The least important part of this thread is the Title

Oregano_State

Wednesday 3rd April – Track
Yesterday brought the first daylight track session of the year, which was a welcome change to the darkness and cold we’ve all had to endure for the past few months. I hope the temperatures start to pick up a bit now, sprinting in the cold is not much fun at all.

Anyway, the session last night was 3x300m at 95% with 15mins break. I was hoping for sub 40s, but unless I’m mistaken, I haven’t gone faster than 42s for a 300m since I started this log so that was probably an overly optimistic goal.

Warm Up: 2 laps jogging, hurdle mobility, plyos, ladder drills. Spikes on and 2 x strides.

Session: 40.3, 41.5, 41.7

They’re solid splits I suppose, still showing improvement which is encouraging, but I’d like them to be a bit better. My first races are coming up on the 20th April at the Leevale Open Sports, I’ve entered the 400m and the 200m, which is on three hours later. I’d love a 52.xx, and a 24.xx, although maybe that’s more wishful thinking than a realistic goal. I’ve got two and a bit weeks to get some good training in, so hopefully I can put a few good sessions together and surprise myself.

Oregano_State

Thursday 4th April – Speed development + Gym
I’m going to try to incorporate some acceleration and top-end speed work into one of my gym days from here on in, as it turned out ok last night. I also need to stop arsing around and wasting time when I get home from work so that I’ve time to get my sessions done before the gym closes. I was suffering a bit from DOMS due to missing a few gym session before Tuesday’s. Anyway, here’s what I did:

Warm up
5mins bike, hip/leg mobility floor exercises, leg-swings, squats, lunges. Headed out to the track then and did a couple of strides with my spikes on.

Speed Development
2x3x75m, with 15m build-up, 60m at 95%, concentrating on staying relaxed with good form. Walk-back rest between reps, 3mins between the sets.

Back into the gym...

Power Clean
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 3
70kg x 2 (wanted 3x3, but I failed the third rep 3 times so I left it at that)

Back Squat
20kg x 10
70kg x 5
85kg x 5
95kg x 3
100kg x3
[90kg x5] x 3

Circuit
10 inverted rows, 1min plank, 20 med ball knee-tucks, 15 Burpees

I was very stuck for time so I only did 1 set of the circuit. I reckon it was a combination of the hangover from deadlifting on Tuesday and the speed work just before, that resulted in me failing to get the work sets on the power clean done. I’m booked in for a massage on Saturday morning so hopefully that’ll get my legs loosened out a bit as my right hamstring is still a bit tighter than I’d like.

Oregano_State

Sunday 7th March – Easy bike/run + Steam room
I’ve had an annoying throat infection since last Thursday, which has just cleared up only to be replaced with a bit of a cold. I didn’t do much over the weekend in the hope that I’d be ok for training this week, and although I’m not 100%, I think I’ll be ok for a track session this evening.

I was in Cork for the weekend, didn’t do anything on Friday or Saturday, but I was getting very restless on Sunday so I headed for light aerobic workout at the UCC Mardyke complex while my girlfriend was doing her C25K session. I did 20mins on the bike, but couldn’t resist throwing 3x1min hard in the middle as I was getting bored. I’d planned to stay on for 30mins but boredom made me switch to the treadmill for a quick 1km while herself was finishing up.

We then headed down to the pool section for a swim, but I didn’t have a hat so had to make do with about ten mins in the steam room.

Oregano_State

Monday 8th April – Track
The beginnings of a cold which had surfaced on Sunday, had by Monday evening turned me into a sniffling, snivelling, snot factory. The infection had not affected my chest, so I deemed myself fit for training. I was pleasantly surprised on arriving to the track at Irishtown, to find out that I was doing 200s, with the aim being to bang out 4 of them at pretty much 100% with 12min breaks. The coach said to start off blocks, as they were supposed to be quick. I hadn’t touched a set of blocks since my one indoor race this season, back in February, so the sight of them helped to push any negative thoughts about not being at 100% because of the cold, to the back of my mind.

Warm Up: 1 lap, leg-swings, form drills, stride-outs.

Reps: 25.1, 24.3, 25.1, 25.3

There was a fairly strog cross-wind on the track that generally seemed to be behind me on the home straight, so the times are probably ‘wind-assisted’ to a certain degree. I’m not sure how accurate the timing of the second one was although it did feel faster than the others; I’m not sure if it was quicker by that margin. I did some hip-mobility drills over hurdles between reps 1 and 2, which kept me warm, so that could be the reason for the quicker time. I just wrapped up and did a bit of walking around for the other breaks.

Wednesday 10th April - Track
My cold-management strategy was to skip weights on Tuesday as I felt that I’d be better served saving my energy to fight the infection, and more likely to be in a good state to do the more important track session on Wednesday. As it turned out, I still wasn’t over it, but I’m sure I would have been a lot worse if I had trained on Tuesday night. The session was 5x150m hard, with 8mins break.

Warm Up: 2 laps of track, hurdle drills, plyos, ladder drills, 2 x stride-outs

Reps: 18.4, 18.3, 18.2, 18.3, 18.7

I paced out 5m back from the 145m mark on the track, sticking a bit of tape down for reference. The times are about 0.3s slower on average than the last time I did 150m reps, which I think can be explained by a combination of having to cover an extra 5m and the debilitating effects of the sniffles I'm suffering from.

I found the session very tough on my hamstrings, and walking around today I can feel that they've tightened up. I'm getting a massage on Saturday, so hopefully that will set me up for a good week leading up to my race on the 20th.
My main concern though, is shaking of the remnants of this cold.

Pisco Sour

Oregano_State wrote: »

Monday 8th April – Track
The beginnings of a cold which had surfaced on Sunday, had by Monday evening turned me into a sniffling, snivelling, snot factory. The infection had not affected my chest, so I deemed myself fit for training. I was pleasantly surprised on arriving to the track at Irishtown, to find out that I was doing 200s, with the aim being to bang out 4 of them at pretty much 100% with 12min breaks. The coach said to start off blocks, as they were supposed to be quick. I hadn’t touched a set of blocks since my one indoor race this season, back in February, so the sight of them helped to push any negative thoughts about not being at 100% because of the cold, to the back of my mind.

Warm Up: 1 lap, leg-swings, form drills, stride-outs.

Reps: 25.1, 24.3, 25.1, 25.3

There was a fairly strog cross-wind on the track that generally seemed to be behind me on the home straight, so the times are probably ‘wind-assisted’ to a certain degree. I’m not sure how accurate the timing of the second one was although it did feel faster than the others; I’m not sure if it was quicker by that margin. I did some hip-mobility drills over hurdles between reps 1 and 2, which kept me warm, so that could be the reason for the quicker time. I just wrapped up and did a bit of walking around for the other breaks.

Wednesday 10th April - Track
My cold-management strategy was to skip weights on Tuesday as I felt that I’d be better served saving my energy to fight the infection, and more likely to be in a good state to do the more important track session on Wednesday. As it turned out, I still wasn’t over it, but I’m sure I would have been a lot worse if I had trained on Tuesday night. The session was 5x150m hard, with 8mins break.

Warm Up: 2 laps of track, hurdle drills, plyos, ladder drills, 2 x stride-outs

Reps: 18.4, 18.3, 18.2, 18.3, 18.7

I paced out 5m back from the 145m mark on the track, sticking a bit of tape down for reference. The times are about 0.3s slower on average than the last time I did 150m reps, which I think can be explained by a combination of having to cover an extra 5m and the debilitating effects of the sniffles I'm suffering from.

I found the session very tough on my hamstrings, and walking around today I can feel that they've tightened up. I'm getting a massage on Saturday, so hopefully that will set me up for a good week leading up to my race on the 20th.
My main concern though, is shaking of the remnants of this cold.

Look after yourself. A couple of times now I have had colds which lingered. Turns out they weren't colds at all but rather nasty bacterial infections. If it hasn't got better after 5 days and is actually getting worse then that could be a sign its more than a common cold.

Great 200 times btw.

Oregano_State

I put the post title there to remind myself when I read back on this, that this was the day of the Boston Marathon explosions. First heard mention of it on Newstalk on the eight o'clock news while driving back from Irishtown. Shocking.

Well, I better fill in the blanks of the last few days. The cold I was suffering from lasted right up until today, so I took the weekend very easy. I was in Cork, and had a look-see at the goings on at the Intervarsities Championships on Saturday afternoon. There were some great runs, the most impressive of which I thought to be Mark English's leg of the 4x400m relay for UCD, I got him at about 48 flat, but that was his 3rd 400m of the day, having won a semi and final of the 400m individual earlier on. Animalistic. Special mention goes to John Coughlan who won the 5km by almost exactly 35 seconds and ran the race on his own from gun to tape.


OK, enough of the journalism. I had a sports massage on Saturday morning, in which my hamstrings got a well-needed pummeling. I felt like a million bucks afterwards, but didn't realise how much recovery I needed to give the hammies after the "massage". I decided to go out for a run on Saturday evening, to hell with the cold, and after a 15min warm up, mainly jogging, attempted to do some hill repeats. The first one was ok at about 80% effort, with the plan being to do six more at 90%.

The second one felt very fast, it was about a second quicker than I've ever done since I started timing myself on that same stretch of hill, but I could tell that all was not well on the walk back down to the bottom. It was a warm evening so I'd chosen to just wear loose shorts (Note to self: Don't sprint in loose shorts in Ireland, you blithering idiot.) instead of the running tights I normally have on. Anyway, walking back down the hill I could feel a tingling in both my hamstrings, which I thought at first just to be the effect of rain dripping down the back of my legs, but in fact was my legs telling me that enough was enough. I jogged home, pretty pissed off with myself.

On inspection, when I got back to the house, I was getting a bit of discomfort when I tried any stretch on the left hamstring, so I showered and iced it for a good 20-30mins. I took Sunday completely off.

Monday 15th April - Track
I'm getting tired now, so I'll cut to the chase: The legs were feeling good today, had a few little sneaky stretches at work and didn't feel anything, so I decided to head to the track session, sans spikes, to stop me from doing anything too fast.

The coach decided on a 4x250m off 4mins session. I was aiming to run smoothly, concentrating on form. I wasn't timed. Reps 1, 2, and 3 were fine, I pushed the last one a fair bit, and I got a very decent hit of lactic build-up afterwards. My body wasn't happy with me at all, it started cramping everywhere and my stomach threatened to empty itself. Having been in a bit of a speed-work zone recently, it was a bit of a surprise to feel so terrible at training.

I finished off with what my club-mate called the "sprinter's warm-down", basically a cycle of strides, stretches and drills in falling intensity. It worked pretty well in bringing me back to normality, so I'll definitely use it in the future.

Oregano_State

I’ve had a gander around the health and fitness forum over the past few days, looking for inspiration on how to improve my deadlift. I found a program that I think suits me, so I’m going to have a go at it and see where it brings me. It’s a one day a week job , so I’m going to lob it in on Thursdays to give me plenty of time to recover before my next track session, as DLs are very tough on the CNS, legs and back. The percentages refer to one’s 1 rep max. I decided to do it on Tuesday this week as I’m racing on Saturday and I don’t want a repeat of the DOMS I had in Athlone after a heavy Thursday night gym session.

The plan:

Hanley wrote: »

70% 5x8
75% 3x8
80% 3x5
85% 3x3 - w/ a few reps extra on your last set only, if you have em
90% 3x3 - w/ a few reps extra on your last set only, if you have em
95% x3
Test

Tuesday 16th March – Gym
Given that I’d avoided the gym last week due to having a cold, I was looking forward to getting stuck back into the weights yesterday evening. It felt strange that I needed sunglasses on the drive over considering that up until a couple of weeks ago all my training was done in darkness, and it almost seemed like Ireland would never emerge from winter.

Warm Up: 5mins bike, hip-mobility floor exercises, leg-swings, BW squats & lunges.

Deadlift
60kg x 8
80kg x 8
[93kg x 8] x 5

Dips
BW x 5
[BW +10kg x 6] x 5

Conditioning
Inverted Rows (wide-grip), Knee-tucks w/ med-ball, Plank, Burpees
[IR x 10, KT x 15, 45s Plank, Burpees x 10] x 2

That session looks a lot easier/shorter on paper than it felt last night!

Oregano_State

Wednesday 17th April - Track
It was a light enough session this evening in anticipation of my races on Saturday, and which I was very thankful for given the gale that was blowing. I did 1 x 200m, 4 x 100m, and 3 x 30m, all at 95-100%, from the 400m start in lane 5, out of blocks.

I had the wind at my back for most of the 200m, which felt good, if a little strange. I wasn't completely happy with how I was getting out of the blocks, but I've only just started using them recently at training so I should improve.

My hamstring niggles (tightness) seems to have cleared up. Let's hope it stays that way!

Gawd, I need to get to bed earlier.

RandyMann

Hey Oregano, I just read your mention of intention to improve your deadlift. I got great results from a pyramid type session. Example below but taylor the weight to suit your level obviously
Week 1 - 8X60kg, 6X80kg, 4X100kg, 4X100kg, 6X80kg, 8X60kg with 120secs recovery between each set.
Week 2 - Reps 7, 5 , 3, 3, 5, 7 and same as above with about 10kg added to each weight
Week 3 - Reps 6, 4, 2, 2, 4, 6 with 10kg added again.

Week 4, go back to the reps of week 1 - 8, 6, 4, 4, 6, 8 but start with 70kg and then 90kg, 110kg and back down and so on.

I got great gains from doing this and I managed to lift 200kg a few weeks ago when I weighed 66kg. The program does take a lot out of you so dont overdo it as the outdoor season is nearly upon us, you need some energy for the track too......

Oregano_State

Thursday 18th April – Gym
After a deliberately light track workout on Wednesday, I didn’t want to kill myself last night and affect Saturday’s potential performance. I didn’t have a set plan before I went to the gym, apart from doing plenty of stretching and mobility work and to keep the volume low on the lifting side of things. I decided to try a few max tests and see if I could hit a gym PB or two to set me up nicely for the weekend.

Warm Up
5 mins rowing machine (about 1245 metres @ setting 5), hip mobility floor exercises: fire hydrants x 15, single leg hurdles x 15(not sure about that name), donkey kicks x 10, all per leg. Also did a good deal of foam rolling, walking lunges w/ med-ball, BW squats.

Hang Clean
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 3
70kg x 1
75kg x 1 PB (sketchy tekkers, but I’ll count it)

Front Squat
60kg x 5
70kg x 5
75kg x 3
80kg x 1 PB
90kg x 1 PB

Pull Up
BW x 5
BW x 5
BW+10kg x 5 PB
BW+10kg x 2
BW x 5

Plyo/Conditioning
Tucks Jumps x 10
Split Jumps x 20 (alternating legs)
Clap Push-Ups x 10

I can’t remember whether I did two or three rounds of that.

I hit a fair few PBs there, so it looks like I’m as strong as I’ve ever been. My front squats have come on a huge amount, I remember trying to do 70kg a few months ago and having to re-rack it because it was too heavy! On Tuesday I saw a five foot nothing girl front squatting 90kg, so I figured if I didn’t at least equal that last night I might as well hand over my man card at the reception before I went home.

Oregano_State

I had been looking forward to the first outdoor races of the season for the past couple of weeks, with the possibility of good/great weather only serving to fuel that. Training has been going well, and apart from having to cut out the gym sessions for a week while trying to manage a cold, it’s been quite consistent too. A good gym session on Thursday where I hit a few PBs had me in the right frame of mind heading into the weekend.

I was entered to race the 400m at 13:10, with the 200m as a bonus, due off at about 15:50, depending on the number of heats. I was originally planning on travelling to Cork on Friday, but ended up staying in Dublin for various reasons. I got a little delayed leaving on Saturday morning, but made it to the track for about 11:45. The weather was mixed: overcast and windy, but with strong sunshine breaking though any gap in the clouds. Powerade were sponsoring the event, and had flags planted along the infield, which showed that the wind was very consistent in blowing the wrong way down the home straight. Lovely.

400m – 54.31
I wasn’t happy with how my warm-up for the 400m went. It seemed like the event was running a little ahead of schedule, and I felt a bit rushed when I was going through my WU routine, as I was afraid I wouldn’t have time to get everything done. I’ll put it down to lack of recent experience in racing, but the end result was that I was a bit more nervous than I’d like going into the race. Also, for some silly reason, when entering online a few weeks back, I had the bright idea of putting my 4 year old PB down as the time I hoped to run. I don’t know, maybe I thought my old form would magically return to me.

There were two heats (medals decided on times) with me being put in lane 2 of the first and higher seeded one. I recognised one of the guys in my heat as one of the fellas who had ran 50.xx in the race I did in Athlone in February, but didn’t see anyone else I knew. He was in lane 3, so I knew I’ be doing well to keep in touch with him. The race got off first time, and I felt good coming out of the blocks, I got my head up after 30m or so and saw that I had kept pace with Mr 50s in lane 3, but as I settled into my stride down the back straight he started pulling away from me.

At 200m I felt pretty good, but could see that I was steadily losing ground on the field, apart from the guy inside me in lane 1 who I couldn’t hear, so assumed I’d kept the stagger on him. By 250m I could feel my form starting to deteriorate, and was met with a brutal wind as I came around the apex of the bend. I now started to hear a pounding on my inside, and knew what was coming. The runner in lane 1 had caught me with about 120m to run and immediately opened up a gap. I’d completely fallen apart at this point and was disheartened by being so far back from the leaders. I kept plugging away to the end, but if I’m honest, not at 100%. The winner came in at 50.3x I think, the guy in lane 1 got 52.27, with me in 7th out of 7 in 54.31. The second heat would have been a better race for me, as it was won in 52.xx, with second and third in 52-53s.

200m – 25.17; wind -3.8m/s
I sorted my head out soon after the 400m. I knew I hadn’t performed at my best, but I had roughly 3 hours to get ready for the 200m and I wanted to prove to myself that I was in better shape than that 400m would suggest. By the time the 200m races were due to start I’d out the 400m behind me. I had started warming up more than an our beforehand, and was feeling good to go.

There were 4 heats in the men’s 200m with me put in lane 4 of the 3rd heat. I knew a couple of the other guys in my race, and figured that barring a catastrophe, I wasn’t going to get destroyed. The wind was still a problem, but everyone was in the same boat. The first two heats went off without a hitch, but for some reason the starter’s gun began to act up for my race and there were 3 false starts due to this. It was a little annoying having to re-focus for each one, but overall I still felt pretty relaxed. At the 4th time of asking we got away cleanly, and I felt really good as I motored around the bend. Once I got my head up, I had passed the guy in the lane outside me and I’m pretty sure I was in first place coming off the bend. Once again, the wind greeted my entrance to the home straight, and I could see that it was between me and a runner from Menapians in lane 7 for the win. I made the mistake here of really pushing with 80m to go, when the smart thing to do was to relax and concentrate on keeping my form and turnover going. I could my name over the loudspeaker as the commentator narrated the race, which felt pretty cool, but I put that to the back of my mind as I concentrated on getting to the line. I was pretty much stride for stride with the Menapians runner, but I must have tightened up in the last 20m as my friend who was in lane 3 came out of nowhere and surprised me. I dipped on the line and thought I’d managed to hold on for second, but it was very close between the top 3.

When the results were posted I was disappointed to see that I’d been pipped for 2nd by 0.01s, and was 0.08s behind first. I wasn’t too happy about failing to break 25s either, but the wind reading of -3.8m/s probably explains this. Overall I was much happier after the 200m race, and have learned a few things that I can work on now.

ecoli

Solid start to the season man. Still too early in the season to be worrying about times especially given weather we have had for the 1st 1/3 of the year. The times will come no doubt main thing at he moment is to be competitive which you were fair play

Oregano_State

Sunday 21st April – Fartlek
As my Monday and Wednesday track sessions have become and will continue to be very speed-focused, I’m going to try and keep the aul alactic aerobic system ticking over with Saturday/Sunday sessions for the next few weeks, and reassess from there. The idea for this came from feeling gassed after 280m in my 400m race on Saturday as well as tying up in the last 20m of the 200m. I know that there were more factors at play than me not having the race fitness, but I don’t think I’ll do myself any harm by lobbing a 3rd session into my programme for the next 4 weeks.

Anyway, after shaking off the worst of my hangover from an enjoyable Saturday night, I headed for a fartlek run around The Lough in Cork City. I did a 12 minute warm-up jog, then some drills, lunges , squats, leg swings, as well as a fair bit of swan and goose watching (seriously).

The plan was 6 x 40s, off 2min active recovery, but as it turned out there was a bit of variation in the breaks ranging from 2-3min as I had to fit my sprints in the sections without significant corners. I felt pretty strong for most of it, but the last two reps were tough. It was a gorgeous evening to be out running though, here’s hoping there’s plenty more weather like that in store over the next few months.

dna_leri

I suspect that with competition you will improve a lot as the season goes on, so it was a good idea to get an early indication. The 400m time is alright considering the conditions (about the same as Athlone?) and it sounds like the 200m was good competition practice. It will all add up. What's the focus for the summer, will you try to peak for national seniors ?

Oregano_State

dna_leri wrote: »

I suspect that with competition you will improve a lot as the season goes on, so it was a good idea to get an early indication. The 400m time is alright considering the conditions (about the same as Athlone?) and it sounds like the 200m was good competition practice. It will all add up. What's the focus for the summer, will you try to peak for national seniors ?

I hope you're right, and thank you for your confidence. I'd say the regular competition of the graded meets will help a fair bit. I ran 54.58 I think in Athlone, so there was a slight improvement.

I'm not aiming for any specific peak time, juts going to try to train and race consistently over the season and see what happens! I'd say I'm a good 8-12 weeks out from a potential peak, as I've only just started doing speed stuff in the past month.

Everything needs to improve, so I'm going for the race-myself-fit approach!

Oregano_State

Monday April 22nd – Track
I was surprised to find out on arriving to the track, that Dan the man, AKA my coach, had decided to revert from the recent speed/speed endurance type stuff we’d been doing recently, to a 4 x300m session yesterday, at 80-85% effort. I was told to stay relaxed throughout, and that the first 3 shouldn’t feel difficult.

It was a gorgeous mild evening, with a negative breeze down the home straight being the only cause for complaint.

Warm Up
1 lap of the track, lunges, leg swings, squats. Then form drills, followed by hip mobility drills over hurdles. Finished up with a few stride outs to about 70m.

Session
Times for the reps were: 42.9, 44-high, 44-high, 43.8, with 4mins break throughout.

I have to say I really enjoyed this session. I felt really comfortable for all of it, and I don’t think I’ve ever found a session of 300m reps as easy. I was breathing heavily after the 4th, but didn’t go lactic at all. I felt like I could have gone for another two at the same pace, but the coach said to leave it at that.

Oregano_State

Tuesday April 23rd - Strides + Gym
Another balmy Dublin evening brought another session in Santry. I continued with my plan of fitting some running into my gym sessions, but as the last few days had been pretty heavy on the legs, just settled for 3x3x60m strides, in runners on the grass infield.

Warm Up
5 mins rowing at setting 5 (avg 1:58/500m); mobility floor exercises: fire hydrants, single leg hurdles, donkey kicks; lunges, squats, leg-swings.

Outside:

Strides on In-field
3x3x60m with walk-back rest, 2mins between sets. First set @ 70%, second @ 85%, third @ 70%. Concentrating on form.

Back in the gym:

Power Clean
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
50kg x3
60kg x 3
70kg x 2, 1 (missed third rep, so gave it 40s, then repeated)

Bulgarian Split Squat
BW x 10 EL
[20kg DBs x 8 EL] x 3

Pull Up
BW x 5
[BW+5kg x 5] x 3
[BW x 5] x 2

Conditioning
Mountain Climbers, Med-ball Knee-tucks, Plank, Reverse Hypers w/ 10kg plate
[MC x 50, KT x 15, Plank 30s, RH x 15] x 2

Solid all round. Power cleans are coming along, starting to really like them. Pull ups seem to be improving too, but I’ve still got plenty of room to improve there. Saw a guy doing sets of 8 chin ups last week with a 15kg plate added.

Oregano_State

Wednesday 24th April – Track
Up until yesterday evening, I’d been on a pretty long streak of rainless track sessions. This is Ireland though, so it was never going to last forever. 4x200m off 6mins was the plan, but the coach wasn’t around today, so I was timing myself.

Warm Up: 2 laps, dynamic stretching, drills, couple of stride-outs.

Session: 25-high, 25-mid, 25-mid, last one untimed

I was, and still am suffering from lower-body DOMS after Tuesday’s gym session, so I did my best to loosen up during the warm-up, but was still a little tighter than I’d like. I used rolling starts for the first three, which probably makes them slower as it makes getting low enough to do a proper drive phase impossible. For that reason I used a 3-point start for the last one, which meant that I couldn’t time myself. I felt pretty good for the first three, but tied up a bit towards the end of the 4th.

Oregano_State

Thursday 25th April – Accel work + Gym
I was absolutely knackered when I got home from work yesterday, so I hopped into bed and had a sneaky 30min powernap, followed by a coffee. Really felt like a new man afterwards, and it put me in a great frame of mind to tear into some training. Recently, I’ve been trying to incorporate running into my gym days, and having read around online on how best to do this, have decided to keep it low volume and of varying intensity depending on the training focus and fatigue. I haven’t done much acceleration work, so I thought now would be as good time as any. Also, this was day #2 of my DL program, so 75% of 1RM, for 3 sets of 8.

Warm Up
5 mins bike, mobility floor drills, lunges, leg swings.

Outside:
Stride-out in trainers. Spikes on then for another stride.

Acceleration work
2x3x40m accelerations. First two from a three-point start, all the rest four-point without blocks.

Into the gym again:

Hang Clean
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
[50kg x 5] x 3

Deadlift
60kg x 8
80kg x 8
[100kg x 8] x 3 (tough enough!)

Conditioning
Med-ball push-ups (3 variants), Swiss-ball knee-tucks, Front Plank, Burpees. 5sec between exercises, 1 min between sets.
[PU x 25, KT x 15, Plank 30s, Burpee x 10] x 2

I had planned to do 60kg for the HCs, but my hamstrings were feeling a bit tender from the accels as well as the past few days training, and they were going to be subjected to DLs afterwards anyway, so I reckoned 50kg was enough. The Irish sprints coach, John Shields came over to me when I was doing the accels, started asking me what I was training for and who I was with. I should have taken the opportunity to ask him if he had any quick pointers, as I’m sure he would have had plenty, but I didn’t. I see him a couple of times a week there anyway, so maybe next time.

I did the DLs barefoot (well, in socks) for the first time, and didn’t notice a huge difference. I’m told it makes deadlifting easier because your hips are lower to the ground. A satisfying workout all in all.

Oregano_State

Saturday 27th April – Hills
I was down in Cork for the third weekend on the trot, and so headed over to the Lough and one of the hills I like to use for a good dose of pain. It was early evening, with the sky turning red as the sun was began to set, the swans, geese, and ducks were doing their thing, and I was about to purge myself of Friday night’s beers. Started off with a 15min easy jog to warm up. Then did some dynamic stretching, followed by another easy lap of the Lough (almost exactly 1km), before getting down to business:

Hills
2x3x150m off 70s with 5 min between sets. Starting off at 30s pace, with each successive rep faster.

The pace was approximate, the main thing was that they were supposed to get faster.
Times were 28, 27, 26; 26, 26, 25.

I found the short recoveries pretty tough, and was in a right heap at the end of both sets.

I finished off by doing a fast stride out of about 150m on the flat, then had a 1km cool-down jog home. Total distance was just over 6km.

Sunday 28th April – Recovery Run
My legs were feeling pretty beat up after a hard week’s training, so I decided not to do the fartlek session I’d been contemplating, in favour of a very easy Sunday morning run down by Cork City’s docks. I kept it very short, pretty much exactly 5km in 25mins, with good long foam roll and a stretch afterwards.



This week's plan
I have a track session tonight, gym session on Tuesday and I'm swapping my Wednesday track session for a 100m and 800m at the graded meet in Tallaght. I want to use the races as an indication of where my speed and fitness levels are at, as well as some much-needed race practice. Hopefully will get to meet some boardsies for the first time too.

ecoli

Oregano_State wrote: »

Saturday 27th April – Hills
I was down in Cork for the third weekend on the trot, and so headed over to the Lough and one of the hills I like to use for a good dose of pain. It was early evening, with the sky turning red as the sun was began to set, the swans, geese, and ducks were doing their thing, and I was about to purge myself of Friday night’s beers. Started off with a 15min easy jog to warm up. Then did some dynamic stretching, followed by another easy lap of the Lough (almost exactly 1km), before getting down to business:

Hills
2x3x150m off 70s with 5 min between sets. Starting off at 30s pace, with each successive rep faster.

The pace was approximate, the main thing was that they were supposed to get faster.
Times were 28, 27, 26; 26, 26, 25.

I found the short recoveries pretty tough, and was in a right heap at the end of both sets.

I finished off by doing a fast stride out of about 150m on the flat, then had a 1km cool-down jog home. Total distance was just over 6km.

Sunday 28th April – Recovery Run
My legs were feeling pretty beat up after a hard week’s training, so I decided not to do the fartlek session I’d been contemplating, in favour of a very easy Sunday morning run down by Cork City’s docks. I kept it very short, pretty much exactly 5km in 25mins, with good long foam roll and a stretch afterwards.



This week's plan
I have a track session tonight, gym session on Tuesday and I'm swapping my Wednesday track session for a 100m and 800m at the graded meet in Tallaght. I want to use the races as an indication of where my speed and fitness levels are at, as well as some much-needed race practice. Hopefully will get to meet some boardsies for the first time too.

What grade you jumping in? Think me and Timmaay doing B

Oregano_State

ecoli wrote: »

What grade you jumping in? Think me and Timmaay doing B

I don't know what the standard's like, but I was thinking B or C. I'd be hoping for 2:08 or under so if ye're going for something in or around that I'll jump in with ye!

Edit: I just checked the results from the first graded last year, and B seems like a good mix.

dna_leri

Oregano_State wrote: »

Saturday 27th April – Hills
I was down in Cork for the third weekend on the trot, and so headed over to the Lough and one of the hills I like to use for a good dose of pain. It was early evening, with the sky turning red as the sun was began to set, the swans, geese, and ducks were doing their thing,

That's a bit poetic, you have been reading too much of Krusty's log.

Good luck in the Graded, I hope to make it to some of them later in the season.

Oregano_State

dna_leri wrote: »

That's a bit poetic, you have been reading too much of Krusty's log.

Good luck in the Graded, I hope to make it to some of them later in the season.

I'm a wannabe sprinter logging on a forum dominated by marathoners, I have to give the people what they want!

I'm a bit apprehensive about Wednesday tbh, but I'll give it a lash anyway. It should give me an idea of what sort of goals I can aim for in the rest of the season.

Oregano_State

Monday 29th April – Track
Had a fine dollop of sunshine yesterday evening to go with my main course of 200m reps, and a very welcome sauce it was too. The wind, as per usual in Irishtown was blustery and in my face, but I suppose I’ll just have to get used to it.

Warm Up: lap of track, lunges, sprinting form drills, hurdles mobility drills, and two strides, the first w/o spikes, the second with.

Session: 3x200m off 8mins at 90%
The low volume was with an eye towards the races on Wednesday, with the idea being to do them fast but relaxed. The wind made both aims more difficult. Times: 26.1, 26.2, 25.9

I used blocks to start, and did my best, but to be honest I wasn’t hugely happy with how I ran. I think I really need to work on a smoother stride at speed, as I think I’m wasting energy by putting too much effort in over the first 200m of my races. I’m going to try a few 120s before my gym session tonight with the sole focus being on relaxation at speed.

One reason I may not have felt like I was at my best yesterday was because we had a sending off for my boss at work, where cake and sweets were available, and which I definitely over indulged in. I couldn’t believe the sick feeling I got in my stomach between reps 2 & 3, even though it was hours later. Bleurgh.

Oregano_State

Tuesday April 30th - Controlled Sprinting + Gym
Yesterday brought another gorgeous evening at the track in Santry. My plan was to warm up, do 3x120m at 400m race pace, then 2x200m at 800m pace in preparation for this evening’s graded meet in Tallaght. As it turned out, the track was pretty busy with Clonliffe’s juveniles, and a couple of their officials took exception to me using the home straight for my 120s, despite the fact that I made sure I wasn’t getting in anyone’s way, so I fecked off back into the gym before I said something that I might regret. Because of this, I didn’t do the 200s.

Warm up: 5 mins rowing machine at setting 5 (1min easy, 1min hard, repeated). Then some floor exercises: fire hydrants, single leg hurdles, donkey kicks, followed by leg swings.

Outside for a stride in trainers, then put the spikes on for the 120s: 3 x 120m with 3mins break.

Back in to the gym...

Power Clean
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 3
72kg x 1 PB
60kg x 3

Pull Ups
BW x 6
[BW+10kg x 3] x 3
[BW x 6] x 2

Conditioning
Tuck jumps, Single leg squats, Swiss ball knee-tucks (obliques, alternating sides), plank, burpees. Minimal break between exercises, 90s between rounds.

[TJ x 10, SLS x 10EL, KT x 16 (8 each side), Plank 35s, Burpee x 10] x 2

I forgot the SLS on the first round, so did it again after the end of the second.

I don’t have any DOMS today, so hopefully I’ll be good to go this evening.

Oregano_State

Getting a dose of the pre-race jitters now about this 800m. I won't know how it's going to turn out until 400m into the race. Then the 'fun' starts.

Oregano_State

Wednesday 1st May - Graded Meet #1, Tallaght AC track
I was miles off my target of sub 12s for the 100m, so that's been changed to a goal for the season instead of an immediate expectation . The race itself was a bit of a blur, but I think I need to work on pretty much everything. My first 5m felt ok-ish, but the guy outside me, who won in 11.66 started pulling away from then on. Acceleration work is needed, top speed work is needed.

I was actually happier with the 800m, went through in 61s after a 27s opening 200m (which felt ok, surprisingly), and was still going smoothly until 600m, when I tried to make a move but my legs wouldn't listen.

Goals for next 100m and 800m: 12.2x, and 2:05.xx

Went for a little warm-down jog with Ecoli and was introduced to TRR and a few others, and have officially survived my first time in Tallaght, so the evening has to go down as a success . Once I can a keep knocking little (or big) chunks of these early season times, I'll be happy enough.


Bed now.

Krusty_Clown

Well done Oregano, well jealous of those times. What did you clock for the 800?

Oregano_State

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Well done Oregano, well jealous of those times. What did you clock for the 800?

Thanks man, I appreciate that considering how well you've being going lately!

I should have been more clear, I came in at 2:08.16 for the 800m. I didn't have the sprint finish I'd like, but I still think I can improve next time by being a little more aggressive from 400-600m.

I have to be content with yesterday's times because they show that I've gotten back some degree of speed/fitness, but because I've been in better shape in the past, I won't feel like I'm doing myself justice until I'm setting PBs.