Damn man, great stuff! Not that I need to tell you but you’re only 7 one hundredths away from the magical 10.XX mark. That’s fantastic.
Monday 2 July.
Block work
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Hip mobility over hurdles (my mobility has greatly increased!)
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6x3 hurdle jumps
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4x block starts over 10-30m
i’m way more explosive out of the blocks and the first steps compared to few weeks ago. my heel on the 2nd step should be lower though, but I don’t have to focus on that right now.
my coach video taped some of the runs and hopefully i’ll be able to post them here.
and thank you all for your comments on here. that really motivates me!
Congrats on the 100m PB! What happened to the 250+100 runs your coach had you doing? Did they disappear a couple of weeks ago, right before you ran PB’s in the 200 and 100?
i can’t even remember when was the last time I had a 250+150 workout, maybe like 1 month ago and that’s when my times were in the 11.35 - 22.60 range so i think stopping these workouts have had a positive impact on my speed.
he said it’s competition period now and he might do that workout once in a while to see how our fitness is doing.
It sounds like your coach is doing the right stuff and you just need to have the patience to trust his approach.
It sounds like he has a fairly general 100-200-400 program for his young athletes, and that 250+100 day would surely have deadened your legs. Now that hes taken it out, you’ve freshened up. Without all of us understanding the exact dates of key races in your season, it can cause us to question your coach unnecessarily.
Perhaps he will share a little more of his plans with you because you clearly have the interest. The ideal situation now will see you stabilizing in the 11.0 - 11.1 range, and perhaps dipping below 11 point in a big meet, or if you get great conditions. You’re meeting your goals, so no need to try! Just relax and execute like you’ve been doing. Congrats again!
Have you still been using the new warm up??
@ t-slow: although my times are getting better i still don’t know I should stay with him next year. he says i’m undertrained and that I can’t do alot of explosive stuff right now with my past injuries and that left hip that pinches at times. that could be true, but why are the others in my group doing the same program as me then?
he also said once he wants us to be good at 100 to 400. there is no 100-200 group or 200-400 group. we all train the same way, we are not training to our strengths (or little) and that’s why the group isn’t improving much i think.
i would have loved to run a 100 before going on holidays (7 july to 28) to perhaps confirm my 11.08. what are things I could do there to keep my fitness/speed/power levels? hills? EMS?
@ horn: yeah I have. i feel much better and less tense before a race. my legs don’t feel as tired anymore, definately going to keep using the new warm-up!
Friday 6 July.
Speed/speed endurance
Pyramid: 60-80-120-80-60
no times but i was pretty fast, i’m in great shape right now. too bad i can’t run a 100 before august…
well im gone for a while now !
It’s too bad you can’t get in another race, but you scored a few PB’s recently which is good. So you’re on holidays for how long? Are you going to be away somewhere? You can work out on your own by putting together your own workouts. Be sure to keep some tempo work in there to maintain fitness. Perhaps you could put together something and we can all comment on it. You have good enough awareness of training principles to put together a few weeks of training for yourself.
The fact that your coach runs a general 100-200-400 program isn’t so bad. You’re young, and there’s no need to get overly specific at your current level. When you’re getting into the 10.7 area or better on a regular basis, then maybe it’s time to start specializing.
When it comes to whether to leave or stay with your current coach next season, that’s a decision only you can make, but ask yourself the following;
Who is going to do a better job of coaching me?
Do they have a good sized and competitive training group? Sometimes a good group of athletes to run with can erase the shortcomings of a “basic” program. There is no rocket science in the Jamaican training programs, but there are big groups that have a lot of fun and compete hard!
Just try to know what you’re getting into as well as getting out of when you consider changing.
im back from my holidays in cameroon. i could have updated my journal from time to time but the site took ages to load so i decided to continue once im back.
i loved it there, i thought all i’d do was train and bore myself out at home for a month but turned out to be quite the opposite. the first 2 weeks i was pretty consistent with my training, even though i didn’t recover quite well because i was going out alot. the following 2 weeks were nowhere as good training-wise: small hip injury was bothering me again, was going out alot more etc.
i did my training a few meters away from the house where we stayed. the ground was hard but covered with desert-like sand, not as hard as asphalt so no problems.
there were alot of steep hills near the house but too slippery, so i had to train on a not so steep hill, but still enough to work on my acceleration, I think.
Sunday 8 July
Hills
6x30m
3x40m
2x8 box jumps
Tuesday 10 July
4x30m hills
5x fly 30’s
Thursday 12 July
3x30m
3x fly 30
3x120m slight hill
Monday 16 July
hills
6x30m
4x40m
1x60m
2x6 box jumps
3x20 ankle jumps
Wednesday 18 July
4x30m hills
5x fly 30
Friday 20 July
hills
6x30m
6x40m
Monday 23 July
4x30m hills
5x fly 30m
1x fly 60
Wednesday - hip pain
Thursday/Friday - visit family in other town
Monday 30 July
i went to the stadium to see if it was possible to train on the track (i had been told early july that nobody could enter the track, reserved for football only) to my great surprise i was allowed to. that means i could have trained there from the beginning… oh well.
6x30m
2x60m
1x120m
my times on the 60 and 120 were disappointing. 7.10 and 13.80 but they were run with trainers (i had forgotten my spikes here in belgium)
on the 30m though, i felt explosive on the first steps. i didn’t time the 30’s though, because i know i would just rush my acceleration.
Wednesday 1 august - was very tired from going out all night, i could have trained though but…
Friday 3 August
went back to the stadium but there was a football match going on so decided to train near my house.
6x30m flat
3x fly 30
plyo
10x knees to chest jumps - felt something in my mid/upper back while jumping but decided to do another set…
10x idem - on the 5th jump my back ached so hard that i fell and hurt my knee badly.
its been a week now and still can’t run. by the looks of it i might not be able to run for a few days/weeks and i have national junior championships coming up in a month. this is really regretful, i could have stopped when i felt something in my back but decided to continue… let that be a lesson for me. less is more.
Now I’m not here to say “I told you so”, but you can now see why every progression must be smooth. A more appropriate starting point for ploys would be two foot hops, one set of 10 hops, and work your way up from there IF they don’t bother you!
Tuck jumps are way too high on the stress scale to just throw in a couple of sets out of the blue. This is why Charlie stresses in his material that every transition must be very smooth- there should be no obvious change moving from one phase to the next, all changes must be smooth and gradual. Not only will you not get hurt, you will have far less adaptation stiffness and soreness.
Friday 17 August
Acceleration
My knee problem went away from one day to another, so I went to the track and everything went fine.
6x30m
3.96 - 3.91 - 3.78 - 3.78 - 3.92 - 4.06
that’s all for today, and the times are pretty good for a comeback
Monday 20 August
Acceleration/Blocks
during the warm up i could feel my left hip pinch so i knew the session would be over fast
40m: good drive phase but once upright my hip starts pinching and then i can’t run anymore. time 5.34
tried one more but same thing happened
Wednesday 22 August
5x60m strides around 75%
no hip pain, went relatively good but my knees aren’t going up…
Friday 24 August
ive got a meet tomorrow, i’ll run the 100m. (heats and hopefully finals)
when i ran 11.08 i did 3x20m the day prior to the race, so today same thing.
2.63 - 2.59 - 2.52
i felt really good on them, they are self timed by the way.
Saturday 25 August
Meet
100m heats: 11.32 and final 11.20 (+1.8)
well i didn’t expect a better time than 11.20 but i’m really disappointed with my sprint technique. my drive phase is good, you can tell the hills in africa helped me. but once i get upright… my knees aren’t going up… my strides are short (possibly shorter than before the vacations) for a 6’1 guy. different people said my strides are short, coach said i run ‘seated’ so i know my sprint technique got worse than before. is this a flexibility issue? i don’t feel good while running, something seems to prevent my stride from lengthening.
anyway it’s time to work on every aspect, a sub 11 is waiting for me before the end of season !