It took awhile to realize it but now that she's having fun, multi-event athlete Sasha Blanchard showed the power of minimalism when she ran in the 100m and 300m hurdles in California's Southern Section Division 4 Championship last weekend. She advanced to the section's Master's division, the final step in section's road to the state meet.
Sasha's deadlift max is currently 355lbs, but her "virtual" max is close to 380lbs. She still weighs a few pounds under 130. While the lift-bodyweight ratio is very high, it pales in relation to her increase in year to year performance.
Her time in the 100h dropped from a best of 14.58 last season to a #6 performance in the state: 14.19!
Using dyestat.com's outdoor season percentile rank for the 100h, Sasha is in the 100th percentile.
Her 300h time is not too bad either; a 1.5 second drop from 45.15 tp 43.51 putting her in the 96th percentile...in other words, she is in the top 4% of all high school female 300m runners in the U.S.!
In any relatively short anaerobic event, and especially for a "seasoned" athlete, a drop of nearly 1/2 second in a 100m run is remarkable at any level. Allyson Felix had similarly remarkable drops in time, year-to-year, throughout her high school career...but in the 200meters.
What's remarkable about her 300h time (and her 100h) is this:
Her longest training run was 55m.
Average training run was 35 meters.
Average number of training runs per session was 5.
Average time for runs was 4.13 seconds.
Total number of repeats training days for the season was 21.
Number of Speed Endurance Training days: Zero, None, Nada, Zip
Number of Over-Distance runs: See number of Speed Endurance training days above
Number of days spent on Form Drills: See number of Speed Endurance training days above.
Yet, despite the above, her 300h time dropped more than 1.5 seconds.
Now one might think that she would have done even better had she followed the herd and done all of the "standard" workouts. Then again one might remember it's the same herd she just passed!
Now that's fun!