Running Aimlessly Down Under - From 54 to 53 sec 400m

RandyMann

04072511 wrote: »

My 5th gym session this evening. I did the full set of 10 exercises once, and then 7 of the 10 for a second time (up from 3 of the 10 last Wednesday). The ones I didnt do for a second time were the Squats, chin-ups and side sit-ups.

Within each exercise were the following differences from last Wednesday:

1) I managed 6 chin-ups today, up from 5 on Wednesday, and well up from the 2 on my very first day. Getting stronger.

2) I managed 8 repititions today on the bench press, up from 7. Once I get comfortable I will start to raise the weight and keep it at 8 reps from now on.

The squats remain a cause for concern and every time after I do them, the inside of my left knee area feels mildly agrevated. I think I'll discuss this with our gym expert on Wednesday and see if I can change to the one legged squats which I did as part of my core work last year.

It might be an idea to ask your gym coach about exercises for your VMO(they are very important in quadriceps and knee rehabilitation exercises).
Just see if he has any viewpoint on it.
My strength coach had me doing work on them as he said they are very important in sprinting and they help protect the knee joint.
This is not medical advice ; )

Pisco Sour

RandyMann wrote: »

It might be an idea to ask your gym coach about exercises for your VMO(they are very important in quadriceps and knee rehabilitation exercises).
Just see if he has any viewpoint on it.
My strength coach had me doing work on them as he said they are very important in sprinting and they help protect the knee joint.
This is not medical advice ; )

Certainly something I will inquire about, but for now I want to stick to these 10 exercises to build up a good base general strength.

Today I tried box squats rather than free squats, where you place a low box below behind you and you bounce your arse back off it when squatting. It is so much easier to do the squats properly with the box behind you, and my knee felt much better doing this. So from now on, all squats will be done with that magic box.

Did the full set of 10 exercises twice today which I was delighted with. The only change I made to any of the exercises was the clap pushups which I increased from 2x7 to 2x10.

I'm having a bit of difficulty keeping balance when doing the stomach ball crunches. Something I need to work on. Also, while I am improving when lying on my left side doing the side situps, I'm struggling when lying on my right side.

The running sessions started this week but I'm going to wait until next week to start. Tuesday is hill reps near the club house, and Thursday is tempo reps on the track. Next week I will do just one of these 2 sessions to ease myself into it. I still have to go buy a proper pair of racing flats, so I'll leave the track for next week, and focus on the hills.

Off to Hobart in Tasmania for a weekend of sightseeing, so I'll fit in my long run on Saturday over there. Also I will be climbing Mount Wellington one of the days. Not specific training or anything, but certainly wont do me any harm.

Pisco Sour

Went for a 2.6km long run around the streets of Hobart this morning. A very hilly city with winds coming from all directions so it was a good work out. Ran it in 12:50 (4:56 per Kilometre) and I had a bit of a red face after so no doubting the effort on this occasion.

Where I'm staying in Hobart is not an ideal place for running. Very little parks around. Thankfully Sunday morning here seems to be dead so I never got held up by traffic.

Beautiful city by the way. If anybody is ever in Australia I would highly recommend it. It has preserved it's heritage and history very well, which is a refreshing change from all the 1960s and 1970s mass produced American style skyscrapers which litter the other capital cities, especially Perth. Lots of historic buildings still remain here.

Does this break the boards charter of no advertising? :D:P

Pisco Sour

Back to the gym this evening. Like last time I did my full routine twice. Didnt make any real changes today with the exception of hitting about 6.75 chinups on my 2nd set. Couldnt quite get my chin fully up to get to 7, but a nice PB in any case.

Our gym expert gave me a bit of advice with regards my technique with regards my squats. He told me that my feet should be kept straight, which I hadnt been doing. He also watched a few of my other exercises, and has brushed my my technique for the stomach ball crunches.

Tomorrow is my first hill session. Looking forward to it.

Pisco Sour

First hill session yesterday evening. I did 7x150m hill with slow walk back break in between. The plan for the group was 8x150 but I sat the 2nd last one out as I was finding it a bit too much too soon. There was about 6 or 7 from the club doing it. The first 2 guys are 50-51 second runners, then there was one lad who is about 1.5 seconds faster than me over 200m, though just 0.04 faster than me over 400m last season, and a good bit slower than me over 800m. So I just tried to stick with him. I was always about on average 1 second behind him on each rep. The top lad was running these reps in 26-27 seconds so my rough guess would be about 32-33 for me maybe. Not overly bothered with times at the moment. Just focusing on effort level and trying to stick as close as I can to certain people.

Very tough session and was exhausted after, but one of them each week will put hairs on the chest as they say. The group did 3x60 hill sprints after the 8x150 but I sat that out.

Worth noting that before the session I had to jog about a mile, maybe 8 minutes or so to get to the hills, and then jogged most of it back, so there’s a bit of extra aerobic work there.

Back to the gym after work this evening.

Pisco Sour

Back to the gym this evening. Did my full routine twice again, but with the following differences:

1) I managed 7 chin-ups both times this evening, up from 6 and 6.75 on Monday.
2) I upped my lunges from 20 to 25
3) I upped circuit upper body from 40lbs to 50lbs. I could certainly feel it and I found it tough but got through it both times. The bicep curls part of the routine was the toughest.

Been 3 tough days of training so enjoying a nice James Squire beer now. Long run at the weekend.

Krusty_Clown

04072511 wrote: »

First hill session yesterday evening. I did 7x150m hill with slow walk back break in between. The plan for the group was 8x150 but I sat the 2nd last one out as I was finding it a bit too much too soon. There was about 6 or 7 from the club doing it. The first 2 guys are 50-51 second runners, then there was one lad who is about 1.5 seconds faster than me over 200m, though just 0.04 faster than me over 400m last season, and a good bit slower than me over 800m. So I just tried to stick with him. I was always about on average 1 second behind him on each rep. The top lad was running these reps in 26-27 seconds so my rough guess would be about 32-33 for me maybe. Not overly bothered with times at the moment. Just focusing on effort level and trying to stick as close as I can to certain people.

Sounds like a good session and if you're feeling wrecked afterwards, then you got something good out of it. What kind of effort level is it for the 150m and the 60m sprints, and what was the climb like?

...so enjoying a nice James Squire beer now.

Sounds nice. Would it be a 200m or a 400m beer?

Pisco Sour

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Sounds like a good session and if you're feeling wrecked afterwards, then you got something good out of it. What kind of effort level is it for the 150m and the 60m sprints, and what was the climb like?

I was probably going at 90-95% maybe. Last year I never did more than 5 reps of hills, so when I was told that 8 were on the menu I was a bit wary, so was concious not to go full pelt too soon. Just tried to stick with the guy who is a little faster than me. I had to sit out the 7th of 8 reps which is a pure sign I had very little left in the tank at that stage. My 8th rep then felt quite weak, even after the extended break.

The hill was fairly steep, but not quite as bad as the one I used last year. But the distance was longer, and there were more reps so that more than compensated for the slightly lesser incline. At a guess (which is probably wrong) I'd say maybe it was 20-25 degree slope. Really dont know to be honest. I'll try find it on mapmyrun and post back.

EDIT: Just checked and it seems like the majority of it ranged from 5% gradient to 12%, with a very small bit of it being at 20%. A good average would probably be 8-10% gradient, but you have to take these measurements with a grain of salt. I'm sure mapmyrun wasn't designed with 150m reps in mind.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Sounds nice. Would it be a 200m or a 400m beer?

I'd probably put it as a 200m beer - offers much, lots of potential, but just not quite able to get into it quickly enough, and before you know it, the bottle is empty. At least, that's my sort of 200m anyway, given the fact I should have been up to a good half second quicker last year based on my 400m time.

Krusty_Clown

04072511 wrote: »

At a guess (which is probably wrong) I'd say maybe it was 20-25 degree slope. Really dont know to be honest. I'll try find it on mapmyrun and post back.

At 20-25 degrees, you'd need picks and crampons, but I get the idea. Will try and do a similar session this week on one of the many local hills.

Pisco Sour

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

At 20-25 degrees, you'd need picks and crampons, but I get the idea. Will try and do a similar session this week on one of the many local hills.

Just checked and it seems like the majority of it ranged from 5% gradient to 12%, with a very small bit of it being at 20%. A good average would probably be 8-10% gradient, but you have to take these measurements with a grain of salt. I'm sure mapmyrun wasn't designed with 150m reps in mind.

I'm probably not converting percentage gradient to degrees very well. What would 10% gradient be in degrees?

Pisco Sour

04072511 wrote: »

I'm probably not converting percentage gradient to degrees very well. What would 10% gradient be in degrees?

http://www.neonmh.com/shop/material_handling/forklift_truck_selection_guide/gradeability/percent_of_grade_to_degrees_of_slope_angle_conversion_chart

Just found this. So a 10% gradient would be about 6-7 degrees looking at that chart.

That was certainly some ridiculous claim that I was running up 20-25 degree slopes. Please ignore.

Pisco Sour

Not sure of the exact distance as I was running on pathways in a park, and part of it disappeared under trees on mapmyrun but a reasonable guess is I ran 3.2km today. Covered the distance in 14:37, which is an average of 4:33 per km. Very happy with that. Pushed myself from the first minute. Of course I once was able to run that pace for 10km (which isnt even impressive as it is) but that's a different story entirely. Came home with a big red face so happy with the effort.

Pisco Sour

Another gym session this evening where I again did the full routine twice. The only difference from last time is that I am now doing 8 chin-ups, up from 7 last time out.

Hills tomorrow evening.

Pisco Sour

Back to the hills this evening for what turned out to be a super session.

1 mile jog out to the hills, followed by a few light strides for warm up.

Today's session was 8x150m like last week, but this time I got through the full 8, whereas last week I had to sit one of the reps out. Slow walk back recovery between each rep.

My first rep I timed at 29, though I stopped the clock a bit early so 30 would be more reasonable. In any case I said to the coach at the top that I ran 29, and his response "Nah, no way, if you're running 29 you're a world beater".

For my 2nd rep I hit 29, and stopped the watch at the right spot this time. Upon telling him I hit 29, his reaction was "hmm, well maybe you are running 29 so".:rolleyes:

I ran the 3rd rep in 30, and the coach told me to ease back just slightly and to focus on getting through the session and not to worry too much about speed at the moment and that this time of year is all about getting strong.

I definetely held back every so slightly in the 4th and 5th reps and hit 32 on both occasions.

Reps 6 and 7 were horrendously tough. Lacked energy at this point and recorded two 34's.

Gave it everything on the last rep and finished in a 31 which I was delighted with. Was absolutely bolloxed beyond belief after though. A painful shuffle back to the clubhouse (can barely call it a jog) to warm down.

So my times for today:

30-29-30-32-32-34-34-31

Coach was happy with me today. Said that the times will naturally drop off a little towards the end but to try do the first few maybe a second slower and not burn out too soon.

Next week's session is 4x250m hill sprints. Gonna be a rough one.

Back to the gym tomorrow.

pconn062

For a moment there I was thinking "another 55-58 400m log, what are the odds!" :eek:

Pisco Sour

A bit tired after yesterday's tough hill session but back to the gym again this evening. No change to my routine today, except that after doing the full series twice, I then did the Bench Press, Crunches and Step-ups for a third time.

So after 5 full weeks in the gym the following is my progress:


1) Box squat

Start: 25 (Free squating)
Now: 25 (12+ 13, Box squating)

2) Bench Press

Start: x 5 (80lbs)
Now: x 8 (80lbs)

3) Crunches

Start: 25
Now: 25

4) Step-ups

Start: 30
Now: 30

5) Clap Pushups

Start: 2 sets of 5
Now: 2 sets of 10

6) Stomach Ball Crunches

Start: 20
Now: 25

7) Lunges

Start: 20
Now: 25

8) Chinups

Start: 2
Now: 8

9) Side sit-ups

Start: 16
Now: 20

10) Circuit upper body

Start: 4x10 (30lbs)
Now: 4x10 (50lbs)

FULL ROUTINE

Start: 10 exercises x 1
Now: 7 exercises x 2, 3 exercises x 3

A couple of days off now before my long run on Saturday.

Krusty_Clown

Pisco Sour wrote: »

Next week's session is 4x250m hill sprints. Gonna be a rough one.

Jaysus, you could've warned me that I'd need to find a longer hill! I'm not sure if I'm going to continue following your training plan if you're going to keep springing these surprises on me.

Pisco Sour

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Jaysus, you could've warned me that I'd need to find a longer hill! I'm not sure if I'm going to continue following your training plan if you're going to keep springing these surprises on me.

I have no idea what is coming in 3, 4, 5 weeks time. The coach drops new bombshells on us every week!

Pisco Sour

While the distance guys were up in Ballarat for the big 15km road race I did a little long running of my own. Headed down to the Melbourne Uni track to do my weekly long run. Opted for a 3000m on the track this time around and to push as hard as I could. My first lap was in 86 seconds, then for the next 5.5 laps I averaged around 1:42 per lap before closing with an 88 second last lap which pleased me. My time was 12:17 and I recorded very even 1500m splits with 6:08 and 6:09. Very pleased with the run and a huge improvement on recent runs.

Afterwards I took a trip down to Runners World to get a pair of racing flats. Was prepared to pay 150-160 for a pair, but as luck would have it he happened to have one pair in my exact size, valued at 160 on half price sale for 80. Massive win! Will test them out at the track session on Thursday.

Back to the gym tomorrow evening.

Pisco Sour

Back to the gym today. National holiday here today so had the entire gym to myself. Today I did all 10 exercises twice, and then the first 6 exercises for a 3rd time (up from 3 exercises for a 3rd time the last day).

Within each exercise the changes today were:

Bench press - 8 reps at 85lbs, up from 8 reps at 80lbs
Step-ups - 40 reps, up from 30
Side sit-ups - 15 on each side, up from 10 on each side

The progress I have made is very noticeable which is very pleasing. I'm probably doing 3.5 times the workload now of what I did the first day I hit the gym 5 weeks ago.

4x250m hills with the training group tomorrow evening.

Pisco Sour

Back to the hills this evening for the dreaded 4x250m session with 5 minutes break. It was very tough but not as bad as I had feared. Longer rest and less reps than last week certainly helped, even if the actual distance seemed to go on for an eternity.

Big group of us there this evening. Some did 8x150m but most of us were on the 250s. I think the fastest rep recorded by anybody was a 45/46.

My times were:

51-51-54-55

Very happy with the back to back 51s to start. Faster than I thought I'd go and was only 4-5 seconds off the top guy. Faded on the 3rd rep but so did some of the others and that was as close as I got to some of the faster runners, about 1-2 seconds behind. Was around 3 seconds behind on the first 2 reps. My last rep was a struggle and I dropped a fair bit behind these guys again, but one of the guys dropped out of the 4th rep at 150. He was a good 2-3 seconds ahead of me then but he was stuffed. So I was pleased that I got through the session as he's a faster runner than me and couldn't complete the full set. A nice confidence boost.

All our hill sessions from now on are 250m reps as far as I'm aware. Good for building up strength, and I'm sure there'll be more reps thrown at us next week.

Jog out and jog back (about 7-8 minutes each way) to warm up and cool down, along with a few strides to warm up.

Back to the gym tomorrow and then first track session of the winter on Thursday.

Pisco Sour

Not a huge amount to report. Exact same gym session as Monday except I did 9 chin-ups today, up from 8 the previous day.

Track tomorrow.

Pisco Sour

First track session of the winter this evening. I got to test out my new illuminous bright green Nike racing flats (wasn't intending to be that arrogant douchebag trying to standout, just happened that those were the ones at half price ).

Some of the group did 500-400-300 with 10 minutes recovery between each. A quality session with full recovery. However I went in with the group that did 3x300 with 10 minutes rest as I want to ease back into this, and get used to the racing flats, and running on my toes multiple times in one session. We ran with the guys doing the tougher session, just finished up earlier on the first 2 reps.

For the first 2 reps we started at the 100 to go point and finished at the 200m start line, and for the final rep we started at the finish line and finished at the 100m to go point, so the final rep had 2 bends as opposed to 1 on the first 2 reps, which probably had a part to play in the slower time for rep 3.

All reps were intended to be run very close to flat out

Rep 1: 45 seconds. Took a bit of time to get used to running in racing flats but certainly was pleased with that time for my first rep of the winter.

Rep 2: 46 seconds. Again pleased with this. After this rep the inside of my left knee area was feeling a bit tight, the same area that was bothering me after the squats during my first few gym sessions. It wasn't effecting my running though and after a bit of thought I decided to go ahead and do the last rep.

Rep 3: 48 seconds. Felt I ran this one ok, but with about 50m to go I thought I felt the onset of cramp (or maybe calf strain) so eased back slightly, so maybe I could have done a 47 if I had kept the pace. The calves need to get used to these type of sessions. I was 5 seconds behind the top guy on this rep which is about right given the fact he's a 51 second runner and I ran 58 last year, so can't be disappointed really.

Overall, a good start. Will certainly take 45-46-48 so early in the winter. We'll all get much faster as we get closer to the track season.

First time I have ever done a session with 10 minutes recovery and to be honest I didn't feel very refreshed by the end of it. Still felt wrecked going into reps 2 and 3.

4 hard days training in a row completed. Time for a beer now and a day of recovery tomorrow before the long run on Saturday.

dna_leri

Looks like you have not lost much during your off-season, I predict a break-through performance next season.

What racing flats did you get? -pictures needed.

Pisco Sour

dna_leri wrote: »

What racing flats did you get? -pictures needed.

It says on the tongue "Nike zoom streak xc". They're very light.

Will stick up photos tomorrow or the day after. Gotta hit the sack early now to be up at the crack of dawn for the Spain match!

Pisco Sour

DOMS all over today after yesterday's track session, including my right hamstring. Will make a call tomorrow on the long run.

Pisco Sour

Called off my planned long run this weekend. Body was in bits with DOMS yesterday. Starting to loosen up a bit now. Normally dont take any notice of DOMS but when the DOMS is in the hamstring area then you tend to naturally worry a little more. Shouldn't be a big problem though. It cant be a pulled muscle as if it was I'd have felt it straight away in training, not for the first time 24 hours later. Had a nice hot bath which has loosened it up some more.

Feel I'm coming down with a cold. Hopefully just one of those 24 hour things.

Gym tomorrow.

RandyMann

Think you are doing the right thing, you dont want to chance losing 6 weeks with a hamstring tear.
Your training schedule looks impressive now with the work you are putting in...

Pisco Sour

Back to the gym today and did the exact same session as Wednesday. No changes at all.

Feeling a bit under the weather with a sore throat today so if things dont improve by tomorrow then I will give the hill session a miss. It's only a minor cold but exactly 1 year ago I went for a tough session with a sore throat and ended up with a chest infection as a result! Maybe it was a coincidence but I won't be taking any chances.

Hamstring still feeling a little tight and tender so it probably wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to give it another couple of days rest.

If I end up passing on tomorrow's hill session then I will do a hill session on my own on Saturday, and the long run will get scrapped for this week.

Pisco Sour

Woke up again this morning feeling a bit dodgey so decided to give this evenings hills a miss. The cold seems to have pretty much gone but I've been left with this horrid post nasal drip! However, after a day of discomfort, things are starting to look up (touch wood) the last hour or so. A combination of Nasal spray, strepsils, a load of vitamin C, molkasan, a LOT of water, and echinaforce seem to be helping.

Don't like missing sessions with the club, and at this stage I am probably being very cautious. I could be ok to run, but I don't want to take any chances. 1 missed session which I can make up for on Saturday is a lot better than missing 3 weeks due to a chest infection and anti-biotics. That's what happened last year!

So the plan for the rest of the week is:

Tomorrow: Gym
Thursday: Track (with club)
Saturday: Hills (on my own)