Freshman Year College Track

Congrats on your PR! That must have felt good. I re-watched the video of your race a bunch of times and noticed that your arm drive off the gun looked to be the strongest in the field. Nice job!

thanks! yeah, my coaches really like how i exit the blocks, and i am generally out in front for the first 5m or so. i was happy to finally see my time go down, though i was hoping for a faster 60m pr coming out of freshman year of college than one im pretty sure i couldve run as a jr in hs, haha. i think i just need to emy head down, relax and make sure that im getting the most out of my strength/each stride and i will see the times drop

took the past week off. feeling very ansy, and a bit sore in my legs, lower back and back of shoulders. i believe i dont have formal practice again til after next weekend, but i’m suppose to do some stuff on my own to keep loose and such. here’s my plan:

sun -> jog
mon -> functional warm-up, standing z’s, hip flexor stretching, slingshots
tues -> full warm-up, speed work, plyos, hurdle stretches, bw circuit
wed -> jog, sport, core
thurs -> full warm-up, accel. pattern work, plyos, primary lifts
fri -> functional warm-up, hill runs, secondary lifts
sat -> something to get loose

thurs would really be my only intense day. plyos and lifting would be easy, running all very mechanics and relaxation based

2/26/12

12’ jog
stretch
3’ epsom left pcl, left shin, right wrist

notes:
-felt great to be exercising again. felt a great spring in my legs that has been missing for a while

2/27/12

functional warm-up
5x10 standing z’s each, 30m step-over lunge walk
2x150m slingshots relaxed
stretch

3’ cold shower

2/28/12

full warm-up
3xsuper power-outs
1x30m zone
1x30m 3pt
3x10 bench hops
hurdle stretches
2xcircuit:
-5xbw exercise for each muscle group
-200m@~30s
self-massage
cool down
stretch

contrast shower

note:
-inside of thighs and outside of glutes feeling some doms. kinda pathetic considering i did barely anything yesterday
-might start some team workouts again tomorrow or may continue doing my own thing until next week, i’m not exactly sure what will happen
-tried keeping my chin tucked/letting my head dangle while accelerating and i did feel it was easier to keep acelerating, though its hard to tell while by myself
-upright running mechanics feel like they are improving. stride length is increasing and while i think my stride freq is lower, the actual speed my legs are moving isn’t, just a bigger rom
-all done in trainers today

another note:
-because of time constraints of college life (track, classes and greek) i’ve had to cut down on my sleeping hours. as someone who’s always struggled with their sleeping pattern anyways, i actually felt the best i had in a while and finally pr’d while using a polyphasic sleeping cycle. I see that the disadvantages of this is less time in deep sleep, but i actually exhibit the sleeping characteristics of a mild narcoleptic so i’m not sure how great my sleeping cycle was doing anyways. i used to sleep 9 hours a night with a 30’ nap after classes before track but now have adjusted to a 4:30 hour core sleep with a 30’ nap around lunchtime, before practice and after dinner

i’m scratching the polyphasic sleeping, 4:30 is just too little that if I can’t keep the schedule strict and be 100% healthy its just impossible to get up sometimes. I will add an hour of sleep and try to do the more usual 6 hour core sleep with a siesta and then will add a post workout meal nap too. That gives me the ability to have 6 rem cycles daily, like i do with 9 hours of sleep, but i only will be asleep for 7 hours total. still less deep sleep then i would like, but a necessity nonetheless with my time constraints.

after spring break (2 weeks) my schedule should calm down for a bit and i’d like to get on a 8 hr minimum per night with a siesta schedule if possible

2.29.12

800m jog
basketball
medball work
2’ abs circuit
stretch

contrast shower

notes:
-a lotta soreness, esp in the inner hammys, pecs, shoulders and tris

3.1.12

Full warm-up
1xblast out
2xefe
3xfef
1xslingshot
4x3 hurdle hops
Oly clean 3x95,135,185
Power squat 3x225,275,315 (failed halfway thru 2nd rep)
Bench 3x135,165,185
Self-massage
Stretch

Notes:
-felt pretty tired, I’m fighting off a cold
-dangled head for starts, felt wayyy faster but a little hard to control since I’m not used to it
-concentrated on getting the most out of every stride and I think my stride length is way bigger without much of a decrease in turnover
-cleans felt good, squats felt heavy, bench felt easier than normal

Hey, progress is progress!

Congrats once again. It sounds like you gained some patience and saw your time come down nicely. I need to tear a page out of your book.

haha, i might not be so patient as i get nearer to the end of my collegiate career tho :-p i have 7 more seasons of track to work with so as long as i eventually hit some good times i’ll put in the work!

3.2.12

functional warm-up
2x5x~40m hill runs
2x10 bodybuilding circuit
stretch
contrast shower

notes:
-haven’t done any lifting in the higher rep range in a while, haha, felt a nice burn. it’ll be interesting to see my soreness tomorrow, though i didn’t really push any heavy weights
-still concentrated on getting a good stride on each step, not just forcing turnover, and it felt great on the hills
-pretty well spread doms, hopefully that means next week i’ll be over the soreness stage because i think itll be a hard couple weeks going into spring break!

3.3.12

shot some hoops

3.4.12

epsom salt l. pcl, toes, r. wrist, r. shin

cold shower

notes:
-back to normal practice on monday

3.6.12

normal practice is resuming. more general work then we were doing. i expect that the next two weeks will be very much like fall training, spring break a transition stage, then after spring break workouts will probably be like early winter then as we move into the season itll be lower volume specific work again. my goals for the week will be to facilitate relaxation, add some strength, flexibility and conditioning and to key on good mechanics for drill work

last week i saw a lot of pluses as i feel much fresher after the week off and i think keeping my chin tucked and making sure to get a lot out of each stride will make my outdoor season a much bigger success than my indoor (though i may only have a couple meets to prove it). i want to go 11.14 or below and know i have it in me to do it, i just need some things to clique and to keep myself from psyching myself out

3.13.12

first sprinting workout outside happened yesterday. calves are very very sore, but in the workout i saw a lot of positives. it certaintly is easier to keep up with the other sprinters on the team (all 10.5x-10.6x range) when i try to get more power out of each stride as opposed to just pushing rate and when doing the power outs at the end of the warm up one of the more snioer sprinters (a 7th year i believe??) said that i finally "looked like a sprinter, very powerful) and all i did was keep my chin tucked while accelerating. for some reason doing this puts my legs into much more of a piston motion and i seem to have a higher stride rate and no loss or maybe even an increase in stride length. i hate to pull my head out of my line with my body, but i would rather not mess with results!

tucking the chin also improved my sled pulls last week. i’ll be excited to do some full sprints against the other kids as i’d love a huge outdoor pr since my indoor year was disappointing. strength numbers on the way back up too

3.18.12

spring break. plan is to catch up on rest, A LOT. longer sprints circuits and weight lifting will be like the same as usual, just i’ll do it alone at my old hs’s track. “event specific” stuff is up to us, so i’ll probably throw in some accel pattern work, maybe a couple flys too

my squat seems to be down quite a bit, but im starting to hit weights fully again so it should be back up soon. i can’t tell whether unloading the weights in indoor was a good idea or not, because my strength dropped, but it probably allowed running work to take a more adaptive position and i’m pretty sure my work capacity isnt high enough to not be overtrained. oh well, neither my accel or vertical seem to have been harmed and i care more about my power output on the faster end of the f t curve

meant to weigh in before going home for winter break, but i forgot, so i’ll just weigh in when i get back

3.19

freakishly warm weather

2xefe, 2xfef
general shj workout (1/2 running volume)

3.20

10,20,30,40 (5.20),30 (4.13),20,10 3 pt
general shj workout (cut volume), 3x10 bench hops replace unknown circuit

notes:
-extreme calf soreness
-felt powerful accelerating and smooth at top speed
-will try to get some video up, i have video for some of the reps i didnt time
-I timed the reps with the times next to the (duh, haha). im pleased with the results (for once, haha) because i am early in the season, was sore from mondays workout, and still managed to run times that (i believe) have conversions that are both pr’s in the 60m (assuming top speed of about 10 m/s, and reaction time at .2, both would be pr’s or around pr times and i didn’t use blocks or have competition

//youtu.be/hTfZkxVQKGE

//youtu.be/BxV7qPx4pbg

While keeping my chin tucked/head dangling, it appears that I’ve developed a bit of curvature in my upper back. I think this is okay because it isn’t my lower back, it straightens out by top speed and I am running faster this way (though I’m not hitting triple extension as completely as before). Running this ways is helping me not end up upright to early and seems to have allowed to me have a longer stride length without sacrificing stride rate