When is your first meet?
My first meet is Nov. 28th. Which coincides with the end of week 4 of my 3rd block. I won’t be changing anything leading up to the meet.
Yesterday:
I had my first day of testing. We tested standing 30m. While I wasnt expecting big pb’s at this stage because I was just hitting week 3 of my 2nd block and I was feeling the effects of the previous 2 weeks. I would get a good idea that if I ran something half decent that I was definitely on track. The past 6 weeks have been focused on my acceleration and making sure that I’ve got a pattern that can take me to my goal.
Standing 30m electric
4.02s
3.90s
3.93s
I was sort of stumbling running these because we were using 4 point starts and I’ve been using 3 point in all of my training, so the pattern was somewhat unfamiliar. I think these were pretty decent. If I consider after this block, acceleration volumes will taper down a bit and I’ll bounce back from this difficult week that would probably put me at 3.85s, and then with a solid taper before competition I think I could hit 3.8s once all of my speed (30-60m) is in place.
Considering this time last year I was testing at 4.01s I’m definitely going somewhere.
Now for my next two blocks of training they focus on top end speed. My current pb in a flying 30m is 2.91s. If I can get that down to something in the 2.8s range I think I’ll be in pretty good shape.
Now we’d be looking at 2.85s+3.80s+.15s= 6.80 and I’d be really close to my goal for this year. So by the end of december I’ll be looking to test out my flying 30s to see if I hit my goal.
After the testing I did
4x60m FEF
5x5 front squat
3x10 incline bench
2x5 1 arm row
Sort of a proof of concept right here:
My strength has been increasing pretty consistently even though I’ve been completely coping out on the work doing sets of 2 instead of 4, cutting out exercises all together and so on. Just as Charlie had explained in his weights for speed video. Even though i’m not doing 5x5 all the way through it is still 5x5 because i’m getting that component before.
Even though I have felt as though i’ve been completely slacking on strength work my front squat max has gone from about 235 to 315.
I know things are going well if strength is increasing without even trying, that means im hitting my acceleration component really hard and that its affecting a large portion of the fv curve. Next test will be if my jumps improve without even trying when I’m hitting speed hard.
Yesterday:
2x4x30m sleds 45lbs, with 5 minutes break
3x5 deadlifts
Core work
Great work out, my legs are fried for this entire week, which is sort of the point of week 3. I want to make sure I’ve dug myself a good little hole that is just deep enough that next week I’ll bounce right out. By thursday I’ll make sure that I’m a little more tired then usual in the sprints department and then week 4 will be quite easy.
Yesterday:
Tempo 2x4x100m
Today:
2x3x60m (40m intensity limit) 8 minutes rest.
Weights: 3x3 cleans
Pretty intense workout as this is week 3 of 4 in this block, this is my last hard workout before a fairly easy week. I ramped up the intensity on these runs to 40m limit so that in 2 weeks when im up to 50m out of blocks it wont be so bad. This is the first time I’ve actually fully accelerated out to 40m and I could definitely feel it in my hamstrings. I was using a 4 point start and I felt as though my first few steps were really weak. I think its because i dont have anything to pus off of and because I dont have the accel pattern down. We’ll see in two weeks when I start coming out of blocks.
It feels good to finally be hitting some speed. The next blocks gets quite intense with 40-50m intensity and 8-10 minutes break at reps of 5-6. Can’t wait.
Today:
2x20m blocks
3x60m from blocks (40m intensity limit)
3x5 front squat
3x5 leg curls
2x10 bench
2x10 pull ups
Nothing special its my taper week. First block session, I figured I’d get a head start on the pattern for blocks. It was a struggle the first few reps. But the last one felt pretty good. First race is at the end of this coming month so by then I should have a pretty decent block start and be pretty decent to about 40-50m. If I run 7.1x then I know im in trouble, if I run 7.0s then things are going decent, still lots to improve, anything faster would be fantastic at that point in the year.
Today I was definitely not recovered. Not sure what it was from, could have been from sunday, but that was a taper day, could have been from the accumulation of the past 3 weeks. Although I felt great on sunday and really down today. Just no power, no drive and a decrease will to train.
Anyway, I took it really easy today, even easier than the taper required.
warm-up
3x20m
Core
jog stretch
No lifting at all. We’ll see how things go on thursday. If I feel the same I’ll basically repeat what I did today. If not I’ll just continue with the taper but perhaps at a slightly lowered intensity.
Good idea, I won’t be changing anything at all leading into my first meet either.
Yeah, it’ll be more of a timed practice more then anything.
I’m in recovery over drive today. I did tempo, stretched, hot cold sauna/shower, I’m going to roll tonight, I had a chiro appointment earlier today, body rolling tonight (especially on the quads), sleeping in tomorrow until noon and then I have a massage appointment on monday.
This week has been a little rough with a few mid-terms at school. Less sleep, extra stress and too much coffee. Now that its over with im all set to recover a little better.
Today was so much better then Tuesday. I was down in the dumps on Tuesday and today I was definitely bouncing back. Not quite 105% yet, but probably around 95%. Which means Sunday I should be fully bounced back in my supercompensation cycle.
I did:
4x60m (30m intensity limit) 5 minutes break
3x3 cleans
Took an ice bath immediately after and that felt amazing. I think my crash recovery methods really helped out.
I only have two possible explanations for what happened.
- The accumulation of fatigue continued in to my taper week, hitting my lowest point on tuesday and hopefully bouncing back on sunday.
or
2.Sunday was too intense of a practice, almost a pb level, and it would require 7 days of recovery.
Either way, by sunday I should be ready to start block 3 even stronger then ever.
Week 1 of block 3.
3x20m blocks
1xflying 25m from 20m run in (2.46s)
4x50m blocks (10 minutes rest)
Weights:
8x2 explosive box squat
3x5 stiff legged deadlifts
Amazing workout. I’ve bounced back from the taper week and ran some very good runs. I actually tested a quick flying 25m from a 20m run in with electric timing and it was damn near my pb. It was actually faster then when I ran my 60m pb.My pb is 2.43s, but thats from a full run in(40m). And i’ve only just begun to hit speed over 30m. So things are looking incredibly good at this point in the season. If things continue to progress I shouldnt have any problems getting up towards my goals.
Today:
4x20m accels
5xflying 20m with a more gradual 30m run in(10 minutes break)
Gym:
3x3 squats
3x5 glute/ham raises
3x5 bench
3x5 pull ups
Overall great workout
Yesterday:
4x20m blocks
5x50m blocks (10 minutes rest)
Felt ok, had some pretty iffy starts and the speed felt a little forced but overall it wasnt too bad for an end of week workout. Thursdays are a little different in this block, I dont do weights after the sprinting, I’ve switched it to the next morning so that I can incorporate some jumps and not be completely messed up.
This morning:
4x3 cleans
superset with drop jumps
3x6 depth jumps
3x5 one leg box jumps
Back extension
Overall this workout was fairly taxing on the CNS, I could definitely feel it. Doing some jumps touching the basketball rims I felt potentiated in between my sets of jumps. So I think its good to do them roughly 12 hours after my sprints because they are also very intense. Only problem is I’m not entirely awake doing it 1 hour after I wake up. So the first few sets suck while I wait to get woken up. I might try some caffeine before practice next time.
One thing that I’ve noticed is that my cleans have not gone up since I’ve started doing them about 8 months ago. I think its a combination of factors. The first being that my form got better and so lifting the same weight is more difficult. The second being that my sprint volume has increased significantly so I’m lifting the same weight but at a much more fatigued state then previously. Overall I think if I did cleans alone I think my numbers would be more impressive then they have been.
One concept that I’m just starting to observe is the idea of varying the general stimulus (so what I do after the sprints) and how that can trigger greater gains. Its a concept that I’ve only read about before but am now finally putting in to practice and observing its effects. So whether I do weights after speed or plyos, even though the speed component hasnt varied much the body is forced to adapt again due to a change in stimulus. We’ll see how this plays out.
Calves were quite sore today from those drop jumps on friday.
4x20m blocks
5x50m blocks 10 minutes rest
Gym:
10x2 explosive box squats
4x5 stiff legged deadlifts
The sprints were good although the sore calves made for an interesting feedback feeling. Most of the starts were a little iffy, mostly because every once in a while I’ll take an over step. I think i’m reaching too much. Next session I think i’m going to focus on not trying to overreach. We’ll see how that goes.
I’ve been hitting speed over 50 meters quite a bit lately. Although its only been 1 week and a bit it feels like I need a bit more variety. So I might throw in some speed endurance work once a week. Something like 8x20m blocks and 2x200m with 10 minutes rest. I’ll see how I feel on tuesday.
Why the explosive squats?
Its my weights coach’s plan. He is a fan of them, those and jump squats. They’re light squats, pause on the box and explode up. I think they work well. I’m not really sure to be honest, I’m so dead nowadays after my sprint workouts that weights are nothing more then an after thought.
I bought an EMS for recovery purposes, I hope this can help with some tightness I’ve been having and speed up some muscle recovery.
Not the greatest workout today.
My hamstrings were stiff and sore as hell from sunday’s stiff legged deadlifts. On top of that I had some deep ART done earlier today. My hamstrings burned so bad by the last rep of this workout. I jumped right into the ice tub after practice.
This week’s workouts have been slightly sub par mostly because of the soreness of the new exercises (depth jumps, stiff deads) not because of CNS stress. Muscle soreness is easy to work through but puts a damper on the intensity somewhat. No big deal though, as long as its not CNS fatigue.
4x20m
2xflying 30’s from a 10m fly in
3xflying 20m from 30m start, progressive acceleration
Gym:
4x3 squats
We did some flying runs because the coach at the track was timing and I hate to throw away the opportunity to get timed electronically. Although I was completely screwed from Sunday and knew I wasnt really going to break any records we said screw it. Managed to run a 2.99s flying 30m from 10m out. And the way our indoor track is set up, there arent turns per se but rather its a 16 sided track with all straights. Pretty messed up. You can almost get a full 40m straight without having to turn slightly. So my 10m run in was around a corner! So all things considered that 2.99s isnt so bad at this stage.
My training partner got a full massage yesterday after a tempo session and he had a much better session, although he was still slightly sore. I think the key thing that I’ve missed, especially when I’ve got some residual soreness is tempo. So far i’ve had to skip a few session due to scheduling but I’m definitely going to find the time to fit that in.
With my new EMS machine I’m looking forward to some recovery modes after tempo sessions to get things tuned up a little faster. I think it’ll really make a big difference after these sore sessions.
Tempo session today:
2x4x100m
1x300m
stretch and sauna
Good to get the blood flowing
Very good session tonight.
4x20m blocks
5x50m blocks
Speed was coming easy, very high intensity
Ice tub after the speed
Got my EMS in the mail today. Looking forward to some recovery programs on off days.Ive got my jumps and weights in the morning.