Ken Larsen's web site - How I will train for track season

      

I belong to the Carolina Godiva Track Club.  Every summer they have a 10 week long track season during which each Wednesday at 7 PM there is a track meet.  Below is the training regimen I intend to use to train for the 2019 season. 

Day

Type

Regimen
Thursday

gym

 

I workout at my gym three days a week for about two hours.  Here are my favorite leg exercises:

1. Leg extension machine

2. Prone leg curl

3. Glute machine with 20 pounds.  In 2018 I briefly tried this exercise on a Matrix pulley machine, but on August 2, 2018 I switched to the glute machine after learning that good sprinters push off with their rear leg as opposed to pulling with their forward leg.

4. Lunges with 10 pound dumbbell in each hand. 

The above are my gym leg exercises.  I do many other exercises for other parts of my body. 

Friday Interval training There's a soccer field complex that's 1.5 miles from house.  It's a rectangular grass field that measures 300 meters x 63 meters.

Warm-up:  I jog 3/4 of the perimeter at a leisurely pace (14 minutes/mile).

I then run 300 meters (fourth side of the rectangle) at an 8 minute/mile pace (fast for me).

I then run a series of 100 meter sprints at about 80% as fast as I can go ... which is about 24 seconds each.  I walk back to the start ... resting about 2 minutes before the next sprint.  On July 27th I did 8 sprints plus two more 40 yard sprints.
Saturday gym Same as Thursday although sometimes I do half my gym exercises on Thursday and the other half on Saturday.
Sunday Speed endurance On July 29th, I did 3 runs up a 0.26 mile hill (3.3% grade) near my house.  I jogged slowly to the bottom of the hill and then ran up it.  This "speed endurance" workout is my first of the 2018 track season.  I will do it every Sunday during the 2019 track season.

[how to use Google Earth to calculate the slope of a hill]
Monday Rest I've been golfing on Mondays.
Tuesday gym no leg exercises
Wednesday Godiva Track meet  

Here is a slow motion video of my start of a 100 meter training run ... which I ran in 25 seconds.

Videos and analysis of ken's sprint form

What I need to work on:

Sprint start On July 20, 2018 I learned that my sprint start is all wrong.  This three-point starting position is what it should be.  Here is a video by Michael Johnson which gives an excellent detailed explanation of the 3 point start.

I've been starting each sprint as if it were a 10K run ... standing straight up.  This costs me valuable time when the gun goes off in a 100 or 200 meter sprint.  Here is a side view video of me in slow motion.  In the starting position, I'm not bending my lead leg enough.  It needs to be 90 degrees.  I'm also not looking down long enough.  I need to look down and stay low for the first 10 meters.  I shouldn't become  vertical until the 20 meter mark.


This is an explanation of why I should begin with my right foot back. 

Here is another good video of proper starting technique.
Hand/arm position I'm too rigid, and I have too much lateral movement.  [details]
Training distances I need do "over" distances.  Read the red sentences in Lauren Alpert-Zeunik's advice (below).

During 2018 I made the blunder of running only "under" distances ... short 20 second "tabata-like" sprints.  This has deprived me of "speed endurance".  I will correct this mistake in 2019.
Form drills I've been very deficient in this area.  Here seven drills that I need to do:

1. High knees
2. A-skip
3. B-Skip
4. Butt Kicks (variation 1 )
5. Butt Kicks (variation 2)
6. Straight leg bounds
7. Carioca (aka grapevines)

[Video showing all seven]
Drills to improve stride length and foot cadence

I've neglected this area, as well.

Here are some videos which explain these drills:

Increasing stride length by Nathan

Lengthening stride rate and increasing stride rate/cadence

 

Ken Larsen's home page

Ken's jogging page