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Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Training Continues




Yesterday I jogged to Pilates and had a session with Megan. Then I went over to Franklin Field. I was inspired to do a 300 meter set by a workout that Bill Yelverton put on his blog a couple of days ago. I thought I would see where I am compared to him at this point in time. He noted these results:

4 x 300 w/ 2:30 rest: 47:57, 47.85, 49.99, 48.65 (Avg. 48.52) 

I ended up doing 5 in total, but mostly because I realized sometime during the set that I had miscalculated the distance. I was actually running these somewhere between 310-320 meters (the lines of the Penn track fooled me again--I forgot that the main start line with the numbers is not actually the start for the 200m and 300m . . . my bad). 

Overall (positive aspects first!): I was able to complete the workout. My left hamstring, though very slightly tight still, did not hurt. My times were not THAT awful. The more neutral or negative aspects: I sure can't run as fast as I thought I would be able to! I thought I might be able to do around a minute no problem in a 400m race. I was going at what I perceived to be "all out" in these 300s and there is no way I would hit around a minute for a 400m if I kept going after 300 meters. I would be hitting the finish line around 1:17. This is kinda harsh for me to take in. There are four guys older than me on my team that I know of who can run a 400m at around a minute. I don't feel like it's necessarily my cardio vascular ability at this point--it's more like my bones, joints, muscles where I feel the limitation. Everything just feels kind of stiff and belabored when I try to push the gas pedal all the way down.  Especially my left quad and left hip flexors  . . . felt very tight when I ran fast, like I had to consciously regulate my speed so that I wouldn't pull something. All of this is just hard to reconcile in my mind, especially when I hold it up to the fact I could run a 400 meters in 48 seconds when I was 18. The fact that I JUST started to train myself to actually sprint after all these years may be a huge factor . . . like if I had been doing this for a decade or something, it would be a lot easier (?).  It would be nice to know another man my age who started training for track like I did after 40 years of not doing it. Anyway, all I have is my own experience, which I am trying to learn and grow from vis-a-vis journaling it all in this blog.



Warmed up with 2 100 meters at 20 seconds each, a few laps, drills. 

First "300" (I think it was somewhere between 310-320 meters . . . let's call it 310): 1:00 minute

[2 and half minutes rest between each]

Second 310: 1:03

Third 310: 1:02 

Fourth 310: 1:02

(I noted in a voice memo here that I jogged from where I was starting to where I was stopping and my Apple watch showed 322 meters . . . hence I realized I was running further than 300 meters.)

Fifth 300: 57.43

Average for 5 "300" meters = around 59 seconds-ish

[Another thought just occurred to me--if I was able to run a 300m at 57 seconds, that would mean a 400m  = 1 minute, 16 seconds. So perhaps this will make a realistic goal for Sunday's 400 meter race. I registered for both the 400m and the 800m. Tomorrow on track I'm going to run 600s and 800s to try and see how I can pace myself at current ability level]

Video of me running a 100 meter yesterday at end of the workout:



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