PJ is a bloody genius 
. PJ for Prezidente. ( :eek: Nah, wouldn’t wish that on anyone come to think)
PJ and KitKat, I can truly see where you both are coming from. I do believe the girl had proper speed endurance training throughout the year, but I can’t be certain. She did many of the same workouts as her teammates who don’t have these same issues. Unfortunately for my 400m runners, I really only have one who was a threat to score in the conference meet. He went from 49.8 to 49.5 but I think he will do better this week having not moved on in the HJ. He is a basketball player who came out in mid March and the junior college seasons ends on May 13 so not much time for good training and to be totally honest I don’t have much experience with this situation. In high school, the track season was so long, basketball players could come out in mid march and still have 8 meets before league.
Also, I wish I could prescribe different tapers for my different types of athletes but as you guys obviously know college coaches don’t have the luxury. 12 sprinters, 4 jumpers all who have a chance at making it to state if they run their best race at the right time.
KK, it is possible that my basketball player quartermiler should be doing 150 type workouts this late in the season, but he didn’t last week, would it be too late to go back to that type of workout. 48.4 might get him to state and I think he is capable of that. He was in the middle of the HJ when he had to get in the blocks and run the 400.
I’ll give you an idea of his season. He started at 2 guard for the basketball team, when he came out he was in pretty good shape. This is only his 5th meet. He is very versatile, his third meet I put him in the 800, he ran 1:59. At the conference meet, he ran 22.38 in the 200. Next year he might run the 800 exclusively but we had a 1:55 and 1:56 runner so he wouldn’t have scored in conference in that but he scored in both the 400 and 200 at conference as well as the HJ. He also runs third leg on our 4x1 that ran 41.46. So with all rambling aside, what do you think, stick to my program of short speed, rest, and tempo for taper, or next week 150 type workouts. Sorry, on Monday, he, the 400hurdler, and other quartermilers ran 60’s instead of 30’s. I only have 3 quartermilers and 2 hurdlers. Another quartermiler had a pb of 52.86 and ran 52.10 on Saturday. He didn’t move on but was happy that he ran his best.
Feel free to lecture me, I am definitely not above criticism, advice, and help.
Thanks for the help.
[QUOTE=pierrejean](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).
[/QUOTE
Wow, PJ, you have just made me think. I thought a solid race strategy for the 200m was to run extremely hard/100% for the first 50m, carry that momentum in a more relaxed/effortless/coasting fashion for 50-80m, and then open up the all-out speed again for the remaining 80m or so.
From what you are saying that hard first 50m will kill my final 50m? Even with the more relaxed middle section?
Johnny, from hundredth of intermediate times for 50m sections during 200m races. The ultimate example of “tactic” for 200m was Griffith-Joyner in Seoul.
Your tactic isn’t the best as 200m result as well as 100m results are dependant of middle sections speed.
Dazs,
Re 150s for your 400m/hj guy: How does he move across the floor? I suspect, now that I know he also runs the 800m, that he may roll along real smoothly. If so, then perhaps (and due to his 800m capacities) your short work (better flying 30s, rather than acceleration) will be strong for him. If he is a bit vertical in his action, (doesn’t really extend through the hips) then maybe some rolling 150s would be good. Not too many. Even the top guys in my own experience went “by feel” and didn’t do more than 6x150 with easy recoveries in a quick, smooth tempo.
Your guy is wonderfully versatile. Maybe 400H is ultimately his best event, although I suspect he fancies himself a baller.kk
Kitkat, dazs, thanks for the awesome responses. I’ve been away for the past two days or else I would’ve replied earlier. After reading what you have, I’ll plug in my own dates and count backward for the work I’m doing. Oh yeah, and Pre-Race means warm-up, hurdle form drills (really easy, low intensity stuff, usually involves almost no running), warm-down. kitkat, what exactly does race modelling mean (what intensity are the runs, total volume, reps, distances, etc.)?
5/5: League Finals (Major Meet)
5/4: Pre-Race (basically warm-up/warm-down)
5/3: Extensive Tempo (lower volume than normal)
5/2: League Prelims (this would be the equivalent of your Day 5 basically)
5/1: Rest
4/30: Pre-Race (warm-up/warm-down)
4/29: Weights, 2-3 runs over 3-4 HH to make sure rythmn is down. Maybe a 120 with a rolling start into the curve of a 300IH after that, then warm down. (combination of Day 6 and 7 basically)
4/28: Rest
4/27: Active Recovery (some touch football, ultimate frisbee stuff)
That’s basically what I have in mind after reading both of your templates. I usually like to do an extensive tempo session after a meet, which is why I put down extensive tempo for 5/3, but since I’m peaking do you think it would be better if I changed this to a pre-race day and then take 5/4 off? Or should I take a 5/3 off completely and keep 5/4 as pre-race?
Dear Mr C, Nice of you to return to us since you are the cause of all this enthusiasm 
I would do an extended warmdown after your prelimin races/ I might go for a walk and stretch the next morning. If you’re still very tight or sore (which means you either didn’t warmdown properly the day before, or your preparation wasn’t specific enough to prepare you for such intense racing), then you could add a couple of runthroughs at very easy tempo, perhaps hitting it at 95% for about 10 to 15m, just to get the blood into those parts of the muscle which are only activated at high velocities and full (triple) extension.
But my preference is to keep off your feet as much as possible that day (5/3) and stay off until you do the warm-up-warm down on 5/4 which is the day before your major race(s).
Two things to remember:
(1) You need to go in fresh. “Fresh” is more important at this late stage than “Fit”. You will not get “Fitter” in the last week but you could run yourself “Flat”. So abide by Charlie’s old saying (he’s so old 
): “Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lay down.”
(2) Rhythm and Balance (Balance throughout motion is attained/maintained through Rhythm - 
bet I get some arguments on this - which is the glue which holds all the physical performance elements together) are more important at this late stage than strength, endurance or quickness.
You can have all those but without a relaxed rhythm (which really is another word for total co-ordination in the cadence of your personal optimal performance) you will make hard work of everything. And that’s obviously not what you want.
So let the pursuit of rhythm and freshness (energy) guide your choices in the taper period.
Try not to have any really deep tissue massage in the last few days because it can really smash up your rhythm, but if you need it then do it sooner rather than later.
Race Modelling: It’s just simulating sections of your race: Usually I avoid a lot of acceleration training inside the last 10 days. That sort of work, such as race modelling from the blocks around the bend for a 200m/400m should have been done over many weeks before this. But whatever gets you through the night, some people may really benefit from block work, however the 400m folk I’ve worked with have not.
400M Race Modelling: The race modelling that I’ve found to be helpful in the 400m is working into and out of the second (first 4x1 baton change zone), third (200 start zone; & 2nd 4x1 baton change zone) and third (final 4x1 baton change zone; 100m start area).
After a race-type warmup (often without any technical drills) I try to restrict the total number of reps to one per turn.
However often the balance or mechanics (left hip tall, pelvis neutral/vertical posture) are not quite right so we make another rehearsal.
We never do more than two runs per turn, so that means not more than six repetitions in total.
Freshness is risked otherwise.
The runs are usually 50m to 70m buildup to 400m race maintenance pace (ie: in the rhythm of your personal race) and then this rhythm with good mechanics is held until you exit the turn and hopefully get a slight “throw” into the next straight section (or comparatively straight if you’re working around the third 100m/waterjump zone).
So each run could be up to 150m, but you are confirming the rhythm of your race. This is a dress rehearsal and last test of your “auto-pilot” form for the major race.
Each run should be done with full recovery. It may seem excessive to do up to 6x150m rolling runs at race rhythm, but that is why I prefer to come into the penultimate day following two days of Rest. The work on that penultimate day re-establishes your 400m race rhythm and perhaps even provides a small super-compensation effect to be available on race day.
kk 
[apologies if I got a bit esoteric there with the cadence stuff], hopefully some of the above will suit your needs.
Thanks for the info, I wish I would’ve known it earlier, but now I’ll know better next time. I’m just gonna take it easy this week then. I did my last tough workout friday, and I axed the weights with the idea of staying fresh. I’ll tell you how it goes later this week.
Or that times in training really don’t hold all that much sway in competition …
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who contributed to this. A little recap of what happened, my prelim on 5/2 got cancelled, so I got an extra day of rest. Unfortunately, then I felt like I hadnt done enough, but I stuck with what was written adn went into the race anyways. I ran a PR in the 110HHs and got 4th, which in retrospect was probably the best I could have hoped for because of the way we havent been training very well for the sprint hurdle race throughout the course of the season, which even a perfect taper couldnt have fixed. However, I ran a PR and won league in the 300IH (old PR-44.6, new-44.4) despite the fact I hadnt done a distance over 60m in over two weeks and I wasnt even focusing on that race, which was pretty cool and quite a conosolation for my performace in the 110HH. So, thanks again to everyone, and I appreciate the help:)
Congrats MrC,
Now you’ve got to interpret, correctly, what aspects of your taper helped you to PB and what elements did not. So you can build your own unique taper for the future…nothing is written in stone. If it works for you, that’s what you hold on to.