Auto Reg rating
+4
Conditioning
L + S tempo
abs & stretch
Rating
8
achilles hardly an issue at all, if it had been this good yesterday I’d have raced :rolleyes:
Auto Reg rating
+4
Grass
2 x BFR 6 min rec
2 x 200+200 90 sec / 30 min rec
Power clean
60 sec rec
2s x 1r x 60, 62, 1 x 65 :rolleyes:
Standing DB press
3 min rec
3r x 17, 19
22 x 5r
S/set with 60 sec between reps
Chins 5s x 8r
Dips 5s x 8r
stretch & abs
Rating
7
trained on grass and in flats, achilles not bad slowly getting there
hey john,
do you think you may be overtraining hence the achilles and calf problems.there is a lot of volume in your training.
Very good valid question and most definitely that was the case with when I hurt my calf. From then on was the classic not fully healed so tweaking again…and again. With the Achilles it is quite different though and I am 99.9% sure it was a case of going from training on sand which even the firmest had quite a bit of give to a considerably harder surface even though it was grass. The annoying thing is the Achilles isn’t that bad, just not quite right. Apart from that I feel REALLY good and fresh.
The volume may seem high but there isn’t that much at high intensity.
Auto Reg rating
+2
Conditioning
L + S tempo
abs & stretch
Rating
7
No dramas ,just that I saw this type of workout for a high intensity day and thought it was a lot of volume.Glad its going well for you.
Track
2 x 10m walkback
2 x 20m 2 min rec
2 x 30m 3 min rec
2 x BFR 6 min rec
300 @ 48.98
30 mins
200 @ 30.88
Plyos
2 x 20m walkback rec
Running As
Skip Bounds
Straight leg
Sprint Bounds
2 foot hops
LLRR
Power clean
60 sec rec
2s x 1r x 60, 62,
1 x 65
Standing DB press
3 min rec
5r x 14, 17
19x 7r
S/set with 60 sec between reps
Chins 5s x 8r
Dips 5s x 8r
stretch & abs
the first part
2 x 10m walkback
2 x 20m 2 min rec
2 x 30m 3 min rec
and to a lesser extent the
2 x BFR 6 min rec
is actually almost the end of my warm up. Till then I have done nothing more than dynamic stuff (starting off really slowly ) and 3 x easy stride outs in trainers to 50m. The 2 x 10m is the first effort with spikes on. I use that ‘lot’ pre race but swap the BFR (Buildup, Fast, Relax) with EFE.
Dropping squats has made a HUGE difference to my energy levels. I’m still not entirely sure if that will be a long term thing though and am thinking through a few different things …as always 
Auto Reg rating
+2
Conditioning
7 x 300m* on 2 mins
abs & stretch
Rating
7
- paced it out as a straight run so maybe not exactly 300m but very close as 11 of my paces are almost exactly 10m.
Here are some pics from holiday
this is one of a beach on the West Coast that has HUNDREDS of stone cairns
L skimming stones at the beach across the road from where we stayed
along the beach
and another
here’s a cool store we stopped at
Auto Reg rating
+4
Track
2 x 10m walkback
2 x 20m 2 min rec
2 x 30m 3 min rec
2 x EFE 5 min rec
Races
100 @ 14.55 + 1.3
90 mins
200 @ 30.69 -0.5
Power clean
60 sec rec
2s x 1r x 60, 62, 65
bench
3 min rec
5r x 52, 62
72 x 5r
S/set with 60 sec between reps
1 arm db row 32db x 5s x 8r
Incline DB press 22db 5s x 8r
stretch & abs
Rating
5
my stunning form continues. :rolleyes: So far this season versus last, which wasn’t very good, my best is over 0.5 slower in 100m (today’s 0.81 slower) and nearly 1.5 sec in 200m (today’s 2.34 sec slower).
I doubt I could have been tighter in the 100m and probably shouldn’t have run the 200m as Achilles was quite sore but right now I actually don’t really even give a shit if I get badly injured. :eek: I’m past frustrated and really don’t care. This is not a good sign!!! My blaséness carried through to my weights where my last set of bench should have been 70…oh well.
Auto Reg rating
+2
Hurdles
6 x 10 hurdles overs
6 x 10 hurdles over / under
Conditioning
L + S tempo
abs & stretch
Rating
6
Achilles quite sore at the start, but not as bad as I thought it may have been, it eased up as I progressed but still not great.
Very likely I will not race again this season.
Why is that?
If you haven’t already I suggest you read
[i]my stunning form continues. So far this season versus last, which wasn’t very good, my best is over 0.5 slower in 100m (today’s 0.81 slower) and nearly 1.5 sec in 200m (today’s 2.34 sec slower).
I doubt I could have been tighter in the 100m and probably shouldn’t have run the 200m as Achilles was quite sore but right now I actually don’t really even give a shit if I get badly injured. I’m past frustrated and really don’t care. This is not a good sign!!! My blaséness carried through to my weights where my last set of bench should have been 70…oh well.[/i]
In any context that is f&*(%d up. Not really caring in general about results is one thing but whether or not I get seriously injured takes it to a whole new level.
Pre Christmas I was able to find some reasoning that I was still training hard with a high volume, although similar to other seasons, and at least was progressing following my 2 ½ month injury hassle till late October. I trained REALLY well while away on holiday and felt really good only to pick up this Achilles niggle the first day back. With careful management such as training in flats on grass it got a bit, and at times a lot better, then regressed. After my warmup on Saturday I wasn’t even 100% sure I should do the 100m and it was quite sore after that so doing the 200m was downright stupid. There is nothing pointing to a vast improvement over the next few weeks that would make the season anything resembling mediocre so why bother. I think I’m better to cut my losses and just train, which I do enjoy, and give myself an opportunity to come right and hopefully actually improve next season.
Got it! I hope that article and the strap help you!
Auto Reg rating
+2
Hills
2 x 250m @ 56.03 & 56.26 30 min rec
Power clean
60 sec rec
2s x 1r x 60, 62, 2 x 67
Standing DB press
3 min rec
17dbs x 5, 19dbs x 3, 24 x 0 :o 22db x 2
S/set with 60 sec between reps
Chins 5s x 8r
Dips 5s x 8r
stretch & abs
Rating
9
refer to http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=17467
Been doing some rehab work the last few days and I bought one of those achilles supports today and whether it was that, the hills or a combination of any or all I don’t care as achilles felt the best it has for weeks afterwards. I realise one swallow doesn’t make a summer and I will see how it goes over the next while but at least it was a start. I am still 99% sure I will not race again this season but at least if I can get my achilles right then things may hopefully start improving… well one lives in hope :rolleyes:
Auto Reg rating
+2
Conditioning
L + S tempo
abs & stretch
Rating
8
Achilles a bit sore on first set (100+100+100) but all good after that 
John, I’m glad to hear your achilles issues seem to be clearing up. If you do decide you’re finished racing for this season though, I’d like to make a suggestion.
I was looking in your old logs and in 2006 you power cleaned 75kg for a single and were doing multiple sets of 3 with 65kg. It’s now four years later and I’m not sure you’re able to replicate either feat. I don’t mean to sound like I’m putting you down, I just think that you should put some time towards getting your strength up and building a little bit of extra muscle.
Rather than doing a low volume of singles and doubles, I would suggest you shoot for higher reps and at least moderate volume. I’d put my focus on RDL variations and back squats. A little extra muscle in your glutes and hamstrings would really help you out when you start running again. Again, I don’t mean to sound like I’m dogging you, but your strength levels are very low, and if you want to break 13, you’ll likely need to be stronger.
rj thanks for your interest and input it is much appreciated and not in any way taken as a put down especially as there is a lot of justification to what you put. Funny you mention the cleans as I was thinking (lamenting) just yesterday about how I was consistently cleaning 75kg (all my weights are in shown kg) x 3 a few years ago, probably not long before I started my journals here. And you are right where I am now is a hell of a way from that although I don’t recall squatting 3s x 5r x 110 before as I was pre Christmas. There are a few factors that have influenced things, I am now about 8.5kg (nearly 19lbs) lighter than ‘before’ @ a current weight of about 76.5kgs (168lbs) @ 5’7.5" (171cm) tall, a heap ‘fitter’ and by extension a lot healthier which at 47 is an important consideration.
Below is an excerpt I sent a friend in an email yesterday
[i]Apart from training things are actually going pretty well and if I didn’t have races in the mix that wouldn’t be an issue either really.
My Achilles isn’t THAT bad just not right and I don’t want to make it a major. I’m sure a few weeks focus and management will see it come right.
It is 99% certain I won’t race again this season and I’m thinking I’ll change things a bit and do a 13 week ‘block’ that will incorporate GPP & SPP over 12 weeks with week 13 being a recovery week as per CF recovery & rest DVD.
I think in the past I have got too far away from things over GPP and am playing catch up rather than adding to what is established. I’ll probably do some longer SE sessions on hills for time rather than distance as hills seem to help with my leg issues. I’ll probably do a few different things like 30 min (or longer runs) and I’ll reintroduce squats but probably only once per week and keep all weights at a low volume.
Part of me actually wonders if my Achilles issues may have been influenced by me getting fixed by the Chiro. Apparently I have been out of whack for a long time so naturally I would have adapted to things and now it is closer to ‘normal’ I need to get used to that.[/i]
The last few years I’ve used Joe Kenn’s Tier as the basis of my weights (gee that’s worked a treat :rolleyes: ) but the past few weeks was using Jim Wendlers 5/3/1
which was a nice change. I have a recovery week next week but was going to put a leg day back in from then on and thought of doing cleans singles as now, squats (as ME) then SLDL and lunges as accessory work. Not squatting for a while has highlighted just how tired my legs were from 3 or even 2 times pw so I’ll give 1 time a go and see how that works.
Once again thanks for the effort you went to, it is appreciated. In closing I’ll add the first line to that email I sent
I understand it is pretty hard to keep up with some of my thought processes, even I can’t !
Haha, so it seems you were already looking to restart. Still though, I wouldn’t use 5,3,1. There’s not enough volume for someone with low strength levels. Clean singles probably aren’t a good idea either. Honestly, neither is trying to build muscle mass or get stronger while doing long tempo and SE.
Like I said, your strength levels are probably in line with your sprint times. All the hill runs and tempo in the world aren’t going to make you faster if you don’t get more powerful through the hips. Similarly, you’re not going to get more powerful by doing clean singles and squatting once per week while heaping on lots of fitness work. This approach just isn’t working.
I’d have you doing something as simple as this:
Back Squat, 20-40 total reps (not including warm up)
RDL, 20-40 total reps (not including warm up)
Ab Work
Do that twice per week, maybe preceded by 200-300M of short sprints, and you’d be golden. Tempo too, if you want, but don’t go overboard.
You really need to slap some muscle on you if you intend to go any faster, and to do that, you’ll need more volume.
Sorry a couple of points I wasn’t clear on. The clean singles would only be on the leg day and on the other 2 days I’ll do triples as I agree 100%, singles aren’t cutting the mustard and to some extent I wasn’t expecting them to. They were an experiment pre Christmas to try and see how they would work now which was when my season was really meant to crack into gear. :rolleyes:
On reflection I think I did far too many EFE & FEF and split SE reps this last 8 or so months. They have a place but I ended up doing lots of sub maximal reps.
What you suggest has merit and I’ll definitely consider it (like I need more things going round in my brain right now :p) One of the advantages of stopping racing now is that it gives me about 9 months till the next season as we have no indoor. With 13 week blocks that is just over 3 blocks to try and get things right.