Driven By The Beast - My Journey

[Sprint]

The multi-hip machine's been fixed!!

[Sprint]

Tonight's track session, 3 x 3 50m.

I didn't actually train with the main sprint group tonight, the adductor didnt feel 100% during the warm up but just a residule leftover from saturday. Nothing sinister, but didn't want to get caught up in the competitiveness that occurs in training at times (something Im normally immune to these days anyway, having matured over the years).

Just tagged on the end, running totally bymyself just keeping things nice, loose & relaxed. No issues with the adductor during the actual session.

It's all good.

[Sprint]

Just ticking over in the gym at the minute. Happy with the shoulders, happy with the arms & back. Want to bring my chest up a bit so giving that the very quick sessions I've mentioned before just to get a good pump going. Seeing decent progress off those at the minute.

Promotion playoff is 15th august so just under 2 weeks then it's time to look ahead to the indoor season.

May as well state my goals for the indoors right here & now.

Run a P.B. for the 60m. If I manage this, I'll set a new club record seeing as my current PB is the Junior 60m club record, & is quicker than the current senior record. (only been timed twice as a senior over 60m, both of them coming of the back of 3 years away from the sport & running with the troubled adductor)

Never been timed over 200m indoors, but my outdoors PB is quicker than the club indoor record. Now I've only ran a bend once indoors & found it very tricky with the banking, so to take the club record is a big ask, but again Im targeting that.

Going to have a bash at a couple of 150s in some open meetings, just to get some more experience of running bends indoors, & considering hitting a 300 or 2 for the same reason plus it'll help bring my 200m time down both indoors this winter & outdoors next summer.

And I've got an eye on the club indoor record for shot putt, because I only threw the shot for the first time a couple of weeks ago after a normal track session & was challenging the record, so it'd be nice to add another string to my bow & be able to contribute further to the club's league & cup charge next season.

Back to the playoffs though. The way it works, there are several regions in the North of England. North East, North Central & so on. I lose track exactly how it's broken down but theres 4 or 5 of them, each forming their own League. All of this is in Division 2, the same format goes down into Divisions 3 & 4, but Division 1 is just one Division with no separate regions throughout the North.

Anyway, we're currently in the 2nd Division. We finished top, so we're now League Champions after the final League Match last weekend. The top 2 in each League in Division 2, across the regions, go into a promotion playoff. A single one off match, the winner of which gets promoted to Division 1. The top division. Even though nobody can take away the fact that we're League Champions, it is possible that we could finish up as champions but not get promoted so the job's far from done.

[Sprint]

Lovely track session tonight.

Nice little sprint pyramid, 120m, 130m, 140m, 150m, 140m, 130m, 120m.

Took them all at afairly decent pace, felt nice & relaxed all the way through. Shit, when things are flowing they just flow. Fucking love it when Im running well. Strange how form can come and go seemingly without rhyme nor reason but when it's there, everything just feels so easy.

Don't get me wrong, felt tired at the end & the legs will be sore for a couple of days (especially considering it's legs at the gym tomorrow. Will mostly be plyometrics, but some weights will be in there. Would be rude not to make use of the newly fixed multi-hip machine) but was leaving the other lads in my group, just cruising away from them.

The adductor felt fine. Been holding back for so long in training due to the psychological effects of the repeated tears in the muscle. I ran a couple of indoor open meets last winter, thinking that would sort me out but it didn't really have the desired effect. Maybe because they were just open meetings, as an individual. On saturday it was a League macth for the club, with the title within our grasp. The combination of the importance of the title & with it being a league match & not wanting to let my club mates down forced me to push my aprehension to the side & push things a little. As a result, I've got renewed confidence. I know the groin can withstand the stresses now of a flat-out sprint.


Wearing my sprint spikes again, up on my toes, extending the stride at speed.
I feel like a new athlete.

[Sprint]

Hit up some legs today. Not too much weights, focused mainly on plyometrics.

Hurdle skips
Length jumps from a dead stop
Length jumps with a pre-set "bunny hop"
3 x 4 depth jumps
Explosive standing jumps
8 x 3 (three) metre sprints

4 x 10 Leg Press with isometric holds at the bottom of each rep

3 x 14 Hip Flexors on multi-hip machine

2 x 14 Adductors on multi-hip machine

Plank on exercise ball

Table Top on exercise ball

2 x 20 crunches

2 x 20 rowing sit ups

[Sprint]

Still keeping things fairly low key right now to stay fresh for the Promotion playoff on sunday. Knocked in some arms today, using some Fat Gripz for the first time. Nasty little bastards, loved them!

Preacher curls w/Gripz 4 x 8-10
Reverse Preacher curls w/Gripz 3 x 8-10
Rope Hammer curls 3 x 10-12
Incline Dumbell curls w/Gripz 3 x 8-10
Dumbell Hammer curls w/Gripz
supersetted with --------3 x 8-10
Dumbell Hammer curls without Gripz

Tricep Pressdown w/Gripz 4 x 12
Tricep Pulldown (reverse grip pressdown) w/Gripz (Holy Shit!) 3 x 8-10
Rope Pulldown 3 x 12 with 3 drop sets on 3rd set
Single arm pulldowns 3 x 12 with 3 drops on 3rd set

Job done. Just keeping things ticking over, & sampling the Gripz. Lifts were down by 30% in some cases using them. Really enjoyed them, using them for supersets with the exercises & weights for a set with them followed by a set without really pumped the forearms and hands (yes, hands). Definitely recommend them.

[Sprint]

Went back to my old gym for a cameo appearence with my old training buddy. So much for taking it easy in the run up to the promotion playoff..

flat bench press 4 x 6
incline dumbell flyes 4 x 8
smith machine incline press 5 drop sets each weight to failure
seated chest press 3 x 10
machine flyes 3 drop sets each weight to failure

Then a bunch of core strength & abs.

I dont usually train this much volume for chest these days, normally 3 exercises, 10 total sets tops and im out.

Things always get a bit silly when we get together though.

[Sprint]

Chest is nice & sore from yesterday.
Biceps are still slightly tight from using the fat gripz on sunday, was feeling it in the tri's for a few dyas as well but yesterday's chest session seems to have flushed that out.

Few days to go until the playoff, just warming up at the track in sessions now. Much to my coach's bemusement. The week before a competition I always just warm up, with the exception of the last one where I did a session on the Tuesday before the comp on the saturday. My coach just lets me get on with it, albeit with a slight smile. It's just how I do things.

The adrenalin's been pumping for a couple of days now, and there's still 3 more to go. It's been a long week waiting for it to come around and there's still half of it left. I just wanna get out there and do my thing.

[Sprint]

Just a steady warm up at the track tonight. Couple of skips & bounds. Finalised various bits & pieces for sunday, e.g. who's going in what car etc.

Definitely running the 100m & 4x100m relay, 200m is up in the air as to who will be doing it for us.

Not happy about some things at the club. There's an alarming lack of youth coming up through the ranks, the main athletes representing the club in these competitions are still the same athletes who were the main guys & girls 10 fucking years ago. Hats off to them, still doing the business but there's hardly anything following us through.
Back when I was 15, 16, there was a group young lads. 5 or 6 of us, all good friends & really competing in training. That edge showed in competitions with all of us week in week out hitting within a tenth of a second of our PB's. Not boasting but I was the quickest out of our little group, & so I was always chosen to travel with the senior squad to competitions but I knew if I eased back just a fraction in training, 1 of the other guys would take my place in a heartbeat. We were all fast enough to hang with the seniors, and we earned their respect.
Now, there's 2 or 3 young lads the same age as we were then, but running at least a full second slower over 100m (for all you non-track athletes, thats a fucking lot) than we were back then. More worryingly, those lads have shown NO improvement over the past 12 months. As a result, we have to put in a long distance runner into our 4x100m relay team. We did the same thing in the final League match due to last minute changes being required which are the norm with these kinds of things. However, going into the Promotion playoff, our first choice 4x100 team now contains a long distance athlete as opposed to putting him in at the last minute to patch up the team.

Those seniors who took me under their wing when I first started out are marching towards their late 40s now, they'll be the first to admit they're not running as fast as they were 10 or even 5 years ago. They won't be able to carry the club on their shoulders forever, and the problem seems to be getting worse. We have plenty of athletes at the club, we're not the biggest club but we do have many athletes. Unfortunately, a lot of them aren't making that extra step up, and a significant amount of those who have made the step up see unwilling to represent their club in competition. Fighting for promotion to the top division, having just been crowned league champions, this weekend is a prestigious event. A chance to write a new chapter in the club's history. To add our names to the list of the athletes who represented the club in what has become known as "The Golden Era" some 60 years ago due to the club's success. We can become a part of that, & have athletes talk about us the same way in 60 years' time. We have that chance, and those who have stepped up in ability to be able to represent, are choosing not to.

I genuinely fear for the club's future. I fear that in another 5 or 10 years, we won't just be putting out a weak team for league matches, but maybe we won't be putting out a team at all because the new generation do not wish to take the baton and run with it.

Nothing we can do about it now though, all we can do is nail it on sunday and get promoted. Maybe that'll capture the imagination of those unwilling, and maybe spur those incapable to kick on and make that step up. I know I have many years left to give to the club yet, and I know the more mature seniors will continue to defy the sands of time to try and keep the club competitive for as long as it takes until a new wave is ready and willing to take us on to greater heights.

[Cellardweller]

Sounds like it time for you to take some of the young bulls under your wing Sprint. From some of the shit you've been posting lately, you'd be a hell of a mentor and probably could get some new blood in just by creating an intense Animal atmosphere around you.

I'm not going to pretend to know anything running, but what's the big difference between running on an indoor track and an outdoor one? How does it affect your times?

[Sprint]

Thank you for your support. I've taken a few of the youngsters on in the past & it's something I really enjoy doing.
It's something that maybe I can start putting into practice a bit more now that I'm nearing my old self in terms of performance. Unfortunately 3 years out of the sport & subsequent injuries on the long road back meant the new generation have never seen me perform at my best. All they had were stories, & I can understand why some would choose not to listen to me at first because during my rehabilitation most of them were running faster than me.
Now, however, I've overcome the physical problems & resulting psychological issues & am handing them their asses to them in training. This does lend itself to the age-old issue of "substances" when a bodybuilder goes from being 5 or 6 metres behind you, to being not alongside you but 5 or 6 metres ahead of you on each run in the space of 2 weeks (Such was the extent of the psychological damage getting sorted in the space of a single day).

I hope that my returning to past form allied with my added experience of being on the floor and climbing back up can help some of our athletes make a step up. At the very least, it's given the previous front-runners something of a hare to chase in training.

In terms of running indoors as opposed to outdoors, there's a few diffrences. There's the difference in atmosphere (which never affected me as long as the venue has god air-con, Sport City in Manchester didn't, and it got stuffy as all hell in there).
Other than that, the track can sometimes 'feel' different but again never really bothered me when Im running. No time to think about that. There are different distances, in official championships, outdoors we have the 100m, 200m etc as standard. Indoor championships have 60m, then jump up to 200m. Some open meets as opposed to official meets run 150m and 300m indoors, but then a few do that outdoors.

The biggest difference are the bends. Not an issue over 60m as it's just a straight, it's the indoor version of the 100m, in a sense. However, anything that involves a bend indoors causes things to go a bit wonky. The bends indoors are banked, suprisingly steep. I was told that at top speed you dont notice the banking...I did! You're constantly fighting against dropping down into the lane inside you. Takes some figuring to get it sorted, I've only ran a single bend indoors ever, it's not an art that has come naturally to me.
Outdoors, everything is flat.
The only other difference is that the track is 200m long indoors, with a 60m straight running down the middle, inside the oval 200m. Outdoors is a oval 400m, with no straight down the middle because the straights are 100m and so accomodate the shorter sprint.

My reasons for getting stuck into some indoor work this winter are firstly to run the 60m, as there's a lot of pressure on getting out of the blocks well & this is the only aspect of my running that needs work on following my lay-off. I've always responded in pressure situations so that should do me a lot of good. Secondly, I want to master the art of indoor curve running, and I've got my beady eyeballs on the club's indoor 200m record. I'm already the junior 60m record holder, faster than the exisitng senior 60m record (Ive never been timed as a senior over 60m so never got a shot at that record) & Im expecting to take that record as well this winter.
Plus with the shit weather in this country, getting some indoor work gives an opportunity to really get in some sharp, speedy work as opposed to the usual winter grind out sessions of repeated 300s in training. Good for strength, not so good for speedwork.

[Sprint]

FUCKING YEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

The Club finished second in the Promotion Playoff, & with the top 2 winning promotion to the 1st Division, we're on our way!!

Myself personally, 3rd place in the 100m & have re-established myself as the clubs no1 sprinter. After 3 years out of the sport, with some serious injuries since returning, 2 competitions & I'm back where I belong.

The Team Mananger asked me to run the 2nd leg in the 4 x 100m relay as the back straight is actually the longest leg (the 3rd leg, around the 2nd bend, is the shortest) & there was a strong headwind down the back straight. Due to me being the top sprinter, & the most powerful, he decided it would be better for me to power through the wind. The decision worked & I knew I was flying. Cruised past 2 other athletes (no mean feat when you take into account the stagger that only really evens itself out on the 3rd & 4th legs), it's obviously possible to move up places in terms of where you are as a team, but to actually physically pass athletes on the 2nd leg is going some. Of course, Chris played no small part in me being able to do that by running a solid 1st leg to put me in a position to be able to get in front of anybody.

Apart from flying past the other athletes, after we'd finished Marc to whom I passed to, said he looked at me coming in and thought "Fuck, he's shifting at a fair rate of knots here". I honestly don't think I've ever ran that fast with regards to top speed ever. Felt amazing.

So we're there, Division One. Fucking exhausted, but buzzing!!!

[Sprint]

A journey back to my old gym for another session with my old training partner. Don't normally hit back on a track day, so kept things fairly easy on the whole. Just ticking over, no deadlifts due to track later.

4 x 10 pull ups to warm up
4 x 8-10 low cable row
3 x 8-10 machine row
4 x 8-10 wide grip lat pulldown
3 x 6-8 reverse close grip lat pulldown

Then polished off with some ab & core work, along with some stretching to ease my legs off prior to tonight's track session.

[Sprint]

There I am this morning, at my old gym, post-workout getting changed whilst my training buddy's in the shower.
A guy I used to talk to quite a lot when I trained there full-time came in, & we had a quick chat before he goes "Alright then, so what pop are you on?"

I figured I knew what he was getting at by the word 'pop' but I said "You what?"

"You know, what pop are you on?"

"Nothing mate, never have, never will."

"Fuck off, what are you on?"

"I told you, nothing. I'm competing in athletics again, they do random drugs tests so I can't afford to be on anything."

"Fuck off, I've been in this game long enough to know you're on something."

"100% honestly...NOTHING."

"Oh, fair enough."

And off he walked.
I used to say to people who demanded to know what I was doing differently to them "Come join me for a workout, then you'll understand why I look the way I do, and you look the way you do." But I don't think it'll make much difference, if any at all. So Now I'm saying to them "Pay your way and live with me for a week. Train when & how I train. Eat what & when I eat. Sacrifice what & when I sacrifice. Live my life for 1 full week, and imagine doing that for YEARS. Then you'll see where our paths differ."

I'll be posting this comment in my other thread about "secrets" as I feel it's relevent there as well as here.

[Cellardweller]

Awesome job at the meet Sprint. I get fired up reading shit like that. You know you're only going to get better.

[Sprint]

Awesome job at the meet Sprint. I get fired up reading shit like that. You know you're only going to get better.

Thanks for your support bro. I kind of regret those 3 years spent out of athletics, although without them I suppose I'd never have gotten into bodybuilding as much as I did. Things happen for a reason I guess. What's important is the here and now, whilst looking to the future.

[Sprint]

Shoulders today.

Everything's done with dumbells, allowing my body to take it's natural plane of movement.

2 sets nice light shrugs to get some blood pumping into the general area.

3 x 6-8 arnold press
supersetted with
3 x 6-8 lateral raise

2 x 12-14 bent lateral raise

2 x 40 rep finisher comprising of:

10 x bent lateral raise
10 x lateral raise
10 x upright rows
10 x shoulder press

All done with the same dumbells, no rest, soon as that 10th rep is done it's straight into the next movement (The only time I count reps to a specific number).

Rest 2 mins, repeat. You better believe this gets you pumped.

Notice there's no isolation movements for the front delts. The arnold press hits these, & they're well developed enough from chest sessions to need their own specific work.
Also note the lack of heavy shrugs. Due to genetics & the sprinting on the track over the last 10 years, my traps are plenty big enough. They also respond incredibly well to shrugs, so much so that I only throw them in once every 2-3 shoulder workouts. Any more than that & they explode.

I use shrugs to improve grip strength as much as trap development. Lately I've been treating myself to dangles from the pull-up bars. 2 hands, then moving to 1 hand, then moving to the other hand, then back to both hands. All changes done without dropping.

All in all, good session. Ploughed through it although I seem to be feeling the effects of going a bit easy on myself in the build up to the recent athletics meets. Clearly left it long enough to suffer from inactivity as opposed to keeping it short enough to benefit from a slight break.

We live & learn.

[Sprint]

For some reason I didn't put in Tuesdays track session.
Wasnt the best.

Coach called them 70m power-ups.

70m run at 90%, straight into a 70m cruise, then straight into another 70m run at 90%

5 of these, in effect giving 10 runs of 10m.

Was feeling the effects of sunday's exertions in my legs, the adductor was a bit tight in particular. Still some scar tissue in there I guess. Anyhow, did 3 of the runs but just felt too tight in the groin to risk the final 2.

Tonight, felt much better. Got soaked by the rain tho, not massively heavy but a constant fall that eventually drenched us all.
Rolling 40s, a 10m jog into a 40m run. kept it light, fast & easy. 3 sets of 4, just the slightest hint of tightness in the groin but I think the session will have eased it out.
Hitting up some plyometrics, legs & core in the gym tomorrow.

[Legacy]

Doing a good job combining weight lifting and track bro. Good to see others who enjoy the iron game but also have passion for other sports.

[Sprint]

Thanks bro. I find the 2 do compliment each other to a certain degree. Im just about the only athlete at my club who enjoys running into a headwind, just power on through it.
It may fly in the face of some science, but I was never one to set in stone what the textbooks tell us. In any case, with both weights & sprinting, there's a load of anabolic hormones being released.