Never watched more than 30 seconds and have no intention of changing that. If I had my way we would tape everything and watch it 2 times pw.
There has been a bit of talk that Graham Henry has been trying to talk Tana out of retirement for RWC next year …that would be good
Just got back from children’s athletics, M set a PB in HJ, 1.38 she didn’t get to run 800m as they ran out of time. Pleased I’m not racing as cold and windy, am pretty tired and slept like a log last night 
Sleep
8 1/2 hours
plus I had a 60 min Nana nap yesterday :eek:
Track
4 x ins & outs
8 mins between reps
rest 10 mins
4 x 80m from 3 point start with 8 mins rest between
wasn’t what I had planned but there was a woman’s soccer game on so couldn’t do more than 80m, in fact I thought I may have got kicked out. Considering how tired I have been last few days was probably for the best anyway
Hang snatch
2 mins rest
30 x 3, 35 x 3, 40 x 3,
3 mins rest
45 x 5s x 3r
Superset with 90 secs between
Snatch grip deads 1s x 5r x 70, 4s x 4r x 95
Standing DB press 1s x 5r x 12db, 2s x 4r x 22db, 2s x 3r x 22db
Tri set with 60 secs between
1 arm db row 3s x 5r x 32db
Bench x 3s x 5r x 65
Bulgarian squat 3s x 5r x 22db
Abs
10 mins various 30 sec on 30 sec off
Prones x 2 mins
Recovery
bath, foam roller and tennis ball later
Rating
8
wasn’t too sure how weights would go as woke on Saturday morning with a really sore L shoulder, must have slept on arm or something was rotator cuff area :mad: they went fine
Sleep
7 1/2 scratchy hours 
Endurance on grass
30 sec rest between
100
200
300
400
500
600
500
400
300
200
100
decided this is better than 20 mins continuous
Rating
5
Must admit to HUGE self doubts right now, I just see soooo many gaps in my performance 
I don’t even have any endurance as these sessions show so I can add that to my lack of speed
Sleep
7 1/2 hours
Track
4 x ins & outs (40-20-20)
8 mins between reps
Hang Clean
2 mins rest
42 x 3, 50 x 3, 55 x 3
3 mins rest
60 x 5s x 3r
Superset with 90 secs between
Box squat 1s x 5r x 70, 3s x 3r x 100
Incline DB press 1s x 5r x 20db, 2s x 3r x 32db, 1s x 2r x 32db
Tri set with 60 secs between
Dips 3s x 5r
Chins 3s x 5r
SLDL 3s x 5r x 80
Abs
10 mins various 30 sec on 30 sec off
Prones x 2 mins
Rating
7
Recovery week this week so lowered volume quite a bit, Have races on Saturday, will be interesting to see how it goes would like another PB of under 64… but then we don’t always get what we want 
exactly, like Bono sms’ing you!!
Have a fun race.
Also, do you train with anybody, or just by yourself? How do you handle the motovation if you turn up to train, its windy as, cold, you got something hard planned and you have a headace? Are you able to convince yourself to train anyways, or is there somebody there “expecting” you to turn up, and if you dont, he will Nag you to death for the next wk or two for not turning up, hence, you always turn up… As your workouts seem pretty consistant, how do you do it?
Always train by myself and as you have noted it is extremely rare for me to miss a session which historically has been an issue. One of the benefits of competing is I find myself less inclined to overtrain and I rest more appropriately now
As for motivation I guess I just turn up and do it.
hi John,
In the week ending with a 400m race, try to avoid anything in the gym that loads your legs (ie, don’t do any type of clean, snatch or squat, no jumps, steps ups, stairs et al). Just try to unload the legs before you race that 400m - just to see if it helps you get around. You probably should try that for two or three race weeks.
And whatever you do, don’t do leg weights at least on the Friday preceeding a 400m. Maybe that will help.
Also, if you plan to race a 400m, don’t race 100m beforehand, and don’t do any aggressive accelerations in your warmups because it really blows the quads out - even in elite quartermilers.
Normally I would just suggest dropping the leg weights anytime after Wednesday of a 400m-race week, but I would just be interested to see if a week entirely without leg-weights might help your 400m.
KK,
thanks for the input, always appreciated. I very nearly did upper body only but decided against it as I am still in somewhat training mode rather than race season philosphy if that makes sense.
I will have a rest day today then on Friday I have to help run an event (nothing too strenuous) for work so that will do in place of warm up warm down.
Saturday morning we are probably shopping for house stuff (hopefully not too long) and race is at 2.30. Don’t worry had no intention of doing anything too strenuous pre 400m. May not get to do 200m as it looks like they are doing that immediately after the 400m :mad: …will make a call at the time.
I then have a week and a half till I start taper for SI Masters Champs on 25th
here is what I plan till then
Sat 4th
400, 200?
+
weights
Sun 5th
Tempo with 30 sec rest between
100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100
Mon 6th
4 x 100 finishing in bend
300m walk recovery
rest 15 mins
200 + 200
rest 30 mins
200 + 200
Tues 7th
Rest
Wed 8th
4 x ins & outs
8 mins between
In sequence
3 x Push up x 30
3 x 3 point x 40
3 x Standing x 50
Masters 100 race
Thurs 9th
On grass with walkback recovery
5 sets
2 x 80m tire, 2 x 100m fast relaxed
+
weights
Fri 10th
Tempo with 30 sec rest between
100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100
Sat 11th
Rest as helping with children’s
Sun 12th
4 x Ins & outs
8 mins between reps
Rest 15 mins
200 + 200
rest 30 mins
200 + 200
+
weights
Mon 13th
4 x 100 finishing in bend
300m walk recovery
rest 15 mins
4 x 150
Tempo, fast, tempo, fast
Tues 14th
Rest
Wed 15th
Start taper
comments appreciated.
Sleep
7 1/2 hours
Races
400m @ 65.07 :mad:
rest 10 mins
200m @ 30.14 wind + 2.2
GRRRRRR!!! perfect conditions for 400m wind in +1’s but I felt flat before during and after. Simply didn’t run hard enough. jeeze that makes me shitty :mad:
Last time I tried to increase pace from 200m but really tied up last 80m so this time I waited till around 260m and focussed on trying to stay relaxed and ran like a nancy boy soft cock wimp. They had 200m immediately after as have a 10k race on. There is no way I should have been in any state to run it but I did for training.
Hang snatch
2 mins rest
30 x 3, 35 x 3, 40 x 3,
3 mins rest
45 x 5s x 3r
Superset with 90 secs between
Snatch grip deads 1s x 5r x 70, 3s x 3r x 100
Standing DB press 1s x 5r x 12db, 3s x 3r x 22db
Tri set with 60 secs between
1 arm db row 3s x 5r x 32db
Bench x 3s x 5r x 65
Bulgarian squat 3s x 5r x 22db
Abs
10 mins various 30 sec on 30 sec off
Prones x 2 mins
Recovery
will do something later, stuffed if I know what
Rating
2
Pretty down right now and wonder why I even bother, nothing I do is leading to any sort of improvement feel like I’m wasting my time with this shit.
Thats is where doing more 400’s in training helps. For 800’s, we used to do 3 x 400’s flat out at times. Each 400 you try to run that bit different, just to see how running them different affects the final time. This really needs to be done in training. ie,
200 in 28 then just hold on
200 in 29 then try and maintain
200 in 32 and try to run the same
200 in 34 and try to run faster
100 hard, coast the back till 150 to go, then push it out
50 hard, then coast for 250, then push
50 real easy, hard next 100, cruise 100 then hold back to pace coming onto strait, then maintain on home strait.
eventually, you learn to find where it is you are strong at. At the moment, its too hard to tell as most 400’s are done in a race or end of training block time trail.
If you know before a race, you know exactly how to race. it then becomes a “just do what i do in training”.
As you become fitter, stronger and faster over time, then you need to re-take on the 400’s and find out again where your strenghts lay!!
For me, it used to be, gun it for 120, cruise fast along the back straight (approx 0.5-1s off 200m pace), relax the last curve, then 10m before the home straight, start striding out and hold like hell. It normally produced lactic something bad in the last 50, but i was so far in front of other methods, my times were much faster done that way. But, i was gunning for 800’s, not 400’s and had no top speed. 300’s were my “speed workouts”. Still the principle remains similiar. If you want fast times, (for you), find out what style of running you need.
I have had 2full seconds from different running styles. If that was converted to a % factor, that would be like 3 seconds for you?? difference between a 63 and a 66. a happy run and a sad run.
Also, to drag it on further.
if you do that work only in races and time trails done rarely, it will take you a full season of trail and error.
then you goto to figure out, When can you do that?
I’ve had overnight to calm down and reflect, shit I am sick of having to do that :mad: .
A number of factors weren’t right yesterday as follows
Don’t feel I ate right on the day, wasn’t hungry but just …not right Race is at 2.25 which I find a tricky time.
Finished warm up too far out from race and was possibly over cautious not to burn out before hand. I did my normal session warm up but still had approx 20mins till race. This may have led to my feeling of being flat…not tired more mentally so, sort of …ho-hum here we are
Strategy, WTF was I thinking? :mad: Although I wasn’t that pleased with the time I did last race I was pleased that I gave it 100%, more than anything that is what annoys me, I don’t feel I did yesterday.
To keep it in context it was still my 2nd fastest time (pathetic!) and was 0.57 off my best.
It just seems that sub 60 is soooo far away…am I just kidding myself? 
I look at my times last year for 100m and 200m and there was basically no improvement from the start of the season to the end. I have done all this winter training, lost a shit load of weight, feel stronger when I run and yet my times are only marginally better than the 400m I ran in March (65.87) in a race I ran extremely conservatively and had never properly trained for.
Before yesterday I was 100% sure I would do the SI Masters Champs in late November and NZ Masters Champs in March, now I am about 50/50 and wonder if I should just save the money and effort, just do the local races and make Otago Champs in February a focus. …hmmmm, don’t know.
Bold, thanks for the input and effort taken, much appreciated. I understand what you are saying but think my best strategy is to go hard over first 300m (imagine it is a 300m) and then hang on for dear life. Psychologically that will never happen but I need to get that mindset going. The times may not reduce but if I feel like death at the end then I will be be happy with that. I understand what you say re not doing enough 400’s in training and will slot one in next Sunday anyway regardless of what I do re SI Masters Champs.
While on the subject of Masters this really pisses me off (gee that’s unusual :rolleyes: ) I pay a club fee of $95 which includes affiliation to NZ Athletics but as they are such a disjointed mess it doesn’t include Masters fees which is another $40. I have to pay that to go to SI and NZ Champs as well as entry fees.
hey, thats how i felt too!!! Did you wear a track suit to keep warm? i didnt, but should have.
About the masters games. Am doing the pan pacs now and we had to pay like 90$ just to enter, then 20$ to do athletics then $5 per race. So even though it was pouring down rain, i was still going to run.
No I would have melted, it was a blistering mid 20’s
If had forked out over $100 for a comp I would run too.
Sleep
8 hours (includes falling asleep in front of telly)
Endurance / recovery
30 sec rest between
100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100
Recovery
bath, foam roller & tennis ball later
Rating
7
should have been doing this during GPP
What an amazing place Dunners is no wind and hot yesterday and today it is windy, drizzly, approx 1/2 the temperature and I had to train in my winter gear :eek: at least if it had been like this yesterday I could have blamed the weather
I’ve decided that I will do SI Masters but will change my buildup slightly to accomodate a 400m next Sunday and allowing for KK’s comment re no leg weights the week before to see if that helps. Here goes (today is Monday 6th)
here is what I plan till then
Mon 6th
4 x ins & outs (40-20-20)
8 mins rest between
rest 10 mins
300
rest 30 mins
200
Tues 7th
Rest
Wed 8th
4 x ins & outs
8 mins between
In sequence
3 x 100 10 mins rest between finishing with a Masters 100 race
Thurs 9th
Tempo with 30 sec rest between
100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100
+
upper body weights
Fri 10th
Rest
Sat 11th
Rest as helping with children’s
Sun 12th
400
+
weights
Mon 13th
4 x 100 finishing in bend
300m walk recovery
rest 15 mins
4 x 150
Tempo, fast, tempo, fast
Tues 14th
Rest
Wed 15th
Start taper
John. If you plan on doing a small taper from Wed. Why does it look like the taper starts from Thurs the 9th? ie, tempo, rest, rest, 400m, exten tempo, rest, taper.
Are you on purpose allowing for a major taper?
Perhaps add some more Volume on the sunday, like some none timed 2’s or 150’s?? done fast. Or, do the 400 as said, but rest 2min and do a 200m, focusing on a great 400 1st then focus on form and strenght in the 200m (feel the lactic). Then, wait 1 min and run a 100m. That will give you, 700m volume, a 400m trial, then some heavy lactic acid via the 200 and 100. If you go too slow in the 400, the 2 and 1 will be lacking lactic acid. He who buffers lactic the best, will beat the rest!! Make your training harder than a race at times. build up as much lactic as you can. Your body will learn to either or both, reduce the amount of lactic it produces at that speed and 2. learn to convert the lactic to pyrovic acid and convert it to energy faster 3. learn to spread the lactic around different muscles instead of just your hammies (that way, if you produce say 10ml of lactic and it is concentrated in your hammies, you will suffer, but if you can still produce that 10ml but spread it around your arms and torso, then it wont hurt so much.) Dont just pull out once the lactic starts to burn, make it turn to battery acid. have more acid in your veins than blood. Force the lactic throughtout the entire system.
I certainly would not do that all the time. Its just one of the many tools. At some stage in your training, it needs to be mastered. It is possable to run a good 400m, then repeat with smaller distances after a shortish break. The kind of times to aim for would be eg.
66 400
34-35 200
16-17s 100
since the sunday will really be your last really hard workout, perhaps make it harder?
and perhaps change the mon and tue workouts around. So mon is rest, tue is the exten tempo?
To me, the plan you have looks like a 10 day taper.
Thought 1: on the “perfect” conditions for your last 400m race. If you had a +2.2m/s for the 200m race, unless the wind-swung around, you would have had that as a Headwind for the first 200m of your 400m race. That is the opposite of perfect (for a 400m).
Thought 2: you have a bit of special speed endurance (a 300m and a 200m) but perhaps not enough lactic generation. I know you’re getting close to your important races now, but you could do worse than take a look at the lactic threshold thread for ideas.
But I’ll save you the time: Consider:
Option 1: 300+150 off 3mins; full recovery, then 300+60,50,40,30,20m off 90sec with subsequent walkbacks.
Option 2: 2x300m at near maxV, off <10mins.
Forget about the little sprint accelerations, forget about all the fancy lifts. The only thing that matters is running fast with efficiency which will help you last longer. kk