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221

AM
Upper Body Maintenance Weights
Bench press 2x3 60kg
Pullups 2x8
Lat pulldowns 2x50kg
Abs 5x40

This is my first upper body weights session with weights in over a month. What really shocked me is that I’ve maintained or even gained strength! Now I’ve proved for myself that power production in the track far outstrips that created in the gym. What’s notable is that I’ve lost a lot of upper body mass in the past few months. I barely have no pecs now and my bench is still the same at around 85kg max … the same as when I was lifting 3x a week. I went thinking “either I won’t be able to lift 50kg now or I’ll have maintained”, I’m glad the second has happened and it also makes me trust even more in how I’m training now. I’m beginning to feel very confident about training with the methods I’m using now.

222

Aln,
This sounds like a very good day to me. As you and I both know so many times it seems like we can do things in training and they just don’t pan out in race situations so the fact that you ran an 11.5 CURVE and know you can do better is pretty awesome.

223

Thanks for the encouragement. I think you’re right, although it wasn’t a perfect day, I should be happy. I felt like I executed what I do in practice and that’s what matters. Now if I’m able to even do an “average” race like this in 100 I should be able to do 11.30 or 11.40. I can’t possibly not be able to pull one off this season, right?

224

PM
Hurdles mobility
150 (18.1)
12
150 (18.3)

Weights :
2x2 hang clean 60kg
2x3 deep squat 110kg (3 vertical jumps after each set)

Plyos :
7x3 box circuit
6xjump to high box

I liked the session today. In the first 150 I struggled a bit to stay loose going submax, I think maybe I wasn’t warmed up enough or something, but I hit the time perfectly on that one (was aiming for 18.0 which is 95%). The second one felt GREAT though, it felt like a jog, so smooth and easy, maybe a little too relaxed as the time went to 18.3, but was still close enough to the goal. But I think the main thing was the feeling, that’s how loose and easy I need to run in the comp this weekend … but at full intensity. In the gym, deep squat felt like I’ve lost a little strength in these 10 days I haven’t done lower body weights. In the plyos I increased volume of down-up jumps and overall volume slightly as a stimulus since the track work was so easy. Tomorrow I’ll do blocks and then a light speed session Wednesday, very light tempo session and bench press on Thursday and that’s it. There is nothing to be gained from doing more now, so I’m doing as little as possible while providing enough of a stimulus for my CNS … and hoping for the best this weekend. This is like the big test, what I’ve prepared for. The meets after this one will feel leisurely, I don’t know why I feel a particular anticipation to this meet. I think the thing is that I know I have a chance of perhaps making the podium in my category in 100 (there will also be adults running in the meet but prized separately). The big thing will be the heats, once I’m through the heats I’ll pysche myself up for the final like I’ve never done before, I can visualize the feeling of that adrenaline boost which has been eluding me as of late.

225

This is spreading like wildfire, tomorrow the licitation for renewing the track at the HPC in Buenos Aires gets published in the mass media, with the winning proposal getting chosen on October 25. So all indicates that before the end of the year work will begin on the recarpeting the track! The happiness and relief for everyone in the track and field medium here is undescribable. After waiting so long, the nightmare is over and we finally get a new track.

226

RIGHT! :smiley:

227

Blocks
10m.
10m.
10m.
20m.
10m.
20m.
10m.

Tempo 7x200m. with 2 mins rest

The block work was great, doing block work with real blocks was a big change. Felt fast, solid and relaxed in the starts. Was a little wrecked from weights yesterday … I hadn’t done weights in too long … but I knew I would get sore that’s why I did weights 5 days before the meet. Tomorrow I’ll do my last (light) speed session and have a massage and I’ll be ready.

228

2x40m.
60 (6.8 PB!)
60 (6.8 =PB!)

Had a very good session today. All goals were achieved. I went to La Plata and used my new Mizuno Tokyo’s for the first time. I also got accustomed to the soft synthetic track I’ll find in Santa Fe. Here, more then in the hard tracks of the HPC in Buenos Aires, relaxation helped me enormously. In previous times I could never run fast in these soft tracks because I’d tense up and waste energy. Today I was just flying effortlessly. Both 60’s were at the fastest I could go completely relaxed, I could have gone faster but that wouldn’t have been useful. How I ran today is how I have to run on Saturday. Just let the soft track move me forward instead of me trying to move the track. This relaxed 6.8 would probably mean 10.9, while a tense 6.7 in this track would mean 11.5 because one dies so bad. It’s like the track sucks the juice out of your legs if you try to push, while if you just flow smoothly forward the track just takes you with it. So, THIS IS IT!!! Last real workout before the big day. I’m ABSOLUTELY ready. Goddamn, I’ve never been this ready. The big change is that I feel absolutely confident I know what to do, while before I always had doubts about form and virtually every aspect of my race, while now I feel confident every aspect has been covered and is working like clockwork. Nothing has been left to chance, from using real blocks yesterday, to getting used to the type of track I’ll encounter and my new spikes today. As to the spikes, they felt awesome. My foot felt so supported and once I began to do the work it was like they were not there. Like an invisible force was giving each step an extra little help in staying on my toes. Another notable change is that I’m not thinking at all about the race, all I know is that on Saturday I lead with my left hand out of the blocks and a whole new book opens in that instant and not before.

229

hey aln ur training is looking good. as long as ur progressing there’s no need to worry about anything. dont worry about the times though, i know one cant help it sometimes but they usually come out of no where. just make sure ur arms are pumping and that u stepping over at the end of the 100.
gluck

230

G’luck Al - ur in great shape so relax focus and enjoy - you’ve got a whole season to get ur times ( I think ).

231

Thanks guys. Let’s see what happens on Saturday. I’m travelling tomorrow at 1:30 PM and get there around 7 PM. Did my last session today : warmup, bench press 3x60kg and 3x65kg, back extensions 3x8 and then light stretching. I’m not sure if I should have done another set and heavier in the bench … I hope I provided enough stimulation.

232

I just saw the start list, it seems like the sub-23 section might be direct finals in 100 and 200, there are exactly 8 athletes, I’m surprised there are so few. Problem is that since the track was renewed and there haven’t been any important competitions in Santa Fe in years everyone is saving their money for the other comps. I don’t know if they’ll combine us with the adults, in that case there would be heats. If 100 and 400 are direct finals for sub-23 I’m toying with the idea of running both the 100 and 400 on Saturday … I’ll talk with the organizers when I get there today. Forecast is for 31ºC tomorrow!!!

233

Quite straight forward, I failed completely this weekend in a meet plagued by poor weather and pathetic organization. The results :

Saturday 18 September
11.84 (+1.0) 5h1, lane 2

Sunday 19 September
24.26 (-0.9) 4h1, lane 2

The story :
Saturday was a day to forget. First of all the organizational problems were evident from the start. Sub-23 and adults got put in heats togethers and the “final” was mixed sub-23’s and adults. So a few Sub-23’s got to run twice while those useless, incompetent idiots like me who didn’t make the final ran once and were arbitrarily “out of the medals”. First of all there were three empty heats with 4 or 5 runners each, meaning there actually should have only been two heats … or more logically a direct final for adults and a direct final for sub-23. With my typical luck, I got 5th in my heat with a time better then the one that won the second heat, but didn’t make the final because they put in the first 2 of each heat and the next best two times, so 3rd and 4th from my heat got into the final and I didn’t. To add insult to injury, I got passed at the 90m. mark by both these subjects, they both got 11.82 and I got 11.84 … someone just shoot me and put and end to my crap luck :eek: . Me being one who doesn’t stay quiet, I immediately went and put a protest to the organizers which ended in a lot of tension and name calling. These idiots kept telling me that “the computer draws the heats and it can’t be wrong” so I told them that the problem wasn’t the draw but that they didn’t adjust and remake the heats as they should have when they saw there were many athletes DNS in all the heats. Heck, all the heats had many empty lanes between athletes which is just pure incompetence … so that’s what I ended up telling them since my protest didn’t prosper I told them that if they wanted athletes to come back to their tournament they better do things right as they are doing in Rosario or Mar del Plata where this type of junk wouln’t have happened. Hell I wasn’t even asking for the kid that got the last place in the final to get removed, since that track had 10 lanes I asked to be given lane 9 as a courtesy, so I have no doubt I was in my complete and logical right to ask for that since I had been hindered by THEIR organizational problem. The last thing I told them is that I wished them luck with their tournament but that in a couple of years, when I’m at the top, and they give me the call to invite me to their tournament I won’t come … of course they laughed at that … but I have no doubt in my mind I’ll have the last laugh. OK, so that was the big story on Saturday, a complete, upsetting and messy disaster … which could have been avoided if I ran as I should have. Actually, I came out of the blocks very well … but what I noticed and then friend of mine told me is that I stayed in frecuency, with little steps the whole race after that fast start. After 30m. my lead started to diminish and I got passed. I didn’t reach top speed, that’s quite simply what happened. But at least I’ve solved the start problems and that’s a major step, the other elements I have 8 weeks to correct. What made me very mad is that I’m sure I would have been able to correct this had I run again. Now I have to wait till this weekend.

The 200 was another story, I ran very well and to the best of my ability, but the weather was horrible. This takes me to another problem of this track, the wind is never under something like 5m/s, that’s why the track is oriented in such a way that the wind hits the straights from the side or there would never be legal wind. On Saturday the wind was perfect for 200, then on Sunday inexplicably the wind had turned 180º and had become a hurricane. People that run 21.xx ran in 22.xx and 22.xx runners couldn’t break 23, etc. It must have been like a 10 m/s headwind in the bend, I have never been in anything like it. So my 24.26 there was good, probably worth mid or low 23 … so I improved a number of tenths again … I think this weekend I can run around 23. My start was excellent here again, but I didn’t enter into frecuency and ran well the whole race. Heck I came out of the bend next to the Chilean that won the 200 and finished next to my friend who ran 50.12 on Saturday (who caught me in the straight and ended with 24.06). So on Sunday I was satisfied with my effort, but yet again weather conditions didn’t let me get a good 200 time in. The constant in my 200’s is that I run an awesome bend. I have no idea why this is, maybe it’s that I run my own race since I don’t see anyone in the 200 while in the 100 I always create a “microrace” against someone next to me who I use as reference. I have to work on that and figure out how to change that in these coming weeks. The last note is that the track is way too soft for fast 100 and 200 times, so I wouldn’t have every come back here had I not had the problem with the organizers. The track is trash for speed. It’s so bouncy you can’t apply force to it before it sends you off … but that evidently really helps in the 400 where the times were very good.

234

Easy tempo
10x100m. pushups one end, abs the other
Bench press 2x3x65kg

After a whole day to contemplate my weekend, I think the main thing is exactly what gloop said a few days ago, I have a whole season to get the times. Not even Mo Greene runs perfect in his first race. There were elements that I did right, and I can build upon. The start being the most important. As long as I’m out ahead from the blocks I should be killing my opponents … I have to work in training on accelerating through to top speed. Tomorrow I’ll do some frecuency vs. amplitude speed endurance runs to begin to adjust these problems. In the 200 I can’t ask for more, I’ll probably keep improving some tenths through the season and maybe break 23 and I can’t ask for more there … this summer I need to work on SE well … 200 is definitely my distance, the curve just feels so natural for me … now I need to build up my endurance like that my 200 times reflect my speed.

235

Agreed. The only thing that can mess up an entire season you prepared so hard for is mindfucking yourself. Otherwise you’ll get it right one day even if when your doing bullshit meets w/ poor organizations and conditions there are a lot of frustarations. But one day during the season it’ll go your way.

236

So who was the chilean that beat you??? keep in mind that I might travel during the summer and go and run with you if I have some free time. That way we can train talk and run, no pressure.!!!

237

Felipe de la Fuente. He won both the 100 and 200. Nice guy, I asked him if he knew you but he isn’t from your university! He has 10.83 and 21.88 this year I believe. He won 100 here with “only” 11.02 … probably because of the slow track and also there wasn’t anyone good running 100 from here to push him. Our top 100 guy in the meet decided to run 400 and won in 47.46. I’ll be waiting for you, it’s cheaper for you to come here then travel inside Chile, isn’t it?

238

ur times are not bad at all, but i think ur training now should very technical for the next few weeks in order to get out whats in you. think of all the problems that you suffered during the race, put them down on a piece of paper and try and find possible solutions for each. i think u need to work on your acceleration here through ‘gear shifts’ ex place cone every 25m over a 100m and run first in 25% then 50% 75 … 100% for final 25m. ins and out over 120m ‘40m intervals’ to really hit that top speed, u can accelerate for 40m, maintain and then dash the last 40. distances like 250 and 300m to really help you concentrate on your technique during the last 50 of the 200m. try and do this mental thing, during training when u are at the blocks, close ur eyes and rehearse the distance u will run, bit by bit, drive, arms, knee posn everything, then open ur eyes and run. it has worked for me.
gluck in competing, and make sure ur enjoying it, otherwise there’s no point.

239

Hurdles mobility
100 frecuency (11.44)
100 amplitude (12.3)
100 frecuency (11.09 :eek: :confused: :confused: )
100 amplitude (11.8)

Weights :
Hang clean 2x2 60kg
Deep squat 2x3 80kg

Jumps
5x3 box circuit
8xjump to high box

I’m not sure what to think about the session today. I won’t do this again because I couldn’t get the amplitude runs down. In the first one I was kicking forward and lowering my hip to get greater stride length instead of raising my hips to get greater stride length. In the second amplitude run I did a bit better but couldn’t get it down. Regardless I was doing 52-54 steps in amplitude and over 60 in frecuency, I see if I want to post serious times in the future my stride length will have to increase. The coaches at the club said they really liked how I looked on frecuency and that I should run that way … but I’m beginning to get negative conclusions about these coaches. Their advice is not good. For example they always vilify visualization, saying I don’t run fast in races because I think about the race too much. Taking this advice in this competitive period I haven’t vizualized at all, of course as soon as I got back this weekend with the poor result they told me I was surely visualizing the race a million times before the race and that’s why I ran poorly, I told them that I wasn’t doing so, but then they said they don’t believe me, so now I’ve been forced to label them incompetents. As Charlie says, most sprinting skills are not learned, but unlearned through poor coaching and these coaches are really poor coaches … so although they don’t coach me it makes me mad they give me stupid advice … I’ll have to figure out a soft way to tell them to fuck off with their unsolicited advice.

Coincidentially, I got one of the IAAF bulletins in Santa Fe (the regional IAAF development center is there) this weekend and there is a good article and study reviewing the psychological make up of elite athletes, and precisely one of the things ALL use is a lot of visualization. So I’ll reintroduce visualization now, but with what I read I see I have to be more systematic about it. Visualize well the parts I’m messing up, like not completing my acceleration.

In the second frecuency run the coach timed me 11.09, but I’m not excited at all about that. I’m slowly losing all my trust in these coaches and am skeptic about the times they tell me … which is the only function in which I use them, as timers … but it seems they are not reliable even at this. The run did feel fast, I accelerated very well and then in the middle the rugby players threw a ball in the middle of the track and it landed in my lane and I tried to spike it, when I couldn’t I got mad and ended flying. Maybe the combination of factors (I was focusing on the frecuency so my acceleration was awesome because I wasn’t thinking about it, then the rubgy ball event distracted me and I ran optimally?) took my mind off the parts of the run I ran as fast as I really can? Still I can’t really believe that was 11.09. On Thursday I’ll go train with my old training group and get timed and see if there is any truth in these times. Regardless, more then ever I’m so aware these times mean jack unless I run them in a race. Let’s see what happens this weekend. I’m feeling like running with a vengeance.

In the weights for some reason I couldn’t lift shit in the squats, I barely did 2x3x80kg, my legs felt dead. What was weird was that I had no trouble in the cleans. Then the jumps also felt good, so that was just outright strange.

240

ALN

I have followed your progress and I’m impressed with your enthusiasm and passion you have for your running. Your never ending pursuit of improving your sprint times and the time & energy you put into your posts are a reflection of someone who is sincerely dedicated & determined to succeed.

When I read your post where you supposedly ran PB’s of 6.8 secs for 60m just prior to your competition, I got the impression you might be getting false hopes about where you were in terms of your progress. It seems to me that who ever is doing the clocking is either incompetent or the track must be short.

My understanding of your training sessions suggested to me that you could not possibly have been in sub 7 sec shape. My suspicion was confirmed by the 11.84/24.26 results.

I am a coach of a squad of around 20 athletes and we do a lot of 60m reps. My best runners (low 11’s runners) rarely break 7 secs. (Grass Track) When I do clock times of around 6.9 (manually timed) I know they are in 11.1 to say 11.2 shape and are running well.

My 7.2 (60m) runners run around 11.4 to say 11.6 (100m).

Hence when I saw you were running high 11.0 times with some around 12 secs, I concluded there’s no way you could be in 6.8 shape.

To be honest, I think a lot of your training jumps around a bit and is not programmed for a proper taper towards a specific comp. Hence I can’t see how you will get down to “even time” (10.94). But that’s only my opinion based on reading your training posts.

You should get training partners or get regular training competition with another squad. You will not improve anywhere near as much as you would like, trying to sprint train alone.

Anyway, Good luck with it – I will continue to follow your progress with interest.

Regards

Youngy

PS: I share your suspicion regarding the recent 11 sec trial time. I agree you should seek out a second opinion.