pete's training journal

[pete]

M-OFF
T-Accel. development on hills followed by MS weights
W-Heavy weights circuit
Th-Field circuit
F-tempo
Sa-45/55m speed reps
Su-MS weights

Monday, November 3, 2003
-OFF

Tuesday, November 4, 2003
-3*(710m up the 15 degree grass hill in my yard trying to not lean very far down on the start so that I don’t engrain to steep angles like last time done in flats (it was really wet out) with a walk back in between reps) and 7 minutes in between sets. It felt good, Saturday will determine whether I was leaning in too much.
-Slightly better full squat session but still not good: 61@305 with 3 minutes in between reps and missed the seventh; I meant to do 101. BP was not good, I tried to do 32 @ 180 and missed on the 2nd rep of the first set! I went down to 175 and missed the 2nd one on the next set! I gave up and unloaded. I did a few sets of 2 reps of power clean pulls with 165. These felt good, I don’t have good enough technique to quickly dip under (I still think that fresh I could power clean 185 or at least get it up to this height but I was feeling fatigue by this point). There’s something about me and squats, I am using a very smart progression with DLs and they’re improving beautifully but I guess with squats its an ego thing. But no more! Next week I’ll max out and next max strength phrase I’ll follow a saner approach to the max out session.

Wednesday, November 5, 2003
-Heavy weights circuit:
3*“depletion” pullups although while still at this rep stage I don’t know if it can be called that w/ 120s in between.
8,4,4. Some improvement, not bad.

3*(10 full squats w/ 185
10 dips w/ 10 lbs.
10 front squats w/135
10 RLDLs w/ 135)
with a walk back to the next exercise or unload bar between exercises and 2 minutes in between sets.

5*(20 hypers
15 hangling leg raises)

The next morning I did:
4*10 eccentric chins
100 ab rolls over four sets (it was spread last week too)
because I meant to do these later in the day after the session but forgot to.

Thursday, November 6, 2003
-Field circuit. 5*(20 prisoner squats, 30 sledgehammer hits, 15 pushups, 10 hip tosses/each side with MB, 50 around the world with MB, 20 lunges, 15 ab rolls, and 15s MB superman holds). The goal with these is to try to get 3000 ab units in the session as if I were doing a tempo session followed by a 1000 unit core work session.

Friday, November 7, 2003
-Tempo. 24200.

Saturday, November 8, 2003
-We were down at Emory so I worked out @ that track. It must have been fast because…
PB!!! and big PB at that.
I did 245m, 355m, and 30m fly-in and 20m fly during the session. On the first 45 I got a 5.79 (5.61 FAT equivalent) which is a PB by .10. The last two runs were 55s and were the only 55s timed and they were disturbingly slow, however I don’t care because it was obviously a combo of being tired and not being used to the distance. Since 35-45 is probably not more than a very few hundredths above 1.00 it is inconcevable 45-55 is going to be more once practiced and I’m expecting it will be in around .95 or less.

Sunday, November 9, 2003
-51 DL @ 295. 11 @ 315. This is 15 #s more than I did as a max before my 1/2 yr. lifting hiatus. Next week I’m confident I’ll be able to get 335. 6*1 push press @ 135 w/ 1 minute in between. These were really good and fast. I could probably max out at around 175/185 (though I might have a hard time lowering it!).

[pete]

M-OFF
T-Accel. development on grass hill and max out squat and bench.
W-Heavy lifting circuit
Th-Speed lifting and tempo style bicycling
F-Tempo style bicycling
Sa-Top speed work
Su-Max out deadlift and regular front and back upper body work

Monday, November 10, 2003
-OFF

Tuesday, November 11, 2003
-Accel. development on grass hills outside house in flats. 3612m (?) with some explosive medball throws in between as well. Walk back between reps and about seven minutes between sets.
-Maxed out on weights afterwards. Hit a 315 full squat and got stuck on 335. I could have maybe pushed through but I wasn’t confident in my spotter so I thought if I missed I would have to drop on the racks. If I got to 1/4 from the way up and got stuck there coming back down could have been nasty. But I’ll figure I could get at least 325. Same type of thing with bench, I got 185 but not because I didn’t have confidence in my spotter but because I guess I have transferred the habit from squatting I just stopped when I hit a sticking point on 195. STupid, but oh well. I still hit my goals for the cycle and its possible I could have done more so I’m happy.

Wednesday, November 12, 2003
-Heavy lifting GF circuit. Mixing quad dominant with hip extension exercises at the beginning (front squat, RLDL, split squats, snatch DLs)which I liked.

Thursday, November 13, 2003
-I was in the gym so I decided to do some speed lifting. I did 2 sets of 5 and one set of 3 speed DLs with 165 (50%) and 33 push presses with 85 (50%). They went well.
-1250s on the stationary bike with 30s in between reps. Too cold to do a field circuit.

Friday, November 14, 2003
-10*80s on the stationary bike with 40s in between reps. Too cold for tempo.

Saturday, November 15, 2003
-It was a very nasty day. I think it was just above 50 but there was a crazy side wind at the track. Because of this I decided to do top speed work instead of timed runs on the first three reps so I did 20m flys with 30m accelerations in. The wind seemed to be letting down a bit so I did 2 timed 55s after this. On the first the wind was really nasty but on the second I’d say but can’t really say for that that it didn’t put me at an advantage or disadvantage. I got a 7.04 (6.82 FAT). So that’s coming along, in warmer weather it could have conceivably even been below 6.7. I still have to do more practice with the 55s. I followed this with another 20m fly from 30m.

Sunday, November 16, 2003
-I maxed out in deadlift today. I got 315 again and then 335. I missed 355 and discovered (from both this lift and the lift before) that I have a bit of a strength imbalance on my right side or that the grip makes it seem like this. I don’t think I could have gotten 355 but though I don’t see a problem with maxing out in lifts I think holding on on maxes and really trying to pull through when they don’t come up relatively fast is inviting injury.
62 push press @ 125. They were very fast.
I went up to a 295 clean style DL just because I wanted to get a feel for how much I could pull in that area since I will be basing some lifts off of that in the future. I’m going to guess my max in that lift would be 315.
I did 42 hang snatches just to provide an upper back stimulus and followed it with 25 pullups (my grip was pretty fried) and 230 lat pulldowns (more pullup training).

[pete]

I’m going to do a very demanding speed/power phase that will look like this:
Week 1:

M-OFF
T-Speed followed by plyos
W-special endurance
Th-heavy circuit lifting
F-recovery (20 minutes bicycling)
Sa-Speed
Su-Complex weight training

Week 2:
Same

Week 3:
M-OFF
T-Speed followed by plyos
W-special endurance
Th-heavy circuit lifting
F-recovery
Sa-recovery
Su-speed

That’s if all goes as planned. I might find after the first week I need to unload.

Week 1 Summary:
M-OFF
T-Speed complexed with plyos
W-1*300 special endurance
Th-heavy circuit lifting
F-recovery (20 minutes bicycling)
Sa-Speed
Su-Complex weight training

Monday, November 12, 2003
-OFF

Tuesday, November 13, 2003
-Top speed and plyos complexed.
Set 1:
210m SL bounds
44 hurdle hops (on one notch above lowest on last two, first two were on lowest)
3*(25 accel in/20 float/20 fly)

Set 2:
210m SL bounds
1 1/24 hurdle hops (on one notch above lowest, slipped on the 2nd of the second and called it a night
1*(25 accel in/20 float/20 fly)
50m accel in and 20 fly (trying to reach a higher than usual top speed)

Wednesday, November 14, 2003
-Raining cats and dogs so only 1*300 for special endurance in flats. Felt good for the most part, might have had a little shoulder tightness. I’m just going to work on these until I have to do specific overdistance for Spring. Next year I think I’ll skip the split runs.

Thursday, November 15, 2003
-Heavy lifting circuit:
3*8 pullups

310 front squats @ 135
26 dips w/ 10 pounds
310 RLDLs @ 135
26 dips w/ 10 pounds
3*10 snatch grip Dls

315 hypers
325 leg raises
310 2/1 tricep extensions
36 lat shrugs w/ 225

Lunges w/ 2 35s

Friday, November 16, 2003
-14*1:20 at above 120 RPM tempo style cycling. This is high volume, I’m estimating around 3000m tempo equivalent (in effect on muscles and cardiovascular system, its 4800m in time) because I need a large regeneration effect and addition of general fitness.

Saturday, November 17, 2003
-Friday seemed to work because…2 PBs. I was coming out of a 3 pt. stance for the first time and got a PB of 4.07 (3.95 FAT) 30m and 5.64 (5.46 FAT) 45m. These are huge and they also give me confidence in the timing system since whenever I see an improvement in 30m I see a proportional improvement in 30. Now all I have to do is get the next 10m under a second and I’ll be flying for 55! Things seem to be going pretty well, 1/4 second off 45 in 3 weeks is not bad! The total session was 430 and 445.

Sunday, November 18, 2003
-Complex training:
8SLJ onto boxes
5depth jump onto boxes (last one hold for 60 seconds @ 90 degrees)
5jump squat w/ 70 lbs., 214s hold in bottom position full squat into jump squat
3* power clean pull w/ 145
4* 4s Isometric pause at bottom full squat w/ 225
28s accentuated eccentric full squat w/ 250
31 (1 1/2 min. between reps) full squat w/ 275
11 attempt @ 14s eccentric with 325 (1RM), lost control after 10s
21 (1 1/2 min. between reps) full squat w/ 275
28s accentuated eccentric full squat w/ 250
4 4s Isometric pause at bottom full squat w/ 225
3* power clean pull w/ 145
3jump squat w/ 70 lbs., 214s hold in bottom position full squat into jump squat
5*SLJ onto boxes

[pete]

Monday, November 19, 2003
-OFF

Tuesday, November 20, 2003
-Got crappy sleep last night. This sometimes happens on Mondays because of non activity but I think since I was laying in bed for 2 hours that it was also nervous system fatigue. So I’m changing to the more conservative template this week and hopefully I’ll catch some nice supercompensation.
-Today I did an 18 set circuit in the weightroom and 6*1:20 on 120 or above on bike.

Wednesday, November 21, 2003
-420m accel in 25m fly.
350m accel in 25m fly.
I’ve lengthened the fly zone because I think I sometimes automatically shut it down a bit when I start seeing the hurdle on flys but thankfully not on short speed (new term I learned, i.e. all out 45m or 50m with accel and some or all top speed) so this allowed me to keep the length high. TMSSF also made this interesting observation which makes me confident about lengthening the zone as well:

"We have found that our faster and more experienced sprinters work maxV better using 10-20m fly zones, where our more developmental athletes require 20-30m zones to reach our planned goals.

We have reasoned that the former can recruit, at a higher rate, the neural and stimulatory responses necessary to hit peak velocity rates in the shortened distance than the latter group. In addition to the fore/hind brain discussions, Charlie’s notations concerning the inhibition factor in MU recruitment, perhaps serves as rationale for these differences.

Depending on the maturity of the athlete and familiarization with the session, zone distances may vary. We found that it isn’t always about how fast the flying area is approached!"

Thanks TMSSF!
This was a good session, I hadn’t done an accel in of only 20 in a while and today I didn’t really concentrate on raising the hips and stepping down hard for that portion or in the 50 to 70 but I think it worked and I seemed to be going very fast. I think some good technique has been engrained.

Thursday, November 22, 2003
-Special endurance. 300 in drum roll please…43.5. Oh dear God. Well that obviously needs a lot of work to be anywhere near respectable. A big part is obviously that I did speed yesterday, that may account for 3 seconds but that is still a truly awful time. I am using it as general training component but I think I should still try to get it down to around 40 and 37 when not preceded by work. 10 minutes later 1*200 in 31. 28 would have been 300 pace which I was looking for. Again, lots of work needed.

Friday, November 23, 2003
-10*2:00 on stationary bike. Different machine, this one had arm levers as well.

Saturday, November 24, 2003
-I was a little worried about soreness/tightness/stiffness from using a different stationary bike but I was fine.
6*55 today. It was the nastiest day I’ve run in this year (except maybe a couple sessions where it was poring). The wind was absolutely nuts and it was almost straight from the side. It was maybe just above 50 as well. I got a big PB of 6.84 (6.62 FAT equiv., oh yeah! ) and I think the weather made at least a 2 tenths difference (so last Saturday I would have gotten a 6.42. This excites me very much. 2 of the other runs were close to this but the other three were bad because I was running in the middle of a tornado for them.
Its a nice feeling to PB every week.

Sunday, November 25, 2003
In the morning 20 eccentric pullups, 90s 10 eccentric pullups

Heavy lifting circuit:
2*10 partial pullup reps getting chin above bar

36 full squats @ 215
212 dips
36 RLDLs @ 165
110 and 17 dips w/ 10 pounds
36 snatch grip Dls @ 165

315 hypers
325 leg raises
310 2/1 tricep extensions
36 lat shrugs w/ 205 + 10s hold

Lunges w/ 2 35s

[pete]

M-2 mile run and a little circuit work
T-Long hill runs and short session of top speed work
W-2 mile run and core circuit
Th-Long hill runs faster this time
F-3*5 min. running around halls
Sa-Ab circuit
Su-Heavy lifting

Monday, November 26, 2003
Winter track practice started today, we did:
-Some circuit work through lunges, wall runs, and other things and then ran two miles.

Tuesday, November 27, 2003
In track practice:
-We did a small, light weight room circuit and then a circuit involving high jumproping and some calf raises. We then did 10 160m each way (?) hills up and down.

Afterwards:
-I did some speed work. I didn’t get out until late so it was very very cold and there was also a tremendous wind. I experimented with utilizing this. I did:
220 fly-in 25 fly one way resisted and one way assisted.
230m one way resisted and one way assisted.
2*20 fly-in 25 fly one way resisted and one way assisted.

I was going to do two reps using a 50m fly-in and 25m fly zone but my calf cramped as I began the session so I had to curtail it.
My legs still felt alive after the practice. Because of the cold I had to give shorter rest periods than usual to stay warm but I think I was really moving on some of the runs. Its unfortunate I had to curtail.

Wednesday, November 28, 2003
In practice:
Some drilling and then a 2 mile run.

After practice:
-Abdominal circuit lifting. When I got home I saw the article “the core calculator” so I will not post what I did because future circuits will be very different.

Thursday, December 3, 2003 (huh, well previous dates were way off I guess)
-About 1000 unit ab session in weight room (according to “core calculator” calculations).
-Drills and such. Then we did 10*approximately 160m hills up and down on asphalt. I decided instead of doing an SE workout afterwards I would just try to jog-walk the bottoms and run the hills fast. It didn’t quite work out this way, I had to jog most of the bottoms and found that although this apparently dispels lactic acid more quickly it was more fatiguing than walking, I guess because I wasn’t really having problems with lactic acid as I was with wind. The hills were less fast because of this so it was more like an aerobic workout than an SE workout. It still got many of the same things accomplished as SE and next week were moving to more specific work. I actually found out when I got home that I wouldn’t have been able to do the SE workout anyway because of time constraints.

Friday, December 4, 2003
-3*5 minutes jogging around the halls. Some calf tightness but it was mostly resolved by stretching.

Saturday, December 5, 2003
-Core circuit inside (couldn’t sprint or even go to the gym because of snow):
10 pushups with hand on ‘sissel fit’ = 20
20 ab wheels with feet on ‘sissel fit’ = 200
60 medball around the worlds = 200
20 BW squats = 60
30 hip passes motions without actually passing left = 120
20 ab wheels with feet on ‘sissel fit’ = 200
30 hip pass motions right = 120
60 medball around the worlds = 200 = 1120
20 v-sits = 60
20 ab wheels with feet on ‘sissel fit’ = 200
220s isometric back medball holds = 40
20 lunges = 60
220s isometric front medball holds = 40
60 medball around the worlds = 200
20 ab wheels with feet on ‘sissel fit’ = 200
20 lunges = 60
10 pushups with hand on ‘sissel fit’ = 20

=2000 core “units”

Sunday, December 7, 2003
-Couldn’t sprint again.
25 (1 minute rest in between each rep in the five and then 3 minutes afterwards) deadlift @ 255 (76% 1RM).
-45 bench press @ 115 (80% 5RM) supersetted with 3 sets of pullups. I got 8 full ones on the first set and last time I couldn’t get that and hadn’t deadlifted before so that shows progress I think. I could probably get 10 or 11 on a non deadlift day. I’m hoping to get up to 15 by the time 4 weeks pass.]
-4*1:20 @ 120 or above on bike.
-600 core “units”

[pete]

M-A little first two steps start work but OFF
T-Part of heavy lifting circuit and some other circuit work
W-Tempo on asphalt
Th-Mixed accel and top speed work and max strength weightlifting
F-Special end. replacement
Sa-Field circuit
Su-Meet and top speed work

Monday, December 8, 2003
-In track we did some start work. We weren’t going past the first two steps so it wasn’t anything strenuous enough that today couldn’t remain as an off day. I was using a four point instead of 3 which did feel pretty comfortable but when I really got a good start I was slipping. However, we were in a dusty hallway.
-X-man made an interesting point on the forum the other day, saying that the fastest way to react is in a completely relaxed state and offering as proof the idea of you being relaxed and watching television and someone sneaking up behind you and firing a gun. You would probably jump through the ceiling and quickly at that.

Tuesday, December 9, 2003
-I did part of my heavy lifting circuit (310 fr. squats @ 135, 310 RLDLs @ 135, 3*10 snatch grip Dls @ 135) in track as well as some circuit mobility stuff. Then we did something similar to the runs I do on the hills on the grass outside our house, but it was on concrete. For about 20m of the run I was @ about 90% and we did 15 of these. I just have to watch shins and tendons but I’m glad to be back on the fish oil because of this.
-300 core “units”.

Wednesday, December 10, 2003
-Monday and today have shown me that ZMA makes a very big difference. These are my first two days off in about four months and the difference in DOMS is profound.
-We did extensive tempo in practice today but unfortuneately had to do it on asphalt because the grass is covered in snow. We did 33~280m, each in about 53s (if there wasn’t snow to be avoided I could have covered 300m in that time). Again I have to watch the shins as well as muscular recovery until I get and accumulate the ZMA.
-1000 addition core.

Thursday, December 11, 2003
-In practice:
Some light jogging for 1/2 mile, then shotput practice, 2 laps jogging, and a tempo pace 400. Sort of a mish mosh. I read about a study where 8 to 15 minutes of jogging on a variety of surfaces including ashphalt and mondo at >50%maxhr was deemed the best form of nervous system recovery as compared to massage, whirlpool, ice baths, and a bunch of other things. This is making me feel much about all the extra jogging I’m getting in.
-Afterwards I went to the track and did:
230m from prone
230m accel-in and 25m fly
255m from prone
130m from four point
Because of the weather (although today wasn’t bad, high 40s) I have to give myself shorter recovery times to stay warm but I don’t think this is having too big an impact on quality.
-At the gym I did 45 @ 245 full squats (about 86.5% 5RM)
45 @ 130 benches (about 86.5% 5RM)
3*10 lat pulldowns @ “110” on the machine
-400 additional abs

Friday, December 12, 2003
-In practice we did 24jog into a sprint for 40m and sprint the next 80 on cinder. We did the 4 reps with about 100m walk back recovery and I thought we were going to get a long rest for the next set, but it was almost the same so the intensity some. The workout still felt good, next time I’m going to try to campaign for more rest between sets. I was going to do SE today but I think this was a fine replacement as it’s still accomplishing the goals of improved work capacity development, technique development, ability to buffer lactic acid, muscular development, neural facilitation, and development of postural muscles.
-I think some abs, don’t remember how many.

Saturday, December 13, 2003
-Circuit involving about 20 exercises, including hurdle mobility exercises and that totaled at a little over 2500 ab units.

Sunday, December 14, 2003
-I ran a meet in the morning. It was supposed to be 55m but was stretched out to 60. I ran a 7.7h, which is really awful. However, I was running against three pretty intimidating looking 20 somethings including one guy who would finish the 60m race in 6.6h! I did well for the first half of the race, pretty much keeping up with the two guys on the side of me including the 6.6h guy and a little bit ahead of the guy on my left. However when I saw the two guys on my right starting to move I apparently really froze up.
They surged ahead and by probably around 40m the guy on my left had moved in front of me and ended up beating me by 3 tenths!
Furthermore, when I’m usually running this distance in practice I usually am very conscious of the last 30m, aware of where I’m breathing out and just trying to relax for top speed and then at the end can tell whether I set a PB or ran a bad race. In this race the last half was basically a blank to me and I came away with a truly awful time.
The race was also in shoes.
So this is just a function of experience so I’m not particularly concerned. My next 55m race I’m going to try to concentrate on just running my own race as well as try to seed myself at 6.7h so that I’ll probably have most people right in back of me, which I think would probably be the optimal situation for a good time. I do also think that I should put a bit more focus on top speed, especially since the weights will help with the acceleration a lot by themselves, but I do not think my top speed is too bad, I just think I’m having a concentration problem.
At that track (in shoes) I did 4 sprint-float-sprints of 20-20-20. These felt very good.
-When I got home I went to the weighroom and did 2 clumps of 5 deadlift singles with 45s rest between single reps and about 3 minutes in between clumps. I did these @ 275. They remained pretty fast until the end. I did 4 sets of 2+2 rep push presses @ 125 with the + representing a break of 30s. I did 26 pullups and 25 pullups in between the push press sets. I finished off with 1 set of 10 regular lunges with 2 35 lb. DBs and 2 sets of 10 side lunges with 2 40 lb. DBs.
-1000 abs.

[pete]

M-OFF
T-Part heavy lifting circuit, low recovery hill runs, and upper body circuit at home.
W-Light running and field circuit
Th-Top speed work and weightroom
F-Special end. in a meet
Sa-Bike replacement tempo, a small amount of circuit work, and abs
Su-Short speed work and low recovery hill runs

Monday, December 15, 2003
-In practice we ran two miles. It was on the side walk but I ran very slowly and I think it did me well.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003
-Part heavy lifting circuit in practice with 310 front squats @ 155 and 310 Romanian deadlifts @ 155. Then we did a little circuit work and situp type ab stuff. We moved to a set of ten hills with a walk back on the asphalt outside which is about 15 degrees and 40m accelerating slowly and then building up like last week. We didn’t do the next set of 5 this week though. I felt a little flat today.
-Later at home I did 312 negative pullups, 220 pushups, 115, and then 120 (which was around failure), as well as 4*15 ab rolls in almost continuous circuit fashion.

Wednesday, December 17, 2003
-We did 2*5 min. running in the halls in practice.
-At home I did a circuit which added up to around 2500 abs.

Thursday, December 18, 2003
-Top speed work today. I did 5*(20+20+25) sprint-float-sprints. They felt fairly good.
-At the gym I did 45 squats with 255 and 3 negatives with 335 (9s, 6s, 8s). 45 on bench with 140 and 3*12 on lat pulldown.
-500 abs.

Friday, December 19, 2003
-We had a meet today. It was at a gym which had track lines painted on but still had the gym surface and because of this I needed to use my running shoe flats. I wanted to train yesterday and use this as an SE opportunity and that’s what I ended up doing. I ran a 400 first and did it in 63. That’s obviously pathetic but I was never good at 400 because I never trained for it. However, I think I really should have a higher level of fitness than 63, even if it could have been 58-59 on an outdoor track in spikes. I also didn’t run the race too brilliantly, I decided to stay behind some guy and then try to pass him at the end, unfortunately I found out when someone passed me he wasn’t moving too fast. So I should have gone out a lot harder. I’m probably going to be in a couple 4*4s or distance medleys so I have to remember this and not try to base my beginning pace off of someone else.
-I did a 200 about 10 minutes later. It was very badly run, the starter was whispering and I had a big delay at the start and also was in a bad position. I also had to run an extra 10m because of the lane setup (no stagger, I had to run the first 10m in lane 4 and then try to cut in) and beacuse I was first. Considering all these factors and that it was in a gym, I had sprinted yesterday, and I had just run a 400 my 27.1 is not too dissappointing. In a straight 200 on the nice track we go to in flats but not shoes I’d like to break 24 indoors and I think this is conceivable. Then I could maybe break 23 outdoors when I start specifically training for it.
-Didn’t do abs.

Saturday, December 20, 2003
-I went to the gym and did 6 circuit style sets with my dad of front squats and deadlifts. I then did 12*1:20 on the bike at above 120 RPM (I’m figuring on these the average speed is around 135). I’m thinking that this is equivalent to about 3000m tempo. Then I did about 1600 reps abs.

Sunday, December 21, 2003
-I did a consultation with Clemson today. It was awesome! and will have a noticeable impact on the way I’m training. One thing I realized is that I’m not calculating the abs correctly and being a little too generous with them.
-I did speed work afterwards with 660m. It was bad, I felt like I had a rope pulling me on most of them and that I was fighting to pull through. I had one at about 7.26 FAT equivalent the rest were much higher except the last one which was a weird one because I may have false started but also misstepped very badly at some point and still ran a 7.33 FAT equiv. I was also getting bit tired by this point and the misstep definitely cost me some time. The difference seems to have been I did this one from 3 point whereas the rest were from 4 point without blocks. I’ll have to experiment with both, it may turn out that 3 point is faster than 4 point with no blocks for me.
As far as why the times were bad part of it is also that I’m not used to the 60m distance and I will see a drop once I’m used to it as happened with 45 and 55 when first starting them. I think I also be in a state of negative recovery because my immune system is busy fighting the rampant flu in our area. I am not deadlifting today and I think I will structure next week as an unload week and just not do the end of the max strength cycle before entering pre-comp.
-Later on today I did 2512m up a grass hill with a walk back @ ~90%. These actually felt good. The warmup for them was 800-1000 abs (100 sledgehammers).

[pete]

M-Extensive tempo
T-Just abs
W-Just abs
Th-Short speed work
F-Gym circuit work (light)
Sa-Short speed work indoors (awesome)
Su-Treadmill ext. tempo replacement and light gym circuit work

Monday, December 22, 2003
-We did extensive tempo in track today. Luckily the track was in good enough shape today that we could use that instead of asphalt. In addition the track is cinder and was probably softer than the grass so it made for a very good session. We did:
700, 400, 250, 200
600, 250, 100
-At home I did 800-1000 abs (100 sledgehammers)
-I meant to go to the weightroom and do yesterday’s session today, but unforseen circumstances arose.

Tuesday, December 23, 2003
-I only got four hours of sleep tonight. Stress entered my life about something and since my body is not used to this I woke up at 2:00 AM to go to the bathroom, started thinking about what was stressing me and my body freaked out. I’m surprised I didn’t grow a beer belly over night my body probably released so much cortisol! Anyway, I’m taking today as bascially off and tomorrow as another general fitness/recovery day. I think I need this.
-I did 1500 abs in track and a little mobility work and then we ran two miles. I think I’ve adapted to these runs so that they are not very stressful on my calves anymore and I can use them as recovery, so this is a good thing.

Wednesday, December 24, 2003
-I felt some flu symptoms and the gym was closed as well so I decided to just do a mostly abs mini-circuit that added up to 1500 abs.

Thursday, December 25, 2003
-I did 230, 460, and 1*55. The 60s were very depressing, the average was probably around 7.5 FAT equiv. However, when I dropped it down to 55 for the last one I got a 6.9 FAT equiv. While this was not great I ran what was definitely a very sub par run on this one and considering that the weather (it had dipped down to about 32 by this point since 5 minutes later it started to snow and the entire session there had been a strange biting cold maybe from dampness or I don’t know what that made my hamstrings feel very tight) was making about 3 tenths of a difference as compared to a sunny day in the 60s this was good for the very subpar run that is the last in the training session. If I could have gone 6.7 FAT equiv. on one 55, which I’m sure I would have if I had run all the 60 reps at 55 instead, that would have been 6.6 FAT equiv. indoors and 6.4 FAT equiv. outdoors and that’s what I was hoping I would be at at this point. This is good because we’re running 55 indoors, but I do have to wonder why that next 5m is so troublesome, especially since for outdoors I have to extend another 45m.
-I forgot to do abs.

Friday, December 26, 2003
-I did a lot of low intensity work today. I was doing a weight room circuit set up so that one unit would be:
1 leg exercise
1 upper body exercise (alternating pushing and pulling in units)
2 core exercises

I did 10 of these units. It totaled @ 3500 core units from the core exercises (100 jacknives, 100 hanging leg raises, 100 hypers, 300 trunk rotations with 25 lb. DB). I finished off with 6 1:20 bike intervals.

Saturday, December 27, 2003
-We had a meet today. I false started at the beginning of the 55 and am very pissed. However this is balanced by elation at the fact that I ran 5 45-55m runs (distance varied) and felt faster than I had in a long long time. This was a mondo track indoors and it was very fast in the first place and it was also the first time I had run in decent weather in a long time. Its too bad I didn’t get an electronic time to confirm it but I know that I was running 6.5 today.
-I did 400 MB throws and 200 sledgehammers later on in the day.

Sunday, December 28, 2003
-Hit by the flu today. I trained anyway which proved to be a mistake (I’m writing this on Monday). Being around someone coughing for a few weeks seems to have finally been enough to break through and infect me, despite coconut oil and a smart diet.
-I did 5 quarter mile reps @ 10mph on the treadmill today with varying inclines. For the first three I only used 20s rests but then I went 30s and a minute. It was a very tiring workout since I’m not used to it. Next I did 6 of the units mentioned Friday (LB, UB, core, core). Probably around 2000 abs.

[pete]

M-OFF (bad cold)
T-200 MB reps and then OFF (bad cold)
W-Skiing and 800 MB reps
Th-Just skiing
F-Speed deadlifts, 30 min. weight circuit, 1000m tempo treadmill
Sa-350 sledgehammer hits and then 20 minute continuous very cardiovascular weights circuit
Su-Speed in a meet. Could only go 85% due to surface and sneakers. Short uphill run session later.

Monday, December 29, 2003
-OFF with the flu or a very bad cold or whatever it is.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003
-We went up to go skiing in New York. I still have a very bad cold. I tried doing an 800 MB rep workout but after 200 I started feeling sick.

Wednesday, December 31, 2003
-We skiied and I did 800 MB reps. Progressing with the sickness.

Thursday, January 1, 2003
Happy New Year everyone!
-Just skiing because we had to drive back and didn’t get back until late.

Friday, January 2, 2003
-42 @ 195 speed deadlifts. These felt pretty good.
-30 minutes of circuit work in the weight room. I was moving fast today so I think this translates to about 40 sets. The sets were mostly 10 pushups, 10 squats with 95 lbs., 20 BW squats, 10 DLs with 95 lbs., 20 hanging leg raises, 15 hypers, and 60 25# DB twists.
-5200m on the treadmill w/ 20s rest intervals and no incline. Didn’t feel great but I was a little tired after the circuit work.

This has been a very bad week for training so far with the combination of skiing and having the flu. I’m only going to be able to do one speed session, but I think this will be a week of non-progress, except maybe a small amount of general fitness gain and not a loss.

Saturday, January 3, 2003
-In the morning I did 300 regular sledgehammer hits and 50 golf swing style sledgehammer hits letting the SL swing back and forth with no contact.
-Later on in the day I went to the gym only to find out that it was closing 3 hours earlier than usual for some reason so I went home and did a 20 minutes continuous circuit composed mostly of: 15 BW squats, sets of 11 of different kind of pushups, fast jumping jacks and fast switching legs, runs up and down my back yard, toe touchers, step ups, burpees, jumps onto a chair, MB twists, MB ground slams, and floppy fish.

Sunday, January 4, 2003
-Well…interesting meet today. It was on what appeared to be a clay tennis court like surface but was actually much softer. No spikes were allowed so I had to run in my cross trainer shoes since I could not get the spikes out of my new pair of spikes because I was sent the wrong spike key. I guess I should have not been that surprised that this would inhibit me as much as it did, after all I worked out that cinder effected me .7-.8 as compared to all weather track in the 100m last year; being on nearly as bad a surface and wearing shoes that made me feel like I was stubbing my toe each time I ran would logically slow me down even more. I did a bunch of first movement runs after the race and since they were all in between 7.4-7.6 estimated electronic equivalent (adding .4 to include reaction time) and I know that I can run 6.4 FAT equiv. I can conservatively say that it was effecting me by at least .8s, or making me run at at most 85% of best time. The race itself? Well, there was one other caveat to go along with it and that is that I now have major start problems. I tried to concentrate on just thinking about the movement and not reacting to the gun and ended up not reacting for some reason. Instead I reacted to the people moving next to me and didn’t start moving until they were already 2 meters out. This did not do much for setting up my race model and I basically had to reset myself and then chase. Considering this my 7.2h was probably my best run of the day but cannot really give me a good indication of where my abilities lie.
Overall in the day I did 555m and a sprint float sprint 60.
-Later on at home I did 1512m uphill sprints but stopped there because my left hamstring was bothering me a little bit.

[pete]

M-Extensive tempo and circuit and sledgehammer work
T-Heavy lifting
W-Jog 2 miles and tempo replacement on rowing and elliptical machine + 12 minutes circuit work
Th-200 and 400 in relay
F-30 minute weight room circuit
Sa-OFF
Su-Training, shot putting, 400 relay, power ball, and heavy lifting

Monday, January 4th, 2003
-22400 + 200 on cinder in practice. They were in around 1:30 and got progessively harder and I stopped the last 400 half way. It was very, very cold though since it wasn’t until late because I was practicing shotput first.
-80 lunges, 80 squats, 40 pushups, and some core exercises plus 275 sledgehammer hits in circuit fashion at home.

Tuesday, January 5th, 2003
-Not much in practice and then went to the weight room:
36 @ 225 deadlift
1 min.
35 standing long jumps onto box
3 min. and start pair again

36 @ 135 bench press
1 min.
310 lat pulldowns @ 120
2 min. and start pair again

220 hypers
220 hanging leg raises

Wednesday, January 6th, 2003
-Jog 2 miles in practice @ less than 50% mHR in practice.
-31:30 on rowing machine
7300m on elliptical machine (no treadmill available) in about 1:30 each with about 30s in between reps.
-12 minutes of circuit work in weight room (including 1200 abs)
-300 abs at home via power ball "around-the-world"s and 3/each powerball snatch throws.

Thursday, January 7th, 2003
-Warmup parts 1+3. 200 in 4*200 relay. 24.5h (although handtime is neglible since starter was 6m away from me; sound time to me and reaction to smoke probably almost cancel each other out) in the first relay leg. This was more like 24 flat if it were individual because I had to run the extra 3 or so meters while decelerating a fair amount to hand the baton off since I lead and we don’t do blind passes. I was pretty happy with this, it shows my general fitness is up. It could be much improved with some 200 race experience, since my curve running is pretty ugly and I paused at the start after feeling myself leaning. It’d be nice to go low 23s indoor and then go 22 something when I train specific endurance for 2 outdoors.
Ran the 400 relay about 15 minutes later. Still felt very fatigued and ran a 63.9h. On Sunday I’ll hopefully go around 58 and maybe the following Sunday 56. 400’s not my race though.

Friday, January 8th, 2003
-30 minute weight room gym circuit (probably about 3000 abs).

Saturday, January 9th, 2003
-OFF

Sunday, January 10th, 2003
-We had a relay meet today. I was doing shot put and then running much later. I took Powerdrive and did a small speed session before shot put because I wanted to take advantage of having access to the facility. I did 4*(40m accel in and 30m fly) which felt very good. I then threw shotput (36’ 3/4", which is good considering we’ve only practiced it twice so far and means I’m back to Spring form, I’ll hopefully go 40 in Spring) and about 3 hours later ran the 400. I ran a pathetic 61, I’m going to try to get down to sub 55 by the end of winter because I should be there or lower with my speed level and a half decent general fitness base. I’m going to make sure that I get my shirt soaked to the bottom on every low intensity day and that should hopefully do it. I believe that my weak link is specifically cardiovascular and not general strength so I’ll be targetting that.
-Later on I did 15/each powerball throws and then went to the gym and did 36 squats @ 245 with 2:30 rests, 36 bench @ 140 with 1 minute in between sets and then 36 pullups the 2 minutes and back to the bench set. I also did 310 lunges w/ 40 lb. dbs and 40s in between sets.

[pete]

M-Long recovery tempo and then short recovery tempo + jump roping and 3000 abs
T-Weight room, jump roping, and 1500 abs
W-Short recovery tempo + jump roping and 3000 abs
Th-Weight room
F-OFF
Sa-Short short speed session and an SE rep on low fuel
Su-OFF (not by choice )

Monday, January 12, 2003
-In practice we did 5320 and 3100 @ ~75%. The catch was we had 2 minute rest periods between sets so it didn’t do much in the way of cardiovascular/fitness stimulation so afterwards…
-I went to the gym and did 5400m on the treadmill w/ 30s rest periods @ level 10. This was very tough aerobically, although it thankfully did not build up a great level of lactic acid. I was a little concerned I was going to get thrown off the treadmill on the last set but I was happy that I managed to complete it. I hope to eventually get to be able to do this workout on incline level 2 and then I think my fitness will be where it should be.
-Afterwards I did 650s jump roping w/ 30s in between reps and the last one barefoot. I liked the barefoot and think I will do my future jump roping like that. I followed this with 3000 abs (1800 various swiss ball exercises, and 1200 various gym exercises). Shirt soaked.

Tuesday, January 13, 2003
-12/each power ball throws and then to the gym (too cold for speed work):

5*4 dead lifts @ 255
1 min.
5 long jumps onto 18" or so box
2-3 min. and back to next deadlift set

No benching today, my shoulder had been bothering me a little since shot putting so I decided I would just do heavy rotator cuff work mixed with lat pulldowns:

35 snatch grip rotations w/ bar
310 lat pulldowns @ lighter than usual but done fast

6*50s jump roping bare foot w/ 30s in between reps and 1500 abs. Shirt halfway soaked (deadlifts got some sweat going now that I’m going higher rep on them, although i have to change technique some, I’m trying to do clean style which puts my knees out over the bar and I’m getting bruised shins).

Wednesday, January 14, 2003
-6300m on tread mill on incline level 2 and @ level 10 w/ 30s rest in between. These got very tough by the end b/c of the incline but I managed to do them all. I also did a little extra metreage in between b/c my overagressive arm swing kept hitting the stop button half way through and then I would have to start back up again . I then waited a minute and did 1300 30 s/ rest and 1200 or so, stopping at this point on the last one for fear of getting bucked.
-650s jump roping w/ 30s in between w/ shoes on. Then about a minute and 2 more reps. I was trying to not just shuffle jump and such on these but actually move places and consequently was catching the jump rope a lot more. As compensation on most I did an extra 5s or so.
-3000 abs, about 2/3 physioball and 1/3 gym (gym abs are composed of 20 hypers, 60 30 lb. db twists, and 20 hanging leg raises).
-Shirt completely soaked by end.

Thursday, January 15, 2003
-Too cold to go outside again.
-Set of 15/each one legged combo vertical/long jumps (about 5 feet away onto an 24" couch) then a set of 10/each.
-Weight room:
54 @ 265 squats
I was going to complex them with more one legged jumps but couldn’t because the weight room was too crowded and I decided after the first set of 4/each that the risk of knocking myself out by hitting my head on a barbell while jumping/return ratio was too great .
44 + 13 @ 170 BP (I figured there was about a 20% chance of me making the last rep so I decided not too attempt it)
1 min.
27 + 1*5 pullups (these are coming along, slowly but surely, I could maybe do 11 in a row now, by the end of the general prep phase after winter I hope to be able to do 17; obviously I did two sets of BP after the last set of pullups)

Friday, January 16, 2003
-OFF

Saturday, January 17, 2003
-Outside speed workout in sunny Florida. 4*55m and then a walk back and a 400. My last 55 timed by my dad and so was accurate and was crap (7 flat FAT equiv.) and then he timed the 400, which was disastrous. I thought that it was probably the fact that we got up @ 3:30 last night but then realized it was probably mostly that I had not had any chance to have good fuel (carbs or fat) in the last 24 hours and had eaten all protein (mostly the meat out of sandwiches). I will never underestimate the importance of good nutrition after this, it felt like I couldn’t move any faster than jog speed in the 400.

Sunday, January 17, 2003
-I was planning on getting back from Florida and doing a workout at the gym but our flight got delayed by a few hours and by the time we got home the gym was closing in four minutes. Tomorrow we have off for MLK day thoughs so I can do my speed workout first and then do the 30 min. gym circuit I was planning on doing after that. I’m hoping speed will fare well tomorrow but I got very stiff from the plane ride.

[pete]

M-45 minutes circuit work and 1/2 tempo session
T-Indoor track speed session. Awesome!
W-Hurdle mobility in tempo format and running in place in tempo format followed later by tempo
Th-Some intensive tempo speed “speed work” on the street and then weight room plus some low intensity stuff
F-2*5 minutes running in halls and 40 minute gym circuit
Sa-OFF
Su-Crappy running at meet and then speed session afterwards.

Monday, January 19, 2003
-I tried to make this a double low intensity session since I got turned away at the track today and therefore couldn’t do my speed and low intensity session, but my shirt actually only got 3/4 soaked (hmm…) and then I had to go.
I did a 40 minute circuit (prob. around 60 sets of exercises)
800m (5*160) on the tread mill at level 10 and incline 2.5
Then 5 more minutes of circuit work (about 5 sets)
All circuit work totaled to about 3800 abs (just including isolation work)

Tuesday, January 20, 2003
-I got over to the indoor track I had tried to go to yesterday. This may have just been the best day of my life .
I did:
Set 1: 255m, 240-45m fly-in and 25-30m fly
Set 2: 255m, 140-45m fly-in and 25-30m fly, and a 150.
All 55s were from the starting position, the 150 was as well, I got all the curves in and then started to fatigue and didn’t want my form to break down so I stopped instead of doing a full 200.
All the runs felt absolutely amazing. It’s a mondo surface and I just felt like I was absolutely flying!

Wednesday, January 21, 2003
-I think with this I’ve pretty much made up for only doing two low intensity sessions last week. I had the day off from school so I did two very small sessions and then my big one at the gym.
Session 1:
1020s (at least 80 contacts) running in place on a carpet with active recovery (medball twists, pushups, BW squats) in between.
Session 2:
2530s hurdle mobility “carioca style” over the side of a chair so that I did not have to go that high but had to go far out. 30s in between reps and some lunging with 2-3 second pauses after each up the stairs in between sets.
The big session:
10200m on the tread mill at level 2.0 w/ 20s in between reps minus ramp up/down time @ level 10.
3000 abs
4*1:30 (300m) rowing machine

Thursday, January 22, 2003
-We have a meet on Sunday and though I can’t “peak” for it since it will be my first individual I wanted to do a slight taper of high intensity work since it looks as if it will be my best opportunity for a good performance since it is at a great track and I can where spikes. I wanted to make today a pretty easy day because of this, but my coach wanted me to do 1570m + 1470m on the street in shoes w/ walk back between reps and a minute in between sets. That’s fine, but the major problem was my achilles was really bothering me and I was worried I was going to really hurt it doing these runs. Well, I had to do them anyway, I did most at about 90%, some I took an alternative approach and sprinted for 20m and then shut down. 90% effort is really very slow on the street in shoes and even the sprinting probably did not provide much nervous system stimulation so I felt I needed to do a short session at the gym afterwards.
-So I did:
3*6 @ 115 hang cleans
and that’s it in the way of high intensity exercise.

Afterwards I did 31:45 on the rowing machine (400m), 1500 abs on the ball, and 3200m on the tread mill (level 10, incline 1.5) just to get some blood flowing. I think I’ll be OK as far as the taper plan; the meets not until Sunday, but I just have to be really careful with the achilles.

Friday, January 23, 2003
-40 minute gym circuit; shirt only 3/4 soaked? I had to go, but I guess I have to do some more cardiovascular work after these circuits (and they’ve already been extended from 30 to 40 minutes) to get all the way to the bottom. Actually it might be a sign of improving GF though.

Saturday, January 24, 2003
-OFF. Not great sleep last night (bed @ 10:45 and up at 6:15ish and then just rest for a while) but if I get some good sleep tonight I think I’ll be good for the meet tomorrow.

Sunday, January 25, 2003
-Bad stuff at the meet. 7.17 FAT 55. Possible explanations:
A.)There is no way in the world that we live in that the times that I have recorded in practice were not accurate within a tenth of a second. I couldn’t go until I heard GO! so I am not worried that I am not capable of running that fast. In practice we were doing similiar spacing between starts every time and I’m not used to other ways of timing now. I was just ready to be extremely aggressive once I heard GO! which is something I’m very far from being able to do in a race situation. However, once I get used to this with experience it will not add more than a tenth of a second and that would still be around 6.5 conservatively. I’m not there yet though.
B.)However in practice I fluctuated A LOT, by up to .6 seconds for 55 and 45m. I guess this comes with more experience but I shouldn’t have expected that I was going to run around PB area in all races and this is my first.
C.)I had a similiar start to the meet I ran in shoes but not as drastic, in the first 5-10m I felt people pulling away and then chased. To me it seems as if I’m going fast when I chase but it’s possible that I’m also tightening.
D.)I do not think I have lost speed and I think it will all come back once I start sprinting more again but because I have been limited in what I could do because I have been unable to get in much practice with it so cold around here.
E.)This performance was about .33 better than my sole performance last year. Just the addition of spikes could account for that difference, but as we timed in practice I made definite improvements. As I practice more my time would drop, as I got stronger my time would drop, and when I saw a 30m improvement I would usually see a ripple effect into a 45m and 55m improvement. This leads me to believe that today was just a bad day. However I need more race experience and it doesn’t look like I have a great chance of getting a lot of it until Spring since we only have one more 55 on a real surface. So it looks like I may not really be able to run to my full potential until Spring.

On the plus side i did get a 38’7 3/4" shot put throw. It looks like I may be able to get around 43 feet in Spring, even with my zero technique.

[pete]

Monday, January 26, 2003
-Set 1:
210 sledgehammer hits
230s mobility over chair (not that high but also reaching out) w/ lunges up stairs w/ 2s holds in between sets
220s (about 140 foot contacts) running in place on a carpet w/ active recovery in between sets (abs)
230s mobility & lunges
620s running in place w/ active recovery

Set 2:
104 sledgehammer hits
230s mobility over chair (not that high but also reaching out) w/ lunges up stairs w/ 2s holds in between sets
220s (about 140 foot contacts) running in place on a carpet w/ active recovery in between sets (abs)
230s mobility & lunges
220s running in place w/ active recovery

It’s nice to be able to get a workout in at home occasionally.

Tuesday, January 27, 2003
-54 power cleans @ 145 (fairly difficult)
51:00 on the rowing machine’

Wednesday, January 28, 2003
-600, 40s rest, 500, 35s rest, 400, 30s rest, 300 on incline 1, 25s rest, 200 on incline 1.5, 20s rest, 100 on incline 2 on level 10 on the tread mill. Was happy with this workout, seems like fitness is really improving.
-3600 abs

Thursday, January 29, 2003
-Worked out at the indoor track today which was really cool.
I did 4 55s and 2 40m fly-ins and 30m fly’s as well as 2 15’s.
Then I waited a bit and did 5*20m starts with some masters guys that were there. I was doing 20m starts against a 7.3h guy. He was yelling go which gave him the reaction time edge but I was still getting him out of my field of vision by 10-15m so that makes me feel pretty good about it. The last one I really reacted well, the old aggressiveness back.

Friday, January 30, 2003
-Did some starts and light jogging and walking in practice but for all intents and purposes today was:
OFF

Saturday, January 31, 2003
-5*400 on tread mill @ .5 incline and level 10. That .5 makes a big difference! Bit tough but managed to complete the workout. 2900 abs; couldn’t do last 100 abs or more cardio because gym closed. I thought it was open until 10 on Saturday’s but apparently not.

Sunday, February 1, 2003
-I was happy with running a 55m race @ 7.51 FAT today. This may sound strange, being that I was hoping to record around 6.5 this Winter but listen to the conditions:
I had to run in cross-trainers (alone around .3-.4 versus having my spikes on)
Because of the cross-trainers I had a good start for a millisecond then the ground slipped from underneath me because I had nothing to push against and no spikes to hold me and I almost fell on my nose. I landed on two hands and got up and ran, essentially starting, falling and doing a half prone start (around .5)
So with these in mind I ran pretty well. This is not too even mention that we didn’t get to warm up at all because there was no warmup area.
In shotput I threw 39’1" which made me happy. I had good form on this one but felt like I could have thrown it farther but then misstepped on the next two because I need more practice.
Unfortuneately, there was no where to train at the meet so I just ran my 55 and shot putted.

[pete]

I took the week of February 2nd up to Sunday off except for Thursday. We had a meet on Thursday and I thought that I was just going to be doing the 55 but I did the 400 too. Not great for a recovery week but good to get the experience. In the 55 I ran crappily; I’ve lost a bit of speed and I also cannot relax at all because I haven’t raced much recently. In the last 10m I also got my arm tangled up with some kid because there were no lanes (it was in a gym and I had trainers on) and lost about a meter. It came at about 7.4 FAT equiv. Times don’t really say much about potential until I can relax though.

[pete]

Sunday, February 8th, 2003
CNS emphasis
I.I did 455m and 2(2*55m with a walk back). They were timed. One was 6.73 FAT equivalent and another was 6.82 FAT equiv. The others were just above 7. My starts were good, maybe a little slow reacting but clean on all. This is actually encouraging because it shows that I have lost some speed but I know that this will come back very quickly once it gets warmer and I can do more speed work and also because I concentrated on nothing but relaxation on the two that I did well on and actually felt it. In the others I wasn’t relaxed and ran crappily. In races I can’t relax but that needs to come with experience. I saw our Spring schedule today, its good we have a bunch of races set up in what looks to be a good progression. I also ran crappily in ones where I felt tension in the start position, so this is something I need to practice and can do so on days when I’m not even actually starting. I did some mobility in between sets and then did:

II.345s mobility (carioca on 2nd from lowest and step over also on 2nd from lowest)
III.210 jumps over a hurdle onto a very cushiony mat on 2nd from highest
2*8 jumps with same set up on highest level
IV.20 minute AIS session

Monday, February 9th, 2003
Heavy push/pull and cardiovascular fitness emphasis
I.10 pullups (failure), and 24 pullups (failure)
II.39 pushups (failure), 11 pushups (failure), 7 pushups (failure)
III.210 2/1 rows on level 7
IV.800, 600, 400 on level 10 on tread mill
V.2000 abs

Tuesday, Feburary 10th, 2003
Leg depletion
I.Countdown squats/lunges from 20
immediately followed by 50 Chek “breathing squats”
immediately followed by 50 regular BW squats
immediately followed by Countdown squats/lunges from 10
II.~2500 abs

Wednesday, February 11, 2003
Cardiovascular and abs emphasis
I.8*30s hurdle mobility in the power rack w/ lunges in between sets
II.1000m at level 10 on the tread mill, 45s, ~200-300m @ level 9, 10s, 640m @ level 9 (I accidentally hit the stop button), a minute, and 400m @ level 10. This is pretty good considering I did leg depletion yesterday. Hopefully I’ll be able to do 1000m @ level 10, 45s 800m @ level 9 after three more micros.
III.3500 abs

Thursday, February 12, 2003
-OFF

Goals for GPP now that I’ve completed micro one:
A.Set myself up well for a strength phase with the depletion work
B.Build up the volume, mostly through abs, but don’t get sick
C.Be able to guess that I can do a six minute mile on the tread mill. If I can do 1000m @ level 10, 45s, 800m @ level 9 on the day after a leg depletion day then this would signify to me that I could if I was relatively fresh. I think that due to fiber type and training that I would not be able to run under this without really training for it, but if I could get six minutes it would signify that my general fitness is high.
D.Increase mobility
E.Increase 55m speed by .15 (which would be a 6.58 FAT equiv.). This would normally not be a goal for GPP, or it would not be this dramatic but I think this should come because I’ll be able to get in more quality speed sessions now that I know how to get into the local facility and it’s warmer. Improve relaxation in speed sessions and thus become more consistent from rep to rep.

Friday, February 13, 2003
-OFF again because I’m still sore and have a bit of an aching achilles and therefore couldn’t do the speed session planned for beginning the next micro. But tomorrow I’ll be in sunny Mexico and am looking to get a great session in.

[pete]

This week was GPP oriented but did not follow the above microcycle structure because of limitations in time and resources. I think the week did really help psychologically and I think some of the nagging things, such as an right achilles bothering me a bit and my left knee bothering me once in a while probably healed which is good. Now I’ll be able to be 100% focused for the rest of the GPP, SPP, and outdoor season.

My guess at the weeks effects on various qualities:
Leg strength as defined by leg depletion: Much improved
General fitness:Improved
Speed:Maintained
Push strength:Sligthly improved
Pull strength:Slightly declined or maintained
Mobility:Maintained
Postural strength:Slightly declined

So overall I think the week did yield a net benefit at the qualities I’m looking to advance at this stage and also helped served as a further relaxation period so I can be 100% focused for the rest of the season.

Saturday, February 14, 2003
-OFF again because I couldn’t train with flying in.

Sunday, February 15, 2003
-Leg depletion work:
Double countdown from 20 lunges/squats

Monday, February 16, 2003
Surpisingly not that sore.
-10*200m @ level 10 on incline level 2 w/ 20s rest

Tuesday, February 17, 2003
-Speed session, sort of…
1020m
515m on artificial turf in shoes
22 med ball slams

Wednesday, February 18, 2003
-1000m @ level 10 (45s), 800m @ level 10. I was very happy with this session because I think it indicates to me that I could indeed do a six minute mile if I wanted to. This seems to me to be all the aerobic fitness I need and from here on in in GPP it’s basically maintenance and focus on other qualities.
-Pushups:
Set 1:15 handclap pushups (90s)
Set 2:11 close grip pushups (didn’t really work as they were supposed to, won’t do again, 90s)
Set 3:On the bed to make it a bit more unstable (might not have really done anything), 32 pushups

Thursday, February 19, 2003
-OFF

Friday, February 20, 2003
-800 BW squats with 4-6s rest after every 100 to make a tally mark.
Hard!, 20 minutes of basically consecutive squatting.

Saturday, February 21, 2003
-Again surprisingly not that sore. We flew back and I just did 10*long step-over hurdle mobility for 45s.

As I said, everyone has their screw up weeks but when looking at the effect on the different qualities I don’t think this was too bad and from now on 100% focus like the first micro.

[aln]

I’m really beginning to like your meticulous method of separating qualities. You’re also doing a lot of interesting stuff of the type of stuff I’m really beginning to like as of late (lots of bw exercises, etc). I’ll definitely be trying many of your sessions in my next GPP.

[Alex]

Training looks good, but what’s with all these “meets” in such rough conditions. Gym floor in runners???

[pete]

That was awesome, no comments for a while and then two in one day.

Alex,
I know, it’s weird, winter track was pretty much a waste of time.

Aln,
Thanks!, however I must concede that credit goes to Clemson.

[pete]

Sunday, February 23, 2003
CNS emphasis
I focused on speed endurance for this session. I did:
60m from prone, approx. 90s, 60m from prone
FULL RECOVERY
60m from crouch (7.7 FAT equivalent) 90s 60m from crouch (7.6 FAT equivalent). These were both awful, the first was really horrible, the second was not quite as bad because it was done with only 90s rest but still awful.
FULL RECOVERY
50m fly-in, 30m top speed 90s 60m from crouch (7.2 FAT equivalent). This was very encouraging. Considering that it was much colder than when I did the 6.7 FAT equiv. 55 last week and that this was only 90s after the first run I think this already shows a marked improvement in speed. I felt so good on this one, exactly like I knew I was supposed to, everything slowly raising and getting faster and completely relaxed. Now I just have to learn to duplicate it on every rep and I think in addition speed will be quickly returning and even improving from where it was before winter. Should be an exciting next few weeks.
-Between sets I did a lot of mobility work as well as 21 jumps over a hurdle set at the highest height from standing onto a high jump pit and five jumps from about six feet away from a hurdle at lowest height. I also did 7/each power ball throws.

Monday, February 24, 2003
Push/Pull emphasis
8 pullups, 7 pullups, 3 pullups. Ouch. Hoped to do 3 sets of 8.
2 sets of 25 pushups, 12 pushups. Ouch. Hoped to do 3 sets of 25.
3 sets of 10 “2/1” rowing at level 8.
5 chinups, 4 chinups.
-4000 abs

Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Leg accumulation day
3 sets of 10 @ 225 full squats
3 sets of 10 w/ 2 45 lb. DBs and 40s rest betw. sets lunges
2 sets of 10 hypers with a 1 1/2s pause at top w/ 70 lb. DB
-2000 abs

Wednesday, February 26, 2003
Cardiovascular and mobility emphasis
-6*45s step over hurdle mobility w/ 2s pause lunges in between
-800, 600, 160 (stopped 400) @ level 10. I really couldn’t continue at the point I stopped. I think it is probably the effects of bad fueling from last week showing up. I just have to continue my @ home good diet and wait it out I guess.
-3160 abs

Thursday, February 27, 2003
-OFF