I have just completed my first decent track season in my seventh year after doing a lot of research on my own, and after getting a real sprint coach. In this year my FAT times have improved from 7.1 to 6.67 in the 55, 12.17 to 11.30 in 100, 23.8 to 23.34 in the 200, and 52.3 to 51.5 split in the 400. Most of this improvement has come from a low volume short to long program. I start virtually all of my races winning the first 50m and getting absolutely demolished in the last 50m or 150m in the 200. Can someone please give me some advice on an offseason program that I could use to increase my sprint endurance. Right now I am doing something like the following:
Monday - 3x200+100 and Lower Lift
Tuesday - Upper Lift
Wednesday - 4x40 4x20 flies
Thursday - Tempo and Upper Lift
Friday - 8x80 and Lower Lift
Sat and Sun - Rest
I suppose you haven’t got the drills you most need, i.e., good speed endurance workouts of 80-100-120-150 m.
There are similar distances there, but I guess, if you cut the volume down (e.g., 8 x 80 m) and have longer rests between, you should be able to run them faster, too! And this is exactly what you need.
Why having a split routing in the weights? Not sure about the intensitites used now for such workouts, but it might be better to have them along with the fast track workouts for better recovery in the meantime.
Perhaps you could take advantage of one of the weekend days, if you can.
Also, not sure about Mon’s workout; is this a split 300 into 200+100 m? If yes, why? If not, what is the pace of these drills? If you can’t maintain fast pace, reduce volume with longer rests, reduce drills’ duration, or both.
Your sessions’ quality would also be helped by some tempo work (preferrably on grass) between the high intensity days.
I see! Yes, they can help for your 400 m. However, you can always vary things (e.g., intervals, recoveries, etc) especially now, which may allow you to keep a faster pace overall (e.g., split 100s). Having said that, I am not sure as to the value of such workouts in the off-season.
If you’ve tried that sort of distance range (i.e., 80-150 m) and implemented it appropriately, other means might help you in this aspect (e.g., split 60s can boost your speed endurance); just try things in different ways and be consistent for a while to see what and if it works.
I am not sure that a split routine will necessarily help you with what you are trying to achieve here, as there can be constant catabolism into your body giving it less time for recovery; others (e.g., BBs) may use such methods effectively, but they have only one element to deal with, whereas your situation is different. Lastly, what works, or is known to work, for certain individuals, or the majority, does not necessarily mean that it is a panacea.
I suppose, you could implement some plyos into your programme provided your are careful of their possible “side-effects” and they go along with your programme (e.g., those of distance if your current focus is speed endurance might be appropriate).