I hear a lot about sprint training for distance runners to tune up. but during the off season i do distance training for sprinting. currently i do 5-8 miles every other day just cuz my body can’t handle running everyday right now. i also do occasional 5k road races. in the fall i will be running for umass in 200m and long jump and was just looking for some input. i have no idea what sprinters do for training while out of season and i could use some input. normally i spend my off seasons injured but im not now so i need to know what to do!
Well, there are different methodoligies regarding distance training in the offseason. There are some pros and cons to it.
Pros:
Higher capillary density acheived by the muscle tissue
Psychological freshness in incorporating a new type of training
Lactate Threshold becoming more capable (depending on intensity)
Increased Cardiopulmonary adaptations
Cons:
Possibility of injury incoporating a new training idea
Conversion of fast twitch fibers and neuro/biochemical factors to economy rather than explosiveness
Decreased anabolic serum hormone levels if overtraining is approched
Overuse syndrome and or chronic “itis” type pains
Basically, there are a lot of variables that would determine if you are training correctly, so we can’t get into that scope. Your event preparation for 200m and long jump ideally should include mostly low intensity stuff and technical work during the offseason.
Most likely if you have a good coach he should be the one able to give you a program over the summer. Two things to consider is 1) What did you do last season, how stressed were you from it? If last season was very stressful ( as it looks like your previous seasons were because you were injured) You may want to use a large part of your offseason to just relax. 2) What will you be asked to do this comming year? Your first few months of school will most likely be spent in general prep including learning new techniques.
If you dont know olympic lifts, skipping drills, agility drills, gymnastics, proprioceptive drills, your time will be better spent learning these new techniques rather than doing “long” distance. I say this because it doesn’t seem you know what the coach will have in store, so better to learn technique during the offseason than to learn it when you are supposed to be building General Prep. Hope this helps, Jay
A 200m runner who occasionally runs 5K races! You are one of a kind my friend
Look up Tempo training. As for off season, so somthing other than running (e.g. swimming, biking etc) and buy the GPP DVD from the store. It has everything you need to know in it. You also need “The Charlie Francis Training System” (CFTS) ebook. This will explain all.
I came in 2nd last night, not bad but i did do some vomiting afterwards. i am built like a distance runner. 5’9" 135lbs but i have spit out 22.8 and 20’+. the only thing im worried about from my training is getting slow. i dont bike for the same reason becuase one of my friends use to be much faster than me at say 100m-300m and now he is nothing and he does a ton of biking. i should probably just incorporate lifting into my workouts i suppose
be it fat from me to debate with TC on this but I kinda agree about biking. It seems to make you slower and more apt to run an 800. At the same time I agree with TC about giving your joints a rest. It just seems to allow the muscles to rebuild for the next season.
