Atletiek's Training Journal

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1

My name is Seef le Roux and I am a HS track coach in Stellenbosch in South Africa. I coach 400m and Intermediate hurdles, with my athletes all being teenage girls between 13 and 18. Below are the details of four athletes that have a fair chance of qualifying for the National Championships. My first mission is to get them to qualify. The goal times given are the times they have to run by March 4th. The competition phase of our season runs from 4 Feb to 4 March when we have the State Champs and all athletes who qualify for the Nationals compete until April 4th.

Talitha and Charia only joined my group in January and the other two only joined last week from other coaches. None of them had adequate pre seasons, with none of them doing any weights. I feel it is too late to get them into the gym now. They are young enough to start at the end of this season for next season. I would appreciate it if everyone can give me some feedback on the program, suggestion and predictions as to the fastest times I should expect by March 4th.

ATHLETES

Talitha
Age: 14
PB 200m: 27.9
PB 400m: 63.24
PB 300mH: 50.20
Goal Time 400m: 60.40
Goal Time 300mH: 47.00

Sumarie
Age: 14
PB 200m: 28.9
PB 400m: 64.20
PB 300mH: 51.0
PB 80mH: 13.6
Goal Time 400m: 60.40
Goal Time 300mH: 47.00

Danelle (Currently rated 10th in the Country in the 200mH)
Age: 14
PB 200m: 27.8
PB 400m: 65.10
PB 80mH: 12.6
PB 300mH: 50.10
Goal Time 400m: 60.40
Goal Time 300mH: 47.00

Charia (Currently rated 4th in the country in the 400mH)
Age: 16
PB 200m: 26.4
PB 400m: 62.10
PB 400mH: 68.66 (62 last season)
Goal Time 400m: 59.40
Goal Time 400mH: 66.60

The program is given below and includes all the meets until the major Provincial (State) Championships on the 4th of March. Exercises with “With Hurdles” in the notes column is run over hurdles. All athletes do a 25 min hurdle session with one of the assistant coaches before every training session as part of their warm up. The hurdle session focuses on technique and drills. All times in the program are guidelines only.

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400m PROGRAM

Date: 30 Jan 2006
Week: 42
Mesocycle: Early Competition Mesocycle

Day Exercise Reps Distance Intensity Rest Notes
Monday 30 Jan 2006
5 x 200 @ 75% w/walk back rest 5 200m 75% Walk back rest

Tuesday 31 Jan 2006
3 x 200 (6 min.) 3 200m 100% 6 min rest With Hurdles
2 x 50 (60 sec.) 2 50m 100% 60 sec

Wednesday 01 Feb 2006
8 x 150 @ 75% w/1:3 rest 8 150m 75% 1:3 rest

Thursday 02 Feb 2006
Full Warm Up

Friday 03 Feb 2006
Pre Meet

Saturday 04 Feb 2006
Boland League Meet

Date: 06 Feb 2006
Week: 43 (Accumulation Microcycle)
Mesocycle: Competition Mesocycle

Day Exercise Reps Distance Intensity Rest Notes

Monday 06 Feb 2006
5 x 200 @ 75% w/walk back rest 5 200m 75% Walk back rest

Tuesday 07 Feb 2006
3 x 200 (6 min.) 3 200m 100% 6 min rest With Hurdles
2 x 50 (60 sec.) 2 50m 100% 60 sec

Wednesday 08 Feb 2006
8 x 150 @ 75% w/1:30 rest 8 150m 75% 1:30 rest

Thursday 09 Feb 2006
Acceleration Development SFS 8 90m 100% Full Rest

Friday 10 Feb 2006

Saturday 11 Feb 2006

Date: 13 Feb 2006
Week: 44 (Intensification Mesocycle)
Mesocycle: Competition Mesocycle

Day Exercise Reps Distance Intensity Rest Notes

Monday 13 Feb 2006
3 x 100 w/60 sec. rest 3 100m 90% 60 sec rest
2 x 150 w/5 min. rest 2 150m 90% 5 min rest With Hurdles
2 x 150 w/10 min. rest 2 150m 90% 10 min rest

Tuesday 14 Feb 2006
Acceleration Development SFS 8 90m 100% Full Rest
2x200@400m race pace 2 200m 400m pace Full Rest

Wednesday 15 Feb 2006
8 x 150 @ 75% w/1:30 rest 8 150m 75% 1:30 rest

Thursday 16 Feb 2006
Full Warm Up
Pre Meet

Friday 17 Feb 2006 Sentraal Top 10 Meet (Huge meeting in another state – 300mH and 400mH)
Saturday 18 Feb 2006

Date: 20 Feb 2006
Week: 45 (Intensification Mesocycle)
Mesocycle: Competition Mesocycle

Day Exercise Reps Distance Intensity Rest Notes

Monday 3 x 150 accels - 150 walk - 3 150m 150m walk
20 Feb 2006 3 x 300 @ +:05.5 - 5:00 walk - 3 300m +5 sec 5min walk
1 x 200 @ :28 - 200 walk 1 200m 28 sec 200m walk With Hurdles

Tuesday 3 x 150 accels - 150 walk - 3 150m 150m walk
21 Feb 2006 3 x 200 @ +:04-:03-:02 - 200 walk 3 200m +:04-:03-:02 200m walk

Wednesday Pre Meet
22 Feb 2006

Thursday 4M Meet (Major team competition – No intermediate hurdles)
23 Feb 2006

Friday Warm Up
24 Feb 2006

Saturday Boland Central Meet (District meet - Qualification meet for state champs)
25 Feb 2006

Date: 27 Feb 2006
Week: 46 (Transformation microcycle)
Mesocycle: Competition Mesocycle

Day Exercise Reps Distance Intensity Rest Notes

Monday 3 x 150 accels - 150 walk - 3 150m 150m walk
27 Feb 2006 3 x 200 @ +:04-:03-:02 - 3:00 walk 3 200m +:04-:03-:02 3 min walk

Tuesday 3 x 150 accels - 150 walk - 3 150m 150m walk
28 Feb 2006 4 x 200 @ :26 4 200m 26 sec With Hurdles

Wednesday 3 x 150 accels - 150 walk - 3 150m 150m walk
01 Mar 2006 3 x 200 @ :30-:29-:28 3 200m :30-:29-:28

Thursday
02 Mar 2006 Warm up

Friday Pre Meet
03 Mar 2006

Saturday Boland Championships (State Champs)
04 Mar 2006

2

3 FEBRUARY 2006

No training since Tuesday since all my althetes are at camps this week. A few are running/jumping tonight, I will post their times later.

3

4 February 2006

Charia ran a 400mH last night, her time was 68.03 and Danelle ran 200m in 28 sec. Both were into very strong wind. I am fairly happy with both.

Charia (Currently rated 4th in the country in the 400mH)
Age: 16
PB 200m: 26.4
PB 400m: 62.10
PB 400mH: 68.66 (62 last season)
Goal Time 400m: 59.40
Goal Time 400mH: 66.60

Danelle (Currently rated 10th in the Country in the 200mH)
Age: 14
PB 200m: 27.8
PB 400m: 65.10
PB 80mH: 12.6
PB 300mH: 50.10
Goal Time 400m: 60.40
Goal Time 300mH: 47.00

4

Monday 06 FEB 2006

Athletes did:

6x 3 hurdles @ intermediate distances @ 90% (Focus on changing lead leg over hurdles)
5 x 200m @ 75% with 30 sec rest between runs

Not a easy session as it was close to 40C when we trained.

5

TUE 7 FEB

Another hard session as the temperature keeps climbing. All the girls had a 30 minute technical session with the high hurdles coach. They then did 6x 5 Intermediate hurdles at 13m apart with a 6 step change step pattern. This worked really well, especially to teach the young athletes to run with a change step pattern. After this they did 3x200m at 90% with 6min rest in between, followed by 4x50m with 30sec rest in between.

This was a good hard session.

6

All the girls had a 30 minute technical session with the high hurdles coach followed by 8x150m with 30 sec at 80%. A short and intense set that worked really well.

7

have you got CFTS???

8

Bud,

What exactly is CFTS? I am new to this and am not all that familiar with all the abbreviations.

9

THURSDAY 9 FEB

Yesterday we had a relaxed speed session. The athletes did:
3x3x30m @ as close to 100% as possible with full recovery
8x90m SFS with full recovery.

There is no meet this weekend, so everyone is taking the weekend off, except Charia who will be doing hurdle starts and a time trial on Saturday.

10

hey there,
CFTS=charlie francis training system, you can buy the e-book on the site. i think it would be worth your while to see how he allocates speed work and percentages of runs.

cheers

11

Saving up for it, but its a rather expensive for us Africans buying in dollars. When you say I should buy the CFTS, would you suggest that my percentages are incorrect?

12

Got the CFTS today, will start reading later tonight. Today was very wrm again. Took Charia down to the track for a 400m time trial. She did 61.47, which I think is decent, having had to run against herself. She also did three 400mH starts over 3 hurdles.

She did a 25 pace lead up to the first hurdle and lead both hurdles with the right leg, with 17 paces in between. She wants this setup for as far as she can go before changing to 18 paces and clearing with alternate legs. Is this sensible or what is the optimum setup for a 16-year old 63sec runner?

13

MON 13 FEB

We did 400mH starts at race pace, trying to get down to 22.60s for the first 4 hurdles. Charia ran all three at that pace. This will set her up perfectly for a 63s race on Friday.

14

SUN 19 FEB 2006

I’ve been traveling the last couple of days and just got back from one of the biggest school meetings in South Africa. It was a strenuous journey of 15 hours to get there, and the athletes were very tired on Friday when they had to compete (not ideal, but what can we do?). The results were as followed (All times are electronic):
Charia (age:17) 400mH 65.23s and 400m 62.46s
Talitha (age:15) 300mH 51.00s and 400m 63.04s
Sumari (age:14) 400m 64.08s
Danelle (age:14) 200m 27.37 and 300mH 50.23s

I again realized that the girls all lack speed over the first 200m of the 400m. The stamina is good over the last, but the first 200m is too slow.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to increase their speed over 200m. I only have two weeks to do this, they have to peak on the 3rd of March and have to qualify on the 25th of Feb.

Any ideas? Please Help.

15

We had a big school meeting last night and the girls performed as follows:

Danelle Girls 14 100m 13.00
Danelle Girls 14 200m 27.60
Danelle Girls 14 80mH 12.70

Sumari Girls 14 400m 63.50

Charia Girls 17 400m 62.20

Talitha Girls 15 400m 65.50
Talitha Girls 15 200m 28.80

We have our first provincial (state) meeting tomorrow, so today will be spent recovering.

16

We had our regional champs on Saturday, where all the girls had to qualify for the state champs on the the 3/4 of March. All went well, although everyone was very tired after Thursday’s meeting.

Results:
Danelle Girls 14 100m 12.90
Danelle Girls 14 90mH 14.40
Danelle Girls 14 300mH 49.20

Charia Girls 17 400mH 69.00 (there were mistakes with the hurdles and everyone automatically qualified)

Talitha Girls 15 300mH 49.70
Talitha Girls 15 400m 65.50

Sumari Girls 14 300mH 50.00
Sumari Girls 14 400m 64.10

17

MON 27 FEB 2006

This week’s program will be the last five days of the 10-day peak period. Monday will be light tempo+hurdles, Tuesday will be speed, Wednesday light tempo+hurdles, Thursday complete rest and Friday a pre-meet session.

The girls did:

2 x starts over 3 hurdles
2 x starts over 2 hurdles
2 x starts over 1 hurdle

2 x 200m @85% + 3 hurdles

18

TUE 28 FEB

The girls did short hurdle work with another coach, Alida. Afterwards they did 3 x flying 30’s and 3 x 100m In’s and out’s all at max speed.

19

WED 01 MAR

Today was a public holiday so we had the whole day free to train. The long hurdle girls had their last session before Friday’s qualifying rounds of the state champs.

They did:

1 x hurdle start over 3 hurdles
1 x hurdle start over 2 hurdles
1 x hurdle start over 1 hurdles
1 x hurdle start over 3 hurdles

2 x 150m build-up + 3 hurdles

All four’s rhythms look great and everyone have recovered sufficiently from illness and injury. I think they are all ready to perform well over the weekend.

The jumpers/heptahletes did pop-ups and landing work and the short sprinters did not practice because of illness/injury (they will be back for their final sessions tomorrow). The jumpers/heptathletes will do run-up work as their final prep for the championships.

20

My humble suggestion is to do more flying 30m-60m training at maximum speed to improve speed