Thanks for your reply Angela.
Are you referring to the arms in the 60m, jumps or both? I definitely notice the excess swinging in the drive phase and transition of all the videos. I’m trying to create a big range of motion to create a stretch reflex through the lats and hip flexor, is that a correct thought process? I’ll try and bring them contained earlier if it will help.
i felt pretty good in the high jump, I’m still trying to drop a few pounds for that exact reason. Also I think the heaviness “look” is coming from my inconsistent takeoff mechanics and a swinging penultimate which is taking more time to get off the ground because sometimes I plant too far in front of my COM. I’m working on a more natural running off the ground knee drive which will hopefully be more efficient and easier on my body in the long term.
I mix in the front squats for maximum strength maintenance in the throws. I do a ton of posterior lifts and hamstring work that’s sprint specific, such as split squat and deadlift variations and back squat variations in power training. How did Charlie manage multi eventers in this regard?
the lumbar sprain has been resolved. Thank God I’m 22 (young and limber and can recover) and have the knowledge on how to treat injuries. The accident happened on Monday and I bounced back by Friday and was training 100% without any thoughts towards the low back.
I am a big time water therapy guy. I love Wim Hof and his breathing techniques and work in cold water science. My nightly routine now consists of sitting in a rushing creek (40-50degrees F) on my ranch up to my chest (working towards full body) for 15 minutes with meditation and breathing variations. It’s incredible. Then within five minutes I’m in a hot shower massaging the lower body for 15-20 minutes. THat combined with cod liver oil and vitamin d3 before bed and 8-9 hours sleeps make me feel great the next day.
wanted to get on and share some revelations from testing and training this week and also ask some questions. ill post more details and video of my past cycle this weekend…
This week is a deload/testing cycle for me and my pupil/training partner Eric (a 17 year old 100/200/400 sprinter and football player) . Had a great 3 weeks of high quality sprinting and weight room. took this past weekend and just did some 20 min elliptical tempo on both days to keep fresh for monday’s testing. Im traveling with Eric to an indoor meet on friday/saturday and have school all day thursday, so MW would be our track days for testing and tuesday would be 1 or 2 weight tests. thurs,fri would be active recovery
Monday: testing on the agenda was fly 30m, SLJ, OHB with a 12lb shot, and 300m. . monday weather was in the low 50s tiny breeze at our backs. i felt great in warmups and was hitting the sprint position well. Ran a new fly 30 pr of 3.14 (took the avg of 2 hand times 3.10,3.18) right out the gate. 4 weeks prior I ran 3.33 in testing(granted it was 41 degrees and the day after a squat pr) so needless to say i was stoked. Eric also prd with 3.15 down from 3.38. in hindsight i probably should of shut it down and cooled down or moved on to the weight room like CFTS reccomends, but we wanted to keep going and gave ourselves adequate rest. The results were mixed. Our standing long jumps werent great. i have a PB of 2.97m and went 2.84. the explosiveness wasn’t there. moving on to the shot I threw fairly close to my best of 18.23m with a 18.19m. Next up was the 300m. I have a pr of 37.6 and was hoping for something in that ballpark. i knew my bodyweight and lack of long speed endurance thus far in the short to long program would be a factor. ran 38.4 down from 39.2 3 weeks ago. eric went 37.6 down from 38.0.
a couple of questions rise out of this day: 1. should the CNS be preserved and cut the workout short for prs over short distances like 30m? 2. what kind of carb load is necessary over the course of a day for a 2 hr session where you hope to PR in all 4? or should you just focus on 1 or 2? im glad we went for it on the fly 30 that was our most valuable result.
i get home and go ice bath for 12 minutes followed by hot shower and stretch. had to travel back into town for car maintenance and didnt get to bed till after 10. last week I was getting over 9hrs a night the whole week for the first time in years. Im being shorted to 7-8hr this week because of studying and hw for my midterms. Im taking 22 credits this term in school, with the stress of that I guess i should be thankful for any improvements on the track…
tuesday: weight room- 1rm bench press test, chinup tests for reps. Weve been doing maximum strength and explosive rep work in the bench on all our hi days in the past cycle so I was feeling confident and hoping to surpass my PR of 240lbs. I didnt have it in me. I failed at 230 my spotter had to bring me up on the last few inches. Eric killed it with a 15lb pr. at 240 from 225 and 20 chinups. I managed 17 chinups, the same result as 4 weeks ago.
wednesday: track testing- 3pt 30m/40yd, 150m from a blockless 4pt start, STJ, UHF shot toss- our routine training time is 3-6pm. Today I felt very tired on my 25 minute drive from school to the track. no time for naps and 8hrs just isnt getting the job done this week. Got my energy back up talking to some other volunteers and athletes at the track. Had an interrupted warmup trying to help a girl get her triple jump approach, but eventually got warm and we had a great tailwind so its felt like a good day to run fast. Eric came out guns blazing. .1 pr in the 3pt 30 and 40yd. 4.05,4.68. i opted for a 4pt 30 with no blocks and went 4.15, .03 slower than 4 weeks ago. we move on to the 150 at this point the rain starts and temp drops to mid 40s. we both felt loose and wanted to go so Eric lit it up with a 16.80, previous best of 17.25 in 75 degree weather. My rep was a different story. took a bad angle in my lane on the start so I ended up not using the curve to my advantage. The homestretch was a struggle the smoothness of the sprint position from Monday was at about 60% in my opinion. crossed the line in 17.50. we then knock out a couple STJs, Eric prs in 8.30m, I blow off some steam with a smooth 8.40m 10cm under my pr which i was pretty happy with considering the overall fatigue. Our UHFs were laughable it was too wet and cold to get anything out of it, both of us were 2 meters under our PRs.
biggest takeaways from Wednesday:
Charlie’s quote, “you cant get full time results with part time athletes.” rang true on this day. after writing all this out I realize i was in no condition to PR, i probably would of been better off taking the whole week as passive recovery after that fly 30 performance and focus on schoolwork and sleep.
mass to force ratio- Eric is a lean mean 180lbs at 6’2". he is built for this sport and really thriving in this system especially since weve been developing his mechanics. obviously his short speed and power is coming along. i have tons of data on him since late 2013. most notably, his 400 pr has gone from 55.7 in 2014 to 51.65 in 2015. At this rate, we’re shooting for 49mid and some fast 100s,200s in his junior season and get him some scholarship looks. I am so excited for him. I’m also working on those times but its not gonna happen until my BW goes down and a few things change which segways to my final takeaway-
PROCESSED CARBS AND DAIRY ARE CNS POISON! im sitting on the track after our 150s trying to put the pieces together as to why im falling apart and Eric is slaying dragons. upon further questioning he reveals that he has changed really only one thing in the last week, giving up a night time snack efore bed- typically a big bowl of raisin bran or special K with 1% milk. and it hits me like a train. since monday night I ran out of garbonzo beans and sweet potatoes and haven’t had the opportunity to restock. So to compensate Ive been snacking on organic granola during the day and having it with 1% milk at night because I"m just hurting for calories and not giving it a second thought. I also ate a few oreos at home last night without even realizing the implications. For Eric he’s finally cleansing himself of the soy, preservatives, chemicals, and sugars(corn flakes have been shown to lower testosterone) and perhaps getting out of his own way to recover better at night. And suddenly hes cranking out massive PBs. On the flip side i go from the premium quality fuel of what i eat 80% of the time to the garbage i just mentioned. granted there’s probably more at play here but what an interesting connection and in any event that’s motivating for me to improve in other ways off the track…
training: March was a crazy month. survived a 22 credit winter term, traveled to Southern California over spring break to regenerate and train hurdles with Richard Holmes of HolmesHurdleTech. I’m starting to clean up the trail leg and get comfortable on 42s. [video]https://youtu.be/USU3sQRfswE[/video] Learned a ton, Will open in the 110m hurdles and the 100m at the Cougar Open in Oregon City this weekend. Also going to high jump and throw shot/disc. I’ve started doing 300m reps for extensive tempo in the 60-70% range. What are some good heart rate and rest guidelines for a session with 3000m volume?
coaching: I coach at Regis HS in Stayton,OR, its a small school in Oregon’s 2A division. my guys are about 3 weeks into their season, and look great. Biggest surprise so far has been our junior high jumper, who went into some incredible flow state last week and increased his pr from 6’2-1.88m to 6’8.5-2.04m on all first attempt makes. broke a 35 year old school record and is number one in all classifications. Our sprint group and 4x1,4x4 relay is coming along nicely, our 2 best guys are juniors who pr’d last week in the 400m at the end of a decathlon with 51.5 and 51.7. I see 11.2s and mid high 22s on the horizons, and we’re shooting for that 50 second barrier by the end of May.
We train hard and train smart with a good structured plan, but I want to spice it up for these guys and improvise some fun on our tempo days to enhance the season. Anyone have any suggestions for games or experience with this? I’ve seen some obstacle course relays that look promising;]