I have Speed Trap (currently looking for a hard copy of CFTS, if anyone has one they want to sell…) and at one part Charlie discusses a 10-Day Taper he picked up from Horste Hill, an East German coach. Now league finals are coming up and I wanted to know what you guys would do if you were in my situation. I’ll be running the 110HH and the 300IH. Here’s the schedule so far…
Sun 4/24: Off
Mon 4/25: Very Intense, Spec End. 2 WO, Weights
Tue 4/26: Weights
Wed 4/27: Hills or OFF
Thu 4/28: Off
Fri 4/29: Weights, Track work of some kind (not sure what)
Sat 4/30: ???
Sun 5/1: Pre-Race
Mon 5/2: League Prelims
Tue 5/3: ???
Wed 5/4:Pre-Race
Thu 5/5: League Finals
My questions specifically are: what type of speed work (if any) should I be doing on 4/29? What should I do on 4/30 and 5/3?
League Prelims arent a big deal, and I’m basically a lock to qualify for finals (unless I fall or something), but I wanna come into finals the most rested neurally and muscularly I’ve felt all year, and I’d appreciate everyone’s advice.
As a coach, I use the 10 day taper with my athletes only before “big” meets - “league prelims arent a big deal”. I will “save” this for when you really want to be at top form.
A question - why the WT tomorrow AND Tuesday? And this coming Friday - WT and THEN speed work? I would recommend the speed work first.
Adapt your programme slightly and post it once more - I will have a look. And maybe some of the other coaches will assist as well.
You make good points, but some things are out of my control. For example, where you’re referring to the two weight days in a row, those are required weight sessions for football. They are in the morning before school, and track work is after school (same thing with friday). During the week with Leage Finals I can get away with not showing up to weightlifting, but the week before that I still have to go.
Also, with Wed being Hills or Off and Thursday being off, that’s also out of my control. I have to go to some retreat thing, and on Wednesday my two options are taking the day off or running some hills up at the retreat area. Then Thursday I’m traveling, and there’s nothing I can do.
With regards to League Prelims, I just put it in there for planning purposes. The big meet is the League Finals meet on 5/5. That’s when I want to peak.
With that being said, any suggestions on how to work with what I’ve got?
Sun 4/24: Off
Mon 4/25: Very Intense, Spec End. 2 WO, Weights
Tue 4/26: Weights
Wed 4/27: Hills or OFF
Thu 4/28: Off
Fri 4/29: Weights, Track work of some kind (not sure what)
Sat 4/30: ???
Sun 5/1: Pre-Race
Mon 5/2: League Prelims
Tue 5/3: ???
Wed 5/4:Pre-Race
Thu 5/5: League Finals
My questions specifically are: what type of speed work (if any) should I be doing on 4/29? What should I do on 4/30 and 5/3?
I believe the 10-day taper proposed is for advanced world-class athletes that are training at the highest intensities. For most of us, you only need about a 5-day taper.
You should decrease the volume of work while keeping the intensity high. Maybe something like 4 x 30m and 1 x 80m on the 29th.
WHATEVER sprinting you do inside the final 10 days should be sub-maximal. The more you try, the less you get. By holding back just a little bit, 1 per cent maybe, you may find you run PBs anyway. But a 10-day taper will really only be effective if you’ve come off a pretty solid preparation which has progressed up through the phases to the stage where you need to freshen up more than sharpen up actually. kk
So really I shouldnt be worried about a 10 day taper as much as being fresh for the meet? The way I see it then I’ll do something like this
Fri 4/29: Weights; Track Work (probably 1 or 2 runs over 4-6 110HH to make sure I have the rythmn down)
Sat 4/30: Extensive Tempo
Sun 5/1: Pre-Race
Mon 5/2: League Prelims (110HH, 300IH)
Tue 5/3: Extensive Tempo
Wed 5/4: Pre-Race
Thu 5/5: League Finals (4x100, 110HH, 300IH, 4x400)
Using this template would make League Prelims a workout for me and the last tough thing I do before League Finals, which is when I need to peak. Do you guys think this looks OK then?
MisterC this is a MysterY (to me) :o . What do you mean by “pre-race”? Is that like a warm-up/warm down. Or is it a REST day?
I’m sorry if I’m misinterpreting what you’ve written, but it looks like you’re planning to peak on 5/5 which is the seventh straight day of activity (Unless pre-race means Rest).
I have a preference for a taper pattern like this:
Counting backwards from the day of the first big Race:
1: MAJOR RACE
2: Race Modelling in the rhythm of your race, but without generating lactic acid.
3: Rest Day
4: Race Modelling (as on the penultimate day, for rhythm). Unless you’re racing 400m over rounds or you have a huge block of races AND you’re coming into the taper off a huge amount of training over many months. If the latter describes your situation, then you can contemplate having day 4 as the first of two Rest Days.
5: This is your last chance to blow out the cobwebs, hit maybe two reps with full recovery from a rolling start and working at 99 per cent, so as not to generate much lactic acid. So if you’re running 400m (or 300m HUrdles) you may do a couple of 200m runs (or maybe first six intermediate hurdles) . Maybe one is fast tempo, the other (45mins later?) might be very quick but while consciously avoiding tension in shoulder, neck etc.
6: Warm-up and warm-down, Race modelling, meaning for 400m (or 300m Hurdles) you might want to rehearse entering and exiting the bends from a rolling start, working for no further than 150m. You may restrict your reps (not including normal race warmup)
7: Work the first two or three barriers in the 110m hurdles.
8: Rest Day (Massage, physio, chiropractor, walk and relax)
9: Race Model for Hurdles, working sections of the 300m Hurdles race, so maybe first four hurdles a couple of times at 99% race rhythm, then a couple of runs over the last four barriers. All with full recovery, done for technique, rhythm and relaxation.
10: Perhaps a 99 per cent effort single run over 300m on the flat: a virtual time trial but done without “muscling” the run.
11: Warm-up and warm-down.
12: Rest.
Maybe you could place your prelim race commitment on a 99% effort type day and fit your major championship day(s) into a template a bit like this. kk
TC, the answer to your question is in the previous post. If you look at 10: it’s a 300m at 99% with the “time” coming (hopefully) through an aggressive acceleration followed by good mechanics, rhythm and relaxation. So it’s basically a 300 time-trial. But on other occasions we’ve done just a couple of 200m sprints, one in the rhythm of the race (first 200m of the 400m) and the other being faster than that (up to 45mins recovery between the two runs).
I’ve sometimes found that someone can be in great shape for 400m but may be stuck in roughly the same rhythm for 200m.
For example: An elite male ran mid-44 but could clock “only” 20.8 off the blocks for 200m.
Yet the same athlete could run sub-32 off the blocks for 300m which is certainly a better indication of his readiness (of how successful the taper turned out).
You would probably agree that given those indices, something went slightly wrong in the preparation or taper, but it was hardly a disaster. Perhaps there needed to have been a bit more neural activation in the training of distances 200m or shorter to have avoided the dynamic stereotype apparent in his 200m race time of “only” 20.8.
The capacity to go sub-32 for 300m but “only” mid-44 also suggests some extra work was needed to help him finish the last 50m of his 400m race. On the other hand, it is difficult to know how much the rounds take out of a speed-based 400m sprinter. I never prepared an athlete for grand prix-style one-off racing. Always had a tournament as the focus of our preparation.
kk
KitKat, what time would you look for in a 300m run if you are trying to target 20.5 or better for the 200m dash? Or, would you target a specific 150m time?
Thanks
I don’t know how to answer that. :o Because it depends whether you are a 200/400 or a 100/200 type.
Given my clock watching with regards to 400 race modelling (partic the first 100 and 200 splits) it may be a bit surprising (amusing) that I never take times with a view to projections.
PJ may have those stats. I’m sorry I can’t provide anything more intelligent. But I would say that just because you can run a great 200 doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll run a great 300.
kk
Thanks for your feedback, I’ve been experimenting with split 400s for the stimulus session. But for some reason overlooked the idea of using a flat 300! It makes sense, now I think about it. It is just getting that balance between speed and endurance that is so tricky with the 400.
Here is what aI did this past week and had many pb’s for my junior college athletes
Friday-meet-2 events each athlete
Sat-Sunday–off
Monday–3xstanding 30’s
Tuesday–pool workout-cardio/recov
Wednesday–3xdownhill flying 30’s
Thursday–pool workout–easy swimming drills
Friday–off
Saturday–meet
everyday following workouts they did ice baths.
sprinter 1-pb-10.74–saturday-10.55
pb-21.54–saturday-21.38
sprinter 2-pb-10.70–saturday-10.63
sore hamstring–all pool that week held
out of 4x1 and was cautious in 200
sprinter 3-pb-11.14–saturday-10.81
pb-22.87–saturday-22.53
sprinter 4-pb-11.34–saturday-11.07
pb-23.41–saturday-22.89
sprinter 5-pb-11.42–saturday-11.22
hurdler 1-pb-60.3–saturday-58.98
quartermiler 1-pb-49.8–saturday-49.57
All of the times were fat and wind legal. I had done similar workouts in recent years but this season I wanted to really try and rest them more than normal, and our pool had finally been finished which made this easier.
Sprinter 1, i kept in the weight room as well as doing a little more volume because I knew qualifying would be easier for him this week. Sprinter 2 would have done the same but his hamstring was tender so he actually did poolworkouts all week. All others, these are pretty much their exact workouts. IMO If you are trying to peak the important thing to do is treat nagging injuries, recruit speed, and rest.
Theone:
Here are 2 examples from last year, at Sainte-Anne meeting (Guadeloupe), 2 guys ran a 300m followed by a 150m in the same day:
Tyler CHRISTOPHER 31.77 and 15.17
Jimmie HACKLEY 32.68 and 15.19
2 days later in Saint-Martin, both guys ran a 200m and a 400m during same meet again.
Tyler CHRISTOPHER 20.92 and 46.3h (this 20.92 doesn’t seem to be representative of his level since TC has beaten JH on the 2 other occasions they met that year)
Jimmie HACKLEY 20.59 and 46.9h
Their season bests were:
Tyler CHRISTOPHER x, 20.50 and 45.25
Jimmie HACKLEY 10.33, 20.31 and 46.09
To sum-up, looking for a 20.5-20.6 200m performance, the 100/200m runner type did 15.2 and 32.7, while the 200/400m runner type did 15.2 and 31.8. We can conclude that 150m is a more specific trial race to predict 200m performance than 300m trial…
At first I thought the downhill 30’s might be dangerous also but they were done no later than wednesday the week of a saturday meet. Also, the entire 30 wasn’t downhill, actually they started on a ramp which is about 7m long and slightly downhill. We were very careful to do an extensive warmup, even better than we normally do. I didn’t have any injuries, one girl fell but she is a little clumsy, she has fallen 3 different times this year, doing a drill, practicing block starts, etc…
I did hold my breath during the workout but I think it helped. I am doing a similar workout this weekend. Unfortunately I had to peak some of those athletes so they could make it to these next rounds, now that most of them have made it they may not have as good success. We will see on Saturday.
To PJ, my two top sprinters, the 10.55 and 10.63 sprinters have very different stories in the 200. The 10.63 guy beat the 10.55 guy all year in the 100 until this last meet. In practice, the 10.63 guy kills the 10.55 guy in 150’s but come meet time, the 10.55 guy is typically 4-6 tenths faster in the 200. I don’t get it. I think it is mental, both split low 49 in the 4x4 also.
I have a girl who runs 12.1 in the 100, splits 59 in the 4x4 but hasn’t gone faster than 25.5 in the 200, makes no sense to me, everyone else on our team has 100 and 200 times that are comparable and make sense. These are the only 2 people I have ever coached who have this problem.
Concerning your guys, there are probably mental issues, but maybe that at practice, you don’t use starting blocks? Using blocks or crouch start or standing start or falling start or flying start can lead to major differences in the last part of the race because the terminal speed is dependant on the energy spent on the start/accel (it has been proved that the first 50m and last 50m of the 200m have a negative corelation, you lose in the last 50m what you gain on the first 50m and vice-versa, once again balace is the key).
Concerning your girl, the difference doesn’t look that strange. If i may, and without wanting to lecture you or taking anything away of her training without knwing it at all, she probably lacks specific 200m speed. So that her 400m times are irrelevant, i suppose she splits 59 thanks to general stamina rather than speed endurance abilities. Many other problems can enter: does she accept to run a 200m at her best? Even she does 59 at 400, the feeling isn’t the same that running 25 for 200m. Progressive adaptation to pain tolerane required in the last 50m of a 24sec 200m may be the key here.
Hi Dazs,
Re the 30s and blocks and downhill dashes. Maybe these are great for tapering for the short sprints, and maybe for some in the 400 these are also great. I cannot comment because I didn’t use any downhill.
What I would say is that the taper in the 400m must achieve an effortless sort of rhythm for the athlete. Of course they must also feel fresh (hence the running is like a wheel: turning over effortless and quick).
In the end its horses for courses: When I was peaking a male and a female who both reached an Olympic final in the 400 at same Games, the male never ran anything shorter than 150m and the female never ran anything longer than 150m during the last 10 days! They did exactly the same kind of running training all year, but due to their idiosyncrasies their tapers diverged.
This is because he tended toward a vertical, almost pop-up action if he did short work. She tended to over-stride and lose her posture badly if she did longer reps. There is something about this in the “lactate threshold” thread but it might take some finding.
From my experience with those two particular people I found the taper to be highly individualised and utterly fascinating, almost magical when you get it right for/with the athletes.
In the campaign referred to above the woman went from PB of 50.9 to 50.2 and the guy from a seasonal best of 46.1 to a PB of 44.3 (although he had many problems caused by a tiny spot of calcification on the sciatic nerve deep in belly of the hamstring on one leg which was overcome late in the season - when it was finally correctly diagnosed eight months on and just in the nick of time - that’s why his improvement seems so outrageous)
kk
