Workout 600-300m w/100m walkback in 3min

Will – 1:23.7/45.1

Derrick – 1:37.6/48.5

Totals

Will – 2:08.8 … 1:54.4 pace

Derrick – 2:26.1 … 2:09.8 pace

Weather was very good temperature-wise, but it was very windy today on the backstretch.

Will had a pretty decent workout, though I expected a little more out of him. This workout has always been 1-2sec or so of what somebody was able to run for the 800m at the time of the test… so that would say Will could run between 1:55.5-1:56.5 right now. Not terrible given the windy conditions (final 100m of the 600m, and the first 100m of the 300m), but still not necessarily what I thought he could do. It is also the first time he’s done this test, so I took that into mind when I compared it to what Brandon had done with this workout (his best was a 2:00.2 total/1:46.8 pace when he was running 1:49’s and I thought was capable of 1:48.5).

I was mostly surprised by the lack of speed in the 300m from him. The 600m was about where I thought he’d be, especially considering the wind. He came through around 26.5/28.0/29.2 for his splits. But the 300m was just slow. We had some ‘finish work’ scheduled depending on how the workout went, and so for his I decided to have him do one 300m with the sprinters’ workout. So he got 20min rest, and did a 300m in 37.9. Thought that was a better end to the day. In January of the year Brandon ran 1:49.4 he did this wkt. in 2:03.5 (1:24.5/39.0), but then he also did 3x300m in 38.0/37.3/36.4 after a 15min break and with 10min between each of those. If Will is wanting to be running sub-1:50 this year we definitely have some improving to do. I have to try to find what the limiting factor will be for him. His major difference from Brandon was that Brandon could run long distances and had good XC times (25:00), whereas Will’s XC wasn’t under 32:00… though I think he’s probably more along the lines of a 28:00 type guy right now if he were actually trained decently for that, and 27:00 if he cared.

Derrick’s wkt really surprised me in a bad way. Yeah his PR is somewhere around 2:10 I think, but the way he’d been looking in workouts (even despite running them not how I wanted) I figured we’d be getting something around a 2:00 type effort from him, at least. He came through the 400m in about 59 or so, then just struggled mightily to a 38-second last 200m. His 300m was pretty good, considering… At the risk of making myself look like a complete fool later I still fully believe he could be somebody running 1:55… so I gotta really figure out what is going on with him.

After his workout, his finish work was to do 4x100m in 15s with 15s rest. He probably ran the first two in the low-to-mid 14’s, and the next two in the mid-to-high 15’s. I spoke with him that adding that little 4-6x (15/15) drill might be something we do at the end of most of our workouts as a way to get his body to learn to handle 15s pace while tired and with crap in his legs. To run 1:55 he’ll have to be able to run a 55 or so, and then handle a 60. He (and most others) aren’t getting things the way I want them to when we do Fig. 8’s, straights/turns, or the 200m at mile pace w/100m jog… all those jog rests should be roughly 30s, and they’re going more like 45-60s for those, and just too fast on the other parts. I feel like they know how to produce the lactic acid, but their bodies aren’t ever used to running with it in their systems, and aren’t efficient at clearing it while still exerting an effort.

Workout 3x300m w/10min b/reps … goal 42-43 first one, then cutdown

Marcell – 40.7/40.1/35.9

Eric – 42.6/40.7/37.2

Chris – 39.2/37.9/40.1

Devon – 41.2/40.1/38.4

Rob – 37.7/40.1

Averages

Marcell – 38.9

Eric – 40.1

Chris – 39.0

Devon – 39.9

Rob – 38.9

Plenty of good, plenty of bad in this workout. They all did it in flats/trainers; no spikes.

Rob totally disregarded that I wanted a 43-44 for him for the first one and to go from there. Especially frustrating since my final words right before the start were to him and Devon, “I’d rather be a little conservative on the first one and know the legs are alright, and go from there, than blow a tire.” He obviously was just real tight for the second one. The good news to take from it was that other than a little tightness post-running, he was able to run for the first time in about 10 days. Afterward he said he just wanted to get after it so he knew he’d be ready for the meet on Dec. 4^th. I told him that is part of my process of planning things out, and it’s my job to get him ready for meets, so he has to listen to how I want things done. Because his way left him more likely to injure his hamstring again, and make us take the next 10 days not running again. I think he got the point.

Eric ran the best progression, but he was definitely holding back the most the first two. He was even making comments about how he didn’t feel as up for it, etc. and was already plotting out his progression before we even started the first one. Not sure if he got nervous all-of-a-sudden about what he may be capable of, or what… so before the last one as they all lined up and I added Will to this one, I told them anybody who was beat by Will on that one had 100 pushups. (Will had already done his 600-300m.) Eric responded a little better to that competitive aspect of it.

Chris on the other hand, kinda talked himself out of the last one as soon as the second one ended. Yes he ran a little quicker than I wanted on the first, and definitely attacked the second one, but he still finished that second one looking pretty smooth/strong. I expected it would be work to duplicate the 37.9 on the final one, but didn’t expect him to go over 40 as he did. He said he was spent after #2, but I watching how he finished, how he acted during the rest, etc. he wasn’t anywhere close to spent. I think he just got psyched out a little the opposite way that Eric did when I brought up the challenge to have to run their last one as their fastest and to also beat Will.

Devon had a good progression, and really was the only one who kinda kept their head focused throughout the entire workout. Didn’t say much between, just did his job… so my analysis of his is kinda short, too… He did slip a little out of the start on the last one, too, so perhaps that cost him dropping into the 37’s.

Marcell is definitely the fittest of this group. His first one was run at the right effort, despite being faster than I wanted. The second one was definitely run a little more ‘jokingly’ than it should have been. He just cruised along nearly effortlessly the first 200 and then put a little burst on the homestretch for about 30m then cruised across the line. I yelled at him during because it just looked like he was playing (smiling, a little snicker, etc.). He said he just wanted to see if he could turn it on. I told him it should’ve been a more steady harder effort rather than surging. Then the last one he stayed relaxed through the first 150-200m and just looked strong keeping it steady the homestretch. He probably ran close to 12.0’s each split that last 300m, and didn’t look like he gave it nearly everything. I estimate that even had he run a 37.5-38.0 on the second one he would’ve done about the same on the final 300m. And all in flats I’m pretty excited about what he may be able to do.

I spoke with them as a group afterward and told them that there was some very obvious things that we could correct (Rob doing his thing, Eric kinda cruising and not believing until the end, Chris giving up a little on himself, Marcell messing around in the middle)… but that overall the workout was a pretty good success (and we’re still healthy!). I told them it’s November, and I don’t expect them to run that perfectly the first time we did it. And honestly, if they did then I wouldn’t have any teaching points and we couldn’t look forward to improving. We definitely have some work to do if we think we’re going to run sub-3:10 like we are probably capable of. But staying healthy with this group after a month together is probably our biggest victory to date. And that, plus the fact they’re very much so on board will be our biggest allies later.

As Chris Puppione said once, “Great things are possible if you believe you are capable of overcoming mediocre coaching.”