Aln's new training journal

Some notes from reviewing my journal, this is only up to page 6. I’ll keep reviewing my journal tomorrow. The stuff I want to get to is probably somewhere around page 15 - the plan for my last (uncompleted) GPP. That hills work had me FLYING in accel, I can remember that very clearly, so I’ll copy that as my GPP.

  • Concentrate on quality in long SE work. I see I tended to chicken out of full intensity in SE once I got into the custom of doing split runs. Now that I’m on a fresh start I should just let it rip as I used to do when I started track like 5 years ago.

  • It’s just painful to read back to 2003. Now I remember what a debacle that was, how painful and frustrating my injury was. I definitely need to start with a core work first emphasis. I won’t be doing any weightlifting for now and will only focus on core work (anyway I know weightlifting is out of the question for now, I don’t have the time for that).

  • Circuits were effective and enjoyable. I’ll do 3 circuit days and 4 core days a week for my strength workouts.

Initial circuits will be pullups/pushups/situps

  • Stretching will be very important in this new start, I certainly don’t want to ever have the problems I had before

  • Hurdles mobility was good, when I get on the track I have to remember to do it

Post # 38 “I think you’re due for a shift to tne maintenance phase as you’re unlikely to keep going up in all areas without one. Also, reduce your accels pace to a very relaxed, sub-max speed for up to 10 days. This will allow things to come together and for your nervous system to super-compensate. Also, don’t forget that exams are competing for your CNS energy as well!” words from the master himself. I think there is another reply from Charlie somewhere in the journal.

  • A post with some conclusions about the psoas problem in case it flares up again “I’m dropping the 4x150m. SE sessions and will do 80’s and 120’s only on Wednesday. I’ve made this change after discussing my psoas problem with the massage/regeneration specialist. We came to some logical conclusion. 1) Acceleration tax my psoas a lot but these can’t be dropped, because of the angles involved - so all my runs except block starts will be from a flying start from now on 2) At the opposite end of the spectrum, long SE runs cause as much of a problem and increase in pain as the accelerations. The longer the SE distance the worse. The problem is that because of the longer ground contact times (because of fatigue, lower speed, etc), the psoas stays in an eccentric phase for longer and thus get more fatigued (leg extension when sprinting makes the psoas of that leg eccentrically contract). This has left me contemplating some options. Either 1) drop training to 2 sprint sessions a week, only blocks, speed on one day (20-60m) and short speed endurance runs the other day (80-120m.) and completely drop longer special endurance runs. 2) drop day 2 to 80-120m. but keep the 200’s on Saturday. Either way it seems I’ll pretty much become a 100m. specialist this competitive period to avoid psoas pain trouble. I think I’ll try doing the 200’s tomorrow, but with a flying start and see what happens, maybe without overtaxing the psoas accelerating from a three point start will permit me to complete the long runs.”

  • Tempo can use varied distances in a workout to be less boring (ie 100-200-200-100, etc.). Though I doubt any training sessions will be boring for me when I start out. Every sessions will be like a blessing.

  • I’ll get that that sub-11 FAT before I die. I guarantee it!!! :slight_smile: :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley:

  • Post 89 - “Forget the mad dogs- just run like you did the day before- NOTHING MORE!” Another post from the master. Heh. Always so right. I now remember back on those races and see I just pressured myself to much when all I needed to do was “run like you did the day before”. I guess I was trying to hard and ended up getting nothing for all my hard work because of it. Then later that year when I wasn’t working as hard I got better results despite not being in as good a shape.

Notes - continued this is page 7

Post 91 - The master again “Just a few thoughts. When you have block problems, it’s usually more of a problem if the block face is too high rather than too low. If it’s too high and you can’t adjust, keep the ball of your foot on the track and the heel against the block to compensate.
When the track is too soft, it’s critical that you relax on the surface and let the natural frequency of the track dictate the rythem for you, rather than fight against it, otherwise you’ll be pulling your foot off the track surface before all the energy you put into the track is returned to you.”

Post 93 - The master “I would think that a synthetic track would be easier on the psoas, as you won’t have the slip that naturally occurs on a dirt track- though you have to judge that for yourself.”

  • I need to focus on the arms, I used to have a big problem in arm action, I basically used my arms very little.

  • I had a lot of problems with top speed, I need to focus a lot on getting some quality flying runs and 60-80m. sprints in. My acceleration was mean, I remember that perfectly, and with a decent GPP on the hills the accel will be back … but I won’t get far if I don’t get quality longer speed in.

  • Post 105 has a sum up of my results of the first half of 2004

That’s all for today it’s 1:30 AM, I’m dead tired and I hope to train tomorrow for the first time at 6:30 AM.

I’ve pretty much scanned through the rest of my journal. There is way too much stuff I’ve written to take notes on all of it. I might complete the notes in the weekend. I don’t have that type of time on weeknights.

The second half of 2004 was good. I see I did some things right there and even had a few good races, but I also did a lot wrong … and already had scheduling trouble and couldn’t do all the workouts I hoped to do.

OK, slowly pulling myself into training mode. Did my first “workout”. 15 situps. LOL. :o

Most of all, for the first week, I’ll be doing ridiculously little to not run into a big adaptation risk. I have too much work to go over the top in these first few sessions. I know something like pushups to failure, which is what I should be doing to start off and create some hypertrophy would knock me out for like a week from the soreness and would be a pain in the ass (or chest!) during work. I wouldn’t be able to lift my arms for several days. So I’ll be going slowly for now. First sprint session is scheduled for Monday AM.

Post # 273 - that’s what I was looking for, the plan I had for the last period I trained (or actually began training and then had to drop out of training).

That was a solid plan, after toiling a couple of years with a mix of CFTS and long to short from my previous training, I think I was finally pulling everything together into a solid short to long plan. I’ll try to follow that plan (except that I won’t be doing tempo, and instead of weights I’ll be doing core exercises and body weight circuits). I can’t believe I was so into this, I can barely remember most of the stuff in that plan. In another year all that would be complete Chinese … now I still barely remember.

Post #275 is a sum up of my 2005 in training terms, including conclusions, percentage composition of training distances, etc. Very useful. I’d be lost as to where to start without all this data.

My GPP sessions in Oct 2005
2x6x10m. 30 degree slope hill
6x15m. 15 degree slope hill
Total meters : 195m.

Tempo :
6x200m. with 20 abs and 2 mins rest total

Hills
6x10m.
2x6x20m.
6x30m.
Total meters : 480m.

Tempo
7x100, 6x100 (pushups one end, abs the other)

Hills
6x10m.
6x20m.
2x6x30m.
Total meters : 540m.

Tempo
7x200 (pushups one end abs the other - 2 mins total rest)

Hills
6x20m.
3x5 30m.
Total meters : 570m. (volume peak 1)

Tempo
5x200-100 with 1 min and abs between 200 and 100 and 2 mins and pushups between sets.

Med ball
2x4 overhead throws
2x4 chest throws

Hills
3x6x30m. (2nd set from pushup)

Tempo
2x4x100
8x100
Pushups one end, abs the other

Med ball
3x4 overhead throws
3x4 chest passes
1x4 each side backwards side passes

1 week unloading (did nothing)

3x4x40m. (on the track)
Total meters 480m.

5x40m.
5x50m.
Total meters : 450m.

3x40m.
4x50m.
3x60m.
Total meters : 500m.

Alt. leg bounds 2x20m.

Med ball situps 3x10
Med ball alt. side situps 1x10

After that … my track career was over for the time being. Hmmm. OK, between post 273 and these sessions I’ll go making something up for my GPP.

Mini body weight circuit :
15 pushups
5 pullups
15 abs

This was 4 hours ago and I’m already feeling some soreness in my chest area. Caution was certainly well practiced here. If I’d done two sets I wouldn’t be able to move tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, this is my planned first session :

Submax hills
2x6x10m.
2x6x20m.
Total Meters : 360m.
@95%

This is my first projected workout, but I’ll cut the session short if/when I start feeling any fatigue or other muscular problem. Certainly don’t want to push it now and break down.

I’ll continue my scrappy workout routine with another hills session later in the week, again at submax around 95%. Then I’ll go 100% next week. I might also run a 100 this Saturday or 200 Sunday, I still have to decide this. Right now I’m leaning towards not running. But I think I’ll at least go and see a comp to get into the mood. The next comp in the local track is scheduled for August 26. If I get 3 weeks of training in that would be a more realistic first comp target. I’ll also reconnoiter the terrain tomorrow to see if the place is fit for tempo and probably start some tempo too.

I’m getting cautiously optimistic. Let’s try to complete a week of training and then see where we’re at before planning ahead. It’s going to be tough to train at 6AM … luckily the thick of winter appears to have ended last week. We had a full week of temperatatures in the 0º range. But this week the forecast says around 10ºmin 15º max the whole week … but possibly three days of rain.

Heh. Still struggling to get back started with training. I’m now pretty sure I won’t be running any comps this year. I did my first training session last Tuesday :

4x20m. @ 90%
2x120m. @ 75%
4x100m. tempo on grass

Was really conservative in my workout. And with good cause. I went back to the track Thursday and thought I’d do another similar session but at the end of the warmup after doing just one accel it was clear I was going to be doing nothing. I was rock stiff. My adductors felt like they would tear with another rep. I then tried to do just tempo but couldn’t even do that. Stretched well and called it a day.

The weather is finally heating up, which is great. I’ve made some time in my schedule, I’ll be sprinting virtually every Tuesday and Thursday. I’ll just do light trackwork more a month or two and try to get some speed back and then I’ll finally move into a GPP. Right now I just feel the urge to run a bit and test in a month or so and see where I’m at to set some goals.

What I really badly need is to buy myself some weights. I’m on that.

It’s ridiculous how fast time has been flying in my life. It took me two months to get organized and set apart enough time to train. It’s just scary.

OK. So I’m coming back. (Insert laugh here! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: )

No. Seriously. I’m starting up with my first coach again. I’m not going to plan any of my trackwork. I’ve figured it’s the only way I’ll ever come back, I just don’t have the time or discipline to plan, keep track of and execute my own workouts. So although I know this won’t be ideal training what matters is I get going again once and for all. Weights and strength work will however be under my planning (or lack of).

I had good results with this coach when I started up back in 2002. I ran 11.7 (-1.7) and 23.5 (+0.1) with just 5 months training, and for that matter that was like once a week the first two months, twice a week for a month and two times plus a comp a week for another two months. Then I switched coaches at the end of that year, mainly because that club sucked for athletics. At that moment the track “team” was me and three or four other sporadic athletes. After that, in 1 year and a half of “serious” training, 6 days a week, ridiculous strength development and doing everything possible, I wasn’t able to even set a new PB. After I left that group and trained (increasingly less) an year alone I finally reached new PB’s of 11.62 and 23.19 in late 2004. After that I pretty much tailed away from athletics because of work.

But here I am now, 25 in two months, with an excellent job, increasing free time and not a moment I haven’t thought about coming back.

This coach should bring me back to least 11.7/23.5 in no time. Our initial plan will be for two track sessions a week. I shouldn’t have problems doing that. I’ll train wednesday afternoons and saturday mornings, which I now have off.

Had my first training session on Thursday March 15. Did : normal warmup then 4x120m. with walkback recovery. Untimed.

Oh, and I was almost forgetting, I’ll finally be training focusing on 200/400. I guess I’ll still run the odd 100, but my thing is definitely 200 and 400. I’ve always known it, but I liked the 100 better. I’m light as a feather again, at 60kg., I should fly around the track in 400.

Yeah, I think I’m serious this time.

Wednesday March 23 :

Warmup
10 jumps into sandbox
120m. sprint -80m. rest walking x 4
80% I estimate
Jumps were around mid 2m. I estimate, so I’m still explosive.

Felt really good. My mechanics feel great. I feel experienced. Like I’m being able to run “right” from the start of this new training period and can quickly fix flaws.

Next session is saturday. I’ll be training Wednesday and Saturdays for now. If I keep it up a few weeks or months I’ll move to 3 days or 2 days and a comp. I might compete in April and/or May.

I need to put batteries on my stopwatch. I really have no notion of what speed I was going at. I lost that “feel” of training times and intensity that you get when you train regularly. I was going fast but easy. Anyway if I had been going like 90% or higher I wouldn’t have made it to the last rep. The rest was short, probably around a minute, just 80m. walking between 120’s.

I was overwhelmed with work Wednesday but still shoved everything aside and decided to go with the plan. So that was already a big step towards training regularly. Up to now I’d always think I’d train “tomorrow” and would normally cancel a training session in a similar situation.

OK. So far so good. Trained today, because my coach went to the good track today. Made (forced) some time into my schedule. Something I didn’t seem to be willing to do up to now.

Did :

Normal warmup
10xhurdle hops
4x80m. with 5 mins rest
12 mins rest
3x200m. with 200m. walk rest

80’s were in 12-13secs. range.
200’s in 34-36secs. range

Felt OK. Technically things varied a lot from run to run. On one run I’d feel great the next all over the place, etc. Felt some overcompensation from last Wednesday. During the warmup and first few reps I felt that bouncy/reactive/light feeling one gets from overcompensation. I felt like I could fly if I ran full out.

So, this is so far a long to short program, but this coach is in the middle of the spectrum I think. Works a lot of speed at high intensity not like long to short. After a short prep period we’ll then work mostly speed.

I’m pretty sure I’ll run pretty soon if I keep this up, late April for sure. I guess 12/24.5 would be real good. Won’t run any 400 this first half of the year. That would be pointless. I’d probably run something horrible in the 55-57secs range.

OK. I’m back. Well. We’ll see. But I’m very sure before the end of the year I’ll have competed.

Bought myself an olympic bar on Wednesday, I’ll be receiving a set of weight next week and my custom built supports. So I’ll finally be beginning weights. Still to be seen how and when I’ll do track, but I have to start with something concrete.

Did my first weights session today :

Warmup

3x8 bodyweight squat
3x8 squat with bar only 20kg.

3x4 tricep curls 20kg.
3x8 bicep curls 20kg.
3x8 shoulder pull 20kg.
3x12 pushups

Stretch.

That was a decent session. Will do this around a week, might add an exercise or two like front squat.

I really need to gain some mass. I’m looking like I’m from Somalia. I’m at 58kg. down 15kg. from my best sprinting weight and 10kg. under my “usual” 67kg. while I was training.

I’ll do hypertrophy 6-8 weeks, I’ll make a plan at the end of this week. I want to see how things go panning out for a few days at least. The first goal is to reach 64-66 kilos and then start moving up in strength. Will introduce olympic lifts in 3 or 4 weeks, hang snatch and hang clean.

Warmup

3x8 bodyweight squat
3x8 squat with bar only 20kg.

3x4 tricep curls 20kg.
3x8 bicep curls 20kg.
3x8 pushups

Stretch.

Was sore as hell from day 1. Cost me a TON to get going. I know the drill by now. Should be sore another session or two and then I’ll be fine. But this is as tough a start as I’ve ever had, not really that prone to suffering with training right now.

3x8 bodyweight squat
3x8 squat with bar only 20kg.

3x4 tricep curls 20kg.
3x8 bicep curls 20kg.
3x8 shoulder pull 20kg.
3x12 pushups

OK. A lot of progress. Soreness was 90% gone, so I’m through the “adaptation risk”. Felt much stronger in the squat, 3x12 pushups wasn’t quite near failure this time. I’ll increase reps to 3x15 and then 3x20 and then on week 3 or 4 do them to failure to get some good hypertrophy. Will add some weight to squat next week, don’t want to do anything stupid yet. I know how I’ll want to balloon the weight up out of control when I start feeling strong. Decreased rest between reps to 45 seconds, from 60 seconds. Will probably decrease to 30 secs in the next session or two and maintain that during hypertrophy.

Going to buy a medball this week to add some good abs exercises.

3x8 bodyweight squat
3x8 squat with bar only 20kg.

3x4 tricep curls 20kg.
3x8 bicep curls 20kg.
3x8 shoulder pull 20kg.
3x12 pushups

No soreness left. The weights are real easy all of a sudden. Gonna decrease rest to 30 secs. Sunday. Will move squat to 6x8 with 20kg. on Wednesday next week. Might add front squat sometime next week or on the first session of the next week. Will probably begin medball sometime next week too. Will probably begin to add weight towards the end of next week.

Really happy with the way things are going. This is finally what I needed. For example today would have been my first missed session had I been going to a gym. Slept like 5 hours after work. I was dead. But since now I have the weight at home I was able to put in the session at 10PM before dinner. I’ll be in good sprinting shape again in 2 or 3 months.

6x8 squat with bar only 20kg.

3x8 tricep curls 20kg.
3x8 bicep curls 20kg.
3x8 shoulder pull 20kg.
3x15 pushups

45 secs rest between sets.

Great. Just great. I’m finally, steadily, on the way up. Moved squat up to 6x8 with bar, moved tricep curls up to 3x8, and pushups to 3x15. 3x15 pushups was close to failure. I might have been able to barely go 18-19 reps in that last set going to failure.

Taking 2gr. creatine after each workout.

Decreasing rest to 30secs between sets in my next workout. Will add front squats the next workout after that if things are going well. Looking to add some weight on the last workout next week. Squat, bicep curls, shoulder pull are really ready to move up. Will start moving up 5kg. a session on squat, that should be very conservative, I’m probably ready for 40 or 50kg. easily.

6x8 squat with bar only 20kg.

3x8 tricep curls 20kg.
3x8 bicep curls 20kg.
3x8 shoulder pull 20kg.
3x15 pushups

30 secs rest between sets.

Pushups were to failure. Could really feel those 15 secs less of rest on that one. Rest was without problems. Introducing front squat on Friday and probably some additional weight on Sunday.

Been toying around with the idea of doing 3.5 sessions a week (do a session every other day) instead of 3 sessions a week (which results in two off days between one of the sessions). Or maybe introducing a body weight circuit on one of those off days. Initially my thought is I better to stick to the rigid three days a week, otherwise it will be messy (every week my workout day would move one day) and that could lead to missing sessions, and not missing any sessions is my number one goal in this phase. I need regularity to finally consolidate my comeback.

6x8 squat with bar only 20kg.

3x8 tricep curls 20kg.
3x8 bicep curls 20kg.
3x8 shoulder pull 20kg.
3x15 pushups

30 secs rest between sets.

Was tired, took it easy. Will introduce some new stuff Sunday.

3x8 front squat 20kg.
6x8 squat with bar only 20kg.

3x8 tricep curls 20kg.
3x8 bicep curls 20kg.
3x8 shoulder pull 20kg.
3x15 pushups

30 secs rest between sets.

Could really tell the difference in energy between Sunday and a regular work day. I’m really tired after workdays. I had at least 20% more energy, even despite adding front squat, all the squats were like 0% effort.

3x8 front squat 20kg.
6x8 squat with bar only 20kg.

3x8 tricep curls 20kg.
3x8 bicep curls 20kg.
3x8 shoulder pull 20kg.
3x17 pushups

30 secs rest between sets.

Played it conservatively, probably correctly. Didn’t add any weight yet. I knew my workday workout wasn’t going to be quite as easy as the Sunday workout and reconfirmed my observations. I probably need like 20% more effort to do the same thing as on Sunday. Felt strong though, my upper body feels strong. Added some reps of pushups to push myself. Hope to make it to 3x20 reps and then a trial of three sets with complete rest (2 mins?) to failure each subsequent time. After that I’ll move to bench press.

Trained first thing in the AM, lost the session yesterday, was feeling pretty burnt out. Did a circuit for a change. Will go back to weights Sunday.

3x(15 pushups, 6 pullups bicep, 20 situps, 4 pullups triceps, 8 body weight squat). Wanted to do 2 sets but at the end of the first set I was ready to hurl. Settled down for 20 pushups at the end as a plus. I’ve definitely progressed a lot in the pushups and biceps, those exercises were easy.

I need to weigh myself. I don’t think I’ve gained any weight yet, I guess that will come when I start adding weight and add bench press. But when I saw myself in the mirror today I noted I’ve gotten ridiculously ripped in these 3 weeks. I’ve never been this ripped in my life, I’m a bunch of muscle and fiber with zero fat, that’s how thin I got, and just starting to workout again brought back the tone to all the muscles.