K's 400m/800m 2015 HS Senior Year progression

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1

Link to previous thread/posts:
http://community.charliefrancis.com/showthread.php?22651-First-outdoor-meet-of-the-year&p=251167#post251167

Update on K’s progress since last posts above:

After being diagnosed with Mononucleosis, with enemia/low ferritin/Thyroid issues/ other issues all tied to the Mono infection, I took ‘K’ completely out of sports for about a 3 month period.
No workouts at all, no weights, nothing… just lots of rest, healthy eating and recovery/recuperation.

In early summer, because of her fully unknown health issues, she was unable to sprint and she begged to be able to still compete in meets, running in the 800m instead, which she has always planned on working up to the 800m, but because of the issues she wanted to change now, even though I tried explaining to her that she had not trained for that distance, thus, her training for this coming season is 400m/800m, moving up to the 800m distance.

In late Fall, K’ started a GPP program, based on Charlie’s GPP program… lots of hill runs.

After about 6 or so weeks of the GPP, ‘K’ worked to a 400m/800m SPP program I patched together from what she had done in the past and from other programs.

The first 4 weeks or so, these were her SPP program workouts:

Monday:
2 mile warm-up
Drills
20m/30m/40m/50m/60m/150m ladder runs @ 95%, jog back recovery, repeat in reverse order.
Weights

Tuesday:
2 mile warm-up
Drills
Charlie’s Big Circuit Tempo run

Wednesday:
2 mile warm-up
Drills
4 x 300m @ 95% w/15 minute recovery between runs
Weights

Thursday:
2 mile warm-up
Drills
5-6 mile tempo run

Friday:
2 mile warm-up
Drills
4 x 600m
Weights

Saturday:
2 mile run
Drills
3 x 4 x 85m Hill runs @ 95%, steep 15% grade

Sunday:
OFF

I then modified her SPP program to this:

Monday:
(1) mile warm-up
Drills
20m/30m/40m/50m/60m/150m ladder runs @ 95%, jog back recovery, repeat in reverse order.
Weights
Sprint EMS Session

Tuesday:
(1) mile warm-up
Drills
Charlie’s Big Circuit Tempo run
Ultra Endurance EMS Session

Wednesday:
2 mile warm-up
Drills
4 x 600m @ 95% w/15 minute recovery between runs
Weights
Sprint EMS Session

Thursday:
(1) mile warm-up
Drills
Charlie’s Big Circuit tempo run
Ultra Endurance EMS Session

Friday:
(1) mile warm-up
Drills
4 x 1000m w/ 15 minute recovery

Saturday:
(1) mile warm-up
Drills
3 x 4 x 85m Hill runs (same steep 15% graded hill)

Sunday:
OFF

I tried to work in the distance first, then with the rest, as somewhat short to long approach.

She last worked to this 12 week program about 2 weeks ago, as High School track has now started.

As I added in the longer runs and EMS sessions, I dropped the weights from 3 days/week to 2 days/week, lowered the 2-mile warm-up to 1-mile and replaced the 5-6 mile day with Charlie’s Big Circuit tempo run.

As you can imagine, ‘K’ had lost a huge amount of fitness and it took some time to get back into shape.
She had wanted to run on her schools cross country team, but of course unable to.

We have big hopes for a great season even though she is starting from behind and quite late at that.

2

The first day of HS track was March 2nd.

Normally, this time of year is cold, rainy and very windy.
Have been having decent weather for the past couple months, considering we live in the farthest North of the western US. During the past 2 weeks, it has been in the 40’s/50’s with not a lot of wind or rain.

Mondays she will continue maintenance weights at home and possibly other supplemental training if needed.

This week the coaches had testing on Monday and Thursday, having ‘K’ run time trials, including 300 meter, auto timed.
Monday she ran 41.9 and Thursday 41.7. She said they had her run with boys, but they weren’t fast enough to push her and she did not run that hard.

The first meet of the year is March 14 (today) ‘K’ is signed up to run in the 4x100m and 300m. Only allowed 2 events per athlete and coach did not put ‘K’ in 600m as not any fast competition at that distance in the meet.

Last year, at this same meet, ‘K’ ran in the 300m for a winning time of 43.09.
This week she was excited to run the same 300m, as the meet record in the 300m is 42.26 (set in 1993), and she already ran faster than that twice this week without pushing herself.

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rich121,

I don’t post much, usually because of time. However, today I am getting ready to grade papers and complete my high school track paperwork.

When you say you are running 5-6 miles at Tempo, is that term being used to describe a steady pace or is it specific to a performance indicator, such as those used by Charlie or Jack Daniels. I ask because in my experience Tempo runs are specific to a certain pace with specific physiological benefits.

I also know that many in the running community use this term to describe running at a steady pace, which I vehemently disagree with because it is contradictory to real tempo runs. That does not take away from the fact that I like the 5-6 mile run, just questioning the use of the term.

Why are you providing such a long recovery after the 1000s?

I would also encourage more recovery days. I am confused why we would go from 41000m w/ 15 recovery and the next day you are running 34*85m hills. While you are working two different energy systems, I worry about the stress on the body.

4

The 5-6 mile “tempo” runs were done at about 90-95%. “Tempo” being a sustained run over 20 minutes.

I wanted to use a 8 or 9 day training week, but ‘K’ wanted to keep a daily schedule, the same each day. I would have like to have a tempo day in between the Friday workout and Saturday, but not possible. I also would have liked to have done the 5-6 mile run on Saturday, with the hills on Friday, but that would not work either.
I kept close watch on her performance and how she reacted to training and the workouts.

Not sure about your question:
" While you are working two different energy systems"?

I’m sure there is much that could be improved upon as far as a program, just did the best with what I had. I did reach out, but with the wildly different theories and suggestions, I stuck with what I thought best.

Hope that helps

5

As I mentioned, Saturday March 14 was her first meet of the year. This is a ‘Jamboree’ meet, with many of the events set at non-normal distances, such as, 300m, 600m, 1000 meter events.

K ran in the 4x100m and the 300m.

The weather had been decent for the past 2 weeks, but not today.
It was overcast and the wind started picking up after 11am.

Then, later in the afternoon it was time for the 300m and the wind was full force. At the time of her event, the wind was a ‘sustained’ 25 miles per hour with gusts of 35 mph.
Here is a video (Lane 6, red top, blue shorts):

//youtu.be/LT3ILArUE3o

She ran with a winning time of 42.30… missing the meet record by .04 seconds.

In the video you can see the wind wipping the tree branches, flag etc. the runners struggling through the turn. There is an open dirt field next to the stadium as there is ongoing construction, which dirt was blown into the runners faces/eyes as they ran.

Very proud of her effort.

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Opinion on improvement or other thoughts?

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my thoughts= great job

regards

8

Nice to see her back in decent shape. While obviously not as good as she had been, she’s in sub 60 shape, which is good for March given her time off and inconsistent training. Keep the updates coming!

9

Hopefully the beginning to some strong rhythm performances this season. I can only imagine how difficult it has been for you and K.

Will be interested to know what her flying times are when you startup those training sessions. That is if you plan to do any of those work units.

10

She is now in the hands of her schools coaches.
We will continue Monday weights, 3 days of light strength/flexibility workouts and possibly a very small amount of supplemental training, as there is virtually no speed training in her schools program.

11

First 400m of the season (lane 6, wearing red top/blue shorts)

K said at about the 200m point, she felt she had much more energy than she should have and that she should have came out faster.
Said just finished ‘easy’, not pushing herself, as it was not that competitive. official time 58.79

//youtu.be/bWUc97rZ0GE

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That looked incredibly easy!

13

Spring break for the past week so no competition to report. She has had regular practice Monday thru Saturday and I changed her lifting to 3 days this past week and will now lift 2 days a week until closer to the end of season.

K is very excited to compete in her next meets in the coming weeks. This past Saturday her coach had her run a 600m time trial by herself (she is the only 400/800m runner on team)
Her time was 1:35.00 (auto timed).

We have traveled to a couple different DII universities that interest K in our state (looking at pre-med) trying to get athletic/other scholarship… getting down to the wire.

14

The couple of meets up to this point have had at least 25 MPH sustained winds, with up to 40 MPH gusts… and of course, nice calm weather leading up to and after meets :slight_smile:

FINALLY a meet without a lot of wind!
One of the best annual high school meets in the northwest.

K ran her second 400m of the year today (Saturday) and even though it is early in the season, having had a short pre-comp training season (and losing 3 months to doing absolutely nothing due to illness) the training clearly agreed with her.

Last year at this very same meet and same time period, she did quite well.
Today, she bested last years 400m time at this meet by a full 2 seconds and even a new PR of 57.38!

Here is a video of the 400m event (Lane #2, wearing red top/blue shorts):

//youtu.be/orP97Vg6R48

15

Time to update this thread, as I should have done last year.

Shortly after the meet above, K contracted a respiratory infection that lasted until just before the State Championships at the end of May… about a month. She was unable to compete well and with the limited training anyways from her schools program, she lost fitness. After talking to some other coaches at the end of the Season, I found that in the eastside of our State there had been an outbreak of this respiratory illness that sent many to the hospital. At some schools, nearly whole teams were unable to compete/train.

K did mostly recover from the infection just in time for District and State championships. At State, in the pre-lims, K broke into the 56 second zone for the first time and qualified for the State finals.
She did not recover well though, I believe, for a multitude of reasons… previous illness/lack of fitness due to less running, lack of any recovery post pre-lims (and late night movie)… K placed 8th the following day in the final race with a 59 something time.
After all she went through, she was very happy to have been able to make it to state, PR sub 57 second and medal in the finals…very successful considering everything.

In over 40 years (that is as far back as the records go), K is only the 2nd sprinter (100/200/400) to place at the State Championships from her school. The other athlete, also a girl, placed at State 15 years earlier with a PR of just under 58 seconds (during that time, and up to just a few years ago, a 57 second zone run could WIN State).

Now a freshman in college, K recieved both athletic and academic scholarships to the University she chose to go to, which covers much of the 50K a year cost to go there.
She is in a rigorous pre-med program.

16

I was just thinking about you and K yesterday!

good to hear that she has been having some success. will there be more frequent updates again??

17

Great update on K!! She’s been through some adversity and has still managed to find success. I’m sure these are lessons she will remember forever, and apply them to life beyond the track. You’ve been so supportive of her to ensure she found success. Although the state finals wasn’t as hoped for, your statement about her success in her school’s history says plenty. Congrats to you all, and I wish her the best in college. Keeping the passion for running is so important at the next level, as it’s not always a smooth time. I always tell my kids who compete collegiately to remember these two things, (1) always have fun, no matter what, (2) be patient, as success might take a few years to develop.

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Rich, it’s great to hear that you and your daughter have been finding your way and been successful in your pursuit to get faster and improve overall as an athlete.

ESTI’s words are well said.

My one question to you and your daughter would be how sophisticated you feel your nutritional plan has been? And also what role regeneration has played as a routine? Has it been something your daughter has taken seriously?

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Yes, I will try to keep updates on how she is doing. Thank you for your post :slight_smile:

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One thing that we both have learned, is this is a continually changing experience! Many, many curve balls and things you could never imagine happening… and as you said, just need to look forward, be positive and do your best.
She has been great at always looking beyond whatever temporary barriers give, and just work in the present to do what she can.

K had a big learning experience in her first few months of school, that I never thought of… more about this in my reply to Angela’s post below :slight_smile:

ESTI, thank you for your positive statement and great words of wisdom! :slight_smile: