Yikes...

11.70

24.26

Click here to see the proof of the embarrassment.

I'll post more about it later, but the gist of it is this; I am injury free still, but exposing a delusion is never a good time for the one with the delusions.

I will touch on this quickly though...

I think if I had been told, before I started "training" heavily for this, that all I'd manage is 11.70 for this race...I might have not bothered trying to compete again at all. But, now that I'm in it this deep now, I'm ready to keep chasing the "dream". At least for the rest of this season, anyway. Then after running at the July meet, I can reassess if this is still all worth chasing beyond this year.

But that result is admittedly sobering, I gotta be clear about that. If I wasn't as old and been through as much I've been through (life, injuries, kids, etc.) I'd be pretty depressed about how this turned out. Luckily....I am old and worldly now. And I can bury that depression waaaaaayyyyy down....

I guess I'll go ahead and enter the July meet, considering I'm healthy. In my next post I'll go into more details, plus I'll explain in depth how I plan to drop 1.2 seconds off my time in one month.

Again...yikes. 

The Fragile

I've been listening to the "left disc" of the Nine Inch Nails album "The Fragile" a lot lately. It's probably my favorite album of all time, with NIN being far and away my favorite band. Anyone who knows me or knew me will not be shocked by these statements...and in fact they might roll their eyes since so little has apparently changed with me. 

Anyway, I put a CD version (left disc) of The Fragile inside one of our primary cars a while ago, and I haven't bothered to swap it with anything else for quite some time. So when I'm using that car to drive anywhere without the kids (like to the gym or to the track), I crank up the volume and use the album as my hype music on the way to whatever workout I'm doing.

That album came out in 1999. That was a bit of a turning point in my personal life, as well. I don't really want to go into a full autobiography here, but it's noteworthy because 1999 was the year I finally essentially became the "sprinter" I always wanted to be, and it's around when I had my ACL tear AND repair, as well (which is all tightly connected, but we're not getting into that here). It was a pretty formative time period, to say the least. 

That all went down when I was 15/16 years old, which is a formative period anyway, without any extra drama. But the ACL tear (where a kid seemingly intentionally leaned into my knee during gym class when I was on the ground during a simple pickup basketball game), all the way to running a 10.6 hand timed 100m Dash 11 months after the surgical repair was....a bit of a wild ride. And I remember listening to a lot of The Fragile (plus other bands like Korn, Staind, even Limp Bizkit, that whole rock era) during a huge chunk of it. The Fragile, very specifically, spoke to me then...and it still speaks to me now, frankly. It speaks to me in new ways, and in old ways...not unlike how training for sprints does, too.

Perhaps I'm an open book or I'm someone who just never really moves on, but a lot of what I learned, felt, and experienced during that period is foundational to the person I think I am today. And, certainly, still being able to attempt to "train" for "sprinting" even now is something I'm occasionally reminded to be truly grateful for. Which was something I felt and noted during (and especially after) my sprint workout this past Wednesday. 

The Wednesday Workout

85m: 9.7

120m: 13.6

70m: 8.3

I took 11 to 12 minute rests between the runs. Maybe a little longer than I should have, but I was really going for quality this time.

Burying The Lead

I'm pretty intentionally burying the lead of this workout under a pile of narcissistic word vomit, as it were. But I do that because, the fact is, this workout is kind of a "come to Jesus" moment about what I think I know. And I'd rather make my grandiose claims under a filter of boring jibberish as a kind of filter/defense in case I end up proven completely wrong in a week.

Everything about this sprint workout should lead to pretty clear and concise conclusions. But those conclusions are all built on the past precedence of my flimsy logic and arithmetic. Using THAT information and data, the facts are pretty clear: I should officially be a sub 11 guy again now, and there's even a decent chance that I can legitimately dip under a 10.8 with just decent weather conditions within the next week or two. That's what the workout, based on how I read the tea leaves, says. And there's no getting away from that kind of predictive claim when, next week, I'm supposed to run an official 100m dash at a track meet.

That should all be great for building confidence and a fair amount of eagerness for the upcoming competition opportunity. BUT, if I've been living way out in left field with all these assumptions that I base my "100m conversions" on, then all that confidence is really just blind ignorance. 

Further Methodology

So, I performed this workout almost identically to how I performed during the infamous (in my mind anyway) March 15th workout. If it wasn't an identical result, then it ended up being an ever-so-slightly better one based on thousandth of seconds self timing results (which one shouldn't do, of course). All of it practically identical, but for one SIGNIFICANT difference: wind. On March 15th, I had consistent 15 to 20 mph tailwinds while I ran, with random gusts even above that. This past Wednesday, I had 3 to 5 mph tailwinds, at best. It often felt windless. Simply put, wind wasn't a factor at all in this past Wednesday workout, whereas it was the whole story of my March 15th workout.

To be able to repeat the sprint results of March 15th, but do so with virtually no wind...is fairly huge. Even outside of me trying to guess what I can run in a competitve 100m off the sprint results, the proof of progress off these facts is pretty absolute. I've certainly improved legitimately, which is pretty invigorating in itself regardless of what these workouts "convert" to in my head. This, put plainly...is good. 

Plus, the events leading up to the workout were not optimal. I had planned on doing the workout at my "home" track, but when I got there after already prepping extensively, I discovered that a high school girls lacrosse playoff game was being played at the stadium where the track is. I hadn't even looked around for official stadium usage info because school is OVER; I though the risk was zero. I was pretty confused when I rolled up and I saw buses and people at the gate, to say the least.

So I had to drive around looking for a different track to use. The first option I went to didn't work; the stadium was completely locked. At that point, my mind started to wander into catastrophic mode and I pondered what abandoning the sprint attempt would look like for the day and for the short term training plan. On a lark, though, I drove to ANOTHER track at a school I'd never heard of still fairly close to where I was at the time. The setup seemed iffy, but I still parked and went to the gate. That gate was, of course, locked. But another one wasn't. So...I went for it and went in. Started warming up. And...eventually did the whole workout.

I went from almost mentally giving up the pursuit at all, to back to DOING the workout (while wondering if I'd get chased off the track by security), all after sitting around longer than I expected driving and looking for a place to run. And after all that I still ran a workout of that quality and with that much health. To me...this is about as legit a performance result as I can get, outside of a track meet itself.

Adult Track Night

Speaking of a track meet, time to put my money where my mouth is (literally, since meet entries cost a ton more, relative to what I feel they used to). Friday, June 12th, I'm running at the Adult Track Night event at Green. I entered myself in the 100m AND the 200m, though it's not clear to me how certain it is that I'll actually run the 200. For training purposes, I really want to do it. But I'm not sure if it'll work out that way. 

I figure there's no real point in playing coy with my meet info and plan at this point. Certainly, a LOT can happen still between now and next Friday, in terms of injury or family (these KIDS) complications. But the biggest risk was that sprint workout, and that workout is successfully over. I REALLY cranked it on those runs, too; there was no holding back in those results. Despite that, my body felt fine during it all; even the achilles was pretty decent. I've got terrible luck and I'm not very smart, so certainly I could still do something to hurt myself somehow in the next few days. But that workout actually seems to showcase a legitimate level of resiliency in my body currently. Theoretically, I should have a degree of confidence for once.

As a result, I bit the bullet already and purchased a USATF membership. I found ANOTHER track meet I want to run in that's a perfect dry run for actually running at the Masters Champs in July, and I've already entered THAT meet as well. I don't think I'll actually drop the money on the July Masters Champs until after the meet in Green, though. Each event at the July meet costs $65, for crying out loud. And I'm still leaning on trying to run both the 100 AND 200, too... 

It just seems like the exact kind of stupid situation I'd put myself in to spend $130 for the July meet and then blow out my hamstring at this meet in Green next week. The deadline for the Masters Champs is June 16th, so I have plenty of wiggle room anyway. If I finish healthy at the meet next week in Green, then I'll officially enter the July Masters meet promptly.

I guess...still hold onto your butts.

A Little Dose of Reality

Well.....the last sprint workout didn't go at all the way I expected.

120m: 13.9

160m: 19.1

120m: 14.7

I ran this workout on Tuesday. The goal was to really let it rip; I wanted to further prove that I'm ready to start digging way below sub-11 from here on out, so I tried to set myself up to be perfectly fresh and ready to go for this workout. I had some big expectations, and I had even mapped out what my times and splits should look like on the track, based on my big expectations, before I went.

Then reality eventually struck.

The weather was nice and warm, and I DID feel fairly good going into it. But then even on the first run, after about 50/60 meters, I could tell I wasn't doing well. Nothing hurt, and I was pushing HARD seemingly successfully. But I was pushing super hard and not getting a lot of return back on the investment. I FELT the work I had put in between the sets, too; I was roasted already even after one run. 

One of the reasons I ran this past Tuesday,  specifically, was because it was going to be WARM but NOT have big winds. I wanted to see what it looked like when I ran without the benefit of strong tailwinds pushing me along.  Well I sure got what I wished...and I don't like it. Pretty discouraging.  

I also ran on a track I use less often, and I suppose I can wonder if that track itself hurt the results in terms of time results and perceived effort. It's a track that's in pretty poor shape, and I was surprised at how much my feet hurt running on it as opposed to what I've typically felt while running at the other track I use. There's a lot of wear and many thin spots on the track surface, down to concrete in some spots, and a few cracks even through the foundation of the track on just the straight away. 

But that's probably all just excuses. It sure would help if the truth is that track zapped out some of my timing potential AND energy output while I ran on it. I suppose if I run well next week, then I can give such a theory some validity, but for now...maybe this is just all I've got.

Expectations

Well, one of a couple reasons this is a disappointing workout result is I was looking to prove that I'm either on my way, or already there, to run in the vicinity of a 10.8 BASIC 100m Dash on June 12th. This workout does not support that kind of trajectory at ALL. This workout equates more to an 11.05ish result rather than a 10.8. Last week's workout I would have argued was more of a 10.8ish type result, but that wind probably tainted that result considerably. 

It's interesting that really most of this seems identical to the last time I did a 120+160+120 workout. The same scenario played out then: I went in with huge expectations and then when I ran I was nowhere near them. The next workout after that, though, was that hyper wind aided March 15th workout which seemed to go so well. So I guess I want the similarities/trend to continue. I'll probably even wind chase again for my next workout.

Anyway, so maybe come competition time I'm going to have to truly conceptualize settling/coming to terms with running in the 11s over 100 meteres. And I need to learn to see a 10.9x type result as something of a wild success. I have to prepare for that mentally, otherwise I'd probably have a really bad attitude if thats what I run when I think I should be going 10.7/10.8

I've still got another week and a half of training opportunity, so maybe I can still make some big dents...but we're kinda coming up on it now.  I'm gonna be what I'm gonna be at this point. Maybe that's 10.95/11.05...maybe it's even 11.25/11.30. I really can't be sure. The primary goal is still to FIND OUT by showing up and running at that meet.

Can't totally kill that 10.8 hope, though...

Man I'm Banal and Tone Deaf. No One Needs This Post Outside of my Ego

Sunny, 85°. 10/15 winds from the south west on a north/south orientated track. Ran on the back stretch, so all with fairly strong tail winds. Around 8/10 minutes rest between runs.

070m: 08.1

120m: 13.6

060m: 07.2

Here We Go Again

A little history here. On May 16th, 2025, I attempted this 70+120+60 combo sprint workout. It was the first time I was doing a concentrated and fully fleshed out sprint workout since I tore my achilles in March of 2023, and even prior to that I hadn't done this level of true sprint "workout" really since 2019. So one year prior to today's workout results listed above, I ran this same workout with results as follows:

070m: 08.6

120m: 14.5

060m: 07.4

Sure enough, on the final 60m run in the 2025 version, I pulled my right calf. Somewhere around a grade 1 strain, I imagine. When you contrast what I'm doing a year later with what happened one year ago...I guess you could say I've improved. I'm exponentially faster, and I'm not (currently) hurt (technically) as a result of the workout.

I was doing this workout a year ago in an attempt to get prepared to run at a mid-June open track meet that was going to be held very near where I live. The same one I'm intending to do this year. So, with that calf strain so near to the meet last year, and the fact an injury resulted from ONE simple sprint workout attempt....the meet seemed unlikely to happen in 2025 after the workout. 

I actually tried to sign up for it anyway, after it seemed like the calf healed up enough after a couple weeks. But when I went to enter the meet near the deadline (but before the posted online deadline date), I learned they had shut down entries into the 100m Dash because too many people had already signed up. So that's what officially ended it. With my poor fitness and questionable health, it was probably all for the better that it worked it that way; that workout I did in '25, based on my math, would have only made for an 11.5ish. Maybe even slower. I woulda regretted running that.

More Boring Back Story

I was being so persistent to get into the meet, despite not being in legit shape for it, for something of sentimental reasons. I had learned of the existence of this annual meet only a few months into my achilles surgery recovery in 2023. When I saw what the meet was (like a kind of masters meet, but a little bit more open and "fun"), I made it a goal in the back of mind to run in it after my achilles had recovered. 

The next year in 2024, my daughter Evelyn was born in May...and as a result, there was no way I could make the meet at ALL, let alone be properly prepared/trained for it. So I did target 2025 as my chance to finally achieve the goal. But then, between my OTHER achilles issues, and a still pretty rough time getting proper training in with all the childcare that goes on around here, the plan basically got chewed up and lost even in 2025.

After the failed meet attempt last year, I kept trying to progress my training with the SPECIFIC plan of actually sprinting again. I took a step back from running workouts after that mid June situation, but kept building up fitness and in the early fall I started back up sprint workouts. Except by autumn I had much more intention with my plan and was already considerably better off to begin such workouts. The plan THEN was to actually run some indoor 60m sprints in the winter to have a REALLY legit build up to the outdoor season. That was the plan, anyway....

Obviously the appendectomy at the end of October ended the indoor plans and completely altered competition trajectories. However, I started my sprint workout pursuits so much earlier, and so much more as a goal, that even with a great many repeated setbacks, I'm still NOW in decent position to at minimum run in this June meet. 

Arguably now, after this most recent workout, not only am I more prepared to actually run in the June meet (I signed up as soon as the meet confirmed it's 2026 addition, so even that's already set up), but I can now expect to do it with some semblance of competency, to boot. How competent may still be open to interpretation and debate, but a general and sensible "competent" performance should be achievable. Speaking of the implications of this most recent workout...

Expectations

So, I was developing wild expectations a few months ago. Wild enough that even I had to admit the truth and reel myself back a few times. But let us be honest, I have not learned my lesson; I never learn my lesson and I always wildly project and fantasize. My progress may have gotten interrupted in April, but with my achilles perhaps evening out a bit (more on that later), I can start to be my old delusional self again. 

This recent workout result is actually very reminiscent of my March 15th sprint workout result in a LOT of ways. There's a pattern here, because I said the same thing about my workout on May 4th, as well. This is all related, on some level, to how I target windy, warm-ish days for sprint workouts. I chase the winds to stack the deck for my outcomes. Plus, I feel it's more valuable for your body to cover the distance faster, even wind aided, than to battle through something like a headwind on quality sprint efforts. 

And, while I did try to target a nice warm day for this workout, I'm actually becoming conflicted about the helpful strong tailwinds for workouts like these. In the case of this specific workout, I didn't even really know the wind would be as strong as it ended up being.  That was a bit happenstance. I can probably still use the ego/confidence boost that these winds provide for my results, but I'd actually rather start getting sprint data without so much wind help now so I can parse reality from fiction at least a TINY bit better.

As it stands, this sprint workout had less winds than the March 15th one, and so the timing predictions built off these results could THEORETICALLY be closer to legitimate. But I still had some help down the track....so when I say I think this workout implies a 10.8 flat 100m, give or take a couple hundreths, maybe that still comes with some wind conversion needs (plus whatever inaccuracies my "conversions" have). In the end, the only real way to prove or disprove any of this is to actually run a competitive 100m Dash. Hopefully that finally happens June 12th at the meet.

When I look back at that March 15th workout, that workout seemed to indicate a 10.85 ability (again give or take; in the post I wrote after the workout I claimed 10.86/10.88), but the winds were MUCH stronger that day; I think the winds were around 20/25 mph consistently that day, and were coming more directly from the south. Garbage cans were getting pushed over on the infield, and I had to put stuff on top of my workout bag so that it didn't get blown down the track.

Yesterday certainly had winds in the 10/15 mph range, but slightly more cross-wind-ish than right behind me; though they definitely still help. So, potentially, having a slightly improved result with less wind benefit compared to March 15th should be a really, really good sign. Additionally, I've taken a really close look at the data I've got for each workout. Taking that info and combining it with what I also felt and experienced yesterday, I think I can say something with a degree of confidence: I was actually more "in tune" to running fast on March 15th than I was yesterday. 

The break I took during April for my achilles, and the longer workouts I've been utilizing since starting back up running, has not really addressed the needs of reaching and trying to maintain TOP speeds. Yesterday's workout was actually the first fully unleashed, max velocity search type sprint since....that March 15th workout. After the first 30/40 meters of each run yesterday, I really felt out of sorts, and a little scared of injury. I couldn't maintain and explore my positions and effort as much as I felt like I was prior to the achilles April shutdown.  But I think the first 30/40 meters were incredibly explosive, so that's the positive flip side. 

Sooooo, I wanna believe that I still have a HIGH ceiling even from where I'm at now. If I can get back to what I was trying to do in max velocity/maintenance in March, maybe there's still a lot if progress to be had for me going into July. But that all remains to be seen, as per SOP.

The Weird Things I Do/ Achilles Status 

So, I was gonna do a deep dive into some of the things that I do that REALLY make me weird with my workouts. Some of that now bleeds into my achilles stuff a little bit, so I'm gonna quit this entry HERE, and maybe save that topic for the next post. I might have some actual useful info in that post, so I'll try to give it its own space rather than bury it under the word vomit that is this mess.

I will say this; for the time being, it appears I've got my achilles in a place where it's going to at least let me pursue my sprinting. But one never knows how quickly that kind of thing will change. It's clearly taken a turn for the better over the past few weeks, though, so I'll post more specifically about that in the next one.

One More Final Note

I had also run this 70+120+60 workout on February 27th of this year, my second workout run outside at the time:

070m: 08.2

120m: 13.9

060m: 07.4

In looking at the stats, I was having similar problems with breaking down/being uncomfortable after the initial "drive phase" period in that workout, too. After that workout I did a 120+160+120 workout the next week that went not as well as I had hoped, and then I broke through on that March 15th workout where I actually FELT kind of fast and in control. Well, relatively anyway. 

The plan next week is to do another 120+160+120 workout. That might give me another solid chance to assess where I'm at and to try to get more comfortable moving fast for longer periods again. Hopefully it then sets me up for success at the meet in June. That's the hope, anyway.

Probably Not Real

160: 19.3

200: 24.9

200: 25.0

160: 19.7

I'm not out of the game yet. Apparently. Those are my sprint workout stats from yesterday. I took huge rests, especially before that last 160m (I think it approached 18 minutes), and I had huge winds on my back...but that seemed like a really good result no matter the circumstances.

I just looked back at my last few posts, and I pondered how those posts fit with my actual lived experience. To a surprising extent, that March 15th sprint workout was kind of the beginning of the end for me, as it were. Or maybe it was more the "horizontal plyos" I did that I never posted about a few days after that sprint workout. In fact, those plyos must have been what REALLY started to push my achilles over the edge, probably more so than the sprints.

I guess those plyos were a supremely bad idea. But, I did PERFORM them well. I suppose at too much of a cost. I guess I can't incorporate what I call "horizontal" plyos (which include single leg triple bounds as part of the overall session) into my plans until my achilles shows legitimate progression from its currently typically inflammed state. The depth jumps, which of course are bilateral, don't bother it as much. So...I'm going to just stick with those for now until after July (when I'll reasses my achilles and try to "rehab" it). Unless my achilles improves dramatically as I build up to the July masters meet I'm trying to run in, but clearly that's unlikely. 

Anyway, between my achilles, my back, and just my overall concept for my training plan, everything has been pretty steeply down hill from the successfully performed tandem of that sprint workout and plyo sesh. Until this workout I did yesterday, that is. This is the first truly decent output I've had in a workout since I pulled my back on March 31st. 

In essence, the workout yesterday was like a rebooted version of that March 15th sprint workout; it was highly wind aided, with good warm temperatures, big rest periods, and the results seem very exciting (if not tempered by the knowledge of the wind).

Except, in this case, I wasn't going in expecting big results out of the workout. The goal here was simply to get through the workout without blowing up my achilles.  Or anything else. When I looked down at the clock to see my times, I was very pleasantly surprised. And a little confused. Part of me wonders if I measured something wrong on my distances...

Originally, these longer workouts seemed more risky for the achilles. But I've done two of these since trying to get back to running again, and right now I'm actually preferring them to the faster, shorter sprint sessions. For the time being, I'm holding off on planning a full go shorter workout until I'm a little more ready to go. So next week I'm going to repeat the longer workout I did last week, but hopefully perform it more intentionally fast. Then from there I hope to reincorporate the shorter workouts, too.

I'm not out of the woods yet, but my achilles seems to be responding well right now. So the goal of running at a meet in June that I signed up for is now full go. That's kind of my deadline for whether or not I'll really go for the masters meet in July. If I can't run in that June meet, it's hard to imagine I'll be in a good place for July.

This workout result was a really good first step towards that, though. Assuming this was all real...

What If This is the Last Time?

Here's the thing....sprinting is just, a big deal. For me, on a personal level, it's a REALLY big deal. Still....all these years later. It runs (pun?) VERY deep; it's the kind of thing that no matter what I try to do to explain it with words....I'm gonna fall short, one way or another.

This goes all the way down to what I perceive as the very core of who I am, and its importance seemingly predates a lot of the stuff that came along down the line that further REINFORCED it as such an important aspect of my life and myself. The fact is, running fast (particularly in the context of "sprinting") has nearly always meant something big to me.

Frankly, the magnitude of this is a bit scary, and probably always has been. One really shouldn't put all their eggs in one basket, as it were. And, to an extent, I haven't. I've got a lot of other interests that I have real passions for (music, movies, video games, books if I ever sit down and read, etc). I'm married and have kids. There's a lot of other things going on in life with me (and MAN do kids take up time, effort, and energy)....but yet there it still is. "Sprinting". Still there, and here I am still wanting it and chasing it.

A big part of what makes the significance of running/sprinting so "scary" is this; it's always been something that could so easily be taken away. Of course, in fact, it very often has been "taken away". Which is maybe an additional layer to why I still want it so much. The "taken away" stories are long and varied for me, but while they are also a really big deal to me, I've become self aware enough to know that they aren't of terrible interest to others. I mean, certainly none of this is of any interest to anyone. That lack of interest expands exponentially the orgin stories of each chip on my shoulders is expounded upon. Even I can sense it when THINKING about explaining that stuff,  and then realizing I need to keep my miuth shit. Those stories absolutely DO swirl around in my head quite a bit, though.

Which brings me to my current situation. Right now, it seems like my right achilles is adding another entry to my "taken away" list; it doesn't feel very good at all and it may only get worse from here. I DID do a sprint workout last Tuesday. I made it through over a thousand meters of distance for the workout in total, an amount for a sprint workout that I haven't remotely attempted since early 2019. The results of said workout were pretty poor statistically speaking, and the achilles didn't really feel great...but it got BETTER as I ran. Which doesn't really prove much of anything...but for now I'm preferring to be optimistic about that.

The real key is, can I build on that workout? Can my body recover and allow me to push harder? I'm trying to plan for another sprint workout this Monday. Basically, I've got these next five weeks to save my "season", and these next five DAYS I will probably tell me if I'll sink or swim. I also did a depth jump workout yesterday, which was also statistically quite poor, but the achilles allowed the workout to happen. So, for now, that's a win.

It's not clear to me which way this will play out. But I have to try. Cause I want it. I always have, and I always will... And these days, I really have no idea if it's the last time I'll get to even try. I'm not even sure if this has truly counted as trying up to this point; it may never lead to a competition result. In 2018 and early 2019, I may have gotten to 10.6 or 10.5 fitness, but I never ran in a meet to prove that. So did it even happen? Kind of feels like it didn't. But...I'm at least gonna try to keep trying to try.

Redux

The best laid plans of mice and men, when we practice to deceive...something something...Luke is your father.

I dunno. I've been writing up a variety of post attempts for this "entry" only to ultimately delete everything I'd written multiple times. I did it so many times that now nothing is remotely the same as it was before...which should make it a bit easier to write and commit to a post now.  Simply updating with all the changes is enough for its own post...or at least that's what the voices in my head tell me so they can entertain themselves with their own words.

Fact is, I have a variety of confessions to make. First, I desperately wanted to run a 100m dash at my Alma Mater Mount Union. It wasn't just a passing fancy, it was a legit goal. Clearly, I did not end up doing that; that meet was yesterday. I...was not there. I was still set to follow through on it and run as of two-ish weeks ago, and I started to feel pretty good about my performance possibilities up to that point...but my achilles had seemed to really be degrading, too. 

But I was still going to force my way through running the meet as something of a test, anyway. My thinking was then I could reassess after the meet and see how it reacted to the intensity of competition. As a backup, I also decided to touch base with a PT about my achilles and see if I could get any solid advice on what to do with it going forward. The ultimate goal is and was to still to be healthy and fast in JULY. Technically, everything now should be in-service to that goal on some level.

So, on the day I saw the PT, I think I got some really solid advice and guidance. I also decided to play some full court pickup basketball after the appointment. When I decided to do that, I had already suspected that it was going to mean that my plan to run a sprint workout later that week was no longer going to be viable, as the hoops was going to torch my body. I was OK with that; it was essentially a concious choice. It made sense at the time because I was wondering if I should delay the run anyway due to my achilles. Which is ironic because I was also about try to hoop it up on my achilles, but I thought hooping would ALSO be a good test...

Long story short (the world collectively laughs one huge exasperated "HA!"), I randomly pulled a muscle in my back while playing. The achilles was iffy while playing, but no different than I've experienced in the past couple years, and I still jumped relatively high and moved relatively fast on the court...until I hurt my back somehow. So, to an extent, the achilles passed the test. Hurrah. 

I've been trying to lay low for a bit to let the back resolve. Plus, now I'm hoping a two or three week break from anything sprinting, heavy lifting, and/or explosive will be simple and long enough to let me get to a place with both my back AND my achilles so I can get back to hammering out training...though I'm a bit concerned if only two-ish weeks is enough time, specifically for the achilles. The back seems mostly minor, but I'm not familiar with it as I've never hurt anything in this area before. So I'm not clear how thats going to play out. But it is already starting to turn a corner.

Over the last week, or so, I've really committed to the new achilles stuff (heavy loads on eccentric and static stuff, something I've never done for any of my achilles issues), and I've been doing pool workouts to try to keep some semblance of aerobic/anaerobic fitness pursuits. Another thing I wanted to do was go hard on intermittent fasting to try to get a handle on my weight, especially since my activity levels were going to take a hit. I've failed so far on the weight/fasting, and that's a big concern for me. But I'm hoping there's going to be a quick turnaround on the back strain, and if I can get the achilles to just COPE with the sprinting/load for the next couple months as a result of this "reset", then hopefully this short break will actually have become a boon to my goals, rather than hindrance of any kind.

I'm aiming for another week or two of time from NOW before I try and get back on the horse with really serious training (specifically sprints). I've kinda targeted April 24th as my goal for my next sprint workout. Then, from there, roll through July with essentially the same plan as I had before, but hopefully with a more compliant, if not healed/solved, achilles.

While two weeks isn't enough necessarily to officially heal something like an achilles, if it's enough to get me through training and running into July, then I'll be THRILLED. I do have the longer term goal of solving the achilles more in the off season after this summer; early signs from this new style of loading seems promising. And a full off season of work will maybe remodel the tendon the way I actually need. Dare to dream, I suppose.

Anyway, I'm really trying to crank out the pool workouts, and I'll start up some bigger lifting and maybe some plyos here pretty soon if the back green lights me and the achilles continues to seemingly progress. With any luck, my next really serious training update will be with a sprint workout result. 

I Kneel Before Thee to Seek Vengeance

No hamstring tear. No achilles tear. No groin problems, and time results that were decidedly more in line with what my goals and expectations were for LAST weeks sprint workout. That's what following through and running today resulted in, and that's great. Right? Like, you know,....yay.

But. Hold the parade. This is essentially a week later than last week's sprint workout, and it was run with 20+ mph tailwinds throughout. So, it feels like more of a "disaster averted", with a side portion of "way to stack the deck" side eye than it does a major feeling of accomplishment.

Sprints

85m: 9.7

120m: 13.6

70m: 8.4

Big huge rests. Big huge winds. First 70° day of the year. In a vacuum, with just the numbers in my face and no context, I'd argue that maybe this indicates a 10.88/10.86 ability for me. But, in reality, that'd have to be a 10.8ish only with a +5.0mps wind reading. Which is maybe back into 11 second territory in "basic"; perhaps I'm sneaking legitimately into sub 11.10, though.

Then again, I'm running these workouts alone. Off my own training. After years away from this kind of work and so many injuries. I dunno, maybe I just take the 10.88 and call it mine for now; a gift to myself, even if a bit delusional. I just don't want to show up at a meet and be blindsided when I'm two to three tenths slower than I expected. Assuming I can make it to a meet at all, of course.

What Next?

So, the achilles wasn't really all that much different than it's been since I've started running again. That's a notable improvement from the sprint workout just six days ago where it felt like I was really entering a danger zone. The achilles and calf responded well to some self-soft-tissue mashing I do to it before and during runs. Then when I run, nothing really hurts.

What may be of note on this subject is that my achilles and my calf seem to start trying to self sabotage when I explore LONGER (long being subjective) sprints. Multiple 120s and 160s seem to echo negatively through my lower leg, as it were. When I've done workouts with mostly runs under 100 meters (save for the lone 110m or 120m), I tend to have a more positive experience. 

But....I feel like I need to start exploring longer run sessions in TANDEM with my shorter work. So...I'm a bit dubious. It's still currently my intention to start exploring longer styled workouts (200s, 250s, maybe even a 300 depending on what time, health, and progress affords). The plan was to alternate such sessions with shorter focused sessions (like the one I did today) week to week. But if my calf and achilles are just going to implode on such "long" workouts, then clearly I need to reconsider.

It seems to me that the problem I have in my right achilles is related to two issues: a weaker "dominant" left leg (the repaired achilles, which is doing great but I think outsources more work to my right leg than it used to), and a kind of kinetic chain issue with my right calf where it's not firing "properly". Both of these things are funneling more stress through my right achilles than it's "graded" for, which is leading to my current achilles troubles.

I've been trying to address this with some static calf holds in conjuction with some eccentric work, and I thought it was working. Maybe it really is, but multiple reps past 120ish meters pushes too far past my current redline in terms of fatigue.

With that theory in mind, I guess an immediate future that doesn't include a series of "long" sprints is more wise. The current long weather forecast for my area (northeastern Ohio) really supports this idea anyway: my next best running opportunity might mean running inside again. If that's the case, I'd be forced to run a similar workout, albeit even slightly shorter, to what I did in this last sprint session. That should certainly keep my calves and achilles in good shape for the next two-ish weeks. If my ideas on my achilles are correct, maybe after a few more weeks of calf work and supportive running I can reassess the legitimacy of a longer run opportunity. 

Compete?

I had a semi-secret goal of running a 100m dash opener at a track meet in 3.5/4 weeks, and based on current health and results, that possibility still seems to exist. But that idea has a LOT of moving parts that requires probably an unrealistic level of synchronicity. So I shouldn't really bet on it at this stage. It's still kind of a carrot on a stick for me, though. Especially if much of ANY of this hypothetical progress I seem to be building up seems to continue. 

Having said that, I'll probably have a strong wakeup call next week which will sour me on the concept of opening with a 100m so early. It would probably be more reasonable to compete in something in later April or May, anyway. But I'm willing to still leave stuff completely open to possibilities for now. Though I guess I should start conceding that I won't be running a 10.5x in the first weekend of April...

Forks In the Road

Well. See...I dunno.

The sprint workout I did this last Monday was something of a mixed bag. Any time I sprint HARD and walk away with my hamstrings intact, that's a HUGE win. Huge. And my hamstrings were fine enough after the workout in question that I did a fairly large deadlift (at least for where I'm at now) workout after the runs and supersetted the deads with some nordic curls. No injuries there.

Having said that, I have varied concerns...

I had started getting some pretty lofty goals. I wanted the perceived large gains I'd already had to continue...but it seems clear to me that I was getting a little big for my britches in how "fast" I might really be getting in previous workout estimates. I wanted to do a 10.9 100m dash fitness equivalent workout on this last one (March 9th). I ran I think just about as well as I could...but it was NOT conducive to a 10.9ish 100m dash. Not even particularly close.

In hindsight, ALL my calcs on 100m "equivalents" were probably a bit off, going even a couple weeks back. I DID improve/progress, that still seems pretty clear. But the upward trajectory isn't as steep as I hoped it would be or thought it already was. That, in a sense, was a wake up call in and of itself.

To get really into the weeds, I ran an older college styled workout (slightly altered for my old butt) which was a 120m, 160m, and another 120m. These days I take 10+ minutes rest between runs, but in college we used to just get 4.5 minutes. I ran this workout pretty well, frankly. But...not well enough for my wild expectations. I thought I could hammer out my first sub-19 second 160 since early 2019, but I didn't. I was close...but I still didn't.

All in all, I essentially ran a 13.7 for the first 120, a 19 flat for the 160, and a 14.4 for the last 120. For my adjusted "maths", I think this means that the workout essentially represented 11.10/11.15 100m ability on that day. Maybe, I think. Which probably still isn't half bad for early March. But it's not where I wanted to be, addmitedly. Plus, for all I know, 11.1ish is still a wildly optimistic estimate.

A few problems now arise. For one, I made it through the runs without any obvious injury...but I'm three years post-achilles rupture. The repaired achilles actually still feels GREAT,  frankly. But the "good" one....ehhh, I'm growing concerned. This is not a new problem, though. In fact, I was worried about this happening before I even started sprinting. 

I'm pretty clearly dealing with a tendinosis/itis/whatever for my right achilles (the "good" one). BUT, I had been doing some new-ish stuff to address it and between the positive response to that and the way it has handled all the sprinting up to this point, it seemed like I had turned the corner. But this past sprint workout seems to be bringing the issue back to the forefront. Which presents another fork in the road: dial back the sprints....or forge ahead?

As of tonight....I'm planning to use a warm and windy day tomorrow for another sprint workout. I want to seize the weather opportunity, and double down on seeing where my fitness is REALLY at. So, full intensity, perhaps even more intense...but also shorter distances so maybe less strain on the achilles in that sense. The plan is for a 85 meter run, a 120 meter run, and a 70 meter run. In that order. Full rests.

This workout, assuming I do run it and successfully do it without injury, can be a really important data point on where things are going for me. What IS the achilles doing? Does it feel worse after this workout? The same? BETTER (dare to dream)? And how fast AM I possibly improving, if at all? I'm going to be running with a pretty big wind on my back so if I don't have a fairly gaudy result -time wise-, that will be truly telling about how overly optimistic my projections really, really are.

Hold onto your butts. If I tear something, my ghost audience will be the first to know.

Peak

This moment in time, for me, may well end up being my overall peak sprinting/training moment of the entire year. I write that with an awareness of its absurdity, but I also can't deny how close to true it is at risk of becoming. While I am practically guaranteed to become stronger and faster moving forward (barring likely inevitable injury), it's right NOW and in this moment that the possibilities are still nearly limitless. This is because I've actually run and trained enough, been "healthy" enough, and seen enough progressions in my running workouts that I can fantasize about running some fairly ambitious 100m dashes without being ENTIRELY 100% delusional. 

This current point in my work out "schedule" is essentially a nexus point; a crossroads if you will. From here, I either continue an elongated rate of progression more or less in line with what I've seen over the last couple weeks...or the progression comes down to earth relatively quickly as the realities of training again start to settle in. And from where I currently stand, either option is equally possible. Kind of....to an extent... Perhaps some of the "fast" stuff I'm starting to dream up are already pretty delusional regardless of circumstances. I can admit that. Maybe.

But the fact that I can still ponder some workout and training progressions so ambitously with at least a modicum of credibility means that, from an excitement and fantasy factor, this is probably as good as it's going to get for me. This is peak. And since this is essentially a hobby now, this moment is probably highly notable for its peak "fun". Once my workouts start disproving my wildest projections...then I can't play with them as ideas in my head anymore. Not this year at least..., and now being in my 40s, maybe not any year after.

So, to get down to it...I've got some made up maths for my made up workouts that indicate that I'm theoretically approaching 11.05ish (admittedly a best-case scenario) 100m dash ability from my last sprint workout, which was last Friday. Even that claim seems suspicious, but there seems to be SOME backing to it from my past experiences. That 11.05 is down from a theoretical 11.20ish from a sprint workout prior to it, which had been about eight days before. The workout before THAT indicated around a 11.32/11.37ish ability. That seems like a fairly legitimate trend...assuming the data and theory are accurate (a fairly dubious claim).

If you stretch that trend out to the next running workout I have, which is tentatively set for this Monday if the weather holds out, then that workout should indicate around a 10.9ish 100m ability. That....that's probably asking a lot. But, if I can do that? That's starting to get serious, especially if some version of the progression (even a slower one) continues.

I also recently found some old sprint workout data I thought I lost and scoured through it a bit. Finding it gave me a chance to not only better contextualize some of the current data I've got, but also maybe helped me see with more clarity what I was actually doing and achieving back then (circa 2019).  It would be very interesting if I can keep training this hard and this well, and see if I can get back to the fitness I think I had in 2019. Because at THAT time, I thought I was actually running REALLY well. If I can match those workout sprint results again, and then actually compete and get a true 100m result, then that would be a real barometer of not only my abilities and training methods, but also my ability to judge my fitness at any given moment.

Tonight I've got a depth jump plyo workout planned, and then I'm set to take it pretty easy until Monday for, hopefully, a full intensity sprint workout on an outdoor track with good weather. That's going to be a pretty official test of a bunch of my plans, expectations, and hopes. Depending on how that running workout really goes, I might be prepared to make some plans and decisions on some fairly impending competition options. So...here goes nuthin, I guess.

I Might Try Stuff Like This Again.

I'm doing sprint workouts again. Full on sprint workouts. Nearly identical in form, process, and execution to what I did at my most "dedicated" of sprint pursuit periods....except slower, of course. Outside of a couple dips into this kind of thing (briefly) this past Fall, this is the first time I've done this at all, let alone even moderately consistently, since 2019.

I have three kids and I'm well into my 40s now. Also, the injuries....so many injuries; big ones, little ones, and everything in between. At various times between now and 2019, attempting a workout resembling "sprinting" in any capacity would have been legitimately impossible. I think I slipped a disc or something deadlifting in 2019. I tore an achilles in 2023. I even just had an appendectomy this past fall. But now I seem to be stringing together multiple weeks of fairly legitimate sprinting attempts/training. Last week, I timed myself in my first sub 14 second 120m run and my first sub 20 second 160m run since 2019. 

Admittedly, anyone "selftiming" their sprints can certainly be pretty well scoffed at in terms of accuracy. But being out there at all is essentially its own accomplishment for me, though, and seeing the trends and tracking that with my many years of data and results from other eras when I ran and self-timed, and it seems to indicate that there's something fairly legitimate to what I'm doing right now. Of course, continued health is the looming ever present question... 

I have goals for 2026 and beyond; frankly I've been trying build up to this since my recovery from the achilles began. It's not clear to me how realistic and achievable the goals I've got now actually are at this stage, though, but I'm holding on to them still, for now. 

After having strung together this amount of sprint-ish training at this point...I think I might start documenting it all here now, again, and see how this all goes. Maybe I don’t delete it all in a tantrum this time, either, regardless of how it ends. I dunno, I guess we'll see.