Basic Plan for GPP and SPP

Expert Discussion Advanced Sprint Training
1

As my head track coach is extremely unhelpful in the offseason and our fantastic assistant coach is currently busy coaching cross country, I have kind of been set on my own to plan offseason workouts, being the only person at my school to want to train year round for track and field. I am very new at this (I am a 15 year old sophomore in high school and have a training age of three years) and have difficulty understanding everything on this board. but with what is currently within my grasp, I have sort of developed a workout program and I desparately need to be critiqued to not train for failure. After having spent three years on and off in injury, sickness, and poor training, I am sort of turning to you guys to help me out. I have planned a two month GPP, followed a four or five month pre-comp phase, after which I will be in outdoor season and hopefully my coach will help me with pre-comp and competition phases. But to stop babbling, here is a very basic outline of what I would like to do. I would like to mention that I can’t lift weights with my right arm untill at least mid-october, the reason for some odd lifts and such. Also, I am running cross country, but will have time to do sprint work and lift in the mornings and after xc practice. I’ll be doing my speed work on long run or easy days and tempo with the XC team. I also do about 300 abs a night.

GPP:
Monday: Accel. Development (going short to long, starting at 10m and adding 10m a week), this will be after a long run
Tuesday: Ext. Tempo
Wednesday: Long run, followed by Circuit training w/: Hip Sled, One Armed Machine Bench, Hamstring Curls, One armed bicep curls, Jump rope
Thursday: Ext. Tempo
Friday: Accel. Development
Circuit training may be replaced with regular lifts on hip sled and machine bench eventually…cleans will be added on Mondays and Fridays after being cleared to do so.

SPP: During most of this it will be too cold to be on the track, i might be able to for the first month or so. I’ll post expected track workouts for the first month
Monday:Speed work (30-60m, depending on workout), Plyos after it’s too cold, Cleans and Squats
Tuesday: Ext. Tempo (would tons of reps at 40m work, cuz i’ll have to be inside alot)
Wednesday: Same as Monday
Thursday: Same as Tuesday
Friday: Bleacher running, lactic tolerance

Occaisionally we will go to a track two hours away, so I will probably do Special endurance whenever we get there. I will have a test day sometime in december to taper towards. I will also run an indoor track meet the last week of January and the third week of Febuary, and maybe one in mid march. My main concern is coming into outdoor track more prepared than ever, and being ready to peak in May at State. I am sure that I have made MANY mistakes making this, so PLEASE help
:confused:

2

My 2 cents…

I would say stay away from any speed work during GPP. The period should only last you 4-6 weeks, so I would stay away from speed work entirely during that period and focus on some general strength work (like circuits) and stuff like hills/bleachers, Int. Tempo runs, stuff like that. You are going to die doing that much acc. dev. when you are just starting to get back into full-time training. If you do decide to keep it, go only 1 day a week.

Another thing is that hills or something like that should be a part of the program if possible. I would say put them on Friday and maybe something like Int. Tempo on Wednesday, or take Wednesday off and do hills Thursday followed by tempo Friday and maybe just an extended warm-up Saturday.

That’s for GPP.

During SPP, you can start doing more acc.dev./speed work and then you could work your way towards 2x a week along with speed endurance work. I would recommend doing Speed work Friday if you want to do it 2x and put the bleachers or lactic tolerance on Wednesday. BTW, bleachers are not really lactic tolerance work. Bleachers are more for general conditioning and teaching foot speed, that’s about it. Lactic tolerance can be achieved through speed endurance or special endurance runs or Int. Tempo.

As for phase lengths, I would say 4-6 weeks for GPP, 6-8 weeks for SPP, then 8 weeks for Pre-Comp. and the rest of indoor for competition. Then, take a break for a week, cross-train and go out and do like a 3-4 week Pre-Comp. phase and do Competition training throughout the rest of the outdoor season. That would probably put you in the best position to peak properly, in my opinion. Hopefully this helped.

Holla back with any questions…peace.

3

thanx for the help 400Stud.

Alright since i’m making the program myself i can change it alot so how would this look. I kinda want to keep an 8 week GPP so that at least the last 3 weeks or so I can start doing work with my right arm, post surgery and all. Tempo will have to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays as I’m doing it w/ the XC team and that’s when they do it. how does this look, though, for GPP? BTW, the bleacher running i do is hard to explain but when I do it I go VERY lactic. Its done on bleachers about 25 steps high w/ about 40 feet in between stairs and you run up, across the top to the next set of stair, down them, across, up, and around, making a loop. This is done as fast as you can go three times. I usually finish in about 2min10sec. Best I can do for lactic in the winter.

Mon: Long Run, Hills
Tues: Ext. Tempo
Wed: Long Run, Circuit Training
Thurs: Int. Tempo
Fri: Long Run, Bleachers
Sat: Light Run, Extended warmup

For SPP it will be very difficult to get speed work in because I will be confined to a gym for most of the time. I will be on the track untill it snows, though. The only Int. Tempo I could do is something like 50x40yards, I don’t know how beneficial that would be. Speed work can’t go over 40 yards, I won’t have room. I can also do starts w/ blocks up to 20m. Here is a modified plan.

Mon: Cleans, Plyos, Accel. Development
Tues: Int. Tempo
Wed: Bench, Squats, Plyos
Thurs: Int. Tempo
Fri: Cleans, Speed

We may travel to a nearby indoor track three or four times, and if we do I will probably do Speed Endurance, replacing Friday’s speed work. BTW, I will Do Accell. Development, all tempo, and Speed on mornings before school and lift after. Plyos will also bed done after.

4

Alright here. My comments:

  1. Why so much mileage? Even though you want to build endurance you should probably get it through Ext. Tempo. It is the same with mileage in that both are aerobic endurance, but tempo allows you to run a bit faster and work on form more.

  2. I would suggest putting Int. Tempo on Monday, hills on Friday and bleachers on Wednesday. Then have Ext. Tempo on Tuesday and Thursday.

  3. Eliminate all the long runs, except maybe on Saturday, you might be able to get away with a fartlek. Try to stay away from mileage as a sprinter. Fiber conversion.

  4. Your SPP is going to kill you. My suggestion:

Monday - Acc. Dev./Plyos/Weights
Tuesday/Thursday - Ext. Tempo and maybe circuit training
Wednesday - Just weights and plyos or rest or Int. Tempo with weights
Friday - Speed/Special Endurance or another Acc. Dev. day. Weights
Saturday - Ext. Tempo and/or long warm-up

You can’t go from no speed work whatsoever to one day of acc. dev. and one day of speed work in the same week. The best you can start out with is two days of acc. dev.

  1. Int. Tempo is lactic tolerance type work in its own right, so two days of it might be a bit much for you if your bleachers really are that hard. You might want to consider taking a day off during the week or eliminating/lowering intensity of your bleachers day.

That’s it for now, I think. Holla back with any questions. Peace.

400Stud

5

Again, I can’t thank you enough for helping me out 400Stud, I truly appreciate it. The mileage is because I am also in Cross Country this year. I may or may not be able to shorten the mileage, my coach is talking to a couple other coaches about it, and might visit this site. But that is why Tempo has to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays also, those are the days the team does it. BTW, I’m not completly out of sprint shape, i ran meets all summer and have been running without a real plan since then (jogs w/ my CC friends, and sprints in, not technical at all). But I see your point on pretty much everything. how’s this look? Long runs on same days tentatively.

GPP:
Mon: Int. Tempo
Tues: Ext. Tempo
Wed: Bleachers
Thur: Ext. Tempo
Fri: Circuit Training, Hills
Sat: Extended warmup

SPP:
Mon: Cleans, Accel. Devel., Plyos
Tues: Ext. Tempo, Circuit Training
Wed: Bench, Squat, Plyos
Thurs: Ext. Tempo
Fri: Bleachers or Speed Endurance (depending on access), Cleans
Sat: Extended Warmup

6

No, problem. Anytime.

Beautiful. Just like I suggested :smiley: .

If you want, have your coach e-mail me and we can talk so I can explain to him why mileage will be more detrimental than helpful.

Tempo workouts with the team are cool, but long, slow runs of excessive distances make it really hard to train for speed.

7

Agree, extensive tempo in place of long runs- also bleachers should be done first after the warm-up, with extensive tempo after.

8

A sprinter should not go no more than 3 to 4 weeks without doing speed work. (Charlie Francis, Training for Speed E book)

9

Chris, I believe I have figured out how to do some speed work, at least once a week, during CC. On every Wednesday, it is an “easy” day of either biking or swimming. Since I am in a cast I can do neither, and my coach is letting me to Accel. Development. I will be focusing mostly on technique of course. In doing this I might move my Bleachers to Tuesday before Ext. Tempo.

10

What are bleachers?

11

You know, running up and down the stadium steps around the football fields. Bleachers.

You can do a lot on bleachers besides running up and down them. I do some GS work on them as well.

12

Thanx for telling me what bleachers are but GS?

13

General Strength work. Basically anything you can do in or out of the weightroom to help develop the body more. Bodyweight exercises, circuits, things of that nature.

14

whats the difference between extensive tempo and regular tempo?

15

There is no regular tempo. There is Ext. Tempo (probably what you are referring to), Int. Tempo and continuous tempo.

Ext. Tempo (or just tempo b/c it is used most often) is the reps of 100-600m (only that high for 400m runners) with short rests (30-60sec. in most cases) and the highest volume of any workout.

Int. Tempo and Continous Tempo I will explain if you want (time constraints :smiley: )

16

why stop? go ahead do ya thang.

17

Continuous Tempo is your long jogs. You know, the mileage? It’s runs at like 50-60% of max speed/effort for prolonged distances of time. Long runs and fartleks are in this category.

Int. Tempo is your reps of 100-400m (for me…I wouldn’t expect short sprinters to go over 300m) with longer, but not extended, rest periods (1-5min). These workouts help the body deal with lactic acid and, in some cases, are the building block into SE and Speed Endurance work to come. Volume here probably not over 1600m (for longer sprinters, probably).

Anything else :wink: ?

18

i understand intensive are about 85% to 95%, so are speed endurance like 100% with longer rest and with shorter distances/volume? what’s the difference between SE and speed endurance.

19

The terms as I understand them
Cont tempo > Ext. tempo > Int. Tempo
Speed Endurance > Special Endurance 1> Special Endurance 2
Speed End = 60-150m@100% Specific to preping the sprinter to 100m peak performance total volume = 2 sets (120-300m)
Special End 1 150-250m@100% for the 200m sprinter total vol = 2 sets (300-500m)
Special End 2 300-500m@100% for the 400m sprinter Total vol = 2 sets (600-1000m)
could be wrong, just what I’ve seen

20

I think you are correct Brian, also intensive tempo is not done in the CFTS program as far as I understand. Extensive tempo is used for recovery days. Check out the ALACTIC TRAINING thread currently active. Charlie is giving some premium info on the direction of training for an athlete who has not reached 10.5 secs. It is relevant because all of the above, Ext Tem, Sp End, Sp End I and II should be the main aim until you reach 10.5 secs, then to gleen off the 0.5 secs you concentrate more on speed (alactic training).