Relentless Ambition

[Janic]

Damn man, great stuff! Not that I need to tell you but you're only 7 one hundredths away from the magical 10.XX mark. That's fantastic.

[neseinc]

Monday 2 July.

Block work


- Hip mobility over hurdles (my mobility has greatly increased!)

- 6x3 hurdle jumps

- 4x block starts over 10-30m

i'm way more explosive out of the blocks and the first steps compared to few weeks ago. my heel on the 2nd step should be lower though, but I don't have to focus on that right now.
my coach video taped some of the runs and hopefully i'll be able to post them here.

and thank you all for your comments on here. that really motivates me!

[T-Slow]

Congrats on the 100m PB! What happened to the 250+100 runs your coach had you doing? Did they disappear a couple of weeks ago, right before you ran PB's in the 200 and 100?

[neseinc]

i can't even remember when was the last time I had a 250+150 workout, maybe like 1 month ago and that's when my times were in the 11.35 - 22.60 range so i think stopping these workouts have had a positive impact on my speed.
he said it's competition period now and he might do that workout once in a while to see how our fitness is doing.

[T-Slow]

It sounds like your coach is doing the right stuff and you just need to have the patience to trust his approach.

It sounds like he has a fairly general 100-200-400 program for his young athletes, and that 250+100 day would surely have deadened your legs. Now that hes taken it out, you've freshened up. Without all of us understanding the exact dates of key races in your season, it can cause us to question your coach unnecessarily.

Perhaps he will share a little more of his plans with you because you clearly have the interest. The ideal situation now will see you stabilizing in the 11.0 - 11.1 range, and perhaps dipping below 11 point in a big meet, or if you get great conditions. You're meeting your goals, so no need to try! Just relax and execute like you've been doing. Congrats again!

[hornblower]

Have you still been using the new warm up??

[neseinc]

@ t-slow: although my times are getting better i still don't know I should stay with him next year. he says i'm undertrained and that I can't do alot of explosive stuff right now with my past injuries and that left hip that pinches at times. that could be true, but why are the others in my group doing the same program as me then?
he also said once he wants us to be good at 100 to 400. there is no 100-200 group or 200-400 group. we all train the same way, we are not training to our strengths (or little) and that's why the group isn't improving much i think.

i would have loved to run a 100 before going on holidays (7 july to 28) to perhaps confirm my 11.08. what are things I could do there to keep my fitness/speed/power levels? hills? EMS?

@ horn: yeah I have. i feel much better and less tense before a race. my legs don't feel as tired anymore, definately going to keep using the new warm-up!

[neseinc]

Friday 6 July.

Speed/speed endurance

Pyramid: 60-80-120-80-60

no times but i was pretty fast, i'm in great shape right now. too bad i can't run a 100 before august..

well im gone for a while now !

[T-Slow]

It's too bad you can't get in another race, but you scored a few PB's recently which is good. So you're on holidays for how long? Are you going to be away somewhere? You can work out on your own by putting together your own workouts. Be sure to keep some tempo work in there to maintain fitness. Perhaps you could put together something and we can all comment on it. You have good enough awareness of training principles to put together a few weeks of training for yourself.

The fact that your coach runs a general 100-200-400 program isn't so bad. You're young, and there's no need to get overly specific at your current level. When you're getting into the 10.7 area or better on a regular basis, then maybe it's time to start specializing.

When it comes to whether to leave or stay with your current coach next season, that's a decision only you can make, but ask yourself the following;

Who is going to do a better job of coaching me?

Do they have a good sized and competitive training group? Sometimes a good group of athletes to run with can erase the shortcomings of a "basic" program. There is no rocket science in the Jamaican training programs, but there are big groups that have a lot of fun and compete hard!

Just try to know what you're getting into as well as getting out of when you consider changing.

[neseinc]

im back from my holidays in cameroon. i could have updated my journal from time to time but the site took ages to load so i decided to continue once im back.
i loved it there, i thought all i'd do was train and bore myself out at home for a month but turned out to be quite the opposite. the first 2 weeks i was pretty consistent with my training, even though i didn't recover quite well because i was going out alot. the following 2 weeks were nowhere as good training-wise: small hip injury was bothering me again, was going out alot more etc.

i did my training a few meters away from the house where we stayed. the ground was hard but covered with desert-like sand, not as hard as asphalt so no problems.
there were alot of steep hills near the house but too slippery, so i had to train on a not so steep hill, but still enough to work on my acceleration, I think.