wow, first post and I am impressed with the experience level on this forum.
I do have Charlie’s e-book.
My immediate interest lies in developing my senior in high school sprinting to what will be an “acceptable” level given his attitude and talents . More on that maybe later, but for now, with your assistance, I want to pose what are a couple of basic questions:
Just how important is steady-state mileage (aerobic endurance) to the high school (17 years old) double/triple sprinter’s training?
Off season? Pre - season? …and In season?
Should it, like CLyde Hart, be high in off season base period and then taper?
Or should it be a progressive increase into the season?
Or should it be minimal at best, and endurance left to speed, tempo, strength endurance workouts?
My kid may run 3-5 events per meet.
Next post question will be about basic peaking guidelines: off season to early season, state h.s. meet, then nationals.
THanks in advance for any and all comments, suggestions, questions and advice.
In my opinion it is as important as are 30m starts for a marathon runner A young sprinter gets all the aerobic endurance he/she needs from playing games (basketball, soccer, badminton, anything that requires speed and quickness), tempo running, circuit training, medicine ball throws, etc. These would all be included through the whole season at this point of the career, reducing the volume somewhat as approaching in season.
Basically Jumpman sums it up nicely but I will add my two cents. There will be others who think differently than myself.
In terms of developing an athlete in a pure athletic sense, the best thing to do would be to develop a long term plan around their growth volume or Peak Height Velocity. In this sense your 17 year old son is probably right in the opportune training window for the aerobic training he would get from your steady state runs; however, if you are focussing specifically on sprints any aerobic run more than 20 to 30 minutes will have a detraining effect on your son’s ability to sprint. If you do run, try it in the morning before breakfast, and do it more for recovery in between your really intense days. You can do much more volume of this sort of activity for 8 - 10 weeks in the general prep phase as it helps with the strengthening and conditioning of connective tissues as well as increasing blood volume, stroke volume and a plethora of other niceties that aid in recovery later on in the season. More experienced athletes would need less of this as there is a cumulative training effect from season to season, but it sounds like your son is beginning his sprinting career.
thanks TDickson,
I hope we are getting it right. We started in Sept.
Here’s more detail:
He has an aerobic p.e. class at school every day
We try to get an every other day workout in the late afternoon:
-day - tempo at 70-75%; 400,300,200,100,200,300,100 (about a mile)
-day - 60 meter hill runs (about 60 to 85%) 3 x 3 60m.) walk down.
-day - currently starting speed work and starts
-day - fartlek; 3 sets of : 75 sec run, 150 sec jog; 60 sec run, 120 sec jog.
This seems to be a fairly light workout sched as compared to most on this site. I hope its enough to optimize his upcoming season. when he gets to season, he will be doing a lot of speed work with the team. What do you all think?
How long is the aerobic work every day? and will this last all year?
You should not worry so much about how much he does but more on how well he does it. I must say that it is very difficult to offer you much wisdom without really knowing your son and knowing his individual strengths. I know two boys who run sub 50 in the 400 and one does so on a steady diet of 800m repeats. The other rarely runs anything more than 300m in practice. My question to the one who does more volume is “would you rather continue running 48.9 or train to run 44?” without the speed work he will never ever get there. If he cannot run 10.6 for 100m (currently 11.3) he will not run 44 in the one lap race. The sprinter runs 49.2 but he can run a 10.8. I have more hope for the future of the sprinter. He needs do develop more aerobic power and anaerobic power. The other needs to develop more speed. Both have different training parameters and different needs.
I am sure that I sound like I am trying to avoid answering your question here, but I assure you that I am not. Developing a program for an athlete is highly individual, and it would be irresponsible and probably disrespectful for me to truly answer your question with a yes it looks great, or no you should try this. So instead I am offering you some time honoured advice: test your athlete often for improvements, monitor his health, document everything. In so doing you will be able to determine if the training is working, avoid injury and burnout, and learn specifically from your mistakes or successes. Learn about technique but learn more about recovery. Technical knowledge will develop as your eye develops in its ability to see inefficiencies in human movement, but knowledge of recovery will help you to keep your athletes healthy, and healthy athletes can train. Training may lead to success despite our best efforts and despite our lack of technical knowledge.
Others may disagree but this is how I see it for now.
Thanks TDickson,
Yeah each is different and we can only compare and empathise.
Joe is like the sprinter; he also hates distance work, and he struggles a little with solo workouts (he is socially oriented) yet he knows it to be in his better interest.
I have a situation where if it were soley up to the kid’s initiative, he would not be a state champ today, and coming up on a notable senior season.
The aerobics I refer to are whatever is involved in a typical p.e. class curriculum. 35-40 min. (soccer, bball, football, mile run, etc) Nevertheless, we have the luxury if you will, of counting that in GPP. It is more cardio and aerobic than anything.
He gets only some core work there occasionaly.(an area that I will have to fit in with his workouts - ab and pushups in between reps).
I agree with you on your priorities (health over all) : it resonates with my experience over last 3-4 years of sports with Joe. It can be hit or miss if we push them into situations that might include overtraining, injury, mental and physical burnout. Yet there is a fine line that coaches and ambitious athletes alike must tread between doing all one can and going too far.
So I think I am at least taking a logical approach to gpp so far. (tempo, endurance, strength, and introducing speed). If anything I struggle over balance between caution and procrastination. (talk, but not enough walk).
We are adding speed work and start technique; 25 to 40% of total work, and i am learning as I go. Once we get some speed under our belt, we will get into speed endurance.
I have the sense that what we have done over the last 2 months has laid a minimum foundation so as we continue I will focus on QUALITY as much as possible.
Can anyone point out where we saw/read some basic start technique? I remember seeing nice photos of low shin angle takeoffs. I know that Maurice has the strength do do that, and most kids are nowhere near that, but it pains me to see kids take off with their heads down superficially (not aligned with spine) trying to follow coach’s cue to stay low.
I have to “untrain” Joe about that “cue” and also the cue to lean into the finish.
Question; do we stretch before speed work (or even 100m event) or not?
This may be a general principle, but don’t get too caught up in it. I’ve always felt free to do whatever type of pre-workout stretching circumstances call for, often moving from static to dynamic, though always with the idea of enhanced flexibility comming through static stretching post-workout.
Interestingly, in the comp period, top athletes find static stretching doesn’t do a whole lot as they already have the ROM, so it’s only a check. The action comes from dynamic work.
Charlie, to beat a dead horse, what is the maximal # of seconds(approx.) for a static stretch that a warm-up should have PRIOR to speed work. 15-20 seconds before elastic response is numbed or deadened at least temporarily? Or is magnitude of the stretch the more important factor, saving the deeper stretch for post workout?
and talents 
. More on that maybe later, but for now, with your assistance, I want to pose what are a couple of basic questions:
A young sprinter gets all the aerobic endurance he/she needs from playing games (basketball, soccer, badminton, anything that requires speed and quickness), tempo running, circuit training, medicine ball throws, etc. These would all be included through the whole season at this point of the career, reducing the volume somewhat as approaching in season.