Suddenly it’s One week.

Hell, where did the last four weeks go?

This time next week I’ll be in Adelaide for Beach competition next day.  Well, even tho’ I haven’t written anything up I have been watching the training schedule.  The rule is; go hard three weekends away from a major comp, so I have had a Saturday comp on the track in Brisbane running 60, 100 & 200m.  My times were 1/2 to 1 second off the times I ran 2 years ago for Nationals.  OK with four weeks of tapering to go.  Lesson learned?  Don’t cut short on the warm up.  I didn’t quite feel the ‘spark’ and only in the 200 did  I have good race practice.

Last Saturday was a Masters Beach carnival.  Due to dropping down in age groups I finished up in the 50/55 yrs sprints & flags.  Came 6th in the sprint, 3rd in flags (also got my shoulder crunched in flags).  The day was saved when our Relay came first against the younger age groups.  Further saved by recognising that I ran poorly in the sprint but brilliantly in the relay.  The difference?  Mental attitude.  I was fighting to gain ground in the sprint and felt ‘crappy’.  Being third runner for the relay with our team already in the lead was totally different.  An exhilarating challenge.

I will be faced with the same scenario in Adelaide, giving away possibly 8 yrs, so I must be prepared.  Fifteen minutes of EFT should do it.

Thanks Gary Freeman & Silvia Hartmann.  [EFT, The Sportsman's secret weapon is safe with me]

So now I’m into day 4 of a 10 day countdown.  Fortunately my philosophy for training has always been to be at 80% fitness at all times, then bump it up to 100% in three weeks.  I’m basically following Charlie Francis‘ advice to harden up the muscles & nervous system in a 10 day period.  Track intensity comes down from 200′s to 30m’s, weights go from 3 rep max’s to explosive cleans, kettle bell swings go up to 80 and back to 50 and so on.

Also keeping fingers crossed.

Sandrunner202

[New post] The Forgotten Benefit of Functional Leg Training – glen.wilson39@gmail.com – Gmail

[New post] The Forgotten Benefit of Functional Leg Training – glen.wilson39@gmail.com – Gmail.

Countdown week 5

As usual the last few days of week 5 got away from me.

Yes, I got to the swim.  Purchased a ‘pull buoy’ hoping to elevate my ‘sinking legs’.

Certainly did the trick.  Made swimming soooo easy.  Almost pleasant.  Now, how do I convert that position
(level) without the floatie?

I’ve decide not to put the swimming pressure on myself until World’s in Adelaide (see previous post) is over.  I will still have two
proficiency days to get it done.

One of my challenges in coaching is to prepare a lady for World’s sprints and flags.  Her sprinting is improving but I was able to watch her flag starts at a recent competition and knew we had to make a change.  I now have her using her knee as the prime mover in the get up process and it’s starting to look 100% better.

It has only occurred to me last season that the hip flexor provides more power than arms, and when used in combination virtually propels me toward the flags.  I’m using this also for the ‘nippers’ who do not as yet have strong arms.

For my own training I’ve decided to keep my fitness level at 80%.  The choice was to back off training for a week then ramp up over the next three.
Problem is, as I get older, recovery takes longer and I might not get back to peak fitness by November 7th.  So I’ll stick with my training philosophy to always be at 80% and put in two hard weekends before the final comp.

Finally, to round out the week, I’m 90% sure I have two of my beach competitors in the Branch team.  The final list is not out yet but they would be hard to omit.

Coaching, training, competing

My previous posts have been about setting up the drills for sprint training.

Now I have another challenge – World Titles for Lifesaving in Adelaide from the 7th November.

The tasks ahead are:

1. Coaching my Athletes through the summer.
2. Keeping my own training up to form.
3. Preparing for the annual proficiency for Surflifesaving.
4. Setting up a new ‘local business emails’ website.

Let me expand a little on each subject before I give a day by day account of how it all unfolds.

(This will be as much a mystery to me as anybody else – but I’m willing to share my thoughts with anyone who cares to follow this post)

Coaching my Athletes.  I am committed to the members of Maroochydore SLSC and secondly to a group from Met Caloundra.

We are ‘beachies’ or beach events specialists.  That is sprints & flags. (Look it up under Surf Sports)

We have done a lot of track work early in the season as you would have seen from the previous posts but now we are concentrating on sand with only one session on the track.  Well, not totally true as I am getting in a bit extra track work of my own.

We are doing two beach sessions and one track a week and of course Nipper training on Sundays.  Most weekends there is a competition of some sort and most Athletes are involved in some other sport, so fitness is not a problem.

My own training is made up of doing a little bit at each training session.  with both groups that adds up to about five sessions a week.  I also do a fair bit of gym and body weight stuff on any parts that need extra work.

Having been aware of kettlebells for a long time I finally invested in a 12kg ‘bell for use at home and the results are starting to show in the hips and glutes area.  As I said in the early part of this post I have to be at peak in the first week of November.  I am taking this more seriously than training for Nationals because I have no idea of the quality of competitors and I have to drop back from my 70+ age group to 65+ for the Worlds Titles.

Proficiency – My only problem with prof is the swimming section.  I can make the distance but I am a slow swimmer.  That combined with a 200m run and the stopwatch puts me in a clear funk.  I usually can’t find my breathing pattern, can’t keep my legs from dropping, can’t get into a rhythm and thoughts of drowning start to take hold.  So, I have to fit swimming into my training program as well.  It doesn’t help a sprinter.  What do the triathletes do?

 

Lastly, I am expanding my local email business.  Mostly to upgrade my lifestyle as a pensioner, but also to give me an interest in the business community.  Local small business is really under the hammer compared with the multinationals so I want to give them a hand.  Perhaps my athletic discipline will kick in.
Anyway, time to hit the pool.

Short bounding for long strides.

Gluteus maximus – Muscles of the Lower Extremity Anatomy Visual Atlas, page 2 (Photo credit: robswatski)

From NLP, “The meaning of your communication is the result you get”  So when I gave the instructions for Short Bounding [straight legs, contact ground with the balls of the feet and use the glutes & hams as springs for ground reaction] I didn’t mention a slightly forward body angle.  By leaning back there is little propulsion.  In fact, if you try this drill leaning back even further you will either stop in place or go backwards.

The missing instruction was, ‘body straight, slightly forward, if you look down you should just see the tips of your toes.

This drill is pliometric and produces a combined ham & glute preload force to assist in maintaining running speed and stride length.

 

Skip for Ground contact.

We use this drill to establish hard & fast ground contact.  As mentioned in a previous blog, the delivery of power to the surface as quickly as possible and as hard as possible is the key to maintaining top speed.  Once again the foot is propelled to the ground whilst the opposite foot is driven higher than the support leg knee. If ground contact is made immediately below the hip with the body angled slightly forward the contact pressure is 70% down thrust & 30% negative (backward) thrust, thus maintaining momentum (gained at acceleration) and presenting the longest possible lever for attaining stride length.

A Skip Drill

Fast legs? Snap to it.

Absolutely the hardest drill for begginers to get their heads around is the ‘fast leg‘.  Keeping the support leg straight while bringing the other leg high so the foot is higher than the support leg knee, then planting the foot to ground contact directly under the hips imitates the tall running action in ‘stride length’.

As Barry Ross explains in “Underground Secrets to Faster Running“, the more vertical force you apply to  the ground the faster you will run.  This has improved my speed to the point of holding a National record for the 60m sprint.  I usually teach this drill from a ‘march’, counting 1, 2, 3 and raising the foot over the opposite knee on ’3′.  When the athlete can coordinate that we concentrate on the ‘stiff’ leg and go faster.  Once again this drill is taken from Speed Dynamics, mentioned in an earlier Blog.

Click here to watch the video

Fast leg video