About Hometown Hopefuls
Hometown Hopefuls follows Atlanta Track Club Elite Team members Abe Alvarado, Brandon Lasater, Keturah Orji, Yolanda Ngarambe, Jarryd Wallace and Allie Wilson as they continue their journey toward Olympic glory. Be there every step of the way from training camp to the Olympic Trials and to Tokyo with every workout, every split, athlete reflections and coaches' comments too. Six athletes. Six months. Six shots.
Orji reflects on her training period between March 8-21 in this post. To learn more about Orji click here.
Workouts for the Week: March 8-14
Monday:
100m of long jump & triple jump visualization
6 x Approaches with first phase hop into sand
3 x 20m Resistance Runs
3 x 20m block starts w/ weight vest
3 x 20m block starts w/o
Weights
Hang Clean to Step
Hang Snatch to Step
Tuesday:
Multi-Jump Drills
Double leg hops forward/backward/sideways
Single Leg Knee Drive Bounces
Single Leg Hops
Alternate Bounds
Right, right, left triple jump
Left, left, right triple jump
Left, left, right, right hop/bounds
Technique
3 x 2 step triple jump
8 x 6 step triple jump
Running
5 x 40m Wickets
Weights
Squats
Bulgarian Squats
Knees to Feet Hops
Hamstring Holds
Wednesday:
Active Recovery: roll out, stretch, balance drills, theraband drills, toe yoga, stability drills etc.
Video review
Thursday:
Plyo/Box Drills:
6 x Lunge to Single Leg Hop (each leg)
6 x Knee Drive Hops (each leg)
6 x Single Leg Hop Cycles (each leg)
20 x Toe Taps
20 x Box Sprint
4 x 120m
Medicine Ball Throws
Single Leg Chest Pass
Single Leg Slams
Weights
Deadlift
12 inch Box Step-ups
Hip Thrusts
Friday:
Ground reaction drills onto box
4 x off 8 inch box
4 x off 16 inch box
4 x off a 24 inch box
6 x 80m Barefoot Grass Strides
Saturday & Sunday: OFF :)
Commentary and Reflection on the Week: March 8-14
Monday: Visualizing on Mondays is new to me and I have heard how beneficial it can be, but have never been disciplined enough to do it consistently. So I'm happy it is included in our workouts. My approaches have been feeling good, but I do sometimes reach for the board so I need to stay focused on putting my foot down underneath me rather than reaching for the board.
Tuesday: Now that we are doing 6 step jumps and I have more speed and more time to get myself into the right position, I feel a lot better about this week's jump practice. I realized that I need to focus on extending my free leg in my hop to help with the timing of my jump.
Thursday: I think we had less rest than usual during these 120's so I was definitely feeling some lactic acid. We had some new lifts this cycle so it was fun being able to learn, adjust, and master the different lifts.
Workouts for the Week: March 15-21
Monday:
100m of Jumping Visualization
6 x Approaches
Planned to do 4 x block starts but it was cold and pouring rain so we skipped those
Weights
Keiser Machine Squat
Power Cleans
Leg Extension
Tuesday:
Multi-Jump Drills
Double leg hops forward/backward/sideways
Single Leg Knee Drive Bounces
Single Leg Hops
Alternate Bounds
Right, right, left triple jump
Left, left, right triple jump
Left, left, right, right hop/bounds
Technique
3 x 2 step triple jump
8 - 10 x 6 step jumps
6 x 40m hills
Weights
Deadlift to box jump
Bulgarian Split Squat
Hamstring Holds
Wednesday:
Active Recovery: roll out, stretch, balance drills, theraband drills, toe yoga, stability drills, etc.
Thursday:
6 x Approaches with first phase hop
6 x 4 Step Second Phase to Landing Drills
4 x Flying 90m
Single Leg Medicine Ball Throws
Weights
Calf Raises
Box Jumps
Squats
Box Drops
Hip Thrusts
Friday:
Extended Competition Warmup
6 x 50m Grass Strides
Video Review
Saturday & Sunday: OFF :)
Commentary and Reflection on the Week: March 15-21
Despite it being cold and rainy, I felt really good with my approaches for Monday. This was a great day to just push through the bad weather and still execute. Being that the Olympic Trials is in Oregon, where it can be hot, cold, rainy, sunny, or hailing, I think this is perfect practice weather to prepare in lol.
On Tuesday, my jump practice started out really well but ended bad. I was slightly upset with myself but after doing the video review on Wednesday and seeing that it wasn't as bad I thought it was that gave me hope. I was still able to hit the right positions on most of my jumps. On the jumps that seemed really bad to me I either had a hop that was too high or was reaching for the board.
My approaches on Thursday felt really great and I was nervous for the flying 90's workout since all my training partners said it would hurt, but it was better than I thought it would be. I'm looking forward to opening up my season soon and seeing where I am at.
