Two Meet Reports

5/8: Atlanta Track Club—Spring Track Meet #3

My first official meet in 15 months! It was absolutely phenomenal to compete again after months of solo work. Atlanta Track Club put together an extraordinarily well-organized masters-focused meet. Since they weren’t contesting the 200m, I only ran the 100m.

100m: 10.92 (+0.2)

The wind cooperated, turning in or favor right before our race. I was strong out of the blocks and probably had a lead for the first 20 meters. I wasn’t patient with my transition, however, and was fully upright before the 30m mark. By 50 meters, I’d lost my lead, and I had to grit through the last 20 meters. All that was enough, however, to run a FAT PR of 10.92!

Some notes:

• Next time, I need to more patiently transition into my max-velocity mechanics. I’ll practice with some longer (50-60m) runs out of blocks.
• My speed endurance isn’t there yet. Hopefully, getting some 200m races in along with some speed endurance-focused workouts will build it up.
• My landing foot is extremely tilted. Something to look into as it’s probably slowing me down. Could be anything—hip abductor strength, obliques, foot flexibility.

• As I tire, I start to overstride and sit back. This probably increases my risk of hamstring injury, and definitely slows me down. I focus hard on maintaining my arm ROM when I’m getting tired—maybe I should cue on arm velocity instead?

5/15: Lee Last Chance

This meet had far stronger competition than ATC’s. It was almost entirely collegiate athletes; seemingly a mixture of D2 and lower-tier D1 schools. The track was brand-new, and it was hot! I lost several pounds of water during the meet.

The day leading up to the meet was a bit stressful—Lee University is about two hours from Atlanta, and we had some issues getting out the door on time. I’m not sure how much that stress affected my races, but I definitely think the long drive did.

100m: 11.02 (-0.1)

• My start was sluggish. My hamstrings felt really tight on my practice start, so I think I wasn’t as aggressive as I could have been. I’m typically first out of the blocks (when I’m racing athletes around my level), but I was second or third right out of the blocks this time.
• I was a lot more patient with my transition, and felt pretty good hitting max velocity.
• I still struggled to hold form at the very end, but it was only the last 10 meters or so, compared to 20 or more from last week.

All together, this was a full tenth slower than last week. I think it’s probably explained by my poor start, the psychological impact of tight hamstrings, a heavy week of training, and the long drive over.

200m: 22.18 (+1.8)

This was a disappointing result. I was pretty severely dehydrated after the 100m and another hour in the sun: my hamstrings almost cramped up coming off the bend. It’s been a long time since I ran two events in the same meet, and I’ve forgotten how to manage that. Some notes:

• I tried to float through the curve after taking the first 40-50m hard. I think that went pretty well, and I was ready to explode out of the bend before feeling my hamstrings.
• My speed endurance held up, at least compared to my competition. Maybe this is because I artificially limited myself.
• I had about 90 minutes between the 100m and 200m, and spent only about 30 minutes of it in the shade. The rest was spent fooling around in the warmup area. Next time, I’ll be a lot more careful about staying in the shade when it’s hot.
• I also need to be less jittery about my warmup. I was worried they’d run early, so I started my 200m warmup with 45-50 minutes before the stated start time. I think if I had spent another 20 minutes in the shade, the race might have gone much better.

Overall, although the times weren’t what I was looking for, this was a fun meet with lots of learnings for next time!

Next up

I’m running at the TFCUSA Club National Championships in Oxford, Alabama on Saturday, May 22. I’ll be competing in the 100m and 200m. It appears to be mostly a youth meet, but there’s a a few competitors with sub-11 and sub-22 seed times, so it should be a good time!