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181

Speed
Hurdles mobility
3x10m. blocks
3x20m. blocks
1x30m. blocks
1x60m. (6.9)
1xin and outs 30m. 95%, 20m. 85%, 30m. 90%
1xin and outs 30m. 85%, 20m. 95%, 30m. 90%

Total speed volume : 320m.

Weights :
2x2 hang cleans 60kg
2x3 deep squat 110kg
3x10 back extension

12 medicine ball toss standing alternating front leg
50 abs

Felt great today. It had rained earlier today so the track was a bit soft, but it didn’t matter. Some great relaxed running. The coach timed the 60 at 6.9 into a slight headwind, so I’m in the type of shape I thought I am in. I’m confident on Saturday I’ll be able to produce my first relaxed run given the way I’m running in training. 11.0-11.3 would be logical if I run as I have to run. The question now is how much I’ll improve from here over the next two months. My goal of 10.94 seems very possible. I’m relaxed and waiting for Saturday, running as I want to run for the first time would be a big confidence booster going into the competitive season, and turning that corner will unload a lot of baggage from 2 years of tight racing.

The first in and out was a mess up, I didn’t get the percentages right and ended up running a hard 80. After accelerating hard for 30m. I was going too fast to control. This made me mad, but it was a learning experience. Then the second one was perfect and filled its purpose in my training. Very relaxed easy acceleration to get into the right position, turn it up a notch the middle 20 and then relax again the last 30 meters.

182

Things sound like they’re going great Aln. Good luck on Saturday, I’ll be pulling for you! That’s an awesome 60 time.

183

Congrats on your 60! How was it timed?

184

Thanks! I hope I can break through tomorrow. Can’t wait.

The 60 was timed manually by my coach from first movement I suppose.

185

I met my objective today, but there were many disappointing details, like the behavior of the judges, conditions and time.

I ended up a ridiculous 3rd in 12.3 (2nd 12.3, 1st 12.1) run into a hurricane. It’s the first time there ever is such a strong headwind in that straight and I train there every goddamn day, so great day for the crummy conditions to take over. It was 0-5º C (30-40º F) at competition time, no sun, terrible windchill. Couldn’t warm up well. Then in the race itself, the idiot judge (some old nut who should have been retired long ago) didn’t even give me time to get into my in my marks position, then rushed the set command and shot (like he’s been doing as of late and pissing all runners off), bottom line : by the time I took my first step I was 2 meters behind everyone and out of the race, when since the only quality I have fully developed is acceleration I should have been 5 meters ahead of everyone. Then at top speed I hit the same top speed as the other two guys and couldn’t make up any ground. The three ran side by side the last 50m. or so. This part didn’t worry me since max v and speed isn’t fully developed. Then the positive is that the last 50m. I ran how I wanted, I finally relaxed after the chaotic start and stayed with the other two who certainly have better speed endurance training then me at the moment (they’re both from my club so I know what they’ve been doing). So despite the poor time, being red mad with that retard they have as judge, and not being able to beat two guys I should have put away in the first 10m. of the race, my objective was met. I think for the first time ever I haven’t been tense at the end (ie earlier this year I was starting great, but would then get caught and passed by virtually anyone when I tightened up). But given that max v and speed endurance isn’t fully developed I couldn’t pass the other two runners, which wasn’t surprising. In 6 weeks I’ll be ready for the sub-23 Cup, just pisses me off I couldn’t use my strength today which is my start because of some idiot judge.

I finished off with two 120’s, but they felt pretty slow. It was just too cold to do quality high intensity work.

Notes for planning next week :

  • Reduce blocks work to a minimum for 3 weeks and increase max v components. This is another positive from today’s time trial, if I hadn’t been left behind in the blocks and powered ahead at the start and won I wouldn’t have noticed I need some work in the max v department and would have kept doing a lot of blocks. The next 3 or 4 weeks will be spent concentrating on developing my max v, and then I’ll begin to do more blocks in the couple of weeks before competition.
  • Focus on finding that “concentration zone” again
  • Focus on relaxation and smoothness
  • On week 4 one session goes sub-max
  • Introduce plyos (standing lj, vertical hops, and down-up hops)
186

Speed
Hurdles mobility
7x10m. block starts
4xflying 20’s (50m. accel zone)
1x50m.

Total volume : 400m.

Weights :
2x2 Hang snatch 50kg
2x3 Deep squat 110kg

Had a decent session, but nothing spectacular. The session was intensive in adjustments though. Among the adjustments made:

  • Actually this one just kind of happened, my hip position was much improved over previous days. But this was clearly the result that the track had dried and was rock hard yet had good grip. In the previous sessions I now see I have been running with a low hip position as I was sinking in the soft ground. Today in comparison to the previous sessions I felt like I was running on high heels, that’s how much higher I felt. The running action also felt very different. This different hip position was increasing my knee lift significatively, but without overstriding.

  • The large amount of starts was due to the fact that the good starting blocks (the ones for synthetic tracks from the National High Performance Center) had been left in the club over the weekend since the competition, so I took advantage of for once having great starting blocks to practice to straighten out my position for competition. In the end my block positions ended up with the back one raised to the highest level and the front one on the first (of three) level. Spacing from line to blocks and from block to block remains the same. The most significative adjustment in the blocks is that I noticed what was happening that I was screwing up my start when using these blocks in the last couple of competitions. The problem was that I wasn’t placing the front of the back space on the ground. I was placing it completely on the block, hence the block was moving when I was pushing on it and it was causing me to stumble (I stumbled in my only practice start on Saturday before the 100). The cause of the problem is that the wooden blocks I use here are so rigid that I had gotten used to placing the spike on it and pushing completely on the block and not the ground with the tip of the spike and the block with the spike plate. So I’m confident that was problem solved on this matter.

When I moved on to the main workout I then noticed another problem which had been affecting me in training and that perhaps is a reason for my poor top speed at the moment, I’m not running flying runs at 100%. Today I used rabits on 2 of the flying 20’s and the difference in top speed and effort was significative. It’s like alone I wasn’t being able to push it up to the top notch of effort. Not sure why. It’s only a thing of effort and motivation. Maybe I need to have the flying sections timed or add some incentive of that type when I don’t have a rabit to make sure I produce a full effort, otherwise the work is useless. Max v work at less then full effort is useless to improve max v (obvious). So I’ll be paying attention to that detail in the coming weeks to make sure I use these next max v sessions as best as possible.

In weights hang snatch felt very smooth and easy. It’s like my max strength has gone up a bit all of a sudden. I felt very strong despite the hard track session.

Note : volume was probably around 380 because the starts were very short, many less then 10m., just looking for form and correcting the block settings. I don’t know if most of these abbreviated starts could even be considered as speed work, so this messes up my volume planification a bit. Although I did 400m. running, only around 300 was at quality effort (the 2nd flying 20, with no rabit, was of such low quality that this is where I noticed the problem).

187

The schedule for the meet on August 21-22 just got put up. I’ll be running the 100 and 4x100 there. After this Saturday what I sort of concluded is that I need as many races as I can get without overdoing it, August 21 will be perfect for another time trial/experience as I’ll then have another 3 full weeks of hard training before the next meet. The 100 is at 2:15PM and the 4x100m. at 5:25PM, so this will also be good rehearsal of running rounds before I possibly run rounds on 18-19 September.

188

Hurdles mobility
2x10m. blocks
2x20m. blocks
40m. (5.0)
50m. (6.0)
60m. (6.9)
70m. (7.9)
80m. (9.0)
Total meters : 360m.

Jumps 4 x (up-box-down-ground-up-box-down-ground-up)
4 x jump onto high box (1 meter something)
Total ground contacts : 12

Had a good day today. Not spectacular but a solid workout. The track was a bit crummy. In the block starts the first two were bad and I didn’t like them, then I realized I wasn’t focused and thinking too much instead of just concentrating and going on any sound. Then I had all the sprints timed to have a reference for all the distances. 40, 50, 60 and 70 was timed by one coach and 80 by another, so the times are accurate. I’m reaching a top speed slightly over 10 meters per second around 50m. and beginning to slow noticeably from 60 onwards. Now that I have reference times, my goal for this training period will be 6.7 in 60 and 8.7 in 80, but I’ll be happy with 6.8 and 8.8. From these times in theory I’m in shape to run 11.2-11.3 on this crummy cinder track NOW, this means 11.0-11.1 on a synthetic track. So I’m really happy with this. I don’t know when I’ll finally be able to pull things together in a race, but at least progress is being made, which is what’s important, I guess good races will come from experience. Hopefully in these next few weeks with some solid training I can shave those two tenths, but I’ll be more then happy with a tenth, 8.8 would be fantastic (sub 11 100m?!), that really sounds like the type of times I’ve always thought I can run. Most importantly, I’m really happy and enjoying running right now, running these fast times is just like a huge bonus. Introduced a couple of jumps at the end today.

Other notes :
Looking forward to those 150’s this weekend, let’s see if I can take them down to the 16.6-16.8 area.

Volume has peaked this week, from next week onwards volume decreases around 10m. per workout.

Next Monday’s session : 2xblocks 10m. 2xblocks 20m. 3xflying 20 (50m. accel zone) 1xflying 30 (50m. accel zone) Total meters : 350

189

Hurdles mobility
Relay practice
Received twice (approx 2x30m.)
Passed three times (approx 3xflying 20 with 40m. accel zone)
1x150 (17.6)
Total meters : 390m.

Jumps
Up-box-down3x3
Vertical onto high box 5

I was fried after the exchanges and couldn’t do any 150’s which was my planned session. I did one which was useless because I was out of gas. Also suspended my weights session because I was wrecked. I should have done another exchange with me giving the baton and gotten another quality flying run in. I’ll move SE to Monday now, and Monday’s planned work to Thursday (actually we’ll be doing relay practice again, which will be suitable to get quality flying 20’s in).

190

Rained all day yesterday, and drizzled all day long today, but I couldn’t let more days pass without getting a session in. I ended up training in the soggy track, times were accordingly horrible.

Hurdles mobility

150 (18.0)
10
150
10
150 (18.0)

Both of the 150’s that were timed were 18, even knowing the track and weather conditions were terrible, it’s still depressing to run those times when running at near full perceived effort. But out of all the stuff I could do today, I think this was the most useful session could have done. Speed would have been useful and of dismal quality because of the cold and very poor track conditions, so at least this must have been useful for my endurance because I had to struggle forward for 150 meters! I then decided to do both weights and some jumps at the end to take advantage of the extra CNS energy available.

Weights :
Hang snatch 2x2 50kg
Deep squat 2x3 110kg
Back extension 3x10

Jumps :
Using three 40cm. boxes (approximately)
3 circuits with down-up jumps after each box
5 vertical jumps onto high box
Total ground contacts : 14

10xmedicine ball throws (sitting overhead throws with two hands)

Just for reference, the medicine ball I’m using (and the only one we have) is 3kg

I hope this session was useful, the weather really didn’t permit quality. And here is hoping for better weather Thursday … but rain is scheduled. This is a double-edged sword though. The track was crap before it rained because of too many days without moisture, so I almost prefer the track being soft to being uselessly hard … and knowing that in a few days when the weather clears at least for a few days the track will be in optimal (for a cinder track lol) conditions to sprint.

191

Upper body weight circuit
2x2(8 pullups, 12 pushups, 30 abs)

Drizzled all day long, the forecast is for another day of this junk Thursday and rain on Friday … here’s hoping that tomorrow PM the weather is not entirely horrible … hasn’t rained during the night so far so if it doesn’t rain during the day the track might be in great shape (it will be freezing though).

192

I went to the “National High Performance Center” (in parenthesis lol) to train for the first time in months. It rained all day long and I could’t miss a speed day at this point in my preparations. It was raining freezing rain the whole time and I had to work with two pairs of tights and two waterproof ski sweaters and a shirt on. Fortunately there was a lot of humidity, so once I warmed up I felt good and didn’t have problems with the workout, apart from the track being soaked. I did :

4xflying 20 (50m. accel zone)
1x50m.
Total meters : 330m.

What shocked me is that the acceleration zone seemed eternal on this track. I didn’t think the cinder track I train on is that inefficient. The warmup accels (done in the pole vault runway which still has virtually new tartan) were incredible, I was feeling smooth and flying, accelerating on an efficient surface for the first time in like 4 months. Then the 50 at the end was extremely fast and I did in the most destroyed section of the track (the 100m. start of course since everyone practices starts there) to practice for Saturday. Although I think the water makes the track much better, if it’s dry on Saturday then it becomes dangerous (because of the little lose tartan pieces all over the place) … but rain is scheduled till Saturday morning, so maybe we’ll be lucky and have a wet track. After this I called it a day, I didn’t want to do OL’s or jumps because it felt like more ground contacts would start some periostitis, and many of my ligaments were sore from the rock hard surface (in particular my feet, since in addition they are not used to wearing speed spikes after so many months training with mid-distance spikes on the cinder track). I also noticed some kinks about running in such a hard track, in particular I had to go adjusting and altering my mechanics to reach maximum speed, becuase the surface was working so different. That’s something I’ll try to be very aware of during my races this year, in particular since every race is on a different track. During the warmup I have to scout and probe the track well and adjust accordingly. At least the positive of this is how I’m progressing in terms of experience, earlier this year I couldn’t adapt to the different surfaces (or really didn’t even notice or think about it) and it definitely contributed to my poor times. Now I feel mentally ready to pull together or at least get closer then before to pulling together all these factors. As to this Saturday, I have no idea how I’ll run, hopefully I can repeat exactly that first 50 I did today. I’m close to deciding to run 200 on Sunday, but weather forecasts will determine what I do. I the forecast is for great weather till Tuesday I’ll run Sunday and then do my speed day Tuesday, but currently the forecast is for sun on Sunday and Monday and rain again during the middle of the week, so in this case I’d have to skip Sunday to make sure I’m able to do a quality speed session Monday.

193

The schedule was posted on the National Federation’s site today. Gawd. I’m excited now. This might be my first competent performance (make final at least), and I’m in shape to perform well.

The schedule :
Saturday September 18:
10:30 AM 100m. heats
12:00 AM 100m. semis
4:30 PM 100m. final

Sunday September 19:
9:40 AM 200m. heats
11:50 AM 200m. semis
3:50 PM 200m. final

The schedule is quite hard with 3 rounds for each event on each day. The positive of this is that I’ll have some margin of error and an opportunity to go adjusting mistake (and hopefully relaxing!) through each race.

194

While the REAL sprinters were flying on the track in Athens and going under 10 seconds, across the ocean I was fumbling down the track and posting another horrible performance. Knock, knock, maybe it’s time to abandon my olympic dream already and accept I belong in the “all the others” category. :smiley:

To make matters worse, this was the coldest day of the year so far and I ran into the strongest headwind I’ve ever run into. I got 2nd place among adults (2nd in my heat which was all adults). The result :

12.65 (-4.5)

Windchill must have hovered around 0º or the negatives all day long, it was the toughest conditions I’ve ever run or trained in. I had every piece of clothes I brought with me on including my jersey and couldn’t keep warm. It was horrible. And this was at 2:45PM, so we decided to call the 4x100m., it was ridiculous to think about running at 6 PM … we didn’t even want to imagine how much horrible the conditions could get.

Even though I know the conditions are having a major effect it’s still quite depressing to run such a time, I’ll do the best I can do keep my confidence up despite such dismal results. If it is any consolation JRM’s calculator converts 12.65 (-4.5) to 12.15 in still conditions. Which is worth 11.9 manual. So at least I improved significantly compared to that 12.3 two weeks ago.

As to the race itself, I felt better then two weeks ago. Like I pulled more things together. But it still wasn’t a good race. I started poorly again, although not as badly as two weeks ago and was behind from the start. I was in lane 5 and the guy that won was in lane 4. He quickly got about 2 meters ahead of me, and either reached a higher top speed and began dying significantly immediately or I didn’t reach my top speed till late in the race. Because at around 50 or 60m. there was a 10 or 20m. part where I made up over a meter of ground, then in the last 20 meters I think I tried to gain even more ground, and this was my mistake, of course when I tried to gain more ground, that’s when I stopped gaining ground on him and the distance remained more or less the same those final 10 or 20 meters. :mad: But this is the important thing, new lessons were learnt and more experience was acquired.

The big note I’m making on this, is that these next 4 weeks I have to get my start down well, so I’ll begin doing blocks this week again and go increasing the amount of blocks work each week. And important sidenote on the blocks, is that the new position worked very well, placing the tips of my spikes on the ground. During the practice start and the start of the race itself I felt very good and firmly planted in the blocks at last. What would have been very useful is a film of my start, I’m surely doing some technical stupidity which is causing the problems. Apart from those two good races I had early this year in March I’ve been a disaster form the blocks in virtually every single race, which is ridiculous since it’s where I should logically be better and start with an advantage.

I’m still undecided about tomorrow, the forecast is for more of the same crap weather, I don’t think I’ll run 200 if these conditions persist. I’ll look over all my planning tonight and make a decision. Fortunately this is probably the last strike of the cold weather this winter, I assume it will get warmer from here on out.

195

Looking at my training I’ll definitely have to run tomorrow, otherwise I’ll end up with barely 880m. of speed this week, and this is not time to unload volume. I’ll do a 50m. 10 minutes to help activate me before the race and to complete the volume for the week at 1130m.

My current plan will have me race :
100m. : in 9 meets, possibly up to 15 runs if I make all finals (improbable I make the A finals but I hope to at least make the “B” final in a few of the important meets, so I estimate I’ll run 100m. 9-13 races at 100m.)
200m. : in 5 or 6 meets, possibly up to 12 runs
4x100m. : 3 meets, 3 runs in total

I’m not sure if this is looking like too many runs now.

Here is hoping for better weather and good results tomorrow! :cool:

196

Making this log like that I don’t lose track of what has happened in each race and track my progress or lack of more accurately.

Date : Saturday March 6, 2004
Result : 7.59 (-1.8) - 2r1 - lane 4
Conditions : Horrible, rain, wet, wall of wind.
Run : Great start, but got caught in the last 20m. and got 2nd.

Date : Saturday March 13 (La Plata)
Result : 9.4 (NWI) - 2r1 - lane 2
Conditions : Clear day (temp high 20’s), slight headwind.
Run : Very good start, was 1st till mid way, then got passed 40-60 then the other guy tightened/relaxed too much and I almost caught him again by the line. Time was actually 9.2. First start got called 40m. into the race and we went into the blocks again with no rest.

Date : Saturday March 20 (La Plata)
Result : 11.4 (NWI) - 4r1 - lane 2
Conditions : Very nice clear day (temp high 20’s), slight wind in favor.
Run : Excellent start, was 2nd till mid way, then got passed 60-80 and was able to hold the last 10-20m. Time was actually 11.2. Almost a copy of the previous weeks’ race.

Date : Saturday April 3 (Santa Fe)
Result : 11.90 (+0.3) - 6rB - lane 5
Conditions : Excellent temperature and conditions (30º, no wind)
Run : Disaster struck. My block slipped and I came out towards lane 6, I almost ran into the guy in that lane, had to slow down and after about 30m. finally got my footing again, but it was too late. Had a solid middle section of the race, probably because I had a lot of unexpended energy from the accident. Inauguration of the track, it was VERY bouncy, times were poor.

Date : Saturday April 10, 9:30 AM (Mar del Plata)
Result : 11.79 (+0.4) – 6h2 - lane 2
Conditions : Good temperature (20-25º), no wind.
Run : Despite the good weather conditions poor times were run. My run was a disaster, I slept in the blocks, was 3 meters back 10m. into the race, 10m. back at 40m., had a strange burst in the last 10m., I probably had a lot of remnant from having expended no energy in the acceleration. Two idiots set their blocks in the wrong lanes and told the judge when we were ready to go into in your marks, this knocked my concentration off.

Date : Sunday April 11, 10:00 AM (Mar del Plata)
Result : 23.91 (+1.3) – 8h1 - lane 8
Conditions : Nice temperature (20º), calm wind.
Run : Blistering curve (estimate 11.2-11.4), then at 80m. ran out of gas, was with the pack till this point, then got left over 15m. behind in the straight.

Date : Wednesday April 14, 8:50PM (Rosario)
Result : 11.92 (+0.7) - 5r1 - lane 2
Conditions : Very cold (10º), slight headwind, wet
Run : Below average start, decent midsection, killed in last 40m. though.

Date : Saturday April 24, 3:45PM (CeNARD - Buenos Aires)
Result : 12.21 (-2.2) 5h1 lane 6
3.98m. first attempt, 5.11 second attempt LJ
Conditions : Very cold (10-15º), strong headwind.
Run : Solid, above average start, then from 40m. onwards got caught and passed by most of the runners in the heat. No comments about LJ, started 90 mins late, waited 30 mins between jumps, winged the runups and used short runup. Last jump was half a meter from the board, 5.50+ jump. Another positive was that my reflexes were very sharp, there was 1 false start, then a no start because a guy had his hands on the line, then the 3rd start the shot didn’t go off but the pistol clicked silently, I reacted very sharply to this little noise, so my reflexes were great. Then finally the 4th start we went with no problems.

Date : Saturday July 3 (CeNARD, Buenos Aires)
Result : 23.9 (“headwind”) 2r2 lane 7, 12.1 (“headwind”) 5r1 lane 6
Conditions : Headwind, not cold not hot
Run : Excellent relaxed run in 200m. Popped up out of blocks in 100. Piece of trivia : I’ve run in the outside lane with no one outside me in EVERY SINGLE 200m. race I’ve run in during the past year and a half. The idiot judges forgot to use the anemometer or something and we didn’t have an official wind reading.

Date : Saturday August 7
Result : 12.3 (-1.5) 3h1 lane 5
Conditions : Very cold (around 10ºC) and into a strong headwind.
Run : Got screwed by the starter, didn’t give me time to get into my in your marks position. Poor start then average mid and end sections, evidencing the stage of my training (max v and speed end not fully developed). The poor time is more then anything the reflection of not being able to use the only phase I have developed well (acceleration).

Date : Saturday August 21
Result : 12.65 (-4.5) 2h4 lane 5
Conditions : Freezing (around 5ºC and wind chill around or under 0º)
Run : Conditions sucked, not much else I can say about this. Start wasn’t good again, but the rest of the race was solid, evidencing improved top speed and endurance. Again a poor time reflecting a suboptimal start.

Date : Sunday August 22
Result : 24.18 (+0.2) 1h4 lane 3
Conditions : Around 10ºC, no wind, completely cloudy
Run : Did a 50m. time trial 10mins before the race, then there was an equipment malfunction, and the race went over half an hour after my 50, by which time I had lost my warmup. Poor start, but I was much better then the others in my race, and in the second half of the curve I turned it up a notch and easily won. Relaxed, easy run.

Date : Saturday September 11 (CeNARD, Buenos Aires)
Result : 23.88 (-1.6) 3h2 lane 3
Conditions : Around 12-14ºC, a pretty solid crosswind, sunny with a few clouds
Run : Ran a solid bend, then faded. The kid that won my heat ran 22.95 and I came off the bend next to him, then he strode away in the straight … or rather, he maintained well while I faded (has 48.71 400m.). My run was probably like an 11.5-11.6 bend with a 12.0-12.1 straight. Felt relaxed and like I had a solid run, about the best I could do right now. The track is in very bad conditions.

Date : Saturday September 18 (Santa Fe)
Result : 11.84 (+1.0) 5h1 lane 2
Conditions : Around 30ºC, sunny, strong crosswind from the opposite straight
Run : Solid start, but got stuck in frecuency from the start. Started to get caught midway through the race and got passed around 90m. by two. Felt relaxed, but like I didn’t accelerate through to maximum speed.

Date : Sunday September 19 (Santa Fe)
Result : 24.26 (-0.9) 4h1 lane 2
Conditions : Around 20ºC, completely covered and a hurricane of wind from the main straight to the opposite (completely headwind in the bend)
Run : Ran a solid bend as always and then faded, as always. Maybe got a little tight in the straight, but I didn’t really fight it or concentrate to correct it, I knew I couldn’t catch my friend who is a 400m. runner and was a meter ahead next to me tight or relaxed.

Date : Saturday September 25 (CeNARD - Buenos Aires)
Result : 11.62 (+1.3) 3h3 lane 7, 4x100m. - 44.06 1h2 (2nd overall) lane 2
Conditions : Very good conditions, high 20’s, nice light trailing wind.
Run :

Date : Sunday September 26 (CeNARD - Buenos Aires)
Result : 23.48 (+0.6) 3h3 lane 7, 23.19 (+0.7) 4f, 4x400m. 3:41.18 4f
Conditions : PERFECT weather, around 30º, calm wind in favor.
Run :

197

Not entirely convinced with my performance today, but I had a good day overall. Results :

50m. 5.76 (ht)
200m. 24.18 (+0.2) 1h4 lane 3

The excellent 50 wasn’t a surprise because I’ve been running around 5.9 on cinder, so it was logical I’d be in the 5.7-5.8 range in a better track. The big problem was that I did the 50m. 10 minutes before I thought the 200 would go, then there was a problem with the photofinish and the 200 didn’t go till half an hour after my 50 by which time I was inevitably losing or had lost my warmup. What sucked even more is that around an hour before the race there were sunny lapses and the weather was quite good with a nice wind in favor, by the time the race went it had clouded up completely and the temperature had dropped at least 5º. So I guess I’ll have to keep waiting for the combination of factors to run a fast time to get into place for once.

I didn’t have any serious competition and breezed to first place and the best time overall among all the heats. For the first time in over an year I finally got a good lane, so this added to my advantage, I regulated through the first 50 then turned it up a notch int he second half of the curve to pass the guys in lane 4 and 5 and got into the straight well ahead. So the positives are that I finally won a race of some sort and I controlled the race. The negative is that yet again I started poorly, that will definitely be my number 1 priority these next few weeks, straighten my start out because I won’t be running a good 100 starting like I am at the moment. The time also was not very pleasing, I was hoping for around mid 23, instead I got the same time as 2 months ago … although this shouldn’t be surprising since I never worked SE properly during this training phase. Back to the positives the coach said I looked easy and relaxed running … and that’s how I felt, like I never pushed it to 100%, I just did what I had to do. But now when the better sprinters start running in the next month there will be no more easy victories like today’s.

198

Easy tempo session
10x100m. with 30 secs rest

199

10x10m. reaction blocks
2x30m.
2x40m.
2x50m. (all submax relaxed, concentrating on driving)

I had a moderate hamstring pull bothering me all day, so I had to modify the workout. I made all the block starts shorter dropping the 20’s and 30’s from blocks. Thank gawd tomorrow I’ll get a massage, my hamstring needs treatment badly. Fortunately this week is all submax so I was able to go through the workout well. In the reaction drills I think I ironed out the major problems which have been affecting me in these past races. Most importantly, I had solved one problem a few weeks ago by placing the tip of the spike on the ground, but today we solved another major problem, I was placing the bottom of my shoe and firmly planting on the blocks causing a rock back. This is probably what has happened in these last few races where I noticed I was getting out horribly slowly out of the blocks. I also worked a lot on my concentration and reacting quicker on the signal and by the last ones had sharpened that too. The submax accels, didn’t have a plan at first, just accelerating relaxed and using good form, but I felt all along something was missing. Then on the second 40 I took out the cones and divided it into sections of 10m. Here I slowly noticed and put together what was missing, the last 50 being an excellent execution of a possible race plan. 10m. torso down, next 10m. torso starts to come up, next 10m. head begins to come up, by 30m. I reach or begin to reach full upright position. And just like that immediately after the workout it began to strike me what a major progress I had made in this session. This is definitely the missing piece, I hadn’t been working technically properly and didn’t have a race model. I won’t run what I’m able to run till I clearly define a race model and then of course am able to execute it in a race. Now I see these last few races actually haven’t been such a disaster, they just haven’t been fast because it isn’t what I was planning to execute. I was planning on relaxing and just running with no particular focus on anything else. Now to run fast I have to execute what’s necessary to run fast. And that’s what I’ll work on during these next few weeks. To clearly define how I’ll run my races this year and practice, practice, practice that model. I don’t know if that’s how most sprinters run, but I’m so methodical and perfectionist that I know this is the way I’ll properly execute. So to sum it up, I’m quite optimistic about this being a significant turning point in my performance in races. Just going out and running obviously doesn’t work for me.

Couldn’t do any jumps or weights because of the hamstring pull, I’m thinking about extending my “unloading” till mid next week.

200

A solid workout.

Hurdles mobility
8xslj

8x10m. reaction blocks
2x20m. blocks
3xins and outs (30m. 85%; 20m. 95%; 30m. 90%)

4x3 box circuit
5xvertical jump onto high box

The massage yesterday was awesome, by when I went out of the doctor’s office I was already so much better, and today my hammy was at around 90 or 95%, just a very minor (maybe psychological more then anything) trace of the pull left. I think with tomorrow’s massage session I’ll be perfect again. I don’t think I’ll be missing any massage sessions from here on out, I can’t understand how I lived without massage these last three months.

As to the workout today, the blocks was very useful. I did them for the first time in ages with a training partner, a kid that’s 15, and who is our best prospect at the moment. He ran 11.5 a few weeks ago and from what I see he’s in 11.3 or so shape. This kid is very explosive naturally and flies out of the blocks, so this really helped me to adjust to what I’ll face as he’s around the fastest starter I’ll face for the first 10m, except for the top 5 or so guys in the country. The main thing I see is that I have to make sure I don’t cut my acceleration when I see I’m not first after the first few meters, since as I’m not above average explosive, my strength helps my acceleration most in comparison to other sprinters from 10 to 30m. During the first starts the kid was getting around 20 to 50cm. advantage in those first 10m., and after working on relaxing and reacting quicker by the last 10 we did I was equalling him. Then in the 20’s as was logical, because of my greater strength level after 10 or 15 I would begin to make ground. In the first 20 I was a behind the usual 20 or 30cm. at 10 and equalled him by 20 and in the last one I had my best overall start, everything came together, I had my best first 10m. by far and kept smoothly powering away through to the 20m. If I nail that type of start in a race, unless I tie up later I should run under 11 electronic…but as I well know, things don’t happen that easily during the races.

During the in and outs I couldn’t get the right amount of effort down in any phase and didn’t like what I did, although each in and out was better then the one before while I adjusted. At the end I couldn’t do weights because the gym was absolutely crowded, so I just had a good stretch … anyway it might have been good to not push the hammy that much. So overall this was a very productive day, as I think I am well on my way to solve the major technical problems in my start I had been facing up to now. Now I just have to practice more these next few weeks to nail this down and do it in a race.