Hurdling in a gale

Well at least the rain held off.
Very windy, blowing across the track, which made any quality work very difficult. Instead Howard had us doing some hard graft.
First set, 3x 6 hurdles with 10 min recovery. The wind hit me hardest from 1-2, then dropped a bit for the final 4. Managed 35.2/34.6/34.9 for the three runs. The first one I tried to use alternate legs but failed dismally. Second two were just heads down and run. Much more my style

After a few minutes more recovery we finished with 2x5 hurdles with 200m jog recovery. (about 2 minutes) First one in 29 second in 30, hard work but a good session.
The key to this session was adapting to the conditions. You can't be elegant when the going is tough, sometimes you just have to grind the yards out.
This will ultimately benefit me as a speed endurance session.

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Rest

I've got a hurdling session planned in Swindon for tomorrow which I want to do well. So today is a rest day. I've had a few tough sessions this week and not sleeping incredibly well. Yoga session this morning and a beer this evening should sort it :)

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Speed hills

Did a few hills last night with Tony's group. Instead of the usual 300m run we did some short sharp bursts. Two hills at right angles to each other. 80m up the first one, fast, 50m down the second slow. Then reverse it.

I ran well for the first few (about 5) really powering it up the hills and flowing well. But my back tightened a bit (probably due to the cold and the lack of warm up) so I eased off and stopped after 15 mins (of the planned 20). Not too concerned at the early stop as the quality and speed were good on the first few.

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How good would Carl Lewis be today?

When we do our Masters competitions I'm often asked how we compare with the guys who were Olympians in our youth. A few keep going (Willie Banks the triple jumper still competes), Ed Moses tried to make a comeback and then disapeared, but what about the huge stars like Carl Lewis?
Well here's the answer:

The race doesn't start for about 5 minutes, so scroll through the fluff.

Bottom line - Dennis Mitchell wins in 11.6, Carl Lewis is at least half a second behind. In the Master's World rankings that wouldn't make a dent. (In fact my best 100m last season was 12.6)

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Morning run, evening gym.

7.30am run with the Mountbatten team. I went with the top group again, slow jog to the letter box on Halterworth lane then a fast 600m run through the meadow. Roughly 2.09 for 600m which is pretty good. Few minutes rest and then 800m back again. All the lads ran well and earned the slow jog home.

Went to the rapids in the evening. Warm up on the cross trainer, few lunges to stretch out.
Strength (S) and strength endurance (SE) session:

• Body weight dips (5x11 dips) (SE)
• Back squats (3 sets of 5 squats, 4 min recovery, 42kg) (S)
• front squats (3 sets of 5 squats, 3 min recovery, 32kg) (S)
• Row (5 sets of 30 second fast row, 30 seconds rest (150m average)) (SE)

Good workout, took about 50 mins.

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Upping the tempo

Tuesday morning, excellent yoga session with my resident yogi, Liz. Plenty of leg focus. I've been slacking recently on the stretching front, so good to get back to it.
In the evening its down to the track. 12x400m 1 min recovery. target time 78 seconds. That's 2 seconds quicker than we have been running all winter. Two seconds doesn't sound like much, but its approaching 10 meters in distance. Started with a 77, which was a bit quick and made a big difference later on. Most laps were in 78/79 although a few slipped to 80. The last one was 76, which was pleasing.

We had a new athlete start tonight. Half marathon PB of 1.39 and relatively new to running. Tony noticed he was struggling over the first 2 400s so he switched him to just running 200s with us. This was a good plan as it gave Peter a longer rest, but still gave him the feel of the pace we were running at.
It shows how important it is to adjust the session to the athlete - no prizes for driving them into the ground.

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Measuring recovery

Nothing much planned for Easter Monday so decided to do a gentle recovery run with Rob and Jack Finch. Also took the opportunity to mark out some measured runs for future rep session. The recovery run was about 5 miles in total - slow jog.
First measurement (using the trusty Garmin) from the letter box on Halterworth lane, down through Tadburn meadows to the climbing wall is 600m
Next one, 800m from the entrance to Tadburn meadow (by the wall again) running on the flat all the way along the stream until the end of the fence (on the path up to Hestia close).

We then jogged over to Fishlake meadows to the start of Robert Whitwoth drive. Its about 2 miles from the clubhouse, so not too far for a warm up.
I've been looking for a flat, well lit, safe area do do reps during the winter and this looks to fit the bill nicely.
If you start at the entrance to RWD and run along Fishlake meadow road its a 300m straight run on a wide flat, well surfaced path. Perfect for high tempo running. Then take a left in RWD and follow it round until you hit the mini roundabout. That's exactly 800m. This is then a short walk back to the start.
This area would be perfect for multiple 800m reps (6x800m with 1 min recovery, running at 5K pace for instance). You could also do a speed session with 300 fast, 200 slow, 300 fast, 1 min recovery (repeat about 5 times) or 10x400m with 1 min recovery.

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