use it/where’d you get it
-Where do you do your medball throws, and with what weight?

hi!

-the gym i am a member at has a reverse hyper machine, so i just use the apparatus for that
-again, the gym i go to has sleds with harnesses, a vertical bar to put weight on the sled and a ~30m straightaway to drag them across. the sleds are metal and the floor rubber so i usually just pulled the sled with no weight added
-thee is a giant wooden wall at the gym i go to where people can throw medballs at them. i use a 15 or 16 lb medball but really only do throws that work my core in a twisting manner. i do 5 exercises with 10 reps each direction with no break between exercises but a break in between the sets

mon jan 24

5’ elliptical
a. 2x10 stomach vacuums
a. 2 min abs circuit
wrist flicks to gun
5’ elliptical
some microstretching
light stetch
pcl and heel self-massage and ice

notes:
-today is meant to act pretty much as an offday, but i also have problems sleeping when i have no exercise, but i think my ab circuit is low enough intensity that my body wont have trouble recovering

how do you feel on race day when you take that creatine? do you feel like you need it to get that extra edge? I’ve taken some stuff that I feel like hurts my endurance.

*Increases short term anaerobic output, diminishes hard after that.

I like to use it on strength focused days, what are your thoughts?

im not sure which part of my pre race “cocktail” it is, but ever since i started doing this combo ive gotten a HUGE rush right before my race. i know i get very nervous for the couple hours before my race so i have that problem where i cant digest food, so i started doing it as just an energy source i could digest. my times are still improving up to the 300, but since my 55 is my concetration, im not worrying about the endurance part

if i do outdoor then i can experiment around and see how it affects my se in a 100, but endurance is a null factor in the 55

tues jan 25

jogging
stretch checks
activation drills
submax start drills
3 block blast outs
1 4x200m handoff
1 top speed fly
light stretch
self-massage
ice knee

notes:
-meet tomorrow (hopefully the storm holds off). i am running the 55 and the 4x200, goals are:
55m -> 6.6h
4x200m split -> 24.xh
-my fly felt unbelievable today so hopefully that can carry over to my 55 tomorrow. im trying to immitate my start from saturday, which feels less powerful, but i believe thats just me not being used to the fastr stride rate because i still am usually hitting triple ext and actually have a straighter back doing it. i just need to make sure my leg angle stays closed in the start and i should be gold

wed jan 26

meet:
-55m -> 6.7h
-2 resistance/overspeed contrast runs
-50 contacts llrr hops
-4x200m split -> 25.4h
-2 min abs circuit

notes:
-i wouldve lifted after the meet but did not have time bc everyone had to go home bc a snow storm was hitting. nbd bc ill lift tomorrow since my next meet isnt until sunday and im only running the 55m there anyways
-not a spectacular 55 though i did still think it had a possiblity of being a 6.6. rt wasnt my best and my knees and hip height dropped during the last 10m or so, though my acel was good again and my peak speed ws pretty decent
-im surprised with how slow my 4x2 split was bc i felt (and looked according to my dad) very fast. i did take an early handoff in the zone to shorten the 3rd runners leg and may have subconsciously slowed down on the final straight bc i pulled far ahead, but my top speed felt very nice
-abs were very tired during my 2 min abs circuit. im guessing it was the combo of the 4x2 and overspeed bc thats more top speed than i have been doing and hits my abs harder since its more rotational

thurs jan 27

shoveling & snowboarding

2:30 elliptical warm up
2:30 erg warm up
flip
hurdle drills
5x2 power snatch@115/120/125
1 each human flag
a. 5x3 bench press@175/195/210*/200/185
a. 3x5 wide-grip pull ups
a. 1x25 each x-band
a. stability ball drill
handstand push ups
3x100 low int plyos
bike tempo:
-cf store workout 2nd set
light stretch

notes:
-failed pretty badly on my thrid rep at 210, yuck, may have been a bit more tired than usual from shoveling and work
-some hip and upper hammy slight soreness. pcl knee is a bit tender too
-tomorrow im treating like a premeet day and sat essentially off since i have a meet on sunday, but no access to the school’s track on saturday

fri jan 28

4’ jog
stretch checks
activation drills
4 block blast outs
1 top speed fly
2x100 medball throws
light stretch
knee icing

pcl knee massage
pcl knee ice

notes:
-terrible nights sleep last night, stupid cold kept me awake. i seem to have gotten over it almost entirely by now, miraculously, though
-some pectoral soreness today
-took some tape, stride looks much better at start, though my second step still has a little casting out that looks to be beneficial to fix so ill look out for it

fri jan 28

4’ jog
stretch checks
activation drills
4 block blast outs
1 top speed fly
2x100 medball throws
light stretch
knee icing

pcl knee massage
pcl knee ice

notes:
-terrible nights sleep last night, stupid cold kept me awake. i seem to have gotten over it almost entirely by now, miraculously, though
-some pectoral soreness today
-took some tape, stride looks much better at start, though my second step still has a little casting out that looks to be beneficial to fix so ill look out for it

sat jan 29

weigh in -> 150

cf store bike workout warm up (except on elliptical)
a. 2x10 stomach vacuums
a. wrist flicks to gun
some microstretching

light massage

notes:

  • still sick with the cold today, im feeling the lack of sleep from two nights ago more, but i got a decent night’s sleep last night so hopefully ill be fine for sunday
    -i looked more at my blocks vids and i noticed that i def still have some major areas to improve, though it is much better than it was in earlier season. my left leg is still casting out (probably because my pcl injury has made extended positions feel more natural) and after my first couple pushes my right leg does too, which wouldnt be an issue except that my knee drive seems to somewhat diminish, which could explain my difficulty from getting from my exiting the blocks stage to top speed. tomorrows a meet, but while warming up i can think about what id like to fix and see if it works
    -tomorrow i am running the 55m at Reggie lewis center. my goal is a 6.84 FAT

sun jan 30

meet:
55m -> 6.93 FAT

warm up:
2:00 erg warm up
jump rope
plyos:
5x5 hurdle hops w/ accel
4x14 llrr hops
3 standing triples
5 medball between legs throw
some bounding
weights:
5x2 power clean@155/160/165/170/185
2x3 parallel squat@285/300
core:
2 min abs circuit
cool down:
light stretch

notes:
-decent, but not good start today. a coach got video of it and mechanically it looks pretty good, but my stride rate felt slow in the race. my top speed sucked bc i was tight, so i was probably tense at the start too. it didnt help that i was the 22nd heat so i had to stand in place in my heat line for like 20 min before running. regardless, i need to work on running my own race. i think i can also try to be more reactionary at the start and more concentrated at top speed, because as a weak sophomore with no idea how to use blocks i ran a 6.98 FAT coming off a pcl partial tear, and im still only running 6.9x’s, so maybe the cue i used in that race (big leg angle, high knees) is what i need to do to get back the top speed i used to catch people with
-lifting still felt pretty easy, today was the last day im doing parallel squats for the season, and 185 still goes up pretty easy in the pc. this tells me that i still have much to unload bc im not even really seeing a decrease in my strength levels. plus im stilling seeing hypertrophy gains in muscles of which ive stopped isolated training of (shoulders, neck, obliques, calfs, etc.) so im still having muscle adaptations which i think may be another sign i overtrained, but also lets me know its unlikely im losing significant strength if the muscles are still growing
-i wouldve benched today too, but the gym i go to closes at 4 on sundays. i can just do it tomorrow though, because i dont have another meet til saturday
-i took some video of the accels after the hurdle hops, and when i dont hit triple ext all the way, it looks much faster, my stride rate feels way higher and from the video, my stride lengths for all my steps after my first one are actually are actually longer. maybe less emphasis on the triple ext could actually help my transisition phase

mon jan 31

800m jog
stretch checks
activation stuff
flip
weights:
25 each x-band
swiss ball balance bw squats
1 each human flag
tempo:
2x5x150m
weights:
5x3 bench@175/190/205*/195/185
3x5 wide-grip pull ups
handstand push ups
core:
2x100 medball throws
2x10 stomach vacuums

notes:
-some hip and gluteal soreness. big storms will be limiting my training tuesday and wednesday, though i will try to fit in a benching session to at least give my cns some work. then i will probably take thursday very light, pre meet friday and i have a meet on saturday

tues feb 1

shoveling/snowblowing

microstretching
self-massage and icing (knee, pcl)

notes:
-huge snowstorm today, was going to take an offday anyways though
-was going to do light speed work tomorrow, but its suppose to still be snowing so i may have to use benching as a cns stimulus and make due with what i can do in a basement

wed feb 2

erg warm up
stretch checks
a. 1x3,1x1,3x3 bench@175,225,205/200/185
a. 3x5 wide grip pull ups
b. 2x3 1/4 squat@300
b. 1x10 jump/explosive squat@135
b. 1x10 explosive rdl@100
various low to mid int plyos (~100 contacts)
some acrobat holds
2 min abs circuit
5 handstand push ups
light stretch

shoveling/snowblowing

wrist flicks to gun

notes:
-waist deep snow everywhere. my through the woods neighbor has a weightlifting cage in his basement so i trudged over there to get in a final high int workout for the season. was planning on going light with weights and doing some relaxed sprinting, but the indoor track is closed so i just tried to do some cns and plyo work. i’m thinking about cutting weights entirely at some point, maybe in a week just because i think my strength is fine, so it may just be making me tired. no real other option today though
-i was happy i got the 225 up in the bench. thats 1.5x my bw which is pretty good. i may drop all other lifts to very submax for the rest of the year and just use ~50 reps high int plyos in a session and benching as my extra stimulus to racing

thurs feb 3

jog a couple laps
activation drills
cf bike workout warm up
hammy massage/self-massage
microstretching
wrist flicks to gun

contrast showering on hammys

notes:
-took today off, but had hammy doms. this is a bad muscle to have sore with the big races coming up so i tried to do what i can to speed up the recovery. probably the combo of lifting and shoveling did it, because my hammys havent been sore in this spot (kind of towards the inside of my legs) since i dropped rdls in the fall (i doubt one set of rdls at 100 is enough to have made me sore on its own)