sprint training

[Jonnymac]

So 98ninj.......talk to Nelso, he would appear to be the most qualified.

By a loooooong way lol

[Jonnymac]

6 weeks strength training
- heavy in the gym
- uphill sprints - standing start on the incline

6 weeks power
- gym 1 set heavy, 1 set 60% done fast (make weights rattle on the bar)
- sprints on long(ish) grass

6 weeks speed
- 75% max weight in gym done fast + heavy set once a week to maintain strength
- down hill springs to build speed
- plyomectrics

Whoa, that's taken me back a few years! This type of periodisation of training comes straight out of Tudor Bumpa's 'Periodisation of Strength' from the late 80's / early 90's; sorry to say, elite athletes had progressed past this by the mid to late 90's. If you are training for power, you need to train for power all of the time. Periodisation between strength, power and speed should happen in your daily or weekly plan, not in 6 week blocks.

Hmmmm was thinking the same

Thanks for writing it lol

[Nelso]

I've come off 7 months of training for a half ironman triathlon. I'm a bit over the four hours a day and the swimming. So I've started looking at local athletics and an event in March.

This time last year I was doing a running group in Newcastle and I could consistently do a 2:20 800m but that was the limit of my top end speed. So this is an experiment to
1. See how quick I can do a 200m and a 400m
Changing to higher intensity interval training and increasing power based resistance training will improve your sprint times. How fast you can do them will depend on how much time you will dedicate to it, instead of the long distance stuff.
2. See how lean I can get
Your diet will have a bigger effect on this than the training.
3. See if a few months of speed work can help my half marathon pace and
No, it won't. Your half marathon pace will likely suffer if you change to short speed work. It's very hard to improve multiple energy systems at once, especially in someone who is already doing a high volume of training. You can train to improve endurance, speed, flexibility and power all at once, but it takes longer and is very demanding. You still need to balance the volume, intensity and frequency no matter what you are training for, or you risk overtraining and injury. If you are already doing as much as your body can cope with for your endurance training, you will need to back that training intensity or volume off to incorporate the speed training, which will have an adverse effect on your endurance performance. Once your body has adapted to the different training, you can always start to bring the endurance intensity or volume slowly back to it's current level, which should see your endurance performance results improve again while maintaining most of the improved speed and power, which will give you a nice little kick at the end of a race, but it will take a long time for your body to adapt to the extra workload.
4. Fill in my spare time because I now live in the middle of nowhere.

At the moment (I'm off work) my week consists of
Sunday - 60km ride and 1km swim
Monday - 60km ride and leg weights/plyometric circuit
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - 1-2 hour sprint session
Thursday - 60km ride and swim
Friday - 60km ride and leg weights/plyometric circuit
Saturday - usually a sprint day or a rest depending on how my legs feel.

I know this all endurance based but I'm looking at losing some of the endurance for more track work.

[Nelso]

High intensity
Short bursts
Strength training
Crossfit
Plyometric training

Depends on how much info you want......

I've been doing leg weights and plyometric work for a while now. I've been doing 10 X 100m twice a week but I wanted to get some specific training sessions.

I had a go today and did
5 X 30m starts
5 X 100m then
5 X 40m with a running start.
Ideally I'd like to know what the good (sub 25 200m) guys do.
today was just a guess at getting specific.

If you are training for 200 to 400m, why are you only doing 100m sprints?

Also, what 'leg weights' are you currently doing?

[98ninja]

High intensity
Short bursts
Strength training
Crossfit
Plyometric training

Depends on how much info you want......

I've been doing leg weights and plyometric work for a while now. I've been doing 10 X 100m twice a week but I wanted to get some specific training sessions.

I had a go today and did
5 X 30m starts
5 X 100m then
5 X 40m with a running start.
Ideally I'd like to know what the good (sub 25 200m) guys do.
today was just a guess at getting specific.

If you are training for 200 to 400m, why are you only doing 100m sprints?

Also, what 'leg weights' are you currently doing?

Where I live has no marked tracks. The local primary school has a 100m marked for some reason. I've been running in spikes so I've gone with the grass 100m track.

Ah my circuit consists of
20 weighted step ups or 10 box jumps
10 shoulder press
10 kettle bell heaves on each arm
33 sit ups
10 squats (90kgs)
15 hanging leg raises
15 triceps push ups
3 times through with no rest.

Then I do some hip flexor static holds. Usually 3 X 15 seconds on each leg. It's 30 km to the nearest gym so I've been riding to and from the gym.

oh and thanks for this. I love picking the brain of someone who knows their shit.

[Jonnymac]

I agree with Nelso regarding the lean part. If your not lean with all of that training load a massive overhaul of your diet is required.
From my point of view diet is about 70% if not more and exercise 30%. If your diet is rooted it won't matter how hard you train.

Mind you I wish I had the time you have available, I might actually be in good nick lol

[photomike666]

6 weeks strength training
- heavy in the gym
- uphill sprints - standing start on the incline

6 weeks power
- gym 1 set heavy, 1 set 60% done fast (make weights rattle on the bar)
- sprints on long(ish) grass

6 weeks speed
- 75% max weight in gym done fast + heavy set once a week to maintain strength
- down hill springs to build speed
- plyomectrics

Whoa, that's taken me back a few years! This type of periodisation of training comes straight out of Tudor Bumpa's 'Periodisation of Strength' from the late 80's / early 90's; sorry to say, elite athletes had progressed past this by the mid to late 90's. If you are training for power, you need to train for power all of the time. Periodisation between strength, power and speed should happen in your daily or weekly plan, not in 6 week blocks.

Sorry guys, I really don't like getting on the net and telling people their ideas are wrong or outdated, but on topics that I know a bit about, I can't help myself when I know that my experiences can help. Why do I think I know better? Good question. I don't necessarily think I'm right about everything, but I know a bit in this area. This is going to sound like I'm big-noting myself, but it's more to let you know my background so you can see that this is an area i know a bit about. As a young bloke I competed in Powerlifting for a few years, won a few state and national titles and held a heap of national records. I then went on to study at Uni and get a degree in Physical Education (as a mature age student) with my best subjects being all of the Biomedical Science subjects like Functional Anatomy, Exercise Physiology, Biomechanics etc. which (back then) were combined with the Exercise Science faculty so we actually got to learn some pretty cool stuff. I then went on after Uni and did a heap more study in Strength and Conditioning as it was my passion and worked as a trainer for a number of professional football clubs including an NRL club. Since then, I have trained a heap of young athletes, achieving some pretty decent results over the past 15 years. After this, I kind of know from experience what works and what gets the best results as well as having the 'book' knowledge to understand why it works.

No offense taken!

I was a keen middle distance runner in the mid 80's (almost managed a 4 min mile at 14), then a reasonable rugby union player in the early 90's (Right wing).

My body type is naturally suited to endurance, so when I started BMX racing in 2006 I had to work hard to build strength and fast twitch reflex. Having learned my training techniques in the 80's, that's what I used. Got me a 9th in the Aussie nationals, and I won a spread of Victorian series in 09. Makes me wonder what I would have achieved with modern techniques

[98ninja]

So I changed the gym session today.

10 squats (90kgs)
10 weighted step ups with 40kgs
10 power cleans
40 sit ups
4 circuits through.

Sprint day tomorrow.

[98ninja]

To revive an old thread....
I was doing a Tom Tellez high school program for a few months. It consisted of three specific days. Two tempo days and two rest days.
Specific day 1 - Speed Endurance.
500m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m. Big recovery and focusing on quality. The 400m was the fastest for some reason. Got it down to a 57 second.

Specific day 2 - Special Endurance
6 x 200m. At first I was aiming at around 29 seconds each with 3 minutes recovery. But then I figured out Carl Lewis was doing 28 second 200ms at his 80% pace. So I backed them off to 32 seconds and got them down to 2 minutes recovery.

Specific day 3 - Speed day
6 x 60m block starts. All at 95%.

Now here it got complicated. I categorized the days according to work.
Cat 1 day was no work at all. So I'd do plyometrics, run and weights.
Cat 2 day was a partially work affected day. Plyo and run. Or run and weights.
Cat 3 was a work affected day. So run only.

I'd try and set it so I had a minimum 48 hours recovery for each specific day to allow CNS to recover.

I restricted weights to bench press, squats, cleans and core work.

The downside was I pulled my left kneecap out of its groove 5 weeks ago and had to lay off the squats and plyo to get it right again. During this phase I've restricted myself to top end work only.

I'm seeking a serious critique of the structure and make up of my routine. Am I doing one day that works against the others?

[tim]

I'm seeking a serious critique of the structure and make up of my routine.

You're wasting valuable time doing too much exercise, help orphans and the homeless instead

[fireyrob]

What is the purpose of the running training? Ie are you trying to achieve something specific or is it general fitness?

Personally I think the program is too intensive for the average person. To me it looks like a specific program for a 200-400 metre runner. I dare say anyone on this program is a serious runner and would be having daily physio to aid recovery.

Im sure someone else with more experience into the specific dynamics will say something. I dont think you are allowing enough recovery. You got to remember you arent as young as you used to be amd recovery takes longer

[98ninja]

What is the purpose of the running training? Ie are you trying to achieve something specific or is it general fitness?

Personally I think the program is too intensive for the average person. To me it looks like a specific program for a 200-400 metre runner. I dare say anyone on this program is a serious runner and would be having daily physio to aid recovery.

Im sure someone else with more experience into the specific dynamics will say something. I dont think you are allowing enough recovery. You got to remember you arent as young as you used to be amd recovery takes longer

Rob, my specific goal is the 200 and 400. I do a fair bit of stretching and I've just started doing pool work as recovery as well. I'm taking fish oil, glutamine and whey protein. My diet is aimed at recovery as well. I get a little bit obsessed when I give myself a goal or an event to aim at.

[fireyrob]

Fair enough then. I was going to suggest swimming as I do a fair bit. Its good for recovery and nil impact.

I use a Protein with a fair bit of variety in it. Its called Combat and Costco has it fairly cheap.

I dont think your sessions are too strenuos. But I do think max two hard running sessions as above per week with swimming in between twice a week would be plenty. You have to let the muscle tear recovery fully.

Quality over Quantity!

[Six Addict]

ninja,

your aim is 200-400m, thats great, but at what level? you running weekend club? state titles? nationals? just to keep yourself fit?

my brief period in squad training back in highschool (i was a 400m runner) consisted of practice starts, followed by increasing distance reps, 100, 150, 200 at increasing intensities, and would probably only run 2 400m stints at 85-100%. a lot of this time is actually spent refining and practicing technique.

and recovery is important, 2-3 sessions a week would be enough on the track, and if you were serious you'd cross train it with gym 2-3 times a week.

nelso is they real guy to listen to...

[98ninja]

ninja,

your aim is 200-400m, thats great, but at what level? you running weekend club? state titles? nationals? just to keep yourself fit?

my brief period in squad training back in highschool (i was a 400m runner) consisted of practice starts, followed by increasing distance reps, 100, 150, 200 at increasing intensities, and would probably only run 2 400m stints at 85-100%. a lot of this time is actually spent refining and practicing technique.

and recovery is important, 2-3 sessions a week would be enough on the track, and if you were serious you'd cross train it with gym 2-3 times a week.

nelso is they real guy to listen to...

Club for now. Then I'll see how I go if I stretch it any further.
I forgot to add in that I do stride drills as part of a dynamic warm up. Also yes I was hoping to tempt Nelso.