alright, so.
1. knee pain has gotten me down with respect to sprinting. sometimes it doesn't bother me at all, sometimes it bothers me for a few reps and then kind of settles down, sometimes the discomfort prevents me from running at top speed. it's never "painful" except when, after i've sprinted on it and it feels wrong, i sit with my knees bent and feet flat, and pull my right foot against resistance (i.e., not allowing it to move); internally rotating my lower leg makes the pain worse and externally rotating it makes it better. the pain is never severe, but it is noticeable.
1a. interestingly, i was having right knee pain as far back as december 2013. i wish i'd taken more detailed notes because i don't remember the specifics of the pain. but it limited me significantly on at least one workout. pain flared up again in march.
2. sprinting has been fun but i have not improved significantly over the course of the summer. 13.3s in july, 13.27s at the end of august. some of that is probably lack of commitment on my part. vacation certainly got in the way in august. also, volume may just not have been high enough, or maybe i was doing things ass-backwards and should have done a lot fewer 30s and a lot more 110s. when i sacrificed something during a workout due to time constraints, it was almost always the longer stuff. LTS may be the name of the game for me if/when i return to sprinting.
2a. if/when i return to sprinting, i want it to be for real, not (still) as part of my (still ongoing) quest to dunk.
2b. focusing on sprinting has meant sacrificing jumping time. it's unclear how, if at all, sprinting has helped my jumping. jumping volume has been too low this summer.
3. i can apparently squat again now. muscle memory is amazing.
4. dunking is still the goal, and it is still unattained. i jumped very well once last december, or twice in february, then jumped very well a couple of times the months since but mostly sucked for one reason or another. "very well" = 35+, able to dunk anything i can palm.
5. my left shoulder is injured, presumably from the reaching/grabbing portion of jumping at a rim. that is the movement that most aggravates it now. the first time i noted left shoulder pain was february 17. low back discomfort started around the same time.
6. i am still also planning to move overseas at some point. i would prefer to dunk before i do that. in fact, not being able to dunk is (insanely) one of the things keeping me in the US. there is no real timetable for the move, but it feels closer than it has before. my boss has been asking me about whether i'd be willing to move to afghanistan, etc.
7. the best stretch of training for me in recent times was that bit from december to february last year. i was traveling a lot in march and april, and since then i have been dealing alternately or concurrently with right knee, left shoulder, and lower back pain. on top of my toes, of course.
8. i will probably be on the road for a significant chunk of october and possibly early november. 2-3 week trip, depending on whether i'm able to tack afghanistan on to the end.
therefore:
1. i need to be jumping a lot. time to reintroduce early morning jumping when i can, which means better discipline about bed time.
2. less time on the track means more time in the gym. that means squatting and p-chain-specific work, as well as depth jumps, rudiment hops, and jump squats. MUCH CARE with anything loaded.
3. my left shoulder is still fucked up. on days when it feels bad, i will not do reach jumps, instead doing head-height jumps. when it feels okay and/or warms up well, i will do full reach jumps.
4. next post will be a tentative training plan for the coming weeks.
