Ken Larsen's web site - How I will train for track season
I belong to
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 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 |
Videos and analysis of ken's sprint form
Sprint 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. |
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Training distances |
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 |
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. |