Hello all,
I run masters, am 36 and ran about 12.5 FAT last season. This summer, I was thinking that I would run my final race in late July, but I am considering running through late August.
Would I have to significantly alter my program? I haven’t really started cutting back on volume yet. I did a 4 week outdoor GPP starting in early March, and have been getting more into SPP type work for the past month.
I would like to run fast in late July, as well as in late August if possible. Should I be able to hang onto most of my speed until then, or am I pushing it too far? I use two speed days and two tempo days per week. Last week on my speed days I did the following;
SE day: 2x60m flats, 4x60m spikes all progressively faster
1x150m, 1x200m, weights.
Short speed day: 4x30m, 4x60m max effort, hurdle walkovers, weights.
Should I basically just cut the volume a little bit slower over the summer, and do a five day taper for the July meet and another five day taper for the August meet?
I’m guessing those aren’t your only two races, are you racing semi-regularly? When does racing start?
My first outdoor 100m and 200m will come in a couple of weeks. I will probably race regularly in June, with the most important race in June being on the 27th. Then I will be in Texas for the summer, so I’m thinking about going to Sacramento in mid-July, then possibly running in Colorado in late August if it isn’t too dumb of an idea.
I don’t know, it might be smarter just to wind down in late July and try to focus on adding strength for next year, I don’t know.
What do you think?
With that schedule I would plan for a peak late June. If you can hit a PR or do well at that meet then maybe take the next week easy, then a week of low volume and high intensity to try and maintain leading to the mid-July meet.
May
2-3 weeks
Early competition block
June
4 weeks
Competition block, tapering/peaking for June 27
July
5-10 days mini-recovery
2 weeks maintaining competition form leading to mid-July meet
That seems very doable. After that I’d asses where you’re at. For a masters athlete that’s a full season so you might just call it good, take a little break and head into September fresh.
You know what, you’re right. It is pretty dumb to try to extend until the end of August.
I’m going to be in Austin, TX all summer, and I don’t think there are many meets in early / mid August to keep me sharp. I wanted to run in the master’s meet in Colorado in late August, but perhaps I can find something at the end of July instead, and maybe spend part of August working on strength or something to that effect.
Thanks for the input!