When you say easy bike what do you mean exactly?
If you are riding on a bike to 12 min with very little rpm providing it’s NO TENSION ( WE don’t want tension for bike work) than it’s like a slow jog.
If you are speeding up the rpm on the bike for intervals and then backing off for 15 seconds each interval then you are getting a flush. It’s awfully tough to do continuous rpm at say 130 or 140 rpm for 12 minutes if you wish to do speed too.The bike don’t forget is supposed to mimic tempo effect. Tempo on grass would be best providing it’s done the correct way.
My thought about EMS is use it reset the body entirely aside from just working in the general area. For some reason the body is having a big response to the work and a favorable one too but a bit much for what you might like right? You want that load but without the tension. So circulation is an issue or a challenge that’s okay as there are so many ways to create circulation.
How is the athletes water intake? I got nagged a lot on that and almost 100 percent of the time when I had issues of tightness when I really looked at it I was failing on some of the areas like proper hydration. ( do you ever use Pedialite to restore the athletes with? it has a electrolytes without all the sugar of some drinks)
I am also curious about how effectively the hot and cold contrast showers are performed. I’ve found that without fail most people who do them are not getting their head wet enough, the contrast is not enough and the focus on the spine, back of neck and low back, glutes and hamstrings is not enough.
My intent is not to be critical. It’s to address the quality aspects from what I have seen in the past. I am sure i am not mentioning anything new but trying to create a bit of a check and balance for you to follow up with.
Well, I wanted to start with something very easy, and bike seems to me as a best option. EMS, Yes, the idea was to use gentle pulse with little contraction/ minimal load so that the tension can be reduced and to flush muscles a bit.
You have asked about water intake, when I see him and tell him he’ll hydrate otherwise forget about it.
Look, I do appreciate your constructive scrutiny of what I am doing, it’s good, healthy.
All athletes that I do train (and I do coach nearly thirty) have individual warm-up, (it’s vary from main warm-up and athlete from athlete depends on their needs but most of the time it’s different based on what I think is appropriate for them)
Except warm-up we have a recovery protocols, that they can do by themselves at home after session and during off days.
I’ll be lying to you or to anyone who reads this that I know for sure that they are doing contrast showers at home or other prescribed elements/exercises.
I don’t know whether you remember that when we talked about athletes taking responsibility for their w-ups etc… Well, shit, some of them cannot do that at the age of 18! (btw, I’ve done experiment telling them “you are responsible for getting yourself ready for the main part of the session, you are responsible for your warm-up” I stopped it after almost two weeks cause it was a disaster, in contrast I have a group of 12-years old kids who can go through whole thing that I prescribed for them correctly and smoothly having a bit of laugh in between exercises, no problem.
If your question was “have you got all in place” the answer would be yes, however if you asked if athlete is following the protocols that we are talking about here the honest answer is I don’t know. I can only say for sure as to what athlete is doing at the track.
Btw, Pedialyte is a good idea. Thanks.
My job is to be repetitious with regards to the things I know for sure.
I think you are doing a very good job as far as I know and as far as you report.
Don’t forget this forum is about teaching others out there who know less or more and want to continue to learn.
One of the very cool things about track and field is because it’s an individual sport there are so many moving targets that must be worked on all of the time to push ahead. IT’s a great model for learning and growing and experimentation.
Last week Monday Athlete X did
4x20m falling start.
4x30m blocks
4x30m rolling start
3xEF
Bounding for distance 4x20m
Athlete was looking quite sharp
Weights session.
Wednesday
6x20m
2x3x80m
Straight leg bounds 4x40m
General strength in the fitness suite, upper-body only.
Medball throws 300
Abs 200.
Friday
4x20m falling start
4x30m blocks
3xFEF
2x50m
Hurdle hops 5x5
Looking again quite good.
Couldn’t go to weight room.
So we did mobility circuit and 500abs
Today Athlete X was flat and looked tired
So we did 3x20m falling start 2x blocks starts after second rep I decided to move away from blocks, looked rubbish, 5xEF.
Weights session.
Athlete Y
Wednesday
EMS
Drills over 10m
2x10m, 4x10m, 6x10m, 6x10m, 4x10m, 2x10m,
Bench test
EMS at the end of the session.
Friday
EMS before session.
Athlete started to go reasonably fast,
2x10m, 4x10m, 6x20m, 6x20m, 6x20m, 4x10m, 2x10m, EMS after the runs. Bit of tagging, described as lv 1/2. Had to back him off a bit. It was bit too fast.
Today light massage, Athlete Y did show mobility and flexibility good range of motion, no discomfort. Hurdlers rhythms
2x20m, 4x20m, 6x20m, 6x20m, 6x20m, 4x20m, 2x20m. Runs were quite fast at around 60-70% no pulling or tugging.
2x8h hurdle 15" in between sets.
Clean and bench
EMS at the end.
Rehab going well.
I think that I’ll move athlete to 30s maybe on Wednesday or possibly Friday.
I would hope that next week Friday we’ll try to go bit faster maybe even in spikes. We’ll see.
Wednesday session went well, Athlete X did 5x20 falling starts. Looked quite sharp after we did 2x3x70 those were good, fast and relaxed. Quite pleased with what I saw.
However athlete is concerned that is not running fast enough. I had to explain to the athlete that recent job changes and other issues might have affected prep nevertheless I think that prep is going reasonably well.
Other one wasn’t at the session toothache!
Friday was really good.
Athlete X 4x20m falling start
3x20m blocks individual starts
3x30m blocks group starts
I planned 3xEFE+2x50m but I have abandoned the workout after second rep it was just too cold, and athlete wasn’t looking particulary great during second rep, instead we went back to blocks and did another two really good 30m blocks starts.
After we did reactivate jumps 4x10
Moved to gym.
Athlete Y did recovery workout
2, 4, 6, 8, 6, 4, 2x30m
Looked very good.
Yesterday was very good example what kind of youngster he is:
I explained athlete what his workout going to be like: 30m, weights, etc… he said that he cannot do bench cause his shoulder hurts,
Why your shoulder is hurting?
“I run for the train and I smashed into the tree…”
lol, what da hell?
OK, apart from shoulder everything is fine lets go ahead with running part.
During workout
“coach, I went too fast”
I was there thinking oh shit ham again.
“Does it hurt a lot?” I asked
He replied “no, not at all, I am just out of breath”
Another one.
So, other athletes were getting ready for the start setting up the blocks (he just finished his first rep of the last set of 30s and was resting by starting line) on your marks, set, bang and out of nowhere he’s blazing down the track in trainers, racing against people in spikes, WTF just happened?
“Oh, coach, I just felt good”
Than he’s on the roller (he never use the roller)
I have asked “how’s your hamstrings and why you are on the roller” because he’s calfs are tight that was his answer and that ham is fine.
I did asked him few times whether he say otherwise, but he stuck to his story, I don’t know whether he was telling me the truth or got hurt cause he was tearing those guys apart and used the roller after.
Massive potential, I feel and think that he can achieve amazing things, guy is nutts. Period.
I was f… right.
Same hamstring? Seems like your observations are on the money with this kid
sHare the cryptic message or is this a game?
Last thing in my mind would be to play a game.
Lad got hurt last Friday cause he “felt good” didn’t do what I have asked of him, that’s it.
Well that’s irritating because you are left picking up the pieces. I hope he is going to be okay. How bad is it?
On Wednesday we have started our rehab, muscles tension around injured area is less tens than I would expect, from the feedback I think athlete experiencing bit more discomfort this time around.
To be honest I felt deflated for a couple of days, actually it still bothers me a lot.
I would see this as a good learning opportunity for the athlete. Better to learn this now then close to a big competition.
Why wouldn’t it bother you a lot? You are spending a great deal of time and effort coaching and it’s annoying as hell when something does not go right.
This might help you.
I wasted a lot of time in the early stages of my athletic career when I got injured. It was not much but I still got injured and it was debilitating and frustrating until I started to take most responsibility for everything I was doing.
We have had a lot of athletes stay at our house over the years. Maybe whom I personally looked after and fed and took in and trained with or along side. There was often an attitude among some regarding what was not happening for them.
As a coach you will have confidence or not in what you are doing and that your actions and knowledge did not cause the injury. And if so then you get to learn more from the experiences you have or not. As you already know there is a wealth of experience here and knowledge which you are able to tap into.
I’d feel bothered and pissed too. But you are or sound like you are on top of everything so keep your chin up and move on and use this to teach the athlete how to take more responsibly if and when possible.
The reality is if you want to run and compete and excel injuries happen. If they happen often then there is an issue but this does not seem to be the case.
If this injury is still a bi product of the last injury which as you know is classic then you need to approach it with that in mind.
we are back
Happy new year to all.
Last week decent session after whole week off.
Athlete X and Y did some starts on Monday
4x20, 4x30, 4x40 for Athlete X, Athlete Y 3x3x20 in trainers smooth.
Wednesday 6x20, didn’t much space for session so we went outside and did 250s x2
Friday 3x20, 4x30, 2x40, 2x50 from blocks for athlete X, Athlete Y 4x20 falling start, 6x20 blocks, Athlete Y was going crazy. Sore on Monday, very sore today.
Monday 3x20, 4x30 blocks, 4x50 for athlete X, athlete Y had to be backed off.
I think that it’s time to assess the past block of training.
From my observation compering to the past seasons layout of weekly sessions where speed is done on Monday, SE Wednesday and acceleration on Friday works better than what I have done this year, Monday accelerations, Wednesday SE, Friday speed.
Charlie once wrote that do the most important work first at the beginning of the week, separate second most demanding session by SE runs to keep the stimulation up.
Well, I have left maxV workout for Friday and I think that it wasn’t the best idea.
Looking from the perspective of time sessions on Friday where we tried to develop maxV weren’t as developing as when they were previously done on Mondays, even though the overall weekly volume has been reduced.
Athlete Y has been developing well for the past few weeks coming off from stupid injury. Athlete X moving well however I think that is not stiff enough in the ankle joint and all the applied forces to the ground just disappearing especially during drive phase. Upright Athlete X looks quite good.
Yesterday we had really good session for both athletes.
Looks like Athlete X just turned up, sharp, good form.
4x20m, 4x30m, 3x40m all from blocks.
So the athlete Y 5x2h, 3x5h 2 feet in @91cm all touch downs between 0.98-1.03sec. Didn’t push, had to shorten his approach to the first hurdle by foot.
Training is not going as planned at all for Athlete Y.
Two weeks ago we did some easy accelerations two weeks ago on Friday 4x20m, 4x30m, 2x40m looked very good, I thought that it was enough Athlete moved to some elastic strength exercises and gym, Saturday bike medball etc… all was good.
Monday warm up only as Athlete Y came late from an interview and look tired so no point of carrying on with running workout, moved to gym auxiliary lifts only.
Wednesday coming back doing warm up and complaints about hamstrings in other leg?!
What happened between Monday and Wednesday?
I don’t have a clue.
Season turning into shit.
I’d focus on what happened from Monday to Wednesday. If your gut is telling you something is not right likely you are correct. Learn to trust your instincts.
There is no way you will get younger, less experienced athletes to do on Friday what they will be able to do on Monday or Tuesday or even Wednesday. That changes over time but it takes lots and lots of time over years. When I go through my notes and my diaries it’s amazing how much I did at times and how little I did other times.
Maybe the season has turned to shit but maybe not.
Thanks for that.
Athlete Y just finished three solid weeks of GPP. Think that it went reasonably well. The initial issue which Athlete experience three weeks ago was minor twitch.
Lots of work ahead of us.
Athlete X is doing OK. Athlete decided to step up with the efforts and run indoors after all the other athletes especially kids in the squad showed remarkable improvements, however for me it’s too late for that therefore I decided that Athlete X won’t be running until outdoor season.
To be honest looking at those two individuals it’s been a bit frustrating prep.
Maybe we’ll be able to save the season, however it’s definitely up to the Athlete Y.
Had a strong word with the Athlete something a la “if you don’t have the intention of looking after your own body and prepare for the workout I don’t have any intention of spending another $300 on the treatment and therapy”
After that I have noticed a small change.
Last three weeks went reasonably well.
Athlete Y is running well especially flat, however we are struggling with reestablishing rhythm to the first hurdle.
Mondays we are doing flat speed 4x20, 4x30, 4xEFE and 2x60 40+ m
Wednesday 2-3x20, 5x2h and 4x8h
Friday 4x30, 5x2h, 4-6x5h
Saturday tempo.
After clearing first hurdles Athlete Y looks reasonably well taking into account long time of no hurdling. We’ve got nine weeks to first comp.
Athlete X stepped up and working hard.
Asked me for longer runs in the session. So, Monday we are doing just like with Athlete Y 4x20, 4x30, 4xEFE+ 2x60 40+ m
Wednesday 4x30, 2x250, 200, 150 (last week changed to 250, 2x200, 150)
Friday 3x3x60 30+ m
Saturday tempo.
I think the efforts also improved after athlete told me that wants to do warm weather training in Florida in ten days time with other group.
Spoke to coach and everything looks in place.
Last two went well.
This week we started with flying 20s from 30m approach we did three of them and finished the running part of the session.
Yesterday 3-4x20m and several starts over 2H. Later we moved to 8, 12, 12, 8H
Times were reasonably good.
Pretty comparable with last year times.
Athlete Y struggling with consistency, talking here about getting body to optimal level regarding mobility and flexibility. Drives me crazy by torturing hamstrings at the beginning of warm up, had to be told told off, again.
Athlete X looks like is enjoying warm weather training.
Four weeks to the first competition