SPLITLAB · ALEX LIU

Track performance,
measured.

SplitLab is my personal study of how sprint training, athletic development, recovery, and statistics shape performance on the track.

Enter the study ↓Real records · honest estimates
An evolving single-athlete study

40→130Squat 1RM · kg

≈70→100Approach vertical · cm

4.60Electronic 40-yard · sec

11.45Official 100m PB · sec

01 · THE LONG VIEW

One goal became three experiments.

I began with basketball and one concrete goal: dunk. The path from the weight room to plyometrics to sprinting changed both what I trained and what I measured.

01JUN 2024

BUILD FORCE

Started training to dunk. Squat 1RM began near 40 kg; approach vertical was roughly 70 cm.

02JUL 2025

EXPRESS FORCE

Shifted from mostly strength work to 1–2 high-intent plyometric sessions each week.

03SEP 2025

DISCOVER SPEED

Ran an electronically timed 4.60-second 40-yard dash—the second-fastest mark on the varsity basketball team.

04APR 2026

ENTER THE 100

Opened my first track season with an official, electronically timed 12.30-second 100 meters.

05MAY 2026

INTERRUPTION

A PCL injury paused the timeline and widened the question from performance to movement quality.

06JUL 2026

RETURN

Resumed full-speed sprinting. Flying 10m improved from 1.10 to 1.00 seconds.

07LATEST RACE

NEW OFFICIAL PB

Raced an officially timed 11.45-second 100 meters—the latest competition benchmark for SplitLab.

THE QUESTION BENEATH THE NUMBERS

When does a better result mean I truly “leveled up”—and when is it just noise?

02 · JUMP STUDY

Building force.
Then expressing it.

My largest jump improvement coincided with a shift from primarily building strength to high-intent plyometric work. That timing is meaningful—but it is not proof that one change caused the result.

≈70cmJUN 2024Training begins

≈80cmAUG 2024First strength block

≈90cmJUN 2025Strength base builtPLYOMETRIC SHIFT →

≈100cmAUG 2025Plyometric shift

DATA NOTE

These jump milestones are retrospective estimates, not standardized lab measurements. Standing and approach jumps are kept separate.

TRAINING INPUTS

Squat 1RM40 → 130 kg

STRENGTH BASE

Back and front squats, RFESS, step-ups, leg press, hip thrusts · about 2 lower-body sessions/week.

POWER TRANSFER

Depth jumps, drop-to-broad jumps, pogo jumps, bounds, hurdle hops, seated and kneeling jumps · 1–2 sessions/week.

Training history, not a recommendation. Load, maturation, technique, and measurement conditions changed together.

03 · THE SPEED CHAPTER

A basketball test uncovered a sprinter.

An electronically timed team assessment put a new possibility on the clock.

SEP 2025 · STANDING START4.60s

40-yard dash · second-fastest on the varsity basketball team

APR 2026 · OFFICIAL12.30s

First electronically timed 100m race

LATEST · OFFICIAL PB11.45s

Current electronically timed competition result

MAXIMUM VELOCITY

Flying 10m

Electronic timing · ten months apart

SEP 20251.10s9.09 m/s

→

JUL 20261.00s10.00 m/s

+10.0%speed increase

Timing is consistent; run-in distance and conditions were not fully documented, so the comparison still carries uncertainty.

04 · TRAINING IN FRAME

The work behind the splits.

Practice footage adds context that a results table cannot: the surface, environment, repetition, and intent behind each measured outcome.

Alex Liu accelerating from a sprint start on an outdoor track — **START & ACCELERATION**Outdoor track session · sprint mechanics

Alex Liu sprinting during a nighttime training session — **SPEED UNDER THE LIGHTS**Night training · high-intent sprint work

Training images document the process; official competition timing remains the performance standard.

05 · THE INTERRUPTION

Recovery revealed variables I had never measured.

When a PCL injury interrupted my first track season, I worried that years of strength and explosiveness would disappear—and that running in college would move further away.

Rehabilitation widened my definition of performance. Work on foot stability and big-toe strength, hip mobility, and anterior–posterior chain balance made movement quality visible before it appeared on a stopwatch.

Recovery became more than a return to baseline. It exposed what my original dataset had missed.

This is a personal reflection, not medical guidance or a causal claim.

06 · OPEN LAB

Progress or noise?

Enter at least six repeated measurements from the same test. This simple tool compares your early and recent averages with the variation across all trials.

USE WITH CARE

Keep equipment, warm-up, surface, and timing method consistent. This is an exploratory check—not proof of improvement.

Your measurements 6–20 values · commas, spaces, or new lines

Better performance is

Paste at least six results, choose whether higher or lower is better, then press Analyze my data.

07 · STATISTICAL LENS

Performance is a measurement problem.

A personal best is one observation. Statistics asks what generated it, how variable the process is, and whether the result will repeat.

Measurement error

Electronic timing, remembered jump heights, run-in distance, surface, and warm-up do not carry equal precision. I label them differently instead of treating every number as interchangeable.

Within-athlete variation

Repeated tests create a personal distribution. The mean and sample standard deviation describe normal performance better than one best attempt.

Change points

The shift from strength-first training to plyometrics is a candidate change point—not automatic evidence that plyometrics alone caused the faster improvement.

Training vs. competition

The 11.45 official race is the current competition benchmark; future races will test how reliably that level holds.

08 · DATA STANDARD

Honest uncertainty is part of the result.

Official

The 11.45-second 100m is labeled as a competition result, distinct from training tests.

Estimated

Recalled jump milestones use ≈ and remain separate from standardized measurements.

Missing

No 30m result is invented. Missing setup details remain documented as limitations.

Interpreted

Training changes coincided with progress, but this single-athlete observational history cannot establish causation.

Track performance,measured.