Congrats on your success ESTI. I’m not all that familiar with AS’s training with Farah and Rupp but what you describe sounds similar to the Horwill 5 pace system used by Coe and with high school athletes by Scott Christensen and Lyle Knudson. I have read some of Salazar’s interviews from a few years back and he mentioned that in retrospect if he could have changed aspects of his own training he’d have definitely moved away from his high mileage approach to a more balanced program with a much greater speed emphasis than he ever had used with himself. I have now had a few move up from sprints to 800m so I’ve had to pick up a bit of mid distance information, programming though I still tend to be more comfortable to a speed based approach. This will be the first year I will use some intensive tempo with my athletes though as a high int. day (the only way CF would have agreed with such I’m sure) with extensive tempo or cont. recovery runs of short to moderate duration (20-35’) but I will always keep elements of speed in the program. The most important aspect I believe I’ve learned for both sprints and 800m in recent years is that that it’s completely fine and no compromise to use longer cycles in order to include all of what is deemed important and that the athlete won’t necessarily lose the training qualities particularly when they have extensive training backgrounds, i.e. use a 2 week cycle then repeat even if not the same session but at least the same theme.
Last winter 3 of my 800 guys came off xc season into KK’s program for a 12 week gpp and ran within 3-5 seconds of their PRs, indoors! The second GPP I went out to 600 for depletion runs (600+300 etc). I may have cut aerobic work too much too soon too.
For additional notes visit http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?22404-Salazar-5K-10k-training&p=244854#post244854
For xc, I started girls off inJune doing 20 min runs 3-4 days weekly. 1 day turned into a long run where we peaked at 80 minutes towards end of september (4 weeks from major meets). One day turned into fartleks I picked up from Finn, who wrote “running with the kenyans.” He was open to sharing and stated in his visit, 5k types did either 20 sets of 1 min hard 1 min easy, or 17 sets of 2 min hard 1 min easy. The easy isn’t really easy either.
7 weeks from regional meet, we started salazars intervals. We did 2 week cycles 3 times. the cycle would be Tues 2x10x200, thursday 5-6x1000, race sat, then tues 2x10x200, Thursday 3-4x(600,400,300,200), race sat. I considered the races threshold runs as most resources I found consider 5k to be a pure vo2 distance. We overraced early and in the first week of oct were on bikes to heal shin splints from tight calves.
Last tuesday 10/2/2012 we had a league race. wed was recovery. Thursday 20-1-1 kenyans, friday long run (60 min). weekend optional runs.
Monday (today) 10x400, tuesday 12-2-1 kenyans. wed easy run or bike. thursdy 5-6x1200. friday easy run, sat race.
I will update the plan in the coming weeks
this week my sprinters started up training. I will be using 3 programs this winter. short2long, long to short, and KK’s template for 12 week gpp. more info to come soon…
Saturday Oct 13. Our county XC race. It was cold and raining (40F).
The course was wet with taller grass than normal. The girls didn’t complain much and out of the 14 girls who ran today, 12 set at least a season best time, if not a personal record. It was really fun to see them so excited to be healthy and running fast!
Thursday this week on a windy day, we did 5x1600 with 3 minutes rest. The girls hit their times which are predictors. Some girls ran those times today, some are very close!
Most of the work is done. A few more races to go. A few girls are in “race and rest” mode and a few others will do some specific workouts I feel they need.
Following the last post of mine, our team had 2 more Saturday races (league championship and regionals). The league championship was very flat and some girls ran well, some did good, but not PRs. At regionals, most girls had the mindset it was a slower course etc. Turned out nearly all of them PR/Season best it! I nearly was in tears to know it was over and to see how far they had come since I first met with them in June.
I can’t post the image on here but here is the link to each girl’s season progress
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/63548988/uxc%20no%20name.jpg
The date that is blank was a meet I decided to not run in because the girls were starting to complain about calf issues, and the next race was important for the team.
Quite a few yellow boxes in that final week. Well done!
Best,
Christopher
Thanks Chris! That is something I am quite proud about. Planning was executed quite well. The lonely gal who struggled all year had ITB issues and fought every race. She was a senior and didn’t want to miss any races. I plan on using a similar format for my girls 800-3200 runners this winter and spring.
This winter and spring I will not be overseeing the training of the girls. I am quite nervous on several levels. I will, however, be involved in organizing their strength training throughout the winter, and most likely, throughout the spring as well.
A few of my female 400m runners started running, but I realized they had knee pain prior to starting the program, we quickly stopped training after a week and are now spending time fixing up some of the issues I found. They will do bike rides for endurance for now and strength train twice a week. This is a situation where I can do more, but I am tied with time conflicts. I have a program for my hurdlers (which varies slightly for each of them), a program for my sprinters, and another for the 400m girls. When I only have 90 minutes available, this is less than ideal, but certainly a real situation for many coaches.
I’m confident things will work out in the end, but the 400m girls will probably not run any indoor meets unless they see serious progress in the strength workouts, since a big cause of their pain is weakness in the hips and quads.
More details to come over time!
Are you planning to attend the USTFCCCA Convention in Orlando later this month?
Best,
Christopher
Training is going well. Hurdlers are focusing on execution to the first hurdle for the next few weeks, continuing their SE and max speed work as well with repeat 60s and EFE, FEFs. My boy sprinter (the others are MIA), is doing very well and is on pace to run sub 7 so far.
The distance girls are in a mileage block and we have added strength training 2x weekly.
I have a few others that are working around prior injuries, such as knee pain. They are biking, and working on strengthening the legs.
So far so good. I am a happy coach!
1/4/13
Just an update separate from the 110H journal. MY sprinter had been doing 30m electronic block starts in the 4.2 range, predictable to 7.30 FAT in competition. Thursday, 1/3/13, he ran 7.35 FAT. He qualified for indoor state finals in his first meet, a huge goal for him. I think he can still go sub 7. Emphasis has been only to 40m in workouts. His starts in practice are fairly consistent. I’ve noticed other sprint based clubs progress very little over the course of indoors. My guys historically have done really well progressing.
I have 3 hurdlers doing indoor. My #2 ran 9.14 and qualified for indoor state finals as well. The #3 is within 0.2 of qualifying.
Overall progress is really good in the sprint side. Distance runners are really young and really slow this year. We have been incredibly strong past 2 seasons but with weak field events and only strength in hurdles and sprints and relays, we are going to struggle against a lot of teams on the boys side.
On the girls side, a hurdler is close to qualifying. Last year she was out #4. The other 3 girls , 2 playing basketball, and 1 is AWOL. She has improved a ton so far and look forward to more improvements in her. The distance girls are doing ok. They are now working with the other coach doing mostly mileage (against my advice to her) and have done some fun races indoors.
Monday 1/7/13
Today everyone was not feeling energetic. He did a few standing 30s, block 30s, and some hurdle work using Ange’s suggestion of lower and pushed in over 2 hurdles. We then did some standing run through working on a shuffling stride. This is new to me and to him. I’m thinking I might have overcoached it today.
Not much else to report. Looking forward to next meet on Jan 21 to see his progress.
When you see a pattern " everyone was not feeling energetic" usually it’s a message. It’s tough to ignore a larger group sample if most or all are looking and or feeling similarly.
Introducing something new on a day when they are not 100 percent is likely to give you mixed feelings, results and or feedback from what you might expect.
You did not over coach .
You are learning and finding your way and doing an excellent job.
This is a situation where I am trying to force things to happen at a time when they are not ready, and if we don’t get it done I feel we are behind schedule. I struggle with this. I realized the races would have a impact beyond one day, and they did. The next workout will be Thursday, 1 week later. I feel it was a “wasted” week, but in reality, it probably isn’t.
Fri 1/11/13
Weather was incredibly warm for Jan, 55F. The track was melted so we were outside. It was wonderful. The hurdler was on a college visit, he ran in the halls Thursday.
The sprinter had a great workout. We had a nice tailwind today as well.
4x30 standing
4x30 blocks 3.8s HT from first foot movement
3x40+20
3x60 (50+m) I mis marked the first 2, running about 55m in 6.55 and 6.66, then on #2, marked to 60m, and he ran 6.88HT, his fastest training time to date. He ran 7.35 last meet, but feel he was in 7.20 form then. He lost form last 20m. I think he is sub 7.20 right now. I feel he can run sub 7 by the end of February, that is the goal I have for him.
The other hurdlers did well today. One is doing L-S coming from XC and one did the S-L workout above. Both runners his PRs in the training distances today.
Next week the plan is Mon and Wed, Friday would be hurdle specific things and block starts for the sprinter. Meet on Jan 21 (Monday).
Training for everyone has been sporadic. Kids have been getting sick here and there. The sprinter has been consistent with training. Being in the 40-50m intensity limit right now, it’s certainly kicking his butt. tonight, Jan 31, he ran 7.35 again! 3rd meet in a row now. I felt last meet he was in 7.20 shape. Today I thought for sure he’d run 7.20. He is a bit tight and I will start my therapy work with him. I’m looking for a huge state finals Feb 23 from him.
A challenge I am facing going through a full s-L SPP is timing the days they will feel good. There are some days I can tell they feel great, and others just flat. Nonetheless, everyone is healthy and we had an opportunity to run in a great environment and run fast. The next race is about 2 weeks away, and then state finals 10 days after that.
If you figure out what’s up with him please post. I had a stretch in university where I ran 7.17 4 or 5 meets in a row.
I think it’s being consistent throughout the entire race from start, to transition to finish. He’s had good starts, and poor finishing, then bad start, great finish, and last nite was average start and average finish. Certainly some pressing running against guys out in front of him.
As the intensity limits have increased, so has his muscle tone. So even though his performance times are the same, there is improvement. But we are close to danger zone being so tight.
Feb 22
The other runners have been working hard. A hurdler and a sprinter will run tomorrow (Sat) at the indoor state finals. For them, making to semi’s will be a huge accomplishment. I’m expect 8.90 for the hurdler and 7.20 for the sprinter. Those would be great accomplishments for them for this winter season.
Training wise, since the last post, we have been doing 5-8 x30s (in 2 sets), and 3-4x60 between 40-60m intensity limits. Times were pretty flat for most of the phase in the 60s so I am curious to see how they run tomorrow.
I will post tomorrow night the update!
After this meet, they will get some time off before starting back up for the outdoor high schools season.