You mean lifting the day after speed? I’ve never felt good doing that except in GPP when it’s just upper body circuit weights.
Many athletes on this forum that follow formats as below in spp.
Mon/Thur: speed/lower or no weights
Tue/Fri: tempo/upper or tb weights
Wed: pool or easy wup
Sat/Sun: rest
Yes, there seem to be a lot of people down here who don’t do the wave loading thing. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, it just never seems like I have a good session when I lift lower and upper body weights the day after a taxing speed session. I always seem to lose focus or just can’t lift as much. Is that fairly unusual?
Wednesday, July 21st- Therapy Day
I went to my coach’s place, and got a nice therapy session in. He did more work on my glutes, adductors, IT band, and got into my usually tight calves.
Interestingly, my calves and Achilles have been 85% pain and tightness free, and Frank thinks it’s because we addressed some mechanical issues that may have been contributing to my problems.
This session went about 90 minutes, and included lots of ART work on my glutes again, as well as ART work on my feet. The calf work was not too aggressive.
Thursday, July 22nd- Austin High School
Speed session:
Today was initially going to be a SE session, but I’m racing at the Austin Twilight meet on Friday evening, so we are going to concentrate on going short today, and let the 100m and 200m races tomorrow act as the SE work.
warmup
buildups- 1x10, 1x20, 1x30 flats, 1x10, 1x20, 1x30 spikes
2x10m
2x20m
2x30m
1x40m
skip, jog, walk barefoot for cooldown
I wasn’t so sharp today, and the volume needed to be low due to the races the next day.
Austin Summer Twilight Meet- Texas School for the Deaf
I signed up for the 50m, 100m, and 200m, but when I arrived I found out that the 50m was a kid’s race. I guess I could have pulled a Kramer and demanded a lane so I could “dominate”, but decided against it. 
The 200m was up first (weird!), and the 100m was a bit later on. There was a stiff headwind on the straightaway, so I talked to a few other athletes and coaches and we got the 100m and 200m turned around. This was a community oriented hand-timed meet, so there was no reason for them not to turn the races around.
They don’t have blocks, and lo and behold, the starter’s pistol started jamming, so they went with “Marks, set, go” over a megaphone. That kind of ruined my plan of having someone tape my race so I could throw it into Dartfish and figure out a pseudo-FAT time. There was no puff of smoke to work from.
200m- time?
I had lane 4, which was a great draw for me. I got out OK, and felt relaxed hitting the turn. There was one guy about two feet in front of me and I was fairly sure I could pick him up down the straightaway, but I don’t think I kicked it into overdrive properly. Still, probably better that than overpushing and tying up like I did in June. I didn’t get my time at the finish line, and didn’t bug them about it as I expected the times to be posted the next day. Well, they still haven’t been!
100m- time?
I was one of the only people with blocks, and I got out like a sack of potatoes. The same guy from the 200m had a metre on me by 20m, which is ridiculous as he was blockless. I got going fairly well by 50m, but at 70m I kicked my opposite knee while stepping over (wtf?) and it disrupted my rythmn a bit, but I came second behind the same guy from the 200m race. I need to to beat that dude next meet! I don’t know what time I ran, but it couldn’t have been too great, there were too many technical errors.
Overall, I’m happy with the way I ran the 200m. I think that energy was expended efficiently, but my start is not aggressive or powerful. My acceleration phase is truly a disaster out of the blocks. I’m not pushing with any aggressiveness, and it feels like the acceleration is rushed and I’m coming up too early. We can work on this stuff in next week’s practices before I head to Colorado for the State Games July 31st - August 1st.
Saturday, July 24th- Hyde Park Gym
Tempo session:
bike tempo
2x10x45s on, calisthenics in between
abs
I got a good sweat going from this session. I haven’t been able to get in too many tempo sessions on the track of late, and that needs to change. I should at least get one 1600m session and one 1000m session a week, and mix in a bike session if I can.
Sunday, July 25th
Therapy session:
I got some therapy on my calves and hamstrings, and some deeper ART on the glutes again, and a bit on the feet.
Monday, July 26th- Austin High School
Speed session:
warmup
build-ups- 1x10, 1x20, 1x30 flats
sled pulls- 4x20m on grass
4x30m spikes
This was the first time in a while doing sled pulls. The coach is trying to get me to feel more comfortable driving straight down at the correct acceleration angle. I tend to place my foot ahead of my centre of gravity.
The first couple 30’s on the track were shaky, as my first step was more of an exaggerated lunge, but I got it sorted in the last two reps. I came out with more force and stepped down properly, which allowed me to accelerate nicely and with less effort.
Weights:
We headed to a local weight room where I did Smith machine squats where he had me touch the bench with my butt to ensure I went down to 90 degrees depth. The two sets at 225 were not that hard, though I stalled a bit at the bottom as I’m not used to going parallel.
Squats-
1x8x135 warmup
2x6x225 work
Parallel jump squats-
4x6 (25 lb dumbbells)
I hadn’t done these to parallel before, usually in Toronto we do 3/4 squat jumps in between sets of trap bar deadlifts
Bench press-
1x8x135 warmup
2x6x205 work (Smith machine, so not a true 205)
1/2 Hammer motion with weight plate-
3x10x35lbs
Wednesday, July 28
Therapy session:
I had a friend visit from San Antonio on Tuesday, so I had to either a) appear to be an inhospitable asshole or b) blow off my tempo workout. I chose the latter.
I got some therapy on Wednesday for about an hour. This work was less deep as my meet was coming up in a few days, and there was a short speed session scheduled for Thursday.
Thursday, July 28
Speed workout:
warmup
buildups- 1x10, 1x20, 1x30 flats, 2x20, 1x30 spikes
3x30m accelerations on straight from rolling start
2x10, 2x20, 3x30 accelerations from 200m start on curve
This was a really a great session. It was my first time in the blocks in a while, and Frank tweaked my block position a little bit, and it helped get excess pressure off my hands. I still only pushed out with one leg at first, but got it sorted on the next few reps and had a few really good efficient accels out to 30m and beyond on the curve. He got me to stop rushing my first few steps and get full extension on each stride. I finally could feel how much faster I could be running if I got my start sorted out. It just sets up the rest of the race so much better!
Anyway, I felt good going into my weekend travel to Colorado for the State Games meet in Colorado Springs on Sunday.
Rocky Mountain State Games:
So instead of going to USA Masters in Sacramento because they said my mailed application arrived one day late and they wanted to charge me $50 extra (I couldn’t enter online because I’m Canadian). I told them no thanks, and don’t enter me. They charged my Visa anyway.
I flew to Denver today, and bussed it down to Colorado Springs. This is not the place to be taking public transit- it doesn’t run on weekends! WTF? I had some tightness in the hamstrings from yesterday’s workout, but I was so tired I didn’t manage even a hot-cold shower.
I went out to the track on Saturday to warm up and do a couple of strides. There was a blistering headwind flying straight down the 100m straight, which sucked. I talked to one of the officials, and they said there were stiff headwinds all day. Uh oh- I didn’t travel like 700 miles to run into a ridiculous headwind. I emailed the meet director and asked if they would turn it around if the wind was stiff. At least maybe they’ll consider it.
Sunday, August 1st
Meet:
100m: 12.89
The conditions were perfect. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good start. It felt like all my other 100m races this year. I come out, pop up way too early, and basically am never able to hit top speed because my acceleration just gets cut off. Today, I came out and when I looked up, to my great surprise there were still 70m to go! Shit.
200m: 25.64
Well at least I managed to run 0.25 faster than my last FAT timed 200m on July 10th. This was by no means a well run race. I popped up on the start, but chugged around the curve and had a bit of a battle going with the guy in lane 5, but he slipped away. I ran ugly for the last 80m or so, but still managed a season best. I mean honestly, I was almost certain that I’d run a new season’s worst time based on my form.
This race really made me feel I can break 25.00 FAT with a cleaned up start. I burned way too much energy going nowhere in the first 40 metres. If I could get that sorted, it would help a lot. Overall, I’m glad I came out here. The meet was exceptionally well run, and the track was in ace condition. I’m not going to lie though, this is a pretty boring town!
Monday, August 2nd- Marriott Colorado Springs
Pool tempo:
I spent a few minutes in the hot tub (or should I say warm tub- the temperature maxes at 102 degrees F). Then it was time for some pool tempo. I had to adjust it a little bit due to the altitude.
3x5x45sec+15sec rest (+1 min between sets)
I was going to do a CF medball circuit, but blew it off. It was pretty good that I got the pool work in today. I’m heading back to Austin tonight and going STRAIGHT to the bar. Four days in Colorado Springs is three days too many! The muscles are feeling pretty good though.
lr400 asked about the hot weather warmup that we’ve been doing, so I wrote down below what it usually involves. I don’t think I’m giving up any state secrets here. It’s pretty similar to the CF warmup without as much movement. Notably, the upper body activation stuff is done standing still.
The optional stuff is in brackets. I will try to do a quick video of the upper body activation stuff, it’s nothing unusual I just don’t know the names of some of the movements.
Warmup
foam roll lightly on back, glutes, hamstrings, calves, shins (controversial- comments appreciated!)
upper body activation
skips for 20m each with jog back:
forward skip
side hops left + right
backward skip
lower body activation:
leg swings 10 front left + right
leg swings 10 side to side left + right
hurdle walkovers 5 forward + 5 back, left + right
(hip activation on ground, face up, swing legs 5 left + right, face down swing legs 5 left + right)
glute activation- hold fence at 45 degree body angle, lift foot, dorsiflex, contract glute, hold for count of 3 seconds x 3 left + right
skips for 20 m each with jog back:
2x skip forward
2x side hops
2x backward
2x A-skip
2x A-run
2x “heel cycles” (Pfaff’s version of Mach’s running B, not a huge fan)
buildups- 10m, 20m, 30m flats, 10m, 20m, 30m spikes
How long does that warmup take? Why don’t you like running B’s?
It doesn’t take that long, maybe 30 or 35 minutes. I’m not used to “heel cycles”, I’m used to the Running B where it’s a bit exaggerated on the front side. It’s just new and I’m never sure if I’m doing it right, and I don’t really see what’s wrong with the Running B in the first place.
Are you talking about fast leg?
I’m not sure, I’ve never heard that term. It starts like a Running A but you pick your heel up, step over, and down. Is that fast leg?
Sounds like fast leg.
Mo, Bolt, Asafa all do that drill.
Shit where have you been, I thought Canadians was suppose to know all the sprint drills? I haven’t seen a athlete perform a running B until I watched CF sprint drill download.
What about TG group?
4x100 accel with 100m walk back
a skip/b skip/a run 3x30
stretch
Workout
Have a hard time believing that’s what they did before speed sessions.
maybe they do a bunch of buildups at the start of the “workout”.
I agree with you, when you see Bolt do 10-14 x 80-100 and Mo and Asafa and Ato do similar you have to wonder.
Thanks for that! I do similar but longer distance, around 50m except for drills.
For that glute activation are you facing the fence and leaning at a 45?
No problem, and yes, facing the fence and leaning at 45 degrees.
What does your warm-up normally look like?