Hey folks, welcome to my blog (I never thought I'd say those words!). More of these background/context posts will follow in the coming days, but I decided it was time to get my act together and put something up. In short, starting last year, I decided to build 400m speed as off-season training for ultimate. I saw it as a good physical challenge for me because I've always hated/been terrible at the 400 and considered this shortcoming a gap in my athleticism, so to speak. So, I contacted a friend of a friend who was gracious enough to build a 16 week program for me and got to work. The program consisted of plyometric exercises, sprinting, weights, cross-training, recovery runs, and thing like downhill running and intervals. In general, the sprinting was higher speed and longer rest, which I learned my body really responds well to. Eventually, I was convinced to race a 400, which I did last June. I ran a 52.6, which I was happy with for my first try. This is roughly considered an average high school time. Some 12 year-old kid beat my time (not kidding), but we weren't in the same heat, so no worries. The guy who won the men's division at my meet ran a 48.8, for reference, and last year, the qualifying time for the NCAA Outdoor Championships was a 47.3. The current World Record is a trim 43.18. Last week, I trained at that speed...for some 300's...
Anyway, I enjoyed the program immensely, so this year I decided to extend the 4-month program out to around 6 months. In the past, I trained 4-5 times (10-15 hours) a week in the off-season anyway, so why not do it with a purpose? I'll be in "pre-season" through the end of May and then racing in June and July. I hope to attend 5 races this year, all at local USATF all-comers meets. My goal is to get under that magic 50 second barrier. It's so alluring, and I'm curious to see how close I can get.
The bigger-picture motivation behind this whole endeavor, however, is much greater than just me seeing if I can shave a few seconds off a 400m time. What I'm actually interested in are the general concepts of potential and limits. Simply put: how far could someone like you or me get if we were to really focus on something? What separates us from the pros of the world? People from professional writers to artists, athletes to scholars. What are people like you and me actually capable of? I'm about to turn 27, so I decided to pursue an athletic goal this spring. Male athleticism peaks at around 30, so I might as well test my limits physical limits now.
Finally, a word on balance. I love sprinting. I find it very freeing and pure...and running fast is incredibly fun. Run in spikes and you'll see. But, I also love many, many other things. I just don't blog about those things. This blog is just a window into a part of what I currently find meaningful.
That's the "quick" intro. Sorry about the length. Other, hopefully shorter, posts will follow to provide some more details, especially around the "greater" project, as it were. So please follow this blog/make comments/put this site into your RSS readers if you're interested. We can all help push each other, whatever your projects may be. In the meantime, feel free to peruse my startlingly plain layout/check out some earlier posts...I've been posting since the beginning of January. Peace.
Andrew
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7 comments:
My mother could beat you. . . but she was also the fastest sprinter in East India in her prime. . .
Psyched to track your progress.
Your Nemesis
yo dog. you are basically my heroinspiration. i gotta get back out on the track stat. i've fallen off my 400 training program since ultimate has started back up so that sucks, but i'm going to at least get back to the workouts.
best of luck and i'll be here tracking it!
A 52.6 is not an "average" high school time, that would get you to the state meet in many states, which is definitely an above-average feat. It's a very good time, especially for your first race. I was impressed.
52.6 is a good time, but unfortunately I think you will find that from here on, every second of improvement will get exponentially harder.
Shankar, is this your mom?
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=2701018
Hi Andrew
I have been inspired by your progress and over my winter training (starting this week) I have decided to track my progress against yours.
There is some differences, my fastest 400 this year was 57.02s, I'm Australian, 38 years old in may this year and will train five days a week, Monday to Friday inclusive.
For comparison purposes I'll put my times against your blog entries, but it seems I'll be training more frequently than what you did at this time.
Most of your training times are in my zone, but your 300 time trial kills me as I only managed a 40.9s this year. I really die in the last 100 at the moment, hence why I ended up on your blog to see what other people were doing to improve their 400s.
I'm not looking to run sub 50 like you, but a 55 by summer and work toward something lower over the next year would be fantastic result.
Keep up your running and all the best. I look forward to hearing how you are progressing.
Cheers
Steve
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