Relentless Ambition

Monday 24 June

Slow 10 min. jog
Basic running drills and dynamic warm up

Hurdle jumps:

10x5. My explosiveness improved greatly

Sled/speed work:

3x20m with sled then walk to the 40m and sprint 95% intensity.

Wednesday 26 June

Day before meet routine

Light but long warm up.
Alot of dynamic stretching but no running drills as I have a meet thursday. I’ll run the 100 and maybe the 300m, depends.

Did 3x20 in starting blocks too, I’ll post the videos of my start whenenever I can

Thursday 27 June

Meet: 100m

11.34 (-0,6) is the time. Quite disappointed I must say. Acceleration and top speed was good but the last 30m were difficult, knees dropping noticeably etc.

I know the times will drop soon anyway, but I gotta work on that speed endurance!

Monday 1 July

Slow 10 min. jog
Basic running drills and dynamic warm up

3x500m

1’32 - 1’31 - 1’19

Saturday 6 July

Raceday: 100 & 200

I went on a small vacation for a few days prior to the race. All I did was walk throughout the week and didn’t sleep enough.
I had to run the 100 and 200 but arrived too late for the 100, had only 15 mins to warm up for the 200.

The time is 23.25 (-0.5) That’s a really bad result, I’m 0.9s off my PB of last year. That’s a race to forget

Sunday 7 July

Raceday: 100 & 300

I had nothing planned for that day and the weather was good so I thought why not go and run a 100. Although I was a bit tired

100m: 11.47 (+0.4)
300m: 36.46

I’m definately not in good shape, it’s time to do some more resistance training. I’m patient though and I know it’s just a matter of time before I’m back in 2012 shape

Tuesday 9 July

Slow 10 min. jog
Basic running drills and dynamic warm up

2x30m all out
2x40m all out

4x100 corner running, focus on pushing the first 30m and then running relaxed to the 100m mark. Times: 13.00s ( walk back recovery)
should have been a little faster, like 12.6 (90% intensity) but I didn’t have my spikes with me

3x150. running 50m fast but relaxed and then picking up on that speed on the curve. Times: 18.5-19s (3 min. recovery)

Thursday 11 July

Slow 10 min. jog
Basic running drills and dynamic warm up

Strides over 40m

Lactic acid work:

3x(250+150m) (90 sec. recovery between the 250 and 150 ; 8-10 min rest between set)

  1. 31.20 - 19.00s
  2. 31.50 - 20.10s
  3. 31.90 - 22s

I’m very happy with the times, never before have I finished a 3x(250+150) workout so I’m glad. I didn’t run relaxed enough though

Now 2 days rest, got a meet sunday; (100m) and 400m

Sunday 14 July

Raceday: 100 & 400m

Time is 11.24 (+1.8). That’s a season best.

My start and drive phase was really good, managed to keep up with the winner (10.82) till the 40m mark but then he flew away. I’ve got problems with my transition, that needs to be worked on

52.14 for the 400m. My first 200 were too fast, had literally nothing left in the last 100m…

Tuesday 16 July

Weight training

Pull ups 3x10
Squat 132lbs 3x10. pausing at the bottom and then explode up
Core exercises

Wednesday 17 July

Slow 10 min. jog
Dynamic stretches and basic running drills

Speed/speed endurance work:

4x40 (2-3min. rest) 100% - 5.10, 5.12, 5.11, 4.98s
2x80 (4-5min. rest) 95% - 9.35 - 9.42s
1x150 90-95% - 18.11s

Felt good on all runs, except my knees aren’t getting high enough. But I’m ready for saturday’s meet! I’ll be running the 100 & 200

Saturday 20 July

Raceday, Belgian championships

100m: 11.32 (-0.4) The first 30m are good as usual and then I get passed by everybody. I’m sure it’s a problem with my technique or relaxation (clenching wrists)

Lane 2

//youtu.be/rDt0FMh4VvY

200m: 22.67 (+0.7) That’s a season’s best, I knew the 23.25 of 2 weeks ago didn’t mean anything. I always seem to hit 22.6x range in the inside lanes (my PB of 22.33 was out of lane 8) but that doesn’t matter. I had a great start but nearing and coming off the turn I simply didn’t have that ‘kick’. In the last 50m I had my tongue out so I guess I was running relaxed

Lane 3

//youtu.be/I9DjkT5yX4Q

I notice my shoulders/arms go way too far back compared to other sprinters, could that mess leg mechanics? Coach says there’s nothing to worry about and my arms are just fine. However, when I’m doing the fast arm drill with normal angle it feels really smooth and fast, and when I do the same but farther (thus going far back with shoulders) it doesn’t feel right. And that’s exactly how I’m running.

Hope somebody can help me out here, because I’m confused. I really believe I can go much faster than that but I have the feeling something is blocking me from reaching my potential

Monday 22 July

Slow 10 min. jog
Dynamic stretches and basic running drills

Acceleration / corner running

2x30m all out
2x40m all out

4x100 corner running, focus on pushing the first 30m and then running relaxed to the 100m mark. ( walk back recovery)

3x150. running 50m fast but relaxed and then picking up on that speed on the curve. ( 3 min. recovery )

Feeling better and better each day! I notice I recover much faster from all those runs than few weeks ago, definately getting in better shape

Wednesday 24 July

Slow 10 min. jog
Dynamic stretches and basic running drills

Speed / Speed endurance

4x30m all out
2x60m almost 100%, focus on relaxation and technique
1x120m "
1x150m "

Unfortunately no times as I forgot my stopwatch, but it helped me relax better.

I do feel great though, can’t wait to run saturday :slight_smile:

Saturday 27 July

Raceday

100m: 11.15 (w -0.9) That’s a SB. I knew I would run a fast time when I was warming up, felt so good. My start and acceleration were good as usual, but my transition compared to all previous races this year was much better (I worked on that aspect last week)

Wind adjusted the time is 11.08 which is my all time personal best (11.08 is my pb but had a 1.4 wind in the back last year)

200m: 22.41 (w +1.2) That’s a season’s best as well and 0.08 off my PB.

Didn’t know the times would drop so fast but I’m currently in good shape, not yet close to my peak I think. What I can tell from my 200 is that I lack speed endurance… last 50m were quite hard

I tried to do a bit of analyzing on your 100m race. It’s really hard to work with the Youtube player as you can’t step frame by frame, and Youtube make it really hard to download anything. But I saw two things:

Around 20m your hip was going super low. It didn’t slow you down much compared to the others, but I think you can improve a lot by fixing this.

At round 50m there where a lot of breaking force and you ran slower then the others. But I don’t think the breaking mechanics slowed you down, it was just the others having a higher top speed.

If you can fix the hip issues at 20m I think it will help you get into the race better and make you reach a higher top speed.

I haven’t gone through all your training however it looks like you could benefit from large volume of tempo work. Your stride is a little bit short and tempo can be good for stride development by helping relaxation.

Also you’re not getting that much lift off the track, do you do any plyometrics work?

Thanks for your feedback guys. @NFS: I analyzed my technique and noticed the same thing as you, my hips drop around the 20m. That needs to be fixed, but I have no idea how to. It seems to happen everytime

@ Sharmer: I tried tempo and I can’t say I like it because it gets boring after a while, but it helped me recover better from high intensity days. However, with my foot and ankle issues I stopped doing tempo. It puts too much stress on my joints, even grass

And I barely do any plyometric work for the same reason as above, I lack reactiveness as my coach said

Monday 30 July

Slow 10 min. jog
Dynamic warm up and basic running drills

3x30m
3x40m

3x120m - Not 100%, fast but relaxed. focus on getting good knee lift and staying upright