Outdoor high school track started 2 weeks ago and now my daughter is in the hands of her schools coaches.
She is very happy and excited to run with her team mates and really missed running on a team.
Here is a video of her first race of the season.
She is in lane #8, blue uniform. Her official time was 43.09, which out of 6 heats, was the best time overall.
She trained throughout the winter outside in poor, freezing conditions. We were very fortunate to get very little snow.
She ran at an indoor meet February 16, but complained of feeling overwhelmingly Lethargic and Fatigued.
The performance showed something was definitely not right.
On the drive home, she told more… what she should have told me days earlier, and we stopped at the Hospital.
She had a very serious infection.
Her training curtailed for a time as she recovered. After many doctor appointments and trips for lab work, I hope it is finally gone.
At home, 3 days a week are weights, only 2 days if a 2 meet week.
About 2 months ago David McHenry, who is the Nike Oregon Project strength coach, spent a day testing my daughter and put together a 3 day-a-week program for in-between the weight days, to address issues with posterior chain, hip area muscles etc. using yoga ball, stretch bands, etc.
She is due for a re-test, which includes gait analysis, and will upgrade her workout program.
She was in great condition from the 12 week program she finished just before she started school track March 3rd, other than the infection she contracted in mid-February.
The school program does not have much of a speed component.
Just something she will have to accept.
But, now that there are mostly 2 meets per week, her 400m performance should continue to improve.
Rich, congratulations on your daughter’s 400m PR; however, please urge her NOT to accept the fact that her school program is lacking in pure speed volumes. At her age, the odds are in her favor that the plasticity of her transitional fibers is still intact. As a result, it is absolutely imperative that those fibers incur continual exposure to high quality and purely alactic sprint efforts.
As a former high school T&F coach myself, I would be surprised if her coaches were to object to her getting in some pure speed reps before she get’s into what I assume are speed and special endurance reps. Perhaps her willingness to do so would catch on to the other athletes and in short order the overall results of the program will improve.
Are there any other sports in which schol pupils fail to spend some time training at competition pace ? I doubt it, concept seems peculiar to some athletics coaches. Wingers never run flat out with the ball, pitchers/fast bowlers bowl slowly …
Accept that not every session can be at high intensity and many sports use low intensity to work on technical skills.
In the cae of school sprinters they are likely to only train as a group say twice a week. Should use them to focus on the most critical aspects of their training. Likely they will get general fitness from time spent on secondary sports and life in general.
She invests her whole year in training and I do my best to make sure it’s not in vain.
She did do well in her League meet last night, placed 1st in all 4 events, which included 2 relays, ran 12.9 in the 100m and a PR in the 200m of 26.27.
She has a meet on Saturday that will include 36 high schools so it should be fun.
I do not entirely agree that you need to accept this idea of coaches not doing a proper job of providing sound training methods for speed development.
I do not feel it’s coaches fault directly as I think it’s very confusing for coaches and athletes and parents to understand what their kids need.
Rich is doing a good job in that he loves his daughter so much he has taken her training on as a project , sought out information that has been based on proven results and is applying it the best way he possibly can.
James I agree that one should not accept the lack of speed in a program but the application of this " want " is a different story all together.
How does one get the coach to do what you want especially when many of us know and understand the information that dominates current coaching standards is confusing, not mainstream and not validated within any unified body. ( For example = having a university , college or post secondary education in phys ed or human kinetics etc hardly defines any persons coaching knowledge)
One of my goals with this site is to keep this information around to spread it to a wide enough audience to generate enough interest that hopefully and eventually people discover better ways, more efficient ways to train smarter with regards to " speed or sprint training".
Today I posted a chart from the " The Structure of Training for Speed" on my twitter account. ( afitmommacoon) . The chart defines Intensity as it pertains to Running Velocity. I have found that coaches, athletes or anyone I speak to about training do not understand the concept of what " high intensity" training is.
I am not sure I would have either but I have experienced it for myself .
Before training properly I was doing medium work CONSTANTLY. My favorite was 5,4,3 ,2 100 meter breakdowns x 2 with walk back recovery and maybe 5 or 10 min between the sets… this was in first year university. No therapy at all, not sleeping much, my eating sucked and I was 20 pounds over weight… And I gained weight doing this work instead of losing weight.
I got slower and slower and slower.
Had I not questioned that over and over and become extremely frustrated I would never have been driven to look somewhere else for the answers.
Post 1988 after meeting Charlie many of my training sessions contained numberous 10 meter speed sections. THen if they were good we might go to 20 meters and then if that was good I would go to 30 meters. Rarely , if ever did my speed sessions begin with 30 meters right away. ( right away meaning the first thing I did after my one hour warm up).
Well, as you know Angela, much of the problem lies in the unified bodies themselves spreading misinformation coupled with the gerontocracy and nepotism that permeates the coaching world- to name only one profession.
As I favor reducing problems down to the basal level, thereby obviating room for debate, I simply encourage others to do the same. In so doing, the diagnostics of solving the problem of sprint training invariably lead one to draw the conclusion that pure, alactic, speed work must be part of the solution.
Granted, you have the Michael Johnson’s of the world who set world records off of what is essentially a linear model of special endurance; however, let’s not forget his 10.09PB in the 100m in 94. Had he not possessed that sort of innate speed I cannot conceive of him accomplishing what he did.
In my experience, I’ll take someone who stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night over any number of post graduate degrees or certifications.
Rich,
I know you are not interesting in hurdles but I thought you might like to see this for interest.
April 25th 1995 ( omg that was 20 years ago)
warm up went well
I felt great
workout was good
( the better my training was the less comments I made. I find this funny… in other words … when the training was okay I was doing a fair bit of talking ( to myself) or talking crap or shit which I see now but did not necessarily see then)
My typical warm up was almost always the same my entire career 5 to 6 days a week.
jog 10 min very slow ( maybe less if it was very very hot)
a series of back and forths with backward arm circles, grapevine, side skip , tripling usually done over 100 meters with shaking back.
For example
side skip down 100 meters and shake back
backward arm cirlces down 100 meters shake back
Yeah, charles loved the shaking stuff but I tell you it’s very effective as it’s meant to keep you relaxed and loose
Usually we might do some exercises at one end only where we set up our stuff ( towels, spikes, water that sort of stuff)
The tighter you are the more stuff you need to do, the colder it was the more stuff you needed to do
the closer to competition you did less as your warmup was generally easier but if competition was earlier in the season I might do more.
===================
Speed work =
4 x 10 meters
.90
.90
.90
.88 ( august of the summer 1995 i hit my pb at this distance .74)
rest would have been a slow , easy walk back and then repeat run
before doing 30 meters I would have timed the break , stretched and put tights on and kept warm / break would have been less than 5 min )
2 x 30 meters
3.28 over 30 meters wtih Charlie timing hand
rest would have been 3 to 4 minutes but not much more or less
3.21
===================================
Rest before doing starts ~ 5 minutes / shaking legs, stretching , off my feet / water
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5 x 10 meter starts one after another but not rushed
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5 sets of 5 steps x 5 hurdles ( likely this workout was entirely outside although it’s typical in Toronto Canada to be about less than 10 degress C or 50 F /
( this would be with sweats on , tights on and more clothes to stay warm adn fairly continuous meaning I would walk back and then repeat until I was ready to go fast over smaller number of hurdles)
==========================================================================
Small stretch break and water break before preparing to do speed with hurdles from blocks / self start but timed by CF
============================================================================
2 x 1 hurdle
1.78 into wind ( @ york is was tough to turn everything around because of where the hurdles were stored but generally speaking if and when we could we ALWAYS trained with the wind and not into the wind)
77
( there would not have been much break between these reps)
=============================================================================
1 x 2h ( 2. 90)
1 x 3h ( 3.99)
1 x 4 h ( 4:98)
( more break would have been taken as more hurdles were added = walk back, stretch,)
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up to 5 min or more before doing 2 x 100 meters = we would have walked across the field to run with the wind to do these runs. Charlie would never run into the wind if he did not have to and without hurdles you can easily turn the runs around. York Track official start line for 100 meters is on the West end so the track actually runs with our prevailing winds coming from the west yet the wind often swirls at York and gusts in the spring especially)
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11.32 ( hand timed into the wind)
10 to 15 rest I usually took the max rest
Bench
10@ 45lbs ( bar)
10 @ 65lbs
6@ 85lbs
4 @ 95lbs
2 @ 105lbs
1 @ 115lbs ( a bit of a stall but I got it)
( rest between sets would be 2 to 4 minutes with stretching in between)
Angela, thank you for the great insight into some of your previous workouts, I really do appreciate would love to see more, and video too!
As for the hurdles, my daughter is 5’1" and has ran the 300h once earlier this year (49.24 FAT), actually the only time ever, did well for her first time, but obviously has to make an extra vertical effort to clear.
…An update on the meet I mentioned in my last post…
K had another PR in the 400m, over 1 full second!
A cold, in low 50’s, windy and overcast/light rain, day.
She is in lane #6, red top, blue shorts and ran 58.20:
She planned on pacing the girl in lane #4, as that girl has the fastest overall time and placed second at the State Championships last year… the girl who came out first in lane #5, K ‘thought’, had a similar time as herself (actually was in low 58’s) and K assumed the girl went out too fast and was going to die in the last 100… but the girl ended up winning…
K thought at first that she did not do well, as she said when she crossed the finish line, she was not tired at all and was not even that winded… especially compared to her PR the week before… she said she then felt disappointed that she let the girl in lane 5 get so far ahead, as she felt she could have kept up with her and won.
I told her that what she did was already a huge gain and to just enjoy her accomplishment… she is so competitive.
The poor girl that won was totally spent… could not get up from the track and had to be helped off.
Wow Rich - that 58.20 race looked fantastic for her. I don’t recall her looking that smooth in the last 50m yet. From my experience with HS girls running the 400, she might have trouble improving on that performance for a while.
THe one thing that I noticed is your daughter looked even and smooth and just went out and ran her race. Make sure she is getting enough rest and make sure she is sleeping properly , eating well and feeling like eating and able to focus and concentrate. If you notice any issue with any of these things back off the training.
[QUOTE=rich121;249700]Angela, thank you for the great insight into some of your previous workouts, I really do appreciate would love to see more, and video too!
You are welcome Rich. Video? I have virtually no video of my entire career. I have a few tapes and we will see if I get up the nerve to ever post them. Likely I will as it’s useful to show and tell if it helps someone. Charlie and I allowed Al to do a great deal of video taping and I have asked him for the material but not been able to watch any of it…yet.
April 26th Wednesday 1995
I was in California / I took the day off
Went to visit a supplement company that was giving us free supplements at the time. This company has changed ownership since then but I liked about this company was many of their products were in powder form.
April 27th 1995
My digestion was off but otherwise I felt good.
My right leg hip flexor has still been tight but it always seems to warm up eventually. ( Early on when I got tight I thought that was the end of the workout. As I got more experienced I learned to stop reacting to tightness and most of time things worked themselves out. I want to point out that I was doing everything needed and possible to training every day. I had routine massage, I got yelled at for not doing water therapy ,eating right and staying off my feet…)
4x 10 meters
.90
.90
.88
.80
========================
4 x 30 meters
27
missed the time
40
3.38
( lossed my concentration in the 30’s , mostly because I’ve been feeling a little annoyed with training … the wind was blowing me everywhere)
If I could have changed one thing about me at that time it would have been to RELAX more. The intensity I always had has served me well in my life but that trait can be a challanging one and it was for me. Fortunately Charlie was more than used to this but I have to say it’s not flattering looking back)
========================
2 x 80 meters
9.09
rest would have been under 10 minutes as I did not log it in my book
8.94 ( CF said it is a Pb!)
Again I did not log my rest here but it would have been 10 to 12 min before doing next run
1 x 100 meter
11.29
Weights =
Bench
Squats
Abs
Friday
Gym only ( I was either trashed or it was raining / I have made a note that I was " blasted and starving"
Pulls ( would have been arm pulls)
Pull downs ( we did the pull downs behind the neck always)
Abs ( I could do abs unlike most / one reason is females can out do males in the ab department and I have narrow hips and I did a ton of them )
Back ups
upright row
BLASTED and STARving!
April 29th 1995 Saturday ( notice I took Wednesday off as Tuesday went very well. Thursday went well and Friday I only lifted and it would not have been a lot of lifing and then Saturday was another fairly big day. I started training seriously again in 1991 after wanting to train in 1988 / at some point I will need to post more of what I did in 1991 around the same time frame)
3.26
( " I feel like I have been having trouble concentrating … Why? Just relax Ange, nothing to do - just stay cool". = yeah, that is me talking to myself
=====================
6 x 10 meter starts blocks ( did them with * Daryl , he false started twice )
( hungry / have to start eating more, that is why I’m loosing concentration ) = Looking back I had a lot of issues and trouble stabilizing my blood sugar and we were not very strategic on this aspect as much as I could have been. I ate well but our understanding was not great as I see now.
4 x 1 hurdle
1.75
73
71
I only logged 3
1 x 2h
2.92
1 x 3h
96
3 x 100 meter hurdles
12.85
12.56
12.60
( I did not record the breaks but they would have been 10 to 12 /15 each min before next run)
==========================
Sunday = gym very tired ( no details logged so I would not have done much)
She is eating very healthy. Once a week, about 4 days before her race I will make 2 quarts of organic swiss chard/kale/carrot/apple/celery juice with my vertical auger type juicer. Each day up to the meet she drinks about 10 oz, including the next day. Then, she goes 2 days without juice.
Each day I add 3 tablespoons of hemp seed and the same of chia seed to whatever she is eating that day. She also takes supplemental protein powder.
K is very focused and serious about training, and even more serious at race time. Especially now, since she is seeing the results of all he work she put in last winter.
She told me at the last race, the girl that she was focused on beating kept talking to her while getting ready for her heat… she said she finally just had to ‘tuner her out’, as she said she needed to focus on her race.
The sleep part has been somewhat of an issue for awhile, as I have trouble getting her to get any more than 7.5 - 8 hours sleep… If she goes to bed before 10pm, she ends up getting up before 6am…
She does take a nap after school a couple days each week, though.
And again, thank you so much for including another workout…
I do hope that you put together your video, as I am one who needs as much visual as possible, and I’m sure it would be a great tool in understanding concepts.
