Saturday was the Parker Track Club meet in Huntsville. It was sunny, hot, close to 90º with occasional shifting winds. Meet was on a rolling schedule, I tried to not get there too early because it's tiring to warm up in that heat and sit around for hrs waiting to race. There was almost no shade. It dragged on as usual. A million kids there, primarily a youth meet. They were running young to old, masters last. So I warmed up and found a piece of shade near the finish line opposite of the 100m start. They had at least 40 heats of kids so I though I'd have close to an hour. Then... I saw the masters 100m women finish. WHAT!? My race was next, they were doing masters FIRST. I hadn't even run any strides yet or nothing so i picked up my spikes and sprinted across the football field 120yds to the start line just as the masters race went off. I bitched to the meet director and he let me run in lane one ... alone. Not the best situation. But, at least I got to run. Nothing great, 13.09. More confirmation I have work to do. At least it was an improvement over the last 2 Penn Relays because at least this time I had blocks. The main thing was that I was able to run 100m without injury. My goal was to break 13. Failed. Unfortunately the meet dragged on and I got stiff. Warmed up again but the foot hurt so I did very little running to prepare. 2+ hrs passed and I convinced the meet director to run the Masters 200m first. Again, one of my poorest showings, 27.00. ;(. I think it may have been the first time I ever ran over 27 in a meet, but just. My goal was to run 26.9 or better, failed again. The 200m was a mixed bunch. 19+ is masters/open. I ran with two 20 yr olds, a 19 yr old girl, and a 47 yr old guy. The 20 yr olds ran 23 and 26, I finished 3rd, thankfully beating the girl, and the 47 yr old guy was slow, 32+. Huge mix of ages and abilities at these meets. Some of the best were these elite HS juniors and seniors, some running mid 10s in the 100m, off to major college track programs.
Still happy to be able to still do it, and without injury. (I don't even consider my chronic foot issue an injury). Great to see a thriving youth track program. Seeing all these 5 and 6 yr olds racing is fun to watch. Also seeing these guys.... watching some of these 17-18 yr olds come out of the blocks is pretty awesome. Some are on their way to major college track programs.
Even toward the end of the meet were there are many scratches, tons of kids lined up for the 200.
I wish I had a summer program like this as a kid. I look back to my home town area of Binghamton, NY. It's absolutely PATHETIC. No youth track at all. In fact, the local running club, TCRC has some hand timed adult all comers summer track meets but they don't run sprints shorter than the 400m! The club is totally dominated by 5ks, distance, and road racing. And what about field events? WTF is it with Binghamton... people up there can't sprint or jump!? Sprinting is fundamental to SO many sports. I savaged their FB page with some of my feelings on this subject. No one cares about track there apparently. Must be a cultural thing.
Compare with my photos above, this is the state of affairs in youth track in Binghamton:
I've decided to continue training, no more volume or 400m training, maybe just 2 tempos sets a month, but I really need work on my short game. I'm in the weight room more (Sun night) and I borrowed 90lb of plates from Sewanee so I do more strength training with weight pulls. I may run another 100 or 200 before summers end. I've really regressed. Colleagues in my age group that I've ran faster than as recently as last yr are now logging faster times than me in the short sprints. I'm not that far off, about a half second too slow in the 100m and a second in the 200m. I think I can get it back with the right focus.
Heavier for this meet, about 143-144 lbs.
It was tough for me to get my heavy ass into the weight room on Sunday night, but I did. 3X Circuit was: Goodmorning-deadlifts, hip flexor machine, pecks, rows, seated hams.
Always enjoy your posts and insights to how you train. Know how much time and effort is involved to create posts, especially with the details you share. Like you, I feel I am regressing somewhat and I am about ready for a separation from the 400m for awhile, but not a divorce, to focus on top speed in the 100/200. Wayne Fisher
ReplyDeleteWayne, For me to reach peak performance in a 400m, it takes at least 3 months of hard work including long sprint tempo sessions, at least once per week, (3x300 or 4x300 w/ 3 min rest). When peak is reached, very difficult for me now to maintain it for long, as I did when I was 60-61. That year I first ran 57 in March indoor and maintained that fitness through the whole season and even pushed it further running 56 twice by July and Aug. Now I can't do that. Two yrs in a row I miss-timed my peak fitness and reached it too soon before worlds in Poland in '23, and Nationals indoor this yr. This yr I got hurt because of a weird injury while stretching and over training made it worse and I failed to obtain what should have been an easy win at indoor Nationals. I ran 58.84 in Jan. Nationals was won at 61.34. I can see my training regime must change. Can't do what I did in '21.
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