Inspirational Movie

A lot of times athletes get discouraged and want to give up since it is hard work and takes a lot of dedication.

I recently saw a movie called, The Express which was really inspirational and made me really realize that what I am doing is a gift. I hear sometimes people feel that they want to give up and that there is so much more they could do with their time instead of training hard.

This movie is about the first african-american, Ernie Davis, to win the Heisman Trophy. He was blessed with a gift of talent, but never used that as an excuse to not train hard.

I really recommend that you see this movie. There are times when he is hurt and still runs. There are times when he has struggles in his life, but he still trains. Playing the game is all that matters to him.

Ernie Davis grew up in a life of poverty, but that never brought him down. Through the tough times he focused on his goal of being the best player he could be.

Try to see this movie if you get the chance. It really helped me realize that all the hard work that I am putting in on the track is going to pay off. So hang in there, season is right around the corner!

Sprint training week five

Week five is here and is getting harder, but it will be worth it. That is me in the picture in the second lane, running at a meet at University of Florida.

It may be hard to keep doing these workouts week after week, but trust me, in the end it is worth it. Crossing that finish line in the lead is one of the best feelings a sprinter can have.

Whether or not you did a time trial is up to you, but if you did it I want to congratulate you on at least attempting to do one! It is hard to get yourself out there and run at a race pace only racing against yourself. Week five is going to test your endurance your strength. If you feel sore or tight, take extra time to stretch and prepare yourself for the workouts.

Monday:
Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. Make sure you do the two new drills I added in a recent blog. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run 500 meters, walk a 400 for recovery. Run 300 meters, walk a 200 for recovery. Run a 200 meters, walk a 100 for recovery. Run a 100 meters, walk a 400 for recovery. Stetch yourself out and get ready to run 400 meters as fast as you can. Stretch and jog two laps for a cooldown.

Short sprinters: run 300 meters, walk a 200, run 200 meters, walk a 100, run 100 meters, rest for five minutes, then do it two more times.

Tuesday:
Both jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. Make sure you do the two new drills that I mentioned in a recent blog. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run ten 100 meters as fast as you can. Walk 100 meters inbetween.

Short sprinters: run 12 times 100 meters. Walk a 100 inbetween.

Wednesday:
Both long and short sprinters warm up and do drills. You do not have to do the two new drills that I have recently mentioned in a new blog. Stretch out and then head to the weight room to do a lower body workout.

Thursday:
Go to a hill somewhere that is safe and mark off 200 meters. Both long and short sprinters run 10 times up a 200 meter hill. If you can not find a hill, go to a gym and put a treadmill on an incline of at least five. Try to make it up the hill in under 35 seconds.

Friday:
Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills, including the two new drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run 500 meters, rest for 2 minutes, run 300 meters and walk a 400. Do this three times.

Short sprinters: run 300 meters, walk a 200, run 200 meters, walk a 100, run 100 meters, rest for five minutes, then do it two more times.

Make sure you rest this weekend. Week six is going to include weights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Make sure you get a lot of water and have an active rest. If you feel sore or tight, get up and go for a light jog and stretch yourself out.

Running in the cold

Okay, I know that most people don't live in 80 degree weather for most months out of the year, but when it gets down in the 50's, I am freezing! This morning was the hardest workout I have done, it was 54 degrees and I had to do sprints.

I decided to do some research because I could not run as fast as I normally could. My nose was running and my legs were tight. I wear long tights everyday (even when it is 90 degrees outside) because they are a good way for you to keep your legs warm while you are warming up. I don't mean warm as in hot.

The term warm in track means to keep them ready and fresh. If you get cold you seem to tighten up which isn't good because you can easily pull something.

After doing some research I found out that one of the most important ways to stay warm is to protect your hands and feet. As much as 30% of your body heat escapes through your hands and feet. If I would have known this I would have ran in thicker socks and mittens!

Also, I found out to stay away from cotton clothing because the cotton keeps the moisture in your clothes which will make you colder. I had on three cotton t-shirts today, so I was extremely cold.

There are many different types of cold weather and for many people they are different from what I consider cold. Growing up in Florida hasn't really taught me the meaning of cold weather.

Dr. Stephen Pribut has this great website which he classifies the different types of cold weather and what he suggests you wear. Check out his website in order to stay warm while you are going to workout!

Stay warm!

Sprint Weight Training

I have mentioned that it would be good to go to the gym and do upper and lower body workouts on Wednesdays. According to track coach Owen McGregor, after the first several weeks it would be good to up the amount of times that you lift.

If you are not comfortable going right to three days a week, you can start lifting two days a week. Lifting on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays would be a good way to spread out the amount of weight lifting that you do.

I have spoken to weight trainer, Brian Remington who works with the Florida Atlantic University track and field team about what a sprinters workout should be. When the workouts are given, for example, the first one says Side Lying, Glute Med 2x20. The 2x20 means that you have two sets of 20.

This is the following workout that he provided for the first Monday:

Side Lying, Glute Med 2x20
BAND GM’s 2x15
TKE’s 2x20

Box Squat 5x5
(work up to a little heavier weight)

(Circuit x3)
Bodyweight Reverse Hypers 3x20
GB Pull-ups 3x12
DB Shrugs 3x 12-15

I know that probably does not make a lot of sense the first time you look at this, but I will explain every part of the workout.

Side Lying Glut Med, 2x20- What you will need is to get a small band that will go around your legs. You could probably ask the front desk of a gym and they should have one. Lie on your side with your hips and knees bent, and your feet together. From here, make sure you keep your elbows on the ground and then slowly rotate your top leg away from the bottom. Rotate as far as you can without moving the lower back, and then return to the starting position. Do this 20 times on both your right and left sides. When you finished the first set, do it again for a total of two times.

Band GM's, 2x15- You will need to get a a larger band, one that you can place under your feet and put up around your shoulders. Spread your feet shoulder width apart and step on the band. Bend down and and the band around your neck, so when you come up there is resistance on the band. Lean forward and then come straight up and that is one. Do this for two sets of 15 repititions.

TKE's, 2x20-For this exercise you will need the same band you used for your band GM's. Tkae the band and put it around a piece of equipment, or if you have a partner put it around the back of their knee. Put it around the back of your knee and keep your foot on the ground. Make sure there is resistance and lift your heel up and then put your foot back down on the ground, that is one. Do this for two sets of 20 repititions.

Box Squat, 5x5- A box squat needs to be done on a rack and should be done with a person spotting you. Since box squats are very important to do correctly, I want you to go to this site and make sure to do it at a weight that is not as heavy for you at first. You should build up your weight so you can add some every set.

The next set of exercises are part of what is called a circuit. A circuit means that each excersise needs to be completed before you can start another set. There are three sets of each, so make sure you complete the three exercises before you start over.

Bodyweight Reverse Hypers- are imporant and need to be done on this machine at the gym. This exercise is important to build up muscles in your lower back and hamstrings. Do three sets of these and 20 repititions.

GB Pull-ups 3x12- can be done on a pullup bar and needs to be your own bodyweight for three sets of 12.

DB Shrugs 3x 12-15- can be done with any dumbbell weight. Try to start off with at least 25 pounds. Grab both dumbbells and hold them down by your side. Shrug your shoulders up to your ears and then release and bring them back down to where they started. Do this for 12-15 reps.

Well this is the first workout for Monday. There will be different workouts for Wednesdays and Fridays. Good luck trying this and if you have any problems at all, you should always feel comfortable to ask for help when you are in the gym.

Speed Time Trial

I have given you the workouts for four weeks and if you are ready for a bit of a test to see how you are doing you could try to give yourself a time trial.

A lot of people like to see how their workouts are going for them and if they are getting faster. We haven't done a time trial yet, so it would be hard to really judge how the workouts are going for you.

A time trial is a way for people to know where they are at in their workouts. This is our first one, so this will be a beginning point. In another five weeks, I recommend that you do another time trial to see how you compare to the one that we do this week.

A time trial is an all out intense run to see how far you can get. You can do time trials in distance or in time. For a distance time trial, you would decide how far you really want to test yourself. A lot of athletes will run a 400 all out to see how fast they can do it in. You can do this in any distance that you like.

What I recommend, and what I did for my time trial was to run 45 seconds all out and see how far you can get. This is what I call a timed time trial. Choose a time you want to run. Maybe you are training for the 200 meters and your goal is to run a 24 seconds. You could run for 20 seconds and see how far you could get. 45 seconds is a good amount to run if you are training for any type of sprinting event.

It would be more benefitial for you if you had someone come out with you to time you. It is hard to start and stop your watch while you are sprinting. Sometimes a lot of people who wear their watches while sprinting focus more on their time rather than their form and the actual race. If you can not get someone to come out and time you, it is not a problem. Just make sure you mentally prepare yourself to focus on how far you can get in the quickest time possible.

If you do have someone out there to help time you, what would also be benefitial is to have the person time your first 100 and 200 meters. Do not have them stop the clock as you go through the 100 and 200 meter mark, but just have them clock down how many seconds it took you to get through that mark.

Good luck and remember to stretch and do the complete warm-up before you attempt this. It would be horrible if you did not warm up and you ended up pulling something. If you do this, make sure to comment and let me know how you did!

Here is one of my favorite quotes to end this entry. It was said by famous runner, Steve Prefontaine and helps me get through the tough times in this sport...

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."

Sprinting Drills

I have already talked in previous blogs about the drills we use to warm up. We do the same warmup every day, but we recently just added two new drills that I am going to start including in the workout. They are accelerations and hurdle walkovers.

Accelerations are to be done right after the drills. They are quick thirty meter sprints that are supposed to work on your fast twitch muscles.

There are two different types; fast and slow twitch muscles. Fast twitch muscles are much better at generating short burts of strength and speed. By doing acceleration drills, it is good to get the thirty meter bursts of energy.

Although they fatigue more quickly, it is good to do them everyday so you can build up the stamina that you will need during competition. Fast twitch fibers generally produce the same amount of force per contraction as slow muscles, but they get their name because they are able to fire more rapidly. Having more fast twitch fibers can be an asset to a sprinter since they need to quickly generate a lot of force.

There are so many things to learn about fast and slow twitched muscles. This is one of my favorite sites to visit. Athletequickness.com has many ways for athletes to work on becoming faster. In most sports, being fast is a key element in order to be successful. I hope you find the site as helpful and enjoy it as much as I do.

The second drill we do are hurdle walkovers. Hurdle walkovers are done over a set of ten-fifteen hurdles. They are designed to strengthen your hip flexors and also increase balance. In order to get a good idea of what a good hurdle walkover should look like, take a look at this video.

I know it could be hard to do hurdle walkovers if you do not workout at a track or have access to the hurdles. If you don't have access to hurdles, one could watch the video and get the motions down so you wouldn't need to use a hurdle. If you can get your hips high and stay on your toes, you may be able to get the same exercise done without a hurdle. You could also use something about the same height as a hurdle, or at least a little higher than past your knees. Make sure to stay on your toes in order to work the calves and try not to touch the hurdle with your hands.

More sprint training

Weeks three and four workouts are the same in the amount of distance that you are running. The only difference between them is that week four should be a bit faster than week three. Sounds easy right? As the days pass you get closer to the ultimate goal, competition.

Right now it is October, but according to track coach Owen McGregor, "it is already November." In order to think like a runner you need to look at what you are training for. What you are training for in October is how you are going to run in November. If you don't train in October, November is going to be tough for you. You must put in the work and dedication to the track now.

Like I said, week three and four workouts are the same. Just make sure you push yourself to try and get the most out of the workouts. The faster you run, the quicker you will get. If you slack off, you won't see the results when track season comes along.

Monday:

Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run 500 meters, rest for 2 minutes, run 300 meters and walk a 400. Do this three times.

Short sprinters: run 300 meters, walk a 200, run 200 meters, walk a 100, run 100 meters, rest for five minutes, then do it two more times.

Tuesday:

Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: run ten 200's at your own pace.

Short sprinters: run 12 times 100 meters. Walk a 100 inbetween.

Wednesday:

Both long and short sprinters warm up and then head to the weight room to do an lower body workout.

Thursday:

Go to a hill somewhere that is safe and mark off 200 meters. Both long and short sprinters run 10 times up a 200 meter hill. If you can not find a hill, go to a gym and put a treadmill on an incline of at least five.

Friday:

Jog two laps around the field, stretch and do drills. After drills, make sure you grab some water and get ready to run.

Long sprinters: the workout is 3x300x3. Let me clarify, run 300 meters, rest for 2 minutes and then run 300 meters again. That is one, we have it times three. After the first set, make sure to rest for a 400 meter walk and then do it again.

Short sprinters: run 300 meters, rest a 100 walk and do that four times.

I hope you find this workout helpful. I can not wait until season starts and I can see how this training has improved my running from last year. If you struggle at all, remember that we are running because we love the sport. Don't let anyone, including yourself, tell you you can't do anything. We can all do whatever we put our mind to!