The end of week 12 is finally here along with the conclusion of the project. The results to the project aren't what I wanted, but they are still pretty good. I ended up with a 12.65 100 meter dash. This is 6 hundredths of a second away from shaving off an entire second from my 100 meter dash in only 12 weeks. This, to me, is pretty remarkable to accomplish such a feat in such a short amount of time. It of course is not my desired goal of a sub 11, but in retrospect that was an impossible goal to accomplish in such a short amount of time.
This past week I wasn't able to put my training to the test like I had hoped. I had planned to see how much I have really improved at my track meet last Friday, but alas it was cancelled. Due to this I had to tests the results by simply doing my weekly test run to see my progress. This project has allowed me to get many tips on how to get better in my track career as my life goes on. I will continue to keep up with these workouts so that I can reach my ultimate goal and make it to the new balance nationals. I don't want to just go to nationals, I want to place in nationals and this is how I am going to get it done. Thanks to this project, I am on a path to reach nationals and break every record for the 110 hurdles at Davie. I already hold the freshman record and I would like to take the other 4 records along with it. This track season is going to be a special one thanks to this project.
0 Comments
This week was a bit difficult. This week we had our thanksgiving break, and it was hard to find time to do my workout with all the family activities going on. However, I was able to make it work. What I ended up doing was going back to my schedule of getting up early and working out while everyone else was still asleep. The day after thanksgiving was particularly rough. All the food I had eaten the night before was getting to me.
I know now that there is no way for me to reach my goal now. We have one week left and I am at 12.72 seconds. This is still impressive considering that I started off with a 13.6 second 100. I have been about to shave off almost an entire second in only 11 weeks. This may not seem like much, but in short races like these, seconds are a long time. Shaving off that amount of time in so little of time is what is impressive to me. It normally takes 5-6 months to shave off time like that. This upcoming week is the last week of our genius hour project. This week I plan on training as hard as I can and try to take off as much time as possible in 7 days. I will really be able to see the final results of my project at my track meet on Friday. I am hoping to set another pr in my 55 meter hurdle race and in my open 300 meter race. After this meet I will really be able to see how this project has benefited me and how I At the end of week 10 I am finally able to see how my training has really helped me. This past Tuesday I had a track meet. I ran in the 55 meter hurdle and 300 meter dash. I got personal records in both events. I know this isn't from my track practice since I have only had a week of practice. The only explanation for this sudden increase in speed is my work on this project.
There is only 2 weeks left in the project and I still have a little over half a second to shave off. I don't think that I will be able to reach my goal, but crazier things have happened. For these next two weeks, I am going to work harder than I have through the entire project. I am going to go back to doing work outs in the morning and continue to workout after track practice. I am really hoping that in these two weeks, I will be able to work hard enough to get my time under 11 seconds. I have made great progress and I am hoping that I will be able to have enough progress to meet my goal. This week I will start back going to the gym for an extra push. With all of the extra working out I am hoping that I will be able to reach my goal. This is the conclusion of week 9 of the genius hour project. This week was different from all of the other weeks, but this was expected to happen. This week was the start of winter track. Instead of doing my workouts in the morning, I have been working out after track practice. I wasn't sure how this would go, but it worked out great. Coach liked my work out plan and said that if I keep on doing it then I should definitely be able to reach my goal.
I should really be able to see the results of my workouts on Tuesday during the first track meet. Coach Sweet has not yet told us what events we are in, but I am certain that I will run in the 55 meter hurdles. After the meet I can compare my time with my times from last year. I am not expecting a huge difference because after all it is a 55 meter race. You can't really take much time off of a 55 meter race due to how short the race is. I am looking just for any improvement at all, and if I find it I will consider this project a success. If I don't make my mark of a sub 11 100 meter race, that doesn't mean that the project was a failure. I did this project to help me get faster to be a better competitor in track. If there is any increase in my speed due to this little project then I will consider this project a success. I will be happy if I do get a sub 11, and that would make me a huge force to be reckoned with on the track, but if I don't there is always next year. This is the conclusion of week 8 and the mark of being 2/3rds of the way done. This is also a conclusion to the football season, which I regret to say that we lost to Porter Ridge yesterday which means that we will not continue during the rest of the playoffs. This also means that it is the start of track season. Monday will be my first track practice of the season and I am interested on how it will go.
With the start of track season, this means that I will no longer have to run in the mornings because I will be able to run after track practice on the track. Some people might think that that might be too much, and I agree, so what I am going to do is cut back on my workout so that I don’t kill myself with all the working out. I will most likely just run maybe 5 gassers with a minute break in between each one on top of the workout that my track coach gives me. I am hoping that with the track practice and my own running, I will be able to reach my goal with maybe time to spare. We also have a new coach who has been a sprinting coach for years at various colleges, and I am hoping that he will be able to help me tremendously with my form and technique. I am also hoping he will give me a few tips on some speed drills. Here at the end of week 7 I am feeling rather proud of my success. I have been really pushing myself during the practices. This week I decided to switch back to working on my speed rather than my form. The week of practicing form has definitely helped improve my speed. I am now purely working on increasing my speed by doing gassers with as little as 30 second breaks. The little breaks are to help build up my endurance, so it will require less energy to run my 100.
This upcoming week I am going to put a majority of my focus into speed for two reasons. The first reason being that I want continue to get faster to reach my goal. The second reason is that I want to try and get into peak performance for winter track. This upcoming week is likely the last week of football because we are going into the playoffs and most likely wont beat Porter Ridge, so next week I will most likely be starting up track season, and I want to be in good shape for running season. This week I will try and do 15 gassers with 40 second breaks in between each one in order to get me to where I need to be. I am hoping that with the extra stuff I am doing, I will be able to reach my goal of a sub 11 second 100. This is the conclusion of week #6 and half of the project is concluded. The deadline to the project is coming up fast and I am getting worried as to whether or not I will be able to make it to under 11 seconds. I am just now getting to the mid twelves. I can feel my self-improving, but I definitely feel my progress slowing down as I continue to get faster. At first my progress was very intense and noticeable, but now it is very slow and gradual. I am truly not sure if I will be able to reach my goal or fall short of it.
This past week I was able to get back into the groove of running. Unlike last week, this week felt more natural and felt amazing. I am thinking that after next week, it will feel even better because I will no longer have football practice keeping me from home until 7:30 every night. In turn, track will take its place. The only difference is that track practice lets up at 5 meaning that I will be able to get home around 5:15 every night. This will allow me to finish homework 2 hours earlier than before. This will allow me to get more sleep. After next week I will also return to D1, a sports training facility in Winston-Salem, which will allow me to put even more work towards getting faster. You might be thinking how I would have time to go to the gym every day, and the answer is simple; I don’t. I only go on days where I am not completely buried in homework. I am hoping that with this extra work, I will be able to complete my goal of a sub 11 second 110 meter dash. This is the conclusion of week 5 and almost the end of the first half of the project. The weeks, I have found, are starting to get mundane and consistent. Every day seems to be the same. This week, however, was rough. The workouts seemed like they were harder than anything I have ever done some days. I think this week was so hard because I have barely gotten any sleep this entire week. I think that I have gotten at most 3 to 5 hours every night.
This week I am going to try and get back into the groove of having good runs. This week I need to focus on my breathing and lengthening my strides. If I can focus on my techniques, running can become easy again and effortless. Once you get the basis and techniques down whatever task you are doing becomes easier and soon it becomes habitual. This week I am planning on scaling back the workouts a bit in order to better my breathing. It will not be by much but enough to where I am still conditioning but while still being able to maintain my breathing. I will also start wearing a breath restricting mask while I run. A restriction mask limits the amount of oxygen you can take in. This allows your body to use less oxygen whenever you put in that work. It is essentially a legal means of blood doping, they give you the same effect. It is basically the same thing is working out at high altitudes. I am hoping that in doing this, it will allow me to better control my breathing and have good circulation. Week 4, the big 4. 1/3 of the way into the project, oh word, still grinding.
Week 4 has really been a turning point for me, I feel like I am so much faster now and my dedication to the project has greatly improved. It used to be that some days I would dread getting up early in the morning and having to workout. Now it is routine for me. I am starting to wake up even without the alarm at 5:30 am for my morning run. During the runs I feel great, it now longer feels like a chore, but rather just something to do to get me going in the morning. You would think that running in the morning right before school and then going to football practice immediately after school would be very tiring and a huge time killer, it is, well at least half of the time. It is a fine line between getting enough sleep and having enough time to do all my homework and then have my hour of socializing, which is critical for any high school student that wants to maintain a healthy relationship among their friends. On days where I have literally a mountain of homework, I have found that it is a bit hard getting enough sleep. Other nights when I have little to no homework finding sleep is no problem at all. The workouts have become significantly easier and I have often found myself going back and doing the same workout twice in one morning. I truly believe that I am getting faster with each step. I am still a ways away to reaching my goal, but I believe it is achievable. Another week has passed and I really feel like I am getting faster. These workouts keep getting easier. This following week I am going to try and make the workouts harder so they will be even more beneficial. I might even start wearing a breath restricting mask to improve my lung capacity. I believe that if I can keep this up, I will be able to reach a sub 11 in no time.
This week I am going to try and run 15 dashes instead of 10 and see how it goes. If I am able to manage this then I might consider running with a weight vest and or a parachute. I am really happy with my results so far. I think this progress will really be able to translate on to the track and help my with hurdles during winter and spring track. Yo! What’s popping other students in Mr. barker’s class! I just realized that I almost forgot to do a blog post for this week, so I am sorry if this is not my best because I am really just trying to go to sleep. Anyways, this week I felt better about the work outs. I felt like I was able to complete them a lot easier this time. If I keep this up I will most likely have to make the workout more vigorous and intense. This week I will just keep it the same to see if last week was just a good week or if I am actually making progress.
I have found that the best time to do my workouts is in the morning. This is mainly because the morning is the only time I actually have time to do it. I have also found that working out in the morning is a wonderful way to wake up and get the day started. Working out before school has also ensured that I am actually awake during my first period, which I have been having trouble with until now. It also has given me a lot of time to think to myself and get prepared for the day. Not only have I found my athletic performance improving, my cognitive abilities are improving too. I think this is because of my brain actually being awake and alert and ready to process knew information each day due to the morning work outs. This is extremely helpful because sophomore year is literally the first time I have ever had homework that I can’t get done in school or have actually had to somewhat “study” for. This week was pretty rough. Getting used to do doing these workouts everyday is a lot harder than I thought it would be. On Wednesday last week, I started doing the workouts. I didn’t wake up early enough to do them so I had to do them that afternoon. It is going to take a lot of getting used to for me to get this done but I am hoping that by the end of this week it should become a habit to me. The trick is finding time to do the workouts which is a lot harder than you would think, with football practice getting me home from school around 7 or 7:30 every day and then homework taking up another one to two hours every night. I am dedicated to making this work.
You may be wondering why I am torturing myself to do this and why I want a sub 11 second 100. The answer is quite simple. My freshman year of high school I ran hurdles in track and apparently I am pretty good. I placed 4th in conference and made it to regionals. However, at regionals I placed in last and I am looking to avoid that embarrassment this year. This year my goal for track is to place in conference and place in regionals and make it to states. I am also looking to break the sophomore record for the 110 meter hurdles. I currently hold the freshman record and I am hoping to expand upon that list. This week I am hoping that it won’t be so rough and will actually be enjoyable. By the end of this week I am hoping to see some results from my training. After this week I will most likely up the intensity of the workouts, depending on whether or not this is a good week. Let’s hope that this week is a good one! I have my goal in my sights, all I have to do is take one stride at a time. Stay tuned for the next report! I am about to forego a 12 week assignment in which I have to get my 100 meter dash under 11 seconds. Before I go any deeper into the project I'd like to tell you why and how I came up with it. Trying to become faster in running was not my first idea. My first idea was actually to create a website that would contain all the information for all of Davie county's clubs. I scrapped this idea when I realized that I have no idea on how to even get started with doing that. Now I am back at square one with coming up with a project idea. Then it hit me, what was the one thing that I like to do and need to improve on? Track. Now not only will I be getting the benefit of being able to run a sub 11 100 meter race, I will get graded for it too. Putting the grading concept into my mind is a great motivator for me to get after it to be able to produce such a time.
Now that I know what I am doing, I have to plan how I am going to do it. The first thing that I need to do is time my 100 so I can have a base time to compare my progress too. After I have that I will need to come up with a workout plan to increase my strength and agility. When the workout is conceived, it will be put into action and done every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday morning before school. This will require me to get into a healthy sleeping habit that allows me to get the sleep I need and to be able to wake up early and ready to work. Along with the workout, I will start to get on an eating plan to try and eat healthier to be able to maximize my body’s strength. My mentor, Kristen, will make sure that I adhere to the workout schedule and that I will eat right through the duration of this project. Once I have all of that in action I will record the process and the results in my weekly blog posts. Stay tuned in for the updates and lets hope I can surpass my goal of sub 11 within 12 weeks! |
matthew hillI am an avid runner who is just looking for a way to get faster and get that sub 11 100 meter dash. Archives |