I am a little confused about how training someone who runs in the 11s like myself would be done.
I had a look through some threads and in the CFTS and I’m just confused on the training focus. Because the top speed is reached earlier on in the run then there’s a larger need for speed endurance, but in first year training would you really focus on this or would you concentrate more on the acceleration and top speed so that in the following year there will be a longer acceleration and higher top speed and thus less need for speed endurance?
Obviously Charlie’s triple periodisation is one thing, but from a personal perspective I’ve lost the majority of the year due to injury and can only just start doing GPP after Christmas, and even that will have to be very gradual to reintroduce sprinting. The only competition I may be running will be in May for 100m. So should I be putting my focus on acceleration and top speed, but take things easy and hope that I’ll be able to take a full years training come next September/October.
Also, as I will have no competition in July/August, after the May competition what should I really be training? Should I continue as if I were to be competing in July/August?
Not done much sprint specific training in the past. I did about 2 months of sprint work which mostly involved improving my running technique. I was running ‘quickly’ but taking short strides, which worked okay for playing some sports as I could change direction quickly out of this kind of running, but now I’d like to see how well I can do at tracks.
The previous sprint work involved technique, 10-50m sprints, and plyometric work. Unfortunately I got hit with some nasty shin splints which has sidelined me for quite a while. However, having tried a few sprints recently I feel as though my ability to run at top speed has improved, but my acceleration ability has declined in the first 10m. Notably alongside this so has my vertical jump. I also think I could do with improving my ability to run ‘low’.
What is your general fitness like after the lay off? What about tempos and circuit training (calisthenics) or to build up again? Charlie has posted some very good advice on working with and round shin splints which you should read. When you get back to speed work, short sprints on a grass incline should provide a good base for improving your acceleration again but that’s nothing to worry about. The main thing is keeping clear of shin splints.
Although after 9 months off due to a achilles/ankle injury and a pain in the … illness I have to totally rebuild general fitness, which I am doing.
In Charlies book he says build the thing that is going to improve the time the most and don’t worry about starts (etc…) so get general conditioning down first, by all accounts get the video of GPP and watch that. I intend to do so in the near future.
So Tempo, Circuits etc… would be a good place to start.
For tempo whilst I’ve been off I’ve used a rowing machine and done a 45 seconds on, 15 seconds off type thing with moderate effort. Doing this for 4 x 5 minutes.
I’ve also stuck by weights, and added olympic lifts to try and keep some power based element in my workouts.
So if I continue to work on general fitness, and add running based tempo to my workouts (although obviously at the moment I am trying to avoid too much running based training) this should help me with the speed endurance element of the 100m? Meanwhile in my sprint work, when I am fully back to sprinting I can work on acceleration/top speed and with such a short time period between now and May, rely on fitness to carry me through the final part of the race?
This is a very important thing that has stuck to my head… how much should we worry about the general fitness. I mean What is the measure. Or should you just keep worrying about it all the time. When is the point where its time to fix your attention on the starts , etc…??
I think it is important. Although when people talk about general fitness (generally) they talk about slogging continuous runs etc…
This is where sprinters and throwers and jumpers shouldn’t go.
Do I have the answers, no. There are far better people on this forum to answer this.
I think some speed element should be involved from the start. I read how John Smith starts with 9 steps (I think) of accelerating in a run and the rest is coasting and he gradually increases the number of steps over the GPP.
I’ll add another question to the original one, that is not about elite sprinters, but more about ‘us normal guys’.
What sort of minimally acceptable 2-mile time would you find for a 200m runner? Does one exist? Obviously these two events are not strongly co-related, but at some point could one could say ‘you are too out of shape to be sprinting,’ and if so, when would that be?
I’m sorry, But there is absolutly no relation between the 2. When I could do the 200m in 20.9 I couldn’t jog for 2 miles. I don’t think I could finish 8 laps. Or may be I could’ve then but I would have had to go over 2 minutes per lap. At some other instances I had to do some continuous running since I was injured and that was the only pace I could go. After recovering I was running so badly in SE session even though I could beat so many people in the long running…!! For me I say, there is no relation. Although that sometimes I like to do some long runs in the morning. But thats only when I feel like it. Its like a morning jog. I don’t know. I feel like it every 2 months or something. I do it 3-4 days and then I get board. But its just like going to the swiming pool for fun with friends or going to the beach, you just never consider it training. I have never considered the morning jogs ( that pop up in mind so rarely “just like any other lazy person”) to be a training of any kind.