Workout 10x200m w/200m walk b/reps … 4@30s, 3@28s, 2@26s, 1@faster

Marcell – 30.3/31.5/29.7/28.8, 28.6/27.8/27.5, 26.0/26.0, 25.0

Chris – 29.9/30.8/31.2/29.7, 28.1/28.1/28.1, 26.4, 24.3

Eric – 29.9/30.8/31.2/29.7, 28.1/28.1/28.1, 26.4, 24.9

*cut one 26 out

Devon – 30.4/30.6/30.9/31.4, 28.5/28.0, 25.7, 24.5

*cut one 28 and one 26 out

Averages

Marcell – 28.1

Chris – 28.5

Eric – 28.5

Devon – 28.7

Workout 4x(15-15 drill) w/3-5min b/sets … 100m in 15s w/15s break

Derrick – 14/14/15/15, 15/15/16/15, 15/15/16/17, 15/15/17/16

Today was really windy. We were going to run 500-400-300-200-100m with the sprinters but with the extreme wind gusts down one stretch I decided against that today.

Eric and Chris ran together. I cut one of the 26’s out. I had no doubt that they’d be able to accomplish it as asked and still look fine doing it… but Eric’s mental state began dropping slightly, and I didn’t want to risk ending poorly in our last real effort before our meet on Friday. I’m very happy with how the workout went for these two.

Devon came a little later and did his mostly in the dark. I only asked him to do 8 (4@30, 2@28, 1@26, 1@faster), because I’ve been getting through workouts without any problems once I drop his to about 80-90% of the volume the others do. He looked very good throughout as well.

Marcell came even later, and his was totally in the dark. I had no issue with asking him to do all 10, and if we weren’t two days before the meet I probably would’ve had it be either a little higher volume for him, perhaps with 5@32 to start off… or add 1@30, 1@28, 1@26 for him. He handled this workout very well and did not look like he was trying much throughout at all.

The biggest difference between these guys’ workouts was the rest time. Eric/Chris took 3:30-4min between each, and 5min before the last one. Their total time for 9 was 35min. Devon’s rest was between 2:45-3:30 and 4min before the last one. Marcell’s rest was all between 2:30-2:50, and was only 3:10 before the last one because I took a little time talking to him. His total time for all 10 was under 30min. He took five minutes less, despite doing one more and having the extra rest period in there.

After the workout Marcell and I talked more about how he’s healthy, about how he’s looking good, etc. Today he warmed up a little differently because of the time. I had him jog from school (2miles) and just spend 10-15min doing active drills. I asked him if he liked doing that kind of warm-up as opposed to the more ‘sprinter-based’ warmup of more drills and dynamic stuff. As we talked, he began sharing more about the types of workouts he had done in the past, and he’s got more of a MD background than he had previously let on. He said sometimes his warm-ups would be an easy mile, then a mile under 6:00, then a mile walk, then go to the workout. And he said that this time of year he’d be doing workouts like 1000-900-800-700-600-500-400. The other thing that really made me feel confident about things was that he was mentioning how the way things were going now was how he was used to training in HS (the last time things went really well for him). So not only am I confident in how things are going for him, but he’s now more confident because things are more comfortable for him based on past experiences.

Derrick’s workout was 4 sets of the 15-15 drill. Based on the lack of rhythm I’ve been seeing from him, I wanted to try to get something where he’d be challenged by the pace, but that it was short enough for him to not screw it up by going too fast. (Though he still tried to do that with his first two 100’s.) Anyway, he needed 3min rest after the first set, 5min after the second set, and 9min after the third. While the times of the final two in the last two sets were slightly slow, I think he ran the workout as needed. (#3 of each set was into the really strong headwind, too, so that one being slower doesn’t mean much.)

I ended up really liking this workout, despite never having done it before. I want to progress it to being 3 sets of 6x100m, then to 2 sets of 8x100m… then perhaps to 2-3 sets of 4x30-30’s for 200m or something. Anyway… I liked that it was a 2:00 effort for each set, which is about the time of his event (800m). And the metabolic wastes built up during the workout are probably comparable to the 800m because of the rest time during each set and the accumulation of the wastes. The stopping/starting potentially makes it worse in some ways. I told him I liked that this taught him that no matter how his legs felt, he could run 60 pace. If he runs a 55 and can come back with his legs feeling like they did in this workout but still run a 60, he’d be VERY happy. I think his previous PR was something like 2:05-2:10 (he doesn’t know for sure). But he just doesn’t look like he should be that slow. I think he just races haphazardly more than anything.

Afterthought…

Perhaps this is a good build-up for teaching the Kosmin? Progression for men, assuming 15s/100m pace:

4x(4x15-15) = 4x60s of effort = 240s

3x(6x15-15) = 3x90s of effort = 270s

2x(8x15-15) = 2x120s of effort = 240s

3x(4x30-30) = 3x120s of effort = 360s

2x(6x30-30) = 2x180s of effort = 360s

2x(4x45-45) = 2x180s of effort = 360s

1x(6x45-45) = 1x270s of effort = 270s

2x(2x60-60) = 2x120s of effort = 240s

1x(3x60-60) = 1x180s of effort = 180s

KOSMIN: 1x(2x60s w/3min) = 120s

This might be a good fall progression for those who especially have a more sprint-based background with the 800m. Sets up nicely with a 10-week progression pattern. And perhaps from here the buildup could be going to a five week pattern of:

3x(4x28-28) = 3x112s of effort = 336s

2x(6x28-28) = 2x168s of effort = 336s

2x(4x42-42) = 2x168s of effort = 336s

2x(2x56-56) = 2x112s of effort = 224s

KOSMIN #2

…Just a thought…