Monday, April 26, 2010

Full Speed Ahead!

I'm cautiously optimistic about Greg's hamstring. We ran an invitational meet Saturday and it was the first test of Greg's leg. I'm happy to report that he passed with flying colors! Greg split a season best 51.6 on an exciting 4x400 anchor leg. After receiving the baton in second place Greg paced the leader going down the back stretch. At the head of the turn, the third place runner passed Greg and the leader with Greg keeping pace. Midway through the turn Greg took out the kid from behind and demonstrated a strong kick to the finish line for a 5 meter winning margin. It was the kind of 4x400 you like to see. Each of our first three runners kept us in the hunt with no one running worst than third place. They kept the baton close enough to the lead for a strong anchor to keep us in it. I'm particularly encouraged because Greg reported afterwards that he had no pain of any kind. Even more gratifying was the ability to put on a strong kick to win. I take this as a validation of the training program since last year, I don't think he would have been able to pull this off. We are now 3 weeks to the post season and we are tapering the workout schedule now in order to peak at the right time. If Greg's past history of getting fast in the latter half of the season holds, this could be an exciting finish to his high school career.

2 comments:

Sub 5 at 50 miler said...

Dave:

This is great news and a great race! I am curious as to how split times compare to a standing start. Do you add a half second, a full second? In any case, this time sounds faster than his 53.9 400. Also, I guess that split times have some inaccuracy, since you're trying to catch times within a handoff zone, so it might not be exactly 400 meters.

Mark

Eric said...

Good stuff! Keep up the good work and please continue to keep us informed.