The schedule of this weekend’s tournament has been changed. Apparently there will be heats and final for the 100m. and also 200m. Wow. That rules. Hopefully I’ll get 3 more races under my belt here, plently of chances to do something decent. The only problem is that there is no wind indicator in this track.
Went to my normal doctor today, his diagnosis is that the thing I’m feeling in my abdominals is a ruptured muscle. I’ll see our club traumatologist next week and a traumatologist my doctor recommended the week after, and I need to get the order for an MRI, I need to have an accurate diagnosis in 2 weeks time (when the season is over) to make sure I get the proper treatment and get rid of this before the preseason, until then I’ll continue with whatever I have like I have done for 3 months now. I’m not going to stop now after all this time. This injury business is tricky, just when you think you’re a veteran at this business you get yourself into something you can’t get yourself out of. I don’t know what I haven’t had by now in the last 3 years. Injury after injury after injury, at least I haven’t had anything in my knees for an year and probably will never have again because of the strength I’ve gained. Also the patellar tendinitis I had for over an year appears to be finally completely gone, the trochanteritis I had in my right insertion also appears to have disappeared. I guess everything isn’t bad, now we have to get to the bottom of this one and work on whatever needs to be worked on like that it never happens again. One thing that sort of scares me, lol, is me 
. I need to watch out about myself, through all these years of injuries I seem to have become some sort of animal, I never stop, even with pain that would send some to the hospital. Maybe I’m crazy 
. What makes me mad is when I see idiots who stop training when they have any slight pull or strain, that is outright being a pussy. But what really steams me is when people fake injuries :mad: . It seems as if the people that really want to train are never healthy and the idiots who don’t care never get hurt. :mad: :mad:
I finally had a good tournament. I ran 100 heats, made the final and ran the 200 (direct finals). Beautiful day, clear sky, perfect temperature, moderate wind.
The 100 heats was the highlight, my first 60m. were as flawless as I could possibly do, I got 100% of my potential there, and that’s what matters. The first two out of each heat (4 heats in total) made the final, so I had to get 1st or 2nd in the heat. The start was flawless no other way to describe it, I hadn’t been able to get a start like that in months (…since I’ve been injured). I felt like I was getting a massive push off the ground in each stride. I also stayed down till around 50m., I didn’t even look around or know where anyone was till this point. When I stood up by 50-60m. I saw I was in control of 2nd and by 80m. I broke the guy that was tagging along 3rd up to that point (about a meter behind) and coasted in. I got 11.5 (NWI), 2h2, lane 4. This race I finally got 100% performance, if I had run full out to the tape I would have gotten 11.2-11.3 which is probably the maximum I’m at right now (I think I’m probably doing a 7.1 or so 60m. at best).
By the final the pain had increased a lot and I wasn’t able to warm up very well. I came out of blocks ok, the first 15 or so meters I think I was still with the pack, here then I have a blank in my recollection as to what I did technically, I can’t remember when I stood up. The concrete thing is that at this point, at 20-30m. the others stood up and just sped past me. I don’t know if it is that I cut my acceleration and stood up, or simply that I had already stood up before 20m. and then when the others stood up they blew me away or maybe I was still down while they stood up and blew me away. Lol. Well one of those things happened. By 40-45m. I was already 5m. behind the pack, I lost some more ground up to 60m., then I finally found another gear and was able to step it up and finished very strong in the last 40m. but it was in vain, everyone was to far away, I almost caught one guy though, I ended up finishing about 1/2 a meter from that guy, I made up about 4 meters on this guy in the last 40. So at least the final wasn’t a total waste, yet again I was able to maintain my composure and relaxation and run very well in the 2nd half which is something important building up to next year. I now know I’m past getting tense (and thus dying) in the 2nd half of the races as used to happen when I was a rookie. If next year I’m fine physically and am able to work speed/acceleration appropriately and get down to 6.7-6.8 in 60m. (which is where I thought I would have been this year till I got injured) I’ll be an animal in the closing stages of the races. The tournament people gave me 12.0 (NWI) 8f, lane 4, but that’s no problem, the timing is a disaster when we come to this track (they put P.E. students to time because they don’t have official judges), unless you get in in the first places the times are a disaster. For some reason they are incompetent judging distances so they give each place .1 or .2 slower then the place before even if the distance was minimal - which should be the same time - so if you’re like 8th and the first guy got 10.8 they give the next guy 10.9 the next 11.0, etc. even if they had the same time, so by the last guys they have always given us ridiculous times. No one from my club timed me either, since we had 3 other guys in the final and 2 of them got in there for the fight for 1st no one sees the last guy 
. The lane assignments are also a disaster in this track too, I got the slowest time among the qualifiers and for lane 4 in the final.
By the 200m. at the end of the day I was in so much pain I didn’t know if I would be able to complete the race without losing my hip in the way . I could barely warm up a bit and went to the race hoping for the best but not expecting anything. I was in such pain in the curve I could barely accelerate, I came out of the curve a disastrous 10m. behind everyone, then at around 120-130m. I saw I would be able to finish and stepped it up one big notch, I passed one guy with 10m. to go and almost caught another. I’m not sure if this piece of martirdom was worth it but I didn’t want to lose an opportunity to race my favorite distance no matter what. In another brilliant piece of timing work I got 8th with 23.9, the guy that came in 8th (who is from my club) got 6th with 23.6, lol, and the guy that came in 6th got 7th with 23.8. Again, as I said, unless you come in among the first they don’t even SEE YOU. Lol. At least there was an improvement over the past times we’ve come here, at least now they are timing the first few places accurately. So I’ll end up assuming the 23.8 (NWI) was mine, 7h1, lane 8 - yeah, lane 8 AGAIN, LOL, I’m jinxed this year with the lane draws in 200m., but in 100m. where it doesn’t matter I almost always get good lanes. Anyway, getting a good lane wouldn’t have made a difference, I couldn’t move the first 100m. because of the pain so it would have made no difference to have someone in front to target in the curve.
So overall it was a good day, beautiful weather, got 3 more races under my belt, ran a very good 100m. heat and made the 100m. final which is what I came to do. The only accurate time I got was from the heat, but it doesn’t matter anyway, since there is no wind indicator the marks are worthless for ranking/official purposes.
This is what has happened since my last post on November 1.
November 3
Did some blocks then couldn’t do anything else.
November 5
Blocks 250 29.9
November 8
The competition got rained out, we did our own stuff later in the day.
150 17.0
15
150 didn’t time
15
150 didn’t do this one
November 10
Blocks
180 20.9
November 12
150 17.2
Saturday November 15
11.37 (+1.9) 6h2, lane 7
November 16
We decided not to run the 200, we called it an year after the 100m. yesterday and went out and partied Saturday in the night then went to the beach on Sunday. I had never been to Mar del Plata, it’s a beautiful city. Anyway, we chilled most of the weekend, it was great.
The 11.37 came out of of nowhere. My 2nd half of the race was awesome, I stayed down till at least after the 40m. mark, I was pretty far behind form the leaders at this point but just ran great through to the tape. I felt so weird, I had never felt so relaxed and smooth in a race. The guy that got 5th in my heat was at least 4 meters ahead of me at that point and I cut his lead to a hundredth of a second by the tape and the rest of the pack didn’t take any more distance on me. My start was pretty bad, so with a start like that one I had two weeks ago I was probably in 11.10-11.20 shape at best to close the season out, which is really good considering I did NO speed work in over two months, no weights in over a month. The week before this I barely did a mediocre 180 and 150 as my only work before the competition. I probably split something like a horrible 7.30 on my way to 11.37.
The track and stadium there is top quality, the installations are world class. They were built for the 1995 Panamerican games. The whole panamerican complex is incredible, and fortunately it’s in a city where at least it’s taken care of as best as they can. In Buenos Aires the whole complex would be destroyed by now. The track is a Mondo competition track, maybe the same type that was in Atlanta, it’s certainly the fastest in Argentina. The top 100m. and 200m. marks of the year were run by Ivan Altamirano, 10.46 on Saturday and 21.20 on Sunday. One of our sprinters got 3rd in the 100 (Pablo del Valle, ex-Southamerican Junior gold medallist in 200m, silver in 100m). A new Argentine record was set in the long jump, 7.69 by Diego Suarez. <insert your laugh here> while looking at our 100m and 200m 2003 bests and LJ NR. But I don’t think the mediocre marks compared to the rest of the world are anything to be ashamed of. We do what we can with the talent and installations we have.
Final PB’s 2003
100m. = 11.37 (+1.9)
200m. = 23.67 (+0.5)
400m. = 54.2
4x100m. = 44.2
We ended up not running a good 200m. in this second half which is what I was better prepared for, but who cares. If I can train well and get to the April 2004 competition period healthy I’ll be under 22 electronic by then, I would have been in the mid 22’s electronic at best right now. Overall I think we took the right decision continuing despite being injured, I’ve gained invaluable experience and am ready to run my best when I get healthy. That 100 on November 1 definitely turned the corner for me, it was my first really well run competition, but overall I’ve run progressively better and very well in the second half (technically). I don’t tense up anymore and I’ve become an animal in the second half of the race. Now add a good 1st half and I’ll be up there with the best here in Argentina. Having to run from behind has definitely helped me, it certainly has toughened and focused me mentally, if I get to the position of coming out in the lead in the future it will be very difficult for anyone to take it from me, and if I start bad I won’t panic. Now let’s train and see how things come out next year. Hopefully this nightmare of injuries will never repeat itself.
PB’s in training distances 2nd half 2003
40m. no timed 40’s
50m. 6.0
60m. 6.9
70m. 8.3
80m. 9.1
100m. 11.6
120m. 13.5
150m. 16.6
180m. 20.9
200m. 23.2
250m. 29.9 (29.0 with progressive flying start, from 260m)
300m. 39.1
400m. 1:08.3
500m. 1:21.5
List of all my competitions since I started training in mid 2002 after an year of injury (mid 2001-mid 2002) and an year off sports (mid 2000 to mid 2001). Running injured all year 2003. Sigh.
Date
Time Placing
29 June 2002
13.3 (NWI) - 4fxt
17 August 2002
12.5 (NWI) - 4h4, ?fxt
14 September 2002
12.2 (NWI) - 1h6, ?fxt
12 October 2002
11.7 (+1.8) - 3h4, 13fxt
19 October 2002
11.8 (+1.0) - 6h1, 10fxt
26 October 2002
DQ 100m.
27 October 2002
23.5 (+0.1) - 5h2
23.8 (+1.4) - 7f
2 November 2002
11.9 (NWI) - 2fxt
9 November 2002
54.9 - Around 10th
10 November 2002
25.0 (-1.4) - 2fxt
16 November 2002
23.5 (+2.3?) - 5h2?, 13fxt?
23 November 2002
11.7 (-1.7) - 7h2, 19fxt(tie)
56.0 - Around 20th
27 November 2002
24.3 (-1.6) - 4h2, 9fxt?
30 November 2002
11.8 (+0.8) -5h2, ?fxt
28 February 2003
18.1 (NWI) – 1fxt (150m.)
12 April 2003
12.32 (+1.1) - 26 mayores
26 April 2003
24.7 (+1.3) - 14 mayores
3 May 2003
12.1 (+2.5) - 12 mayores
59.6 21/22 mayores
17 May 2003
24.7 (-3.0) 10 mayores
24 May 2003
12.7 (NWI)
7 September 2003
24.7 (-3.1) 4fxt
11-12 October 2003
11.91 (+0.7) 7h4
23.67 (+0.5) 5h2
M. Peralta-A. Picchi-Blanco-Nissensohn 44.2 4fxt
17 October 2003
54.2 2fxt
11.4(NWI) 3f
25-26 October 2003
11.74 (+1.3) 6h3
24.16 (-2.6) 4h2
Barzola-Garnica-Tartalo-Nissensohn DQ
1 November 2003
11.5 (NWI) 2h2
12.0 (NWI) 8f
23.9 (NWI) 11fxt
15 November 2003
11.37 (+1.9) 6h2
We’re back on track. Literally. After resting Sunday we iniciated our GPP today, as our competition period starts early next year and we need to be flying by February. From January 19 to February 3 we’ll go to Cachi, Salta for altitude training.
Stretching routine
200 32.5
2
200 32.3
2
200 32.8
2
200 32.9
2
200 32.2
2
200 32.6
Target time was 32-34. Focus on technique.
Afterwards did weights for the first time in ages.
Bench press
2x8 40kg 2x6 50kg 2x4 60kg
Lat pulldowns
2x8 35kg 2x6 40kg 2x4 45kg
Biceps curls
2x8 20kg 2x6 22.5 kg 2x4 25kg
Stretching routine
As to the injury I have been carrying around all this time, in the last two weeks I did the studies needed, there is no hernia, no ostitis pubis. I do have a compression in my lower back vertebrae and some other little stupid problems. The whole pain is generating/radiating from this. I designed a whole stretching routine for this. I think it’s working as since I started doing the routine (a week ago twice a day) I’m feeling better, but we’ll have to see what happens. On Wednesday I’m going to a back specialist to see what he says and recommends. I’m also designing a mid-section strengthening routine, but haven’t started to do it, as I’m worried it might bring inflammation. First I’m working extensibly on flexibility which I think is the root of the problem (now that I studied this I notice I never did any stretches for my hip flexors, adductors, abductors, erector spinae, abdominals, now that I begun to do them I see I have VERY poor flexibility in these areas).
Track work got rained out today, we only did gym work. I did leg weights for the first time in about a month. Surprisingly I’m still very strong, the deep squats and front squats were as easy as they should have been, the 1/2 squats felt weird after not putting that much weight on my shoulders in a long time.
Stretching routine
Deep squat
2x8 60kg 2x6 70kg 2x4 80kg
Front squat
4x6 60kg
1/2 squat
1x6 80kg 1x6 90kg 1x6 100kg 1x6 110kg
Stretching routine
10x300 with 45 secs
Did them in between 59s and 1:05, there was a very strong wind, so the ones in which 100 were done wind in favor were a ridiculous 3-5 or so seconds less compared to those into headwind.
No track work.
Warmup
Stretching
Hurdles mobility
Gym:
Deep squat
2x8 60kg
2x6 70kg
2x4 80kg
Front squat
4x6 60kg
1/2 squat
1x6 80kg
1x6 90kg
1x6 100kg
1x6 110kg
800 2:50
6
800 2:45
6
800 2:45
Yuck. I hate long work, especially going round and round the track. At least it’s only 3 weeks of these. Hmmm. But then it doesn’t get much better, I suppose we have 500’s after 
. There was a killer wind on the opposing track, man the 500-600m. section seemed to last forever into that wall of wind.
I also did a 800meters in my training, because some Women, who is always there was talking to one of my mates. And she said that sprinters cannot beat any middle distance runners at any think over 400m.
I agree with her that i am crap at anythink over 400meters, but i knew i could do it at a good pace.
I ran with are middle distance guys, and i did 2.29sec and i was smashed! i don’t want to do it again.
I see in your training that you where doing 10x300m with 45seconds inbetween (I think your coach is trying to kill you).
If i did that, i would just want to finish without dropping out.
Its good though!
The 10 x 300 is at around 1 minute, so it’s virtually a jog, it’s aerobic work at that pace, that’s why the very short recovery. That was just a transition work for a week to get our air up, now I think we’ll have something like 3x3 300’s with short (2-3 mins) rest. 2:29 isn’t a bad 800 if you’re pretty bulked up. I hate them, but what the heck, they are necessary so I just do them, but it kills your head after the first lap thinking there is still another lap left. It would be better to do them in cross course or something, doing them on the track sucks big time.
Inclines
10x220m. with 4 mins rest
38.5
37.7
38.0
39.0
39.3
39.2
40.5
38.3
38.8
38.5
Felt a little tense while running and also noticed I was leaning a bit forward, otherwise I felt good.
I am (5"10 1/2) and i weight 10stone. I understand now what you where doing, i should update my journal but i can’t be bother.
I’ll be progressively adding more and more details to my journal to more closely track my progress on all fronts. This was our last adaptation week, this week we go to 6 track sessions, and might begin to do gym 6 times a week. I had an MRI last week and will know the result early this coming week. The doctors think that on top of the compression I have in my lumbar vertebrae I have a pinched nerve in my right leg (that would explain why I sometimes feel the outside of my leg falls asleep). I’m going to begin a core strengthening routine tomorrow, after much research I decided to simply do a routine similar to one in an article in T Nation. I’ll post it later today, I also haven’t posted my core stretching routine, I’ll post that too. What might happen with my weights work is that on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I’ll work with my kinesiologist on the imbalance that’s redeveloped in strength between the two legs. Surely that is being a factor in why this pain doesn’t go away. In particular now with the volume work I’ve been noticing clearly I’m using my right leg much more then my left leg. The clearest example is in the lactic work, on Wednesday after the 300’s I could feel lactic acid all over my right leg but my left leg had very little lactic acid accumulation, a very clear signal I’m using that leg more. All in all, I’m really very motivated coming into this new week. I’m very glad to be in loading phase and I’m being able to work hard. In the gym I’m beginning to feel I’m back, I feel extremely strong in the deep squats and the weights I’m doing feel as light as they should. A weird thing is happening though, I feel very weird in the 1/2 squats, I feel unbalanced and see that I clearly use the right leg a lot more and sometimes unbalance the bar or rotate my body because of this. I’m finding the 1/2 squats with 80kg. hard or really weird, while the same weight deep squatting I’m screwing around. Maybe it’s just the adaptation phase since I haven’t 1/2 squatted in so long, I remember early this year when I began 1/2 squatting it also took a while of feeling weird before all of sudden you get comfortable and start racking up the weight in 1/2 squat.
November 24
Hurdles mobility
200 34.9 (ooops)
8
200 32.3
8
200 31.1
8
200 31.8
8
200 32.3
8
200 32.5
8
200 31.9
8
200 31.6
Body weight at end of day 66.900kg
November 25
Body weight at beginning of session 67.200kg
Weights
Deep squat
2x8 60kg
2x6 70kg
2x4 80kg
Front squat
4x6 60kg
1/2 squat
1x6 80kg
1x6 90kg
1x6 100kg
1x6 110kg
Bench press
2x8 40kg
2x6 50kg
2x4 60kg
Dips
2x8 no weight
Shoulders
2x8 10kg
1x6 15kg
Lat pulldowns
2x8 40kg
2x6 45kg
2x4 50kg
Biceps curls with bar
2x8 20kg
2x6 25kg
2x4 30kg
November 26
Hurdles mobility
200 28.4
6
200 26.4
6
250 33.7
6
250 35.4
6
300 44.2
6
300 45.6
First 200 with sneakers, there I noticed I wouldn’t be able to do this with sneakers and put spikes on. I had a major pacing problem throughout this work, I couldn’t find the right speeds, hence the great variation in times from rep to rep.
November 27
Body weight at beginning of session 67.900kg
Weights
Deep squat
1x8 60kg
1x8 65kg
1x6 70kg
1x6 75kg
1x4 80kg
1x4 85kg
Front squat
3x6 60kg
1x6 65kg
1/2 squat
1x6 80kg
1x6 90kg
1x6 100kg
1x6 110kg
Bench press
2x8 40kg
2x6 50kg
2x4 60kg
Lat pulldowns
2x8 40kg
2x6 45kg
2x4 50kg
Dips
3x8 no weight
Shoulders
2x8 10kg
Biceps curls with bar
2x8 20kg
2x6 25kg
2x4 30kg
November 28
Rest
Novermber 29
Weights
Deep squat
2x8 60kg
2x6 70kg
2x4 80kg
Front squat
4x6 60kg
1/2 squat
1x6 80kg
1x6 90kg
1x6 100kg
1x6 110kg
Bench press
2x8 40kg
2x6 50kg
2x4 60kg
Lat pulldowns
1x8 30kg
1x8 40kg
2x6 40kg
Dips
2x8 no weight
Shoulders
1x8 10kg
1x8 20kg
Biceps curls with bar
2x8 20kg
2x6 25kg
2x4 30kg
800 2:58
6
800 2:53
6
800 2:50
We did the 800’s in a very crummy cinder track, actually that crap was more like sand. To compound the problem my shoes are flat underneath, I need to get new ones, so I was slipping all over the place, it was terrible.
Hurdles mobility
300 47.3
9
300 44.5
10
200 28.0
7
200 28.1
7
200 28.4
10
150 20.0
5
150 19.8
5
150 20.1
5
150 20.0
Man, this work was devastating, actually I didn’t feel it at the moment, I thought I had ended fine, but once I got to my house I noticed how energy drained I was. Targets were 43-44 the 300’s, 27-28 the 200’s, and 19-20 the 150’s. It took me a while to get used to doing this with sneakers, the first 300 was very bad, next time I have to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I think the 200’s and 150’s can be done 1/2 a second faster then I did them and not die, so I guess my coach was right with the ranges assigned. Heh, but being the first time I do this work I did them in the lower range to see if I would make it lol! Going to sleep now. I’m destroyed. Well. My knee is destroyed most of all, I got a bad bruise doing hurdles mobility and it was swelling the whole afternoon during the work, so it was an energy draining struggle. Now that’s what I call training.
We’re beginning to increase the training load now.
Weights
Front squat
1x6 55kg
1x6 65kg
1x6 65kg
1x4 70kg
1x4 75kg
1x4 75kg
Walking lunge with barbell in front
4x15m. with 50kg
Horizontal jumps with bar (40kg)
4x6 jumps
Hang snatch
1x8 30kg
1x6 35kg
1x4 40kg
1x4 45kg
1x4 45kg
Push press
1x8 30kg
1x6 35kg
3x4 40kg
Horizontal jumps (unweighted)
4x8 jumps
8x8 vertical (hurdle) jumps
8x4 box jumps
Weighted sled
8x80m.
15kg, then we decreased to 10kg because we had to do them in grass and 15 kg were weighing like 30kg.
AM session
200 29.6 (in sneakers then changed to spikes)
6
200 28.1
6
250 37.4
6
250 37.1
6
300 47.2
6
300 47.1
PM session
Hurdles mobility
20 mins. jog
Horrible day, there was an intraday drop of temperature of like 15 degrees celcius. I couldn’t move in the AM, very, very bad day.
Quite unfortunately Aln’s training journal has ended for now and gives way to Aln’s recovery journal.
The MRI I took shows nothing either, but a decision has been made. Although nothing serious appears in any of the studies, what every doctor does agree upon is that I have in issue with core strength, there are weak spots in my abdominal wall which though have not become hernias this needs to be corrected. Seeing that since I started training seriously again 2 weeks ago, in particular during these past few days the pain has been escalating again, and that within another week or two I’d have to abandon training if the trend continued, we’re going to stop completely now. We’ll be taking a month off at least and going to kinesio 5 times a week. Not much else I can do. I’ll try to improve stupid little details, like my diet to cut down body fat and we’ll be working on strengthening my core full time like this never happens again. Since my first kinesio isn’t till next Wednesday I’ll be doing a week of work on my own and I’m finishing the details on it right now. I’ll post it soon.
The following is only for my core, I’m still determining what if anything else I’ll do for other body parts. Problem is that virtually any structural gym work will always use the core for stability, so this is tough. What I think I might do is do a simplified routine of basic exercises for the rest of this week an then determine with my kinesiologist how much load per day I can take in my core by doing weights, or maybe I won’t be able to do anything at all.
Stretching routine
Upper body stretches (won’t go into details on these)
RECTUS ADBOMINIS
Kneeling abdominal
Lying abdominal
ERECTOR SPINAE
Lying lower back stretch
Seated bent-over lower back stretch
GLUTEUS MAXIMUS
Lying glute stretch
Seated glute stretch (floor)
HIP ABDUCTORS
Lying crossover stretch
Pretzel stretch
(Standing iliotibial stretch)
OBLIQUES
Lying bent leg oblique stretch
(Lying crossover stretch)
(Pretzel stretch)
HIP FLEXORS
Lunge stretch
Bentover lunge stretch
Standing iliotibial stretch
ADDUCTORS
Seated adductor magnus stretch
Lying groin stretch
Seated groin stretch
Side lunge stretch
Then my legs with my normal stretches.
Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Calfs
I can’t decide on the strengthening exercices yet, but I will by the end of the day. I’m studying the matter.