Welcome to "SprintFit"!: Part Two

      Last night I took part in the second (and final) installment of  SprintFit, teaching sessions hosted by Canadian Olympic heptathlete Jessica Zelinka and Western University sprint coach, Derrick Johnston. The sessions were being held at TD Waterhouse stadium and are designed to complement training for any multitude of other sports. You can read about Session 1 right here, if you'd like.
   I got there a little late as I'd neglected to bring along my packed gym bag when I headed off to work in the morning. The other participants were in the middle of stretches and I just kind of joined in. We then actively reviewed a few of the warm-up routines we'd learned last week, this time out on the football field.

Andrew Parr, Jessica Zelinka, me, Derrick Johnston and Paul Whitty. Lots of knowledge here, folks!

   I thought this was cool, being out in the same field that the Western Mustangs use. We would do these sprint exercises out to various yard-lines and on the way back I'd imagine running pass patterns....but I digress.
   This was the fun part, basically just running. After a bit of a rest, Jessica and her cohorts then started us in on plyometrics. If you're not sure what "plyometrics" are, you can Google it or you can just think "jumping", in various forms. 
   At this point, they took us off the field up into the stands. The first plyometric they had us practise was something called a "depth drop". Now, at my age, the hearing is going just a touch and the first couple of times Derrick said "depth drop" I was pretty sure I'd heard "death drop" and I was somewhat steeling myself for what lay ahead.
   As it turned out, a "depth drop" is really nothing much more than jumping off a step and trying to land in a balanced and athletic sort of way. This was fairly easy.
   The next thing they had us do was not as easy. There was a technical name for it that I'm unable to remember but what it entailed was hopping, from a standing position, up the stadium steps, one by one (or two by two, for the younger and more athletic of us). We would do this for about eight steps and then walk back down and do it one more time.
   I saw disaster all over this. I envisioned what it would be like to not quite make the top of the step and it was not pretty---lots of blood and possibly stitches. I made the first eight steps with no major difficulty but then, when we were given the option of jumping two steps at a time, I made the careful decision not to. Or I chickened out, you choose.
   At this point it was back down to the track. We did something called a bear crawl (I think) which involved crawling along the track on all fours with no other body parts touching down. This was hard work, but do-able (and safe!) Then, it was on to hurdles.
   This was not hurdling as you see it in  track and field. What it entailed was five or six hurdles placed close together and all you had to do was get over them, pretty well any way you could. 
   This was possibly the most problematic thing I'd attempted to do in either session. The big issue with me was flexibility and my ability to get either of my legs over the hurdle from a standing position. I almost tipped over a couple of them, almost falling down at the same time. Just a touch embarrassing!
   Finally, the group was introduced to Andrew Parr, a former Canadian pro golfer who is now devoting his time to helping athletes fine tune their performances in whatever sport they're involved in. Andrew and Jessica will be getting together to co-host a "Star Dust Performance Camp" on August 18th. Andrew led a short group session where we all stood in a circle and sang kumbaya with our arms outstretched at shoulder level. The idea was to eventually feel the discomfort of this and learn to work through it, essentially by controlled breathing. This was hard and my arms are actually still hurting today. At this point the evening, and SprintFit, came to its conclusion.
   I had a lot of fun doing this, and afterward picked Derrick's brain a little as to how I might continue to get sprint training, as a Masters athlete. He gave a me a couple of suggestions and I'm going to try and follow up on them. We shall see!
   Finally, a few words about Jessica Zelinka. In my last post, I believe I referred to her as a "sweetheart" and she did nothing last night to disprove this. At one point last night, after we had warmed up and done a couple of drills, she walked up to me and asked me how I'd felt after the previous week's camp. The fact that she had taken even this small amount of time to check in with me only made me feel that much more positive about being there in the first place. With the group of us, she was supportive, playful, energetic, and funny. There were a couple of times when the other coaches slipped into "coach" mode and Jessica had to subtly re-direct them, aware that we, as a group, were not "high performance" athletes and were there to learn, for sure, but to also have fun doing it. Several times, she would perform running drills for us to copy and then, almost because she needed to, would end up way at the other end of the field, doing her thing briefly. It was always sort of strange, to remember that you were watching (in a little bit of a starstruck way) an Olympic athlete in her element. I also found myself wondering what it might be like for her, as an Olympian, to be watching the current Games from a distance. As much as I think we all enjoyed spending a couple of Thursday evenings with her here in London, it would have been just as cool to watch her representing Canada again in Rio! You can read a little about her poignant transition at jessicazelinka.com. I look forward to following her exploits in the future and am sure that anyone who has the same good fortune of crossing paths with her will be enriched as much as we all were!

Coaches and participants, milling about after a hard evening workout!

Where we did the "death drop"!

Running pass patterns, in my head!