First Years Training

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1

I finally plucked up the courage to start my own training journal as it’s probably a really good Idea to have, to maintaina order and analysis of what one is doing (damn! One sounded just like the queen).

Well anyway, I trained for the first time (in a serious manner) this year on wednesday, and ended up really sore the next day, almost as if I’d done a really heavy weights session.
Warm up jog and stretched
did 6 accelerations up to 60 mts
2 x 30 metres from standing start timed 4.05 and 3.76 my coach was like yeah, 4.05 is ok, and then after the 3.76 he was like EXCELLENT!!! and really happy
2 x 50 metres from standing start these were much slower 6.40 and 6.14
Did 8 block starts and then cooled down and streched

Friday was my first race of the season, and my first “oficial” race ever it was an indoor 60 mt, I took third in my heat with 7.43, the guys that beat me got 7.37 I think

I was supposed to train today, but because of my re-organization of my house (I’ve spent the last three to four weeks moving and building at the beach house and my new house, so I haven’t had a real opportunity to train) I didn’t go to the track but I’m heading to the track tomorrow morning.

I’ll keep you all posted.

Cheers

Alex Oviedo

2

ok, yesterday I made up for not training on monday, it was a fairly short session with a nice warmup, just jogging around on the grass and watching the kenyans train.

did 2 x 150’s with 15 mins rest in between, not sure about the time on my first one but the second was 18.0x I ran it fast, but I didn’t kill myself meaning I could have gone faster. jogged to cool down and stretched.

In the afternoon I went into the gym and did an easy weights set

3 x 6 1/2 squats with jump with 30 kilos on my back so as to make them nice and explosive.
after this I just did abs and hypers
6x50 abs
6x40 hypers

the hypers were tough, they wasted me…

3

Hey! Como esta todo? Congrats on the new journal, it’s a great way to keep track of and reflect about training.

A friend of mine was in that meet in Santiago and got 2nd place with 6.93 behind Kael Becerra. Omar Grossi, you can’t have missed him, pony tail and looks like a club bouncer.

I’ll be running my first meet of the year next Saturday (March 6).

I look forward to reading about your training in your new journal!

4

Good, thanks for posting Aln, actually I think I did miss him, I didn’t see anyone that looked like that(that I remember that is, maybe he was at the 1st indoor cos there are 3 in february), I didn’t see Kael at the Indoor last friday at all, which is funny cos I really get along with him, I like his humble and easy going nature. Thanks also for the support on my journal, It’s hard to be organized after being disorganized for so long, but hopefully I’ll eventually get it goin’ (bein organized that is).

Ok, on wednesday I trained block starts!!!
Nice easy warmup, 1200 metres at a jogging pace (with my walkman!!! I don’t like training alone, so I’ve started to train with 50 cent, Ludacris, Van Halen, The Darkness and some others, they make great training partners :slight_smile: )

8 x block starts out to 20 metres

Just to play around and see what my system can adjust to I did the first two block starts with the feet switched around, oddly enough It wasn’t uncomfortable, but I switched back to my regular setting to practice for fridays indoor. on my 4th block start after I swithced back, I litteraly “leaped” out of the blocks (at least thats how it felt, my COM was waaaay in front of where it normaly ys, and my lead leg came down and all it could do was apply force, I loved it it felt so…booom, explosive, and it was my fastest (only a perception) and most comfortable 20 on the day

Ok, friday came and my legs didn’t feel completely alright, I don’t really know what it was, whether it was my tendons or ligaments, but my joints felt sore, (it could also have been the start of a cold b’cos I have had a bit of a runny nose the last few days)

I warmed up and eventually I felt ok.

Went up to the line and set my blocks, my practise start was excelent, but my real start was baaaaaarf I reacted really slowly, literally I heard the gun and waited for the others to react and then I came out of the blocks (i just sort of walked out of the blocks) luckily I accelerated faster than the other guys and took the lead, and won in a crappy 7.66 and the guy that came second got 7.68 (it was kinda close) but I loved winning!!! I want MORE!!! (oh, I didn’t specify I only won my heat, and I didn’t qualify for the final, but next time I will!!! :wink: )

I train again on monday at 6:30 at the High Performance Centre (I know I can do better and I will)

I’ll Keep Y’all Posted

Cheers,

Alex

P.S: I couldn’t find my digital camera so I didn’t get any video or photos sorry I’ll try to get some soon.

5

When i train alone ( and it´s almost always ) i used to warm listening some sound too…( 50 Centoo, Bone Crusher, 2Pac, Ja Rule, Outkast, etc…)

When i do Blocks i felt sore in my joints even when i do Speed Work, i guess it´s because of long time without practise running since child.

6

Might be due to a short indoor track. If you have access to an outdoor 400m track, you might be better, especially in the last lanes.

7

Training yesterday was fun, but odd.

Started training at 6:30 pm or thereabouts.

Nice warmup jogged 3-4 times around the short indoor track (255mts) went on to some stretching.

Some race coordination drills, I don’t know what they’re called but basically its raising knees and contacting the ground like you were in the max speed phase, 6 x 30 metres

Starts, yesterday was a starts day I did stacks of them I did 12 starts, the first 5 with my right leg in front, and adjusting block settings then the rest I did with my left leg in front, these seemed to be a little better, it was easier for me to keep the start and the first 20 metres nice and smooth instead of lifting my head and dropping it back down, however for some reason I can’t stay down when coming out of the blocks, I get up faster than I should, not like my block starts the other day.

My coach switched my arm movement as well, instead of my arms just popping up (kinda like bens) he told me to shoot the lead arm forward in a straight line like Mo’s in the front view of the sydney 2000 start.

After this I went on to setting up 6 hurdles at 4 footlengths apart, and on the lowest setting, and hopping over them with my feet together, and after the last one, sprint 10 metres, do this 5 times, then raise the hurdles to the next setting and do 5 more.

After this I did a cool down jog, stretched and went home, ate like a pig!!! We had Gnocci (you know those potato pasta things) with chicken and spaghetti sauce et was delicious, had 2 plates and ate so much chicken!!!

Today I rest, and read and I might do a few tempo runs in the afternoon, and tomorrow I train again.

Finally it seems that I got put on the list at the High Performance Centre to train there permanently which means that I have acces to a wheight room again YAY!!! :smiley:

Cheers, talk to y’all soon

Alex

8

Ok, ends up I didn’t train on wednesday, I ended up training yesterday… speed endurance
Nice easy warmup, some pnf stretching and in the meantime I looked at a very pretty hammer thrower (female).

Went on to do a gut wrenching
150, 200, 300 with 6 minutes rest in between, did it in 18 25 and 47 you can tell by the times that I was wasted for the 300 I just couldnt push anymore out of my body, my muscles wouldn’t contract in the right order, they were wasted, I finished and felt like crap it was amazing, i was light headed for about 30 minutes afterwards

I jogged a bit and tried to recover, recovered and strectched, went home

9

Ok, now I have to sumarise all the training of the week, kinda hard to remember but here goes:

Tuesday was a repeat of last thursdays training, i did a 300 and a 200, the 300, was the real mental test for me, i ran easily the first 100, picked up the pace on the 200 mark and the last 100 I flat out sprinted, and came in at an easy 42, which is a lot better than thursday, and the 200 was a nice esy 24.5.

Thursday was the best I think, used no times on thursday. Started off with a nice easy jog for a warmup, then I did some stretching, and chatted with the kenyans that are training here in chile. went on to do some race coordination drills, high knees, butt kicks and scissors. Did some shorter distance runs, did 3 x 80 and 2 x 120 in pretty good time I think, my training partner runs in under 11 secs the 100 and he started ahead of me and by the 70 meter mark I’d pass him. This felt good, but it only got better (today, you’ll se what I mean later) After this I relaxed a bit and did some plyos, 10 x 10 bounds.

Saturday morning… Good day to run, or is it???
Got to the track about 10:15am and went for a nice easy jog, it was quite brisk in the morning, and as I finished my warmup and started stretching the caretaker walks over and asks me “where are you from?” and I say “the university and the HPC” and he says, “sorry but you can’t train here anymore” I ask him why nad he tells me that apparently the University hasn’t paid the rent on the track and we can’t train there.

anyway… 4 x 50, 3 minutes rest 2 x 80 6 minutes rest and 1 x 150, today I felt amazing, after the first two runs, I was on fire, I felt so relaxed from my shoulders up, I totally got the face clying all around thing going (relaxed cheeks on my face!!!), and on the last three runs, I discovered that if I put some power into a certain moment of my leg movement I could put more power into the ground, an increase my turnover rate. On the last run, at about 10 metres to go, I was powering out, and I felt as though the ground bumped me up, and because my ankle hurt a little, and my shins hurt I just shut it down until I stopped. That was it, I know that I’ve bettered my 100mt time just from how I feel today, so I’ll probably time it and I’ll let y’all know during next weeks diaries ok??

later all

10

Today was funny, I was training at the national stadium, and they wouldn’t turn the bloody lights on, all the people training were yelling to turn the lights on. Apparently the guy in charge of turning the lights on went home because he forgot that we had training today, so we trained in the dark, it was kinda cool, It felt… I dunno… hardcore, like really feeling it.

Ok what was today about???
Today was 4 ascentions of 80 metres.
2 x 50 mts ran these in 6.09 (which is an improvement for me, from 6.7x)
2 x 60 mts these were good, ran in 7.09 7.1 which is way better than the 7.5 and my previous PB 7.43
also ran 2 x 30 mts, these were ok, but I was kinda slower now from the training, getting tired, the rest breaks were short, 1-2 minutes at the most.
and to kill myself, I got to run a 400, with a girl who runs 400 (she’s a really nice person, great to talk to, great company during training her PB is 1 min flat) today I ran in 1min 3 secs (i was panting for breath by the second turn and came near to puking at the end i think, at least I didn’t, nothing would have come out anyway cos today was a low food day, which didn’t have me too happy) Loreto (the girl) ran in a smooth almost comfortable (for her) 1 min 6 secs

All in all a pretty good day.

Tomorrow, training at a new track (el Verbo Divino girls high school!!!) EXCELLENT!!! I’ll let y’all know about what I spot while resting tomorrow :P:D

11

Ok, so apparently I got it a little wrong (sorry about the carelessness of not posting in 3 weeks) Verbo Divino isn’t a girls school, it’s a boys school, Villa Maria Academy which is next door is the girls school. Damn huh!!!

O well I’m going from my diary here:
Hurdle Hops 12 series of 10 hurdles
Ascentions 4 x 130 mts with 5-6 minutes rest in between runs.
Stretch and cool-down

Today the Shin splints were really killing me, I was in a fair amount of pain, and as an ex-martial artist I used to get kicked in the shins fairly often, and this hurt more (or at least… differently), I iced them while at uni for about 10-15 minutes.

12

Got to the track late cos of uni and the shitty public transport system here in Chile so all I did was a 300mt run in 41 secs. beating my previous PB of 42 secs, I know I can run under 40 so I will this next week (this was not to be as you will see) plus I didn’t want to be tired for saturday which is my first outdoor competition of the year. I iced my shins today as well, at uni for about 10-15 minutes.

13

I woke up today feeling really horrible, sore all over, especially my traps, as if i’d been lifting.

First outdoor competition of the year. For me everything’s new so I just hung out with friend of mine who’s been running far longer than me (2-5 months depending on whether you count the 1 day a week training I did last year or consider training since march which started the 3 day a week training)

I ran my 100 in a horrible time, considering my previous best last year without any serious training of 11.54 compared to the 12.01 which I ran today.

I came in 6th place in my series and the guy who won ran in 10.86, basically I got my ass whooped. Looking at the fotos of the start, my ready position wasn’t good, I had all my weight on my back legs and I was too high up etc… in my first 5 steps I was already a meter back.

I wanted to go home but my coach said “nope, be a man and run in the 200 as well” (this is highly parafrased) so I stayed and ran in the 200

To my surprise I ran fairly well bein on the outermost lane (only 6 lanes were running in my series) and I surprised myself running in 24.11 I asked at the photofinish booth after I ran (only to find out later when the federation put the results on the net that they added an extra 0.68 seconds and said I ran in 24.79…that pisses me off…stacks)

oh well, no point in arguing now

14

I got sick on monday I felt like crap when I woke up in the am. My body hurt all over, joints muscles … everything. Still I went to uni, treated my periodontology patient and then called in sick for the rest of the day, went to the doctors in the pm and got told I had a virus and I got 4 days off to rest so I did nothing all week, no training, just recovery.

On friday I donated blood, given I was feeling good, and a friends mother was diagnosed with cancer and needed the blood.

On saturday 26 I went and watched the competition.

15

I trained but to be honest I can’t remember what I did.

I seem to remember only short distance training, with the longest distance being 120mts ascentions and starts from 3 point stance to 30mts block starts to 30mts and 60mts.

16

On Saturday the 3rd I competed, and did horribly. I ran in the 100 a putrid 12.25 and in the 200 I can’t really tell. Why can’t I really tell? because I ran it really well, hard all the way, and was timed by my coach on his stopwatch, and he said he timed me at 23.1x but the results that de athletics federation published were rubbish, on the website they published 24.68 and my previous 200mt race which was announced on the day as being 24.11 was then put on the net as 24.79. This I don’t understand why they do. But it really annoyed me. Also, I wrote this down about two weeks ago, but just as I was about to post it we had a major black out. Nobody knows why, we just did… (one of the mysteries of life).

Anyway on monday I got sick, again, the same symptoms and was stuck with no training until the next monday which really sucked. The doctors diagnosed me as healthy, and the bloodwork came back as healthy, with a spike in leucocytes which is probably from fighting a virus. What was the interesting thing in the exam?? I was suffering from a mild anemia. Why? 'cos on friday I had donated blood, because a friend’s mum was diagnosed with cancer and needed blood donors, apparently the med techs got a little enthusiastic when they found out I was a sprinter, they figured I had loads of blood and took about 750ml instead of 450 (therefore leaving me with a case of anemia).

17

Trained Weights on Monday 12th
Nice jog to warm up and then stretched. Training was:
Deadlifts 12, 10, 8, 6 (at about 70kgs the last 6)
1/2 Squats 12, 10, 8, 6 (no idea about the weights).

I don’t remember what I did the rest of the week. This was the week that my computer went to hell and the power source died. Finally got it fixed and back on sunday the 18th.

18

Monday 19
Trained on the track, warmed up, stretched and did some drills.
went on to 4 ascentions over 80 mts two without spikes and 2 with spikes
3 x 30mts without blocks
3 x 60 mts 1 without and 2 with starting blocks, averaged about 7.3 secs on these.
and 1 x 150mts which I ran at about 90-95% in 18.29 (all these are hand timed) by the time I finished it was getting pretty dark on the track, since it’s autumn (fall) here in the southern hemisphere.

On tuesday I didn’t train 'cos I had a test at about 6pm and didn’t get out early enough to get to the track to train.

Wednesday 21
Trained with Felipe Castillo (he was leaving that night to go to the south-american universities competition, he ran 10.72 for 2nd place on the weekend).
We trained easily that day
Jogged 10 minutes, and then stretched
Drills, high knees, butt kicks, etc… (don’t know the names of the drills in english)
did 2-3 ascentions over 80 mts
6 x 30 mts from 3 point stance, averaging about 4.0 secs, even ran 3.94 on one (but all that is scrappable cos it’s hand timed) Felipe is much more explosive than I am, this is noticeable especially during the first 10-15 metres, each step he takes, he gets further a way from me, but he wasn’t getting as far away from me as he hused to, I assume this was i. because he had the southamerican comp on friday and saturday, and ii. I’m starting to get better and a little faster.
jogged for cool down and went home.

Thursday 22
This was a really cool day, I got to training on time, did a warmup jog (not very much cos I really wanted to go to the toilet and the facilities at the stadium aren’t the best. so I had to stay a little “heavier” if you get my drift. Anyway, stretched and met up with the guys, I started off with drills (always a staple part of the training diet, and I am starting to be able to tell how good and explosive I am from how I perform the drills today was an exception)
The drills felt a little awkward on the grass, but I then went onto 2 ascentions over 50 mts to get the muscles moving and pumping in the right order.
Today was hell day… for everyone else. We did 4 x 300 mts at a 43 second pace with 5 minutes rest, it was good, a mate of mine had to do 400’s so we just jumped behind him and ran at his pace, however he often did odd little pace changes which for the two of us behind him were really kinda annoying. on the 3rd rep these guys who have been training for longer than me were feeling wasted, lactic buildup in their muscles was killing them, and they almost wanted to throw up, me I felt pretty good, not that much of a lactic buildup, my glutes were lactic, but the rest was actually pretty ok at that pace. The last rep, my mate couldn’t hack a 400 so he started with us at the 300 mark and I led the group through a nice even run, no pace changes, the guy behind me said that from where he was he could see me “floating” through the run. I have been working on consciously improving my knee drive so that the thigh vs core angle is 90°. I think it’s starting to pay off, however I still have so many things that I have to integrate and consciously work on before they become unconscious, eg. driving my arms down, and “clawing” and not tensing up. Also my coach told me close up my chest a bit because I’m running with my shoulders a bit too far back and pushing my chest out.

Anyway, the good thing was that I survived the session and felt ok, however my soleus were sore the next day.

Friday 24th Rest

Saturday 25th
I got stuck with the job of coordinator and coach of the Track team for my faculty (we can’t afford a real coach, basically our dean paid for the buses to the national dental meet, but nothing else. Damn freakin scrooge bastard!!!)
anyway, got 4 people to go to training (the rest… should start showing up as the year goes by)
It was an easy day I had to do 10 x 80 mts with a jog around the track for recovery (this was all on a cinder track vs the normal tartan track I’ve gotten used to) My soleus were really sore, so I jogged nice and easy to warm up, did a good stretch, and worked my thang while the other people I set to work on drills, and some shorter ascentions. No all out speed work yet.

Basically I got people who are really out of shape, and training is once a week, so I’m gonna have to put them through a GPP phase first to get them in conditions to handle a decent training session. At least they’re gonna have lots of time to recover

That’s It, now I’m up to date guys so any comments, throw 'em at me and I’ll keep current from now on!!!

Cheers, and y’all keep trainin now, y’hear?!

19

Don’t worry about the bad times, I call it “2nd year syndrome”. I see it happen to all athletes I know who started sprinting old (above age 20). I think we think too much at this age. Our first races we don’t have the least idea about what we’re doing so we do very well. Then we begin training seriously and think too much about what we’re doing and run poorly. Then the next year you finally are able to start pulling things together. It’s a tough process. I wish I had started sprinting younger.

How is your training going? I see little sprint training going on, or are you not posting sprint sessions?

I guess there will be no Guaita for us mediocre performers this year, but I hope next year will be a different story. :slight_smile:

20

I didn’t see the new post before that last post.

Your last week of training looks good for a start. Lot’s of acc. dev. in there. Are you doing GPP type work?

Watch out about training with guys that are much better then you, in particular in short work. During my first year I trained with guys that had 10.5x-10.7x on lot’s of short speed work and they would kill me on it. I improved little technically during this time because I would run tense and not focus on what I was doing. During the beginning of this year when I began to train alone this was a huge difference. I rapidly set off to correct technical aspects and dramatically improved my form because I was able to calmly work myself through my problems instead of being distracted by having to talk to people between runs, then being distracted trying to keep up with others during the runs. I guess it can vary from person to person but that was my experience.

As to the improvement in form, during your first few months trying to improve knee lift, make sure the knee and foot goes up naturally as a reaction from the track, also don’t kick your foot forward to try to “lengthen stride length”, that is not clawing … not that I know if you’re doing that but it’s also a common error if the coach doesn’t explain things right.

By the way, where are the results for the Southamerican University games? I don’t see them on the Fedachi site.