How many days a week do you lift now John?
How many days a week do you rest now?
Maybe it’s also time to consider recycling through some miniature phases, say 10 days of emphasis on less reps and more speed (over short and longer distances - out to 180m); or alternately a mini phase of strength & endurance.
I have just switched back (last couple of weeks) to 3x. I think this suits me better.
I am still generally training 2 on, rest, 3 on, rest, but haven’t been scared to take an extra rest day as needed especially the day after a race. For example I had planned something yesterday but there was no way I could have done it so I just veged out.
All training will be messy from now on as we are away on holiday from Dec 29 till Jan 16 then I fly to Aus for CF seminar on 18th then back late on 23rd. I will train while away but it will be pretty basic and no weights, what I do will need to fit around family activities but my daughter will be training as well and my wife is pretty understanding 
…shit after nearly 22 years with me she has to be 
Too tired to train. Crashed just before 9 :eek: and slept through till just before 6, so 9 hours. Feel waaay better this morning (Tues).
Looks like 400m tomorrow may be postponed till the New Year which would be good, will most probably train tonight 
It good having days off when you need them and then you feel fantastic the next day. It makes having that day off so worth the while.
remember, if your away from the track for extended periods over the holidays, use a countdown timer on your watch. Set if for like 30s, 60s or whatever, and run for 30s on, and say 3sets of 30s off. or whatever. Find a road, and just run. You’ll find that training will happen much quicker. A 1hr track workout can be done in like 30min!
Correct, they will.
I know… I’m a little late for this thread.
better late than never The sad thing is that they are still an essential in my bag and get worn on a regular basis even though it is supposed to be summer 
Bold, good idea but my stopwatch isn’t that flash it was something like AUS$15 at Paddy’s Market in Sydney about 18 months ago. All I have had to do is replace the battery yesterday. I may by a flash one next year.
Sleep
9 hours
Hills
walkback between reps, 3 mins between sets
10r x 10m
2s x 5r x 20m
3s x 3r x 30m
Hang Powerclean
rest 2 mins
50 x 3, 55, 3
Power clean
60 x 3
3 mins rest between
65 x 5s x 3r
DE Box squat
60 sec rest
70 x 5s x 3r
Incline db bench
90 sec rest
22db x 12, 10, 8
Overhead squat
90 sec rest
35 x 2s x 5r
Lunge
90 sec rest
50 x 2s x 5r
Abs
10 mins x various 30 sec on 30 sec off
prones x 2 mins
Rating
7
still a bit tired so will have another early night tonight and take it easy next few days.
Like tonight when I also had on a wind jacket :mad:
Wed 20 Dec
Sleep
7 hours
On grass in flats
5s x continuous
2 x 60m tire
2 x 100m fast relaxed
Rating
7 1/2
Not to throw something else into the pot right now, but it seems like you don’t do very much pure special endurance over the last while. Might be helpful to do some full out 150’s and some 300’s where you really blast it. Not the kind where you do it at closing 300 pace but where you go out almost like its a 200m and just hang on for dear life. I think you should be able to do them around 45 seconds. I mean if you look at your last speed races, you did 14.3 for 100m and 29 something for 200m. You should be able to do a mid-28 given that 100m time and all the back end work you’ve been doing. Just seems like the 150-300 range might be a hole in your program to me.
Yes and no. I had been doing 300’s but not with full recovery but I get your point and agree re 150’s.
That 100mtime was my slowest ever (one would hope so) and the 200m slower than I have been running backing up from my 400’s.
I think there have been a lot of gaps in my program the last few months and I have done an extremely poor job of transferring where I was in Transition to now. Will be interesting to see what I run after I get back from holiday as they will influence whether I go to National Masters or not.
EDIT last session with 300’s was 2 weeks ago and did
300m @ 46.69
ran pretty hard but not flat out thought it would be around 49
rest 5 mins
300m @ 48.35
actually, from approx 3-4weeks out from the qualification meet (as its a do or die to see if you actually go to Nat’s) what jon had to say should be part of you program for sure. Get fit over the holidays, plenty of fast short recovery hard work, hills ect.
Then say 3 weeks to go, really hammer out as fast as you can, 150’s, 300’s (or my favourite 280’s - 2xstraights + 1 curve) and the negative split run 200’s - 200 in 30 then 200 in 29. Keep fresh between sets, efforts and days, and speed will improve so that you should fly by qualification time.
Bold,
agreed and I plan doing a 150-200 speed endurance based session on Saturday then something similar probably again on Tuesday before we fly out on Friday.
On holiday I will be training hard and resting well
I get back from up north late afternoon of 16th so will probably run a TT over 300 or 400 on the 17th before flying to Aus on 18th. Will then race 400m on January 27th and February 3rd. How I go then will determine whether or not I go to Masters Nationals the first weekend of March. If I am not under 63 sec then I will simply taper for Otago Champs on February 17.
FYI there is no qualification time for Nationals, simply enter and turn up.
yeah i wasn’t trying to be a know-it-all about what you’ve been doing. I know you’ve done a lot of work with 300’s, but it’s been mainly in the form of 300 + incomplete rest + 300, or something along those lines- with the exception of that one workout where you went 46. Otherwise they’ve been usually around 49 I think. See, how I follow the journal LOL. I folow cuz I’m in the same boat, though my own training is sidelined till spring.
I just meant I thought you might benefit from a session where you do a 150 at full speed, rest 20’ and then do a 300, literally almost like you would do a 200, really blast it and just try to maintain form at the end as much as possible. Don’t even worry about how terrible you will be after having gone out so fast. I get the impression that maybe you don’t go out hard enough in your races, and you yourself mentioned how you don’t really feel lactic acid so much as much as a general slowing down and heavy feeling. Maybe it’s possible that you have a genetic disposition that way, but you won’t find out until you go out so hard that it really hurts. I remember my 400’s from years ago and you can’t mistake that feeling for anything else. If you were feeling lactic acid you would know it for sure.
You might also get a psychological boost from the fast 300’s. You do them in 45 seconds and suddenly 47 won’t seem so bad, plus you’ll get into gear for going out hard. You just have to bring it back a shade from that pace and you’re set for your 400. Aside from that I would think about reducing the length of those hills. You don’t need to be doing things that last 1:30 seconds really. I dunno…I’ve come across as a complete pompous as@ i’m sure, but I’m quite bored at the moment and thought I would throw something at ya!
ps. my vote goes for going to that main masters competition you were talking about. It would be a great place to set a new pb in a race where you can be competitive and run with people in your ability range. It must be hard to stick to a race plan when you are not near your competitors. No offense intended but you know what i mean. Sorry for the long diatribe
Jon,
I never took your comments as those of someone being a smartass, far from it. Everything you say is correct, valid and appreciated.
As you will have seen the last few months have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster as I have struggled to translate where I was in September to now. I have lurched from here to there in a state of semi panic. :mad:
You are right re those 300 times and the way they have been run. The times have been frustrating as if anything the 46 was the easiest of them. Part of that is due to the conditions here the last few months …CRAP!! It has been sooo windy with most days between 3 and 5 m/sec this has made it hard for me to run to planned times. Bold made a fantastic suggestion a few weeks ago to aim for 6 x 200m @ X time then once achieved work on down. I got stick from KK as it would be too logical for me to do. Well I would have but how the hell do you assess a time to run when one day it is a 3 m/sec wind and the next over 5?
You are right I need to go out harder in my 400s but only a few times lately have I not had a head wind (lately a strong one) from 120-280. The time the wind came from the other direction I knocked .65 off my PB. :eek:
I have tried to run a 300 imagining it is a 200 and hang on but for some reason fail to, there is definitely a mental block there I know that :mad:
I also think having a holiday will help, my wife and I are both pretty stuffed after a full on year.
I understand and appreciate your comments re the Masters but will wait and see how it goes in January. I will see about getting in races that suit my ability, can do that if they have a mixed one. I am used to being miles behind in races and training alone so the game plan thing isn’t really an issue as one guy said the other week lets face it mate, you’re cannon fodder :o
Fri 22 Dec
Sleep
call it 6 1/2 hours as woke up for a while around 4am then fell asleep again.
Track
15 mins between
3 x 150 no pint taking times as wind around 4.5 :rolleyes: felt slow though.
300 @ 50.19
messy crappy run. Wasn’t too worried about time as just tried to run hard and knew it would be slow after the 150’s.
Rating
6
Couldn’t be stuffed doing weights.
John, can i ask a couple of silly Q’s???
How about you do some 150’s with the wind v’s against it? even 300’s, you should be able to re-arrange your start and finish so that the 1st 80-100-150 is a tail wind… Set some markers out.
Also, re the 300’s over the past few months. Did you not used to start them “rolling start” or even, standing start, and now do them out off blocks? That will create a change in “time”.
Also, as per running a fast 300 time trail. Try this next time. Try a rolling start for starters. Even try from 10m Out, hit the watch on the line. Now, using the Tail wind from above… run a flat out 150m time trail… i want a PB attempt, relax effort for remainder of curve, except for the last 5 or so meters. As you come off the curve, power up, (relaxed though), and maintain form, relaxation and run past the 300m line by 5m. Stop the watch on the line…
Now, the run counts when a PB is scored in the 150m.
Now, here is how to reward yourself. It has worked with everybody i tried it with. rewards for shit hard work, cause nobody likes em. (300’s)
Keep score of your best times, take them to the track.
Your Hell will be 3 x 300’s… hahahaha with at least 20min rec.
Your reward at best will be only 1 x 300
If, you run your 1st 300m in a PB, as well as a PB in the 150m half way, then only 1 x 300m is done. Finnish off with a jog down, perhaps some drills??
If you run a pb in the 150 but not the 300 or a 300pb but not the 150! then you get a reward off doing a 150 as your next effort. However, if that is not done in a PB, then one more is still done. So, 1 x 300 and 2 x 150’s.
So, you don’t run a pb in either the 1st 150 or the 300, then your torture is another 300m. Same rules apply. But, if you win either in the 150 or 300m then session ends. if you loose, then a 3rd 300m. Now, if you win in the 3rd effort… well… I just don’t know? Go out for dinner, after you scrap yourself off the floor.
Oh, and per the going to the Masters thing, only if you feel you are good enough, I can understand that completely. I am like that too. If its a worthwhile comp, then it requires a worthwhile Time. If its just a run off the mill comp, then its just part of the training phase really, see where your at. But, if your At nowhere, why waste a trip??
Bold no such thing as silly questions especially regarding my training
150s and less are always done with the wind. It is only when I got to 300 that they aren’t. I guess I get hooked into exactness and timing on the 300’s that I always start them from the 300m mark rather than 2 curves and a straight , may be 295 or 305 and well it wouldn’t be 300 would it? :rolleyes:
All 300’s are from standing start. I have very occasionally used blocks in training and never over 300.
See I struggle to view a PB as anything that isn’t ‘fair’ IMHO a PB over 150m with a gale up yer ass isn’t a PB. That is why I run 300’s from standing start from line from 300m line every time otherwise it isn’t the same conditions. 2 curves and straight with a +5 wind is not a PB to me and yes I can be pedantic and yes it can piss people off …trust me pissing people off is something I can do very well.
Interesting view re the reward, they are something I should do more of.
That is not a bad drop off with only 5 mins recovery, perhaps this highlights your lack of speed?
Below is a post made 20 August which is when I was probably running at my best and interestingly things started to decline.
Originally Posted by kitkat1
Hi John,
So what do You put those PBs down to? It’s important that you know the answer(s) because then you will understand much more about how to reproduce such excellence again. That’s what our sport is about at the sharp end: the ability to produce a performance on demand (you demand or someone else’s demand, eg: national championships date & time-tabling). There is raely only one reason for such a breakthrough, so check your diary, diet, rehab, rest, sequence of training, warm-up, weather/wind circumstances, training environment etc. … oh and Bloody Well Done! kk
Good question. In all honesty it really is a combination of things which I’ll try and list in order.
Consistent well structured training
This isn’t a suck up but the template has worked well for me. I have made very minor modifications (tempo instead of long runs in GPP and then 3 x long hills for some track work due to calf). That said I have at times alteredthings if I felt I really needed to, that has only been dropping a couple of weights sessions though. The benefit of the GPP work is starting to show in that I am not so nervous and hesitant about going for broke from the start. My confidence right now is pretty high (consistently smashing PBs does that )Staying / getting healthy
I had a few hassles with my calf in particular but this is now 100% in fact it is the best it has been for 12 months My left knee has a tendency to be a bit stiff and sore but that too has improved the last few weeks. I have also maanged to avoid any colds or other bugs lurking around which meant I could train as I wanted.
Right now health wise I feel great. In part that is related to the next thing.Improved diet.
First off my diet wasn’t bad and if you look at the outline on the previous page the only big change is at breakfast where I have changed from oatmeal with PP to a fruit smoothie most days. The rest is pretty much the same. I wasn’t getting enough fruit so all that in the smoothie is new.I thought long and hard about your comments after the last vid I posted, in particular the bit about
Then again, as you say, it’s nothing 20 years and/or 20lbs reduction wouldn’t fix I can’t turn back the clock but I can make a difference re my weight. 20lbs (9kg) might be a bit dramatic and possibly too much but I needed to get leaner!It will be interesting to see what I weigh next week when I next get on the scales but since the beginning of July (around the time you made that comment) I have lost 7.3lbs (3.3 kg). I feel a lot better for it
At Raps advice I have added glutamine to my diet. That and the other changes has improved my recovery. This means I can train harder. I wasn’t slacking before but the quality is at a higher level.
Transition phase
The increased focus on improving max speed has made a big difference both physically and psycologically. In GPP (as it was all new) I kept thinking, I need to work on my max speed, I am inherintly slow, how can I get faster over 400m if my top speed is so slow? Now that I have worked through that once I wont be so concerned in future.Been more aggressive
Although I knew I needed to I had been reluctant to go too hard from the start on my longer reps for fear of blowing up. I still have a long way to go on it but am getting better.Got stronger
The weight room numbers still aren’t great (esp Power clean) but my squat in particular has stayed pretty much the same despite the weight reduction so my strength to bodyweight has improved.Improved technique
I’m not underestimating this but without all the above I doubt this would ever have happened. Wednesday’s workout may turn out to have been a turning point. I know I am still pretty slow and have a long way to go but I now feel like I am starting to sprint rather than simply running.Improved weather
There will still be another cold snap (it is part of or weather pattern) and Dunners will never be tropical but it has been a lot more pleasant the last few weeks I possibly could have trained in shorts yesterday.Sorry for the long answer but you did ask. Although they are listed in order in most cases they could be equal and are interrelated as in without that I couldn’t have done that.
So what about since then?
Consistent well structured training
Been consistent but definitely not well structured. It has been reactive and poorly planned. Same with my racing, things changed which meant I could run more than originally scheduled. I should have either run 100 and 200s or stuck to the plan and skipped them. Running 400s 4 consecutive weeks was stupid especially as 2 were with high winds on back straight.
Staying / getting healthy
Still pretty healthy but tired. It has been a big year and I am probably slightly overtrained. A holiday should help that.
Improved diet.
Has slipped a bit. Not having a kitchen for 8 or so weeks was a hassle but we coped pretty well but it wasn’t quite as good as normal. Sinc ethen it has been ok but not as sharp as it should be. When I get tired I just eat anything :o which leads to my weight. This morning it was 178 which is up about 2lbs (1kg) on when I was at my best.
Been more aggressive
will always be an issue but certainly not consciously holding back like I had over first 150 to 200m.
Got stronger
no but hen I have been more in maintenance mode. I tried something different to Tier for a few weeks (2 x pw) but switched back recently.
Improved technique
no better IMHO.
Improved weather
Weather was definitely better in August than November and December strong wind has been a constant that has been driving everyone nuts.
Some of those things I can’t affect but others I can. Time away will be good to recharge and get things under control something that is normally one of my strengths although you would never know reading this :rolleyes:
Sleep
7 good hours
had a 2 hour Nana nap yesterday afternoon :eek:
Long Hills
15 mins between
78.5
78.41
78.75
78.03
Total 313.69 (PB is 309.73 from 3 Sept)
Box squat
2 mins rest
70 x 3, 80 x 3, 90 x 3
3mins rest
100 x 5s x 3r
DE BOR
60 sec rest
60 x 5s x 3r
Iron cross
90 sec rest
5 plates x 3s x 15r
Bulgarian squat
90 sec rest
22db x 2s x 5r
Chins
90 sec rest
2s x 5r
Recovery
took dog for walk on beach
Rating
7
Feeling more rested already.
Merry Christmas to all those that read this. We are having a BBQ at my sis outlaws place.
Hello JOhn,
Those hills seem awfully long, or awfully slow :o . If you run around 64 to 66, then maybe you don’t need to run for longer than that.
I’m assuming you’re going back into a strength wedge at the moment, but you don’t really want to go back exactly where you were in GPP while you’re in mid-season.
So perhaps you can consider going 1 x hill for 66sec, then jog down to the bottom. Turnaround, walk back up and stop at a mark about 80 metres from the top. Then sprint that 80m hilly bit as your backup rep in your hill set.
That then corresponds to track work of a nature like 300+150 or 300+60 etc.
The hill session I used mid-season and then post-domestic before heading to Europe was 360m hill (or a 48sec hill because by that time the top male was already hitting 45sec-46sec for 400m on the track), backed up with 4x80m hills. We’d do two sets like that and one Xmas period we had the soon to be national 100m champion join in for that exact session.
Merry Christmas, safe and happy to JOhn and all
kk
I’m not really going into a full strength phase although I can appreciate how it could look like it. Part of it is I can’t be stuffed driving to the track on holiday and felt like training close to home which I can do with the long hills (under 5 mins drive away). I also wanted to get some idea of how things sit on the hills versus when things were humming and things weren’t as bad as I thought they may have been.
I’ll probably go to the track on Tuesday and Thursday and bust out something more appropriate.
Thanks for the tip on the hill work, and all the best for your family.