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.
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