Running with Usain "Lightning" Bolt!

I've been focussing on the sprinting for a bit. Getting ready for a meet in December. A friend of mine in his blog quotes the great Emil (Zatopek) -

"If you want to run, run the 100 metre race. If you want to experience something, run the marathon"

Really? Come on!!

I just say look at Bolt horsing around at the 80m mark and clocking 9.69 and you will know that there is no running in the 100. Oh and just try training for it. A couple of my friends - Shumit and Hari - from Chennai Runners did a sprint work out yesterday. I focussed on starts and the first 30m (we only had about 50m on the straight). The work out was ok, nothing to really write about.

But last night I watched the Bolt burning the track in Beijing. New TV - so it was a sight to see. For a bit I felt all of them were flying. If I remember correctly all the qualifiers made it in less than 10 seconds.

Anyway, bottomline was watching my friend Usain inspired me to look at how the beast can run so fast and hang on for the entire 100. I concluded that it had to do with Speed Endurance. I also concluded that I have not sprinted a distance greater than 100m and so must absolutely suck at 'speed endurance'.

Also in my last meet I had run the 400. I got off the start quite strong, but absolutely bonked at 350m with my calves cramping up like cricket balls behind my knees.

What do I do about it? I work out an ambitious Speed endurance work out for this evening. I head out to the track at 1700 hrs and focus on my work out. The plan was 2 miles warm up, then sprint 100, 200, 300, 400, 600 and 800, cool down with a 2 mile jog.

Warm up went well, but my feet felt like lead from yesterday's work out. I was quite surprised that a few 30m sprints could do that. Anyway, after the work out I managed to get out a 100m stride, followed by 100m, 200m and 250m sprint.

One of the goals of speed endurance is to the train the body to handle a large amount of lactic acid. Its called "bathing" the muscles in Lactic acid - some sick dude must have come up with that creative term.

Anyway, after the 250m sprint, I can assure you I was bathing.I could feel acid on my shoulders and also in my throat. This was accompanied by an urge to throw up. I decided I'll beat Bolt next year. Experience that Mr. Zatopek!

So I finished up with a 2 mile jog and cooled off in the pool for about 15 minutes.

So much for my 'endurance'. Anyway, fortunately I caught my weakness fairly early. The plan is to burn the 400 and 100 in December. Lets see if that actually happens!

Until Next time.