April 6 - April 16

12 days after my hamstring injury, I commenced running workouts on April 6. Prior to this, I did a lot of strengthening exercises and light stretching, especially in my hot tub, an absolutely indispensable aid to warming up.

These first three workouts were done on the street - straight away 200s and 400s which tend to be about a second faster than track times for 200m and 2 seconds for 400m - (since running on the track involves running turns).

April 6:
Mile warm up
Long sprints at 85-90% effort:
400m in 63 sec
4 x 200m in 27-28 sec

April 9:
mile warmup
85-90% effort:
2 x 400m - 61, 66 sec
3 x 200m - 28, 27, 27 sec

April 11:
mile warmup
800m - 2:33 min
85-90% effort:
2 x 400m - 63, 68 sec
200m - 26.5 sec

April 13: on the track

800m warmup
85-90% effort:
7x200m at 27.5-29.5 sec
2x80m out of blocks
Strained my right quad on my 8th 200m trying to run at near full speed and pulled up immediately... taking 2 days off from running!

April 14:
A free health screening at MTSU yielded excellent numbers:

• 134 cholesterol
• 136 lbs bodyweight (after fast)
• 118/72 blood pressure
• 21.6 Body Mass Index
• 28" waist.
• Based on the hydrostatic test I took last month, I can calculate my body fat % to be about 10.5%

April 15:
Some excellent resistance work with bands for quad and hamstring. Also upper body and core work. I've also found some excellent "sprinter school" videos on warmup drills which I'll post.

April 16: on the track - cold day. Ran in my long CW-X tights
Light day, no strains
800m warmup
75%-85% sprints
3 x 400m - 69 (flats), 64 (spikes), and 79 (working on form)
200m - 29 sec (emphasis on relaxation and form)

My plan is to run the 400m race at the Vanderbilt Invite on 4/23. I've learned it's best to do running workouts every other day and resistance on the days in between. I plan do one hard day on Monday morning (probably 4x400 @ 65) and light days on Wed., and Friday. I'm not sure if I'll take 400m running seriously. We'll see how it goes.