LKH and UKCheetah were kind enough to help me with planning a contrast workout 10 day taper (leading to july 22nd)
BUT heres the situation.
I was just offered to run in the Macabia in a 100m invitation heat on TUESDAY (huge meet)
So option 1 would be to run tomorrow and enjoy the big meet, and just do a 7 day taper leading to the 22nd meet without contrasts - all traditional.
Option 2 - Do a contrast TODAY and skip tuesday meet, and possibly hit a huge PR on the 22nd- also risk injury i guess.
May I add the the 22nd MAY just be the last meet, and I NEED a fast time this season.
ACtually not the last meet, i think I will be able to set up another invitational or two with friends in August.
Tuesday meet is big though, at least 500 spectators… good conditions, good feel to it… But im not “ready by the book” to it… well, I didn’t do anything high intensity other than weights since last tuesday’s meet which was pretty bad by feel but not a bad time.
Thats why it’s a dilema.
What would the pro’s here do ?
Thanks ahead for your time !
I would avoid downhill - being you have never done it before. too high a risk of injury leading into a decient meet. You might not and you might. a 50/50 chance of getting injured is way too high a risk.
I would not run the Tue race, unless you could run 95%… but i think not.
Do the 10day taper as outlined - really recover and run well.
If you feel your top speed is lacking (which i think its fine) you could do some fly 20’s.
I think your area of focus is the Transition from blocks to full speed. Around the 20-30m mark.
Keep your prize in sights big fella (the race in 10days). The little races you can forget
I would show up at the big meet on Tuesday and check conditions. If it’s 80 degrees and +4.0 winds, you probably want to run it.
If you want to run fast, you can’t afford to totally ignore meets just because you have a taper planned. Your taper may lead you to peak in the rain with -2.0 winds. Who knows?
If your goal is a fast time for the year, go to the Tuesday meet and if good conditions, run. If sub-optimal conditions, skip it and train. If your goal is to win on the 22nd, then skip the Tuesday meet and continue your plan until the 22nd.
You don’t need more than a 7 day taper at your level, especially if you have been progressively lowering the volume over the last few weeks (which is what you would do if this meet was your season peak).
The contrast is probably not going to do crap to help you for the big meet. If it is as intense as claimed, you won’t have time to recover. Ask LKH how many HSI guys did it…
I think it comes down to how much you want to go for that ONE fast time. As someone else has already noted, you probably won’t be able to race, do the 4X30+80+100+120+150 and be at peak on time for the 22nd.
It appears that you need 2 weeks after a contrast session to get optimal benefits for racing, but 10 days should be enough for an improvement. And if it’s your last race, you would have all offseason to recover if you did get injured (it doesn’t appear anybody that has tried it this summer has gotten injured). I would probably go this way simply because it fits better with your schedule for the 22nd meet.
The part of what Carmelita did this year that I intend to copy for next year is this:
Major emphasis on starts during indoors
More overdistance during early outdoor season.
400 meter races 2 consecutive weekends in early April.
100m race the next weekend (WB at Mt Sac this year for Carmelita)
I plan 2 contrast sessions after Mt. Sac, then 2-3 weeks of training cutting down to racing, but no way is John Smith going to have anything to do with that.
But Dennis Shaver has had great success doing this, including the silver medalist last year.
Thanks everybody ! Still hard to decide what to do
Mort and Nik - Say conditions are good tomorrow, there is a +1.5 tailwind and good competition (no chance of +4…) and it’s not very very hot.
That leaves me 7 days for a taper to the 22nd, is that enough ?
If the wind appears to be zero and i’m not feeling a PR in warmup, quit ? and then what ? do the 4x30 80,100,150 instead ?
With 1.5m/s you could do a contrast type warm-up. When it’s windy I usually do accels into the wind and then my last top speed accel with it, about 20mins before racing.
