spring is nearly here, hang in and be careful not to get run down 
That change in your start focus (to arms) is the right one. Are you able to post a vid of your start?
sure, I am able to, but whether I am willing to go public with that rubbish is a whole other story :o . (if you friend my youtube account I might be able to help you out) I’ll be doing some more work on my start this afternoon and maybe on sunday. I’ll see if I can get a decent video out of it for you…
friday
warm up
10x30m
3x60m
speed
3x 40m accels
manyx 20-40m blocks
proprioceptive exercises
tempo
3x150m (app 22s each)
a pretty hard session for me. it was freezing and raining, but I loved it! have managed (with a little bit of expert help 
) to improve my starts enormously. very pleased with that.
for anyone that is interested, here is some more footage of me training from about a month ago…
what have you changed from this vid? Looks to me like you could bring your hands in a bit, given your strength levels they appear a bit wide, other thing is you appear not to get high enough and then pop straight up. Can you get some side on at the line?
How do you get it in slow mo to save?
I changed a lot of small things, really. no great revelation other than to just tinker until it works. the obvious difference is that I have the foot pads set up differently and on a steeper angle, which helps to stop me from popping up. other subtle, and possibly more important, differences include having my feet lower on the pads and driving more with my arms.
how do I save it in slow mo? well, I’m using windows moviemaker, so it’s part of the editing package…
sunday
recovery session
800m 240s
400m 90s
indoor
periodic trampoline sprints
glute activation exercises
weights
curls 4:12 5kg
shoulder raise 4:12 5kg
shoulder swings 3:30 5kg
reverse flyes 4:12 2.5kg
curls 3:6 10kg
monday
trampoline running
3x3:3 25s on, 35s off
starting HR - 68
steps
*72, 79, 80 (HR 136)
*87, 78, 91 (HR 156)
*94, 88, 84 (HR 160)
I was pleased with my recovery from fridays session. it wasn’t perfect but my left hammy is recovering bette than it was even just 6 months ago. the very idea that I would have done more than 10 block starts and been able to walk a day later was unthinkable for me!
did a light session on the track before the rain got too heavy. not to worry, I headed home and did a random assortments of trampoline sprints. during this recent spate of poor weather I have been looking for indoor training options. I got this trampoline idea from rj (who knows a thing or two about cold weather) and hopefully I can use this as a track substitute to keep my fitness up during the winter.
following the monday session of trampoline sprints I have put together a workout click track to do the timing for me and uploaded it to youtube.
unrelated, but I twinged my lower back this morning and I have tightened up a bit. pretty annoying and it was a stupid lapse of concentration on my part that aggravated the problem. had some treatment this arvo so hopefully I’ll be right for masters tomorrow. a few easy laps and I’ll be right…
Damn, you’re in better shape than me. Not that that’s hard though. 
10 seconds on the trampoline kicks my ass, but your heart rate stay pretty low throughout. It shows me just how out of shape I really am. Well, just one more thing to work on.
Keep up the good work.
I couldn’t see it 
it’s pretty low intensity, though. I’m sure if you did it at the speed I did you’d be similar. I saw your training vid and you were flying.
john, I have the video set to private. if you invite me to be your friend I can add you to the list of viewers if you like…
tuesday
trampoline
25s on, 35s off
*3x3:3
*25 steps each
*progressive HR 100, 108, 108
wednesday
masters
440m warm up
250m race 63.2s
5x10m blocks
100m 12.6s
8x40m blocks
my second go out of the blocks felt fantastic tonight, but I think I was trying to force the pace a bit after that. I think the key fpr me at this point is to be balanced out of the blocks to set up my acceleration. I can’t win the race in the first 4 steps, but I can lose it if I stuff them up. note to self: seemed to work better placed 5cm back.
now that I seem to be mostly over my persistent hamstring problems (touch wood) I am able to tolerate a much higher volume of speed training.
weather and work are still making things difficult, but work will ease up once this musical is done (2 weeks) and I get the feeling that the weather is starting to settle down a bit.
the next few months should be extremely productive…
friday
weights
db squats (5s pause) 4:10 20kg
saturday
tempo
480m 280s WU
6x100m, 30s rest (17, 17, 18, 18, 17, 17)
plyos
hurdle jump 1:10 54cm, 5:6 86cm
a bit tight after last wednesday, but could be partially due to having to sit in planes, trains and automobiles.
did some weights on friday but I really need to buy some more plates for when I’m in sydney. 20kg doesn’t really cut it.
I’ve decided that I really need to crack down on my recovery times for tempo. usually I just walk back to the start, but that takes too long. I’ve started out using 30s recovery for 100m runs and will stretch that out to 120m and 150m etc.
been doing more plyos recently. I find that they agree with me so I don’t know why I don’t do them more often. I used to do quite a lot of them about 6 years ago when I was at my physical peak. should ge out the old plyometrics book from under my bed and blow the dust off it…
sunday
weights
db squat 3:10 20kg, 3:10 40kg
monday
tempo
480m 4:30 WU
6x100m/30s recovery (17, 16, 18, 17, 18, 18)
5min rest
2x100m/2min recovery (14, 15)
8 weeks until the season begins. I’m gunna make it a good couple of months.
felt pretty wrecked after the monday session - in a good way. I haven’t been very strict on myself in terms of limiting recovery time, but from now on I’m going to be red hot on it. it occurs to me that the 200m might be a better distance for me than the 100m, but to perform better at that I’ll have to do much more work at lactic tolerance and speed endurance.
here are a couple of pics I came by recently of me in my second ever 200m race last year. I ended up about .1s behind the dude on my right in 24.7s, . I look a bit rough but I was pushing pretty hard at the end…
certainly were 
tuesday
trampoline sprints
25/35s 3:3
69, 73, 86. 83, 84, 80. 89, 89, 96.
HR - 120, 156, 168
wednesday
plyos
hdl jump 3:10
dbl hdl jump 3:6
weights
deadlift 2:3 50kg, 1:3 70kg, 1:3 90kg, 1:3 100kg
leg extension 4:12 40kg
single leg extension 3:3 40kg
I’ve decided that getting up at 6 to do trampoline sprints or weights is the way to go. that way I can get in two training sessions per day. I had my first 6am session on tuesday and actually had more energy through the day than usual. I didn’t get to try a second session, though.
the trampoline sprints have really been hitting my hamstrings, which is good. I’ve been getting a fair bit of hammy stiffness after my session, which I’m hoping will subside as I adapt to it. if it persists then I’ll just have to lower the volume and make sure I don’t do them any time before I want to run flat out.
I think I’m due for another dose of cupping and sliding. that always fixes me up good…
I have been doing early morning tempo lately and find a similar thing.
thursday
trampoline
25/35s 3:3
starting HR 64
83, 90, 90 HR 136
77, 77, 89 HR 140
90, 86, 92 HR 152
friday
tempo
2:3x150m
90s rest, 205s between sets
weights
curls 4:12 5kg
shoulder raise 4:12 5kg
shoulder swings 3:30 5kg
curls 3:6 10kg
shr raise 3:6 10kg
shr swings 2:20 10kg
sunday
warm up
400m jog
5x30m
2x60m
speed
5x10m
3x60m (8.45, 8.08, 8.33)
had a couple of taxing sessions on the friday, then a tiring rehearsal on saturday. felt a bit sluggish this morning, but still did ok with my times. after tempo on soft wet grass I have been feeling a bit stiff behind my heels, but nothing that is going to stop me from training. gradually feeling more comfortable with this new block setting. getting more consistent.
lately I’ve been really concentrating more on timing my rests between each tempo run, rather than the actual run itself. after a year and a half I’m getting a pretty good idea of how fast I am going, so that’s not so important. limiting me recovery period is going to be more beneficial to my fitness than worrying about my times…
sunday
weights
deadlift 1:10 30kg
step up deadlift 1:6 30kg, 2:6 50kg
leg extension 1:10 40kg
single leg LE 3:6 40kg
curls 2:10 10kg
monday
recovery session
840m 4:30
420m 2:00
2x100m (18, 18)
the good news is that my hamstring pulled up well again after my speed session. I’m going at about 80% good as opposed to most of last season which was 100% crap. happy about that :). the bad news is that my shin/ankle/foot problem flared up again 
. I’m pretty sure it has something to do with weak arch structure in my feet. looks like I’m going to have to raise the pennies to visit a podiatrist. time to put the kid back on ebay ;).
tried a deadlift variation on sunday. stood with one leg supported on a small platform to take most of the weight. allows me to load up the system without having to get more weights plates. worked quite well, so I’ll probably do it every so often in the future…
mmmmmmm, not really. more like this, only lower and as a deadlift…
tuesday
weights
dbell squat thrusts 3:!0 5kg
curls 3:10 5kg
shr raise 3:10 5kg
shr swing 3:30 5kg
dbell squat thrust 2:10 10kg
thursday
plyos
step jumps - up and back 3:10
hdl jumps 3:10
weights
dealdift 1:10 30kg, 1:3 100kg
split dlift (each leg) 1:3 70kg
leg extension 3:10 40kg
single leg LE 3:3 40kg
sunday
speed
calf massage
warm up - various run throughs
2x60m (7.98s, 7.70s from first mvt)
1x80m (10.21s ffm)
been having a few issues with soreness in my shin and soleus again. seen a couple of specialists who have given me the following advice:
- massage
- cold when sore, heat when ok
- get arch supports
I have tried 1 and 2 with some pleasing success. especially 1, only this time massaging the soleus and not the shin :o . got some new shoes with 3 and found that they caused a lot of tightness in my piriformis. they’ll be going back to the shop next week.
did all that on saturday and didn’t think I’d be up for training on sunday, but fortunately things settled down fairly quickly and the massage really helped. hopefully I won’t feel too sore tomorrow.
my starts in the speed sessions were really good, I felt. I’m finally getting the hang of it. it was cold and the track was wet, so I wasn’t too displeased with the times. everything was from first movement, though, and I’m not too sure how much time you should add on for that…