2nd Year College Short Sprinter Journal

Members Area My Training Journal
1

5.21.12

Hey everyone,

Just starting a fresh journal so my stuff is a little more organized instead of just one huge thread. My past journal can be found here:
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?21990-Freshman-Year-College-Track&highlight=

Just like my past journal, I won’t be posting team workouts, but I’ll be posting things I do individually, progress, results and video when I can. I have taken approx. the last 3 weeks easy, and have not trained (though I did fool around on the track a bit just for fun). Here’s some stats on me and I’ll set some performance based goals (for each individual testing/meet I try to set goals based on fundamentals as opposed to times as obviously I’m going to run as fast as I can or lift as heavy a weight as I can, so no use setting a specific time):

age: 19
height: 5’7"
weight: 148 lbs
Resting HR: high 40’s bpm
PR’s:
55m- 6.89 (spikeless, rubber track)
60m- 7.43
100m- 11.56
200m- 23.88
300m- 38.23
Goals:
60m- 7.09
100m- 10.99
200m- 22.99

My strengths tend to be the first 10m and I tend to do well in the weightroom (esp. for my bw) and have a pretty decent broad jump and a fantastic vertical (~3’).

My weaknesses are mechanics falling apart in races, relaxation and top speed. I generally lose most of my ground on low 11 kids between 20 and 50m.

Things I would like to fix are my feet land on the wrong side of my COM (they cross my midline while striking the ground, being very bow-legged does not help this), I run with (and naturally have) anterior hip tilt and exhibit most of the mechanical flaws that go along with this, my heel-recovery is too high, especially at the start, and I often overstride and cast out on my first step.

For the first portion of the summer, I mainly will be doing strength/bodybuilding work along with some flexibility work (June). After this, the coach of my college team will send out a guideline for our summer program for the second half of the summer (July and half of August). The lifting will be very submaximal and I will be doing some more running and crcuit work than I was in the first portion of the summer (though still not full out sprinting). Then, I’ll go back to school and will have fall training which is very heavily fitness oriented, then as Winter nears, actually sprinting will become the primary focus.

I want adding muscle and strength gains to be my primary focus for the beginning of the summer because lifting hard in-season hampers my running pretty badly, so if I start with a bigger base, I’ll have more strength that I can afford to lose (we are suppose to be able to squat 2.5x our bw to parallel and clean 1.7xbw). I think my frame could carry up to about 165 lbs without looking overly bulky for short sprinter, so hypertrophy is not something I’m concerned about (especially since I don’t gain weight incredibly easy anyways). Also, this will give me more time away from full on speed work. I think I was pretty heavily overtrained this past year, but apparently nearly every freshman is, and with their work capacity so much higher for soph year, tend to drop a bunch of time. The more rest I get from specific track training, the better. I really need to go sub-11 this year if I want my roster spot to be secure through college. I really only made the team my freshman year because my testing numbers for weights and standing jumps were among the top (if not the top) in the program. Even with that, I ran unattached for the spring, but trained with the team. I’m optimistic that I will have a strong season, though, because my improvements have always tended to come in large chunks when I made mechanical improvements and I did have practices last season where I kept with mid 10 runners through 20 or 30m.

Along with the lifting, I will do work on the weekends on drive phase (just some pretty easy stair or hill work), and “floating” at top speed. After the season ended, I found the cues “pop”, “drive” and “lift/float” work well for me. I will also mess around with a couple other track events on weekends for fun.

I will periodically do testing during the summer, and plan on competing at a local meet, but in events I don’t usually do (I’m thinking 400m, jav and lj).

I will start doing stuff tomorrow. As usual, any input on my training, or races/videos would be much appreciated.

Note:
-if I list an exercise for 7 or 5 sets, then the first two sets are warm-ups
-my general plan is to lift 6 days a week going core, off, lower, upper, core, lower, upper and to decrease repage and increase weight as the summer goes on. i will fit in a couple unloading weeks to prevent plateauing too

2

5.22.12

jog
functional warm-up
stretch

notes:
-felt great to do some structured running again
-took video of the power outs at the end of the warm-up. my recovery leg tends to lag behind too much as it doesn’t even pass my other leg until i’m very near triple extension already. the good news is I definitely do hit triple ext, but I don’t get my other leg forward quick enough. my heel recovery was also quite high, this might be in an attempt to speed up my back leg’s recovery as I can feel that the reason it happens is that I am trying to get my rear foot forward as fast as it can so I won’t fall on my face. i’m not sure how to get myself to pull the rear leg forward sooner in the stride though…
-will be testing a 30m standing, 30m fly and 500m tomorrow. i’ll see if I can get the rear leg to recover any quicker. I think this has a lot to do with why I get stuck with tons of backside as I near upright

3

5.23.12

full warm-up
30m standing -> 3.98, ?, 4.01
30m fly -> 3.08, 3.08
500m -> 1:23.xx
stretch

notes:
-did the running testing that we do a couple times in the fall for my college. i’m actually pretty surprised on how fast the times were. most of those were the fastest that i’ve ever gotten a good recording of. my 2nd 30 apparently looked the best, and also felt the best, but i messed up the recording so i didnt get a time. heel recovery looked better and i wasn’t overstriding in the fly. and the 500 is always tough without other people around, and I opened up last fall testing with a 1:17 I believe, so going 6 seconds off that after taking a few weeks without any cardio and no competition, I’m pretty happy with
-mechanics looked pretty solid. I’d still like to see lower heel recovery on my first couple steps and an extended drive phase. plus I definitely broke down into backside mechanics in the 5
-tomorrow I’ll be testing sbj and vert

4

I think that unless your heels are coming up really high on the first couple steps, it’s not something to worry about. While Powell has brought it into style, and I agree it is useful, Carl Lewis ran pretty fast with high heel recovery in his start. :slight_smile:

5

They come up very high, higher than lewis (I have to actively bring my heel down and around my butt to the high knee position practically out of the blocks). I worry about it because I think it means I’m applying force incorrectly, not because I want lower heel recovery just for the sake of having low heel recovery. my first step out of the blocks has low heel recovery and that’s a definite push (and I tend to exit the blocks very well, but then my legs stop almost immediately doing the pushing motion and end up stepping up and down from the 2nd step on. I think thats why I get out real quick, but then my drive phase is so short and I fall significantly behind by like 20 or 30m. If I continued to push out at a 45 degree angle and slowly transitioned to a more upright leg motion as my hips elevate I’m sure I’d be running much faster.

6

5.24.12

functional warm-up
sbj -> 8’11", 9"1"
vertical -> 30",36"
stretch

notes:
-I think the descrepency between my sbj ability and vertical is telling about which muscles of mine are developed and which could use some work. the squatting motion I am very strong in, but My posterior chain as a whole isn’t as strong. I have trouble applying force against ground that is not at a right angle to the direction I am trying to move. maybe this is why I have difficulty with my drive phase. I think it may have to do with calf weakness as I do see my ankle joint collapse on each stride so my heel nearly touches the ground and after every hard workout my calves are the sorest of all
-lost about 5" on my sbj from the fall. no surprise as i haven’t been lifting as much. vertical may have even gone up as I was touching rim and was jumping in trainers (I can usually only touch rim in spikes/flats), not sure why this happened

7

Have you had your Block stance looked at? Also, if you have excessive anterior pelvic tilt, then your legs will spend far too long behind you, and thus give problems as you describe

8

The heel recovery is actually a bit better out of blocks versus a 2pt or 3 pt start. and yes, I believe having a bit too much anterior tilt exacerbates several problems I have, thought is not severe enough that I think it is the lone culprit because my core strength is good, flexibility pretty good and it wasn’t even bad enough that I didn’t even notice until recently

in the blocks I do the pretty usual 2 and 3 foot lengths then have my shins at right angles with the front block at 45 degrees and the back one click steeper

9

5.25.12

functional warm-up
some 3pt starts

53 sit-ups in 60s
clean@10x45,5x135,3x185,1x225 full recovery
parallel squat@10x45,5x135,3x225,1x315 full recovery
some 3 pt starts

stretch

notes:
-weights testing today. man, the sit-up test was much harder than I remember. I hit 69 late last fall. I actually got so tired I failed on a rep and had to take a breathe to keep going whereas I just saw my pace slow down in the fall. Probably could’ve gone heavier in the lifts, but since I haven’t been in the weightroom in like a month I didn’t want to risk injury, just check my strength levels (i’m pretty happy to start with over 2xbw in the squat and 1.5xbw in the clean after a month off and not lifting heavy consistently since winter). both lifs were close enough to failure that I know I couldn’t have gone too much heavier. the clean catch was messy and I actually missed my first attempt. the squat felt muscularly challenging, but my cns barely felt touched
-i think i figured out my problem at the start. I was trying to apply force totally parallel to the ground instead of parallel to my body angle, so that’s why the pushing motion was impossible nd my hip height was always too low for each step so i was overstriding. initially I come up faster, but it allows me to come up more gradually overall. heel recovery was lower, pushing motion more definite and the motion looked a lot more like that I see when pros start. i’m curious if its making me any faster (which is obviously the ultimate goal)
-left side outside of my hip cramped up in the sit-up test and is feeling a bit tight
-going to visit family in texas for the next five days, so I’ll probably just do some starts in trainers, some jogging, a few drills, and a buncha bw exercises to start my strength training while down there. I will start a lifting regiment when I return and the emphasis will be shifted away from mechanics and towards strength ad flexibility until july. on the weekends I’ll do some build ups on grass and do some long jumping and maybe some jav throwing

10

5.26.12

Off (travel day)

5.27.12

Swimming

Full warm-up
Some 3 pt starts

7x10:
-single leg squat (full)
-band Romanian dead lifts
3x10:
-single leg bride (on hands)
-single leg calf raise
-split jumps
Cool down:
-x-band
-Doris flexes
-stretch (Lower body emphasis)

Notes:
-starts actually looked pretty good today. I still end up upright pretty quickly, but I’m definitely pushing for further, heel recovery was lower and knee height was actually pretty solid in about half the runs

11

5.28.12

2 mi jog
Functional warm-up

7x10 one arm push up, 3’ rest
3x10:
-Pull-up
-Handstand push-up/band shoulder press
-Band biceps curl
-Band side shoulder raise
-Band row
Cool down (shoulder mobility)
Stretch (hip and upper body)

Notes:
-some pretty extreme lower body soreness. Hamstrings were fried, glutes sore and minor lower quad doms
-mightve figured out my accel mechanics. Power outs were good today. I’m upright pretty quick but maybe that’s just my style. I feel much more comfortable and hopefully am running faster. A good top speed position is easier to hit and I feel pretty springy whereas I often feel like I’m dragging during my drive phase. My first step is still too long, though, as my knee lift is higher on that stride than pros and I end up pushing down too much instead of back so I pop up prematurely. The stride actually looks a bit disjointed as if there is a pause
-distance run felt surpsingly easy, though i really only would do them if im on vacation and have no access to a field or track

12

5.29.12

jog
some sbj’s
7x10 human flag, 3’ rest w/ 3pt starts
3x10:
-band twists
-v sit-up
-band side bends
-prone cobras
cool down (stomach vacuums, standing z’s)
stretch (core, hip flexor)

notes:
-left hamstring real sore, I may have pushed it a bit too hard while starting out exercising again. I won’t be doing much sprinting besides my warm-up until sunday, so hopefully after a day of rest i’m back in business
-my hip height is too high after my first step. I shortened the stride and its definitely smoother, but I still pop up prematurely, i don’t get much of a push from my second stride on. I usually just aim to hit triple ext at a 45 degree angle on my first stride, so i’m not exactly sure how to get my hip height down on that step so I can maintain a lower angle while pushing

13

so on analysis of some video, I actually had one start where my second step looks really good. it felt kind of weird because it was not a quick step, but it looks FAST on the video, I actually hit all my positions, and my heel recovery isn’t really low, but its also not excessively high. I think I was trying to force stride rate too much at the start whereas pushing as if I’m coming out of the blocks on each of the first couple steps, though stride rate will be slower, I think my power output will be much higher

14

5.31.12

full warm-up
3 pt starts
stretch (hips)

notes:
-I was right. I was forcing stride rate so instead I treated each driving step like when I exit the blocks and while stride rate went down, I felt way more powerful, and felt wy more of a driving force while accelerating out further and further. heel recovery was down
-only mechanical thing left to fix is I tend to look up after my 2nd step, I’d like to keep my head in line with my spine/down a bit more

15

6.1.12

full warm-up
7x8 clean@135, 3’ rest
7x10 power squat@225, 3’ rest
3x12:
-hyper
-calf raise
-hammy curl
cool-down (x-band, shins)
stretch (lower)

notes:
-man, my work capacity is gone. doing that many reps was brutal, though on the first reps the weights didn’t feel heavy
-major doms next couple days

16

6.2.12

functional warm-up
7x10 bench@135 (too heavy), 3’ rest (while doing some lj and jav approach work)
3x12:
-lat pull-down
-db shoulder press
-db biceps curl
-side shoulder raise
-db bentover row
cool-down (shoulder mobility,rotator cuff)
self-massage (glutes,quads)
stretch (upper)

drive phase work on grass hill
build-ups on grass
stretch (hips)

notes:
-weight felt very light at first, but as the reps built up my energy levels were depleted
-chest doms couple days to follow
-still working on not cycling/rushing strides while driving
-build-ups felt good. getting more and more comfortale maintaining upright speed

17

6.3.12

jav work
lj short approach work

warm-up(bike, jump rope, medball throws)
7x10 (each) human flag, 3’ rest
3x12:
-(each) cable twist
-decline weighted crunch
-side bend
-prone cobra
cool-down (vacuum, z’s)
stretch (core, hips)
self-massage (glutes, hammys, chest)

notes:
-gotta get more spring in the lj. I’m braking hard and not getting that much pop
-friend helped me much improve jav release. I think I could throw mid 100’s by baystates (june 22) if I can clean up my release, maybe even further considering my strength levels are pretty decent and with a run up could throw mid-80s in baseball

18

6.4.12

full warm-up
7x5 clean@135, 3’ rest
7x8 power squat@225, 3’ rest
3x10:
-hyper
-calf raise
-hammy curl
cool-down (x-band,shins)
stretch (lower)
self-massage (chest, glutes, hammys)

notes:
-still pretty sore everywhere (obliques, to, from the core day yesterday). after the warm-up and some sets, my lower body soreness disappated, but I still went very easy so that I could get over the soreness stage and not make the dms even worse. doing fewer reps was way easier, and I think I already gained some stamina back because the weight felt noticibly easier to move

19

6.5.12

functional warm-up
7x8 bench@135, 3’ rest
3x10:
-lat pull-down
-db shoulder press
-db biceps curl
-side shoulder raise
-db bentover pull
cool down (shoulder mobility/rotator cuff)
stretch (upper)

notes:
-power outs in the warm up are finally feeling very fluid. my steps were always too choppy or forced to eel this way before, so i think i’m finally getting my driving mechanics down. my 1st 10m was already pretty solid just from strength/explosiveness, i can’t wait to see the damage i do out of the blocks once i’m even better at applying force
-all weights felt much lighter today. again, the lower reps probably helped
-went into the workout with some noticible chest doms, but went away after a set or two. still, by my last set, getting up the 8th rep actually required some considerable effort. i’ve also been improving my benching mechanics (narrower grip to minimize shoulder stress, more arch in back to use more chest, stabler base and core) so that I look like the kids on my team who put up massive benches. right now, 'm not sure its helping me, but i thin as I get used to it I’ll be able to put up heavier weights than I would’ve with my old mechanics

20

6.6.12

off

6.7.12

warm-up (bike,erg,jump rope, medball throws, backflip)
7x8 each human flag
3x10:
-cable twists
-bosu ball weighted crunch
-side bends
-ab rollouts
-prone cobras
cool down (stomach vacuums, weighted back bends, standing z’s)
stretch (core)

notes:
-hitting totally straight while parallel was much easier
-not much soreness
-added in an additional ab exercise because my core day was much oblique heavier. the bosu crunch will work full ROM and I’ve always gotten great progress (and doms, haha) from rollouts

6.8.12

full warm-up
7x5 clean@165 (too light, 1 set at 175, last set at 185)
7x8 power squat@250
3x10:
-weighted hyper
-calf raise
-hammy curl

cooldown (x-band, shins)
stretch (lower)
notes:
-still working on looking down during power outs. my body tends to follow my eyes, so looking down will keep me in a driving position better
-starting to really get used to the “driving” mechanics. they dont feel forced anymore. havent taken video in a bit, so hopefully they are still good and I’m running fast
-finally got back to some reasonable weights in my primary lifts. ill be back squatting 300s and cleaning 200s in no time (though once the team program starts I’ll only hit those numbers like once every few weeks because of intensity cycling of the weightroom)
-really torched my cns, my secondary beach lifts i had to do much lighter because I was so exhausted
-work capacity back up/mentally im in lifting mode again. I’ve always had to block out pain and really zone out except for the motion while lifting and I was able to do that today
-even after 6 sets, 185 went up the easiest it ever has in the clean, and I got 5 reps not even close to failing
-i’ve already added a few pounds. I’d love to come into fall training near 160 (as long as bf is under 10% of course), but we’ll see if my weight plateaus like it usually does. i could stop seeing mass gains when I get near 155