Young runner's training journal

Members Area My Training Journal
14

She makes sure that she gets her daily workout, actually, with her, the hardest thing is keeping her from doing too much.
I have to “check” on her each time she is in the basement (supposedly watching tv or playing video games) to make sure she is not lifting weights…

As I mentioned earlier, the previous distances before January 10th were just stepped off, so nothing is real accurate. In the next week or so, we should get a better idea of where she is at.

She is battling allergic reactions now.

She just had another bunch of blood testing done last week and hopefully they will get all this under control.

I feel so bad for her, no one should suffer like that, especially a kid… but, she refuses to let it effect her running.

15

Why the bloody hell didn’t the coach take her or call an ambulance? Doesn’t he have a duty of care, or something?

Your daughter has some pluck. Normally you need to check on your teenager to make sure they are working and not watching tv, rather than to check that they are watching tv and not working!!

16

It’s a long, ugly story, I probably shouldn’t haven’t brought it up…

As far as tv goes, we/she probably watchs the most during the 2 or so times a week that she gets EMS recovery/massage. I have the massage table positioned in the middle of the room with the big screen in the front.

If she has homework though, that is what she is doing instead… I don’t think I could do homework at the same time as EMS, but she says she has no problem and enjoys it…

17

removed…

18

removed…

19

I suspect her calves might be feeling a little sore for the next couple of days. they always do for me after a thorough massage…

20

I thought the same thing and this morning I asked her how she felt, especially her calves, she said she felt great.
That may change later…

She says she is ready to do a workout, so today is tempo, and just running a small circuit, don’t want to overdue it… will keep close watch to see if any problems still linger.

QUOTE=hornblower;245742]I suspect her calves might be feeling a little sore for the next couple of days. they always do for me after a thorough massage…[/QUOTE]

21

Here is a video taken from last Mondays workout.

She is running 300m. Her wrist action is getting more pronounced, is this from running relaxed? Video is @ 39% normal speed:

//youtu.be/vSLvYJ6abEs

22

And another video from the same day:

Here she is doing 30m runs with block starts. Video is @ 53% normal speed:

//youtu.be/Gg4kxeheAPg

23

Nice video footage! How did you slow it down? The video editing program do it for you?

On her block starts, look to move the entire block back a few inches. She is pretty jammed in there. when you move her back, her hips probably won’t have to come up as high as they are. I find if I put my girls in position so the front foot is slightly behind the hips, they can get out easier and faster. Look to get shins at 45 degrees, and the back leg thigh pointing down to the track. In this shot, her back leg thigh points towards the start line. Play with this a little and see what happens. It will be slightly weird at first, but see if it makes technical improvement.

You may want to check out the South Africa video series drills and block starts download.

24

Also just a quick note, if you look at her feet, there is daylight between the bottom of her shoe and the block pad and as a result her foot has some distance to travel backwards before her legs begin to go forward. Likely ESTI’s suggestion will eliminate or drastically reduce the frequency of that occurrence, but I thought to point it out all the same.

25

ESTI and Janic, thank you for your suggestions and help.

The video software is Kinovea, here’s a link, and yes, it is what I used to control the speed of the video.
It’s the best freeware I know of, and a thank you to TMMS for informing me about it a year or 2 ago.

http://kinovea.org/

I am also a fan of 1080p60 camcorders, I have a Panasonic TM700 and to get good action video, especially if your going to slow it down, it takes more frames per second.

I will review those videos again, and she will do some block work tonight/tomorrow.
Her first indoor meet is on Sunday, and is signed up for both the 400m and 600m, but will probably run the 400m only…I signed her up for both in case she couldn’t get into the 400m because of number of athletes, the 600m gets about 1/4 of the athletes.

There will be some fast girls at this meet, it is in Dempsey Stadium, at the University of Washington… 12 heats in the 400m, thankfully she made the list, as there are 40 girls on the “Alternate list” who didn’t make it. This is why I also signed her up for the 600m…it only has 3 heats and no need for an “Alternate list”

This will be her first indoor meet ever, her first meet of the year…and competing with College aged girls, she is excited.

The event distances will get shorter with the next meet(s), as I want to ease her into the shorter sprints.

26

Tried a few block starts with the blocks back a couple inches, straightening the rear thigh more perpindicular to the ground, and getting the shins lower.

She first said she lost “the springyness” of her start and that she was just running out of the blocks.

She then told me that when she had had private training with coach Tony Veney, that he measured her hip to ground and other measurements and changed her block set-up because of her short legs, as she is 5’ 1" tall.

I think I will wait until after Sundays race to change anything, but on Monday, will work on this again.

27

She’s not extending at the hip coming out of the blocks, so there is never a straight line from foot to head. This may be a strength issue.

28

I agree with waiting until after her race to make changes. No need to create any anxiety about starting before a race. Too bad the meet doesn’t have a 300, they are much less stressful.

29

Yes, it did help… as she was very nervous today…she said she was so nervous she was shaking in the blocks…she said it was a little intimidating that the other 4 girls were college athletes, and “giants”…

As you can tell from watching the video.

She is in lane #3, wearing the yellowish green top.

She said that just after about the first 60 meters or so, she heard the announcer say her name, and that she was “out early”, so just as she disappeared beneath the video catwalk where I was filming from, she paniced, and she slowed down.
Also, since this is a 307 meter track, she lost her bearings, thinking she had longer to run than she actually did.
That at the last turn she realized she only had about 100m till the finish, so she picked it up.

She said that she should have never slowed down, that she felt very strong during the whole race, especially when she sped back up. She said she never felt this strong before.

Even with all the warts, being her first indoor race ever, and her first race of the season, she still ran faster than in her whole freshman high school outdoor season last year… she is very happy and excited.

Her time was 59.73

We will probably try another indoor meet next Saturday, at University of Idaho, and she will run the 200m, then back to UW on March 1, for one final indoor meet, probably running 60m/200m.

Even though there is still 1 week left in her program, it already is proven successful.

//youtu.be/gQalPndFbCo

30

Fantastic result Rich! Congrats to Keana, I’m excited for you both! It’s clear from your journal that you’ve done a lot of hard work carefully planning the season. You made clever adjustments when weather got in the way, and cut off workouts when there was an injury risk.

It’s great to see all that hard work pay off. Since you have two meets left and are coming to the end of the Long to Short 400 plan, you have the opportunity to try a 7-10 day taper for your final indoor race. Might be something to seriously consider…

31

Ditto this. Keep posting Rich - I’m reading even though I’m not responding. With the interest you’re taking in sprinting, you’ll soon know more than most highschool coaches (unfortunately).

32

Rich - her rear foot is not flush against the block in the video you’ve shown. While the start is not what you’re working on in a 300m, it might be something to remedy so that she doesn’t have a gap between her feet and the blocks.

ESTI already commented on her block positioning, and I agree it looks a bit funny. The 300m vid looked ackward while the block starts viewed from the side looked ok.

Edit: She looked fantastic at the end of her indoor 400m. I agree that if she hadn’t slowed down she probably could have held on for most of the race. To my maybe-way-wrong-eye, she looks to be in 58-flat shape already with a good race. I usually avoid telling my young female runners what I think they can run, in case they don’t run it.

33

Ditto this. Keep posting Rich - I’m reading even though I’m not responding. With the interest you’re taking in sprinting, you’ll soon know more than most highschool coaches (unfortunately).

rainy.here, thank you for your observations and insight.

Yes, it is sad about the state of coaching… I would like to try to help a couple kids this summer for AAU/USATF track, my daughter would surely appreciate the company and added bonus in training too.

We will be doing block work tomorrow and probably keeping at it for awhile.
Hopefully, that will fix many of the quirks of her start.

There are also issues with her wrists flipping backwards… you can see a little of that in the last video, but it is really evident in the 300m slow-motion video. I know she has a problem with the left one because of playing viola, but now, the right one is also doing the same… they are too relaxed?

Also, I wonder how much of her hip extension issues while coming out of the blocks may be from being too compressed? Any opinion?

Hopefully we can take care of some of the mechanics issues early.

Running anything in the 58 second range would be huge this early.

Again, thanks for your very helpful and encouraging comments