Good luck for Saturday hope it goes well.
With the 60 will you go @ 100% of accelerate to 30 and then hold that?
Session 30 - Warm Up & Pool
General Warm Up
800m jog
10 mins static stretching
Specific Warm Up
10 mins dynamic flexibility & drills
2 x 50m build ups
Block Starts
5 x easy 20m
1 x 40m @ 80%
Pool Work
30 mins mobility work (walking, lunge walk etc)
Flexibility
30 mins static stretching
TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 1 hour 30 mins
Comments:
Just an easy session to prepare for tomorrow’s race.
Meet 1
60m - 7.79 :o
400m - 54.37 :mad:
Comments:
All in all a very disappointing day. I am so unbelievably slow out of the blocks it is disgraceful. In the 400, no joke as I have this on video, the others were 2 or 3 strides out before I even moved from the blocks. I then actually pulled away from them over the back straight, only to die badly in the last 150m. Thing was I felt great in the warm up for the 60, but really flat when warming up for the 400m. Anyway its not the end of the world and I’ll just keep working my ass off for the next 3 months to achieve my goal of going sub 50, which seems a mile away now.
In the 60 I was actually gaining on the leaders over the last 20m, and was very weak out of the blocks.
Areas I need to improve on in order of importance:
-
Special Endurance (got to be able to ‘accelerate’ on the final bend, and hold it on the home straight)
-
Getting out of the blocks (jumping when the gun goes off ‘might’ help)
-
Dropping a bit of weight (Can’t afford to be lugging a bag of potatos around the track like I am, more discipline needed on the food side of things, its been tough going from a footballers body to a runners)
-
Running my own race and not worrying so much about whats happening around me (more experience needed)
[b]Session 31 - Speed
General Warm Up[/b]
10 mins walk/jog/stride
10 mins static stretching
Specific Warm Up
10 mins dynamic flexibility & drills
10 mins ladder work with small accelerations
Block Starts
5 x jump with ease out to 20m
3 x 20m @ 100%
Speed Work
4 x flying 50m on bend with full recovery
Cool Down
15 mins walk/jog/stretch
[b]Session 32 - Weights
Squats[/b]
44lbs x 8
154lbs x 5
242lbs x 4
264lbs x 6
264lbs x 6
264lbs x 6
Push Press
44lbs x 4
88lbs x 4
88lbs x 4
88lbs x 4
1L Squats
BW x 6
BW x 6
BW x 6
Mountain Climber
BW x 6
BW x 6
BW x 6
Bench Knee Rockers
BW x 10
BW x 10
BW x 10
Flexibility
30 mins static stretching
TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 3 hours
Comments:
Have now decided I will be spending 2 hours down at the track each morning. Feel like I was just rushing through workouts beforehand and not getting the most out of them, which I think was one of the reasons for my spectacular failuer on the weekend. Felt it was probably close to one of my best sessions yet this morning. Felt much more structured and definitely achieved from it what I wanted, gave the confidence a real shot. Weights session was better too, shorter and sharper.
I’ve been told pool the day before a track meet is a NO NO. Water drains you, although it’s an easy session.
[QUOTE=]It is just I went to a Strength & Conditioning company (they do the S&C work for pro basketball teams and one of the worlds best swimmers) who have designed my programs after completing a video analysis of my running technique, and ‘apparently’ this program is designed to help with my hip stability, which is quite poor. I actually queried them about why the volume of the lifting was so high when I was moving into a much higher intensity/volume period of my running training, and he said its how they do it.
They’ve also taken care of my physical testing so far (vert, speed, strength, flexibility etc) so I feel it would be hard to stop dealing with them this far into it all.
The thing about the program also is that I don’t find it too taxing as such, with only 1 really intense exercise each session, and only 2 sessions per week.
I guess though he did admit to their company not being very experienced in dealing with track athletes, so I can see that what I am doing might not be ideal. [/QUOTE]
Gez, it’s now time to go back to that company you’re paying to get advice from and ask them why they think their advice isn’t working. It’s a reasonable question.
In the meanwhile, I don’t mean to be cruel but your Friday session is a bit of a disaster as a precursor to racing 400m the next day.
As Stephanie recommended, cut the pool (unless it is just to get some contrast temperature and flush the body). Pool work will mess up your sprint rhythm. It will only take a single track training session to restore the rhythm, but you won’t get it all back in warming up for a race.
None of the Friday work listed looks important to racing well at 400m and some of it may have contributed to slowing you down. It’s hard to determine from what you’ve written but lunges and drills and 30min pool and a total 1hr 30min of training the day before you race just doesn’t compute.
400m success is extremely rhythm dependent, so anything much under 100m is probably not going to help the kind of rhythm you need for 400m. But that short explosive stuff, when it doesn’t lead into anything longer, might actually mess up the 400-race rhythm. My best 400 guy always dumped the drills once he started to race because he said they made him too choppy and mechanical, spoiling his fluid rhythm.
You may want to reconsider the content and structure of future Friday sessions.
Were sessions 28 and 29 done on the same day? Were they done on the Thursday prior to your Saturday race?
As a rule I think novice 400 competitors should prepare for a 400m the way elites do.
No training at all on Thursday, Race Modelling on Friday (in the rhythm and mechanics of the race), then Race 400m ONLY on the Saturday. If you race 60m or anything else (as a novice) beforehand you will probably blow your quads out and not recover in time for your 400m.
Race modelling on Friday is when you get the chance to rehearse your 400 race strategy and you do need one. You also need to rehearse the acceleration phase from the blocks into the upright running position, and you need to practise running into and out of each corner - especially around the 200m start where you will be moving at lifetime best 100m speed and then be called upon to executive a left turn and hold onto the momentum without hunkering down as if you were trying to accelerate from the blocks again. And for sure you do not want to jam on the brakes through that turn, or drop your left hip, or collapse at the left knee. These are things you need to have a clear understanding of and you need to incorporate them into a training strategy and ultimately into a racing strategy.
I suspect your disappointing 400m on Saturday is a consequence of some if not all of the things I’ve mentioned.
The fact you time-trialled a sub-52 not long ago indicates that your fitness training has been OK, but there are plenty of circumstances that can mitigate against demonstrating that fitness.
Was the wind blowing against you in the 400m backstraight? That will also wreck a time for any 400 runner but especially for a novice.
Don’t be discouraged. But I’d recommend you take some advice from some of the 400 coaches who trawl this board.
I know it’s difficult but stay positive and focussed.
Don’t let 1 bad race get to you too much especially as things have been tracking so well and you still have plenty of time till your main meets. You have a wealth of 400m knowledge helping you with KK and Mekstrand and if you can get some more practical sessions with Bold then that will help with your pacing which takes time to get the hang of.
I wonder if some more race modeling sessions over that first 200 may be of benefit? 
As John knows, if the opening 200 is too fast, or erratic (full of surging and breaking) it will damage the closing 200m. The whole process needs to be super efficient in terms of mechanics and energy distribution. It’s the same in any race, but you hurt more at the end of a 400m if you don’t get it right from the start.
Gez, at the risk of killing you with boredom, that “lactic threshold” thread does have some decent information about the 400m. You don’t have to follow any particular macro design in programming, but some of the tidbits of bitter experience from a lot of people are laid down there … then again, there’s nothing like experiencing it all for yourself:eek: 
Thanks for all the information, it’s really helpful. Hmm, looks like I managed to make every mistake in the book… not bad for a first effort . I don’t think I will be paying the S & C company for anymore advice. I’ve done all the courses and read all the books myself and with the help from those here think I will be able to devise something more suitable for me, as after about 5 years training now I am fairly aware of what my body does and doesn’t respond to.
With regards to the pool I though it was meant to be great as a relaxer/loosner as we’d always used it during my football days. I didn’t do anything strenuous in there just taking my limbs through rom exercises etc. I’ll now only use the pool for recovery now and leave it out completely in the 2 weeks before a race.
I will pen my training goals for mid-January so I know exactly what I am aiming for each training session I do:
3 x 3 x 300m Session : all in 45secs (ideally sub 45)
2 x 200m+200m Session : 24secs & 26secs (ideally 23.5 & 25.5)
2 x 300m+150m Session: 38secs & 19secs
Repeat 200’s: 5 x 25secs with 2mins rest
[b]Session 33 - Special Endurance
General Warm Up[/b]
5 mins walk
5 mins jog
10 mins static stretch
Specific Warm Up
10 mins dynamic flexibility
150m build up
Work Sets
300m in 39secs with 30secs rest + 150m in 22secs
20 mins active recovery
300m in 38secs with 30secs rest + 150m in 22secs
Cool Down
20 mins jog/walk/stretch
Flexibility
30 mins static stretching
TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 2 hours
Comments:
Overall happy with the session. I’ve decided that if I can bring my first 300m up to speed early, then as I work towards my peak I can focus more on bringing the 150m time down, which is obviously more important to do in the scheme of things. Found something extra in the second set on the 300, as in the final 80m I just seemed to relax and increase my cadence and finish strongly, with out overdoing the ‘effort.’
Gez
If you want, make Fri session an easy extensive tempo session to recover, and Sat we will get into some CNS efforts, explosive work and check out your technique again 1. at speed and 2. start mechanics
As a reference, dont do any Block starts just yet in training, do laying starts off the ground, 1. they are harder and push you into lower angles and 2. you wont teach yourself bad mechanics when learning
Good to see the meet didnt get rained out, was raining nearly all day here on Sat.
[b]Session 34 - Repeat 200’s
General Warm Up[/b]
5 min walk
5 min jog
15 mins stretch
Specific Warm Up
10 min dynamic flexibility
5 min drills
100m build up
Work Out
200m in 26secs with 2min rest
200m in 26secs with 2min rest
200m in 26secs with 2min rest
200m in 26secs with 2min rest
200m in 28secs
Cool Down
15 min walk/jog
15 min static stretch
Session 35 - Weights
Reverse Lunge
44lbs x 6
132lbs x 6
154lbs x 6
154lbs x 6
154lbs x 6
Power Jerk
44lbs x 4
88lbs x 4
88lbs x 4
88lbs x 4
Ball Leg Curls
3 x BW x 10
Glut/Box (Bent Knee)
3 x BW x 10
Ball Roll Out
3 x BW x 10
Flexibility
30 mins static stretching
TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 3 hours
Comments:
I am really happy with the way I have responded to the disappointment of the weekend, by producing probably my 3 best sessions so far this year this week. Consistency was an issue for me I felt, so hopefully this positive start to the next phase will let my build strong session after strong session. I obviously died off in the final 200m, but I feel I should be able to nail it next week. Weights were good again, feel like they are much more suited to what I need to get from them.
Yeah that would be a good session to do bold, hopefully we can go somewhere with a slightly better surface this time eh? 
I’m just curious,you said you spent the first 10 weeks in a gpp doing fartleks and easy,slow distance runs. Did you near the end of this phase ever time any runs. For example an 800 or mile? Did you feel like you were in better shape than ever coming off those 10 weeks?
Also what did you do the previous couple of months? Were you playing soccer,rugby etc.
I did a session during that phase where I would do 1km runs with about 6 mins rest in between. I completed 3 reps in 3:20 each which was probably my best during the time. I also did 2km in just over 7mins.
I wouldn’t say I was in best shape ever after the 10 weeks, as I was fairly bulky at the start of the phase (86kg), and hadn’t done any real running training since finishing football over 12 months earlier, so adapting to the running itself took a little while. The best shape I have ever been in was during hs when I was about 6kg lighter and playing multiple sports with training (sometimes twice in the same afternoon) each afternoon. Back then I’d run 2:05 800m without any training whatsoever, just by being in ‘good shape’.
I had only been playing soccer as a goalkeeper during the months beforehand, so most of my training was geared towards explosiveness/agility side of things.
2.05 800m on no training is pretty impressive.
What is your weight right now?
Although I am well aware that isn’t always the best indicator as you can be heavier but leaner due to increased muscle mass.
I hover around about 83kg being 183cm tall at about 8-10%bf. The S&C company measured me at 7% with callipers at the start of my program but I’d suggest I am a little higher than that.
[b]Session 36 - Special Endurance
General Warm Up[/b]
5 min walk
5 min jog
15 min stretch
Specific Warm Up
5 mins dynamic flexibility
10 mins ladder drills with short acceleration
Work Out
200m in 24.75s with 1m 30s rest + rolling 200m in 25.5s
Cool Down
15min walk/jog
Flexibility
30min static stretching
TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 1 hour 45 mins
Comments:
Absolutely luvin the full and proper warm up I’m doing now, not rushing things through. The weather this morning was shocking with the rain and wind, but still felt blazin (well for me anyway ) during the 200’s despite the weather. Only did the 1 set as the way I was feeling (tightness) and my susceptibility to injury I thought the risk far outweighed the reward for doing a repeat. Happy with the session though.
Session 37 - Extensive Tempo
General Warm Up
5 min walk
5 min jog
20 mins stretch
Specific Warm Up
10 min dynamic flex & drills
Set 1
300m in 44secs with 90secs rest
300m in 46secs with 90secs rest
300m in 46secs with 7 mins rest
Set 2
300m in 47secs with 90secs rest
300m in 46secs with 90secs rest
300m in 46secs with 7 mins rest
Set 3
300m in 43secs
Cool Down
15 min walk/jog
15 min static stretch
10 min walk
TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 1 hour 45 mins
Comments:
Although my goal was to run all reps in 46secs I still managed to average 45.4 for the 7 reps. The reason I ran the 47 was due to trying to pull the reigns a little on my first rep, as I felt because of how fresh I was during it I was going a little too hard and this was killing off the 2nd & 3rd efforts. Felt really fluent through all reps except maybe number 6 when I was starting to loose it. Regained my arm action and finished strongly.
Do you plan on staying at that format (3, 3, 1) or going to 3 x 3 x 300?
I’ll build up to 3x3, it’s just that I wanted to lift the ‘intensity’ while dropping the volume, so that I can hold that intensity while getting the volume up to scratch, and repeating that process until I am comfortably running 44s & 45s.