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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Its a cheap one from medical products online, like 60 bucks. Just bought it for the recovery settings.
Its goes to 150Hz and has on/off times of 2-90 secs. I’m not sure what other features are necessary for strength training. Decent unit. Only has 4 electrodes so it may take long to do each muscle one at a time.
4x3 cleans superset with sets of 5 drop jumps
3x6 depth jumps
3x5 one legged box jumps
3x8 bench press
3x5 pulls ups
Good workout
Today I did some recovery ems from 10-2Hz for 30 minutes on my hamstrings to loosen things up.
The pulse width on the machine only goes up to 300, but all other features are on par for strength training.
That pulse width is the same as my unit, which can definitely develop a strong contraction! I would recommend not starting with the full 10 reps for 10 seconds the first few times because you will find yourself very, very sore!