Day before a meet

Expert Discussion Advanced Sprint Training
1

What should I do in terms of preperation on the day before a meet? I want to set a PR in my events, and I am all ready to go.

How should I prepare the day before?
My uncle being a past sprinter, recommended eating plenty of carbs.

Here are his suggestions, I copied and pasted them from my email. His PR’s by the way are- 400- 45.(Something??), 100m- 10.3, long jump, 24ft, 200m- 21.08
Think his main even was 400. anyhow, here it is in his own words… feel free to add comments

The day before a meet do an easy jog, couple jumps, making sure that your
measurments for the long jump or high jumps are right on. and alot of
streches. i don’t know if you can find sauna or not it is a good
prepration, your muscle will be ready for the race, if not then sit in
a warm bath or jaccuzi , lots of water…
on the day of a meet, eat a big breakfast at 9am and a bagle at 12pm,
liquid only in the morning, and just sips before the race/

remember streches/warmup is the most important part of your race, if someone
else can help you, you will improve on being flexible.

2

The only thing I do the day before a race is: resting, resting and resting!!!
And a sauna?? Then you become lazy, take a shower!!

3

i dont like saunas the day be4 competition

it makes u dehydrated and makes my muscles really jelly and unresponsive…and usually fatigued as well…its about as bad as a really deep massage b4 meet in my opinion

4

it personally makes me feel real loose, and relaxed and sometimes takes a lot of pain away.

5

I had some good results doing tempo-themed work. A coach once had me do 15x100m VERY easy and relaxed, barefoot in grass, concentrating on form. Hurdle mobility can feel nice as well.

Personally I like to activate a little speed with a couple starts or a couple of strides, but very limited. My coach now in college likes for us to lift light and fast with bench usually as the main exercise as a neural workout the day before meets.

As far as heat goes, baths are nice… now that I can’t really do that at school I’ll take a hot shower and not allow myself to become groggy by sleeping too much.

6

Charlie Francis:

“I would do starts the day before only if the day before that was totally off- otherwise, I’d chill. As my old coach, Percy used to say: “Never stand when you can sit. Never sit when you can lie down!”
If they had heats and finals, they’d take the day off. If they had a straight final, there were two options:
A: They could take a few starts the day before and take the day before that off.
B: If that wasn’t an option- there was a meet on what would have been an off day, for example, the day before would be off and an easy loosening warm-up would be done in the AM before breakfast. (just enough to raise the metabolism slightly throughout the day to make preparations for the final easier.)”

Re:Sauna
Would worry about impact on muscle tone. But if it ain’t broke…

7

I generally take the day off. I may however get in the pool (1-1.5 m deep) and do some EASY running or walking nothing hard.

I have found that My last training session (2 days before) is competition warmup only.

It is something you will have to work out, but less is better

8

My sons coach has them take a 5-7 minute ice bath followed by a shower at the end of the day before a meet practice that consists basically of a light practice, maybe practicing handoffs or starts. Is this a good idea?

9

Yes its a good idea but 5-7 mins in an ice bath in my opinion is a waste of time. It takes at least 10 mins for the ice to penetrate deep enough and have an effect.

Others?

10

Personally I like to go to the track and do the same warmup I’ll do next day before comp.
Then a cooldown.

So actually I do the same thing like the following day in comp, just without the run itself.

Stupid idea/habit?

11

To deal with tissue trauma, I agree. But, perhaps the day before an event, tissue trauma is less and the goal is more of a stimulus effect rather than a regenerative one. Longer periods (20-30 mins) would therefore not be required, although perhaps 5-7 minutes isn’t optimal either. I haven’t read Ken Knight’s book so I’m just speculating here.

Paula Radcliffe used to take a cold bath the day before an event, though I don’t know if she still does.