thanks! generally i have a toe drag out of the blocks and the heel recovery is pretty low on the next step but after that it tends to get higher a little faster than i would like. my team does a lot of hill running and sled pulls so im hoping i just see it naturally go down with training and concentrating on a pushing cue. i don’t think it’s harming my speed enough to bother making a forced change
3.25
played some tennis and shot some hoops yesterday. just a functional warm-up, some hoops and some stretching today. team practices will start this monday with the first meet on apr 7. might be running unattached 
but not sure. it’d just be nice to turn out a pretty legit time this spring so i can come into next fall in a safer position roster wise
beginning of spring season weigh in -> 150
interesting i lost a couple pounds. i’m thinking its water weight from it being warmer or i dropped some bf because i look to be a bit more toned and don’t look like i lost muscle mass
3.26
easy team workout
2x10:
-each db biceps curl@35
-each db side shoulder raise@20
-each db saxon side bend@5
-decline crunch@10
-front squat@135
notes:
-just a day to loosen up after travel since we are all back from spring break now. will be a hard workout tomorrow. what we did in the weightroom was up to us so i just tried to hit some beach muscles submax
3.31
100m -> 12.04, 12.08
200m -> 25.05
http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/24703.html
notes:
-poor weather (35-45 degrees, wet and drizzling) but even so my times were really poor (slight headwind too). no one really had any great times though, so maybe the workouts this week are taking toll too
-positives:
speed endurance seemed to be alright in the 100, felt i could make it all the way to the finish, solid start in the second heat of the 100 and in the 200m i was told to work on “floating” at top speed, and I did and it felt good and much less effort
-negatives:
times were slow, top speed was forced in the 100m and didn’t get out very fast in the 200m, very tough to keep warm
-coach caught video of the 2nd 100m so I will post that. considering how it felt, i’m surprised it was THAT slow considering a 12.08 FAT is like a 11.9h, which is like the time I ran when i didn’t have time to do a warm up at all or was running into a strong headwind
4.6
meet tomorrow, running the 100 and 200. goals are to get a full acceleration and to be relaxed at top speed
practice was so-so this week, but i think i got the upright running mechanics relaxed and set, just getting to a good speed quickly is what i need to do
4.7
100m -> 11.71
200m -> 24.02
http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/22207.html
notes:
-felt awesome during warm-ups, i finally was able to get my body to “push” while accelerating which feels great. i just need to make sure i exit low enough and i can make it happen (no excessive heel recovery/too much cycling); just need to work on making it work while relaxed
-during the 100m, poor race all around, but at least an 11.71 is faster than i was running last year at this point, and under a much heavier workload. if i can have a mechanically good race, i am positive i will see at least a pr
-in the 200m, i guess my start was tense and choppy, but the blocks i had wouldnt go to a low enough setting, plus i’m inexperienced on the curve. last 150m looked great I guess. never posted the time at the meet, so i’ll be curious to see what I ran. on the selfish side of things, I beat a kid from my own school for once in the 200m, which will probably be good for my confidence, though the time is still very mediocre.
-I’m going to set a time-based goal to accomplish before the end of the season: hit the times that my coach seeds me at (11.25 and 23.50). Because then in the least I can know I met my coach’s expectation for me as a team member
-very windy, though mostly crosswind
4.14
no meet this weekend, then i’ll finish up my year with meets the next two weekends. finally i feel my race coming together. my start had been getting worse and worse and i finally realized that i was trying too hard to drive and stay low and it was causing me to overstride and not hit triple extension. my start is much better if i just “pop” out of the blocks, don’t think and just build speed naturally and then “float” at top speed. it feels naturally, is easy to facilitate relaxation in and i think will yield fast times. i won’t get to get into blocks to compare against the other kids on the team until tuesday but i think i will be much closer to them than usual and am foreseeing a big (at least college) pr next meet
4.20
100m -> 11.72
200m -> 23.88
http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/25859.html
notes:
-bad start in the 100, and though i was able to get upright, I didn’t really feel like I was floating because my turnover was so slow
-200 was a pretty good race all around for me. Came through the finish a bit tight but my best mechanical race of the year. still not a great time, but i’ve never been strong in longer sprints
4.21
did some individual work today. last time in the weight-room for the year and worked on my drive phase. I realized that i was popping up fast because of two reasons:
- when i exit the blocks, i overstride on my first step. it is longer than my second and i end up mostly having my foot strike straight down in stead of back, resulting in my body getting upright too fast. i need to come out of the blocks not just with a “pop” but also with that foot ready to actively go back and keep me in a good accel position. i think this can be accomplished simply by trying to bring my first foot strike closer to the line without exiting less explosively
- i’m very bowlegged and when trying to keep low, if my knee goes towards my midline too much, or is even just neutral, it actually ends up on the wrong side of my COM for each leg. when thinking, not about side shuffling, but keeping my hips open at accel as opposed to everything going towards the midline, it was much easier to stay low longer
the workout i did was:
functional warm-up
block starts to ~20m
1x5 clean@135
1x5 snatch@95
1x5,1x2 bench@135,185
some arm work
some core work
stretch
4.22
just some drive phase work and a functional warm-up. i’ll be doing no extra wok until the season ends so that I can unload somewhat form last meet this coming sunday
shortening that first step and not rotating my hips towards the midline so much looks to have done wonders. i stay down much longer naturally and definitely feel more like im driving than pulling
did a couple upright runs too and mechanics look good for those as long as i’m not forcing ROM, which i think i did last meet
4/29
100m -> 11.60
200m -> 24.12
notes:
-great start in the 100m, but then got stuck in that thing whee i end up leaning forward and get a lot of backside mechanics so my stride rate plummets. still, it was pretty chilly today and i believe this is the fastest race i’ve ever run in a first round. still disappointing that i didn’t pr in the 100 at all this year. i guess all the mechanical fixes i had to make and adjusting to college life and training took its toll. i still think with a week or two more of unloading and if i could put a race together i wouldve started hitting the low mid 11’s
-poor start in the 200m, overstrode out of the blocks so i popped upright very quick. pretty decent finish, only one other kid in my heat, though, and i’ve felt looser/floated better
-last meet of this year. i have a team meeting sometime this coming week but i will take the next 3 weeks off totally from any track training (i think i’ve been overtrained pretty bad this year because i just did not have the work capacity the other kids have) then i’ll try to add a lot of strength and muscle mass while working on some easy stair runs, short starts (working on not overstriding) and relaxed build ups. the team program will start again mid summer so i’ll probably take like a week off, then start that, then i’ll take a week off and fall training begins! most athletes on the team see their big gains from freshman to sophomore year, so i’ll be looking to put things together and go into the winter season much stronger than i did this year
-probably will run at the baystate games for fun. will run the 400m and some combo for events of pole vault, long jump or jav
Hey, congrats on your season.
I was just curious, if you feel with a couple more weeks of unloading you could run faster, are there any open meets you could jump into? I mean you’re fit now, and since the team season is over you could control the volume leading up to another couple of meets which might help you go in a bit fresher. Is there anything in your area, or are you just mentally done with track for the season?
my school year is winding down and finals are coming up, so i will probably just take these few last weeks off to concentrate on academics and getting over the overtraining I think I experienced this season because of my lack of sleep and work capacity. i might enter an open meet in MA called the Baystate games, but I will probably do events I don’t usually do just for fun (400m, javelin, long jump, maybe pole vaulting)
I do think I would continue to see my time go down, but I think it would overall be of more benefit to me just to rest up til summer, then get some serious traning in early summer so I can unload a bit then enter my next track season in the Fall fresh and stronger than ever!
end of season weigh in -> 151
notes:
-probably my last post in this journal. after taking time off I will start a sophomore year journal beginning with some summer strength training. I plan to spend the first month of summer or so with mainly an emphasis on gaining strength, but also flexibility and relaxation/posture
-realized that I was allowing anterior pelvic tit to enter my running again, i will work on correcting that. I think it will make knee lift more of a reflex and will minimize my backside mechanics