Here's an interesting post from Michael LeBlanc's blog:
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Unlike my previous outdoor campaigns, which tended to
begin more gradually and later in the spring (usually mid-April in North
Carolina), we decided to heavily front load this outdoor season with
the Texas Relays and the Arizona State Sun Angel Classic. There are a
lot of reasons for doing this, the most important of them being that I
need races, and front loading the season with some bigger meets before
settling down into training mode for a few weeks is a great way to
accomplish this.
People seldom realize that while I'm 23 years old, I'm very young in
terms of both training years and competing years. I only started serious
training going into my senior year of high school, before that point I
only messed around at the track one or two days per week during a few
months of the year, sometimes missing months at a time. Competition
wise, I've had very few
full seasons; the last time I had
anything near a full season was 2007. What does this mean? Quite simply
that I need to get to the starting line as much as possible in order to
acclimate myself both psychologically and physiologically to the process
of racing.
By the time I had run 10.17 in 2007, my race tally for that season
(indoor and outdoor) was close to 30-some total times lining up and
running (including relays), and this was only the 2nd week of June. I
opened that season in mid-April with a 10.54 in North Carolina. That day
I also ran the 200m.
This year I opened my season with 10.49 â€" my fastest and earliest
opener ever â€" and that time was accomplished on the 4th race of a busy
weekend that was comprised of both 4Ãâ€â€100m and 100m prelims and finals.
Perhaps even more encouraging was the fact that I improved over the
weekend, at a point in the season when I shouldn't expect to have the
specific fitness necessary to run four times and run well. My 100m
preliminary was 10.48 with an assisting wind of 2.5, while my final was
10.49 with a comparatively pedestrian 0.6 making for
anintrinsicallybetter performance.
This coming weekend I will compete at the Arizona State Sun Angel
Classic, where I'll race the 4Ãâ€â€100m, 100m, and yes the 200m, bringing my
outdoor season race tally to seven total races by April 10, where it
would have been zero in years prior.
So how did the race feel? As expected â€" which is a good thing.
Non-sprinters have a hard time appreciating the specificity of speed.
What I mean here is that speed is specific onto itself and,
furthermore, races are specific onto themselves. This is why you'll
sometimes see a 400m runner get gassed in a 200m, or even a 100m. The
type of training required to run those distances effectively is so
specific that it can seldom by achieved by promoting ‘general fitness'.
There is no question that I am more fit now than I have ever been in my
life. I do more tempo (low intensity high volume) running than I ever
have, and just more
work in general. But it wouldn't matter if I
was running 20k per week, I'd still be getting tired at the 60m of a
100m. At this point in the season I haven't done anywhere near the
requisite amount of specific endurance training (or racing, for that
matter) to run a competent 100m. Luckily, that's what
supposed
to happen. On April 1st, I'm supposed to feel tired halfway through a
100m, simply because the specific training isn't there yet. The remedy
here is simply a product of the proper training compounded over time. I
can speak from experience as to the incredible effect that this formula
has; I dropped from 10.54 o 10.17 in less than 8 weeks. The effect is
particularly pronounced for those among us who train in the north, and
are forced to recluse ourselves indoors for several months of the year,
thereby delaying (although notdiminishing) specific endurance
development.
I'm both looking forward to, and expecting, continued progress this
weekend in Arizona.
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