Wednesday September 07
Weights :
3x12 bench press with bar only
3x6 pullups without weight
3x12 dips without weight
3x12 squats without weight
3x15 abs
Wow, really all the signs of a REAL comeback are there. I haven’t felt this type of motivation in at least 7 years, you know that bug one feels all the time, wishing it’s the next training session to improve more, to push it a little farther. I’m OFFICIALLY back. 
Finally posted an avatar. That pic is from like 7 years ago (haha I don’t think I can lift much more then the bar right now).
Dropped today’s session. Major soreness in my hamstrings and abs … seemed like a perfect recipe for injury, in particular considering I have been getting quads and groins pulls almost once a week. I’ll go rested to Saturday’s hills, which I think are the last hills this year.
Other great news, the National Cup of Clubs, was moved two weeks back to October 15 and 16. This is excellent news for me. My SPP can now be 2 weeks longer, which will be a major help, I’ll have to reformulate my plan.
Speed day 1 - Speed day 2 - Speed day 3
Week 1 (Aug 29-Sept 4): Short speed 40’s - Speed and accel. 60’s and 30’s - Speed 80’s and 120’s
Week 2 : Short speed 40’s - Speed and accel. 60’s and 30’s - Speed 80’s and 120’s
Week 3 : Speed 60’s 30’s - Flying 20’s - Speed 80’s and 120’s
Week 4 : Speed 60’s 30’s - Flying 20’s - Speed 80’s and 120’s (unloading week, lower volume)
Week 5 : Speed 60’s - Flying 20’s - Speed 80’s and 120’s
Week 6 : Speed 60’s - Flying 20’s - Speed 80’s and 120’s
Week 7 : Speed 60’s - Flying 20’s - COMPETITION! Saturday 100m. and 4x100m. Sunday 200m. (decrease volume/unload during week)
Week 8 : Speed 60’s 80’s - 120’s 150’s - Maybe competition (don’t know if there is one this weekend yet)
Week 9 : Speed 60’s 80’s - 120’s 150’s - COMPETITION! Saturday 100m. and 4x100m. Sunday 200m. (decrease volume/unload during week)
This is my new tentative plan. Gonna keep short work (30’s) in for two more weeks now, and week 4 is the unloading week, so this new time frame is perfect for fitting in a 7 week SPP. On day 3 I just put in 80’s and 120’s, but in reality don’t know what I’ll be doing. I’ll be training with my old training group most Saturdays, so I assume that will mean SEish or SpEish type of work (120’s or 150’s or 200’s). If I end up training alone I’ll lean towards 80-120 till week 4 or 5 and then 120-150 weeks 5-7. On one of the flying 20’s workouts I might do ins and outs.
Hills :
30
2
30
2
60
3
60
4
80
8
40
2
40
Full out. The 80m. rep killed me (the rest of the group then did a 60 and then a 100 and then 40’s, where I rejoined). I got a ton of lactic acid from one 80m. rep! Although I expect to have poor speed endurance, I wasn’t really expecting to get acid lactic doing 80m. … I’ll definitely work some special endurance after week 10, my goal is to run a decent 200m. before the end of the year … and that in turn will drop my 100m. time more towards the end of the year I expect.
I felt great during the warmup, but then not that fast during the workout.
60 7.6
4
60 7.5
4
60 7.6
4
60 7.6
8
4x30m. w 2min untimed
Weights :
2x12 bench press with bar only
2x6 pullups without weight
2x12 dips without weight
2x8 squats without weight
1x4 snatch without weight
Really had a conservative weights session. In the last snatch set, when I reached down for the bar, my adductor almost cramped, so I cut the workout there, and cut down all exercises to just two sets.
On the track, a very consistent series of 60’s, finally with a considerable improvement in times! I can live with 7.5, running 7.8 the previous weeks was just horrible. Respectable times, like 7.3 or better seem to be just a couple of weeks or sessions away. In the 30’s excellent first rep, but then I was burned out, I went submax the other three reps, focusing on being super explosive on the first 5 steps. I’d guess I’m in 12.0 (manual) shape right now, I’ll have no problem getting to sub 12.00 (electronic) shape by the first comp, would be kinda nice not to have any 12.xx associated to my name this year!
I’m heavily leaning towards adding a session of tempo a week at this point, I’m pretty sure it will be Sunday. That would make 4 training days a week.
I keep dealing with a lot of minor twinges and pulls, it seems that when I reach the 300m. mark of speed work, everything kinda falls apart. That is my fitness limit at this moment. I’ll have to stay vigilant and keep being extra careful about not getting injured as I keep adapting to speed work. I think next weeks’ unloading week, plus adding some tempo will give me that little conditioning and rest I’m missing to put some higher quality and quantity speed work in the last 3 weeks of my SPP.
Wednesday September 22
60 7.8
4
60 7.6
4
60 7.6
4
60 7.7
Missed an entire week of training. No weights this week. Too much work, I’m really low on energy for training. Planned to do 5 60’s, but felt some tightness in my left achilles on the 4th rep and cut the workout there.
Below is the same post I posted on the video section for analysis. Reposting it here in my journal for easy reference and in case anyone that reads my journal sees it here. Overall I’m actually pleased with my form, I thought I’d have major disadjustments after a long layoff. I think I’m seeing nowhere near everything I used to see when analysis track videos, but 4 things caught my attention : 1) rounded back on the start 2) I’m achieving good triple extension from step 9 onwards, but maybe pushing too much “out of the back” 3) arm angles open up to much in the first 8 steps of my accelaration? 4) arm swing in front is always insufficient (doesn’t even reach my jaw). Anyone see these flaws? Are they flaws? Do there need to be corrected? What should I correct?
Anyway, below my post from the videos section :
First video I have taken in 7 years. I think I’ve lost a bit of my analytical eye after this long layoff. Any analysis on running form, etc. will be appreciated.
http://www.detallesdeco.com.ar/alexnsept22.mov
Some stills from the video :
My 2nd step :
4th step :
7th step :
9th step :
Also is there any point in “looking down” as I’m doing during initial acceleration. It seems my strength level is currently so low I’m not creating much of an acceleration angle, thus my head is hanging down maybe too much?
Saturday September 24
1x flying 20
Yeah, that was all my workout. I went to the synthetic track and got kicked out after my first rep. Needless to say I’m pretty pissed. What a piece of shit country … the only real track in a city of 16 million people and one can’t even use it.
I added stuff to my warmup, some A’s. And I did some hurdles mobility, only 5x6 hurdles step overs though. I felt ridiculously fast, wow the track I’m training on is incredibly shitty, but when one trains somewhere all the time one doesn’t notice. I was going to do a 60 at the end to time myself. I have no doubt I can run 7.3 on the tartan if I’m running 7.5 on that shit track. I wasn’t factoring the track up to now. I might actually be able to run close to 12 flat electronic in my first comp.
Wednesday September 28
3x flying 20 w 5 min rest
60 untimed
5
60 7.2
5
60 7.4
Huge wind in favor, so the times are pretty useless. Was planning to do all flying 20’s, but I didn’t feel I was executing them well, so the last 3 I switched to 60’s. Light weights session again. My training has been very scrappy the past 2 or 3 weeks, because of work. But this week I’ll surely do 3 session. There is a comp next Saturday, but there is only 200m. I don’t think I’ll run there, I’m not ready for 200m. Unfortunately after that there isn’t a comp for 2 weeks. So I guess my first comp will be October 22.
Wednesday October 05
4x flying 20 w 5 mins rest
60 7.6
5
60 7.7
Finally started to nail down a bit the flying runs. The 2nd rep was a beauty I hit the mark with the right speed and was able to do a flying run in the fly zone, so now I know what I’m looking for. Hopefully in another 2 or 3 sessions most of my flying runs will be done correctly. I’m tinkering a bit with my runs technically. I think I’m fixing the arm position and today I tried correcting the “pushing out the back issue” in the middle of the run, I immediately rose 5 cm. at least off the ground, it was like if I had stepped onto a step, no kidding. I was amazed at how much I was pushing out the back instead of “running tall”. This was during the 60’s. Training frecuency has been suffering a little, I’m sure I’ll be back to training 3x a week next week. Training on Saturday again. First comp. will finally be on the last week of October it seems.
60 7.2
6
60 7.2
6
60 7.2
6
60 7.3
Trained on the tartan track, finally. The runs were timed by my old coach. I suppose the times are accurate. Perfect sprinting weather, the best day so far this spring, plus the tartan track, plus excellent spikes, probably contributed to shaving off some tenths of a second off my runs. Anyway, the real test is in two weeks, first comp will almost surely be October 29. Hoping I can get back to training 3 times a week. I need to get some 120’s in at least one day. Speed endurance is seriously lacking. With some speed end. training I think I’ll be running sub 12 electronic.
120 untimed
14
120 untimed
14
120 14.9
Pretty tough workout. The lack of training is noticeable. I was DESTROYED by the last one. The only workouts I ever remember ending worse were like 4x300m. in 38 secs. w 12 mins. I guess nothing surprising about this. I’ve got zero tempo on me and zippo special endurance work. I think the first rep was pretty good. Too bad I couldn’t time it. Can’t get used to this stupid new stopwatch. But I guess if the last one was 14.9, the first one was probably like 14.4-14.5 the second around 14.7.
60
6
60
6
60
6
60
Untimed. Felt pretty good. I think I’m starting to incorporate better arm swing to my running, I’ll make a new video soon to confirm this. Doing 120’s on Thursday, and not confirmed yet, but I might be competing on Saturday (not confirmed because the comp is 4 hours away from here, so it will depend if people I know go or not).
120
12
120
Untimed. Felt pretty fried. Cut the workout at two reps. Want some extra rest for Saturday. Opening up my season on Sat. Running 100 and 200m. and maybe 4x100m. if I find a squad missing one. The great news is that there are 6 straight weeks of comps. So hopefully I’ll have a nice progression. Nothing better to get fast when untrained then a bunch of comps.
60
6
60
6
60
6
60
Very low quality workout. I was just so energyless. Unfortunately as much as I’d like to train 100% it’s not possible right now, too much work.
Couldn’t travel to the comp last weekend, I couldn’t finish all my pending work on time. So this weekend is finally my comeback. Running 100m.
Sigh. More then a week without even training. Turns out I couldn’t compete last week. The federation didn’t accept my medical ok because it didn’t have the exact text they wanted. It’s unreal how many obstacles are being put in the way of athletes to compete in a country where track barely exists … endless stupidity. Needless to say this really flatened my motivation combined with a hectic week at work. I’ll try again this week to get the medical OK with the text the federation wants. I’ve also learned that non ranked athletes are now completely banned from training on the only synthetic track in Buenos Aires. One just can’t believe the amount of combined stupidity rampant in the corrupt and incompetent sports ministry in Argentina. These steps will surely ensure the progress of track and field in Argentina. Sigh.
Today I begun weights again. I’ve finally decided on doing a combined upper and lower body weights day on non track days, it takes more then 4 hours to do track and weights combined the same day… I just don’t have that time on weekdays. I’m going to focus on getting a good weights base level by December, for my next GPP. On the track I’ll continue with the current scrappy program.
Weights today. Won’t be recording weights or reps I’m doing till I’m doing some real weight. Basically gonna work on getting my strength up quickly and some hypertrophy. I’m doing pullups, dips, arm curls, bench press, snatch, hang clean, squat. Gonna be adding some more exercises in the next sessions.
OK, finally got my paperwork in order! I’m already entered into the 100m. Saturday and 200m. Sunday. I’m excited. Not too optimistic about the type of times I’ll get, but anyway I feel so happy to finally be competing again. Hoping for around 12.30/24.60 at worst.