150s, weight pulls

At the SAS track Monday, my new home base for the summer.  I like to train here at sunset because there is no shade (or bathrooms) here.  About 70º, dry and sunny at sunset, calm winds.  

Still a little sore from the meet on Sat but since I'm starting a project tomorrow, I thought I'd get this workout in.  I felt a little soreness in my right ham so it was a little vulnerable.  Ran 150s hard, not all out, working on form.  

Hoka trainers on

Stretches, drills, 100m, bands

100m - 14.50

Hoka Rocket X2s on

150m - 19.88 (6.31, 6.47, 7.10 / 12.78, 7.10 / 6.31, 13.57)

150m - 19.43 (6.17, 6.36, 6.90 / 12.53, 6.90 / 6.17, 13.26)

5 x 40m weight pulls w/ 90 lbs ~ 10.6 sec

My second 150 was better in terms of form, speed, and efficiency of effort.  It felt easier than the first one and was faster.  These rolling 150s, I need to try and get my last 100m closer in speed to my first 100.  Difference on the first was .79, second .73.  But my first rolling 100s were well under 13 and without maximum effort.  Tells me there is hope to improve my 100m time with a better start.   

Weight pulls were hard and I think I may try doing these differently.  The hardest part of a harness pull is the start.  Momentum makes it easier after the first 15m.  So, maybe just do a series of accelerations with less rest in between.  Like 12 steps from the line, stop, repeat.  

I probably won't be on the track til at least Thurs or Fri.  I'm building a tool shed/workshop alone which is a big undertaking.  At least it'll help me burn some calories, I'm a bit heavy.  Waking up at nearly 146 lbs today.  I do hope to be in the weight room in the evenings at least once or twice this week.  Probably tonight.  I need to give my right ham some time to rest as well.  

Heavy for this workout, 146 before, 145 after workout.   

PTC meet, youth track, gym, schedule

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:

Special olympics ... and that's about it.  

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.

200m, 3 x 60m

Went to the Sewanee track today for my workout... and it was gone.  

GONE.  Shredded and in piles.

I knew this was coming and expected it, just didn't know when.  Turf gone too.

I'm looking forward to the new beautiful purple track,  but I do feel a sense of nostalgia for this track where I earned my medals and world rankings.  I've been out here in every month of the year, sometimes in extreme weather... everything from a wind chill of 5ºF to a heat index of 105ºF.  I must have put nearly 2000 workouts down on this track in the last 14 yrs.  

So, today... I went to St Andrews, which is actually closer to my house.  It's a decent track although no shade, no bathrooms.  

Quality sprints today.  Cloudy, W wind, mid 70ºs.

Hoka trainers on

stretches, drills, bands 100m

Hoka Rocket x2s on

200m - 27.38 (13.22, 14.16)

60m - 8.00 (4.37, 3.63)

60m - 7.86 (4.31, 3.55)

60m - 7.97 (4.40, 3.57)

30m - 4.47

The 200m was rolling, the 60s were from the line 3 pt stance, I measured 30m splits.  

Being so heavy, over 145 lbs, I was dubious I would run this fast but I had a little tail wind.  I woke up at about 146.5 lbs so I'm really a mess and have put on weight.  It's really inexplicable that I ran these 60s faster than I did with blocks and spikes a few days ago, even if it were after 2 hard 150s.  My 200m was hard and close to full effort, pushed HR to 179, 40 sec after finishing.  

I still may race Sat and not expecting much.  It may be my last of the season.  Need to be at least under 143 lbs.  My foot seems only capable of every third day of running now and with my track being resurfaced, maybe this is a good time to call it a season.  

Epic excursion

Arrived back to TN late Monday night and Tues, took the boat out to Centerhill Lake and the epic Burgess Falls.  It had been more than a decade since I had been here and the lake was just barely high enough to get up there.  The weather was great and I had to go.  If I waited a day, the lake was dropping a foot per day and it wouldn't have been safe.  So I went.

The reason I haven't been here in so long is that this time of year when the water is high enough for a brief week or 2, I've been so involved in track and training, I prioritized that.  Now, with my season winding down, it was an easy decision. 

I was happy to have this place to myself for a few hours yesterday. After a swim and picking some wild mint on the shore, a great place to chill, read, and take a nap on a warm day. Amazing.  The temperature was perfect.   

Of the nearly 2 dozen countries I’ve visited in 11 trips overseas, this place, just a short distance from where I live ranks near the top among the most exotic and spectacular I've seen. 

Now that the park has done away with the staircase, visitors who come by car can not access the base of the falls anymore. It’s now two separate worlds: the base of the falls and the park above. I’ve actually never visited this place by car, only by boat, first time was 30+ yrs ago. In years past, I could anchor the boat and spend the entire day above the falls on the park trails. Not anymore. Now that the base of the falls is no longer a part of the park, it seems there are now tour groups exploiting the area with kayak and pontoon boat tours. Happy that one group was leaving just as I got there. Still is beautiful, spectacular, like I remembered it.   

5x180m hills

Visiting parents in FL.  Went out today for a hill workout on pavement.  Quality over quantity.  Last time I did this workout in Dec, I did 10X at about 29.5 avg.  Today, I did these with ample recovery, each rep a little longer so the last one was almost 15 min recovery.  Sounds like a lot but it was in full sun, 92º, humid, heat index about 101º and an occasional breeze.  First one was a warmup, then 4x hard.  

Hoka rocket x2s on

Stretches, drills

5 x 180m hill sprints - 31.20, 28.42, 27.17, 27.42, 27.52

Not sure of the exact distance of that hill but tomorrow, I may go measure it w/ GPS.  It's very close to 170m based on my time.   I rested at the top til my HR dropped to about 140, then walked down and rested again til it dropped to 130. In every case, max HR was observed 20-30 sec after the sprint.  Max was 179 after the fastest rep #3.  Including the rests, i was out there for 45min and HR avg was 145 for the entire period.  

Weight holding about 143ish.

If I get up early, I may go to the track for some short sprints with the local club.   Trying to get my dad interested in throwing the shot.  He's M85 next yr and to throw a 5 lb shot more than 30 feet is world class for that age.  

First time I've used my Rocket X2s on pavement, but I found a deal on some from Hong Kong less than half price so I may demote this pair to hills and pavement.  

Workouts may be spotty this week as I am planning a boat trip Tue-Wed.  Hope to be back Wed for a late PM workout but maybe not til Thurs.  Still planning to race 100/200 or both on Sat.  

UPDATE:  I measured this run with GPS twice and it was 188m.  Running a 190m hill sprint in 27 is pretty good.  Usually run 200m sprints way slower up the much steeper Roarks Cove Rd (like 38ish). I'll call it 180m.  Still, 27 seems too fast.  

300, 200, 100, 50s weight pulls

 Did a quality workout tonight, mid-70ºs and sunny late afternoon, light winds.  

Hoka trainers on

stretches, drills, bands, 100m

100m - 14.10

Hoka rocket x2s on

300m - 43.71 (13.34, 14.56, 15.81/ 27.90, 15.81)

200m - 26.93 (13.17, 13.76)

100m - 12.85 (6.32, 6.53)

Hoka Rincons on

2 x 50m weight pulls with 90 lbs ~ 12.5

Was pretty hard and reminded me I'm not in 400m shape.  I did go out too fast in the 300m and my splits slowed about 1.2 sec in each subsequent 100m and I was almost rigging by the end.  The 200m was better, more balanced, last 50m was about 7 flat.  100m was ok, tried to run tall and put down good ground force.  All sprints were 3 step rolling.   

Was pretty tired by the time I hooked up the harness, was going to do 4x but I was running out of daylight so I just did 2x.  

Trying to eat better, still not really race weight.  142.5 lbs after workout.  

 

200, weight pulls

Tried to get a track workout in Tuesday but couldn't, not recovered enough from Sunday's run in spikes and Monday's gym workout that included weighted squat jumps.   I had limited time due to an approaching storm front so I thought I might just do a split 400 (300, 100) then some weight pulls.  I got 200m into the 300 and shut it down.  Just hurt and felt sluggish.  So, I tried out my new steel cable I made for the weight pulls.  

Hoka trainers on

stretches, drills, 100m

Hoka rocket x2s on 

200m - 29.80

4 x 40m weight pulls with 90 lbs ~ 9.59 - 10.5

I was encouraged by my sub 19 sec 150 on Sunday, but I did it in spikes and looking back to '21, I was running this fast in trainers, twice in fact in the same workout, after running a 57.8 400m.  I look back at that workout grid from '21 with amazement now.  No wonder I had the world lead in the M60 400m that yr.  No wonder I ran 56 twice and 2:18 in the 800.   I think that if my body could have withstood the pace I was training at in Jan - early March, and I hadn't reinjured that proximal ham on 2/2, I might be a least closer to that by now.   It drives home the point that there is a big difference in being 'regular fit'... and being 'super elite 400m fit.'  Now, I'm just regular fit.  Maybe not even that.  I've notice my resting HR is about 10bpm higher than it was back in Feb. and when 400m fit.   Most masters athletes have no idea what it's like to push to this highest level of fitness...  a place that I really don't think I could get to just running the short sprints.  V02 max doesn't come easy for me.   And, it's a fine line to pushing it to the max and overtraining.   Surviving the training is #1, and I failed in that this spring.  Now, I've also gained that hard-to-lose 3 or 4 lbs.   Was eating much better when Roya was here.  More salads, vegetables, variety.   Back in March, I was really disciplined with my diet.  I had visited Trader Joes in January, bought 4 lbs of my favorite chocolate, and never opened a single piece til I finished Nationals in March, which was a bust anyway.  

143.9 lbs after workout and same this Wed morning.  

Today, going to do resistance at home, abs, upper body, hip thrust machine and rest my feet and legs.   Tempted to do a bike climb to burn some calories, not sure.   Weather looks good tomorrow. 

Here's the weather front I was up against yesterday.  It wasn't as severe when it passed: