Wow. That was the toughest work I’ve ever done, tougher then 10x300 with 3mins, not because of the work itself, but the conditions were terrible. Wind chill was around -5, it was impossible to warm up, even with a pile of clothes on, when you had to take things off to do each rep you’d freeze by the end of the rep and start the next rep cold as if you hadn’t even warmed up. Needless to say the track was rock. Terrible. As to the work, I accumulated a ton of lactic acid in the last rep, which was good, it’s the first time I accumulate lactic acid in this GPP, in the last rep I probably did over 10 extra meters to pass a bunch of guys that died on the way, so with the extra effort the good stuff kicked in my legs. The last three training days have been wild, from the excellent hills session Monday to the crazy wind assisted speed work Tuesday to the freezing 300’s today. All we need now is some nice pouring rain tomorrow, hmmm…who knows freezing rain might be an interesting training experience. Heh, well, seriously, I had never seen weather factor in so much into the work, the effort it took to do these 6 300’s in 45secs average time was the same it would have taken to do the same work at 43secs or less in good weather - lol - now I see why elite athletes go warm weather training, it’s impossible to train properly in these conditions.
On grass track with spikes. Another terrible cold day, impossible to warm up. At least the work was good, I really felt like I could have pushed it all to around low 15’s average … and in better weather and track all into the mid 14’s, so what can I say, I’m feeling fast and strong, at least much faster and much stronger then in the previous GPP. New record in deep squat today, 135kg on my last set of 4 reps (after doing 2x8, 2x6 and a 4 rep set before) … I CAN’T WAIT for the unloading period … I won’t be surprised if I can make it to 170kg. max by September in the sets of 2 reps. :eek: :eek: geeeezzz !! from 40kg. deep squat to 170kg in 9 months … I love it!! Can’t wait to rip the blocks off the ground in our next competition period.
Freezing again. I didn’t feel good in any of the reps. I was running sitting and with a very short stride. It was just a bad day. These were the last 500’s at least … next Friday is a 500m. time trial. There we’ll see if I have been screwing around or I’ve really become so slow at the 500’s. If I can break 1:15 means I’ve been messing around big time … it will be very interesting to see how I feel. Maybe I’ve been going too slow and that has made me feel sluggish, when if I had been doing them all along much faster I would have felt better. Who knows. The bottom line : I’ve worked the 500’s very poorly in this GPP.
500s are the hardest things to take seriously aren’t they? I’ve never been able to run a good 500. And I definitely sympathize on the cold weather, I ran two track meets in snow this spring. It’s not fun at all. I hope it gets warmer for you.
Originally posted by misguided 500s are the hardest things to take seriously aren’t they? I’ve never been able to run a good 500. And I definitely sympathize on the cold weather, I ran two track meets in snow this spring. It’s not fun at all. I hope it gets warmer for you.
Yeah, 500’s suck, I’m ready to move on. I can’t wait to do speed, I feel like I’ve improved so much, in particular in technique, what is weird is that I feel fast RIGHT NOW. Just 6 weeks till we compete!
Another very cold day. What was weird is that the exact same thing as last Saturday happened, I didn’t feel good till the 7th rep. All of a sudden on the 7th rep I noticed I was cutting my acceleration after 10 meters so on the 7th I accelerated well and my stride doubled or something. From one rep to another I went from short stride, tight and uncomfortable to long stride, smooth and comfortable. I’d really like to be able to do all 12 reps like that … but I think at least during the first set it’s impossible, I was so cold I couldn’t move.
Inclines 5 x ~100m. changes of pace on the 120m. incline (85% first 40m., 80% next 30m., 90% last 30m.) (2 mins rest) 17.0-16.5-17.0-16.5-16.0 (very slippery, couldn’t get any traction until about 10 meters and then kept wasting a ton of energy because of the very poor traction)
6 mins
Inclines 5 x ~220m. (3 mins rest) 34.5-36.0-36.5-38.0-37.5 (lots of pedestrians causing problems again in this incline, they were probably all in 36-36.5 pace - lol, except the first one, that was a pacing mistake, a little too fast)
6 mins
5 x ~120m. on slightly steeper incline (2 mins rest) 17.0-18.0-18.0-17.0-17.5
I didn’t feel as good as last Monday, in the long inclines I’d go excellent the first 1/2 of the slope, but for some reason when it got less steep (2nd half) I couldn’t stay on my toes without fatiguing. There was some light rain just before we began and the 120m. incline was very slippery, causing a terrible loss of energy. I felt good in the last set though, but we did then at another incline (same angle but different material), so I’m not sure how that affected the work compared to the previous session. Overall a good day’s work I’d say.
On cinder track. Good work, I keep feeling fast right now. The track was pretty poor, I hadn’t trained on this track in two weeks, so I think I was unadapted, for some reason I felt like I was having a really hard time keeping my hip high. I think it was the soggy track conditions. Legwise I felt like I was jogging in the mid 7’s in the 60’s and high 9’s in the 80’s, but I felt like I had to force myself all the way through to not sit. What’s weird is that people that saw me today said I looked excellent. I guess this is all positive. 7.5 is really slow for me for me now, 9.8 is also cruise speed … in the previous GPP I was struggling to do sets in mid 7’s average (although the major problem there was that I had such bad periostitis I couldn’t accelerate and when the periostitis went away my acceleration mechanics had been messed up so bad it took me two months to straighten things out - then I went from doing 60’s with difficulty in the high 7’s to 6.9 in a month). In that 7.2 and 7.3 from today I didn’t even accelerate that much more, it just kind of happened without an increase in perceived effort (most of all in those two reps for some reason I didn’t struggle maintaining hip position like in the other reps and thus was way more relaxed).
HORRIBLE work. Freezing. It seems every day we have long work we have the worse weather. I couldn’t friggin’ move. These were the last 300’s of this GPP. What a waste, I didn’t do them well a single time. Target time was 43-44secs, my coach keeps saying he’s sure I can do them in those times and that it looks like I’m jogging doing them so slow, but I feel like I get fatigued despite the very poor times. What would seem to confirm that I’m working poorly is that I accumulate no lactic acid working in these times. What I’m trying to evaluate is whether it’s the weather (and consequently bad warmup) that’s causing these horrible sessions when we have long work or if I’m psychologically limiting myself, keeping myself away from the pain. I guess I’ll know in summer when we do 300’s again, if I’m back to doing them in the times I’m supposed to be doing them then it was the weather, otherwise I’ll have to reevaluate how I’m training. The strange thing is I feel awesome in all work 200m. and under, I’m certainly notably faster and my technique has improved a ton since 5 months ago when I was doing them in much better times. The only possible explication physically is that I’ve gained about 10 kilos in weight since then, but then again, I’ve cuadrupled my deep squat and made incredible gains in all strength areas, so the gains in strength should more then offset the gain in weight, even in longer work? Well. At least this phase is over. I’m ready to get fast. Real fast.
Very positive work. Did them on the crappy sandy track. But something very positive happened in the last set. I think I might be on the verge of a breakthrough in terms of technique. In that last set I suddenly deciphered the track, the way for the times not to go to hell is to run making extremely quick and efficient contacts, which I was able to do because my hip position was excellent, I’ve never run that high, also it must have to do with the strength I gained, I felt so strong just sort of skipping forward. What’s funny is that this is a description of how I should ideally run in any track, but I guess in the synthetic track due to the much better bounce I have become used to pushing back and advancing by pushing, using slow but strong contacts, sort of like lounging. If I am able to transfer this breakthrough to the good track, we could be on the verge of a major improvement. What is beautiful about this is how it fell into place without warning. I wouldn’t have been able to do this 6 months ago, this is only possible with the strength I have now. What can I say, I’m really thinking great things can happen in this next competitive period, I’m on the verge of a breakthrough.
Today we reduced volume ahead of tomorrow’s trials. I was actually supposed to do them in 27.5-28.5 but it’s the first time in weeks I do long work alone, I couldn’t pace myself at all so my times were jumping around all over the place. The good thing is that I feelt great doing them in the mid 26’s, I felt no strain on recovering with the short rest despite the relatively high intensity, I was surprised I had no trouble recuperating. This bodes well for the next work. Next week we begin to reduce volume and up intensity, I think I’ll have 8x200 in 26secs with 6 mins next … hehe I’m beginning to get to know my coach . During our previous GPP I was doing the 8x200 in the 27-28 range if I remember right, so this is a significant improvement. I couldn’t test my observations from yesterday much … I’ll be experimenting next week with this, in particular with short speed work.
400 1:10.6
2
400 1:10.4
2
400 1:08.3
2
400 1:10.2
2
400 1:09.6
2
400 1:12.1 (not my fault, the guy ahead of me slowed down and abandoned making me lose 20m. or so)
2
400 1:09.8
2
400 1:11.0
I did very well in our VO2 max trial. Geez. The last two days have been revelational … actually nothing that we didn’t know was revealed, if I can do 200’s in 26 jogging and 8x400 with 2 mins at 1:09 then I should have no problem doing 300’s in 43 and 500’s in 1:25 which were the times I was supposed to have been doing and didn’t do. This leads to the conclusion that I was scared of running the distances (lol, like I didn’t know it, what a friggin’ pussy and idiot), as all the shorter work (200 and under) has been at the marks I’m supposed to be doing. Regardless, the technical and physical improvements during the last few months have been dramatic. If I don’t post good marks before the end of the year I’m an incompetent. We’ll have a more exact idea of what to aim for when we start doing speed work at 95-100%, but I’d estimate I should be in a position to at least do 11.0 and 22.2 (manual) before the end of the year, as I assume I’m probably going to be able to do 6.7-6.8 manual 60m. and sub 17secs 150m. Now, it’s time to prove these predictions.
I forgot to add, we did a mini standing long jump trial Saturday before the VO2 max trial. I did 2.71 in my first jump and 2.82 in my second jump … I could have done over 2.90 at least if I had more jumps. Regardless it is a considerable improvement over the last time I tested SLJ, about 6 months ago I did low 2.70’s with 4-5 jumps, but it was in a sandbox that was empty by about a foot, so I was having a foot extra vertical, so on a level sandbox that test 6 months ago was probably around 2.50. A very significant improvement.
On grass with sneakers. I guess this work would be considered tempo by you guys in the US, or too long? I’m still getting familiar with the terminology in English. Since I’m on vacations for the next two weeks (we have our short/winter vacation now) I’ll be doing double turns on track Tuesday, Thursday and possibly Saturday, the important thing is that Tuesdays and Thursdays I’ll be going to the newest track in the country (2 hour trip … will be worth training in a decent synthetic track) and putting in my Monday and Wednesday track sessions there, and I’ll be adding aerobic and technical (long weighted sled) work on Mondays and Wednesdays in place of the moved track work. The work today was positive, I can’t believe how much I’ve improved technically, doing this slow work I could see so clearly how my arm action and overall relaxation has improved dramatically over the past few months. I’m finally using my arms properly … actually I don’t need to think about it anymore, just being relaxed when running and it happens.
AM session
200 28.9
6
200 26.3
6
200 27.8
6
200 26.6
6
200 27.0
6
200 26.1
6
200 26.1
6
200 26.6
Target time was 26-26.5
PM session
Weights/plyo/jumps too long to write it all out.
4x150m. weighted sled with 10kg
4x100m. weighted sled with 12.5kg
focus on technique in both.
The track in La Plata is a beauty to train on, it has so much rebound and is so easy on your legs, yet for volume it is a very heavy track, it takes your legs out - which is good. If we can get to run well and fast there when we go to the fast competition tracks we’ll fly. The track session was a bit inconsistent as it took me a while to figure out how to run on that track. No one uses the track, we had the track for ourselves, and then we ate excellent food there, we got treated like kings, that place rules. I can’t wait to go back there … we’ll definitely be going 2-3 times a week for the next two weeks and then at least once a week when classes resume … that track, setting and the people there are a luxury, it’s not to be wasted.
80 10.4
2
80 10.0
2
80 10.0
6
80 9.9
2
80 9.9
2
80 10.0
6
80 9.8
2
80 9.8
2
80 9.9
On grass track with spikes. Friggin’ periostitis is bothering me again but I won’t be able to go to therapy for the next 2 weeks. Weird work today. I was having a very hard time straightening my torso, it would take me till 50-60m. to straighten out. My abs and lower back are sore, so I think that’s what was happening, mid-section weakness/fatigue was causing me to have a hard time straightening my trunk after acceleration. I guess it was a good session considering the problem I was having. I need to find out a way to warm up better. I’ll have to change my way of warming up, otherwise I can’t warm up in this cold weather, I always waste the first rep because of a poor warmup.
Excellent and very positive day overall. The 300’s were very strange, I didn’t accumulate lactic acid till the last one, while my partners said they had already from the first rep. I don’t get it, it seems like my nervous system is weaker then my lactic tolerance … after many reps of 300 I feel CNS fatigue before lactic acid. Apart from that the times were great, I was supposed to do them in 41-42, surprisingly I felt great, I could have done them .5 to 1 second less average time. What I want to see is next Thursday before claiming victory, maybe this was just a good day and next Thursday if I start doing them in 40-41 and die after two or three, so next Thursday I’ll see if I can do them all in average of 41, if I feel great again then we’ll see about lowering the times more significantly.
The work with the weighted sled was great, it was the first time we do weighted sled for short distances in 3 months, the last time we did this I could barely move with 35kg on, today I was accelerating powerfully and smoothly with 35kg. I couldn’t believe it. That’s how much my strength has increased, this is the clearest result I’ve seen. If I was able to do 6.9 60’s with how bad I was accelerating 3 months ago, I shouldn’t have a problem doing 6.7 now as I was losing a ton in the first 20 or so meters .
Inclines (all done on the same incline, first 120 or so meters are a moderate incline, last 100 a soft incline)
~220m. 34.0
2
~140m. 19.5
2
~80m. 10.9
8
~80m. 10.8
2
~140m. 19.0
2
~220m. 35.0
8
~220m. 33.5
2
~140m. 18.5
2
~80m. 10.7
8
~80m. 10.3
2
~140m. 19.5
2
~220m. 34.0
Good work, although in the 220m. ones I feel real weird, but it’s mainly a problem with the incline. At the 120m. point the incline softens considerably all of sudden and I drop down from my toes to me planting my foot from the heels or I feel like my calfs fatigue in those last 100m. of less steep incline. This in turn makes it hard for me to keep a good hip position in the last 100m. and I always fall behind a little from the people I’m going with. In the 80m. and 140m. I felt great, in particular the last 80m. I really loosened up and felt great - fast, powerful, smooth and absolutely great form. Overall a positive day, since we worked at a high percentage intensity I couldn’t concentrate much on correcting things, but I felt satisfied by the way I was running.
AM weights
Frontal squat
Deep squat
Upper body routine
PM
500 1:21.5
8
500 1:21.5
8
500 1:23.0
Geez, these were some hard 500’s, target was 1:18-1:20, I could have done that only with a lot of strain. Then again, since I worked poorly at the 500’s up to now I’m paying for that (doing them in 1:30 to 1:20 is a huge jump … it shouldn’t have been because I should have been doing them in 1:25-1:28).
At least this week I felt great in everything else, in particular the 300’s. I guess I’m a truck running these 500’s until I get used to my new body weight, in the 300’s I can easily run 26.5-27 200 to do the reps in 41 … but in the 500’s I’m still lost. If I try to run at a constant rhythm there is no way I’ll make the time I’m supposed to run, so I went out and did them all with a 47-48 or so 300 split and a very poor last 200 (34-36), I lose about 3 seconds in the 300-400m. section, for some reason I have gotten into the habit of going into cruise there and then increasing the intensity again the last 100-120m. if I didn’t do this slowdown in that section I’d be right in the target times. Mainly I want to see what happens next week, maybe I’ll be better adapted next week, a 10 second (around 10% jump in intensity … when it should have been a 5% increase in intensity if I had been doing the right times) jump week to week maybe was a little too much.
Next week we will go to La Plata Tuesday and Thursday again, I really look forward to can’t wait.
July 28
60 7.5
2
60 7.3
2
60 7.5
2
60 7.4
6
60 7.4
2
60 7.8
2
60 7.8
2
60 7.6
6
60 7.4
2
60 7.5
2
60 7.1
2
60 7.3
It was pouring rain throughout the session, I was accelerating poorly because I was scared of slipping.
PM session
Weights, plyo and technique work with weighted vest
That AM session was one heck of a session, I had never had such a consistent session on the track. I worked a lot on my acceleration mechanics, I’m not sure if it’s because of the great track but the acceleration angles were very good for the intensity. Ideally the track work should be in the PM, but there is nothing we can do about that since we can only go there in the morning because of the distance and weather, even with around 6 hours recuperation the PM session is tough.
The last three training days have been wild, from the excellent hills session Monday to the crazy wind assisted speed work Tuesday to the freezing 300’s today. All we need now is some nice pouring rain tomorrow, hmmm…who knows freezing rain might be an interesting training experience. Heh, well, seriously, I had never seen weather factor in so much into the work, the effort it took to do these 6 300’s in 45secs average time was the same it would have taken to do the same work at 43secs or less in good weather - lol - now I see why elite athletes go warm weather training, it’s impossible to train properly in these conditions.
I CAN’T WAIT