Friday, Dec. 17th, 2010
Travel day and much more
Saturday, Dec. 18th, 2010
Travel to hotel/spa resort for my sisterâs bachelorette party
jaucuzzi
sauna
hamam
heating chairs
party 
Sunday, Dec. 19th, 2010
(travel back in the afternoon)
Monday, Dec.20th, 2010
tempo:
10 x field diagonals, w/ 60m rest
3 x 12 leg curls
plenty of abs/push ups
note: felt weak during the tempo diagonals, but tomorrow will be a better day!
I like my Thessaoniki-group a whole lotâŚ
Compared to what other group? 
Perhaps that 30 min hard run had something to do with how you felt during the diagonals?
and the drills, why the drills after a hard 30 min run, that will help with good form :rolleyes:
Drills felt excellent John !!!
Iâm actually almost about to get sick, hence the weak-feeling⌠some kind of virus⌠Iâm trying to avoid it by drinking vitamins and fluids, and blah blah blahâŚ
Today Iâm doing 150s, I think, depending on the rest of the group 
Iâll make them few and hard, regardless, to start getting into special prep stuff. =) And the weather is so great. I wish this virus went away.
Nick, haha youâre right; I guess compared to whatever group I find in Athens, or whatever random company I get in Milan :o But nothing beats training with these guys⌠(so far).
Thursday morning I will film the plyos and drills; I just arranged a date with my sister 
Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010
Nice 15degree weather
(all on track)
15min warm up
stretching (dynamic and static)
3 x 60m strides w/trainers
2 x 60m strides w/ spikes (first time in 2 months in spikes, on the track)
150m (30"rest/50m walk) + 150m (30" rest/50m walk) + 150m (6-7â rest)
250m (30"rest) + 150m
These things are only possible with fellow athletes running along⌠Good stuff. 150s started in 21", perhaps the slowest was 23". (I am estimating these from the guyâs times, who were in front of me (theirs were 19-19-20).They also did a 300m in the end (after 10â rest).
p.s. pretty lactated in the end. I had missed the feeling.
Does your training group follow CF principles.
No they donât, but it works well because I use their âlowâ days (which are long run and weights) to do my tempo, and the other days of speed and special endurance coincide with what I should be doing (or I adjust their plan to my needs/abilities whenever I have to.
But anyway, I train with them only whenever Iâm in Thessaloniki, and my year is also divided in Athens and Milan, soâŚ
p.s. I know there are 100 comments one can make on the way I treat my training, which âsupposedlyâ follows the CF plan, but being all over the place, and needing a group sometimes, etc, I try to work it out my âownâ way sometimes.
Great song Nick
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010
(doubles are not happening, apparently⌠My sister is getting married on Sunday, and it seems like the whole world revolves around her these days - and the past 10 months :o :rolleyes: > much to help with, but itâs mostly enjoyable!)
They are doing âmaintenanceâ at the grass these days, so todayâs tempo had to be on the track, which did not feel so lovely (minor shin splints and bunion pain) but oh well.
Long circuit
100++100++100++
100++++(bathroom break) 200++100+100+
100+200++200++100+
100+200++100+100+
100+100+100++++
(the pluses are accurate actually, where +=walk 50m. I just did the first 4 with the guys, hence the longer breaks).
Still slightly sick. (weak, and tingly throat) but I think it wonât get worse.
The coach is not MY coach. She used to be, back in 2004, but now I just train with them when Iâm here, and theyâre happy to have me around - because they like me :o and I like them.
I really appreciate this group (the coach and her major guy - this year for the first time they also have a younger one who looks VERY promising), because they help me so much when Iâm here (if you think that Iâm the only person on earth who is allowed to train with them, the coach times me when I want, etc). Iâve known them for nearly 8 years, and they almost feel like family.
Training in Thessaloniki becomes a pleasure with family around, and knowing that these people will always be on (and off) the track to help me.
On the other hand, Iâm free to do whatever I want, because she (coach) doesnât have responsibility over me, and weâve discussed this in the past. (how could she? Iâm mostly not here)
I suppose the situation does not become âsimpleâ until I find myself based somewhere year-around.
And since Iâm announcing my appreciations; whatever I say about Nik and his help over the years is not enough
I was chatting with an old friend in the weight room today, and I mentioned to her that although my training is not âseriousâ like the rest (perhaps this seems so because Iâm on my own, and whatever I do will never be serious, training-wise; I strongly believe that serious training needs serious supervision, in whatever sense, at least for me, as the stimuli immediately multiply just by one watching/caring presence alone⌠anyway) this sentence got way out of handâŚ
âŚâalthough my training is not âseriousâ like the restâ⌠I do it religiously enough to allow me to train at a level where I feel that Iâm not wasting time with just doing something for the sole sake of pure fitness. (not that thereâs anything wrong with that, but it just does not fit my character - at this point of my life, at least).
p.s. John, that was a horrible video :rolleyes:
hahaha its a classic and the last 20 seconds legendary!
You made my day with that videoâŚ
I didnât have the courage to watch till the end :p:p:p
I have video footage on some drills/plyo/stride here: (Charlieâs low skips included; p.s. I donât know if this is an âofficialâ drill, but he showed it to me to help me with dorsiflexion!!)
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=23027
Itâs been my pleasure, Stef!
EDIT: I would be cautious with changing surfaces in general and with plyos from now on, as weâve discussed before.
I can definitely related with you here. Iâm on a track club that loves running long, slow intervals. But there are points where I can cross my workout with theirs (in a very creative way). For example, last night, the club ran a 300, 250, 250, 200, 200 with 7 minutes of rest between the intervals. Now of course the âqualityâ of any of these runs was definitely skeptical. So while they were still warming up and running the first two intervals, I ran 3x50m on 5 min rest. I then joined them on their second 250, which I treated as a special endurance run by running all-out. I love being a part of a team, but I just canât get myself to train in a way that I completely disagree with. So this approach has seemed to work the best for me; however, I still get that look from the others that says, âWhat, do you think youâre better than us?â What can you do?
and thatâs the issue, especially when in my case they are some of the best athletes in the country and I suck ⌠:rolleyes:
Ok !!
Yes exactly =))
And sometimes with these guys itâs not like I donât WANT to do their 600 reps with 2â rests⌠I just CANâT :o (I used to, but now I train differently). They are very cool about it, to my delight. Most of it comes from respecting each other 
Iâve also experienced being in a different group here in the same city, and I know what that âlookâ feels like, that you are talking about.
I guess it builds character.
Thursday, Dec. 23rd, 2010.
Things hurt today (body in general from a virus, shin splints from sudden change of surfaces ⌠) I took it very easy >>
EMS
That is awesome that theyâre cool about it. I still catch quite of a bit of junk for my speed-focused approach to training for the 400. The head of our club is extremely old school, and most of the runners have come from that type of training in college. I came back to track at age 25 (now 27) to break 50 seconds in the 400 for the first time. I was at 50.8 or so in high school and have gotten my time down to 50.22 last year. So Iâm getting close! But of course, our clubâs top 400 runner (48.8) throws his jabs in here and there with comments like, âMaybe if youâd stop being such a Sally and run some intervals with us, you could finally break 50.â
Alright, Iâll stop thread-hijacking.