Determined To Recover

Yep. I have one. I haven’t used it since I was injured though

Friday 4/6/07

I had to take some days off to tend to business but today I picked up from my last session. This time, for my second 300 I decided to break it into a split run of 2-150’s with 30 seconds rest between. Very windy today.

300-- 53.6 walked 300
200-- 34.1 walked 200
150-- 22.6 waked 100
100-- 16.1
6 minute rest.
150-- 23.1 (30 seconds) 150–23.0
200-- 34.0
150-- 22.4
100-- 15.9

Monday 4/9/07

Not so Agile Agility Drills.
Continuing to improve knee strength. I’m happy with my progress here as well. Most times I don’t bother to add these to my journal but I’ve backed off to performing these drill only once a week instead of twice or three times per.

Tuesday 4/10/27
Yeah! My fat ass was able to complete the workout today without splitting my 300 into 150’s. Like I mentioned, the last time I tried that third 300 I literally shut down at 240 meters. Also, I shortened my walk back. The time are obviously very pedestrian but it’s progress never the less.

300-- 51.0 (walked 200- was 300)
200-- 34.2 (walked 150- was 200)
150-- 21.2 (rested 1 minute)
100-- 15.4
(walked a lap: about 6 minutes)
300-- 52.4
200-- 34.4
150-- 21.5
100-- 15.5
(walked lap. about 8 minute)
300-- 57.0
200-- 35.0 right knee-tracking started to weaken
150-- slowed to a jog midway
100-- jogged.

I ran into a guy who remembered seeing me in those braces walking about the gym like Frankenstein not long ago. Turns out he is an othapedic surgeon. He thought I was doing exceptionally well. That was a boost.

Wednesday 4/11/07

during my warmup I knew that most likely I would not be doing much running, if at all this day. My lower legs were pretty spent. So I decided to extend the warmup by a few reps and used it as my workout. Then I headed to the gym to ride the bike.

Thursday 4/12/07
Warmup: As it’s been so far
Session: 4 x 200
1st: 28.4 (3.5 minute walk back)
2nd: 28.2
3rd: 29.4 (4.5 minute walk back)
4th: 28.5

At that pace 800 meters of work is about all my knees can stand. It’s not a pain issue at all though. What happens is my right patella begins to not track properly. When it starts to go south depends on the intensity of the session. But I haven’t yet figured out exactly what is happening inside that causes the poor tracking. Maybe it’s the quad muscles tiring. Maybe once my feet, shins and calves begin to fatigue there is less rebound so more stress is placed on the quads, which are the weakest link actually.

Tuesday 4/24/2004
Back from Nebraska and damn happy to be back in Cali. Certainly some would say it’s typical arrogance when you hear an American saying that the US is the best country on the planet. But if it were true then for sure California is to the USA what the USA is to the rest of the world. Paris Hilton may be a complete moron (Though hotter than shit and rich) but she got it right when she said besides California and the New York area the rest of the country pretty much sucks ass in one way or another. Sorry. This is supposed to be a training log.

Wasn’t able to do any training while in Big Red Country. So today was my first day back.
Session: 3 x 200; 3 x 150
1st: 28.0
2nd 28.1
3rd: 27.4
1st: 19.5
2nd: 19.6
3rd: N/A

Can’t go wrong with California! Gotta love it.

Amen WRCortese5…
4/26/2007
The knees were a little sore from Tuesday so I decided to do tempo on the treadmill instead of riding the bike, which is what I would do if my knees were kinda sore. Turned out to be a good idea. My conditioning is still coming along but I feel like riding the bike, besides helping my knees recover, really only addresses body fat. I need to be functionally conditioned not just LOOK like I am getting in shape. Though at the moment I still look like a truck. I’d never done a tempo session on a treadmill so I took some ideas after seaching past posts… This is what I set up for myself. Being conservative, I didn’t crank the treadmill all the way up but set the speed at 10.7 (12.0 is max). If anyone has advice as for what I should change, fire away.

50 strides= 100
100 strides=200
3% incline
30 seconds rest between reps
2 minute belt pause btw sets (push ups and sit ups)
100+100+100+100
200+200+100+100
200+200+200+100
100+100+100
It is the next day and my knees feel pretty much like they’d feel had I rode the bike. I take that as progress considering that they had to work- even if it was on a treadmill

Thursday 4/26/2007

Repeated tempo session but ended session when right shin/ankle started to tighten. Self massaged both legs.

Friday 2/28/2007: Off
Went to gym and rode the bike for 45 minutes. I’ll see how my shin feels during Saturday warm up. On second thought, I think I’ll wait for Sunday instead.

Until they covered you over with dirt; Faster, Further and Higher

Sunday 4/29/2007

Well today started diving onto the pole valt mat and duing runs up an incline. The dives weren’t paticularly exposive but enough to get triple extension. I’d describe them as light dives onto the mat. It was good work for both my knees and my quads. As for the incline runs, I keep the distance to 10 meters and 20 reps total. To give both knees work, I pushed off with each leg for 10 sets each. Then I headed to the gym for some leg presses and reverse presses for the Hams.

Monday 4/30/2007

Tempo on the treadmill (due to track meet)
50 seps=100 meters approx.
100 seps= 200 meters approx.
30 sec rest/ rep- 2 min pause for abs/pshups
100+100+100+100- abs and push ups
200+200+100+100- abs and push ups
200+200+200+100- abs and push ups
100+100+100+100- abs and push ups
Med Ball

Tuesday 5/1/2007

3 x 5 Dives onto mat.
Explosive Med Ball Throws
Overhead and Behind:
2 x 6 Reps
From the Chest:
2 x 6 Reps

Wednesday and Thursday 5/2 & 5/3
Poor weather and slight calf strain has reduced training to tempo on the treadmill. That’s cool; my chuncky *ss could use the fitness work anyway. I should be good to go Sunday… I need more ZMA. Not getting a deep sleep ever since I ran out more that a week ago.

Wow, It’s been a month since my last entry. I’ve been preoccupied with finding a new job since becoming a down-sizing casualty. Anyway my progress has been going well. I started to do very light dead lifts 2 weeks ago (only 2 sets of 10). Doc said that I could start very light squating and I have done a set or 2 here and there but performing the dead lifts feels way better on the knees. As far as change of direction drill goes, I am increasing the speed and intensity of those as well and so far, so good. I am also able to perform starts from the ground and 10 meter hill work. Neither are very intense right now but it’s still one more climb up the intensity latter. I expect that come October I will be able to do an actual GGP so starting this week my plan is to prepare for October by doing a series of 3 week GGPs of increasing intensity. I hope I’m making sense.

Hey all. Well these past several weeks have went very well I should say. My knees have improved greatly, thanks to the progessive hill work and plyos onto the high jump mat. My fitness is improving and I’m confident that I’ll be good to go come October. Recently, this track coach who had been training his team (youth to adult) on the same track introduced himself. Apparently he’d been watching me and noting my progress over the time. Turns out one of his athletes is Clement Chukwu, who was a member of Nigeria’s silver metal 4x4 relay team in Sidney. Anyway, he envited me to run with his group whenever I wanted so obviously I took him up on the offer. It’s been both a blessing and a curse as I finally have guys to run with and can feed off the kids’ energy BUT NOW I can’t cheat. I am posting my workouts to get caught up…

6/6 Wed
Light Plyo (Leaps onto mat) 6 reps-3 sets
One set is done from standing; the other set done from a deep squated position
Hill work:
10x10 m

6/7 Thurs
Treadmill:
100-100-100-100
200+100+100+100
200+200+200+100
100+100+100

6/8 Fri
Cone Drills
2 x 100 meter back peddal and turn hips drill

6/9 Sat
Treadmill (same as above)

6/10 Sun OFF

6/11 Mon
Light Plyo Leaps
6 reps x 3 sets
Hill Work:
5 x 10 m; 5 x 20 m

6/12 Tues
Just rode the bike for an hour while talking with the fellas

6/13 Wed
Cone Drills
2 x 100 meter back peddal and turns

6/14 Thurs
Treadmill Tempo
" I should be outside. I’m being lazy, knowing that running on this thing is much easier."

6/15 Fri
5 x 200 m. (32 seconds) specific rest period not enforced

6/16 Sat OFF
6/17 Sun OFF

6/18 Mon
Cone Drills
2 x 200 m (32 sec) Walk back

6/19 Tues
Bike

6/20 Wed
Plyos- I leaped with as much force as I could
4 reps-3 sets (rest 5 minutes and repeat)
Hill Work:
10 x 10 m; 5 x 20 m

6/21 Thurs
Tempo (on track)
" OK I need to never do the treadmill again unless I have no choice. This is so much harder and I didn’t even do the pushups/situps between sets! If you plan to get healthy then stop fucking around!!!"

6/22 Fri
Cone Drill
1 x 300 m (52 sec)
“Maybe this is the best my knees will ever feel and I’m just fooling myself…”

6/23 Sat OFF

6/24 Sun
Tempo: 10 x 100 m

quote:
This should be an interesting journal chronicling my attempt to proving wrong my doctor’s opinion that most likely I’d never run very fast again

Ten different doctors told me I would never run again.

I had a serious MCL injury, two visible bone spurs in each foot (seen on xray), painfull enough that couldnt put pressure on my foot at all, a complely torn hamstring, and tendonitis in the other knee. And if that wasn’t enough a severely reoccuring injury in my ankle. It was loose and hypermoblile and pain ran from my ankle to my big foot!

That was 2002. In December 2006, after four years of continous therapy, at six week intervals for over four years of prolotherapy, God knows how many injections I had over that time period. It was easily in thousands. I spent at least 15 grand on transportation, appointments, procedures ect. I started seeing major improvements. All of a sudden one foot would’nt hurt. Then the other.

In 2006 I was healed enough to the point where I could actually run a little bit. Mainly light jogging and light ten meter sprints. I still could not push off my foot because of the ankle injury and plyos were still out of the question! My knee’s still hurt but after warming up they weren’t as bad.

In 2007 all my injuries were gone! I could sprint again! The first meet I ran 11.2h 22.8 handtime after five years off of any sprinting. Capped off the season with 11.3 automatic. Anything is possible. Dr.Hausser of chicago and Dr.Greeneberg (works with the Philaphedia Eagles) worked in collaboration to heal all my injuries! Anything is possible. If you exhaust all the routes eventually you will come to the right answer.

-Lionheart

6/25 Mon OFF

6/26 Tues
2 x (4 x 200 m - 35 second)

6/27 Wed
Bike

6/28 Thurs
Plyos:
2 x (8 reps- 2 sets)
Hill Work:
10 x 10m; 10 x 20m; 3 x 30m

6/29 Fri
2 x (4 x 200m - 35 sec. walk back rest)

6/30 Sat
OFF

7/1 Sun
Hill Work:
5 x 10m; 10 x 20m; 6 x 30m

7/2 Mon
2 x (5 x 200m -32-35 sec. 3.5 minute rest)

7/3 Tues OFF

7/4 Wed
2 x (2 x 300m; 2 x 200m) Walk back
300=52 sec
200=32 sec
Rest between cycles was between 10 and 12 minutes

7/5 Thurs
Plyos:
10 reps- 2 sets
Hill Work:
5 x 10m; 10 x 20m; 10 x 30m

7/6 OFF

7/7 Sat
2 x (1 x 300m; 3 x 200m; 1 x 150m)

7/8 Sun
Hill Work:
5 x 10m; 3 x 20m
Track:
2 x 150

7/9 Mon
OFF

7/10 Tues
2 x (1 x 300m; 4 x 200m)
300=51 sec
200=30-31

7/11 Wed
Starts on sport turf (face down)
8 x 10m
I can feel the tension around my knees as I drove out but I wasn’t painfull. Felt pretty good.

1 x 300- 45 sec. (rest 7 minutes)
1 x 300- 46 sec.

7/12 Thurs OFF

7/13 Fri
2 x (1 x 300; 2 x 200) 3.5 min rest/ 10 min rest

7/14 Sat OFF

7/15 Sun
Starts on turf (face down):
5 x 10m; 3 x 20m

1 x 300m- 45 sec (rest 7 min)
1 x 300m- 45 sec Yeah for me!!

7/16 Mon OFF

7/717 Tues (windy conditions today)
It was fairly windy today and my first duce was against the wind. With that, I ran a little harder to hit the 30 second goal I had planned. Well I crossed in 29 second but the effort was too much. I figured with no or little wind I would have crossed in mid 27 sec. So I decided to run with the wind and keep the times within 29 to 29.5. I ended the workout after feeling a slight pulling in my arch coming out of the curve. It’s been several hours now and nothing seems out of sorts with my arch so far.

4 x 200m 29.0; 29.4; 29.1; 29.2
(rest 11 minutes)
2 x 200m 29.1; 29.8 ended session

I took a few days off just to make sure nothing was going on with my arch… But the right hip/glute needs some real work done. Some time ago while doing starts I kinda over extended my right leg. While watching the Fundamentals dvd recently I notice CF tell that guy that he was trying to extending his stride instead of just cocking the foot and stepping down (I’m paraphrasing) anyway I immediately realized that I was doing that exact thing back when I strained my butt. At the time I knew I was doing something different from normal but couldn’t figure out what it was exactly.

7/21 Sat
Tempo:
15 x 100m

7/22 Sun
Power Drills 4 reps; 3 sets
Butt Kick
A’s B’s; Running A’s/B’s
Running B’s hurt my right hip so I stopped immediately.
Straight leg bound
Hill Work:
3 x (5 x 30m) 2.5 btw reps/ 6-7 btw sets

7/223 Mon
Bike and Med Ball in the gym

7/24 Tues

2 x (4 x 200 meters)
3.5 rest/reps; 10 rest/set

Todays projected workout is SE with some 20-30 meter starts.