Meet schedule for April - May

Track Meet Schedule for the next month.

The district Senior Games events will be hand-timed and offer little or no competition. Basically just a required time trial for the State Senior Olympics in July. The 2 others are USATF sanctioned.

UPDATED:

4/23 Vanderbilt Invitational 400m

4/30 Memphis Invitational 400m, 200m

5/5 Chattanooga Senior Games 400m

5/14 Nashville Senior Games 100m, 200m

5/15 Huntsville Metro Track Meet 100m, 200m (tentative)

Wed. 4/20 - on the track

The severe storms of last night moved through and left a nice cloudy cool morning for a workout. I felt weak as the cold has gotten into my lungs, but I think I'm getting over it fast. I've drank over a gallon of juice in the past 2 days. During my 800m warmup, I felt old and pained, but as I started my dynamic warmup, which always produces a good sweat, I felt better and was ready to fly.

Lighter workout today...

2 x 300m - 45, 45

3 x 200m - 28, 29, 30

The first 300m was not too hard, about 80%. After 4 min rest, second 300m was painful, about 90%. 200m was about 85% except I would begin pushing it toward 95% in the 1st half of the last 100m, then back off.

I have been experimenting with stride length. It seems that greater effort sometime translates to faster steps and shorter stride... which may have diminishing returns. When I'm fresh, it seems to take not much effort to stride a 28 sec 200m - about 80%. Sometimes it seems like I'm a vehicle with just 'one speed' where it takes much effort to run faster than my 'standard one speed.'

Weight is good, about 137.4. Should be at my target race weight by Sat - 137 lbs max.

Tuesday 4/19 - resistance, chest cold

My damn cold is becoming a chest cold and I'm going to need my lungs on Sat., so I hope to get rid of this soon. 2 sets of resistance work today, will do one more tonight. 2x2 different quad/hip flexor exercises - 35 reps, 2x2 different hamstring exercises, 45 reps. 3x15 squat leaps.

Looking at last years Vanderbilt Invite... the slowest time of ten 400m runners was 50.65! I will be running alone for certain, especially if I'm in lane 1. There will be women at this meet faster than me.

I remain undaunted. Endeavoring to persevere!

I wanted to hit the track tomorrow but it's supposed to storm severely. Maybe tomorrow night.

Monday morning on the track 4/18/11

Woke up 2nd day in a row with a nagging sore throat. No problem, as long as it stays out of my lungs. Perfect weather for a morning workout, cloudy, low 60s. Warm enough to wear my short CW-X tights. I was a little gun shy driving to the track this morning, thinking, "oh... this is going to hurt." But it wasn't so bad. After an 800m jog and some dynamic sprinter school warmup, I started my workout. My plan was to run 2x400, 2x300, and 2x200 and do some blocks starts on the 400m start curve. I wanted to start off slower, but it didn't work out that way... I really didn't mean to run that first 400m so fast, (maybe I was inspired by the womens soccer team on the infield watching me? ... I don't know).

These are 'honest times' run in lanes on the track.

Shoes: Adidas Demolisher 2 with 1/4" pyramid spikes.

2 x 400m - 61, 69

2 x 300m - 50, 49

2 x 200 - 27, 29

4 min rest in between.

The second 400m was truly painful with just 4 min rest after a 61 sec 400m. I still felt the first 61 sec 400m was not 'full speed' by any means. My splits were 29, 32, with the last 100m into a headwind. I felt the last 100m was about 90% effort. My 300s were pretty slow and just 70% effort, but by the time the 200s came, I caught my 2nd wind.

I finished by jogging a 400m with interspersed backpeddling, high knee, and cake walk exercises. I felt I could've run another 400m but my experience said quit while you're ahead.

No sign of strain or injury. Body weight is near target: 136.8 after workout.

Resistance tomorrow.

Sprinter School - warmup routines

These are some good dynamic warmup exercises for the sprinter:

Video 1 - muscular warmup and coordination

Video 2 - flexibility

Video 3 - basic dynamic warmup

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.

Welcome and acknowledgement

The subtitle of this, what may largely become a "training blog," comes from World Master's Champion sprinter Bill Collins' book: "The Ageless Athletic Spirit." An inspiring book for all those who seek that 'inner ageless athletic spirit.' I will be quoting his book from time to time.

This blog is for me to take an organized approach to my training and for those fellow Masters athletes who'd like to share advice, stories, and experiences.

After a short stint as a 5k runner, I've come firmly back to my roots as a sprinter. I will endeavor to compete in sprint events no longer than 400m. I've found that sprint training, which does not involve lengthy distance running foundation work, is better for me in the long term, and is a 'whole body' approach that involves upper body strength, cross training, and core work. Off season foundation work for sprinters never involves running more than 2 to 3 miles at a time, and most seasonal running workouts involve track intervals. Racing is hard on the body and like drag racing, it's risky. All running workouts for the masters sprinter do not or rarely involve 100% full speed sprinting. That is reserved for competition.

I'm going to retroactively post my training history starting with my first workouts after suffering a hamstring strain during the 3/26 100m race at the Vanderbilt Black and Gold meet.

Best of luck to all Masters Athletes... stay healthy.

"Why run far when you can run fast."

- Bill Collins