I wouldn’t worry too much about this - unless you’ve got a problem with ur form and ur chopping ur stride - which I’m assuming u arn’t.
Unless I’m wrong ( which has been known lol ) ur Stride length will naturally increase with ur strength - and ur gradually increasing ability to apply greater forces while sprinting will come over time.
Not having coaching opinions you can trust is mega frustrating - it’s sounding like a vidcam would be a sound investment when u can afford it.
Thanks for the advice. I didn’t think this many people read what I write, it’s mostly my thinking process in paper to make things clearer or reflect better. You foreshadowed almost exactly many of the steps I had concluded I would take as I thought yesterday night.
Get rid of my “big” goal and go taking it by little increments. So first thing, my goal now is to lower my SB of 11.79, this weekend. Then I’ll go taking it from there. I now see shooting for a too difficult goal was more detrimental then beneficial.
The 6.8’s were timed by a friend and not the coaches, but there was a 3 or 4 m/s wind I’d estimate. So probably I think the coaches at my club are always shaving around 2 or maybe even 3 tenths off the times (or maybe they need glasses!). So doing 7.2-7.3 on cinder 6.8 should be possible on synthetic with assisting wind. Regardless, what I’m thinking of is simply not timing any more training runs … let the competition times speak for what I’m capable of at the moment.
Training partners : I won’t be able to fix this till at least next year. In my club the few kids that are running well are on the long to short program the coaches at the club run, so my none of my workout distances or recovery periods ever seem to coincide with what the others do. The only thing I can do at the moment is go to the destroyed HPC track and practice block starts with my old group. If the track gets fixed next year I might go for my speed days there … but since they also run long to short I’ll only be able to train with them in that (LOL 
) 1 month they do speed a year.
I’ve been debating what to do in this respect, I know that here we go with the “don’t fix it if it’s not broke” theory, but my stride length appears to be way to short for my height and I’m reasonably strong already. I doubt just more strength gains will improve this enough and that some type of special work is required. I’m trying to find in the archives if Charlie ever recommends or has recommended work of that style, which was quite common with my previous training group, although I am skeptical of their methods (ie my coach was an advocate of such theories that running with a vest on would help raise the hip - but how, if the vest will sink the hips and create a longer ground contact? etc.). As you see my main struggle appears to be constantly against poor coaching. I don’t think there is a single coach in this country applying short to long, even less, applying it correctly. I still have my digital camera that films 15 fps, but haven’t been using it, I don’t want to tinker with major technical changes, except in the blocks, till after the competition phase … don’t want to risk paralysis by analysis.
Good move - maybe look into it after this season - then post some Vid and see what Charlie thinks.
I still think it’ll increase on it’s own tho - this crazy example shows u don’t have to worry too much -
say for instance as u increase in strength ur individual stride increases at just 1 inch a year - @ 54 strides that’s 4.5 feet off ur 100m per year
in 10 years thats 45 feet
in 20 years thats 90 feet
u can now run the 100m in 6 seconds :eek:
what I mean is u don’t have to make huge increases in stride length for it to be significant to ur times to improve.
I know what u mean tho - u see someone like Justin Gatlin coming out of the blocks and u think omg I need more range - then some coach says something offhand and doesn’t realise what effect it has - training alone can be very hard at times.
Off day. Didn’t do massage either, worked overtime. Anyway, with such poor performance what the hell am I wasting time with massage for!
Now that I’m home I’ve been modifying my training schedule, since the National Cup of Clubs has been moved 2 weeks back and to La Plata. So the good news is that it will be held in a decent track. The negative is that the wind is rarely legal there, and that I hadn’t been planning to get that deep into Novemeber still in peak form. But it’s not all negative, it gives me 4 weeks of solid training from the meet in Rosario (9-10 October) till the one in Mar del Plata (6-7 November). What I’m planning to do is to top off my SE in that period. I’ll do the following sessions : week 1 - 1x300m., week 2 - 2x250, week 3 - 1x300, week 4 - unload 2x150m submax. Mar del Plata is THE supreme track for 200m. so I want to top off form and see if I can get there in top 200m. form.
Other notes : I just compiled my latest results into my list of results for the whole season. I hadn’t sat down and looked at my results carefully till now. It struck me how consistently (poor) I’ve run this whole year except for the three first races. Hell, I ran a streak of four races in the 12.21 to 12.65 range before the race this weekend, so I should be happy as hell with 11.84! Although it’s not what I’d been expecting, it’s a promising improvement over the previous races. This weekend I should concentrate completely on breaking this stigma and getting out of the “range” I’ve been bound to in 100 (all my electronic times from the competitive period when I have supposedly been at my best have been between 11.79-11.92 this year).
The other thing that strikes me is that ALL my 200’s have been in the 23.88-24.26 range, again very consistent, the constant being that I’ve run very good bends every time and decayed badly in the straight. Hell my bends have surely been better then my flat 100’s throughout the season. Now that’s the only trend I DO want to continue from what I’ve done so far this season ! As long as I keep improving my endurance a tenth or so with each race I’ll get to where I hope to be by the end of the season.
For SE, maybe Wk1 250, Wk2 2 x 200, Wk3 250, 150, Wk4 2 x 150 sub max.
Yeah, he does know me probably not by name though.
I’m not sure if it’s cheaper, but it should be fun, let me know what competitions are running dunig february, cos that’s probably when I’ll have enough time to go. Also info on where to stay, how much etc…
CHeerl Aln. By the way I actually looked up the results on the CADA page
Thanks Charlie. Got it. I knew what I had proposed didn’t look completely right … but I’m slowly getting better at planning.
Blocks
10
20
30
10
20
30
60 (6.90)
60 (6.81)
Went to the HPC and had a decent workout today, but I had to work through a groin pull. Blocks were very inconsistent though, I think it had to do with the starter. When the signal was given soon I’d start average, but on slow signals I was flying out ahead of everyone. In the 60’s I had two different people time me to get a wider sample. The first one was run into a slight headwind and the second one with a slight tailwind. So I’m probably somewhere in the mid 6.8’s. I’ve been thinking about my race strategy for Saturday and now I know what I’ll do. I’ve thought of a one word cue I’ll mentalize during the warmup and into the blocks “despegate” (translates to something like get unstuck of the opposition and leave them behind). So I’ll mentalize that cue and use it from early acceleration till mid race. Tomorrow I need to go to the physio badly, this groin pull is a pain in the ass.
I would’ve thought it was a pain in the groin 
YES!!! FINALLY, I’m beginning to pull things together in races. We had a hell of a day today.
100m. heats 11.62 (+1.3) 3h3 - SB!!
4x100m. direct finals 44.06 :eek: :eek: !!! 1h2 (2nd overall) - PB!! 
Virtually all the modifications I made gave results. Now I have to keep my head in this and aim ONLY to better 11.62 in my next comp … although the thoughts of running 11.10 or 11.20 are inevitably there. The visualization and mentalization of the cue also worked - sort of. I didn’t think the key word in the race, but I ran very well in the last half. Quite a change from other races. What remains irregular is my acceleration. From what I was told I got out first of the blocks (to be fair although the first two in my heat ran around 11.10 they are slow starters, so it should’t be so surprising I could beat them out of the blocks), then I got caught by some people but at around half way passed them again and finished very strong. I think what happened is that I accelerated gradually, because it was so weird, it had never happened to me to make so much ground in the middle section of the race. Maybe I reached top speed around 50 and that’s why all of a sudden it seemed like I was doing nothing different but the other runners were falling back or actually from my point of view it looked like I was walking past them and everything was still it was a weird feeling. So, conclusion : I need to figure out what’s going on after my initial acceleration, why am I falling back from 20-50, even when I start ahead? Another very positive is how I felt after the race, I felt like I hadn’t done much effort, and most notably my shoulders felt loose and rested while in the previous races this season I’ve ended with sore shoulders (due to tightness I suppose, although I haven’t felt tight).
The 4x100m. was the icing on the cake, I certainly didn’t expect us to run 44 flat in our first time out., with a 14 year old running the 2nd leg and a 15 year old running the 3rd leg. Certainly no one expected us to get 2nd in the overall results, the relays from other clubs being composed entirely of adults or juveniles (18-19 year olds). Our 14 year old kid did run 38.xx in 300 today and the 15 year old ran 11.52!!! I’m sure we’re going to give a blow in the National Cup of Clubs in November … I think we can 43.xx and end up in the top 5 … which would be a hell of a result considering all the “best” sprinters in the country will be there representing their clubs. As to the run itself, our 3rd leg was terrific, that kid must have run a 10.5 leg the pass between 2nd and 3rd was PERFECT, and this kid just blew up the curve, I couldn’t believe how fast he was coming and he widened the gap from 10m. to over 20m. then in my leg I have no idea how I ran, since I had no one around me I couldn’t tell if I was running slow or fast but I just felt like I was flying and we ended up so far ahead in the heat it took like 5 seconds before the 2nd arrived. Given the final time I deduce I must have run a hell of a leg, the final gap was over 30m. to 2nd place. At least we won’t get underestimated again and put in the “slow” final, who knows what we can run with competition (the first overall did 42.42, then 3rd did 44.36 which was second in the first final).
Going to put my sore body into the a hot tub now. Tomorrow I run 200 heats (and finals if I make them) and 4x400m. I have a GREAT feeling about tomorrow. I could care less about making the finals, today the goal was more then met. Just have to go one step at a time. 11.84 to 11.62 was a great first step.
Awesome ale, congratulations… now you gotta start worrying about worrying, because when you don’t it all seems to come together right!!!
CHeers
I’ve been in bed for two hours and can’t sleep. Some notes of what I’ve thought before I forget. First of all I just received an email from my coach, our 14 year old ran 38.00 in 300 … quite a time. What I keep reviewing in my mind is my run in the relay. What I keep reviewing is the feeling, which I sort of felt in the second half of the 100 and then in the whole relay. I now finally linked it to all I’ve read in the forum and Charlie’s book and realized this is the second time I actually step over in a race situation. Now I’ve finally pinned down the feeling, I can feel it my mind. What I felt today was that my feet were coming down and that was all I could feel, the last part right before the contact and the contact. It was all I could feel. The rest just didn’t seem to be there. It was like I had no horizontal movement just this tiny fraction of a moment where each foot would strike, it was all I could feel. I also felt taller then I’ve ever felt, like my head was in the clouds separated from the body. I don’t understand why I can’t run like I did there in flat races, but at the same time it doesn’t worry me, the ability is there, I just have too few training years in me, and less then one quality training year in me … the day when I run what I’m able to run will come, until then I have to be patient and most of all use my head to clear the hurdles in the way to that performance. The weird feeling I get is that in the 200 I think I can get closer to applying this at the moment, I just don’t know why I can’t see myself doing this in 100 yet. The funny thing is that I’m actually much more excited about what we can do in the 4x100 as a team then what I can do myself. By 2006 if we can keep this cuartet together, which I think we will, we’ll be around 42 and competing for the top spot in the National Cup of Clubs.
YES! YES! YES!
23.48 (+0.6) 3h3 PB/SB!!!
23.19 (+0.7) 4f PB/SB!!! :eek:
4x400 - 3:41.19 4f PB!
No need to say anything more! I’ll review what happened today later, now I’m destroyed … getting into a hot tub pronto.
This is just awesome to read Aln, great job! That 200s pretty ridiculous.
Thanks! I’m ecstatic! I thought I could approach 23 flat towards the end of the season, running close to 23 flat now was unexpected. And this was run in the wrecked track here in Buenos Aires … good things can happen if I run like this on the good tracks I’ll see in the coming weeks. Now I have to figure out what’s going on in my 100, my 200 SB is now less then double my 100 SB which is ridiculous considering I don’t have a good special endurance base. By pure logic I have to be able to run an 11.2 or 11.3ht bend split to do 22.9ht equivalent in 200 with poor endurance.
That’s a great weekend. Often things plateau for awhile and then you get a breakthrough.
What can I say, what a weekend. I couldn’t ask for more. New season’s best in 100m. and broke my 200m. PB by half a second. There isn’t much to analyze from today, I think yesterday’s runs were more interesting to analyze. My 200m. in the heats was good, I came out of the curve 2nd and just a meter behind the guy that won the final in 21.57 later (he ran easy in mid 22 in the heat), then him and another guy passed me and I got energy out of nowhere to boost and stay close to them for 20m. then I started to lose form completely, my arms were flinging sideways and then at around 190 I put everything I had left into another small boost. The 23.48 was good enough to get me into the final as the best 3rd place (there were 5 heats, but only 3 of adults which were competing for a place in the finals, so the first 2 of each heat plus next 2 best times qualified).
So technically, I didn’t like that race because I lost form in the last 100m., but my bends just keep being outright encouraging, I have no idea how the hell I run such terrific bends without problem. If I had good special endurance work in me I’d be running below 22.50 … I can’t make the same mistake this summer (winter for you guys up North) and not work SE2 properly … I’m wasting my potential in what is clearly my best event.
Then the finals I can’t really recall much, I got lane 7 and passed the guy outside me in the second half of the curve, then for the first time in my life I didn’t look around me at all, I just concentrated on everything moving forward and maintaining form, then as I dipped at the line I finally looked across to the inner lanes, I couldn’t believe I was coming in 4th beating 5th on the dip. Given this was the “Metropolitan Championships” I’m officially the 4th fastest 200 man in Buenos Aires for 2004 
:eek: 
. Heh. Actually the guy that was probably going to win in 21.30-21.50 false started … and then one or two others in the low 22’s didn’t run today … but hey that means shit in our sport, right? Anyone can win any given day. False starts, etc are part of the game. As to the run itself, my first half of the bend and start wasn’t very good, there had been 1 start cancelled after the shot because at that moment there was a goal in a soccer stadium close to the track and there was a lot of noise. Then one guy false started. Then the favorite to win false started. By that 4th start I was getting wary. Then after the half of the curve I stopped looking at the guy outside me and never saw him again, so obviously I had blasted past him in the second half of the curve. Then the straight was just maintaining my form and it all went so fast, next thing I knew I was leaning and looking left and seeing I had come in 4th … so my straight must have been damn good, but my bend in the final was probably 2 or 3 tenths slower then in the heats. Regardless, all that I think really matters is that this is the FIRST race ever in which I’ve run well. That was definitely was the best I could run right now, I put everything I had into it and executed cleanly. At the end my legs and CNS got hit harder then I’ve ever been hit by any training or racing run. I was wrecked, absolutely fatigued, some lactic acid, but for the first time ever I think my CNS was actually hit hard.
Then the 4x400m. I was dead. We ran with the kid that ran 38.00 yesterday another guy who doesn’t train regularly I was third and 4th is our 400m. runner (51 PB). The kid in first ran awesome, probably 54 or 55, then our second runner must have run 57 or 58 and got killed, I then strolled around because there was nothing I could do, we were 50m. back at this point, I probably did 55 or so and our 4th runner also eased off probably doing 53 or so. Regardless, 3:41.xx is better then we had expected, the previous SB of the relay being 3:56.xx (I didn’t run that time). So that’s all for now. My feet are destroyed from the hard track and every joint is aching … tomorrow I’m going to my physio like that he fixes me and I can train Tuesday.
Yes, I think the key thing was getting into the right mindset. First of all reducing my goals to merely improving my SB’s instead of keeping to try to run in what I think I can run in a perfect race right now, and second of all working on thinking I can pull away from anyone in any given race as long as I accelerate fully … which I hadn’t been doing. And most of all, patience is needed! Finally I’m starting to get some dividends for the hard work using CFTS … and hopefully more is to come.
Went to the massagist today. Had bad news … or good news depends on the way you look at it. It’s the first time I ever see a worried look in his face, he said my adductor/upper thigh muscles where I have the pull are badly spasmed and that continuing to push it would result in a real tear. I wasn’t planning to push it anyway, but this made me modify my plans a little. Considering a I have a major meet in 2 weeks (October 9-10), I was planning to do :
This week :
Monday - Rest and massage
Tuesday - Blocks and tempo
Wednesday - Rest and massage
Thursday - Practice relay passes
Friday - Rest and massage
Saturay - Run 100 and possibly 200 if they include it in the program
Sunday - Light tempo session
Next week :
Monday - Rest and massage
Tuesday - Speed : 1x80, 1x100, 1x120
Wednesday - Rest and massage
Thursday - Blocks and light tempo session
Friday - Rest and massage
Saturday - Comp
Sunday - Comp
I was already very worried about the huge volume I ran this weekend, 1000m. in total in two days, that more then I’ve been doing weekly. So I figure my work is done till the major meet, with just one real speed session next Tuesday. The focus these two weeks will mostly be regeneration to get to the meet in top shape. Training hard now would get me slower and not faster. What I’m modifying further from this schedule is that I’m dropping blocks tomorrow and just doing a light tempo session and hopefully begin to cure this strain completely. I think with just tempo and upper body tomorrow and good stretching and another massage session Wednesday by Thursday I’ll be almost fully recovered from the strain. It’s scary to think my season could have ended yesterday. With some bad luck I would have been carried off the track instead of setting a new PB. I guess I had to get a break sometime.