Agree with the above. Brilliant read
Wow! Thanks for sharing this.
I’m enjoying this too T-Slow: especially now I’ve dusted off my antique stopwatch to personally coach an athlete for the first time since the Atlanta Olympics. I have to start taking your advice - particularly paying respect to the risk factors which are inherent in racing too soon out of GPP. My other issue at the moment is the young woman I’m working with has never run 400m - not even on a relay. And she mostly has run just the 100m. But I will probably do a training commentary with pix in due course.
In the meanwhile I am a keen reader and thanks for posting on the forum and keeping this place both a sanctuary sheltered from stupidity and also a reservoir of relevant information and knowledge. kk
exciting stuff! 
TSlow missed his calling as an author! We are on edge of our seats! I know the story and can’t wait. TSlow, TFast your notes to the forum!!!
As an aside, might I also say that almost nobody does this style of program in Toronto, so people were totally making fun of us for the weird workouts. The lack of traditional over-distance was disconcerting for the Long to Short volume monster type coaches, and the delayed addition of true speed work was disconcerting for the Short to Long guys. Some of them shut their pieholes when he broke 48 in only his third outdoor 400m race since high school off of like 10 weeks of prep though!
After the 47.98 race, ESTI send a copy of the race to KitKat, who commented on the sag between 150 and 250, as well as my athlete having weakness and lack of flexibility in the hip flexors and adductors, which was absolutely spot on. I still don’t understand how he knew this simply from watching a race, but that’s why you ask the master coaches for their feedback! KitKat was very generous in sending key pieces of feedback and advice over the span of the season that added to the advice that ESTI, Waldemar, Angela, and my coach generously provided.
The hip flexor strain that he picked up trying to race the 200 down south was still an issue. There were regular complaints of tightness in the area, and we had some treatments of acupuncture with micro-current to reset the tonus of the muscle. This was done by a chiropractor- and as you will see later, we learned a BIG lesson about trusting chiropractors with your athletes, as their egos sometimes get in the way of good treatment practice- despite the fact they may know their stuff and be very good people.
OK back to the story- after the race and our unwillingness to let him run a windy 200 the next day, we headed back to Toronto and got back to work. We were able to get through another 40-20-20 EFE day, and we focused on having him drive out of the blocks with full extension in his first 10 metres during the 30’s, 40’s, and 60’s that followed. Things were definitely improving.
It was closing in on about 12 days out from Trials, and it was getting close to time to start tapering. I had him run a final 300m from a three step walk up, and he nailed it in 33.40, a pretty significant improvement on the standing start 34.60 run in the GPP test week.
We had a 200+200 workout scheduled for that day. Now, my athlete is one of my BBM contacts, and he added me to one of his BBM friend groups that discusses track. I noticed that he was making comments at 8:15 am, which is way earlier than he is usually awake. I asked him what he was doing up so early. “I’m going to Wonderland!” he stated happily (a local amusement park). “What? You’re going to an amusement park 10 days out from Trials to walk around in the sun all day, dehydrate yourself and you think you’re going to come out and complete a workout this evening at 5 pm?” I asked. I could almost predict the reply; “Yeah- I’m a beast!”
I told him to forget the workout and take the day off. We got together the next day to attempt a workout near his parents home in the other end of the city. It was comical- this was a public high school track, so some stupid 3 year old kept moving my cones, another dipshit kid was riding his bike on the track, and an older group of recreational runners were doing extremely slow 300m intervals. It ended up not mattering, because when he warmed up and started doing a few strides, he looked just atrocious- I have never seen such awful form from him. He tried to do a few accels, and I was so taken aback by his horrendous form that I just had him cool down- didn’t even think of substituting tempo instead!
Interestingly enough, Tony Sharpe was out at the other end of the track coaching (one of Charlie’s athletes, 10.17 / 20.21 PB’s, 100m finalist in LA 1984) and we were both happy he didn’t see my athlete looking so piss-poor. It was absolutely shocking to see the level of fatigue he was displaying from his amusement park visit- he couldn’t believe how awful he felt, and I couldn’t believe how awful he looked. We didn’t need any more setbacks. I went home and re-watched the “10 Day Taper” video three times that weekend just to make sure I understood the big concepts and wasn’t forgetting anything.
I gave him the next day off, and we got back at it on Sunday. It was a totally different guy that showed up. We ran 3x30 along with 40, 50, 60, 80 and a single 150.
I can tell you that his 30m accelerations at the end of GPP were at 3.70, by mid-transition they were 3.65, and at this point in the early taper I timed each one at 3.58, 3.58, 3.58- things were coming down nicely. The 60 was in 6.40, and the “smooth” 80 was a PB of 8.49- he lined up for the 150 and ran it smoothly from a standing start in 15.71, a hundredth faster than his three step walkup 150 from a couple of weeks earlier. Nice! I think we made the right call of letting him run at faster than 95% for these runs, as he needed a confidence boosting time heading into Trials. However, as explained by Charlie on the Taper DVD, if an athlete runs really fast in the taper, you risk tightness rearing its head, often with a couple of days delay. Of course, he was spot on.
Monday was an easy bike day, and Tuesday he went in to get some therapy, but I hadn’t arrived at the track yet. As predicted he was feeling tight from the Sunday speed work. I usually like to be present for therapy sessions, as even though these therapists are well regarded, they work for me- they aren’t going to be doing things I’m not comfortable with. This particular clinic has a big Active Release Technique bias, and I’m not sure how I feel about ART. I’ve felt it be helpful before, but as someone who follows Waldemar’s approach, I’m suspicious of the stress it puts on the musculature and I’m not sure how close I’d like it done to a race.
About this specific session, my athlete went in and started the session without me, and the Chiropractor did acupuncture with micro-current on his hip flexors. This is a fairly aggressive treatment to be doing 8 days out from a major competition and these are some seriously small muscles and the margin for error is therefore I suspect much smaller, so I was not pleased. But here’s the kicker- once the current was turned on, the chiropractor left the room for 15 MINUTES and left the athlete ALONE while being stimmed- I’ve seen this done reapeatedly by almost every chiropractor- it’s as if they are too important to stay and monitor the athlete during treatment. I do not understand this behavior at all- what other professional charges you upwards of $80 per session and leaves you unattended in the room for over half of it?
In contrast, Waldemar would NEVER leave an athlete alone during an acupuncture treatment. He is always conversing and verbally and visually checking for signs of discomfort or changes in response.
Of course in this case, everything that could go wrong did: the current was cranked too high and since the chiro had left the room there was nobody there for my athlete to tell. He ended up with sore, hypertonic hip flexors eight days from Trials and had to pay for the privilege. I was pissed!
This thread should be moved from My Training Journal to coaching, fundamentals or somewhere else and made a sticky. The above post alonehas such a wealth of information and summarises so many elements of here. T-Slow you need to give yourself more credit!
Below are the bits that really stood out for me.
As an aside, might I also say that almost nobody does this style of program in Toronto, so people were totally making fun of us for the weird workouts. The lack of traditional over-distance was disconcerting for the Long to Short volume monster type coaches, and the delayed addition of true speed work was disconcerting for the Short to Long guys. Some of them shut their pieholes when he broke 48 in only his third outdoor 400m race since high school off of like 10 weeks of prep though! Yet again the info here is different from ‘normal’ and pays dividends.
After the 47.98 race, ESTI send a copy of the race to KitKat, who commented on the sag between 150 and 250, as well as my athlete having weakness and lack of flexibility in the hip flexors and adductors, which was absolutely spot on. I still don’t understand how he knew this simply from watching a race, but that’s why you ask the master coaches for their feedback! KitKat was very generous sending in sending key pieces of feedback and advice over the span of the season that added to the advice that ESTI, Waldemar, Angela, and my coach generously provided. Look at all the quality people providing support.
[b]We had a 200+200 workout scheduled for that day. Now, my athlete is one of my BBM contacts, and he added me to one of his BBM friend groups that discusses track. I noticed that he was making comments at 8:15 am, which is way earlier than he is usually awake. I asked him what he was doing up so early. “I’m going to Wonderland!” he stated happily (a local amusement park). “What? You’re going to an amusement park 10 days out from Trials to walk around in the sun all day, dehydrate yourself and you think you’re going to come out and complete a workout this evening at 5 pm?” I asked. I could almost predict the reply; “Yeah- I’m a beast!”
I told him to forget the workout and take the day off.[/b] you took control and made the tough call, well done, it isn’t your fault it was ignored.
We got together the next day to attempt a workout near his parents home in the other end of the city. It was comical- this was a public high school track, so some stupid 3 year old kept moving my cones, another dipshit kid was riding his bike on the track, and an older group of recreational runners were doing extremely slow 300m intervals. It ended up not mattering, because when he warmed up and started doing a few strides, he looked just atrocious- I have never seen such awful form from him. He tried to do a few accels, and I was so taken aback by his horrendous form that I just had him cool down- didn’t even think of substituting tempo instead! you adjusted to the situation and didn’t stick to ‘the plan’ easy to say tough to do especially given the time frames involved.
I went home and re-watched the “10 Day Taper” video three times that weekend just to make sure I understood the big concepts and wasn’t forgetting anything. Drawing on available quality resources and putting in the the time to learn and implement.
I gave him the next day off, and we got back at it on Sunday. It was a totally different guy that showed up. We ran 3x30 along with 40, 50, 60, 80 and a single 150. vidence you made the right call.
[b]I usually like to be present for therapy sessions, as even though these therapists are well regarded, they work for me- they aren’t going to be doing things I’m not comfortable with. This particular clinic has a big Active Release Technique bias, and I’m not sure how I feel about ART. I’ve felt it be helpful before, but as someone who follows Waldemar’s approach, I’m suspicious of the stress it puts on the musculature and I’m not sure how close I’d like it done to a race.
About this specific session, my athlete went in and started the session without me, and the Chiropractor did acupuncture with micro-current on his hip flexors. This is a fairly aggressive treatment to be doing 8 days out from a major competition, so I was not pleased. But here’s the kicker- once the current was turned on, the chiropractor left the room for 15 minutes and left the athlete alone while being stimmed- I’ve seen this done reapeatedly by almost every chiropractor, as if they are too important to stay and monitor the athlete during treatment. In contrast, Waldemar would NEVER leave an athlete alone during an acupuncture treatment. He is always conversing and verbally and visually checking for signs of discomfort or changes in response. [/b] T Slow you know your stuff so follow your instincts and trust your judgement.
Is it possible to share the 47.98 race?
Had to chuckle about your comments re the public high school track session given your employment.
50 shades of T-Slow for the title of the book?
As an adjunct, hoping that is the right word, is anyone else excited that KK is back in the personal coaching game?
As an Australian, I am, I think I may know who this female athlete is as I have seen photos of this athlete doing the KK hills 
T Slow knows more than he feels. He is very humble. Time will prove his skills as a coach.
The comment about Waldemar’s acupuncture sessions, once W turns it on, he sits and stares at the needles for the time the athlete is connected to the stim. It’s constant supervision in his office. Maybe Ange could comment on how he was when a group of athletes were being treated in her race days.
T Slow,
Is there a generalized outline of how you approached things somewhere on the site?
How hard is it to get in to see Waldemar?Great reading. One thing you learn if you coach long enough,is this. Young athletes (I coach 18-24 yrs) Rarely understand how there actions away from the track affect there performance. They will do things that drive coaches crazy. I have to constantly talk to our athletes about rest,diet,stretching,etc etc…
Thanks everyone for the comments! I’m so glad people are enjoying it. I think it shows how much we are able to learn from Charlie’s principles and from members here who’ve been sharing information over the years.
I will continue later this evening hopefully.
I wanted to make a suggestion for those of you trying to log workouts or keep notes. Check out the Evernote app. It’s free (there’s a paid version if you use a ton of memory) and it works across every platform- PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Blackberry, so your notes can always be uploaded and are always accessible. I have a lot of trouble keeping organized, so Evernote has really helped ensure I log everything. I’ve logged workouts, notes from conversations I’ve had with people regarding the season, schedules, etc. It might be helpful for some so check it out!
Hi Ollie, the Lactate Threshold thread is where the KitKat program is outlined. I bought the Ebook because it’s way easier to read than the million page thread and you can keyword search easily if you read it on a PC.
You can book an appointment with Waldemar as long as it works for his schedule- he doesn’t work full time anymore. He’s a great guy. I’ve been going to him for at least five years or six years now.
shit yeah!
Looking forward to your next post, T-Slow!
KK, whatever experiences you can pass via this forum, you know it would be a pleasure for us all!
And it’s MUCH worse with youth athletes too. I’ve had the luck of coaching a talented youth athlete recently who made it pretty high on the IAAF top list. Going into the national championships the athlete was in superb shape and was hitting significant training PBs. The previous year the athlete had been about 1% off the championship record, and I thought the record was in serious jeopardy with a good race.
That is, until 8 days before the championship race, my athlete went for an EIGHT HOUR HIKE IN THE MOUNTAINS. I got a text 7 days before the big race day saying they couldn’t workout b/c of this hike. It turns out they could not walk up or down stairs for the 2 days after the hike, and the 3rd day it was still painful on the stairs. The race did not go well.
What is it about a taper for a major championship that brings out the most creative ways to tire oneself out? I’m guessing it’s the excess energy from the reduced workload?
I copped on to an easy solution right after the amusement park trip of doom…
I have had an athletes do some things, not as bad as the above, doing peaking phases. Thing these athletes are highly intelligent individuals, yet the least intelligent has never done anything ‘silly’
So I jumped ahead a little bit in the last post. After the amusement park incident and our Friday attempt to work out in the east end, I thought back to a conversation I once had with Waldemar in his living room while drinking one of his fantastic cups of tea with lots of manuka honey.
“Do you know what the biggest injury risk to athletes is?” he asked. He paused for dramatic effect then barked, “Women!”
He recounted a story from when he was working with an international soccer team, and they were visiting another city for a match of some importance. The players had been rested and carefully prepared. Upon arrival in the visiting city, their rooms had been placed on the ground floor, and Waldemar suspected there was evil intention behind it- so that girls could easily sneak onto the balconies and into players rooms. The athletes would then show up the next day to the game looking poorly rested with tight muscles despite the coaching and therapy staffs best efforts.
Of course, Waldemar is no ordinary man- he is the Alpha King Jedi-level recovery and regeneration specialist, so he spent the night pacing the hallway in ninja-like fashion listening for noises emanating from rooms, and when he heard something, busted in and threw the women out.
Basically, he was saying that no matter how well you prepare an athlete, they can unknowingly turn into their own worst enemies, and sometimes you have to engage in somewhat paranoid behavior and protect them from themselves. (As Charlie would say, “Total paranoia is total preparedness!”)
So the answer was clear. My athlete was going to have to move into my place until Trials. To be honest, I’m single, no kids, no problems, so though this wouldn’t work for everyone, it certainly was easy for me to accomplish.
I have a pretty small apartment, so I vacated my room and slept on the couch. This way he had no excuse not to get a good night’s sleep. His girl could stay over occasionally- no problem. He had put himself under a self-imposed sexual moratorium from the day after the amusement park incident, so I wasn’t too worried about him screwing himself up in that sense. I made sure that things got pretty boring once 11 o’clock hit. Here’s a sample of one of our late evening conversations:
“What, you don’t have cable, and you have a 20” tube television?"
“Uh, yes.”
“So what do you do for fun when you’re at home, just watch movies and listen to records?”
“Yeah, pretty much that or read.”
“Jeez man.” (Totally judging me and pitying my boring life)
I showed him how to use my turntable. Stereo geek is my number two hobby after track geek. (Ask ESTI- he showed up to my place and was shocked to find my living room dominated by a totally impractical speaker placement called “The Cardas Method”)
My athlete occupied himself by playing through my record collection over the next few days. He actually got pretty into my stereo, and I must say there is almost nothing you can do to hurt yourself while listening to records, which was comforting when I had to leave during the day to go to work.
I knew for a fact that he was getting to bed earlier by staying at my place; like many people with ADHD he has issues with getting to sleep at a reasonable hour and the record playing routine was providing a welcome calming period before sleep, allowing him to settle hours earlier than normal.
Our next couple of workouts went well. We had 200+200, where he hit the first tempo rep in an absurdly easy looking 21.99 and backed it up off a few minutes rest in under 24 seconds- I don’t have exact notes for the length of rest and the exact split of the backup rep, but it was what we needed. He is a speed creature, and our prep was seriously shortened, so obviously endurance was going to be below ideal.
The rest of the taper went very smoothly. To be honest, we didn’t lift much during the season, and since things were progressing, I didn’t want to overcomplicate things so there were mostly just medball throws (squat throws over high jump pit, hop throws, double hop throws, overhead back, squat throws with vertical push) and minimal safe plyo work (despite the foot issue, he feels plyos really help him so we included some). Keep in mind this is a guy who can bench press 300 lbs. with ease off of pretty much no work, so at the time absolute strength gains were not a major priority.
We had a workout with some accels to 30m with a couple of 60m to 80m runs at 95%. Everything looked good, and his muscle tone was coming down nicely, just like Charlie said it would on the 10 Day Taper download. I was doing the massage myself during the taper, and it was a daily occurrence. You could feel the muscle becoming more pliable, and he was complaining less of tightness in his legs as the taper went on, except the tightness in the left hip flexor remained an issue though I hoped we would get away with it.
On Sunday afternoon two days before we left, I gave Waldemar a call and thanked him for the assessment he had done for us, as it really helped me to understand some key things. I told him we were leaving Tuesday morning for nationals and we were sorry that we didn’t get up to see him again for a final check before heading out. This was something I really wanted to do. That was when he dropped a bomb- “Well I’m heading to Hamilton on Monday- would you like me to stop in Toronto so I could give him a final check?” WOULD I? Are you frigging kidding me? Obviously we jumped at the chance. I mentioned to Angela that Waldemar would be stopping by to work on my guy and invited her to come and hang. She instead invited us to work at her place as she has a couple of massage tables, and I could avoid the expense and hassle of renting one. Wow- talk about a confidence boost of epic proportions!
These are the type of people we here at CF.com are dealing with. I can’t tell you in words how incredibly generous and kind Angela and Waldemar are with their time and energy- their actions tell you right there. It is such a blessing to be able to interact with people who have a passion for what they do. It makes success a much easier thing to attain!
Monday was an exciting day. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of school so I could meet up with Waldemar and Angela. We also brought a friend of ours along who is a very good developmental high jumper. She ended up placing 2nd overall at Trials.
Once we got started downstairs, our friend was first up. Waldemar examined her muscle tone and pronounced it very good. She is very tall and narrow, with obviously very good base talent for high jump. She did not require any acupuncture, and received a general lower body massage that was heavy on Waldemar’s signature rocking and shaking style.
He then checked her lower back, specifically the erector spinae and found that there was a clear strength differential between the left and right sides. The athlete was immediately able to identify a “specific” high jump exercise she had been asked to do at school that involved using a resistance band to raise the arms and twist the torso, but only in the direction she jumps!
Waldemar had a couple of suggestions- first to balance the rotational work on both sides of the body rather than just favouring one.
Second, he had her assume a reverse-hyper position on a flat bench, and placed a rolled up towel under the groin to raise the hip slightly off the surface of the bench. This would target the weaker spinal erector slightly more and help to even out the imbalance. (I don’t remember if you place the towel under the weak side or the stronger side- I will find out and report back, but in the meantime try it out and I’m sure it’s fairly obvious) I actually had some photos and video, but I left my bag in a taxi which contained my tablet. I am still hopeful of getting it back, and maybe I can post a few things.
He suggested doing the hyper complex as seen on the GPP DVD regularly- straight leg hypers, 90 degree bent leg hypers, and the upper body hypers also. He showed her a few other cool exercises to target particular muscles in the quad / hip flexor area.
It was then time for my athlete to get worked on. I was nervous hear what he was going to say about my athlete’s muscle tone. I had been doing all the massage during the taper period so far, and I hoped that I’d been doing the right stuff. I must have watched the “10 Day Taper” video at least six more times during the taper period just to make sure I understood as much as possible about muscle tone and what I should be feeling, as it’s a poorly understood concept even at the highest levels of athletics, it appears.
I asked Waldemar once he started to check his legs, “How is his muscle tone, is it crappy?” I am much more positive usually, I was just nervous about my massage work being inferior.
Waldemar’s reply showed me once again how important mental approach was to the Optimist track group. He quickly replied, “No! His tone is quite good!” He then quietly reminded me how important it was to remain positive especially in the taper period. Listening to Charlie and Waldemar talk, Optimist wasn’t just the name of the club, it was clearly a philosophy that underlined everything their group did.
I was relieved to hear that his tone was good. I got a lot of practical help from ESTI in figuring out how deep to go with massage. Charlie’s massage video, the Jane Project video, as well as the Taper video helped enormously also.
Waldemar also checked the upper right side of his back, as he has tightness and pain between the spine and the scapula that gives him the feeling that he has difficulty breathing deeply. He decided to treat him with acupuncture. My athlete had complained incessantly about tightness and pain in that area throughout the training period, and with just one treatment from Waldemar his complaining dropped for the rest of the season by 90%. Im not saying it cured the problem, because nobody can do that in one treatment, but the difference was incredible. This made my athlete feel VERY positive heading into the competition!