Nice grass…
in pic 1 there is no dorsiflex?
It was very lush, well watered for this event.
I didn’t notice the lack of dorsiflexion. Thanks 
Now I will need to look at more photos to see if it happen in the whole race/day/all the time.
We made a late decision, actually before lunch yesterday, to compete today. Glad we did, good conditions 25 degrees celsius and around 1m/s tail winds
100m - 12.09
400m - 53.52
Both small personal bests, even though he competed on Sunday, Monday and did a full sprints session on Thursday.
great to see pb’s
One thing
Most runners should eaily do 4x100+5s.
How come the 400 is relative slow for him?
I know 1 guy who has also a relative slow 400 but he’s running really tight(not relaxed)
Actually not totally happy with how he ran the 400, went through first 200 too slow. He was in a heat that had runners ranging 47 to 55 sec range, he was in the outside lane with the athletes in lane 4, 5, 6 being 51, 49, 47, so he got spooked when they went past him in the first 100m
His 200m time is a lot slower than it should be - 24.70.
I am not sure if he is relative slow for his 100m, but I understand what you are saying. I suspect the loss of 8 weeks of speed work is behind the lag, as we have only really started special endurance work the past few weeks. At least special endurance other than racing.
Training has been going well.
Tonights session was
1 x 350m, full recovery, then 1 x 60, 50, 40 with walk back recovery
His times was as follows
350 = 45
60 = 7.8
50 = 6.7
40 = 5.6
Hand time off first foot contact.
I am figuring that he should be able to run 52.5 in the 400m
Race yesterday in 25 degrees Celsius in the 200 and 400.
Run the 200 in a small personal best of 24.64 (improvement of .06) and about 90 minutes later back up for a 400m and 54.02 (PB is 53.63). A couple of technical issues, one is the dorsi flexion noted above by someone. Just didn’t have it in the 400, maybe still fatigued from 200?
Reason he ran the 200 first, is he seems to run better in the 2nd effort of the day. I would have prefer him to run the 100 but that was 30 minutes before the 400.
Tonight’s planned session was a specific endurance session of 2 x 2 x 200m with 1st rep of 25.0 and second rep of 27.0, with 2 minutes rest between reps and full recovery between sets.
The only adjustment made to the above session was the pacing, I made it 25.5 and 27.5.
Set 1: 25.6 + 27.2
Set 2: 26.0 + 26.5
Recovery between sets was ultimately around 20 minutes
Looks like your guy is doing very well.
His 200/400 difference is good .
24.64*2+4.5=53.78 potential(MJ hass the same difference)
I know a guy who ran 22.40 and 47.80. But most guys are around +4.5/5 second from the 2x200pb.
Looking at competition times and training times I would work more on speed and only do specific work on competitions, because specific 400 ‘work’ look okay but thats just imho.
Thanks Pindaman.
Yeah I think he has reached his limit for speed this season, and I think I may have worked the specific endurance side too much. Although an improvement of nearly 2 seconds from the previosu seasons personal best isn’t too bad.
So your season is almost ended?
Weird, I am just starting gpp2 with 3x4x150
Well living in the Southern Hemisphere does that to you. Yeah we have about 5 weeks to State Championships (which he will run in a relay), and he has about 2 (maybe 3) comp before then with a focus on 400m
My athlete has been having issues with achilles issues. Relates more to an old injury, so have been nursing him along. Trying to get him to have regular massages, but bwteen his work, uni and family it is difficult. My partner is a massage therapist, so he gets one at least once a fortnight. He also is self massaging and foam rolling consistently.
The four weeks are in essence competition every week.
So training looks something like this
Week 1
Monday - 4 x 30m and 1 x 80m @95% followed by 4 sets of weights around 75%
Tuesday - 10 x 100m tempos
Wednesday - off
Thursday - Warm Up only
Friday - Off
Saturday - 400 and 4 x 200 (State Championships)
Sunday - Massage
Week 2
Monday - 4 x 30m,1 x 80m, 1 x 100, and 1 x 120m followed by 4 sets of weights around 75%
Tuesday - 10 x 100m tempos
Wednesday - off
Thursday - 4 x 30m and 1 x 80m @95% followed by 4 sets of weights around 75%
Friday - Off
Saturday - Competition - not sure what distance but there is a 200, 400 and 100 on
Sunday - Massage
Week 3
Monday - 4 x 30m,1 x 80m, 1 x 100, and 1 x 120m followed by 4 sets of weights around 75%
Tuesday - 10 x 100m tempos
Wednesday - off
Thursday - Warm Up only
Friday - Off
Saturday - 400m
Sunday - Massage
Week 4
Monday - 4 x 30m,1 x 80m, 1 x 100, and 1 x 120m followed by 4 sets of weights around 75%
Tuesday - 10 x 100m Tempo
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - Competition Warm Up
Friday - Off
Saturday - Off
Sunday - State Championships 200m and 4 x 400m - note he is unlikely to have more than 2 races.
Competed in a state competition, I was slightly disappointed in his 400m time of 54.42. His training partner got small personal bests in the 100 and 200m. They both competed in the 4 x 200m and run okay.
Issues I took out of the competition
- Spent 3+ hours watching the competition before he had a chance to compete
- Most people seemed to be half a second slower than previous weeks (about 0.1-0.2 seconds in 100m)
- Wind seemed all over the place, although in the 100 and 200 wasn’t that strong.
I think the biggest issue was point 1 for a number of reasons. Over thought the race, got over aroused, and spent too much time at the track in the heat was around 30 degrees Celsius (86F) - even though he spent most of the time in the shade laying on a towel
Since the last competition the athlete trained brilliantly. We have been emphasising relaxing at speed, which took a little while to get the hang of it. As with most athletes he is at his best when doing this, just struggles with the concept.
Unfortunately he hurt his lower riding his bike to Uni, had sciatic pain and couldn’t walk (but managed to ride home). Iced for 2 days, and has been adding heat and foam rolling into the picture. Got a quick massage on Saturday and everything is pretty tight (took minimal pressure on hip flexors without jumping)
2 Weeks to state champs, was looking at doing a 400 this weekend and then the 200 and 4 x 400 at the state championship. Thoughts?
Tonight was the last hard training session prior to the State Championships.
Thursday (tonight) - 2 x 60, 6 minutes, 1 x 150, 1 x 300. Incomplete recovery between 150 + 300
Friday - Easy running session no more than 10 minutes
Saturday - Off
Sunday - Massage
Monday - 4 x 30 + 1 x 80 at 95%
Tuesday - 6 x 100 tempo
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - Competition Warm Ups
Friday and Saturday - off (family wedding)
Sunday - state championship 200m and 4 x 400m (unlikely to make final, so two runs about 5 hours apart)
After the 200, will send the athlete home and get them back up to track an hour before the relay
Just got home from the last day of the championships.
Today we had the 200 heats, 200 final, and 4 x 400 relay. We expected only to have the 200 heat, and relay. There was 14 athletes down to run, and my athlete was 13 fastest. Well this morning only 10 entered the heats.
The heat was at 9.50am, we had a downpour for 20 minutes prior to the race (athlete also had family wedding the night before). He came 5th in heat 2, and was 8th fastest and qualified for final as 2 fastest non automatic. His heat time was 24.94 (pb=24.64)
The final was 4 hours later, the rain had gone but was replaced by wind gusts of 75km/h blowing directly into the first bend. Ultimately he came 8th and his time 25.02. Most of the field was 0.8 seconds off their bests.
3 hours later the athlete started for the club in the 4 x 4, and went through the first 200 in 25 point. Into the home straight he had a brain freeze and started to move from lane 6 into lane 4 before he realised and moved back into his lane. He run around 54 even after losing time, but managed to pass the baton first (he run against 52 runners). The rest of the team managed to hang on for a bronze against teams whose runners where all faster than than most of our team.
This week we did my version of Charlie’s 10 day peak, and I think it worked well.
From a performance point of view, the athletes 100 and 200 didn’t improve as much as I would have liked but I think that had more to do with losing 8 weeks of speed based session due to none training injuries. His 400m improved by just over 2 seconds.
What are your short and longer term goals for your athlete’s DMA?
The season just finished goal was to run 53 point in the 400, and sub 12 and 24 in the 200. Achieved the first but not the second and third goals - he never seemed to race these as well as his training suggested. I need to review what we did or didn’t do.
Next season, which I am in planning for at them moment, hoping his 400 goes 52, 200 goes 24, and 100 sub 12 - will be focusing on 200 speed.
Longer term, I see the athlete moving to 400-800 as he is probably more suited to middle distance. I think he is capable of being a better 800 runner.
A brief outline on problems with this season.
Spent about 8 weeks in the first SPP phase not being able to high quality work, whether this was maximum speed or specific work, due to silly injuries happening outside of training.
Probably over raced, due to his personality - very intense and a perfectionist.
Coach probably over trained him, and wasn’t strict enough with training I couldn’t attend.
Positive run over 2 seconds faster in the 400 than the season before
Made his first ever State championship final (the day after a family wedding)
Won a bronze medal in the 4 x 400 with his club and was the fastest runner out of first leg runners.
Successful season, but I can improve on things as his coach.
Once I get to sit down and plot out the next season
Just in process of organising training outline.
Period One
2 weeks Rest
2 weeks Transition training (basically 3 or 4 days of doing something)
2 weeks of structure training - where they have options in what training they can do. The closer it is to specific conditioning the less sessions they have to do
8 weeks in GPP training. Use sleds, medicine balls and general conditioning resistance sessions.
16 weeks in SPP. Main aim is to develop speed in one session, and speed endurance (specific endurance) with hills.
3 weeks of competition preparation (training from hills to another track session happens here)
2 weeks of competition with focus on 100 and 200
Phase 2
1 Week Transition
2 weeks GPP
10 weeks SPP
2 weeks Comp Prep
4 weeks Competition (focus 400 and 200)