Hi everyone, this seems to be an extremely knowledgeable community so with my first post, I have a few questions. I was a high school basketball player (just graduated high school) and I recently decided to turn towards sprinting. I have a strong background in strength training/plyo but basically zero in terms of speed work. Some of my weight room numbers/speed are:
I want to compete in the 60/100 in the future
I have great acceleration but lack a bit in top speed category and significantly in speed endurance. I have never done any type of speed workout and was thinking of doing a GPP track plan from here: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/ssn/CCA%20PDF/Run-100m%20Sprint.PDF
I was wondering if that program is too intense for a raw beginner and if I need to decrease the volume. I’ve read some of CF’s materials/sample S-L/L-S programs but they all seemed to be geared towards high-class sprinters. I basically want to train for a year before competing so I have a lot of time on my hand.
Also, after any GPP program, how much volume (ballpark) would be in an SPP for a beginner like me?
I haven’t looked in detail through the link, but I did look at the first workout in week 1 of the first mesocycle, and they have you running out to 20, 30, and 40 metres five times each at a pretty high intensity. That doesn’t sound like such a good idea for someone without a sprint background. However, there are others here that will have a much better ability to comment on the specifics of the program.
I think it’s important to mention that since you have no background in sprinting, you could do all the GPP stuff, but if you don’t have good technique, you may be creating a lot of technical problems for yourself in the longer term even if you are getting faster.
Charlie’s GPP download is outstanding. It is logical, and many of the exercises require minimal correction. I think you’d be wise to invest in it regardless. Don’t expect a cookie cutter solution though, everyone is different and the volumes need to be adjusted for each individual. Once you get the basic principles, people here can help you tweak the volume.
Where are you located? Maybe someone here knows a good coach in your area. Do you have a track club nearby?
What I’m getting at is that it’s really hard as a brand new track athlete to execute a GPP all by yourself. There is a ton of volume, and many new movements to learn and for this reason you really do need someone to supervise your workouts. If you’re able to, spend the money and do it right the first time. If you learn the correct technique from the start, nobody has to undo your bad habits- that can be a nightmare!
I would say that program is not what a beginner like you would want to do. I would recommend 1 week of tempo and medballs only, then introduce speed over a couple weeks, then introduce weights over a couple more weeks, then introduce plyos. Over a long period of time. There is no rush and you already seem to have a solid strength background. You will need to acclimate your body to the demands of maximal speed work slowly so you can stay healthy and reap the benefits of long-term, consistent practice. Consider starting your sprints, when you introduce them, on hills to reduce the eccentric shock to the body and help naturally create solid form. 10m is enough at the start, and increase the distance over time. Once you become comfortable with 40-50m hills, you can start to integrate flat land sprints, starting again at 10m. As you approach SPP, after a 10+ week GPP, I would say that 500m of speed is definitely the max you would want to perform, most likely less.
Thanks! I live in Vancouver but I am moving to Waterloo for University in a month. I am working with my high school coach/trainer and I showed him the workout and he said it was fine. I am assuming that because I have worked up to other weight programs/plyo workouts which are also of high intensity, he assumed I would be okay with that workout and said I should be able to handle it. Maybe I can lower the volume/intensity of the program and follow the general structure?
Oh, by the way, my coach has showed me the CF GPP workout. The 7 week one that starts with like 10x10m, 10x20m or something like that. Would it be a better idea to do that workout instead?
Thansk! I haven’t started that yet and I am doing tempo and medball work at the moment but I am doing weights as well but at a lower intensity at the moment. As for hills, what is the optimal steepness? I have access to one which is 10-12m-ish long and about 30-40 degree incline. The longer ones I have access to is about 10-20 degree ish.
The CF GPP workout is solid but for your purposes you will probably want to stretch it out to ten weeks and greatly reduce the volume of the later weeks.
It sounds like you are ready to slowly introduce the speed/hills then. I would stick with the hill that is not very steep. You only need a slight incline.
Yea, I was thinking of maybe decreasing the volume each day by half. I am planning on S-L and I have seen the Vanc download, but it also seems to be geared towards much higher level sprinters. As far as competing goes, I literally won’t be able to do so until second year because of my schedule in U.
I wasn’t planning on doing any initially. Is there a reason for this?
I think I might try CF’s GPP plan at about 50% of the original volume and give the one a shot once I have more experience.
The GPP starts with all hills (for speed work)then starts to progress to the flat in Wk 5. Tempo is always on the flat, preferably on grass. Though as some other members have stated above, maybe stretching out the GPP to 8, 9, 10 (or more) weeks is better for beginners.
I’m not saying you have to stay on hills for that long but in general, a beginner will have a longer GPP than an elite athlete. You should transition to the flat when you (or your coach) feel ready.
Yea thats basically the same thing my coach has told me. I am gona do mostly hills but I will have to see later on because I am moving to Waterloo in September.
He also changed that GPP to 12 weeks with a 3-1 format.
Well I got no problem working in the weightroom, gym rat here.
I am still in Vancouver and haven’t seen the campus yet, but they do have a stadium nearby, though it’s probably not available to public uses. Its not a problem because I am pretty good at improvising. Right now I am doing sprints on a grass field, which is pretty well maintained and I can use spikes on it. Hills I am doing at a U-turn section at my gym, which is usually empty and no cars go there. As long as I can find a space I think I can manage it. Worst case scenario I will do it on the sidewalks.
I am in engineering co-op so I will only be at Waterloo 4 months at a time, so I am gona be constantly looking for different places to train.
hey guys thanks for the awesome inputs, I greatly appreciate it!
I might mix it up a bit later but I just finished my first workout today consisted of 10 reps of hills and 5 sets of flat and it was pretty awesome. It was my first time doing a speed workout so it was pretty great. All my starts are from a 3 point stance so next time I will definitely add in some varieties like the face down or push up. The thing is I have very limited equipment and I don’t have access to a sled and my gym doesn’t permit its equipments (medballs) to be taken out. But I will start to add in a greater variety of starts next workout. Today’s was a bit rushed because I was quite busy earlier and had limited time.
Hills every day in the beginning allow the athlete to maintain solid acceleration form while reducing the eccentric stress of the stride, which is a good thing in the beginning of the year. However, I think the transition to flat accels can occur quickly and you provide a solid recommendation for a mid-gpp accel week.